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Reviews
The Hustle (2019)
Dirty Rotten Horrible, no less!
I was not aware that this movie was a remake. It took me just a few moments to realize that was a (bad) copy of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, which, the way, is an elegant, well made, well conceived, and well directed comedy, whereas The Hustle is exactly the opposite.
How dare them? This move is in the league of other boring, unimaginative, Hollywood flickers. It seems that current producers are unable to create anything new, and thus they constantly recycle vintage successful efforts.
Simonal (2018)
Close to the truth.
I got this movie on a TV screening last night. It seems to me that the Brazilian TV soap opera script structure is constantly borrowed by regular film makers, especially those already employed by the Gobo Network. But this movie stays clear script-wise, which is a good thing.
There are however two flaws that may pass unnoticed to casual viewers:
One is a goof, that the TV camera shown in the movie is the RCA TK-60, only used by the Globo TV channel 4, after 1965. No other TV stations used that camera. Nevertheless, the cameras used for shooting had their side panels labelled as "TV Tupi Canal 6" and "TV Record Canal 7", both Rio and São Paulo TV stations, respectively.
Secondly, that the screenplay does not use subtitles to identify a number of characters displayed on the screen, but these difficult to identify characters were important from the Simonal's history point of view.
Simonal was successful as a singer in his heydays but was dragged into the mud on account of being a suspected informer for the DOPS political police that clandestinely arrested persons of interest.
I remember vividly the weekly journal O Pasquim referring to "Simonia" the act of disloyalty or betrayal. O Pasqum was heavily divulged and read by high school and college students, and as a result Simonal was infected by his ill fame.
Musically Simonal started with the Bossa Nova movement but as lead to a vulgar, albeit strongly popular genre called "Pilantragem", successfully directed to a specific type of audience. After his downfall and demise not even this crowd was willing to support him.
It is difficult to translate the term Pilantragem. Basically it refers to "Pilantras", who are deceitful individuals that are constantly planning to take advantage of others. The term was apparently coined by composer/producer Nonato Busar, who initiated some sort of "musical" movement, and later joined by journalist/musical producer Carlos Imperial, who regarded himself as a Pilantra. The movie suggests that Imperial convinced Simonal to join this movement early in the game, on account of recording sales declining.
In later years the negative political side of Simonal was unsuccessfully cleared by his two sons. This movie tries exactly the same. In his actual life Wilson Simonal was kept away from show gigs and recording studios and was never forgiven by his own peers. He died in 2000, apparently still bitter about his lack of chance to prove that he was never a political snitch.
For many years all of his recordings were not released to the public. This drastically changed and most of his albums can be listened on CD releases and listened on streaming services. This may help younger generations to freely appreciate his body of work.
The Two Popes (2019)
Much better option for religious theme inside Netflix.
Last Christmas Netflix produced one "Christmas Special" or so speak movie made by the Porta dos Fundos group. As a result, a terrorist attack was made on the group's offices, and a series of law suits were built to prevent Netflix to stream that programme.
That "special" is absolutely disgraceful, hence the anger of some Christmas. And while I myself found the show total garbage I cannot concur censorship or Molotov cocktails attack. If one does not like what he or she is viewing, avert away, and go try something else.
The new Fernando Meirelles movie "The Two Popes" is infinitely better and invites anyone, Christians or otherwise, to understand and ponder about the Catholic Church's conservative way.
The Irishman (2019)
Too long but interesting to know the facts.
A couple of days ago Netflix sent an e-mail to me saying that they had released The Irishman for subscribers, so yesterday I decided to see it.
The movie is still playing in theaters. Apart from that a couple of surprises were still on their way: first I was shocked to see that it ran for 3 hours and 26 minutes. While it caught my complete attention, I found this lenght way too long for my senses. Secondly, it became visually quite obvious that the main actors were "de-aged" with computers. In a way it was somewhat disturbing to see those fake faces, but anyway...
I suspect that for those who read the book they would not find Hoffa's killing suspenseful.
On the other hand De Niro, Pacino and Pesci's maneurisms and facial expressions are way too known to those who are movie buffs. Apparently no effort was done to prevent their way of acting. As a result one may have the feeling of "déja vu" throughout the entire movie.
For All Mankind (2019)
An insult to history characters.
I appreciate the intention of the film makers to establish assumptions of the What If kind. The series came on screen as part of the Apple TV+ release in my country a few days ago, with lots of technical appeals, such as 4K, Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision.
Fair enough, but on the second episode a series of remarks about Von Braun made me sick. One has to be a consumate moron not to notice the screen writers' intentions of a mean spirited accusations regarding his nazi period.
Hollywood has in some instances disregarded Von Braun as a scientist that made space travel possible, alongside many German and American scientists, most of them are rarely mentioned anywhere, as far as I can tell.
Please DO NOT do students or people of newer generation such a disservice!
Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments (2016)
In the end it is just a confusion of plot twists.
I am surprised to see that a lot of IMDb reviewers are encouraging others to keep watching the series. Forget about Season 1, but carry on with the remaining two series. Really?
I decided to go through Seasons 1 and 2, but when Season 3 started I noticed that I was getting tired of the same plot solution. The scripts are made with too many twists that are unnecessarily difficult to follow.
Relationships are also turned around as the story goes on, and the writers seem obsessed with gay love, but concurrently most characters give evidence of "mundane" (as they called regular human beings) contempt. Go figure!
Coisa Mais Linda (2019)
Soap operaish treatnent of a theme that could otherwise be very interesting.
I am old enough to have lived through the bossa nova years of the early 1960's. The subject included in the series synopsis dragged me to it instantly. But just to find out, as other reviewers have already noticed, that the narrative resembles those amazingly uninteresting soap operas made for the local TV broadcasting.
These, by the way, tend to be very well finished, technically speaking, as this series surely is, but to what end?
I could not get past the first chapter. In one sequence, it looks like Black Orpheus ("Orfeu Negro"), made by Camus in the 1950's. In other scenes it reminded me of French films of the 1960's. In a nutshell, nothing there is truly original or innovative.
Frankly, in the end it doesn't matter if the series is well done and well finished. If I wanted to see a soap opera I would never resort to a Netflix series. In my personal understanding Netflix is or it should be an option to those who want to get rid of regular TV programmes.
Travelers: 001 (2017)
The end of the episode got me confused as to what happens next
I am not going to write spoilers. After following the two seasons I was disappointed at the end of this episode, which by the way, closes up the second season, when nothing is certain as to what is going to happens next, another season's follow-up perhaps.
The problem is that it let me down completely, for the simple reason that I was expecting a solution to the plot and there was none.
Nice series though, it gets away from the usual crap about time travelling stories.
Good Witch (2015)
Soap opera-ish à la Pleasantville.
I haven't written a single review at IMDb for more than a decade, but after watching the second season of a TV series that was promising at first, I could not keep away from expressing my feelings about the show.
In the distant past I wrote many reviews to this site, in all modesty of course, but to try to evidence that film (or TV show, in this case) are appreciated differently by many people.
From where I stand Good Witch is not exactly about witches, is it? I never saw the original movies, so I don't know the premises or basis on which the show was designed, but it is surely far from something in the genre.
What I find amazing about Good Witch is the amount of actors smiling to each other in most of the scenes. Frankly, I don't know how to put this in plain English, maybe a smirk in the direction of the other actor. Whatever it is, all that smiling must have a purpose, sort of "I knew it", "I am going to seduce you", etc. The latter smile is for the domineering Abigail, by the way.
Most of the sequences have a moral and lines to that effect. It would be fine, but the scripts have this soap opera-ish effect, the story line never concludes or jumps to something worth telling.
Perhaps more striking is the resemblance to the movie Pleasantville, made a few years ago. There is no sex in Good Witch, not even mentioned in the background. Middleton is sort of a living paradise, quarrels or disputes are practically non-existent. Conflicts are quickly resolved, no harm is done to anyone. The whole atmosphere is surreal, even for a small town.
I am sure that the producers and screen writers mean well. Unfortunately, I am not a fan of soap operas, because they are syrup for people with some sort of addiction to melodramas and intrigues. As a result the show could have been a lot better, but the scripts never come to an end, making it less enjoyable.