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Inside Man (2022)
Inside Man
Fawlty Towers is a comedy based in a seaside hotel. In contrast to the rather mundane setting, the humour revolves around the hotel's owners: manager and henpecked husband Basil Fawlty, and his wife Sybil. The idea is simple but very effective. Every episode, Basil is confronted with a situation that he's not sure how to deal with. There's a right way and a wrong way. Rather than do the sensible thing, he instead does something really stupid. This puts him in another ridiculous situation, which in turn gets compounded by subsequent hilariously poor decisions, snowballing until his eventual comeuppance.
Inside Man is the Fawlty Towers of crime dramas. Instead of being played for laughs, we're expected to accept that otherwise sensible people would make a series of Basil-Fawlty-level mistakes, fully conscious of the life-changing consequences, driven by some religion-fuelled delusional idea of doing "the right thing". The David Tennant plot seems designed to have its audience shouting at the TV in frustration or despair. It would have worked better as a dark comedy.
The Stanley Tucci plot is derivative but more interesting. The main problem is that for the bulk of the series it has no connection at all to the main plot, and seems to have been crowbarred in to justify the conclusion of the final episode, or maybe as an occasional escape from the insanity of the main plot.
Overall it's a highly contrived mini-series, seemingly made more to elicit a reaction in the viewer than as a plausible storyline, even if the reaction is to reach for the "off" button. Think Scream but without the screams, humour, or jump-scares, except for one trope stolen from Final Destination. 3/10.
Beat the Burglar (2004)
A gem from a bygone era of reality TV
Beat the Burglar took the format of a light-entertainment daytime TV show based around home security. Presenter Dom would chat to the owners at their home, and they'd stand around chatting and laughing, as if he was a friend who'd popped round for tea. He'd explain that ex-burglar turned security consultant Mike would show them how thieves could enter their home and advise them how to improve the security of their home, before being led away to watch via cameras. Everyone was in a good mood.
That quickly changed, because Mike did not mess about. He'd get into the house using almost any means necessary, going from room to room, emptying drawers onto the floor and gathering anything of value. In one episode he found their car keys, loaded their valuables and TV into their own car on the drive and drove off leaving the front door open.
Meanwhile, the family are watching in abject horror, often in tears as their home is ransacked in front of them. Then Dom would take them, still shaking and sobbing, to meet the man who'd just desecrated their home, to discuss what had happened and how they could prevent it happening for real.
It was an absolute joy to watch, because you knew it would be an experience they could never forget, and would never be complacent about security again. If it was still around today, it would be the stuff of viral videos.
Coded Bias (2020)
Confirmation Bias
Coded Bias starts with the example of an Amazon facial recognition project that was far more successful at recognising Caucasian faces than faces with darker skin. Then a woman admits that it wasn't coded to be racist, but this 2 second admission is quickly brushed over in favour of strong insinuations that racism was intentional. This sets the tone for the rest of the show. Once this idea is implanted in the head of the viewer, it's used to discredit many other forms of completely unrelated automated processes, such as credit ratings, insurance premium calculations, etc.
The overall message is that algorithms are bad, and that nobody understands them including their creators, therefore computers are taking over the world and there's nothing we can do to stop them, blah, blah. This message is likely to appeal to believers of QAnon and similar people who relish in calling out conspiracies and systemic bias where there isn't any.
Coded Bias is strongly biased to the side of the layperson. The average person who has no idea how these algorithms work, and believes that if everybody doesn't know, then nobody can possibly know. This ridiculous conclusion isn't backed up in any way other than the opinions of people campaigning against them. There's no attempt at balance from anyone who knows what they're talking about.
What this show failed to do, and should have done, is Follow The Money. Rating systems such as credit and insurance are designed to decrease the underwriters' financial risk to the absolute minimum. If the companies found that part of that calculation was costing them money then they would fix it, and to suggest they'd have no way to do that is insane. If they have no way to determine how their system came to the conclusion it did, then it's because they haven't programmed it to report that, but they're perfectly capable of doing so. If they do know but don't make this information public, it's to prevent people "gaming" the system to give themselves perfect credit scores.
Later in the show, the woman exposing the Amazon problem says that she went to one of the companies involved, who were able to recreate the problem and fix it. This is also rapidly swept aside, because that's not the message this show wants to represent. In fact, this is the real message. What's misrepresented as intentional bias is in fact usually a coding problem that just needs identifying and fixing. To sensationalise this, and whip up fears of a Communist-style surveillance society is more than a little irresponsible.
Petite maman (2021)
Slow, cinematic, subtitled French arthouse
At the start we see a young girl, Nelly, going from room to room in a large building, saying goodbye to each of its residents. We learn that she has recently lost her grandmother, and that she laments not getting the opportunity to properly say goodbye to her. While Nelly's parents clear out her gran's house, she plays in the woods and makes friends with a girl her own age. When she discovers who the girl is, she realises she may still get to say goodbye while learning more about her mother's youth.
Definitely not one for fans of mainstream cinema, but you're happy to spend 2 hours in the French countryside watching children playing, exploring, cooking, and lingering over otherwise mundane activities, this one's for you. The relationship between the girls is presented through their eyes, but whether this is somehow real, supernatural, or from the imagination of a child is left entirely up to your own.
Connected: The Hidden Science of Everything (2020)
Dumbed down science show hosted by Shaggy
In better hands, this could have been interesting and informative. Each episode, Nasser travels around the world, discovering on average one fact per location. When he hears this fact, he's AMAZED by it, as if it's come a complete surprise to him, despite the fact that he's supposed to be the one educating us. The net effect of this is that each episode contains very little information, but a large expense claim for the host. I'd expect content of this level to be targeted to children, but it seems to be inexplicably rated TV-14.
Science can still be accessible without insulting your intelligence, and without making you feel like you're watching Scooby Doo. To compare and contrast, watch any similar show by Brian Cox, Neil deGrasse Tyson or Carl Sagan.
Jellyfish (2018)
Raw and affecting drama for us, real life for many kids
When I started watching this film, I thought it might be a good one to watch with my 12 and 15 year old daughters. I like to show them strong female lead characters. A young girl, Sarah, breaking into the male-dominated world of stand-up comedy seemed to be a good example of that. It quickly became clear that Sarah is forced into abusive situations that no 15 year old should ever be subjected to, and serves as a sharp reminder that this is reality for far too many young kids.
Sarah steps up to take on the role of single mum when her own mum, financially irresponsible and crippled by mental health issues, can no longer cope. She fights to juggle the pressures of parental responsibilities, school, and being the sole income provider, just to keep her family together and a roof over their heads. Support is there if she wanted it, and she could ask for help, but this comes with the risk of being taken back into care by Social Services, so she takes the burden on her own shoulders, with all that that entails.
This feels very much like a Ken Loach film (I, Daniel Blake; Sorry We Missed You), bringing societal problems to the surface and shining a light on them, which will be painfully relatable to many, and shockingly eye-opening to those fortunate and privileged enough to be otherwise unaffected by these issues.
The ending is bitter-sweet. Often I don't mind open-ended films, leaving the rest of the story to your imagination, but other times it feels lazy, and this is one of those times. It finished at least 5 minutes too soon, without any resolution, with all of its loose ends untied, and without that the story feels incomplete. It's the last episode of a series that ends on a cliff-hanger, then gets cancelled, and there's no satisfaction in that.
WRC World Rally Championship (2001)
Landmark PS2 game
A lot of people don't realise how significant this game was. Not only was it a competent driving game on limited hardware, but it was also the first to have an online leaderboard way before online multiplayer games were a thing on Playstations. During championships, the game would give a 6 character code that you could enter on to appear in the leaderboards. Sadly, the encryption was weak, the hackers underestimated, and the leaderboards were hosed with impossible times - a problem that was fixed in WRC2Extreme.
The Good Doctor (2017)
An Aspie's review
As a medical drama, I quite enjoy this series. The realism is about what you'd expect for this sort of thing - it simplifies a lot of things, and has the staff spending way more time talking to patients and each other than a normal busy hospital would allow for. However, it's a drama not a documentary, so I'm prepared to let that slide for the sake of a more watchable show.
On the downside, Freddie Highmore's portrayal of autism is hands-down the least recognisable I've seen in any film or TV show. He obviously does his best and tries really hard, but it's as if his performance is based on common symptoms, traits and mannerisms that were described to him, rather from any first-hand experience. I should point out that I am autistic and so is my daughter. I've met 100s of autistic people through support groups and aspie meet-ups, covering school age to elderly people, from high-functioning to severely disabled. They say that if you've met one autistic person, then you've met one autistic person, and I'm very aware that it's a broad spectrum. But, the more you meet, the more of a feel you get about how we come across, and not one of the ones I've met has presented the way Dr. Shaun Murphy does.
If you want a realistic representation, watch Atypical. Everything about it "feels" right, while The Good Doctor often makes me squirm in the way it misrepresents us to the world.
7/10 for bringing an autistic character into the mainstream, raising awareness, and demonstrating how to deal with us sympathetically.
Assassination Nation (2018)
Worth a watch if you're young and open minded
People have always had secrets. Secrets from their partners, secrets from their parents, and from their friends. People have had private conversations, secret diaries, private photos, and have shared them with people they trust. Everyone has private thoughts and interests, some of which they may never tell anyone, and if you could read people's minds then you'd probably see them in a very different light.
Today's teenagers have grown up in a world where most of this exists, is created, stored, shared and searched for online or using technology. Technology and search histories that can be accessed by people with the right knowledge and wrong intentions.
This film inhabits that world through the eyes of teenagers. It will probably feel real and relatable to people of a similar age, and alien to older generations. When characters have their data hacked and publicly shared, people react strongly and loudly, quick to denounce them and deliberately misconstrue and twist the details to vilify the victims, even though they know they're probably no better themselves. The exposure and public shaming feels like Twitter played out in real life with unfiltered anonymous comments and death threats replaced by actual weapons and fire.
Unfortunately the end of the film goes off the rails, trading realism for slick action and unbelievable retribution, but if you're able to suspend disbelief and see past this then it's an interesting reflection on today's young and society. It's also refreshingly inclusive, with a couple of trans characters who are never treated differently to the other girls, even by the aggressors.
The first minute of the film warns about the blood, gore, death, and everything else that may trigger the more sensitive souls. Consider yourself warned.
Chappie (2015)
Extended music video for obscure SA rap group, with robots
You may (or may not) have heard of a South African rap group called Die Antwoord. The video for their song 'Enter the Ninja' did the rounds on internet around 2009, but since then they haven't they haven't troubled the mainstream music scene too much.
If you are familiar with them, this movie will also feel familiar. It stars the two remaining members of Die Antwoord complete with their Die Antwoord stage names as their character names, it's set in Die Antwoord's home of South Africa, has Die Antwoord counter- culture stylisation throughout, and the soundtrack consists predominately of tracks by One Direction. Sorry - Die Antwoord.
The whole movie is a Die Antwoord vanity project. It looks like 'Ninja' and 'Yolandi' rang up Neill Blomkamp and said "hey - can we remake District 9 but with us as the lead characters?". Sadly it's nowhere near as inventive or well executed as District 9 or Elysium.
'Chappie' is a side project for his creator who works for a robot company, whose AI robots have been widely adopted by the police force. One of his colleagues has his his own bigger but less refined robot which hasn't been adopted by the police, and isn't finished because the threat detection system doesn't work. At no point does anyone, including the manager for both projects point out that they already have a functioning threat detection system in the fleet of autonomous robot police that they produce! Apparently in this company, innovations are owned by individual employees, who say "ner ner, I'm not sharing" rather than working together. This contrived plot hole breeds simmering resentment, in me and Hugh Wolverine.
Chappie himself starts off as endearing and child-like. Instead of adding character depth by following his progress from fish out of water to pseudo-sentient life-form, he becomes the butt of a single running joke as they transform him into a pimped up rap gangsta.
As Chappie doesn't have enough depth to sustain the whole film, the story becomes about the jealousy of the disgruntled Hugh Jackman, and descends into a grudge fight that's telegraphed from the start. From that point, you may as well be watching Iron Man. You may wish you were.
Ma vie en rose (1997)
A boy's life as a girl
This film is not about a young transvestite/cross dresser, neither is it about homosexuality. It's easy to get that impression from the reactions and misinterpretations of Ludovic's parents, but not if you empathise with his perspective. It's a film about a young transsexual. He doesn't just act like a girl, he feels that he IS a girl trapped in a boy's body, with such a passion that he believes he will one day become female. Dressing as a girl and playing with girls toys is an obvious extension of that, and if you truly believed you were or would become a heterosexual girl, marrying your male friend would feel perfectly natural.
The film treats the subject from a non-judgemental viewpoint, contrasting the destruction of family and work relationships against Ludovic's wide-eyed innocence about the consequences of him just being him/herself. In the process of his parents coping with their lack of understanding, they try to mould him into something more socially acceptable and "normal", like forcing a left handed person to use their right hand instead. Adult acceptance only comes in the form of treating it as childhood naïveté, and the film fails to confront the fact that this may not be "just a phase". Given this, the ending is a little weak, abrupt, and too open-ended, but overall it's a tender, emotive, and enjoyable film.