Author: aliceklar

Man vs. Bee (2022)

Where to find it: Netflix
Length: About an hour and a half, cut into 9 episodes
Synopsis: A man housesits a mansion, where he becomes obsessed with killing a bee
Recommendation rating: 2/5

What I like about it: delivers on Mr. Bean-esque calamity
What I don’t like about it: never quite comes together, very predictable, cruel to animals

Review:
Rowan Atkinson is following the time-honored tradition of British comics: funding your latest divorce by returning to the material you swore you were done with. This is a Mr. Bean movie in all but name; Atkinson plays a middle-age divorcé named Trevor Bingley who signs up to a housesitting app and finds his first job at a mansion where all expensive items are pointed out in the pilot ready for him to destroy in the coming episodes. And so it goes.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): he gasses the family dog and falls in its excrement, fire

Camila Cabello – Familia (2022)

Length: 34:21
Synopsis: Cuban beats with a pop sensibility and phenomenal vocals
Recommendation rating: 5/5

What I like about it: variety and brilliance is always an impressive combo
What I don’t like about it: can’t find a thing

Review:
This album opens with a grandiose fanfare before taking us on a fast and all-too-short journey through Spanish raps, sexy bottom-heavy pop tracks, a vibrant Latin breakup song that not even a guest spot from Ed Sheeran can fully water down and so much more. A beautiful experience, a wonderful work of art and I’m sure very commercially successful; it’s lovely to find a pop record I wouldn’t be slightly ashamed to own.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): ableist slurs, sex

Alabama Shakes – Sound & Color (2015)

Length: 47:26
Synopsis: Soulful vocals over funky overdriven guitars
Recommendation rating: 3/5

What I like about it: easy to bop to, an interesting mix of influences
What I don’t like about it: sometimes too loud, resembles The White Stripes in its weaker moments

Review:
At its heart, it’s a rock & roll record but there are plenty of intriguing and pleasant sounds if that doesn’t turn you off.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): none I found

The Afterparty (2022)

Where to find it: Apple TV+
Length: Eight 35-minute episodes
Synopsis: A high-school reunion afterparty ends in a suspicious death, here’s the investigation
Recommendation rating: 3/5

What I like about it: entertaining, occasionally funny
What I don’t like about it: tonal inconsistency makes it hard to care about, feels like it could have been tighter

Review:
What do you get when you cross one half of Hollywood’s most unmissable production duo, a fun murder mystery concept developed over a decade and inspired by Rashomon, and an incredibly talented cast including Tiffany Haddish, Ben Schwartz, Sam Richardson and Ilana Glazer? Considerably less than the sum of its parts, unfortunately. It’s still good to fill an afternoon or two, each episode parodies a different genre and follows a different party guest’s version of events. Entertaining but over-engineered and hard to connect with.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): murder, alcohol, drugs, ableist slurs

Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist (1995)

Where to find it: YouTube
Length: Six seasons of 20-minute episodes
Synopsis: Animated sitcom about a therapist who treats stand-up comics
Recommendation rating: 3/5

What I like about it: charming and funny improv between Jonathan Katz and Jon Benjamin
What I don’t like about it: so ugly it helps not to look at it, most of the comedians featured are ignorant hacks

Review:
This animated sitcom, made with early cheap computer animation, follows a kind-hearted and soft-spoken therapist named Dr. Katz, his sardonic secretary Laura and his son Ben, the archetypal Gen X slacker. The format is simple: Katz’s therapy sessions are an excuse to reuse stand-up material and the real good stuff comes from the improvised sitcom around that. Jonathan Katz is very quick-witted and comes up with brilliant lines. If you haven’t tried and loved Home Movies (1999), maybe try that first as it’s a better implementation of a similar format.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): ableism, terrible 90s standup jokes

The Gentlemen (2019)

Where to find it: Netflix
Length: 110 minutes
Synopsis: It’s a Guy Ritchie gangster movie
Recommendation rating: 2/5

What I like about it: Hugh Grant, Jeremy Strong, surprisingly easy-to-follow for a complex back-and-forth format
What I don’t like about it: Charlie Hunnam, the open racism, so many attempts at “cool” which come off pathetic, failed humour

Review:
Every few years, Guy Ritchie makes a desperate attempt to prove that he made Lock, Stock and Snatch which come off as yet-another British gangster flick albeit with a big budget and only serve to remind us of Matthew Vaughn’s relative talent. This latest one opens with Matthew McConaughey seemingly being murdered in a pub, then cuts to Charlie Hunnam (who really should quit his day job) surprised to find Hugh Grant in his house playing the kind of sleazy ‘dark arts’ tabloid PI he’s been feuding with his whole adult life with great scenery-chewing relish. Grant’s Fletcher (all the characters are conspicuously mononymous) is there to pitch Hunnam a screenplay based on his life as McConaughey’s consigliere and provide comic relief for flashbacks explaining the complicated and violent story of a takeover bid on an underground drug network. Particular highlights include Jeremy Strong’s foppish and effete rival drug lord, Colin Farrell acting like he’s in a much better movie and the film’s laughable attempts at drug slang (“White Widow Super Cheese”). It’s reasonably entertaining but the most exhausting part of watching this movie is trying to overlook its flaws, which come thick and fast in a “throw it at the wall and see what sticks” way.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): violence, racism, drugs, vomit, rape

No Time to Die (2021)

Where to find it: Amazon Prime Video
Length: a marathon 163 minutes
Synopsis: James Bond does improbable things in exotic locales
Recommendation rating: 3/5

What I like about it: it can be pretty cool, Bond interacting with a more Millenial MI6
What I don’t like about it: tonal inconsistency, credulity-stretching CGI action

Review:
It’s a Bond movie alright! The problem is it has no idea which kind of Bond movie it wants to be. It opens very dark and stylish and seems like another Skyfall, then goes full Brosnan with laughable action and gadgets in the next scene. After that comes the obligatory overlong credit sequence / theme tune showcase, one of the images here was particularly memorable – Bond is walking through the desert among a ruined statue, calling to mind Shelley’s Ozymandius, and as the sand shifts it reveals that the statue is Brittania and the desert sand is falling through an hourglass. But then just as I’m starting to think this might actually be a good one, the first scene out of the opening titles is a joking scene set in a bio-warfare lab and featuring British comedy perennial Hugh Dennis. Like this, the tone of the film bounces up and down throughout, never quite meshing into what I’m sure they hoped it would be – a tribute to all that is 007, all at once: the cheesy one-liners and risible names (Lyutsifer Safin *eye roll*), the gadgets and action, the more-recent emotional drama and considered themes. It ends up as the worst of all worlds and falls flat on all of its themes, its incomprehensible plot and yeah-that’ll-do acting. Still, it’s a diverting blockbuster if you have nearly 3 hours going begging.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): murder, WMDs, violence and peril

The Larry Sanders Show (1992)

Where to find it: Amazon, I guess
Length: Six seasons of half-hour episodes
Synopsis: Sitcom set around a fictional talk show
Recommendation rating: 3/5

What I like about it: the characters, the humour, the realism, Rip Torn hamming it up
What I don’t like about it: many of the jokes are problematic, more are just dated

Review:
This early comedy success for HBO was foundational to the boom of single-camera sitcoms in the late 90s and early 2000s – shows like Arrested Development, The Office, Extras. It finds a lot of comedy in the duplicity of its characters; avoidant and neurotic host Larry, desperate sidekick Hank and producer Artie, whose sweet and complex nature and variance in tone steal the show in my opinion. You have to be willing to overlook some very mean-spirited jokes and the occasional slur to find the funny stuff though.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): mean jokes and slurs, addiction

The Titfield Thunderbolt (1953)

Where to find it: Amazon and BritBox
Length: 83 minutes
Synopsis: English villagers work together to keep their local train service running
Recommendation rating: 4/5

What I like about it: charming, witty, pretty technicolor images of the English south-west, great model shots, orchestral train-inspired score
What I don’t like about it: for a trim 83 minutes, it does start to feel stretched and samey

Review:
Set amidst the slow bloodletting of the nationalised British Railways network which preceeded the swing of Beeching’s Axe, this Ealing comedy finds a group of quirky villagers dismayed at the closing of their local railway. They seek to run it themselves and contend with many challenges along the way, often stemming from an enterprising villager who hopes to profit off the closure by running monopolised bus services in their place. Has much to say about the changes faced by rural villages in the post-war years and plenty of dry wit to keep it going – “They already closed the Canterbury line, vicar!” “Well perhaps there are not men of sufficient faith in Canterbury”. A delightful, fluffy diversion

Content notes (may contain spoilers): alcoholism, hunting scene, racism and all-white cast

Festen (1998)

Where to find it: BFI Player
Length: 100 minutes
Synopsis: Hard-to-watch Danish family melodrama
Recommendation rating: 3/5

What I like about it: fascinating psychological drama, the theme of avoidance
What I don’t like about it: this one is going to haunt me for a long time, ending doesn’t feel cathartic enough

Review:
A party for a wealthy Danish family takes a very dark turn around the 30 minute mark, which makes it hard to pull away from as we watch the fallout through unassuming home-video-style camerawork. This film was a big influence on HBO’s Succession but even as dark as that can get sometimes, this hits horrifying lows they wouldn’t touch. It’s a very good film but not much fun at all.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): child sexual abuse, incest, suicide