dalanMendonca Reviews

The Little Hours (2017)

Shitty Monty Python

[5/10 · 29 March 2025]

This is what Monty Python would be, if it wasn't funny. Despite an all star cast of comedy actors, this movie will barely make you laugh. It's like a SNL sketch stretched into a whole movie except the sketch was hardly funny in the first place.

I do not deny that there are funny moments. Every actor does their part pretty well but the overall script is very weak. The movie fails because it is too casual; it is neither slapstick funny nor very serious looking but filled with ironic details funny. It's just somewhere in the middle trying something. Tolerable one time watch but not recommended in general.

The Final Table (2018)

Fall in love with the art of food

[8/10 · 27 December 2023]

I've never watched cooking shows. As I'm getting into cooking, I wanted something to inspire me. Final Table goes above and beyond; and how! This is a competition between already quite accomplished world class chefs who deliver on multiple levels - not only are they good at they technicalities of the trade i.e. Cooking food well, they are also artists who take a dish and convert it into an edible work of art that pleases the eyes and the Instagram feed. I enjoyed "touring" the world with the show, learning about dishes and ingredients from across the world. Fejioda is now on my to-eat list.

I agree with the other review, the final winner didn't feel the strongest and this show is noticeably euro centric.

Severance (2022– )

Good show. Bad pace.

[7/10 · 15 April 2023]

The show spends the first half of the season just building up the mood but not moving the story forward. Within the first two episodes, you sort of know what the world of the characters is - weird corporation, dreary landscape, isolation, etc. But then NOTHING happens. Every episode till the 6th/7th just adds one small reveal (in an hour episode). These initial episodes are just dreary shots of gloomy landscape and dull office interiors with monotonous music. Then suddenly the writers wake up, the show progresses like crazy towards an intense climax BUT you don't you get that as the shows end at a cliff-hanger.

Could have done with some even pacing. The shows offers a new vocabulary for discussing the separation of work and personal lives. Also there is random humour buried in there very subtly which I heavily appreciated. Overall a good watch but dinging stars because of the initial slow movement. Also funny this is made by Apple, a company notorious for keeping secrets! And also making crazy demands of employees to preserve those secrets.

Generation Wealth (2018)

Do not watch. Nothing about Generations or Wealth

[1/10 · 31 December 2021]

This movie is therapy for a person who grew up in a rich neighbourhood in the USA justifying her existence and coming to terms with the opulence and faux opulence and wannabees around her.