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brittniepimental
Reviews
Top of the Lake (2013)
Started out interesting and ended somewhat disappointingly
Some minor spoilers. This show started very strongly with great acting, especially by Elisabeth Moss. Her character started out strong and interesting, but progressively grew less intelligent, less resilient and more cliched with time. She misses all clear signs of conspiracy and obvious issues. She grows obsessed with Tui's father, Matt, for virtually no reason and then it is revealed he may be her father (which feels like an entirely irrelevant storyline and a cheap way to ruin her relationship with her high school boyfriend who is his son she is now in love/infatuated with and whom seems to truly love her too, of course he ends up not having Matt as his father so they're unrelated because it'd be too awful otherwise so they could be together). I honestly don't get the writing sometimes. It frustrates me because the actors are superior than the writing. Holly Hunter is a phenomenal actress completely wasted on the character of GJ... Her character is a complete fool, completely irritating and is unconcerned by the extremely dangerous pregnancy of Tui, a twelve-year old child and obvious rape victim. She throws a few tidbits of relatively obvious "wisdom" and tells Tui to trust her body during her birthing (with underdeveloped pelvis and super dangerous for a healthy adult let alone a child!!!). That alone turned me 100% off the character.
I get that Robin, Elisabeth Moss' character, is grieving the death of her mother and dealing with the memory of her rape coming back up 18ish years later, which is completely understandable but her being so damn trusting of the DS she works for is beyond reason. It's so frustrating that she acts so stupidly about his character despite his completely shady business and obvious corruption.
I could go on and on about how literally only Tui's friends and the detective and Johnno and the dad give any cares about the girl and her not dying... It's just ridiculous.
Anyway, of course she puts it all together in the end, FINALLY.
The Stranger (2020)
Really great start and fun mystery but some terrible writing and character development
It is an interesting mystery with SOME interesting characters but the character development and writing is awful at some points. Some unnatural responses and unrealistic policing... I feel like the book would definitely be better. The additional storylines added to the show didn't add much. I don't think it was necessary and the three teens are far from likable. The son of the main character is probably the least dislikable. It isn't the acting at all, but the actual writing and character. The acting is good and the mystery is interesting! I do still recommend the show because it is good overall. Just needed better writing and didn't need so much of the additional storylines. The main mystery and side mysteries are good as is.
Little Women (2019)
Excellent acting, a closer look at the bonds of the sisters, great cinematography, etc!
Simply put, an Amy March that you can understand and don't despise! Florence Pugh is a great actress and played this character well. From young teenage years to adulthood, you actually get an Amy that you somewhat even like: believe me, that's saying a lot for us fans!
Overall, this film had wonderful acting from ALL of the cast that includes amazing actresses like Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Meryl Streep, Eliza Stanlen and Laura Dern; wonderful directing and cinematography that made the scenes intimate, emotional, and clearly showed that the main bonds and characters were the four sisters (and their mother).
They showed how all of them had a strong relationship with Laurie and showed how Amy liked him from day one (see above).
I really enjoyed it and was enthralled the entire film. I highly recommend it.
Harriet (2019)
I'm curious why people say this is entirely fictional?
I won't say this is completely steeped in reality. But it's not entirely fictional like some seem to claim. I think the acting was very good. A solid B film in my opinion, and the film was definitely memorable too.
You also need to recognize that outside of a paragraph in most K-12 history books, the average person knows next to nothing about Harriet Tubman. Adding some pizzazz to her life to make a film more intriguing and exciting is hardly new or surprising. This is not a documentary. I'd like some people to give specifics about what is so incredibly fictional. I only saw one review of the many I quickly read that gave an example. Plus, historians consulted on the film that then were interviewed and discussed reality versus fiction in many articles. One example is given below. I'd say, make your OWN opinion on this one.
Truth Be Told (2019)
Interesting story if not easily guessed (unless there is a twist in episodes 8-10)
**some minor spoilers**
Great cast. Octavia Spencer does a superb job of playing Poppy, who, in my opinion, is both selfish and a truth-seeker. She clearly has a dark and sad past herself from the death of her mother and her selfish "bike gang" father (and perhaps other secrets?) that she has never truly faced. Definitely could use some therapy if she were a real person.
Her own guilt for writing stories for the SF Chronicle 19 years prior that helped get an alleged teenage killer tried as an adult whom she later believes is innocent leads her down a dark rabbit hole that causes personal problems and incidentally deaths.
Lizzie Kaplan plays twin sisters Laney and Josey. She does an excellent job portraying the two very different characters. All of the other actors are great as well!
You definitely develop empathy for Warren Cave who is very well-acted, and there are strong red herrings in the storyline. They just weren't quite convincing enough in my opinion to truly trick crime fans (thus far).
My only complaints are that Josey is annoyingly trusting after 17 years of NOT trusting her family, and unless it is a red herring, I figured out the truth by episode two.