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rachelcapie
Reviews
Explained: Your Skin (2021)
Mostly informative but...
This episode was very interesting, I learnt a lot of stuff I didn't know. The narration (which can be hit and miss with "Explained") was well done.
But for some reason the writers felt it was important to stick in a few minutes of irrelevant (for the subject being discussed) social commentary on the racism of soap advertising. This might have been less obvious if they had also discussed, for example, the differences between advertising targeting and skin care between the genders. But they didn't do that. It felt forced, and I felt like I was being preached at, not educated. If the series wants to pursue social and political commentary perhaps it would be better to make some new, more relevant episodes. "Racism, explained", "Sexism, explained", "BLM, explained", I'd watch those with interest, as long as they retained their objectivity.
Explained: Royalty (2021)
Biased and not well thought out.
Great series, shame about this episode. A very one sided, politicised discussion of royalty in general and the British royal family in particular. I'm not a royalist but it really felt like they were out to blame the state of the world on the royals. More focus on the facts and less focus on opinions.
The New World (2005)
Dreadful just doesn't cover it...
What a pretentious, awful, waste of time and money. I had never seen a Terence Malick film before and shall hope to never see one again, and I'll be avoiding Colin Farrell too after this and "Alexander". "Poetry" and waving fields of grass does not equal art. David Thewlis was OK, which is very sad as he's usually fantastic, but a small bright spot in this turgid tale. It's not because you want to make a beautiful film that there can't be a decently told story, and it's not because you think you're a poet or an artist that you have the right to bore the crap out of a paying audience. Honestly, if you want to see a film about Pocahontas then go with the Disney version, at least there's a couple of catchy tunes...