Rambo: Last Blood is a Gory, Simplistic Action Film that Feels Unnecessary
Rambo: Last Blood ends with an end-credits montage that recaps Rambo’s greatest hits, stretching from First Blood to this latest (and ostensibly last) film. While Rambo has rarely reached the narrative heights set by First Blood, with its first two…
Undone is a Visually-Arresting Narrative about Relationships (and Time Travel)
Undone is a new eight-part animated series created by Raphael Bob-Waksberg (Bojack Horseman) and Kate Purdy. The only familiarity it shares with Bojack is the way it deals with mental illnesses. Stylistically, it has more in common with Waking Life…
Carnival Row Falls Short of Tapping into the Full Potential of its Rich Fantasy World
In a post Game of Thrones world, producers are rushing to fill the void left by the cultural phenomenon. Amazon, for instance, is working on both a Lord of the Rings and a Wheel of Time adaptation. While these will…
Booksmart is a Newer, Smarter Kind of Teen Movie (with a Ton of Heart)
Booksmart is the directorial debut of Olivia Wilde and, if I were to speak for myself then, she nails it. After years of working in front of the camera, she leaps behind the camera to tell an effortless story of…
Mindhunter Season 2 is Mostly Solid, Delving Deep into a Complex Murder Investigation
When Mindhunter debuted in 2017, it quickly picked up steam, partly due to its superstar creator, David Fincher, and partly because it arrived right at a time when people were fascinated by true crime stories. The show stood out because…
Sacred Games 2 Tells a More Complex Story of Ominous Spirituality, Nuclear Terrorism and International Violence
The last time we saw Sacred Games, police officer Sartaj Singh had just learned about an impending nuclear threat that threatened all of Mumbai. The second season sees Sartaj (Said Ali Khan) hunting for the bomb, and also catches up…
Euphoria is a Dark, Gritty Take on Gen Z Teens That Aims to Shock (and Impress)
It’s difficult to talk about Euphoria without noting its inherently alarmist nature. Yes, it provides a stark window into the lives of a group of teens, each flawed and messed up in one or several ways, making their lives even more…
Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood is a Fairy Tale Tribute to Tinseltown (and the Loss of Innocence)
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood is Quentin Tarantino’s unabashed love letter to the Hollywood of yesteryears. It’s a meticulous recreation of Hollywood in the 60s, complete with parties at the Playboy Mansion and hippies living in an abandoned movie…
Boyhood: Timelapse Photography of a Human Being
Boyhood is not for everyone. It’s not a quintessential Richard Linklater movie, the way Before trilogy is. It’s odd, in that nothing much happens in Boyhood, a fact acknowledged by Linklater himself. It’s definitely not your average Bildungsroman American film.…
The Boys is a Violent, Subversive Twist on the Superhero Formula
The Boys is a great antithesis of the golden age of superheroes: it dives deep into a world where superheroes are adored by the masses, humanizing characters who were previously more one note in the source material. Most of the…
