unended Reviews

Finding the Money (2023)

The Power to Transform

[10/10 · 11 May 2024]

Finding the Money has the potential to completely upend the way you understand not only the economy but society as a whole. Few films, documentary or otherwise, can lay claim to that kind of impact upon the viewer. When the material presented is understood, suddenly everybody talking about govt policy-especially but not limited to fiscal policies like taxing and spending-starts to sound crazy. It's because they don't know what you now know. Or in some cases are pretending not to know it.

The myths that are propagated about the monetary system and the constraints it operates under are not accidents, but redound to the benefit of a power structure-a ruling class-that prefers the highly inegalitarian status quo. Economic inequality is not just an outcome of their preferred fiscal policies, but the very source of their political power. Understanding the power of fiat currency-and that money is not property belonging to individuals but a public utility-is essential to restoring egalitarianism and reclaiming democratic governance.

That '90s Show (2023– )

That That Show

[20 January 2023]

Literally nothing good happened in the 90s. I know this because I am in the worst timeline and I was in the prime of my life in the 90s. Therefore, it was awful. To be sure, there was good indie rock and some decent indie films, but since all the people alive sucked, there was nobody to enjoy this with. What that means, in turn, is that there can be no such thing as a That 90s Show, because the 90s functionally did not happen. There is no nostalgia to be found here. The world for all intents and purposes stopped existing and did not start again until The Strokes entered the picture in 2001, restarting the universe. Thank you for listening.

How It Ends (2021)

Childhood trauma

[9/10 · 21 September 2022]

The film is about childhood trauma (specifically parental rejection/invalidation), its lasting effects (specifically feelings of unworthiness), and trying to come to terms with it. It's not a sci-fi film about the end of the world nor is it a comedy, although it is very funny. It's not a traditionally constructed, modern movie, and it's better for it, not worse for it. The acting is great, particularly Spaeny. If the pandemic was necessary for this film to have been made and to have been made in this particular way, that would be a shame, because I enjoyed this from (and this style of film) more than most of what gets made these days.

The Anarchists (2022)

No need

[1/10 · 15 August 2022]

This is a documentary about the ruling class that one can easily tell is a complete failure by its title, which suggests it is about opposition to the ruling class. Not sure how it's possible for a documentary maker to be 180 degrees off base about the very subject of what they are presenting, but it happened. And HBO paid for it.

Perfect Bid: The Contestant Who Knew Too Much (2017)

The Boomers Are Killjoys

[8/10 · 16 May 2022]

This is an effective documentary about how neoliberalism has drained society of all camaraderie. Basically, the Price Is Right went from being produced and hosted by persons who were happy to give away corporate money to lucky or skilled winners to being run by mafia bosses (including Drew Carey!) who feel they must do everything they can to ensure the house never loses. In short, this light-hearted documentary depicts the disintegration of American society by corporate capitalism.

Resident Alien (2021– )

The hero we deserve

[9/10 · 6 January 2022]

The best thing about this show is that you get to root for a character whose plan is to destroy all human life. The human characters are all well written and very well acted, at least while they remain alive, which with any luck (if things go our hero's way) won't be for much longer.

Outer Banks (2020– )

Nyuk nyuk

[5/10 · 13 August 2021]

Basically The Goonies meets The Three Stooges, except there's five of them.

Army of the Dead (2021)

Long live the zombie horde

[5/10 · 25 May 2021]

This is a film about how zombies are objectively the ethical superior to humans and deserve to rule over the earth, or at least Las Vegas. Luckily it has a hopeful ending.

The Mole Agent (2020)

The Life Lottery

[10/10 · 13 May 2021]

This is a film about how one very old person is objectively vastly superior to many other very old people and how we should all desperately hope to be lucky enough to be that objectively superior person when we are very old.

Bad Trip (2021)

Funny

[7/10 · 9 April 2021]

This is a film about how the US is still an oppressive apartheid state.

Shiva Baby (2020)

Misclassified Genre

[8/10 · 8 April 2021]

This is a solid horror film masquerading as a comedy.

Toon (2016–2017)

Get out of My House

[10/10 · 19 March 2021]

This is simultaneously a 16-episode meet cute and a tale of the fear of intimacy and commitment. So it's relatable.

I Care a Lot (2020)

Well executed and acted, badly written

[4/10 · 19 March 2021]

This is a film about an incompetent Russian mafia that decides to start a healthcare business.

The Whispering Star (2015)

Tuesday

[9/10 · 27 January 2021]

This is a film about the joy produced from walking with an aluminum can stuck on the sole of your shoe, and I am here for it. It's also strikingly beautiful to look at.

Coherence (2013)

A mindbender

[10/10 · 10 March 2020]

This film deserves all ten stars, mostly because it's a legitimate and creative exploration of the Many Worlds interpretation of quantum foundations. It does so brilliantly, in my opinion, and from the very beginning. (Note : I would watch this without being spoiled, which I am about to do.)

The basic plot is that a comet causes "coherence" (i.e., the opposite of decoherence, which is a quantum mechanics phenomenon that some believe causes the world to "branch" into multiple different versions) which brings a large number of other worlds together. The guests at a dinner party encounter slightly different versions of themselves.

A watcher knowing nothing about the film (as I was originally) would not pick up on this, but the film establishes early on that it is set in a world alternate even to the viewer's world ("our" world). It does so by using an actor who most of us would recognize from Buffy the Vampire Slayer playing an actor who was not in Buffy, but was the lead in the show Roswell. (Roswell existed as a show in our world, but this actor was not the lead in Roswell.) As well, characters get small things wrong about each other from the jump, which in retrospect one realizes means that the worlds "cohered" even before the dinner guests arrived at their hosts' house. (The beginning of the coherence is depicted by the main character's phone cracking as the movie just begins, but the viewer only realizes that retrospectively, if at all.) This is ironic, because the guests ultimately realize that that there are other versions of themselves that are getting all mixed up and panic about it, even though they were mixed up from the jump and oblivious to it. It is this thoughtfulness (and playfulness) that forces me to give all the stars, even though I don't like doing that. Throughout the film, there are lots of subtle things happening and said which are easy to miss and reward repeat viewing.

It's also worth pointing out that there's an underlying emotional story here, too: a woman whose calling as a dancer was missed by chance and who uses the coherence as a way of taking back control. Or trying to...

On top of all this, the film is well acted and edited. I like a tight, 90-minute film.

Ares (2020)

A good horror

[7/10 · 23 January 2020]

No, this is not "just another show of anti-white racism" as one reviewer wrote. Yes, it is about a ruling class, which in the Netherlands just happens to be white. But it's not an indictment of the (white) Dutch people as a whole. It's about how mechanisms to deal with guilt (literally expelling it in the show) are necessary to obtain and keep power. And the context is a society in which power has been inherited from those involved in the slave trade, which happens to be a historical fact for the Netherlands but is not really the point. The message is broader. In the show, powerful people kill themselves when the mechanisms to cope with their guilt are stripped from them and they have to confront the terrible things they have done to obtain or keep their power.

I agree with others that the show started off a little slow but as a whole was quite well done, well acted and well told.