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Reviews
Vivarium (2019)
In Tradition of Absurdism
The writing feels very Irish to me in a modern way as if inspired by Martin McDonough. Nihilism and allegory that sneak up on you. It is cinematically beautiful very engaging as to why characters are doing what they are doing. The film challenges you to think and you have to be comfortable with that to enjoy the invention of plot. It reminds me of the great Playwrights, Edward Albee, Brecht, Pinter. Are we looking at aliens among us, evil in metaphor or something else or maybe all this and more. Is the devil in our lives a palpable thing? Iwill watch anything with Jesse Eisenberg. The acting is superb.
Mayberry Man (2021)
Failed Tribute Film, Honest Opinion
One of the maxims of the original show was honesty. So that is what I owe you. This film could not decide what it wanted to be. The floundering is in the writing. It's like the writer tried to make a salad of everything they wanted it to be and just failed on most counts. #1 not enough backstop development. We want to see it, not hear about it. #2. Characters are rich and beautiful except for the main character who does not ring true and so when he becomes enamored of the town folk it is just not believable but hallow and fake. But throw in a ghost and that makes the story a gem? No .it doesn't. This is really poor writing that dies not do justice to the legacy. The acting is wonderful but the writing is poor quality. The story is formulaic and disappointingly fake. The objectives are just not there. So sad because the characters are spot on. But the original show was only anchored by characters, not driven by them. In this case, these beautiful characters are left adrift in open water and shamefully left to drown in stereotypical
buffoonery. They are to precious towaste in a performance like that. Andy's kindness and human qualities were the fulcrum and cornerstone that captained all the drama. You could have changed that any number of ways. Main character---> with likeable qualities; he had none. The love interest as someone FROM LA, also stuggling to understanding the value of country simplicity. This is a much bigger story than what you wrote. . And actually, it is REAL! -- a real stuggle of values. Small town can be a lovely setting, kind and heartfelt. It's worth examing and has a lot to write about but I think you squandered that expecting magic where there's none.
Northern Rescue (2019)
OH CANADA! I love this show
I love the setting and story premise of this show! I'm walking around the house singing the theme song! This show is the antidote we need in television that offers us hope for the future of who we are and will be beyond stressful complex forensic cases of horror and real-time news that features despair and evil every. . single. . night. I love it! It gives me the kind of feeling I got when the WALTONS appeared on the small screen while my older male classmates were heading off for Vietnam. This is a show that soothes, entertains and inspires and educates two nations.
By the way he snaps into a climbing harness, it looks like Baldwin does his own "stunt work" which is very cool. And the whole cast is excellent, emulating Baldwin's natural style of acting and capturing me every time with great story. I don't know his acting training, theatre or just film . . or history much beyond familial connections and longtime association with film but Baldwin is definitely a facile, born actor with that special Baldwin feel for irony and quirkiness that works as well in drama as it does in humor. The relationships in this show are wonderful and complex. And I love that this family has real conflict and has to deal with a secret betrayal that is impossible to resolve-- it keeps me on edge. And that crazy little pet. . . I am so invested in this show. I am a SAR TECH 2, retired volunteer firefighter and medic and I love that rural and back country aspects of rescue are featured. And I love everything about my Canadiene neighbors ( I lived in BC for 5 months once!) This show has the opportunity to illuminate how great duel citizenship is, what it is to be a good neighbor and what an amazing country Canada is, eh? I love Canada, I do. This show is on my "Must See List". It is a jewel!
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Lost in Space (2018)
LOST IN SPACE 2018, ELEGANT MASTERPIECE
The new 2018 LOST IN SPACE surpasses in tone and look, anything I could wish for in any remake ever. It is racially diverse and women play very strong roles as do children as opposed to films that are centered and focused on status quo of male privilege à la Steven Segal. It is the present I wish for and the future we hope for. It touches and connects us to the simple truths of "otherness" that were explored in the modern classic film ENEMY MINE, often listed as the best Sci-Fi film ever made. Who is to say our species is the prominent and deserving apex species? LOST IN SPACE 2018 is an elegant love song to the original 1965 TV series, to space travel, to the literary origins of all Sci-Fi genre and to family dynamics. It far surpasses the 1998 remake of the 1965 campy family space saga television serial it was based on, which in turn was based on a 1960 screenplay "Space Family Robinson." So near and dear to my heart, LOST IN SPACE 2018 is all I could wish it to be; lyrical and beautiful in a fusion of CGI and gorgeous live sets filmed in British Columbia, animatronics that tame the magic to make us believe in another world. It is also an ode to the contemporary family of the near future. Captivating and superbly constructed stories and complex characters. This is a show that is near and dear to my heart. The original was a world I slipped into every Wednesday night and I loved it because I was eight and in the original Billy Mumy was "Will" the facile child-scientist who had all the answers when adults, experts in their fields, didn't. Billy Mumy could make a rope swing out of diner napkins. He never failed, though he was nine years old-floating through space . . . marooned. . Billy Mumy was my televangelist ending Old World patriarchs, no more tyrants. At his own risk of becoming toasted rump roast space junk, the little smartass freckle-faced kid even saved the demented Dr. Zachariah Smith, (god knows why, humanity I suppose,) over and over again. And I knew, maybe not on this earth, but somewhere, at least on Wednesdays, there was one other kid who could deal with anything, whatever it was, another kid who would scream out "I can figure it out better than anybody." Lost In Space: sixty- four episodes. . . . For me this this film is a beautiful ode to my childhood when my life took a turn into grey zone and it was hard as an eight year old to maneuver for my own needs when the adults around me could not meet their own needs let alone, mine. My father worked so hard he rarely recouped from exhaustion, In 1965, the then new show LOST IN SPACE was my church, a latch key kid home alone. Every Wednesday, Reverently, precisely at 7:30 sharp, I placed the TV tray, an altar in front of the beech wood-encased Zenith tv. preparing the sacrament of ice cream float and four Oreo cookies and joined the Robinsons as they maneuvered in and out of space pickles in 51 minutes.
With the original theme song by John Williams when he was young enough to be called Johnny, makeup by John Chambers (Planet of the Apes) If there is any B Movie tone at all in the 2018 NETFLIX LOST IN SPACE, it is only in finely crafted humor and irony of completely natural dialog of the contemporary family. And what could be better than Billy Mumy playing the "Good Dr. Smith" whose identity is stolen by the Evil Dr. Smith.