AMOUR, Michael Haneke’s merciless examination of love and passion is an unconventional moral transcendence with underlying philosophical implications and ethical confrontations.
AMOUR’s narrative, undoubtedly its most controversial facet, is a multidimensional analysis which aggressively explores the certainties of age, failure, and the consequences of radical love. This intensely nerve-wracking exploration is permanently escorted with a ceaseless and an undying sensation of doubt and relief.
Anne and Georges, AMOUR’s main characters, were perfectly transcribed to reflect the narrative’s inner conflicts. In other words, the complexities of this film’s confrontational narrative boldly describe its main personas, whom each was bursting with interiorized fear and unspeakable reactions.
Jean-Louis Trintignant and the late Emmanuelle Riva, the real faces behind AMOUR’s characters, delivered shattering and devastating performances, rich in subtle gestures and expressive detail. The amount of emotional power they both exuded was simply breathtaking.
AMOUR is an ethical anecdote that unfolds with a seemingly unproblematic grace. The objective cinematography and the minimalistic score which were erupting with affection and agony keeps us visually involved despite the film’s controlled setting. A setting which clearly illustrates the character’s own physical limitations, thus creating an absorbingly motionless atmosphere, stitched with metaphors and existential dread.
AMOUR is a cerebral and an emotional labyrinth with so much fluidity and motion. It is an unnerving experience that has the ability to change a viewer’s perception on Love and affection.
With a riveting storyline that keeps you guessing until the very end, Netflix ‘I CARE A LOT’ is The crime thriller you don’t want to miss!
Starting with a relatively ambiguous sense of direction, I CARE A LOT’s plot quickly upped its gear and gave us everything we were anticipating: A mixture of sociopathic characters, an endearing narrative and an intensely increasing pace.
It is easy, when it comes to crime thrillers, to loose focus and fall into this genre’s tremendously overused traps, But I CARE A LOT’s narrative knew how to elevate itself from these childish schemes and bring out the best of what this category has to offer. Intrigue, drama, and murder are its holy trinity and Rosamund Pike is their mater.
Alongside an enchanting narrative, I CARE A LOT also made sure to perfect its character study and development. Using reverse psychology techniques and a bit of sociopathy, this film’s characters were sickening yet captivating.
Rosamund Pike, with the lead role, masterfully channeled her inner “Gone Girl”. Her deranged performance and embodiment of ‘Marla Grayson’ can be best described as a world act. Eiza Gonzalez and Peter Dinklage’s performances were also really attractive.
But if we were to talk honestly, This Film could’ve acquired the perfect score only if the cinematography was a tad more sophisticated.
Don’t get me wrong, I CARE A LOT is a fascinating and a highly suspenseful experience with all of its components perfectly merged, but its overall ambiance could’ve been a slightly more engaging only if it presented some over-the-top and unique camera movements that matches its unpredictable plot.
Nevertheless, I CARE A LOT, Netflix’s almost-perfect crime thriller is an entertaining act that will leave you satisfied and shocked!
Director: J Blakeson
Screenplay: J Blakeson
Producers: J Blakeson, Teddy Schwarzman, Ben Stillman, Michael Heimler
Ryan Murphy’s “POSE”, the revolutionary and self-aware dramedy, is an era-defining creation that pays tribute to the bold and courageous trans pioneers of the 80s and the previously disregarded world of underground ballroom.
POSE is the type of shows which transport its viewers into the engulfing universe of that of its characters. Spectators will find themselves very invested and being drawn by its sensible and exceedingly conscious script. It’s over-packed and truthfully complicated narrative covers difficult topics, like AIDS and the trials of transitioning, with a vulnerable bluntness, yet it also has a sort of softness that can be vastly heartening and essential.
Alongside the complexities and the difficulties of such a script, or said narrative, numerous characters emerge into action. Impassioned, ambitious, and bold are what I would use to describe POSE’s highly inspiring and, at the same, gut wrenching characters. Each one of them comes along with a heavy baggage of ordeals and aspirations, and together they form what we now know as the best aspect of this lavishly exhilarating piece of television.
Leading a huge cast of absolute fierce performers, MJ Rodriguez and Indya Moore are a force to be reckoned with. Both of their faithful representation and embodiment of their onscreen personas was jaw-dropping and just oozed authenticity and pure charisma. Dominique Jackson and Billy Porter, alongside the rest of cast, also brought so much essence and truth while performing and it was nothing less than fascinating and empowering.
POSE is a celebration of life over death, it’s a triumphant experience of style and substances which radiates pride in its every dance move, upbeat score, pose and ballroom category. It’s soap-like ambiance is filled with a cozy retro tone and a warm color pallette, bedazzled by bewitching camera techniques and moves that cast a hypnotic spell on all those who dare to watch.
This show knows how to keep things alive and mesmerizing. The gorgeously colorful and enviously fit wardrobe and the out of the box mugs that POSE presented are the perfect representation to the designated Era and overall theme.
POSE is an unapologetically honest show and that masterfully reflects in each one of its many elements.
Writers: Ryan Murphy, Janet Mock, Brad Falchuk, Our Lady J, Steven Canals, Todd Kubrak
Awards: Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series…
Nominations: Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series…
Sewn together with an unholy fusion of supernatural surrealism and spiritual desperation, Saint Maud is a jaw-droppingly and a twistedly disturbing character-study uncovering that cannot be defined within its genre’s overused limitations.
Exploring the wide themes of loneliness and desperation, Saint Maud can best be described as a morbid exploration of faith and blind devotion. It’s narrative, serving as a juxtaposition of two main points of views, sets off a seismic shift in its viewers’ experience.
Its intensity, bordering between obsession and torment, slowly crafted an absorbing sense of dread that mirrored Saint Maud’s highly perplexing characters and said narrative. While Maud’s backstory is mostly obscured, Director Rose Glass still made sure that each of her two leads had some sort of emotional depth. In other words, Saint Maud’s characters are highly disturbing and lonely pieces of literature.
Morfydd Clark and Jennifer Ehle obsessively embodied both of their characters. The film’s fluid visual sensibility boosted these two’s brilliant and monumental performances and, though unintentional, created a very physical, and orgasmic corporal experience that transcends words and expectations.
Saint Maud’s ambiance of religious ecstasy, the ever-dark color palette and morosely intimate tone is a psychologically appalling experience that will indirectly innerve its viewers and set itself to be an instant success.
With a minimalistic framework and a passion-fueled dialog, Netflix’s Malcolm & Marie is an emotional rollercoaster bursting with monotonous monologues and stunning Black and white, clean cut photography.
In theory, Malcolm & Marie is an instant hit. It looks good, feels good and has a somewhat sensible story with hidden layers ready to be explored. But when you peel this embellished skin-deep coating, a shallow, unidimensional narrative with exaggerated reactions is found in its place. Hollowing and festering, slowly infecting its decorated exterior and ruining its picture-perfect reputation.
Don’t get me wrong, because in spite of all of these missteps or “unintentional” mistakes, this film is still a saturated experience that some might enjoy. But let’s not kid ourselves, because even though for some reason this film is generating tons of Oscar Buzz, it only had a couple of good components working on its behalf.
For starters, Zendaya and John David Washington truly embodied the spirit of the titular characters. They both existed on polar opposites, yet they merged into one dysfunctional rhythm that bled authenticity and star quality. They conveyed an unsettling amount of discomfort and familiarity that they both lost themselves, fully, in an attempt to lavishly rekindle the lost flame of the film’s extinguished narrative.
Moving on, Malcolm & Marie’s bi-colored themes and minimalistic aesthetic aided in creating a substantially charged atmosphere where each glare, each body movement and each wavering tone implied a darker truth than the one we were excruciatingly blinded to see.
With its heart in the right place, Malcolm & Marie is an eye-gasmic feature that will stimulate your senses with its artificially approachable appeal, yet it will leave you slightly dissatisfied with its black hole of a narrative.
Communicating with an infinite intensity that matches the sensibility of Dolan’s daring devotion to cinematic extremes, Tom à la Ferme is a lingering psychosexual thriller that exudes kinky intimacy and internalized aggression.
Tom à la Ferme’s narrative can be best described as an active piece of poetry. With its spiraling tension and underlaying sadomasochism that keeps lurking and hiding behind indistinct yet detailed nuances and a perilous and a homoerotic character study, Tom at the Farm’s story is, first and foremost, a display of masculinity, violence and sexual power.
Dolan formulates a shameless portrait of a sadomasochistic allure between the two main characters. It is an ever-ending dusky dance of violence and sex, oozing with fear and desire, simultaneously. Xavier Dolan and Pierre-Yves Cardinal intuitively captured the essence of each of their personas. Both of their performances were rivetingly captivating and compellingly disturbing.
Tom à la Ferme’s haunting orchestral music and low-contrast cinematography created a toxic, sexually charged atmosphere that blended so effortlessly with its homo-seductive narrative and morbidly surreal sceneries. This penetrating ambiance conveyed a moody and an intense sensation of arousal, both mental and sexual.
Undeniably one of Dolan’s best works to date, Tom à la Ferme, this fundamentally sexual and violent creation with subverted energies is a wet nightmare of jealousy, love and dominance.
Flawlessly labeled as a millennial telenovela, La casa de Las Flores is an over-the-top and an equally humorous Netflix creation with an incomparable cinematography and a conceptual aesthetic.
Pushing the limits of obsolete telenovelas constructs, The House of Flowers’ radical narrative and profoundly complex storylines, unquestionably mirrors the show’s diverse and authentic essence when it comes to some of the world’s most persistent and talked about topics such as gender, class, and sexuality.
It is a modernized dramedy, with its heart always in the right place and with a seamless balance between the serious and the absurd, that seized classic social issues and presented them in a new and an engaging manner that speaks to multiple generations at once.
In face of its many-sided narrative, La Casa de Las Flores also presented, across 3 seasons, several diverse characters, each with its individual complex reality and storyline. While some of these characters were forgotten and left with minimal character development, others specifically the main cast was treated with complete attentiveness and validity.
These pragmatic and sometimes challenging personas were resourcefully portrayed by some of Mexico’s best. Veronica Castro, Cecilia Suarez, Dario Yazbek Bernal, and Aislinn Derbez, amongst many more, delivered unconditionally heartening and epically conclusive performances. All notably award-worthy!!
Not to forget, this show, with its accurately custom-made costumes and set designs when combined with its ear-gasmic soundtrack and thorough camera techniques, shaped an inimitable and unusual aesthetic that has the ability to consume each spectator!!
La Casa de Las Flores is a spectacularly designed escapade that one should experience in its all full magnificence and grandeur.
An exposé of Sex, violence and mass dread, Noé’s “Climax” is a 96-minute hallucinatory odyssey that shamelessly illustrates the precise sensation of descend into delirium and paranoia.
Climax is everything that you would want in a Gaspar Noé’s production. Its one-of-a-kind and practically nonexistent signature narrative, all impulsive and unrestricted, was masterfully synchronized with memorable and impromptu choreography and a bold and ambitious cinematography. This harmonious mixture created a compelling and a hallucinatory ambiance bursting with penetrating and artistically violent nuances.
In other words, Climax, with its hypnotic beats and psychedelic camera arrangements, is a madness-inducing creation, dangerously overcome with terror, suspicion and controversy that will test your man-made boundaries of endurance and then take you to new uncharted extremes.
One of this film’s most prominent elements is indisputably its deranged and multifaceted characters whom each was marching to the beat of its own drum. They were gradually being encapsulated in a disorienting haze of collective delirium and drug-induced frenzy. Each restless persona was disturbingly embodied by a cast of total newcomers whom bared it all and delivered, otherworldly, controversial manifestations.
Climax, with its chaotic and open for interpretations narrative, its magnificently choreographed and amazingly well-shot dance routines and underlying rhythmic uncertainty is a shared mind-altering ordeal worthy of your attention.
An early-19th-century Gossip Girl wannabe, Bridgerton Is an Intoxicatingly pleasing period piece of Desire and True Love.
This eight-episode escapist drama, each with its own rhythm, shape and glistening momentum, unknowingly emerged from the monotonous depths of the regency-era soap operas and naturally juggled varied plot thread simultaneously.
With an enchanting plot, magnetic and easy to root for romances and vastly intimate sex scenes, Bridgerton’s not-so-secret three-layered weapon shaped an unrestricted realm of delicate sensibilities and compelling feelings.
Bridgerton was dazzlingly brought to life by an outstanding cast of actors. Phoebe Dynevor and Regé-Jean Page, Bridgerton’s stellar leads, excellently bared it all in their effort to faultlessly personify both of their tremendously complex characters. The entire ensemble wrestled to deliver unsolicited vulnerability and dare I say craziness to each of their roles and the end result was nothing short of genius and fascinating.
Since the Netflix hit has a diverting essence, it spectacularly departed from the standardized casting of most period dramas. In fact, It’s diverse casting, one of its most prominent assets, offered an escape from old-fashioned ethnic perceptions. In other words, Bridgerton is a modern reimagining of 19th century stereotypes but with a modern twist with ‘black’ royalty and aristocrats.
The show’s brilliant classical arrangements of pop songs, colorful set of costumes and sceneries, and audacious camera techniques and procedures assisted in fashioning a cerebral and heart pounding experience that can only be labeled as stimulating and simply glowing.
Bridgerton, Shonda Rhimes’ latest epic creation, is a joyous and a frivolous present that each spectator will most certainly devour with absolute excitement and eagerness.
With a rather unsatisfactory conclusion, the final installment of the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina turned out to be a wildly disappointing one and, in many cases, deeply frustrating.
In a series full of enchantment that made occasionally logic-defying decisions, CAOS’ final season surrenders into a poorly-paced knot of events that leaves too many plot threads dangling. The show’s ‘epic’ conclusion struggled to settle every story cohesively leaving behind plenty of unexploited openings that could have eventually made for an improved and a more substantial ending.
There’s plenty to love about Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’s final season, specifically for the devotees who have been invested from the beginning. Regrettably, these positives get scrambled by the season’s poor pacing and inexplicable tonal alterations.
Ensuring that we get a shocking conclusion, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s one hell of a last hoorah laced with magic-fueled subplots and momentous character growth aided in generating a dominantly dark and gripping atmosphere that fits naturally with COAS signature ambiance.
Netflix’ state of the art cinematography and graphics when unified with the ensemble’s captivating routines excessively raised the show’s generally unsatisfying intensity and unwavering magnitude. Kiernan Shipka, Miranda Otto and Michelle Gomez were spellbindingly enchanting and delightful. Some might even say they were, once and for all, the unabashed embodiment of the show’s unholy trinity.
After several seasons of excelling at setting up stories early on that lead to major revelations filled with magic and mayhem, the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’s last season ended its streak of inexplicable madness on a cheap and hollowed note, leaving its viewers desperate for a more satisfying ending.