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ikemerley
Reviews
Monsieur Spade (2024)
Disappointed
I enjoyed Scott Frank's series The Queen's Gambit so I was looking forward to this show. This effort falls short and succumbs to failures in a number of areas. Many have touted Clive Owen's performance, but his American accent was not convincing and distracted from the narrative. He delivered his lines in a dead pan manner that made the character seem superficial. (The French actors were better and Cara Bossom put in a strong performance.)
The plot was esoteric, slow moving, and the dialogue was distracting-perhaps it read well on the page but theatrically it didn't work. The final episode was disjointed, a new character was introduced without any context and it didn't make any sense. I don't know if this show is salvageable given the missteps made in the casting and writing.
True Detective: Night Country: Part 2 (2024)
Worst 5 Minutes of Television I've Watched In Recent Memory
I made it through the first episode which wasn't great, but episode two reaches a new low. A combination of bad acting, bad writing, a poor attempt at humor and outright ludicrousness. I turned it off before the titles came on. I don't know how HBO thought this series was worth releasing.
I've watched a lot of TV since 2020, (none of it on the networks or cable) and I've found bad writing is the culprit in many shows. Good acting helps, but if the script is bad enough, the show is unwatchable. In this case, the idea for the show may have been interesting, but executionally it fails on all levels.
Den skyldige (2018)
Well done
Compelling film about a troubled policeman who is temporarily relegated to emergency dispatch service. Badly misjudging a phone call from a troubled woman causes him to reassess his past actions in the line of duty. Very well acted, including the voice actors who invite the audience to imagine what is taking place on the other end of the line.
A US version is being released this fall starring Jake Gyllenhaal which seems to abandon the austere look of the original version.
East of the Mountains (2021)
A Disappointment
I read good reviews of this movie, but was disappointed. The characters didn't have much depth, it was very slow, and the flashback scenes failed to drive the narrative. In the end, the lead character's change of heart was too abrupt and didn't carry the emotional weight it should have.