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Reviews
Jacqueline Novak: Get on Your Knees (2024)
Be prepared for a comedy sprint
This is comedy genius. I can barely describe it. The pacing is dazzling and you need to try to keep up with it. But you get this from the beginning - this must be the way an airplane would speed up along the runway to take off. And it does take off! Bold, poetic, hilarious, this stand up comedy show reaches literary heights that must have made many comedians jealous of this incredible, inexhaustible talent that moves incessantly across the stage leaving you breathless at the end, and unable to believe what you just saw. Unbelievable heights of intelligence! I recommend you watch this with all my heart. But be prepared Jacqueline will have you going for the sprint.
Stranger Things (2016)
Goonies meets Alien
"Stranger things" is essentially "Goonies" meets "Alien". A fine blend of adventure and horror, with an 80s retro vibe that immerses you in a completely believable world. It undoubtedly engrosses anyone who sits down to watch. The direction is excellent and the performances, especially the ones from the young cast, will surprise you.
As everyone will tell you, there is a cast of extremely talented young boys at the center of the plot, but Millie Bobby Brown as "Eleven" is a revelation - a young Sigourney Weaver that fights an equally terrifying "Alien". Millie has everyone out there ranting and raving about her, and deservedly so. It seems "Stranger Things" is going to be remembered in the future as the pedestal for the launching of her career as a major star. Millie approaches a very difficult and demanding role, that's stripped down verbally and has to be essentially performed using body language, with the maturity of a much older actress.
The only problem with "Stranger Things", honestly, is, how the next season or seasons will be able to live up to the audience's elevated expectations! "Stranger Things" has set the bar very high for its own good. Here is to hoping the Duffer Brothers know what they are doing and they will not disappoint!
The Leftovers (2014)
HBO's new miracle
ZERO SPOILERS!
I am pretty difficult when it comes to TV series. I like dark ("Dexter", "Breaking Bad") but dark pop, not so much ("American Horror Story"). I can watch "The Strain", and "Hemlock Grove", "True Blood" and "True Detective", but please, none of that "Vampire Diaries" stuff or "Pretty Little Liars".
"The Leftovers" intrigued me enough in the first few episodes, to want to watch more. And this is saying something, as I often drop series I do not particularly enjoy.
Yesterday I watched episode 9 of the first season, of "The Leftovers" and oh, my, my! I am glad I had the patience and the insight to go that far. This is some serious television-making, people. It's mysterious, and deep, and it's totally worth your time. Whoever misses this will soon be sorry :)
That was my zero spoilers review.
Hail to the new chief! ;)
Guiness (2009)
A down and out gambler goes after a buried treasure of gold
Alexis Kardaras directs "Guiness" with the help of the veteran Nikos Panayotopoulos on the script- yet it's the direction that wins the audience, and not the writing. "Guiness" has a somewhat simplistic plot with no impressive twists and turns, and it is almost entirely predictable. However, we can easily take a keen interest on the characters: especially the "Policeman", played expertly by Antonis Kafetzopoulos- here you can see this creative bond between the two men (Kardaras & Kafetzopoulos) expanding, a bond that flourished with "Plato's Academy" (2009) later; and you can trace the roots of this bond that can be found back to "I Gynaika einai Skliros Anthropos" (2005) and "I listeia" (1999). All in all a film you can easily watch and spend a pleasant 1 hr. & 1/2 with.
Gone Baby Gone (2007)
Affleck's performance is emotionless
Watching "Gone baby Gone" when into the first hour, you wonder "what's there left to say". And then the story takes an unexpected turn. And then another one. And you sort of realize why this film was nominated when Amy Ryan delivers.
That being said, I wasn't charmed at all by Casey Affleck's performance.I wonder how the hell he won a Prism award for it. I thought he was expression-less 100% of the time, he wouldn't so much as raise an eyebrow, and I don't understand why all the fuss about him in the first place. Maybe I am biased for not liking his brother Ben one bit (*giggles*) but really, people, I think Ben is a much better writer/film-maker than an actor and for that matter, both brothers are equally shallow and conceited as such.
I think there are more like me out there, who had their eyes open during the performance of Casey Affleck in this film and could tell the difference between a good story and a good performance.
That being said... If you can ignore (or better, like) Affleck... this is a film you shouldn't miss. It poses a serious ethical question on parenting and it gives also a pretty deep look on an urban society and an insight into the way of living of the people who are less privileged and often involved in drugs ...despite their poverty-- or just because of it...