Vanessa Clark

This movie was definitely an improvement from the first one. The animation is better, and while the voices were a little off, the essence of the characters were still there. But for me, I thought the storyline about Arnold's parents has always been a tad bit convoluted, but this was even more all over the place and confusing. Such as, *spoiler alert* like, this major plot hole: if Arnold knew the name of the organization that his parents worked for, then why, when it came time to the contest, didn't he just reach out to the organization to let them know that his parents have been missing for 9 years and if they could use their resources to find them? On the original series, with his extraordinary gift of gab, he has talked to mayors to save theaters that in turn made them into a national landmark, and in the first movie, he even saved a whole neighborhood from being displaced, he could do all that, but this same kid with that kind of brain didn't stop to think about reaching out to the organization to help him find his parents??? I get that would change the course of the whole movie and wouldn't include his classmates, etc. but it took me out of the story knowing that Arnold would've been smart enough to do that first but instead they had his friends do a reel of all the nice things he's ever done to pay tribute to Arnold as a character, which felt a little too...easy and convenient? Like a sneaky way to insert an homage to the series as a whole? I just wish this movie was as creative and more centered on realism as the show had been all these years, this movie took too many liberties with suspending our disbelief way too much. The whole movie was just a world of conveniences after conveniences with a lot of magical realism mixed in. Personally, I liked it better when the fate of Arnold's parents was a mystery. While sad, I thought it was more poignant and honest. But I'll give the movie this, I did like how it felt like it was designed to be both closure but also a possibility that the show could move on, if that would/could ever happen, and it succeeded in both fronts. This movie could've been better, but it's fine and ends the show on a nice note.

What a hilarious show. The weed family business premise kind of wears thin though after the first few episodes, but what makes this series worth watching and what keeps it interesting is the fabulous cast and how non-stop entertaining it is. Not to mention, it's also a great show to learn a lot of gros mots and les mots argotiques. Three seasons is just enough seasons and doesn't disappoint at all.

I'm so confused: people were raving about this movie as if it was one of the best films of 2022, but...I didn't get it. It's clearly trying to be a comedy, a satire, and a spoof, but...it wasn't funny. Nothing was really happening. You can tell that it was trying to do something and get to somewhere, but with such a loose plot and no real story, it never found its footing. It felt like it was purposely holding back from actually letting us know what this whole thing is about, and not even entertaining us and giving us clarity along the way. It was all mostly awkward and confusing and at the end a waste of time.

I've never seen the musical, but as a 90s kid I have fond memories of the 1996 movie. I didn't go into this with any expectations, I heard excellent reviews on it, so I decided to check it out on a whim and was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked it. This version is very different from the movie, and even from the original Dahl book. It's more like a fantasy/Disney-fied version of Mathilda, and that's not a bad thing. I was impressed at how it did its own thing, which at first seemed convoluted and busy, but when it all came together, that's when you realize wow, just how brilliantly this musical is and how it shines. From the amazing story, music, kid actors, etc. you'll smile, laugh, get teary-eyed, and feel all sorts of nostalgic feels. *spoiler alert* What I didn't like about this version, though, was how Mathilda was telling Ms. Honey's story, which, despite it being fantastical and imaginative as you'd expect from a child, is still essentially just a sneaky way of forcing exposition, instead of having Ms. Honey herself tell her story. Instead, it felt like Mathilda was more or less Ms. Honey's mouthpiece, which rendered Ms. Honey as not having a mind or voice of her own, and not having much agency of her own destiny, which seems to be all on Mathilda's shoulders. All that focus on Ms. Honey's backstory would have been better spent on establishing Ms. Honey/Mathilda's relationship, which was lacking in this version, which made their happy ending feel unearned. Also, I thought it was odd that Mathilda's telekinesis powers were tacked on and treated more as an afterthought, which is a strange choice since, aside from being a child genius, that is the most famous thing about Mathilda! Despite those gripes/pet peeves I had with it, the musical still stands in its own right but also does the original story and movie proud and will make the Mathilda and theater kid in all of us smile.

Somehow, I only just now heard about Dix Pour Cent (Call My Agent), and it's truly one of the best that Netflix has to offer. A show about a fictional agency and its agents is not a new premise. I initially thought that this was going to be like the rest of them. This show is something very different. It's not only funny, but it somehow always manages to be so interesting with how every episode always ends in a dark and dramatic and yet still LOL cliffhanger that has you craving for more. I also love the way they do the credits where it lingers on such stunning views of Paris or on the dramatic scene itself, which adds even more to its special charm. Yes, sometimes the show can be very over the top, but it's never cringe or too much. All the characters are likeable and infectious in their own way. The scenarios are always wild, and also sometimes touching. The only thing that goes over my head is how this show is filled with famous French celebrities that most of us in the USA have never heard of and who're only well-known in France, but this is a good thing, as if you're a French-language learner, this exposes you to the most current French celebrities in the Francophone world. Netflix also allows you to watch this in French subtitles, which is great for vocabulary-building and reading comprehension. I was truly impressed and am still scratching my head over why I never heard of this show before, but it's better now than never, as I haven't binge-watched a series on Netflix in a LONG time and I'm glad it's because of this truly fun, addictive, and very smart show!

I'm sad that this was my first Eggers movie because based on what's been said about his past two works, this movie was pretty poor in comparison despite its massive budget and star-studded cast. This was basically an Icelandic Lion King/Hamlet, a story that we've seen literally hundreds of times before, but here it was done in a way that was great for the director as far as the visuals are concerned but gave little to be desired and hardly any payoff for the audience. Three things were wrong with The Northman for me: 1) it was overlong, running at an unnecessary and bloated 2 hours and 17 minutes 2) it was more of an art house film than the mainstream blockbuster that it's pretending to be, a movie it is not and 3) it was hard to be emotionally invested in the story (or lack thereof) where we never get to know any of the characters, to justify why we have to care. Sure, we know what motivates them, each character is a Type and provides a Service to the MC in some way or form, and yes they are Passionate with the constant screaming, grunting, howling, and testosterone-busting shenanigans, but who are any of these people? We get it, they are Vikings, he's the Prince, he's the King, she's the Queen, he's the Son, etc. etc. but why should we care about this Hamlet-esque saga, and despite the time era, what exactly makes this different from all the others? I left this movie wondering why any of it mattered (and why was it going on FOR SO LONG?), and that ending? Meh. Underwhelming, like the movie as a whole. It was meandering, plotless, unfocused, and going on for what felt like ages that not even all those powerful visuals and all that gore and savagery, and hell not even Bjork, could have saved The Northman. Clearly it was a passion project for a lot of the folks involved and I respected and admired that but it was all style and visuals when what it needed was heart, and a lot of it.

This was one of the most pointless movies I've ever seen, and it definitely didn't need to take almost 3 hours to get to absolutely nothing. Its biggest flaw is the pacing: everything is either happening way too fast or happening way too slow and no matter what's going on, we never get a chance to see let alone absorb anything that's happening because everything is off-screen for some reason, the editing is just that bad, sloppy, and unprofessional, not that any of it matters, because there's nothing of significance to be found. This movie never gets to the point of the story. Is there even a story? We all know how bad the accents are, and yeah, they are as bad as people are saying. Also, the soundtrack? Way too many random song choices that feel out of place with the scene and distract us from it. Does this movie even know when this movie takes place? Years upon years pass by in a blink of an eye and of course we're never in on exactly where and when things are taking place and why. Things are just happening and chugging along at a simultaneous glacial and super-fast pace, and we're given no reason to care. It felt like watching a movie with a bunch of big-name actors merely character acting where everyone was in their own separate movie from each other and trying to one-up each other, and to boot, it was all just a lot of really bad acting, a lot of really unnecessary over acting, why, and for what? It's not even entertaining, it's embarrassing. This movie is just a mess and literally makes no sense as to why it was made in the first place. Such a very odd, jarring, and overall really silly overlong movie that was borderline painful to watch.

You can tell that this show has SO MUCH POTENTIAL to be funnier than it's trying to be. The problem is that the comedy is pretty flat. There's a chuckle or two in some lines of dialogue, but a lot of times, it doesn't really land. For a show about an elementary school, I'm surprised at how they don't utilize the kids that much. Most of the time the staff/teachers are talking a lot in the breakroom or in an empty classroom. The most head-scratching thing about the show for me is that I don't understand their use of breaking the 4th wall. Not only is it gimmicky and unoriginal, but it's distracting and adds absolutely nothing to the show. I really hope over time they'd just get rid of that; it really isn't necessary, it's just not needed, because that time that's being spent on them talking to the camera for some reason could instead be used to again, utilize the kids more! Otherwise, the casting is PERFECT, the kids are adorable (if only we get to actually see them more at the forefront instead of in the background), and the overall premise is pretty cute and fun. It already has its audience; it just hasn't quite found the right "groove" yet.

I really wanted to like Tick Tick Boom, but to be honest, it really doesn't work as a movie. The problem with a movie being essentially just a tribute to a person (and also, an industry, such as Broadway) is how despite how sincere and effervescent it is, what gets lost along the way is SUBSTANCE and PLOT. Tick Tick Boom is all style and no substance. And let's also be honest, most of Larsen's lyrics and songs were...really bad. Like, really bad as in, insufferable, and really clunky and annoying lyrically and musically. The only musical number that was actually good and memorable was "Therapy" because it's here where FINALLY, they give us some insight into some actual emotion between the characters (Larson and his girlfriend) in the heat of an argument, but like everything else about this movie, the energy is so chaotic and frenetic and hyper that even the smallest glimpse into something deeper goes missing in the whiplash of it all. And that diner scene? Cute, but a tad bit cringe/awkward as it did absolutely nothing to keep the plot going, it was a bunch of Broadway theatre cameos for Broadway theatre cameos sake. Maybe the main reason why Tick Tick Boom also does not work as a movie is because it was never designed to be one. It was a one man show, so it literally felt like a stretch to take this material and have it run for almost 2 hours. Andrew Garfield makes an uncanny Larsen, but all the hype with his singing I don't understand, his singing is passable but not THAT good. I loved all of the minor characters of color, but unfortunately they are underutilized here (especially the fabulous MJ of Pose), we really don't get to know them, nor even Larsen himself to who he was as a person, not only as a creative. It tries to do so much with the really overedited, over the top musical performances, but none of them really are convincing, they don't say much about anything and don't really move the plot along that much. There was some reference to the HIV/AIDS crises, but it felt cheap. It may have indeed inspired Larsen as many of his friends were dying from the virus, but the way it was done here felt exploitative and manipulative as aside from having Silence = Death posters in the background for a split second, there would be no mention of ACT UP, no archival footage/news clips from the epidemic, no meaningful exploration of how Larsen might have felt about this virus and how it has taken his queer friends, nothing, the epidemic was essentially used as garnish to force emotion into the story only to not be explored at all or mentioned again so they could focus instead on Larsen singing for the billionth time about how it sucks to turn 30. We get it, its Larsen's story, but the biggest issue with treating the epidemic as a backdrop of emotional convenience is how it doesn't do the character or the story any favors, it makes his privileged problems and constant whining about not being famous like Sondheim even more meaningless. It was a real wasted opportunity that deserved to be fleshed out more instead of tacked on and then brushed aside. What this "movie" really needed was to SLOW DOWN. There was never any moment where we actually got to know any of these people, there was never a time when they'd let us feel emotions organically, it felt like very aggressively, they'd try and make us feel something when it should have come from a place of something natural, not forced. It's a shame because there is a lot of promise and talent here, but it's too much navel gazing and idol worship to make Tick Tick Boom as entertaining, fun, and meaningful as it thinks it is.

I LOVED the premise of this but...it was boring. Sorry, but it was just dull. Gary Oldman was of course wonderful and all but it has nothing to do with him and the other fine actors and actresses here, it was pretentious for pretentious sakes, it went on and on to nowhere, I just didn't get it.