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Henry Fonda for President (2024)
A complex memorial for one of the Hollywood greats.
Probably the best film I've seen at the 74. Berlinale, definitely the most interesting. It was made by Alexander Horwath, the former director of the Austrian Film Museum among other things, and you can see his expertise of cinema history in every minute of this essay. However, Henry Fonda for President isn't limited to the history of film, it connects the life of Henry Fonda and his movies with the history of the USA in a congenial way, from the 16th century until today.
Horwath said in the interview that his first version was 6+ hours long, but he and his editor and cameraman Michael Palm condensed it really efficiently, the film takes its time for every Fonda movie but never gets boring despite its three hours runtime.
The Creator (2023)
Moments of brilliance are foiled by pacing and plot issues
First of all, the studio deserves praise for greenlighting a high budget SciFi movie without a large franchise behind it, a rare occurence these days. And what we got is solid, but not without flaws.
The movie is strongest as a condemnation of american interventionalism and in this aspect comparable to Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Also the visuals and especially the art design is stunning.
However, despite being about a conflict with AI, the movie isn't interested in exploring human-AI relations or SciFi concepts in general. There are only hints to interesting stories, like the ex-soldier and his android wife, but the movie has no time for that and jumpes to the next location. Especially in the second half the pacing is a problem, it feels very rushed which, together with many plot holes and clichés, definitely spoils the viewing experience.
I got the impression that this probably should've been a game rather than a movie. The interesting world, the diverse locations and the high proportion of action scenes would be well-suited for a Deus Ex style game while the script issues would be less severe when the player controls the pace and what he/she is interested in.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: All Those Who Wander (2022)
By far the worst episode of the first season
So we finally meet the Gorn and the result is a total disaster both for the crew, but also for the audience.
To start with the obvious: the audacious Alien rip-off. Nothing wrong with taking some inspiration from other SciFi franchises, but this one to one copy just hurts. And with the higher technology level of Star Trek, the Gorn have to be ridiculously overpowered. Like invisible to sensors, super intelligent, seemingly invulnerable to weapon fire and whatnot. Also the super-short growth. Like seriously, where is all that mass coming from? This is Star Trek, have at least some plausibility.
Then there are the deaths of the crew members. Of course we can't kill anonymous red shirts anymore, that would be so 1960. So now we kill the blue and yellow shirts. And not anonymous, that goes without saying. We introduced them a few minutes earlier for that precious audience attachment. And how they die! Killed off in seconds by some hand-sized lizard displayed in such a vague way that preferably nobody notices how ridiculous this is.
There are a few bright moments. The first view on the crashed ship, the encounter with the alien and the girl (that's not how linguistics work), Spocks rage mode. But that is not nearly enough to save this episode.
So all in all, the only bad episode in an otherwise really good first season. Let's just hope the Gorn are killed off-screen in a future episode so we never have to deal with these storytelling abominations again.
Killing Eve (2018)
Entertaining with tone problems
Decent spy series. Especially the female view on the genre feels very refreshing. However, the contrast between the often light tone and witty dialog on the one side and multiple explicit murders each episode on the other side is way too harsh and, in the end, kept me from continue watching.
Severance (2022)
So far the best show of 2022
Severance starts a bit slow, like a promising, but a bit too long Black Mirror episode. However, the innovative scenario, great visual style and some of the best cliffhangers I've ever seen let you keep watching and it rewards you with the best season finale in recent memory.