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Reviews
Monsieur Spade (2024)
Ridiculous, sophomoric
I liked the first couple of episodes of this series, but as time went on it became sillier and sillier, until the last episode reached the absolute nadir of high school boy creative writing. I ended up being embarrassed for everyone who took part in this travesty. Good actors (for the most part), good production values, but absolutely execrable writing and pacing. What investors put their money into this? Did anyone see the full script before they went ahead? Does not succeed as satire. Does not succeed as drama. Characters are mostly undeveloped except for Spade. Dialogue often goes nowhere or comes from nowhere. This is a bad graphic novel.
Chevalier (2022)
Entertaining, but not one bit factual
The writers and producers of this film had an awesome chance to tell the actual story of this composer. They didn't. Almost everything in the film is made up. One egregious thing is that they did not highlight his music. Most of the music you hear was written for the movie. Another egregious thing is that Bologne was in fact very privileged and had every advantage as far as education and advancement, much more than many other musicians and composers, yet the makers of the film want you to believe he was subject to a horrendous amount of prejudice and abuse. For every racist thing he suffered, there were a dozen things he was just given as someone who was a huge influencer in his day. But the most egregious thing of all is to suggest that as a composer he was the equal of or greater than Mozart. This idea would make anyone with any knowledge of music laugh. Bologne was in fact a pleasant but very mediocre composer. You need only get on Spotify or Apple music and listen to his actual compositions (not what you hear in the movie), and then listen to Mozart, who was one of the very best composers who ever lived. Mozart was NOT a privileged person from a wealthy family. He had the advantage of being the son of a composer, but other than that had no privilege other than that of genius. This difference between the two composers has NOTHING TO DO WITH RACE OR SOCIETY. It is not that one was "white" and therefore we think he's a genius. He just was, and every other composer knows this, as well as anyone who is educated about music. There have been many great Black composers, artists, writers, inventors, etc. In this world. Bologne was not one of them.
Ridley (2022)
Ugh
I love Adrian Dunbar, but this series is plodding and derivative. Writing is not stellar. Bronagh Waugh is a TERRIBLE actress, and not an attractive character. There is absolutely nothing that grabs the viewer. The initial episode does not make us care about the victim or any of the other characters--in fact, most of the characters are actively not likeable--why should I as a viewer want to spend time with any of these people? The lighting of the opening scenes is so dark it's hard to tell what is going on, which is not bad in itself, but a mistake when it lasts for more than a few seconds at a time when the audience is trying to become engaged with the story and the characters. I am not one who typically gives up on shows, but my husband and I agreed that this is one we'll not be continuing.
Mercy Street (2016)
Not terrific
Ridley Scott this may be, but a British costume drama it is not. By which I mean, though they appear to have tried for four years, they could not come up with a script that was not lame, or actors who were not amateurish. The very MINIMUM that should be expected is that actors will have a reasonable and consistent accent for their characters, but apparently even this was too much to ask--for example, each of the actors playing the family who own the hotel-turned hospital has a different accent, even though they are supposed to be playing a single Virginia family. The older girl, one of our heroines, cannot even maintain a consistent accent throughout,sometimes sounding vaguely southernish, and other times like a Yankee. Her younger sister by contrast sounds like a Georgia cracker. The results are like a low-budget film from the 1950s. Really really disappointing and cheesy. No finesse in the writing either--just clump clump clump like a big pair of boots. Ugh.