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Reviews
Succession: With Open Eyes (2023)
Tragedy is timeless
It's hard not to give this episode and by extension the entire series a lower score because I wanted it all to end a different way.
I don't know what the way should have been but not this.
I don't like seeing a life of torment and suffering.
Death is hard enough.
But I'm also aware enough to know that we can only go through life with the tools we are given, and let's be honest, these Billionaire Brats have been given a lot.
Kendall could sit on a posh rehab for the rest of his life and still have a billion in the bank.
Roman needs deep help from a mental health professional.
And Shiv could just bounce from Tom, divorce him and drain him financially. He won't be there for that kid in the end.
These characters will always be wounded but they will always have a safety net.
In the real world, it's astounding that we put these people on a pedestal, give them so much power and our wealth.
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022)
I'm one of those nerds
After a month of horror movies and TV shows this was a most welcomed break from the violence and bloodshed of our time to focus on a truly heartwarming origin story of a forgotten hero that the world needs now more then ever.
I grew up in extreme poverty in a tiny unnamed town in the Midwest wanting to one day be half the artist that Weird Al was.
I wrote many a parody that got me expelled from school after school, and many original songs that brought on puberty earlier then the other kids.
It wasn't until my first band, Degenerate Crust put out the song Assembly Line, with its chorus of "Living in the Factory, Life in the Factory, Dying in the Factory, Die in the Factory" that I knew I was probably going to do just that and not become 50% Al.
That's A L, not A I, but anyway this movie is more than just any movie, It is a Manifesto, and now I must carry out its final chapter.
See you on the nature trail to hell!!
You're Watching Video Music Box (2021)
The visual document of hip hop's legacy
Video Music Box was to broadcast television what Kool DJ Red Alert was to radio around that same time.
A living document of the early years of hip-hop that was not visible anywhere in the mainstream of America.
May video never die.
May every episode of this program be digitized and archived on the internet forever.
And Just Like That...: Tragically Hip (2021)
Throwaway episode
This is going to be a little spoilery.
This is a standalone episode. It literally introduces a medical condition of the main character that had never came up anytime before, she sees a doctor who recommends surgery then goes through months of surgery. The entire episode takes place over several months.
No mention of Big in the last 2 or 3 episodes so I guess everyone has moved on.
HBO should have learned from Vinyl that you never start a series or season with a major death without having a well rounded payoff of justice or going through the 5 stages of grief.
This season has been barely passable for arcs.
Somehow I think a half hour episode of Big's ghost doing a Ted Talk may be just as acceptable for this show.
Don't Look Up (2021)
This is not a political film
Despite what the extremists would have you think, this is not a political film. Without being spoilery, my take was different from the person I saw it with, who surprise, loved it for completely different reasons.
It wasn't a binary experience of "you don't agree with me so you must hate it". The kind of nonsense that is thrust upon us by a polarizing, emotion driven click culture mindset of all of our media that this film completely gets correct.
The emotions and motivations of the characters are multi-dimensional and reflective of our diverse and nuanced world.
People that want to live on polar opposites of their perceived enemies will not like this.
For a good laugh, I always read the 1-star and 10-star reviews on movies to see what the extremists are getting worked up about.
Leave the problem solving to the smart people.
The Harder They Fall (2021)
Combatting racism
Just had to give it a 10 as a 55 year old white male who hates to see ignorant people not know the history of their own country.
Bass Reeves was a real life Lone Ranger and the inspiration for the character. Spoiler Alert: He's black. So is most of the historical figures in this modern spaghetti western.
Lots of fiction but this isn't a documentary. It's an entertaining movie.
If you're looking for marginalized characters like Tonto there's plenty of that elsewhere.
Giving it a 1 and saying "woke" just shows you probably failed grade school history.
Wu-Tang: An American Saga: Pioneer the Frontier (2021)
One of the series bests so far
The execution on this episode is as tight as a drum.
The rhythm is like the ripples of waves against the hull of the ferry.
The throwback score and cinematography harkening back to classic spaghetti westerns and the game changing martial arts movies that not only inspired cinema but the music of Wu-tang itself.
This is a genre defining episode for the series.
Hats off to all the creators.
Cake: Innernet (2021)
Deja Vu
Over half this episode is a rerun. They took previously used clips and repackaged it. Someone is getting lazy. With the commercials it's not worth wasting your time. It's a shame because the main new segment, is quite good.
Bummer.
Nomadland (2020)
Best Movie of the last year
Since the p-demic I've watched at least 3 movies a week and this is easily in the top 5 movies. This is people's real life. They literally have one foot in the gutter, and their head barely above water but they are searching for happiness not capital which is becoming more and more elusive for each subsequent generation since the "greatest" generation.
If you can't relate to loose concepts of freedom, liberty or never really had to think too deeply about economics, you probably won't think too highly of this film.
Bliss (2021)
OMG
The low reviews from people that didn't even watch the whole movie and gave it 1 star because "it has Afro Americans in it" while writing incomprehensible gibberish forced me to give this a 10 to balance out the idiocy of Amazon Prime members who live in a hillbilly utopia of next day delivery.
Literally the plot of this movie.
Doctor Who: Praxeus (2020)
Counteracting idiots
Doctor Who has never been about "hidden agendas". It's always been out front, in our faces about science and inspiring young minds to grow up to be problem solvers. The constant "woke" bashing BS is coming from people who spend too much time on YouTube crying for the old days that never existed. If you don't see microplastics as a problem that needs the scientists of the future to solve then you're missing the whole point of the show going back to 1963. Many of us classic who viewers like to live in a future filled with science reality not constantly criticizing science fiction.
If you want to impress people, be a real hero and solve problems in the real world not complain on review boards.
Room 104: A New Song (2019)
It takes a while to get going...
It takes a while to get up to speed and has a different pace then most episodes but is not as bad as people have rated it.
These are two musicians dealing with each other's inequality in a subjective musical landscape. Not something lost people could relate to.
The audio design on this is some of the best of the series and is one thing I've always appreciated about the Duplass Brothers output.