Reviews

I decided to try this after watching doctor who special and since a lot of people I know told me it's a nice series and not just about teens. I have to say, I wished this came out when I was a teen. Season 1, 2 and 3 are a 9. Sure, there's some things I wasn't thrilled, like all the issues from lack of communication that could be easily avoided and dragging on their relation without ever finalizing it or at least be done with it. So I had expectations to close stories for season 4. I don't know what they were thinking! I hate people that accuse programs of being woke, it's a term that really annoys me cause it's usually just racist and homophobic people using it. So I don't want to go there. But I don't understand why they did what they did. They had a cast of amazing and funny characters, with stories we cared about, in a familiar location and able to be both funny and deep. As a teen, I wished there was such a series, so accepting of sex as a positive force, and with so many queer characters or with weird sexual tastes, showing that the world is beautiful in its variety. Then they just decided to disregard all this and come up with a location that is just completely fake and far away from anyone's life, and not only that, they eliminated all beloved characters. Maybe what annoyed me the most is what they did with Jakob and Ola. They just disappeared after they were a family, just like that. I felt insulted as a viewer, and for no reason at all. Same goes for Lily, she was one of the most interesting characters and she's just gone with no mention again. And what did they do with Otis and Maeve? If you make people wait disappointedly 3 seasons, without them being really together or friends for so long, at least do something interesting with the characters. Instead, Maeve has a completely different story, disconnected from the others, and same goes for the most interesting story left, the Graff family. I really don't understand Netflix. They are producing mostly bad things, and trying really hard to ruin the successful shows they already have. They could have easily made something nice, with students doing something like joining together to promote a sex positive school and having new students coming there, with new investors and one of the two amazing teachers as head teacher, and then give a closing. I really don't think there is another series that went down so bad with no reason at all, consciously choosing to make something bad and insulting the viewers. I still decide to give 7 because overall I would give 9 to the first 3 seasons, but season 4 is so so bad that is a clear 0.

Even though it's filmed where I live, I waited a long time to watch this because I usually don't like romantic movies. I have to say it surprised me. Someone would say it's really slow and nothing really happens, but I found it a movie full of heart and care for details. The love story is finally a credible one, where people have quirks and a natural way to get close. It's rare to see a movie where a love story and dialogues don't seem artificial. In every detail you can see that the director and everyone involved wanted to create something special. There is a scene in which they wake up at dawn with an open window, and you can hear exactly what I hear from my window at dawn, the cuckoo and the bells and the light, that made me feel so nostalgic and so immersed in the rainy atmosphere that it was like being there. The speech at the end by Elio's father is beautiful too. It's not rhetoric or banal like most movies do these things when they want to be dramatic, it's absolutely moving and smart and exactly what an amazing parent should be. The delicate love of the parents is one of the nicest ever seen in movies, a true model for every parent out there. The only thing I can say, is that Armie hammer looks a bit too old for 24, I would have preferred a younger-looking actor, but then everything is so well made you don't notice it anymore. Timothee chalamet is sensational in this one, my favorite performance from him till now. For the people saying that everyone can make a nice picture with Italy, maybe it's true, but as someone from here I want to say that most of the movies set in Italy completely miss the atmosphere, making everything seem artificial and fake. Mind you, this happens with many if not most Italian movies too. Not in this one, everything is special because it feels so real and exactly the atmosphere of summer around here.

Ozark must be one of the most disappointing series I've watched in a long time. Such a great potential but wasted. Some of the characters, like the narcissist evil Wendy, Ruth, Darlene and Ben, are between the best characters written in the last years. Unfortunately, the script is disappointing. I was disappointed by the ending, especially by trying to find a redeeming quality to the narcissist Wendy, but the last episode only reflects different disappointments along the way. While there are amazing parts in the series, overall I found too many plots left alone, too many plots that don't make any sense and are a farce, made only to have the Byrde family keep going. I mean, why are the Byrdes still alive? Why are the Mexican cartel characters so cartoonishly stereotypes (I don't mind that many series were inspired by Breaking Bad, but the Salamanca and all the cartel characters in BB were amazingly written, here they are cardboard stereotypes)? Why does the cartel seem interested in make life harder to people that are earning them money with senseless acts of violence against their own interest? Why wasn't the evil Wendy killed at the end and why did they try to make her a sympathetic character when she clearly is a perfectly constructed narcissist that doesn't mind putting in danger everyone around her as long as she gets power? What was the whole mess with the fbi? Why nobody is ever investigated for crimes? Why do some people do extremely stupid things just so the Byrdes survive? Why does the detective at the end even confront them when he could just denounce them and get them arrested? Why did they even introduce some characters like the Kansas City mafia or others that just disappear and aren't talked about again or put in a corner? Why didn't they keep the Langmores, the Snells longer and instead introduced blander characters along the way? Why even make a nice arch of the Byrde son understanding how dangerous are his parents if you have to cancel all of that in one badly written episode? Why did Ruth trust the Byrdes again?

I don't love mafia shows, but a lot of people suggested me this and so I gave it a try. The first season is really nice, I loved the industrial atmosphere, the political intricacies between workers, communists, mafia, ira and government. The problem is that it only goes downhill from there. In the first season, interesting characters were introduced, including strong female characters like aunt Polly or Ada or Esme and the amazing Freddie Thorne. I had expectations of more action and plots that would show more of the struggles of people in Birmingham, the IRA and Ireland, the communists and the government, and I had expectations that the characters would be developed further. I even liked the rock modern music, I think it fits. But I was wrong. From season 2 and onward, the stories are more and more absurd, with plots that seem taken from a soap opera and where half of the time is spent to show the love troubles of Tommy. It seemed like someone else was writing the show. The women in the show are absolutely underdeveloped. Ada is taken away because they don't know what to do with a strong woman; aunt Polly is relegated in idiotic plots with a really forced rape and things that regard almost solely "heart"; Freddie Thorne, that created the connection with the interesting world of the social struggles of poor people, is gone; even Grace, that wasn't my favorite but had character and her own goals, becomes just an obedient wife with nothing of the character she had in season 1. From that moment on, all female characters are sidelined or used only to show how obedient they are with Tommy, because everyone falls in love with him, but with no real substance apart from that. There are other characters as well that are interesting but they don't get developed, like John. The only new introduction I like is Tom Hardy, because he's such an amazing actor, but I would have loved to see more of Birmingham business instead of going to useless stories with Italians or Russians, that add absolutely nothing apart more blood and more sex for Tommy. But the moment I decided that this show is really bad is when they introduced a real life woman and heroine, Jessie eden. If I were her family I would be so pissed. So now we have a real life political leader, that fought all her life against exactly what Tommy and the rich class stood for, trying to get better conditions for workers and women, and what they do is show her falling in love for him, telling him secrets of the communist party, voting for him instead of the communist leader, just because he's so irresistible? In this moment they showed the true colors of the show. They don't care about history or women, because women exist only to please the alpha man. Absolutely unacceptable and a missed opportunity to create a beautiful character from a real life woman. It's not only the sexism that annoys me, it's like from season 3 and maybe season 2 the main force driving the show is drama between Tommy and various women. It's cheap writing and takes away from more interesting plots that could have been developed, and it made me feel like I was watching a soap opera at times. A real shame.

I've just watched the movie and I'm not sure how to interpret it, but if I should guess it all revolves around the words of Fred when police visits home and he says that he likes to remember things his own way, how he remembers them and not necessarily the way they happened. It struck me immediately as a weird and important thing to say, in a movie in which the conversations are usually short and mysterious, with some kind of impossibility to communicate between characters. I believe the whole movie could be the distorted memory of a man that killed his wife for jealousy and created an alternate reality that lead him to madness and that tries to take away the sense of guilt from himself, directing it towards the mysterious man and blaming more and more his dead wife. There are other things that in my opinion go in this direction since the beginning, starting from the surreal representation of Renee, the way she behaves and talks, like if she's intimidated by Fred and the clear lack of communication between the two. As I saw it, but I could be completely mistaken, it seems like a memory distorted in Fred's mind, in which he believes he had good reasons to be jealous and controlling towards his wife, and at the same time small particulars creep out, like the weird communication between them, the lack of physical contact, the way she seems intimidated and evasive. She struck me as an image created in his mind more than the wife herself. I know it seems like a stupid particular, but why would she wear high heels all the time and behave like if she is a stranger in her own house and with her own husband? Again, the development of the story, with Alice/Renee becoming more and more sexual, distant and evil is in my opinion a creation of his mind, his obsession towards her, his image of her and a way of his conscience to relive itself blaming her. When Renee and Fred leave the party at Andy's, she says she met him through a job but that she doesn't remember what job. In that scene, Fred isn't satisfied with the answer and is clearly jealous about the whole situation, in the night that later leads to her supposed murder. Overall it's a really nice movie and I believe we need more movies like this, surreal and with different interpretations. The scene when he meets the mysterious man at the party and silence falls around them is beautiful and scary at the same time. The only thing I found a bit disturbing was the representation of women in this movie. I know it can be interpreted as a way in which Fred himself sees women, but I still found them quite dull and stereotypical.

Since I watched it at the cinema many years ago, this is one of my favorite movies. I couldn't stop watching it from beginning to end and it's one of the only movies I like to rewatch. The story is complex and multilayered, but the philosophical implications are extremely well represented. It makes you think and analyze the realm of dreams and still is a beautiful action movie. I don't like romantic movies, but the love story between Cobb and his wife is the most heartbreaking and beautiful ever told. The way it develops, the many years they spend alone in the world of dreams and the tragic end are amazing. The scene when Cobb meets Mr Saito after so many years is so interesting. I love the class touch of Edith Piaf as well. The end as well is pure genius, leaving the viewer to decide the end, if everything is a dream or not. Simply amazing!

Let's start by saying I usually don't like tv series and that it took me years before I decided to watch it after I stopped after half of season 1 thinking it was too slow. This is truly a masterpiece. It doesn't fall in the category of most of tv series, that are dragged on without a real plot as long and possible, and I absolutely love it is as long as it was intended to be. The images are amazing and truly art. The music is just wonderful and made me discover absolute masterpieces from all around the world that fits 100% with the movie, like the stunning Quimey Neuquén. I adore that all actors are comedians playing a more "tragic" role. The psychological development is crazy and the acting quality is one of the best I've ever seen. Another thing that I loved about the actors is that they actually look and behave like normal people. After BB I couldn't watch other movies or series without thinking how much they were too beautiful or too constructed to be people you'd actually meet in real life. At the beginning I wasn't convinced by the fact that BB is slow at times, but after some time I grew to love that because it helps to understand better the psychology of each character and because it's like how things develop in real life, sometimes slowly and sometimes fast. The only part I didn't appreciate was the end of Mike. Knowing the character, I don't think he would have let himself die like that. I really hope the director will try a new story after BCS.

I liked a lot the beautiful landscapes shown in the movie, the powerful and indifferent nature. I liked the representation of native Americans, the different languages used in the movie (I want to believe they were accurate) and showing cultural things like prayers and methods they had and used, like the shelter built by Hikuc and the scene in which they eat bison together. DiCaprio and Thomas Hardy are both amazing actors and the cast in general is really good. It's crazy that Hardy is an Englishman and he has such a credible accent. That said, the movie is a bit too slow for my taste. Plus, There's something I don't like about using a historical character and change what he represents. I understand that it's nice to have a hero that seems to be a bridge with Native Americans and to respect and know their culture well, but with a quick research we know that the real life Glass disliked the native Americans and that the real story didn't go exactly like this. Overall, still a nice movie

Really interesting idea for a tv series and I noticed some care for particulars that I appreciated. I'm not a religious person but I grew up catholic and I appreciated how carefully certain subjects were treated. I'm not sure if her stand on the clash of civilizations was criticized, as I see it yes. My favorite character was Aviram, incredible character and development. I think Eva has more flaws and to be honest I didn't see her doing so much to solve things, I would have appreciated more filming in the Middle East and following what was going on there, in my opinion the best part of the whole series. Some parts in the middle are a bit slow but it's not so bad and it's still interesting. Sometimes I expected more from the Messiah character, some speeches like the one when he walks on water was a bit dull, but overall a really good performance and an interesting point of view. I don't understand the religious people complaining about this, I think it kind of showed the flaws and goods of all parties involved, even though I have to say the Imam taking Samer to the terrorists was a bit too much of a cliche and overall a bit stereotypical. Overall, I can pardon this because other parts were really insightful about the Middle East. I loved when the messiah shows up at the Temple Mount, had a positive speech and supposedly saved the kid from the shooting and the cia tries to hide the videos of this and the cnn edit the videos and describes him as an extremist and an Islamist. I think it was really well made. The beginning of the series is really amazing and the last episode surprised me but that's positive. I really hope that there's another series, but if they do make another one, that it's really worth it. I don't want to see another downfall like homeland, where the first two series are absolutely a 9 or 10/10 (even though the second series starts to show a lot of political bias), and then it just gets really bad on so many levels.

I didn't go further than series 1. The idea is interesting and I appreciate that they try to show both sides and how much senseless hate is destroying people in both sides, but I have to say there are too many things that I didn't like. First of all, the story is really quite predictable. Second, there could be much more action and all the action scenes seem like they are cut or mitigated and nothing big really happen, while at the same time I was quite dissatisfied with the way the series doesn't really manage to get deep in the characters' psychology. Then I really dislike how the two main characters were developed, and for two different reasons. About Abu Ahmad, there isn't a single scene that you are lead to believe he really is the great terrorist they talk about, I understand the concept of representing the leader that is being abandoned and betrayed, but there isn't a single choice that makes him particularly smart or whatever, the only reason why he drags on is Walid. Then the main actor, Lior Raz, I understand he wrote the story as well and that he's representing a character that is really not pleasant, but I really find his acting dull and fastidious. He always has the same face expression and manages to give 0 feelings all through the series. Plus there's no reason at all about why a violent man that keeps messing up things and killing random innocent people, spiraling the situation into violence ALL the time without a reason apart making Palestinians suffer as much as possible and ruining any sensible operation, should be employed by anybody with a bit of sense.

I loved it and I cried. I understand who says it's not realistic, I'm sure life is not so easy for the 99% of the people that leave the orthodox community or 99% of humanity that doesn't have a talent, but sometimes it's nice to see a happy ending and be optimistic about things and about meeting good people in the path of life, plus I love Berlin. I liked how the characters were developed, the internal struggles they had to fight between the attachment to home and the need to discover themselves. The scene of Esty doing things for the first time were really moving and the husband and Moshe characters were really well made. I appreciated the moment when Moshe talked with Esty, I don't know understand who says he's just evil, I think in that moment he showed a bit the internal struggle of Moshe and of any person that doesn't have a particular talent and the experience of getting hurt after leaving his protected environment.

After season 2 it gets ridiculous quite fast. Brody was by far the best character and in season 1 and 2 I even like the depiction of mental illness and the character of Carrie. I like them together and I even like the time spent depicting how Brody's family has issues with the whole new situation and how vets' problems might be not addressed, or like the fact they try to show the failure and the damages provoked by the USA and a policy that doesn't value others' lives. That said, from season 2 more and more biases and research mistakes are apparent, plus a clear rewriting of history to attack what are usa's enemies. Iran and al Qaida? Really? Obviously for someone that doesn't know about the subject it's no problem, but really what comes off this show is that Iran is the main force behind al Qaida, which is clear propaganda. Hamra street and Lebanon depicted like that? Is Carrie the only one with info about things in the whole CIA? Are the others even working? Al Qaida has an ally that is a public figure and possible VP and what they do is send him to get rid of the bomb maker like there's nobody else, while in every other episode it seems like the USA is plenty of terrorists connected with Abu Nazir? And still, I liked season 2 and there are some really beautiful characters like Brody, Saul and Quinn. After that, it's really a laughable show. If they had to come up with so many stupid things to make Brody die, then they'd better kill him before. In series 3 already the whole Saul's plan sounds stupid, like the ultimate plan is to make peace with Iran or for some reason the USA has a coherent position towards the area and Saul believes that, which is not even consistent with the character, pragmatic till that point. But regardless, getting Brody involved just doesn't make any sense. Why would an al Qaida terrorist go to Iran, when they are enemy? Really the USA wouldn't attack an Iran celebrating a terrorist and would Iran make such a stupid move knowing they risk to be attacked and destroyed? And why send Brody in a suicide mission anyway when they already have another CIA asset there? To make sure to screw up everything? Why would Carrie be complicit in this? Doesn't she see how much she's used all through the show by everybody involved? Why would she abandon like this the man she loves for an absurd plan like that? Why does she seem to believe constantly that the CIA or USA gov has some good intentions when it's clearly not the case over and over again? Regardless of liking or not the Brody's family part, they just drop it with no explanation and that doesn't really make sense neither. Then from season 4 Carrie stops even having remorses or whatever humanity towards others, she just expects others to give her attentions and affection while she treats everybody bad and screws up over and over. In conclusion, watch season 1 and 2 and stop there. There's nothing more to see behind that, Carrie should have run away with Brody, by far the best character and the only good person together with Quinn more or less. Or he should have gone forever hiding all life without showing him again. Or they should have killed him in the first place at the end of season 2. Really disappointed about the development of this series.