John R Dallas Jr

Before I read a description or review, eagerly I’ll watch any film directed by the incomparable Luca Guadagnino. There are few directors in filmmaking with his intellectual and artistic gifts. Go see it. Watch it on Amazon Prime. When available, buy a copy. Already I downloaded the soundtrack. Yes, multiple times I’ll see it. It may take more than three times if one should want to count the large number of high-end product placements and logo-branding money shots. I’m guessing I saw 50 or more prestige brand names that paid to be seen alongside Luca Guadagnino’s 5-star excellence. For “Challengers,” I knew nothing other than the director’s name and that competitive tennis was used to symbolize infinitely more than sport. It is superb. It’s richly nuanced. It is nearly flawless. Its side-splitting humor makes easier to endure the handful of gut-wrenching subtleties that are left for the alert audience members to more fully develop. Exemplary parents are absent in this story. No father figures. There is one care-giving grandmother. All of these points add patchwork value to the film’s DEI-cultural story. Even the final scene, a moment that’s of aggregating and overarching significance, is directed to happen in alert and oriented minds; without even a blip shown on the screen. Brilliant Josh O'Connor came whisker-close to repeating his through-the-roof Oscar-worthy artistry in “God's Own Country.” Mike Faist delivered more than powerful serves on the courts Maestro Guadagnino had him play in minds and hearts. Who wouldn’t love Zendaya? She’s flawless in all ways. Wow, wow, wow! Sincerest thanks to all involved in this cinematic cleverness. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

"Fantastical," as said in the final episode. It simply breaks the mold for stories so told. Every few minutes, a whisper came to my ear, "Have a think on it." I did. Even the youngest Bridgertons, Hyacinth and Gregory, were brilliantly written and performed. The matriarchs were perfectly crafted and cast. The Duchess and her Duke were made to be meant for each other. Voiced Lady Whistledown bears zero resemblance to any prior sound uttered by the incomparable Dame Julie Andrews. Stunning. For me, Oscar Wilde had a ghostlike presence in the storyline, as did Julian Fellowes. It was as if both had set the stage for Bridgerton's new generation of mixed-messages and mixed-media storytelling. As resplendent entertainment, five stars are inadequate for such a large cast and colossal production. Ten out of 10, I'd say.

If only university life were so self-directed, creative, experimental, and free in the late 1960s and early ‘70s. Probably fewer students and teachers would have zoned-out, burned out, or dropped out. Mostly, this series felt realistic. Whenever it flew off course, only minutes would pass before the writers revealed the device they were using to keep us on our toes. Teen dramas if this genre have a way of allowing boomers and other generations to recount, relive, or revive feelings — if not exactly memories — of unnamed and unrealized expectations of our full pre-frontal-cortex brains’ uncertainties, doubts, fears, and possibilities. This series is a colossal effort to add depth to myriad topics covered. Overall, I was impressed by every aspect of this series. Well done. Thank you.