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Reviews
Now Apocalypse (2019)
Deeply weird but delightful nonetheless
Fun, sexy, confusing, and weird. It's exactly what I've come to expect from Gregg Araki. His work isn't for everyone, but I love it. I'm disappointed, but not surprised, that it got cancelled. Looking forward to seeing what's next from him.
Jupiter Ascending (2015)
A great and totally underrated movie with incredible visuals and world-building
It's unabashedly a space opera. It's kinda campy, but in an endearing way that feels very consistent with the genre. I loved the little nods to sci-fi classics.
The visuals are incredible. Their artistic choices were spot on, start to finish. The movie deserves a high rating on that alone. The aerial battle scene over Chicago is one of my favorite sci-fi battles ever.
They did an excellent job creating a universe that I want to know more about. It feels like there is a rich backstory to each character and location. It's a world that seems ripe for further exploration.
It's held back by middling dialogue and unexceptional performances from some of the leads. Mila Kunis' Jupiter just felt stiff as a character and Channing Tatum's Caine was clearly intended to come off as stoic, but ended up just being kind of boring. I'm still not entirely sure if I love or hate Eddie Redmane's performance as Balem Abrasax.
I want more of this, but as a TV show spinoff, not a sequel with these characters (not that I'll be holding my breath).
Kingdom (2014)
So tired of shows that screw over gay characters
The show itself is fine. Not great, but not terrible. The acting was good, the dialogue was relatively well written. The choices they made about the directions to take the show were often confusing, and several of them felt like they were beating a dead horse. There is only so many times the "He's a junkie, she's a junkie" story can stay interesting. Character development was limited at best; I didn't feel like any of the characters had really grown or changed much by the end of the series.
The way they handled Nate's character was exhausting. I've seen it done over and over and over. His story-line felt like it was driven by writers asking each other "Would it be weird if we ignored his homosexuality for another three or four episodes?" Seriously, I felt like Alicia got more attention in 20 episodes than Nate did in 40. He always felt like the B or C plot-line, even in episodes that should have featured him prominently, including the one where they killed him off. It makes me wonder if there was some homophobia coming from producers or viewers that made them reluctant to actually explore any issues about his sexuality. I appreciated that not everything was about his sexuality, but it would have been nice if his character was treated like he had some agency. I was pissed but not sad when they killed him off, because they hadn't done anything to make me care about him as a character.
Writers take note: Write better LGBTQ characters and plot-lines and stop killing them off. That last part bears repeating: Stop Killing Them Off. It's such a cliché.
Walk a Mile in My Pradas (2011)
Outdated Stereotypes
The premise of the movie is cliché but somewhat interesting. It tries to promote a message of equality, but does so in an entirely too heavy-handed way. And the attempted message is totally undercut by the horrendously outdated stereotypes. I could forgive them in a movie made in the 90s, but this was made in 2011. There really isn't a good excuse for it. A movie like this doesn't get made without the involvement of at least some gay people. How did none of them help course correct?
If you want to watch this movie, plan to have it on while you're doing something else, because it doesn't deserve your full attention.