Month: April 2021
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Spontaneous – a big blowup
Spontaneous is a little bit of everything. It’s horror-lite and philosophy-lite. There’s comedy, sci-fi, coming of age romance, and the mysteries of life and death. It’s streaming on Prime and several other streamers.
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Fatma, Turkish drama makes a woman the serial murderer
Fatma, a new Netflix original from Turkey, is about a woman who commits murder almost without thinking about it as her life unravels and she revisits childhood traumas.
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Falls Around Her with Tantoo Cardinal in her first starring role
Falls Around Her is a story about a world famous First Nations Anishinaabe singer. I was quite excited when I discovered it on Prime Video, because it stars long-time favorite Tantoo Cardinal in her first role as a lead character.
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Review: Quo Vadis, Aida?
Quo Vadis, Aida? is based on a true story about the massacre of thousands of men and boys in 1995 in the town of Srebrenica in what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina. We experience events viscerally with the main character, Aida, as she struggles to protect her family. The film is streaming on Hulu, Prime,…
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Review: Shadow and Bone, season 1
Shadow and Bone is a fantasy adventure epic. Unlike some of the fantasy series of late, Shadow and Bone has no rapes, no gratuitous nudity or sex, and no gore. It’s aimed at a younger crowd (although I enjoyed it very much). It features a big, inclusive, cast. It’s streaming on Netflix.
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Luxor is slow and introspective
Luxor is a quiet and meditative journey through a few days with the main character, played by Andrea Riseborough. She’s spending a brief leave in Luxor, a place where she had a history years ago. The film is almost silent and very little in the way of action happens. It’s streaming on Prime Video.
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Ride or Die – would you kill for your first crush?
Ride or Die, a Japanese production on Netflix, was a disappointment to me. I found the characters unformed and difficult to understand. The male gaze predominated whether we were watching a murder or lovemaking between two women.
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Pearl loses one parent and finds another
Pearl is a drama about a 15 year old girl who loses her mother and goes to live with a father she didn’t know she had. It’s streaming on Prime Video.
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Just in Time, warmhearted family dramedy from Kenya
Just in Time, written and directed by Nigerian filmmaker Lowladee Omolola Adeleke, is a story of family and relationships set in Nairobi, Kenya. A few life-changing days bring a family together and tell a love story. You can watch it on Netflix.
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Made for Love: clever and barbed
Made for Love is a creative new series that looks at love, freedom, control, and privacy with a funny but pointed story. With 8 half hour episodes, it could be considered a comedy, but it brings some strong messages about modern life with it. It’s streaming on HBO.