Romantic comedies aren’t always my cup of tea. Too often they follow the same idea or story and it feels like they are just the same. But once a year, a little gem appears and takes me by storm. Last year, to me, that was the Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron lead Long Shot. This year, I am pretty sure that it will be The Broken Hearts Gallery. Is it perfect? No, but it just had so much heart and was hilarious. There’s something when you find a film that you go in thinking it will nothing more than a nice little comedy that will take your mind off your life but it becomes more and all of a sudden you find yourself dying of laughter one second and the next you are crying like a baby. That was The Broken Hearts Gallery for me.
comedy
I will be super honest here, writing this review might just be the hardest thing I have had to write in a very long time. Not because I Used To Go Here isn’t good, that would have been much easier in all honesty. No, it’s because I Used To Go Here is actually a really good film in the grand scheme of things, but the main problem I had with this is that I found myself bored out of my mind while watching it. I had to watch it twice in order to be able to write this and even on my second viewing I found myself bored and just wanting to do anything else really.
I wanted to like John Stewart’s Irresistible, it seemed to be the type of film that I usually enjoy. It boasts a stellar cast and the premise seemed poised to create a great satire that could have created a conversation about politics and our society. Instead, Irresistible fails on every front and even a pitch-perfect Rose Byrne can’t save the mess that this film ends up being.
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.
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.
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.
Sometimes after you sit with a show for a while, your opinion of it can change, for better or worse. After my first watch, I found myself loving I Am Not Okay With This, but with time and space, I realized that most of what I felt was just falling short of what I had hoped. That doesn’t mean this show isn’t enjoyable, it is but it also isn’t as good as it could be. It falls just a little short and takes to long to finally get to what it needs to be. By the end, you think you are satisfied but in reality, you are just okay with this. Coming from the producers of one of my favourite shows, It’s The End of the F***ing World and coming from a graphic novel written by the same author then the show, I Am Not Okay With This as a lot of expectations to live up to. Using a very similar way of telling the story, by having the main character narrate their side of the story, but what was very effective in It’s The End of the F***ing World just doesn’t work as well in this.
The first To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before was a nice little surprise when it came out last year. It wasn’t really what we expected when we all logged into our Netflix account to watch this romantic comedy. Instead of getting a movie that we would all forget and make fun of overtime, we got a film that actually was good. Yes, it did play into most of the young adult tropes that we are all very used to but the elevated cinematography for this type of film and a charming cast brought something refreshing and, quite frankly, unexpected. With all that and the success of the film, it wasn’t a surprise at all when a sequel was announced. Not only was one sequel was announced but the announcement came with the news that the third book of the series would also find it’s way to being adapted and on Netflix in the near future. But like any sequels, being able to recreate what had made it special could be hard, so the arrival of To All The Boys: PS I Still Love You was something that, while I was looking forward to it, I was also a bit scared. I had enjoyed the first film and really hope that I would find myself enjoying this one too.
Sometimes shows go through a sophomore slump, when they can’t quite find what made their first season stand out from the ground. So going into the second season of Sex Education, I was scared because not only did I really enjoy season one but with the ending, it was obvious that the show could go in a lot of directions. But after being able to watch all episodes of the second season before it’s released, I am happy to say that not only did it meet my expectations but it also exceeded them. Now, this review will be spoiler-free because I do believe that all the little twists and turns that happen on this show make it even better and I want everyone to be able to enjoy it and freak out just like I did when I was first watching it.
Comedy dies slow, never has a statement been truer than with Amy Sherman-Palladino’s comedy The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Comedy dies in the silence, in the absence of the fast pace that has become accustomed to Sherman-Palladino’s work over the years. Gilmore Girls established itself with its fast dialogue and the signature tone that we now recognized as Sherman-Palladino’s voice, something that had been so different at first with only two characters, Lorelai and Rory, using became the norm by the end where every character used the same pace as the two leading ladies did ever since the first moment of the pilot. It was something that could have been seen as a gimmick and never be seen again but once the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel premiered in 2017 on Amazon Prime, the fast-paced dialogue that had defined Gilmore Girls was back. But unlike what she did it’s predecessor, Sherman-Palladino found a way to integrate her signature dialogues into the story that would inhabit the world that would become The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Comedy dies slow, it’s that simple and that is why Mrs. Maisel never slows down.
