Dear… is one of the newest series to premiere on the still new and fresh Apple TV+ streaming service. I haven’t found time to dive into a lot of their programming, but I’m a massive fan of Mythic Quest, and even more so for their latest Quarantine episode. This brings us to one of our latest original programs, Dear… which is a docuseries that profiles game-changers.
Category Archive: Reviews
Here’s the thing, I am a sucker for musicals. Musicals always have this way of making you feel like no other movies can. It’s something that I always loved and from the very first trailer for The High Note, I was excited. I couldn’t wait to see it and the soundtrack was already something that I loved from the trailer. Because a musical is nothing without the music, it can have the greatest story of all time but if the music doesn’t work, well the film won’t work either.
Comedies are a work of art. The balance of comedy and story can be the one thing that brings the film down. Too often, the best jokes are put in the trailers and when you start the film everything else falls flat. The Lovebirds is not that. Not only is it funny from beginning to end and the jokes hit perfectly and the chemistry between Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick) and Issa Rae (Insecure) elevates the end product. The movie might not change the game in terms of comedies but it works so well that you end up getting something really good and entertaining.
I’ll be honest, I’ve so far only seen trailers to many of Christopher Guest’s films, and even with that minimal knowledge, it’s clear that writer and director Laura Kosann loves his films. She decided to tackle a mockumentary about social media influencers. What Laura accomplishes is proving how infuriating they can be, and makes a statement on how the “selfie” generation kind of sucks.
At the end of 2017, Toronto held a Sofia Coppola retrospective at the Bell Lightbox (home of TIFF) and I made sure to see all of her films. I had previously seen Bling Ring and The Beguiled in cinemas so I made sure to watch the other four. I was more excited to see Lost In Translation once again, but also to see her third and fourth film on the big screen as my first time. But I knew I was in for all of it, so as I sat down waiting for Virgin Suicides, I wasn’t aware that everything could change.
If there is one thing the second season of Dead To Me was able to do is to up its game and stakes. There’s something special when a show comes into its own brilliantly, so much so that it is even a little bit hard to find a way to talk about it without gushing too much. But also, it’s hard to find flaws when you found yourself enjoying it so much that all of a sudden the season ended and you just wanted more. That is exactly what Dead To Me delivered in its second season, a show that is not only funnier but is able to expand on its first season and even, at times, surpass it. The second season of Dead To Me might have flaws but it also helps elevate the show as a whole.
A secret love deserves to not be kept a secret anymore. It’s cheesy to say but the story of Terry Donahue and Pat Henschel should have been said much sooner. Terry Donahue is already a legend on her own, being one of the inspirations behind the great movie A League of their Own. She might have been one of the few women that played professional baseball when that was still not the norm for women but maybe what is the most impressive, and sad, is how who she is was never known, not only to the public but to her family until just a few years ago. Their story deserves to be told and A Secret Love tries to do them justice but the short run time and the overstuffing of the documentary impairs it from going in deeper in their story and a lot gets lost in the process.
From American Horror Story to last year’s The Politician, Ryan Murphy has continuously given us some of the decades best and most unique TV. Now this year we’ve been gifted with his and Ian Brennan’s (Scream Queens, Glee) newest series, Hollywood. With a stacked cast of newcomers and veterans, gorgeous visuals and a score that feels timeless; Hollywood is a welcomed addition into Ryan Murphy’s world-building. But not one without flaws.
In 2004, a film called Saving Face written and directed by Alice Wu came out. Telling the story of an Asian-American doctor who must learn to balance her life with her unwed pregnant mother and her dancer girlfriend. I was too young at the time to see it but once I discovered it as a teenager in the closet, I fell in love with it. I fell in love with Wu’s writing and directing. So waiting for her second film felt like ever, it felt like it would never come and then, Netflix announced that they would produce a film written and directed by Wu. To say that I have been anticipating The Half of It is an understatement. Alice Wu won my heart with her directorial debut, a film that had been able to win my heart and made me feel accepter. With The Half of It, she was capable of recreating those feelings that I had felt as a closeted teenager but she did it in a very unexpected way.
Never judge a show based on its first episode, Feel Good reminded me of that. I have to be honest here, after watching the first episode of the series, I thought that this show wasn’t for me. I didn’t particularly enjoy the first episode and while I couldn’t find anything wrong with it per se, I also couldn’t say it hit it out of the park. But I decided to continue, to give it a shot and honestly, never judge a show by its first episode is now going to be my motto. Sometimes you have to remember, the first episode isn’t everything and I should always remember that. Because by the end of it, I found myself enjoying this show a lot more then I anticipated. I laughed out loud, cried and smiled more than I ever thought I would.
The UnderSCENE 