Netflix’s Enola Holmes is a Young-Adult Take on the Sherlock Mythos, Anchored by a Fun Lead Performance
Enola Holmes isn’t out to reinvent cinema. Set against a backdrop of Victorian patriarchy, it often raises questions about women’s changing role in society, especially as key characters are involved in the suffragette movement. However, the film isn’t nearly as…
The Devil All The Time Explores Relentless Generational Trauma, Set in the American Rural Heartland
The ugliness inherent in The Devil All The Time’s world is inescapable. It seeps into the rural heartland where the story takes place, infecting all characters, warping their minds and twisting their hopes, robbing them of compassion and sincerity. Adapted…
Disney’s Mulan is Beautiful (and Action-Packed), but its Message is Problematic
Disney, it appears, just cannot do right when it comes to remakes. No one would accuse the remakes released so far to be great, though some of them, such as Maleficent, attempt going off the beaten path. In case of…
Christopher Nolan’s Tenet is a Sleekly-Produced Action Blockbuster with a Dense Plot (and High Concept Gimmicks)
Tenet is one of those movies that will either frustrate you or delight you, especially if you’re a Christopher Nolan fan. It’s the love child of Nolan’s yearning to do a Bond film and his eagerness to dive deep into…
Project Power is a Run-of-the-Mill Action Film with Strong Performances (and a Unique Premise)
Project Power is one of those films that start to fade from your memory minutes after you have finished watching it. It’s not that it’s a bad film- rather, it’s an aggressively okay film. It takes a good premise and…
Doom Patrol is as Surreal and Introspective as Ever in Second Season
Doom Patrol is one of those shows that stays with you for a while. Surreal, heartfelt and delightfully dysfunctional, the show returns for a strong second season that is still as absurd as ever, while furthering the narratives of the…
Umbrella Academy Finds it Footing in a Strong Season Two, Marrying Comic Book Weirdness to a Fun Family Dynamic
In season two, Umbrella Academy essentially remixes the show, tasking the Hargreaves to once again to prevent a potential apocalypse, this time in the 1960s. While there is a danger of repetition in pursuing such a narrative, the show builds…
Raat Akeli Hai is a Tense, Well-Paced Murder Mystery That Earns its Runtime
Raat Akeli Hai opens with a man ruthlessly murdering a woman and her driver, driving their corpses to a tannery and melting their bodies down to the ground. You might expect the narrative to expand on this immediately, but the…
Cursed Reimagines Arthurian Legend, Struggles to Find its Voice in First Season
Cursed reorients the traditional Arthurian legend with more modern, YA sensibilities. It’s both a prequel and a reimagining, taking place during the reign of Uther Pendragon, as the future Lady of the Lake, Nimue (Katherine Langford) is sent on a…
The Old Guard Offers a Fresh Take on the Superhero Genre, Balancing Kinetic Action with Robust Characterization
Netflix’s The Old Guard is a good example of high concept movies done right. Although recent attempts such as The Gemini Man have fallen short, The Old Guard manages to build and deliver a narrative around the story’s central premise,…
