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sammykelleymills
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Another Life (2019)
An incredibly solid and entertaining sci-fi show
I give the show a 9, plain and simple. And I totally stand by that. This is an apparently misunderstood masterpiece of a show. Perhaps our culture is to cynical for a show that is both serious while paying playful homage to a lot of the tropes that define the genre. It's true, a lot of this we've seen before. The melodrama is typical of Star Trek: DS9. The broken spaceship might harken back to Star Wars. I could go on. But this is all done so well with such terrific characters. They're in a situation we can all understand. They just want to do a job and maybe have some awe, but the show cleverly throws one brilliant obstacle after another. It's never boring and is sometimes quite compelling.
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)
A fun and compelling experience
I have not seen every Cohen brothers film, but I have seen enough to know I'm a fan. This anthology film is one of the most compelling, fun, and thought provoking I have seen in a very long time. The individual stories each have their own style, some being campy and funny while others are deadly serious. But it's always a very thoughtful yet sometimes brutal movie that kept me interested throughout.
It's worth nothing that the 5th story is probably twice as long as the rest. It's more of a love story that can only end one way (and if you've seen their previous work, you can probably guess how). It serves as a sort of key to understanding everything before it, as well as the final story after it.
Great performances are expected and yet easily appreciated. Overall, this is both a comforting format for this material and yet leaves us moved and slightly traumatized. The overall theme, that betrayal and overconfidence defined the old west, is all too clear. In the end, this is an amazing experience.
Mojave Junction (2015)
Clever - one bad thing after another is entertaining to watch
This is a clever short that basically shows how a dire situation gets even worse, one blunder at a time. The simple premise of two men in the middle of the desert (one being held captive) and a spooked horse carrying the only water for miles, starts off seemingly mundane. But that quickly changes as the horse keeps barely out of reach, and frustrations mount, leading too more problems. It's a fun little film that is truly entertaining.