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Reviews
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Those Old Scientists (2023)
Horrifically bad
This was clearly some kind of business decision to crossover promote another series.
It's cringey, and only the biggest of the saddest of the Trek fans living in their mom's basements would enjoy whatever this was.
This was obviously written for kids, but then, so was Harry Potter and that was actually possible to enjoy.
No, this is written for stupid children. Children who need to be told when to laugh as every moment seems to be written to direct the audience to some kind of reaction. The only way it could have been worse is if they added a laugh track.
If any of the executive producers read this: Stop screwing around and stop making the creatives do stupid things.
The Night Agent (2023)
Predictable, cliche spy thriller shlock
This will be very straight to the point. The lead female protagonist is played by a very wooden actress. The lead male protagonist isn't exactly the most exciting actor either but he shines by comparison.
Robert Patrick and Hong Chau give weight to an otherwise unsteady cast.
Each episode's screenplay, such as they are, aren't probably treated by the director to make the dialogue at least try to work in a number of moments. Nonetheless these are issues that could also have been fixed in the editing room. The mistakes are as baffling as scenes where the dialogue is clearly written for the action to be fast, but what transpires on screen before us is mind numbingly slow - or vice versa.
So to are there a lot of odd jumps that are either shoddy writing, shoddy editing, or shoddy direction.
Is this show watchable? Sure. But only an idiot doesn't know what happens next.
To Write Love on Her Arms (2012)
A Beautiful Hidden Gem of A Movie
Produced in 2012, this film has traveled the film festival circuit for far too long without having a proper mainstream release.
The story's arc is revealed to us through the mind of the main character through an imaginative use of animated visuals. The audience is allowed to travel in and out of the mind of the main character's coping mechanisms through a very clever and effective assortment of visual and musical story devices. When these mechanisms begin to fail, these conventions carry through in an appropriately dynamic fashion.
Rupert Friend delivers a stunning performance in his supporting role, and this film will be a pleasant surprise to those who know this actor from the 'Homeland' series.
The film has some roughness around the edges, and at times feels like a very expensive (and slightly didactic) after-school special. But those moments are fleeting, and are contrasted with some very harsh visuals and story progression that are anything but didactic.
We're presented with a brutally honest story that is at times both beautiful and horrifying in its presentation of characters that come full circle in the end.