Nicholas Jones

I suspect this movie is getting 5-star reviews as a tribute to the late Angus Cloud. May he rest in peace. With that said, the movie is awful with little to no redeeming qualities. The storyline is so comically unrealistic that it could be considered satire. Poorly written, cheesy acting, cliche tropes, needlessly long and drawn out. The Writer's Guild appears as if it's suffering from the same issues that plagued the U.S. Women's Soccer Team: too distracted with themselves, their own vanity and the politics that they orbit to produce a quality product.

Likely a worthwhile ambient watch were you not required to read the English captions as the show wobbles back and forth between spoken English and Español in what feels like an evenly split amount of time. I understand that this was likely done for immersion and respect to the culture and heritage of the story, but when I'm in the mood to read a book, I will do simply that.

Once the hint of paranormal was introduced to the narrative, you were safe to assume that this was dead. This was the egress plan. It worked for viewership and failed in purpose. For shame.

Every character does the single most inadvisable thing available to them in that moment and that's the singular vehicle they use to progress the story. No one is even remotely likable or relatable. Apple TV+ is above this and so are you.

A mar on the Disney catalogue. A filler movie to feed the Disney+ machine and unfit for the brand. Perhaps Lin-Manuel Miranda was a one hit wonder with "Hamilton" or perhaps he is too busy to produce the same genius but this comically poor, rushed lyricism married with his equally unimaginative "In the Heights" paints a curious narrative. This piece surely could not have been birthed from the same mind that created "Dear Theodosia", "Satisfied" and "You'll be Back'. This is structured as a story of redemption--the strength and immovable bond of la Familia. Instead, whiplash. Perhaps sometimes the circle block of Lin-Manuel Miranda does not, in fact, fit into the square hole. If it makes any difference, all of us wanted it to.

Stunning, heartbreaking, poetic. Human...which is to say animal, Machiavellian and evil with flashes of nobility falling just short of redemption. A story about Us.

The writer(s) set out specifically to target and exploit the girl-power + LGBTQ angle but failed to structure a compelling or believable narrative around it. It's apparent that they wanted to run with the schema of having an undefined protagonist/antagonist but it was poorly executed and just ends up as an unimaginative, frustrating story that leaves the viewer desperately waiting for the story's champion, who has made a living of stripping the elderly of their lives and dignity, to finally meet her deserved fate. The entire concept feels forced, as if they ran out of avenues midway through ideation and needed a quick out so that they could move onto the next project. The result is the singular exploitation of you as the viewer, strong-arming you into hanging on until the absolute bitter last seconds of a forgetful story in order to receive any form of satisfaction. Even in that moment, they give the villainess the easy out after having formally glorified the exploitation of our most vulnerable members of society, as if they knew they had failed, so indignantly decided not to allow the viewer to leave rewarded for their commitment. Spoilers so that you can avoid this sham: In the end, the Main Character/Villainess is shot dead through the heart with a single gunshot wound by a man whose mother had died as a consequence of her exploitations.