The Stranger: One Little Lie

The Stranger is a British mystery thriller series released on Netflix based on the novel by Harlan Coben. The plot follows a group of people who are all approached by a stranger (Hannah John-Kamen), who tells them a secret, either to expose a lie or for blackmail purposes. From there the lives of these towns people descend into a mixture of chaos and a search for answers.

This series is one of the most underrated new releases on Netflix, it is both an excellent drama series and an excellent mystery series. The reason for this is because there are so many levels to the mystery just when you think you understand it another layer gets added, it keeps you guessing right up until the final 5 minutes. Moreover, there is a moral ambiguity to this series that adds to the overall story, the characters have good and bad qualities, Detective Katz (Paul Kaye), is an objectively bad person he kills a woman in cold blood, but when he finds out that his wife has been poisoning their daughter you feel for him.

There is a wide cast of characters, but very much to my surprise they all feel well done, developed and interesting. Richard Armitage’s Adam is the main character and his search to find his missing wife is the central plot line, but all the other characters are given a moment to shine and have great sub-plots of their own. Particularly Hannah John-Kamen’s Stranger, she is easily the most intriguing character in the series and when her identity is finally revealed it is genuinely surprising and a great twist.

My issues with this series are only very small, firstly I didn’t like that the stranger just left again at the end, when it turned out that Adam was her brother, I was hoping she would become a part of his family, but sadly she didn’t. My other issue is that there is a lot of stuff going on at the same time, which can be hard to keep track of at times, but it is handled very well and never becomes confusing so I can’t complain.

Overall, this is a great thriller/crime series to binge on Netflix the next time you’re looking for something, it has endless amounts of tension and suspense and a great mystery that keep you guessing right up until the end. A surprisingly solid show!

Pros.

Hannah John-Kamen.

Richard Armitage.

Paul Kaye.

Great mystery.

Hard to take your eyes off.

Cons.

The ending could have been better.

4.5/5

The Mandalorian: A New Hope For Star Wars

The Mandalorian is a space western TV show set in the Star Wars universe created by Jon Favreau. The series follows a Mandalorian known as Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), who is a bounty hunter and mercenary for hire, one day Din is hired to bring a package to the last remnant of the Empire, but once he learns what the cargo is, a baby, he changes his mind and the rest of the series is Din trying to protect the baby.

First off, my feelings towards Star Wars especially newer Star Wars have been well documented, For the most part I don’t care for it; sure, Rogue One and Solo were okay, but the main instalment films weren’t for me. On the TV side of things, I loved Star Wars The Clone Wars, but I could never get into Rebels, so it was a mixed bag for me. So, I went into this show with relatively low expectations and I am pleased to say I was actually blown away.

This series has real heart and you do end up caring a lot about the characters. The relationship between Mando and the character that the internet has dubbed ‘Baby Yoda’ is not only adorable, but also heart-warming. It is so nice to see it develop over the course of the series. Not only that but this series actually has supporting characters that are not only impactful on the overall story but are also well written. Said characters come in the form of a Resistance shock trooper named Cara Dune (Gina Carano), and a droid called IG-11 (Taika Waititi). Cara starts off as a minor character who grows into a huge part of the team by the end, she is kickass and easily has some of the best action moments on the show, but she also has great chemistry with Mando which I would like to see explored more down the line. IG-11 starts off the series as a villain who is intent on killing ‘Baby Yoda’, but then gets reprogrammed to be a good guy. To that, the moment when IG-11 sacrifices himself so the heroes can get away had me feeling emotions I hadn’t felt since T2.

Overall, despite the poor quality of modern Star Wars there is something special about this show, maybe it is because they have given us characters that you can actually care about, or maybe it’s because it is just so damn cool it’s hard to say, one thing I will say is I can’t wait for season 2 in October.

Pros.

Great characters/dynamics.

Baby Yoda.

Great stakes both in terms of action and emotions.

A fantastic ending.

It made me excited for season 2.

Cons.

None

5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Horse Girl: One Of Netflix’s Worst

Horse Girl is a drama film directed by Jeff Baena. The plot follows Sarah (Alison Brie), a woman whose normal life starts to unravel, and she becomes more and more unhinged; the later parts of the film get into things like alien abduction, cloning and mental health, with a lot of the film being up to your interoperation of events.

When I sat down to watch this on Netflix the description for it made it sound like a horror film, that is what I was expecting and my oh my it is not that. Well it isn’t in a literally sense, but it does show the horrors of mental health and how someone can easily slip into a manic episode and that is a pretty terrifying thing to think about.

That said thinking about this film is more fun than actually watching it. Large sequences of this film are dull and drawn out, most likely in an effort to make you care about the main character which you never actually end up doing. What makes this worse is that a lot of the film’s abstract elements, come across at best as confusing and at worst as a deluded sense of self; as this film seems to think it is far deeper than it actually is. This is an art film in very much the worst way.

Alison Brie gives a good performance, especially with what she has to work with, she makes Sarah both a vulnerable and frightening character at the same time and easily carries a lot of the film’s dramatic scenes. However, everyone else in the film with no exceptions are the most unlikable group of human beings ever assembled. By that I mean none of the characters have any warmth or likeability, maybe that was a conscious choice who knows; Debby Ryan’s character perfectly captures my point.

It is films like this that have given Netflix the reputation that they will make anything, Horse Girl adds yet another weird unpleasant title to Netflix’s already growing stable of bad films. Though I think this film has some good elements and Alison Brie is okay overall it is tripped up by its huge ego, that is clear in near every scene, as this film isn’t deep it’s pretentious.

That is an hour forty-five minutes of my life I am not going to get back.

Pros.

It is neat to think about.

Alison Brie is okay.

Cons.

It is the worst type of Art film.

It’s not deep it just thinks it is.

It’s dull.

You end up hating most, if not all, of the characters.

1/5

Reviewed by Luke

Narcos Mexico Season 1: A New Era Of Narcos

Narcos Mexico Season 1 is a crime drama series and spin-off to the Netflix series Narcos. The new series as the name would suggest shifts the focus of the program from the cocaine fields of Columbia to the weed fields of Mexico, though some familiar faces do make a return. The series chronicles the rise of the Guadalajara Cartel and Felix Gallardo’s (Diego Luna), kidnapping of American DEA Agent Kiki Camarena (Michael Pena).

To briefly describe this series, it is more of the same, if you liked Narcos and enjoyed seeing the DEA slowly busting drug dealers over a period of years than you will enjoy this. As usually there are some cheer worthy monuments (in this season it is the burning of the weed fields), some sad moments (Kiki’s death), and a hell of a lot of frustration as the corrupt system gets in the way of these agents doing their job.

As someone who loved all of that in previous seasons, I fully enjoyed Narcos Mexico Season 1, I found it to be both captivating and thrilling and it proves the creative team behind the show still has it.

Michael Pena plays against type here, he has done some dramatic work before (End Of Watch, Fury), but he is mainly known for his more comedic work. He played Kiki as a man on a mission, much like characters of past seasons his whole life revolved around bringing the drug lord to justice. My one issue is that the character could be annoying at times and do reckless and dangerous things without thinking about his family, who had moved down to Mexico with him.

I thought Luna’s Gallardo was a villain on the same level of Pablo Escobar (Wagner Moura), this is exactly what the series needed and was the issue the final series of Narcos was disappointing: because the villains were lacking. My one issue on this side of things was that I would have preferred to see Gallardo’s rise and fall within one series as opposed to two, it just feels more dragged out. A lot of episodes have plot points that go nowhere and feel put into pad out the 50+ minute runtime.

Overall, Narcos Mexico Season 1 is good, the characters are working and that is what made the first two series of Narcos feel so special, I still have a few issues with it, such as I feel like it didn’t need to be spread over two seasons and that I found Kiki’s character annoying at times. Ps. Don’t even get me started on Raffa or more adeptly the worst character ever written.

Pros.

Back to basics in a good way.

Interesting new villain.

It feels fresh again.

Cons.

It is too dragged out.

Some of the characters are annoying.

3/5

Reviewed by Luke

The King Of Comedy: King For A Night

The King Of Comedy is a satirical black comedy film directed by Martin Scorsese. The plot follows Rupert Pupkin (Robert DeNiro), a man who is by all means a failure in his life, but dreams of being a big-time late-night host. When it looks like Rupert is going to get that chance, only for it to be taken away from him, he decides to take drastic action and kidnap a late-night host to try and blackmail people into giving him is big break.

*I had never watched this film before, but as I was watching it I couldn’t help but think of Joker the plots of these two films are very similar, the director of Joker supposedly said it was a homage to The King Of Comedy, but it feels more than that to me. Watching this made me like Joker less.

I believe this film deserves more praise than it gets, is it Scorsese’s best? No, it isn’t. Is it in his top 5? Again no, but I still think this is an above average good film.

One of the things I liked most about it was how the world Rupert saw and the actual world around him seemed to be constantly at odds. The TV producers would entirely ignore him and not give him the time of day, but in his head Rupert see them inviting him to their house as an old friend. What’s more I like how Rupert is slowly shown to be more and more crazy over the course of the film, this is handled in a subtle way which I appreciated.

DeNiro gives a good performance, as he always did before 2010, he plays Rupert will a sort of tragic presence that can’t help but make us emote with the character despite him being a bad person on multiple levels. He also imbues Rupert with a quiet sense of dread, he makes him into a ticking time bomb, as you are fully aware, he could slip into fully manic insanity at any minute.

The comedy in this film, as this is after all a comedy film even if it doesn’t feel like one a lot of the time, is well done especially Rupert’s set when he actually gets to go up on stage and deliver it. There are a good number of chuckles peppered in here and there.

My two main issues with this film are the fact that it goes on for two long and that other than Rupert I didn’t care about a single other character on screen; though maybe that was intentional. I believe these two issues go hand in hand, as the film devotes time to some of these supporting characters you just don’t care about; they feel like an unwanted distraction away from the A Plot.

Overall a very solid picture, and not one I can hugely fault. I think it could be edited down to a more bearable length, one in which my mind won’t wonder as a result of boredom and the long runtime, but other than that this is another interesting DeNiro Scorsese project.

Pros.

Interesting story.

DeNiro.

Good dark comedy.

Cons.

Pacing issues.

Boring side characters.

3/5

Reviewed by Luke

Dragged Across Concrete: A Pulp Fiction Novel Done In 159 Minutes

Dragged Across Concrete is a Neo-noir action thriller film, directed by S. Craig Zahler. The plot revolves around two cops, Brett (Mel Gibson), and Anthony (Vince Vaughn), who are suspended after an excessive force incident. However, for various reasons both men need to make money, so they decide to rob a group of criminals that have robbed a bank.

Craig Zahler is a very strange filmmaker to talk about as his films have a very specific style to them, if you have ever seen any of them you will know what I am talking about, said style can be incredibly polarising. I enjoyed his debut effort Bone Tomahawk but thought that his follow-up Brawl In Cell Block 99 went a little too far for my tastes and veered into vile and uncomfortable viewing. This film, however, seems to hit a sweet spot, it has moments of extreme violence, but these aren’t excessive rather instead well used.

One of my favourite bits from this film is one of those violent moments. Jenifer Carpenter plays Kelly a recent mother who is having separation anxiety as she has to be away from her baby and go back to work, can I just say here that even though her role is under 10 minutes I think this is one of the best performances of Carpenter’s career, once she is back at work she gets caught up in the bank robbery and killed. What makes this worth talking about is the fact that this is incredibly shocking as she is a recognisable actress, and had a big part in Cell Block 99, we don’t expect her to die so suddenly yet she does. This moment actually made me gasp out loud, I am being serious.

The antagonist of the film is also terrific from the moment we are introduced to Lorentz Vogelmann (Thomas Kretschmann), he is menacing. Furthermore, the choice to have him be in a mask for most of the film really adds to the sense of terror. He is the first ‘bad guy’ in a long time that has actually captured my interest.

Gibson and Vaughn are both solid leads and have a good repour, you can easily buy that these two men have been partners for some time. Moreover, the character motivations for the two are well written as well, Vaughn’s Anthony wants to propose to his girlfriend, he dies as he listens to a voicemail of her rejecting him this perfectly captures that gritty sense of reality that this film is going for. Brett, on the other hand, wants to provide a better life for his family, which in a sense he does, and this provides the film it’s happy ending.

Overall, this film feels as though S. Craig Zahler has brought a pulpy crime novel to the big screen in the best way. Usually, these sorts of films, especially with a run-time as long as this (159 minutes) start to lose my attention, but this one kept me hooked right the way through to the end. A modern masterpiece in noir cinema. A Must Watch!

Pros.

It Is Genuinely Shocking.

It Is Everything A Pulpy Crime Film Should Be.

It Is Gorey But Doesn’t Over Do It.

Great Leads.

A Career Best For Jennifer Carpenter.

Cons.

None.

5/5

Reviewed By Luke

Parasite: A Chain Of Trust Must Never Be Broken

Parasite is a South Korean dark comedy thriller film directed by Bong Joon-Ho. The film revolves around a poor family (The Kim Family), that one by one infiltrate the services of a rich family (The Park Family), to live the high life as well as to benefit financially. The Kim family uses fake documents to pose as well-trained professionals as well as a series of underhanded tactics, which grow in seriousness across the film.

This film is a dark comedy done right. The tone perfectly straddles the line between comedy and tragedy as all good dark comedies should do. There were moments of hilarity such as when Park Dong-ik (Lee Sun-kyun) and Yeon-gyo (Cho Yeo-jeong) are engaging in some sexy role play, which to them involves them being poor and dealing drugs, all the while the actual poor members of the Kim family are all hidden under the table. This scene amused me, but also made me think, it furthers the theme of a class divide which is pivotal to this film. It paints the Kim family and the Park family as drastic opposites, almost different species.

The idea of this class divide is best shown in one of the film’s final scenes when Kim Ke-jeong (Park So-dam), gets stabbed by the crazy guy from the basement, more on that later, and no one seems to care. She has been a good friend to the Park family, or at least she appeared that way, but when the time came they didn’t give her a second thought; yes an argument could be made that they were preoccupied with saving their own son, but they could have still done something.

There are parts of this film where it veers into strange and crazy ideas, these are the best bits. As the film escalates it gets more and more manic, the world becomes unstable, with some films especially films that are supposed to be realistic like this one, venturing into this kind of territory can be disastrous, but in Parasites case it works really well; it thrives in the chaos.

Overall, this is a very entertaining film it had great moments of tension and comedy and it even managed to make me think. The ending even had a tear in my eye. A beautiful film.

Pros.

A Perfect Dark Comedy.

Great Performances.

A Superb Ending.

Embracing The Crazy.

Cons.

Maybe A Little Too Long.

4/5

Reviewed by Luke

Velvet Buzzsaw: An Exercise In Pretension

‘Velvet Buzzsaw’ is a satirical supernatural horror film written and directed by Dan Gilroy. The plot of the film revolves around a collection of painting that is both captivating and deadly; there is something alive within the paintings that either kills people or makes them kill themselves. The film also serves to lambast and spoof the art world.

Before I get into this review, I want to say that ‘Nightcrawler’ Gilroy’s other work with Jake Gyllenhaal is a masterpiece, being able to really show off its dark sensibilities and mustering a fantastic performance from Gyllenhaal. There is something about ‘Nightcrawler’ that makes it alarming every time you see it, even though by that point you know how it ends.

The same can’t be said for ‘Velvet Buzzsaw’. My main issue with this film is how up its own arse it is, it seems to think it is the best film that you will see all year; which it isn’t. The satirical elements of the film fail so much so, that I wasn’t even aware it was supposed to be that way until I sat down to research this review. The only thing that might clue you into the fact that this is supposed to be satirical is the fact that all the characters are deeply unlikeable; though I thought that was just bad writing.

Rene Russo and Gyllenhaal try their best and give good performances, which serve as a saving grace for this film, but only barely. The rest of the cast are terrible, Toni Collette’s performance has zero energy and feels like she is trying to give a bad performance for whatever reason. Zawe Ashton has one facial expression for the whole film and to call her wooden would be generous and ‘Stranger Things’ own Natalia Dyer feels like she is only in the film on Netflix’s behest to try and get more people to be like, “oh she was in Stranger Things I should probably rewatch that”.

The horror concepts of this film are interesting and there are a few good scares peppered throughout. However, they just aren’t enough, this film is 20 per cent inspired horror and then 80 per cent lost up its own arse as to how good it is; which is a terrible shame as I was excited to watch a film from the writer-director behind Nightcrawler and his strange, but always excellent muse Jake Gyllenhaal.

Overall this is an exercise in pretension that falls flat whilst also being incredibly hollow.

Pros.

Jake Gyllenhaal Is Always Fantastic.

Some Good Horror Moments.

An Interesting Concept.

Cons.

The Terrible Cast.

The Smug Sense Of Self This Film Has.

2.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Eden Lake: Broken, Boring and Blatant

‘Eden Lake’ is a British horror film written and directed by James Watkins. The plot sees a couple going on holiday to a quarry, in some unnamed part of England, whilst there they are stalked by a group of young people, who want to torture and eventually kill them.

I find this film offensively bad. My main issue with it, and if you don’t like politics sorry skip to the next paragraph, is that it demonises the working class in Britain. ‘Eden Lake’ was one of those films that explored the idea of ‘Broken Britain’ much like it’s contemporary ‘Harry Brown’. The issue with these sorts of films is that it often portrays the narrative often from a very middle-class viewpoint, this film especially. We are supposed to be scared of the dangerous ‘chav’ kids, rather than think of the sort of life they have had that has led them to this point. This whole narrative to me feels cheap and exploitative. Furthermore, it perpetuates this false idea that if people of means leave a big city or their home, they will be immediately forced into danger.

Not only that, but the writing feels like a collection of horror clichés with the protagonists Steve (Michael Fassbender), and Jenny (Kelly Reilly), being written to be the dumbest possible characters. You know when you watch a horror film and you are saying to yourself, “Switch The Lights on” or “Don’t Go Up There”, but they do it anyway, as they seem programmed to do the dumbest possible people and they do things that nobody would do in that situation: well that’s how the characters are here. I like horror films like ‘You’re Next’ where the characters are actually written with some intelligence, rather than deliberately doing stupid things that put them in danger and then just sitting around to face the consequences. Yes, I know a lot of the time characters are written like this to advance the plot or to set certain scenes up, but once again it feels very lazy.

Overall for a cheap low budget British horror film, it could have been a lot worse, but even still it doesn’t excuse the weak class baiting sort of writing and the paper-thin characters. I am glad that Fassbender and Reilly went on to bigger and better things and this film can be thrown in the bin of history and left to be forgotten.

Pros.

It’s Not The Worst Film I Have Ever Seen.

Cons.

It Feels Cheap.

It’s Manipulatively Written.

It Doesn’t Belong In Modern Times & It Has A Bad Message.

The Characters Aren’t Even Paper Thin, They’re Somehow Lesser Than That.

1/5

Reviewed by Luke

Creep 2: Netflix, Give Mark Duplass All Your Money Please

‘Creep 2’ is a found footage psychological horror film directed by Patrick Brice. The plot this time sees online personality Sara (Desiree Akhavan), answer serial killer Josef (Mark Duplass), here called Aaron’s online ad, to film him for the day. He has lost his drive as a serial killer and is stuck in a rout: as such he wants Sara to make a documentary about him to try and relight the spark, he once had for killing.

This film does something very few other films can do, it manages to one-up its fantastic predecessor. ‘Creep 2’ plays up the more comedic elements of the film this time around and it makes for a hilarious experience that also has some great chilling moments: managing to not only do justice to these two elements but do them fantastically well.

Duplass is terrific once again, proving that comedians do horror really well, he manages to make this evil serial killer likeable and to an extent sympathetic. It turns out midway through the film that Aaron plans to kill himself at the end of the day and have Sara carry on his work, this is genuinely shocking and you don’t see it coming. The relationship between the two is simply fantastic it has shades of mentor-mentee, but also shades of a serial killer couple. The ending of the film is highly suggestive that there will be more for these two in the future.

From a dark comedy perspective, this film is a masterclass it compares being a serial killer to being a director who is on a downward spiral and to me that is incredibly funny. The humour works really well and meshes with the tone perfectly, both Akhavan and Duplass have moments of comic genius.

Akhavan is amazing, she has a fantastic repour with Duplass and the two do great things, I would like to see her come back in the future and maybe become a serial killer herself. She meets Duplass’s crazy and raises it.

Overall this film is a triumph and manages to one up a magnificent first entry, the relationship between Sara and Aaron is great and something I want to see explored more in a third film. If you like ‘What We Do In The Shadows’ you will like this, I guarantee it. By playing up the more comedic aspects ‘Creep 2’ is elevated to a whole new level.

Pros.

Akhavan Is Amazing.

So Is Duplass.

Serial Killer Couple?

The Ending.

Cons.

I Want More.

4.5/5

Reviewed By Luke