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marleymcurtis
Reviews
Miss Sloane (2016)
Countering the Q anons
This film is worth a 7/10, but I'll give it a 10 to counter the dozens of Qanon weirdos rating it a 1.
By the way, if you sort by 1 star reviews you will see a review from 2018 that says the movie was full of falsities, such as the main character claiming that there had been 374 mass shootings the year prior to when the film is set. This reviewer went on to say, "there hasn't even been 374 mass shootings in the history of the United States."
In fact, there were 647 mass shootings in the USA just in 2022 and 340 in 2018. These are defined as incidents in which four or more people are shot, excluding the shooter.
Other 1 star reviews claim that the movie is incorrect in saying that just about anyone can get a gun, including those on domestic terrorism lists. Well, the internet pulled up at least 3 recent examples (in the past year) where that was true. Most famously, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School - Parkland, FL, shooter was known to FBI for weeks before he murdered his classmates. The victims families successfully sued the FBI for 127 million as a result.
36 out of 50 states currently DO NOT require a permit, registration, or license to own a handgun. The only other place in the entire world where this is true is the country of Yemen.
The people leaving 1 star reviews are too stupid to figure out how to use Google to fact check anything. That should tell you how much credibility to give them.
Heartbreak High (2022)
How is it rated this high?
This show is by far the most terrible thing I've tried to watch in years. I am flabbergasted by its relatively high rating.
The premis was alright and lended some interest early on, but the acting was subpar for even a teen drama. I was unable to follow what was happening anymore 30 minutes into the first episode as I was too distracted by the consecutive 15 second clips of the worst pop hits of the past decade being forced at random onto every single scene. I needed to turn it off 3/4 of the way through the first episode because of this. Seriously, the first episode uses clips of choruses from 87 different pop hits (I looked up the credits to confirm the number). This is for a 52 minute episode. What. The. F.
I'm not a huge fan of pop music but I don't hate it. However, hearing a few seconds of Taylor swift over a scene discussing SA directly followed by 10 seconds of Lil Nas over a scene of a girl hysterically crying, followed by a generic club hit playing over a scene of friends fighting... was extremely off-putting. At points this music drowned out what the actors were even talking about and so this felt more like a weird ad for the Pop 104.1 station than it did a show about teenage love triangles.
It's completely unwatchable. And I just finished Love is Blind and The Ultimatum, so that's saying something.
The Wheel of Time: Leavetaking (2021)
Rafe did well with what he had
This is by far the worst episode of the season, which is too bad since it's the pilot. BUT that isn't the fault of the production team, cast or directors. That's Amazon's fault. The writers pleaded for 10 episodes and were given 8. They begged for a 2 part pilot or extended length pilot and were denied. Then Brandon Sanderson, the 2nd writer of the series, tried to negotiate for a longer pilot and he was denied.
We're taking about FIFTEEN 3000+ page books here people. This series is massive and needs all the space it can get. While reading these in highschool my classmates would sometimes ask me why I was reading the Bible for fun, during breaks. Lol
Of course much will be cut because realistically covering everything from the books would take a decade. But the pilot?? The intro to the whole thing needs to be crammed? C'mon Amazon. Whoever made that descison needs to be fired. Imagine how many people were lost at this point who would have otherwise became faithful viewers.
Despite that I think everyone in it did a wonderful job of setting the stage for the next episodes.
The Wheel of Time: Shadow's Waiting (2021)
The Mood is Emerging
When I saw this episode took us to Shadar Logoth I groaned. As a book reader I didn't feel we had covered the necessary world building yet to jump so far ahead to this arc. However, having now watched all episodes in this season but the last I see that the purpose of jumping ahead here was to develop the "mood," "atmosphere," "tone," or whatever you want to call it.
This is not the dark realism of GoT that makes you feel like you're still on Earth, with very Earth-like motivations of greed and lust and killing for sport.
This is not the idealyic expansiveness of LoTR that takes you back to a "simpler" time with clearly outlined enemies and friends.
This is something very different.
In this episode, that feeling finally starts to emerge and it's unique tone is set.
The Wheel of Time: A Place of Safety (2021)
I enjoyed the changes - as a book fan
At the end of episode 1 when it appeared Nynaeve had died, I turned to my husband and said I would stop watching it if she didn't make an appearance in episode 2. Well... she didn't. He convinced me to give episode 3 a shot and finally, here she is! Her disappearance didn't happen in the books and in my opinion wasn't needed here, but I did like the water-cave scene and I think it covers a lot of ground in character development for her as well as her relationship development with Lan. Overall, well executed. It's hard to take a leath of faith with the show producers when I, as a book reader, know exactly what they're skipping over. But so far the "deleted scenes" have been appropriately replaced or turned up in unexpected places in later episodes.
The Wheel of Time: The Dragon Reborn (2021)
Pleasantly Suprised
With how early the false dragon was introduced, I was very worried about the direction of the plot and if the show runners could keep it together. Almost none of what happens in this episode is true to the books and yet it somehow captures chapters' worth of false dragon development through invented scenes. The actor portraying him is SPOT ON and his grief is believeable. It's making me look forward to what I know is coming for him yet...
The Wheel of Time: Blood Calls Blood (2021)
Getting to know Warders
I like that we took an episode to explore what warder bonds mean and to get to know them and less fleshed-out aes sadi customs. The mood for the whole episode was dark and hopeless. This will hopefully be a nice set up for things coming in season two. I personally don't mind tv shows where every episode isn't necessarily action packed. If you want that, please go watch transformers or something.
The Wheel of Time: The Flame of Tar Valon (2021)
Foreshadowing
What happens in this episode love-wise IS TRUE TO THE BOOKS you dunces. They are reffered to as "pillow-friends" by Robert Jordan. What do you think that means? The subtle flirting and starry-eyed gazes in the books between these two is fully fleshed out on screen, and I'm here for it. Their relationship isn't really explored until much later in the book series but I'm glad it's introduced earlier on screen. My only gripe with this episode is Nynaeve. She's starting to feel more irritating and rude than headstrong and independent. That isn't true to the books at all. She's my favorite character plz don't ruin her.
The Wheel of Time: The Dark Along the Ways (2021)
Starting to feel like a real TV show
As a book reader I am entirely too biased to give my own review so I've been relying on my husband's impressions. I thought the intro was gimmicky and fake. He LOVED it. I picked apart The Ways since they differ from the books, he LOVED them. I didn't like the Dragon reveal (again, felt too gimmickly) but my husband thought it was well done. I know that my take is always going to be extremely critical since I read all 15 books and even named my cat after one of the main characters. Whereas, he is looking at it as a big fantasy nerd who hasn't read the books (but who lives for LOTR and GoT). His impression is the one to go by. This is not the book story, the characters and events have been moved around too much. But it is becoming a real TV show with promise. Lan and Nynaeve's relationship was my favourite part of this episode.
Zenra kantoku (2019)
I created an IMBD account just to rate this show, that's how good it is.
I want to start off by saying that that single 1 star review someone gave 'The Naked Director' is completely unfounded, and frankly kind of ignorant. I was so irritated by the false claims that user made that I felt it necessary to create an IMBD just to set the record straight about this award-worthy series.
First of all, they claimed that the series glamorizes misogyny and that the sexual revolution in 1980s Japan set the tone for a cultural misstep that saw women descend to the status of 2nd class citizens, and so their problem is with Japan's culture regarding sex rather than 'The Naked Director.'
Obviously this person didn't do the historical diving I and others did into the IRL Kaoru Kuroki, or they would've discovered that her work in AV films and rise to popularity as shown in 'The Naked Director' largely inspired the feminist movement in Japan, and she herself saw sexual liberation for women through AV to be a stepping stone to full equality. Kuroki had a hand in the growth of S&M and influenced BDSM as we know and understand it today; her ideologies are *why* BDSM stresses consent, safety and inclusivity to the degree it does.
So, no. The 'Naked Director' is more of a feminist & sexual liberation historical biography than it is one that "glamorizes misogyny" regardless of the fact the subject matter is porn; an industry and media that isn't typically feminist. The contrast in that fact is a part of the appeal and interest in 'The Naked Director' forsure, and as a woman I came away with a strong desire to sexually liberate my own country's porn industry the way Kuroki did. Some serious mental gymnastics would be required to come away with an entirely polar take than that.
When that user referenced "Male Geisha Houses" I only imagine they were really trying to say "Male Host Clubs" which are immensely popular in Japan, and are not at all 'geisha' houses. Obviously, that user has basically zero knowledge about Japan culturally or otherwise, to not even be able to name host clubs properly but to have decided they are misogynist and problematic without the slightest idea of what they encompass.
TL;DR
Please disregard the one 1 star review on 'The Naked Director' as that user doesn't know what they are talking about, at all. This is an incredible show and I was thoroughly impressed, even as (or especially as) a feminist woman.