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Reviews
The Indrani Mukerjea Story: Buried Truth (2024)
Poorly done documentary about an interesting murder case
While this is an interesting story it is not a well made documentary. There is at best an hour's worth of material in this four hour documentary. The main subject is Indrani Mukherjea. She seems to be a famous and wealthy woman who is CEO of a media company. She seems to have achieved this mostly by marrying a media tycoon named Peter Mukherjea. Her daughter/sister (this issue is discussed at length) Sheena Bora goes missing in 2012. Indrani tries to tell everyone that Sheena left India and is probably living in the United States but her fiancé does not believe this at all. Her fiancé is her step brother which I think makes this start to feel like an Indian episode of Jerry Springer. Anyhow a body is found 3 years later and is maybe(?) identified as Sheena and Indrani is the main suspect in her murder. There is no satisfactory conclusion here and it does not seem much effort is made by anyone making this documentary or by Indian law enforcement to get to the truth.
Cocaine Bear (2023)
A staggeringly bad movie and yet it's kind of fun!
I have never seen such a ridiculous movie in my life. I can't think of anything to compare it with. It is very very very loosely based on a true story of drug trafficker dumping a massive load of cocaine off a plane into Georgia. The movie is about what happens to the coke. Some bumbling criminals head out to recover it as well as a detective (the guy who always said sheeeeeeit in the Wire) and a suburban Mom (Keri Russell) and kids end up in the mix. The main character is of course the titular Cocaine Bear (aka Pablo Escobear) who in real life allegedly ingested 75 pounds of cocaine. The bear quickly gets very addicted to the cocaine as well as extremely violent. It is non-stop absurdity and slapstick comedy. Perhaps worth a view if you are in the mood for something really goofy. One of Ray Liotta's final films. Perhaps not a dignified tribute to this fine actor 😂.
Oppenheimer (2023)
A complicated film about a very complicated subject
I was excited for this film and saw the first possible showing in my area. I was hoping to love it but I did not. Nolan's visual virtuosity is obvious it certainly featured a great performance by Irish star Cilian Murphy as Oppenheimer. It was not a surprise that Nolan did not follow a linear timeline and even utilized some sequences in black and white although for a much different reason than in Memento. The problem is any story about the Manhattan Project always has to deal with the large number of characters and the multi threaded timeline mostly just made it more confusing. Feynman was included as a very shallow character only to show his real life decision to watch the Trinity Test through a car windshield and not use the safety glasses like everyone else. I would have liked to see more of WW2 unfolding as I believe there was a lot of fear of Hitler obtaining the bomb first and somehow that urgency to me was not conveyed. They did not specifically cover Pearl Harbor but of course the bomb was eventually dropped on Japan as Germany had already been defeated before the bomb was complete. I believe there was good coverage on the issue of whether the bomb actually needed to be used in the circumstances, something people still argue about today. It was definitely a very good movie and Matt Damon was excellent as General Groves who was in charge of the Manhattan Project from the military point of view and essentially was Oppenheimer's boss. I would have liked a bit more about the many technical challenges the scientists overcame as I believe one of the larger themes of this history is great scientists solving incredibly challenging problems only to wonder whether the result was entirely of negative value.
Party of Five: Square One (1998)
Solid episode
We get to see the aftermath of Charlie finding out he is remission from Hodgkin's disease. Everyone is of course very happy but each is also confronted what to do with themselves now that the crisis is passed. Charlie wants to throw a party to celebrate but Joe who travels up from Los Angeles has a flight cancelled so he cannot make the party. It turns out Charlie's old radiation buddy hired a stripper not knowing the party is canceled. She shows up and is super cute and quirky. It's obvious Charlie will be closing soon. Griffin feeling the guilt of his infidelity quits his job, confesses to a priest and ultimately tells Julia. It is unclear is Julia will stay with him. Bailey and Sarah play house with Annie's daughter with signs that Bailey and Sarah maybe get back together. Note: The long talk Charlie has with Kirsten is supposed to be in SF but is clearly the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica.
The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)
Everything you need for a great movie but I did not care for the allegorical story line
I was so excited when I began watching this. Tremendous cast. Brendan Gleeson, Colin Farrell. Kerry Condon. And then the setting. A remote island off of the mainland of Ireland. This movie drips with Irishness. And then the story begins. Colm (Gleeson) and Pádraic (Farrell) are longtime friends when suddenly Colm decides he wants no part of his friend. He does not give much reason other than he is old and hopes to make some lasting musical legacy with his remaining years. He feels spending time with the kind but dim witted Pádraic will only slow him. Pádraic of course does not like this at all and refuses to honor his friend's request to stop speaking to him (even though are in the same pub together every day). Eventually Colm ups the stakes and says he will cut off his own fingers if Pádraic won't leave him alone. All in all this makes for a somewhat dreary film. It is taking place during the Irish Civil War of 1923. This Civil War was over the acceptance of the treaty of independence with England. Clearly the relationship between Colm and Pádraic, where they are destroying each other and themselves, serves as an allegory for the Irish Civil War. I would just greatly prefer a story based on some kind of realistic relationships rather than a metaphor. The incredible cast, setting and genuine window into the Irish culture probably still make it worth watching.
Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street (2023)
A Shakespearian tragedy for the ages
I really did not know many of the details of the Ponzi scheme going into this documentary so it was definitely eye opening for me. He started out way back in 1960 trading pink sheets (think Wolf of Wall Street). He eventually was an early adopter of the use of technology in trading. The technology his company developed eventually became the NASDAQ. His company was the number one market maker, which means it acts as an intermediary for financial trades, for many years. The most baffling aspect of this whole thing is he would have been plenty wealthy just from this legitimate business. What is the motivation to move to a criminal scheme that causes so much damage? Greed is the simple answer but there is something more. He was clearly a sociopath. Some of the details of the fraud we learn are that he regularly sent falsified statements to investors. They would include a list of fictitious trades with no losses and a nice profit. He did regularly return money to investors who requested it and always kept getting enough new investment dollars to stay one step ahead of these requests. One of the more frustrating aspects of this case is that the SEC was alerted multiple times and failed to do even the most basic of due diligence. For example, all they had to do was verify even a single trade and they would have discovered that the trade did not occur. This documentary is well worth watching even if it is bound to further deteriorate any faith one might have in our financial institutions.
The White Lotus: Arrivederci (2022)
The mystery is over (spoilers)
The last piece of homework I did before watching the finale was to go back and rewatch Greg's scenes from season 1. It is meant to appear that by chance alone he has the room next to Tanya and is a bit tipsy so he gets his room number confused and is trying to open her door which works as a conversation starter. He is incredibly nice to her even when she hits him with an enormous load of crazy. His behavior bears no resemblance to his behavior in s2. The point of all this is that the Tanya con that finally comes to fruition in the s2 finale was brewing way back in Hawaii.
As the episode unfolds it becomes clear that Greg and Quentin have been running a long con on Tanya. She made Greg sign a prenup but in the event of her death he gets it all. This seems a bit unlikely but I am not lawyer. They plan to have the "mafia" guy who seduced Tanya in the previous episode do the dirty work. Tanya and Portia start to put this all together with Tanya effectively being held prisoner by Quentin and Portia by Essex boy toy Jack.
This little of bit of crime drama is clearly not Mike White's forte. It seems like some highly undisciplined behavior by Quentin (the photo of he and Greg laying around and his having sex with his "nephew") plus Jack's getting so hammered he spills some of the beans. It seems they could have just taken care of Tanya the night before when she was in a highly compromised state. In addition the mafia guy is going to leave his bag with a gun unattended when it is obvious she is becoming very suspicious. It was good and suspenseful but not really believable.
Ethan gets Harper to admit that she kissed the smarmy Cameron. This leads a physical fight between Ethan and Cameron. After Ethan has a heart to heart with Daphne she leads him away to an isolated locale and teaches him there is a fun way to cope with a cheating spouse.
Albie not surprisingly gets conned by Lucia and it is also apparent that Valentina was conned by Mia. However Albie and Valentina got the sex they want, the hookers got the money or job they want, Albie got a life lesson, Dominic gets a wife that seems willing to talk to him again, Ethan actually wants to have sex with Harper, and Daphne and Cameron are exactly the same as at the beginning.
So really it works out for everyone except Tanya...poor rich sad Tanya.
I really enjoyed this whole season with the exception of the potential murder of Tanya not being well thought out. You would need both a body and a non-suspicious death to collect her estate and Quentin did not seem to have a real plan for that.
The White Lotus: Abductions (2022)
Things heat up in next to last episode
The big reveal in the previous episode was that Jack the young lad from Essex is almost certainly not the nephew of the wealthy Quentin. We begin with Tanya having breakfast with her assistant and she definitely wants to tell Portia what she saw. Harper' still has suspicions about her husband and the hookers but she turns the table by deciding to get drunk with Cameron. Now Ethan is overtaken with fits of jealousy. The Di Grasso boys finally make the trek to their ancestral village. This leads to a scene which reminds me that contrary to popular opinion, Italian is not the language of love. It is in fact the premiere language for screaming at another person. Tanya makes a new friend (as well as discovering a very interesting photo) while her annoying husband is happily for all still absent. The question is who will kill whom in the next and final episode. I cannot wait to find out.
The White Lotus: Ciao (2022)
New season, new location
The basic storyline is the same as the first season. In the opening scene we discover a guest (or possibly guests) of the White Lotus has (have) been murdered. We are then brought back to a week before when the wealthy guests are arriving. The big difference is we are at the White Lotus Sicily in the Sicilian town of Taormina. The locals all seem to be speaking standard Italian as opposed to Sicilian. The guests are all new characters with one exception. Tanya from season one (the woman with her mother's ashes) arrives with the other guests. She is meeting her husband there who is the man she hooked up with in season one. Not surprisingly they are in what seems to be a very unhealthy relationship. The other guests are two young couples. The men are longtime friends but the women seem to hate each other. The other main guest are Michael Imperioli who is traveling with his father and son. Overall the show maintains the same feel as season 1. The ocean and Mount Edna provide the breathtaking views that Hawaii did in the first season. It will take more episodes to decide if the characters are engaging or just caricatures of the rich. I could have done without revisiting the Tanya character.
Industry (2020)
Interesting if you stick with it
Industry is set in the stock trading world of London. It is hard to find a likable character anywhere. Everyone is mostly looking to take advantage of someone else and the characters take a lot of drugs and have a lot of sex. The sex scenes are mostly kind of ugly as they generally reflect the unhealthy relationships they all have. Despite all this I really like this show. Ken Leung is just a great actor and is excellent here. The storylines are pretty complicated and do not always resolve in the obvious way. It is a very toxic workplace and a lot of people just accept it since they are making a lot of money which I suspect is true in the real finance world. Tip for American viewers like me. There are all kinds of UK and Irish accents on this and that is why I turn on subtitles. It helps you not miss anything and also makes it clearer when a character is using British slang.
Running with the Devil: The Wild World of John McAfee (2022)
This is complete garbage.
The majority of this documentary is focused on a Vice reporter and photographer and not on John McAfee. It barely covers his legitimate career in software, the circumstances of the murder in Belize he is suspected of and provides nothing insightful about his death in Spain. It's laughable the amount of interviews they have with the Vice guys. I mean who cares what these two idiots have to say. Do yourself a favor and read his Wikipedia page if you are curious and skip this so called documentary.
Trainwreck: Woodstock '99 (2022)
Rock N Roll!!!!
I only vaguely remember some negative headlines about Woodstock 99. It was incredible to hear the whole story. As much as it was portrayed negatively it was clear this was a pretty epic music festival. The worst of the many bad decisions was not allowing people to bring water in and also to gouge them on water prices. This is in 90° heat in upstate NY (think humidity). It seemed this went a long way towards pissing people off and leading to some of the more negative things that happened. I had no idea it was put together by the same guy that did the '69 Woodstock. My only criticism is that I wished they showed more music. I don't think they even mentioned that Metallica closed the Saturday night shows. I wanted more so I also watched the hbo documentary which I would rate behind this.
D.B. Cooper: Where Are You?! (2022)
First 30 minutes are good and then devolves into tabloid journalism
I had not actually heard of DB Cooper. It's a pretty great story. That is what is covered in the first episode. The rest of the series (in fairness I quit after episode 3 because it was so bad) is mostly just this completely untrustworthy guy trying to convince us that a particular suspect is DB Cooper. I didn't hear one compelling piece of evidence. To begin with the suspect was described as being in his mid forties whereas this guy was 28 when the hijacking occurred. The head of the questionable investigation team used to work for hard copy. Enough said. I would recommend the first 30 minutes and that is it. Netflix will not be making a comeback releasing this type of tripe.