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AlexLeeThomson
Reviews
Family Guy: Oscars Guy (2022)
Confused mess
Compared to previous movie parodies that have played into the source material while offering some unexpected curve balls for the characters, this feels incredibly lazy and joke-thin. Held up to "Blue Harvest" as an example it's like two different shows entirely. The love and depth that went into that compared to this brings home the decline in quality.
Starting the series on one of these types of episodes rather than a strong story feels like a bad omen for the rest to come too. Also timing wise, airing in September nowhere near the Oscars is just confusing when it could have been held until further in the series. One of the poorest episodes of the whole show in my opinion.
What Dreams May Come (1998)
A minor masterpiece
At some point in the future this film will be rediscovered and reevaluated as the minor masterpiece it is. It's so unlike every other film, you can understand the friction it's had with some critics and public.
The pace of the film is so delicate, there's really only a few scenes to the whole picture. It's not in any rush. The chemistry between Williams and Gooding is so comfortable from their first moment on screen, that the film can happily unroll in front of you without moving on quickly to the next moment. That's incredibly rare.
The visuals of this film are also unlike anything else, even over twenty years later. The concept of a painted film that weaves renaissance and expressionist influences into the setting is itself a character. However you don't feel like you're there just to watch a special effects film. This style is used to craft some of the best stills in cinema, but always makes sense to the story and sense of discovery.
Emotionally I can't think of many films that are this stark and brutally sad. It's not a happy film. It's still a film of course, and there's some recognisable moments of hope, but it's not Hollywood. It can be quite relentless. That horror though set against the bright colour and tone of the film's depiction of Heaven is what makes this so compelling to me.
Christian Mingle (2014)
Cinematically and morally poor
This is a film about a women, desperate to find love, who's preyed upon by a Christian community that shame her into changing her beliefs to bed literally the blandest man ever. The whole film is one long advert for a dating website.
South Park: The Pandemic Special (2020)
2020 in a nutshell
One thing I've been looking forward to in all this mess is the return of South Park. It's been one of the most unhinged, out of control, sad, angry, bonkers years in our lifetime. If anybody can lay it all out, make fun of it, and make it a bit more tolerable it's this show. They've aced this hour long special. It hits everything it aims for, while also folding in a few criticisms of recent series. Bloody love them.
The Good Place: Live Panel Discussion (2020)
So long
It's great when a TV show writes a proper ending. It almost never happens, but when it does it's often a reminder of how well written the things as a whole has been. This show has always been quite fast paced plot wise, with twists every twenty minutes, so having the finale be far more contemplative was different - but was executed so perfectly it's hard not to appreciate.