I had high hopes but on the third episode lost my interest. Mainly because I had a hard time to believe that her assistant is able to deliver any god jokes for her. She is so pale, unfunny, gray, common character totally unconvincing to be a comedian with razor sharp edge and wit. Everything she says or do is so generation Z meek and uninteresting. Jean Smart is OK though, not great in this (because it is to much expected kind of acting and mannerisms for this role), but OK still.
Reviews
8 Reviews
Physical
(2021–2023)
Like a Frankenstein
14 July 2021
What a strange and totally unbelievable show. Everything is so unconvincing and artificially constructed. Dialogs, relations between characters, reactions... I can't figure it out what they were aiming to achieve with this. Except to recreate the 80's. I gave it a three stars because Rose Byrne and some other actors are good, but without that I will give it only one star.
Ordeal by Innocence
(2018)
Sarah Phelps doesn't understand Agatha Christie's work.
27 July 2018
I don't like this modern adaptations of Agatha Christie's novels. I turn to her when I want a glimpse in to a different times, with different manners and customs. A cosy crime story, escapism, but with her good psychological observations. It seems that Sarah Phelbs wants to be a better than the master, but she takes everything what is good and genius about Christie and destroys it in the process. This can also be seen in the Witness of the Prosecution adaptation. She really wants it to be "contemporary" and she fils it with so much sex that it only gets vulgar. There is no sex in Agatha Christie's work. Not so much in the face. If she wanted to include so much open sex descriptions and conversation about it, she would. It was no uncommon thing to write about it in her time and within a genre. In fact, there is so much genre writers who have used it profoundly. She has distinctive style and Sarah Phelbs has missed it completely. I have stopped watching Ordeal by Innocence on the beginning of the third episode and decided to read the novel again instead, because a forgot the end of it, it was a long time when a read it. And I recommend everyone to do so if they want a classy and stylish read. In the future I will avoid every adaptation with Sarah Phelbs name in it.
Call Me by Your Name
(2017)
It is not a pedophile movie, don't be ridiculous, but it is not a masterpiece.
26 December 2017
Warning: Spoilers
I have watched this film on two different levels. First is like a sugary-water romantic coming of age film and second is like a youth-fetishistic film. I have enjoyed the first level, although it is a bit to long with many unnecessary scenes. I don't see the reason of mentioning the partizans and second WW, and lots of the scenes seem too staged. From the discussion about old german tale to the father's speech near the end. But, still if you watch this film like a light romantic movie seen through the eyes of Elio you will be OK.
But, if you want to dig deeper, you are entering some murky waters.
Oliver is not very clear character. We don't know from the beginning if he is gay, bi or straight. We assume he is straight, he is going out with the girl and doesn't show any interest for Elio. Because of that it can be interpreted that his sexual feelings are awakened intellectually, through the archaeological findings and slides of Greek sculptures of ambiguous young boys and the speech about them which Elio's father is telling to Oliver like some kind of incite for Oliver to go after Elio. This interpretation would be more interesting to me than later revelation that he was attracted to Elio from the start. Oliver is then just a character who is attracted to younger boys. I don't mean pedophile! He doesn't discover his homosexuality in the proces of friendship with Elio, but he is determined from the start. He is the type of men who are attracted only to the youth. He is not interested in men, just young boys. Later, after summer is finished he goes back to his heteronormative life with the future wife to be. For him Elio is just a summer escapade, although he behaved very well and wise towards Elio. He is not a bad guy.
But author's films are not abut the characters anyway, they are about authors themselves. They choose themes which are closer to them and this movie is therefore a proclamation of fetichism towards youth. Nothing wrong with that. That is a legitimate theme. Only I didn't liked the manipulation and bypassing of it, camouflaging it with the coming of age theme. Father's monolog to Elio near the end confirms that youth fethisism assumption. "When you get older no one will look at you, let a lone touch you" said father to Elio, and he also confess that he had romance with the man in his youth. Unfulfilled and therefore cemented like a fetish towards youth in his older days. This is why he envies Elio and why he is so encouraging for their affair. Not because his libertarian, educated and therefore open minded stance. "Does mother knows?" asks Elio. "No" replies father. We are not sure if he asks about his own affair with the Oliver or father affair in the past, but judging from the mother's behaviour through the whole movie it can be assumed that this question refers to the father's past. He is not open towards his own openminded wife. He keeps his youth affair like a secret. Allowing therefore this secret to develop in to a fetish.
And to conclude, I didn't like the end scene, that forced tear jerker. It is like they wanted us to feel something in this too pretentious and too staged movie. Off course you will cry if you see someone crying and suffering for 5 minutes if you have any empathy in yourself. Manipulations like that, plus too much unnecessary parts in the movie are not features of good directors. Maybe in the future Luca Guadagnino will develop his crafts better but till then I will give this film 4 stars.
Oliver is not very clear character. We don't know from the beginning if he is gay, bi or straight. We assume he is straight, he is going out with the girl and doesn't show any interest for Elio. Because of that it can be interpreted that his sexual feelings are awakened intellectually, through the archaeological findings and slides of Greek sculptures of ambiguous young boys and the speech about them which Elio's father is telling to Oliver like some kind of incite for Oliver to go after Elio. This interpretation would be more interesting to me than later revelation that he was attracted to Elio from the start. Oliver is then just a character who is attracted to younger boys. I don't mean pedophile! He doesn't discover his homosexuality in the proces of friendship with Elio, but he is determined from the start. He is the type of men who are attracted only to the youth. He is not interested in men, just young boys. Later, after summer is finished he goes back to his heteronormative life with the future wife to be. For him Elio is just a summer escapade, although he behaved very well and wise towards Elio. He is not a bad guy.
But author's films are not abut the characters anyway, they are about authors themselves. They choose themes which are closer to them and this movie is therefore a proclamation of fetichism towards youth. Nothing wrong with that. That is a legitimate theme. Only I didn't liked the manipulation and bypassing of it, camouflaging it with the coming of age theme. Father's monolog to Elio near the end confirms that youth fethisism assumption. "When you get older no one will look at you, let a lone touch you" said father to Elio, and he also confess that he had romance with the man in his youth. Unfulfilled and therefore cemented like a fetish towards youth in his older days. This is why he envies Elio and why he is so encouraging for their affair. Not because his libertarian, educated and therefore open minded stance. "Does mother knows?" asks Elio. "No" replies father. We are not sure if he asks about his own affair with the Oliver or father affair in the past, but judging from the mother's behaviour through the whole movie it can be assumed that this question refers to the father's past. He is not open towards his own openminded wife. He keeps his youth affair like a secret. Allowing therefore this secret to develop in to a fetish.
And to conclude, I didn't like the end scene, that forced tear jerker. It is like they wanted us to feel something in this too pretentious and too staged movie. Off course you will cry if you see someone crying and suffering for 5 minutes if you have any empathy in yourself. Manipulations like that, plus too much unnecessary parts in the movie are not features of good directors. Maybe in the future Luca Guadagnino will develop his crafts better but till then I will give this film 4 stars.
The Durrells
(2016–2019)
Idiots that grow on you.
20 June 2017
I only read one Durrell's book an it is not from the Corfu trilogy, so I was not familiar with it. On the first watch it was painful to see how obnoxious and stupid those children are. They started to live in the house with no water and electricity which is falling apart, with no money and most of the time without the proper food, and they are no help at all. Just concerned on their own selfish interests. I don't know if this is done for the comic effect or it is described like this in the books, but it was really annoying to watch. Fortunately series does have some charms and actors are good in portraying idiots in unusual situations in foreign country so I have stuck to it and after fourth episode I have learned to love it. As they adjusted more to the life on Corfu it became much easier to watch they predicaments and strange reactions and eventually they grow somehow on you. Some things are, I assume, better explained in the books. Like, how did they manage to feed all those animals with so little food even for themselves, but that's television for you. I think the lesson from this story is: bigger the idiot more luck you have. I am looking forward to the second season.
Revenge
(2011–2015)
What an anticlimax!
28 June 2012
Warning: Spoilers
I enjoyed this show right till the end episode, which gave me a great disappointment. I hoped (and I think we are all lead to believe) that there would be a great climax; she will confront her enemies, revile her identity, give everyone big surprise and open some new problems which will have to be solved in second season. But instead they just prolonged same issues and same revelations to the second season.
Who have time and nerves for this?! To watch another 22 episodes which circles tiredly around same problems and questions!
One new thing they introduce to us for second season is the fact that her mother is still alive. OK, first season is about her father, second will be about her mother, third about sibling, after that, if this show would have any audience left, we will found the biggest mysteries of her life and everyone around her concerns her grand parents and uncles and so on...
Why they don't learn from really good shows in the same genre like Dexter. They conclude every season with great explanations and big climax and go for the following one with new cases through which we learn about the new aspects of the leading characters. In that way show can stay fresh really long. Of course if they know how to do it and avoid get repetitive and boring. At least for me this is a good formula for the show in that kind of genre.
I also couldn't believed that they killed her big opponent which was played by Madeleine Stowe. Everything in the plot centers around they animosities and at the end they didn't get confronted! What a waste of opportunity! Maybe they will miraculously resurrect her in second season but I will not be in fateful audience anymore to watch those same problems repeat themselves episode after episode.
Who have time and nerves for this?! To watch another 22 episodes which circles tiredly around same problems and questions!
One new thing they introduce to us for second season is the fact that her mother is still alive. OK, first season is about her father, second will be about her mother, third about sibling, after that, if this show would have any audience left, we will found the biggest mysteries of her life and everyone around her concerns her grand parents and uncles and so on...
Why they don't learn from really good shows in the same genre like Dexter. They conclude every season with great explanations and big climax and go for the following one with new cases through which we learn about the new aspects of the leading characters. In that way show can stay fresh really long. Of course if they know how to do it and avoid get repetitive and boring. At least for me this is a good formula for the show in that kind of genre.
I also couldn't believed that they killed her big opponent which was played by Madeleine Stowe. Everything in the plot centers around they animosities and at the end they didn't get confronted! What a waste of opportunity! Maybe they will miraculously resurrect her in second season but I will not be in fateful audience anymore to watch those same problems repeat themselves episode after episode.
Cowboys & Aliens
(2011)
To clever in it's genre
3 December 2011
I was pleasantly surprised with this movie, because I didn't expect anything more then waste of time before going to bed. But in the middle of it the metaphor and political comment on present world and economical situations are started to reveal it self. What I liked it more is the fact that it is done with subtlety and style which is not in your face or vulgar like the last SF film which I know about who have tried to say something more then just generic SF plot. I'm talking about movie which have aliens placed in ghetto in South Africa city, I can't remember the title. Cowboys & Aliens have also some parallel themes, along with the fight against the common enemy, which are nicely incorporated together; finding solutions for different cultures who have to live together, understanding between them and forgiveness for past crimes. I would have to watch it again to see some other aspects of it, because I wasn't prepared for even one. In past couple of years Hollywood big SF movies are just generic waste of effects and violence without any message or moral or political statement. Just for the fact that this film is trying to incorporate something more in it's genre I would give it a 9/10 stars.
The Killing
(2011–2014)
They should have ended the murder case with first season
19 August 2011
Warning: Spoilers
I started to watch this show thinking that the final episode will give us some conclusion. But this is not a case. They left us waiting for answer who kill that girl for another seasons. I hoped that second season will be about different case, because this kind of prolonging is really tiresome. The show is fresh and enough different from other crime series to keep you interested but it's not Twin Peaks and I probably will not watch second season just to be left waiting for third and forth (and so on) to see who did it. There is also a risk, like we have witness many time before, if they start loosing viewers, they will cancel the show without proper answer or the conclusion will be done lousy and to fast. I enjoyed some aspects of the show but it doesn't have so much weight to risk watching for another 13 hours how they stretch this week plot out.
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