Netflix’s latest South Korean hit Doona! opens in a dream. A sequined Lee Doo-na (Bae Suzy) falls into deep water, sinking into the darkness below. The light filtering through the water’s shimmering surface displays distorted memories of her past as the lead vocalist of Dream Sweet, a K-pop sensation that …
Read More »How the FBI Nailed the Donald Trump of Mobsters
Everyone likes to tell war stories, including cops and definitely gangsters. Such tales provide the fuel for Get Gotti, Netflix’s new three-part docuseries that tries to breathe fresh life into a story that ended well before there was even such a thing as Netflix. Fast and slick, well-sourced and cogently …
Read More »Can 'Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour' Turn a Non-Swiftie? We Put It to the Test
There’s a moment early on in Taylor Swift Era’s Tour concert film before she launches into her nearly dozen studio albums, but after she points to parts of the crowd to see how loud they’ll scream, when she looks into the audience. “This is getting dangerous, it’s about to start …
Read More »'The Delinquents' is a Heist Movie That Demands You Quit Your Job ASAP
Heist movies tend to operate by a narrative rule of three: You show the preparation; you detail the execution, bit by painstaking bit; and you map out how the criminals and/or their crew get away with it, or don’t. The Delinquents, Argentine writer-director Rodrigo Moreno’s left-of-center contribution to the genre, …
Read More »'Bosch: Legacy' Is Still Rock Solid Dad TV
In an upcoming episode of Bosch: Legacy Season Two, private investigator Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch (Titus Welliver) asks a favor of a couple of colleagues from his days as an LAPD homicide detective. Their exchange is terse and extremely one-sided in favor of the self-righteous Bosch. As he walks away, Christina …
Read More »'Neon' Is Netflix's Reggaeton Answer to 'Entourage'
On Entourage, the central tension always involved the question of whether Vince was gonna do the movie. Only there was never really any tension, because of course Vince was gonna do the movie — or, if he didn’t, things would in some other way work out just fine for him, …
Read More »'Big Mouth' Is Still the Most Hilariously Gross Show on TV
Midway through the new season of Netflix‘s animated comedy Big Mouth, middle schooler Matthew (Andrew Rannells) frets, “I don’t want to overstay my welcome like The Office after Steve Carell left.” It’s the sort of meta humor which Big Mouth loves(*) only slightly less than it loves jokes about erections, …
Read More »Seoul's Halloween Crowd Crush Killed 159 People. Police Ignored It.
South Korean pop culture is rife with sinister stories of systemic breakdown and authority not to be trusted, from Netflix’s runaway hit Squid Game to the more recent Paramount+ series Bargain, which involves an organ harvesting/prostitution ring busted up by a cataclysmic earthquake. (Yes, really.) The new two-part docuseries Crush, …
Read More »Nancy Pelosi's Daughter Finds the Humanity in Jan. 6 Insurrectionists
In HBO’s The Insurrectionist Next Door Alexandra Pelosi comes across as a charming and sympathetic bull in a china shop, eager to understand, find common ground with or at least provide a platform for people with whom she agrees on very little. That would be nearly everyone she talks to …
Read More »'The Kitchen': Daniel Kaluuya's Directorial Debut Wows London Film Festival
The most gripping dystopias are the ones that feel alarmingly close to reality, offering a glimpse into a future we’ll soon inhabit. That is the world created by Daniel Kaluuya in his feature directorial debut. And while it runs you through the gamut of emotions, you’ll end up full of …
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