DaViD´82

All happy families are similar, every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. With this quote from Tolstoy it could be concluded, because nothing captures this "noir of family relationships" better than Anna Karenina 's introductory sentence. A series about how trifling disputes about silly things can irreconcilably tear family bonds for decades. A series on how these substitute disputes replace solutions to real problems that are being ignored and everyone pretends they don´t exist. A series about how we can make others believe in our version of events so that we can live with ourselves. It´s simply a series about a family you know/have. It takes time with the exposure and the characters. The style of the creators of the first series of Damages is clearly recognizable in this, not only by its structure and perhaps even by the superfluous allusions of events to come. We could praise the script, the charm of holiday free of the dark side of paradise on the Florida Keys, the characters and performances, but ... But it is not necessary. Everything is above standard, almost excellent. The driving force of the action are the characters. The characters are not only puppets in there story packed with twists, turns and cliffhangers. However, the building block of the series is worth pointing out, namely tension (and performances) between Ben Mendelsohn in the role of the black sheep of the family and Kyle Chandler as the "good guy" brother, whose actions are the embodiment of "the road to hell is paved with good intentions". On the contrary, Mendelsohn is a type of character that everyone knows well, because everyone has one in their surroundings. Someone you like to wake up with once in a while because he has great stories to tell and is never boring, but you would not want to live with him, because he simply attracts problems. He always gets into troubles and always know how to solve every problem. At least that´s what he thinks. And just how Mendelsohn coped with (more precisely he just drank and smoked heavily and was sad all the time) this "well-known to everyone role" is admirable. The above applies to the alone standing first season, as the second season is spare (unlike the final third). Which is paradoxical, because it's still eye-catching, albeit full of padding (actually everything except John's central story line). However, with regard to what the creators have to follow and what characters they have to do without, it´s not bad. Which, on the other hand, is not something insignificant, like this can be said about the lengthy patchwork, which it inevitably is. However, a nice one. That´s for sure. The third "I think... they´re all lying." season is completely free from any padding (except for the Ozzy story line) and it is very good, although from the final episodes you can tell that the creator originally wanted to make more series and only because they were stopped they ended the series hastily. To put an end to this after the trial, would be better than launching new story lines and try to deal with the outstanding case. It seems as if the creators only learned about the fact that this is the last season during the filming, because the structure of the first half is perfect. Only the last three episodes are "kind of weird" in many ways.". | S1: 4/5 | S2: 3/5 | S3: 4/5 |

Israeli response to documentary crime series about tangled cases with social overlap similar to The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst or Making a Murderer. In terms of quality and "unrealistic moments" and as a plot of the fiction, it wouldn't work simply because it´s to excessive. The biggest difference is in the structure, as only four episodes here are conceived as four views of the case of the brutal murder of a thirteen-year-old girl on school grounds. An Ukrainian guy who does not speak the language and whose working permit run out already is soon accused. The first episode is made from the point of view of investigators and everything seems clear. The second episode is made from the point of view of defence lawyers, when most of the evidence and conclusions are refuted or at least a doubt is sowed. The third episode is "conspiratorial", as there are still so many questions about the case that entire discussion forums addressing even smallest published details were founded. Consequences such as cyberbullying or individuals hungry for attention came up soon after. In the last episode we can see a "shocking twist" when years later a witness comes up with a different version of the story and... Or maybe not. The biggest snag of the series is that the creators were unable to take full advantage of the very simulating social overlap, i.e. it is not given the necessary space. A lot of different topics are mentioned, namely the rigidity of the courts, favoring security forces, the public's attitude toward immigrants as easy targets, child cruelty, and more. But it is only briefly mentioned and not "documented" as in the case of the mentioned genre standards.

There are six different forms of design introduced through portrait, opinions, creation, creative process and apprenticeship years of six leading innovative masters of their craft in six audiovisual refined episodes in terms of design. Yes, it's basically a Chef´s Table concept flipped from the culinary world to the design field. However, this can hardly be taken as a downside, as at present we cannot pay more tribute to the documentary series "on the creative craft with an overlap into art" then to put it on the same pedestal of top quality as the mentioned show.

The best space opera of recent years. Which might not mean that much, as there have not been/are not many shows like this lately, let alone the good ones. We must admit that even if they had been some good shows, this one would have been able to keep up, which can be taken as a compliment. This is the "Battlestar Galactic in the best period 2.0". Three sides of impending conflict, three levels of narrative from different perspectives across social strata, no good or bad sides, dirty looks, civility of it all, believable technologies, well-thought-out political and social environment, intrigue, hypocrisy and despite all the sci-fi aspects it´s based mainly and above all on ambivalent characters. On top of that, the plot is constantly nicely progressing (although it's true that sometimes in small steps), it's more holistic than episodic and… And it's just exactly what one wants from a successful black-and-white space opera in all respects. It has only two snags. While the underfunded expedition can still be accepted (it is the "Cimrman's Hamlet effect", where the characters talk about something, but there are no means to show it adequately or in the necessary numbers), because it is mainly about characters and political plots, but the cast is not acceptable. The main parties are fine, but all the "second-rate" characters are performed by C-rate non-actors you would expect from the SyFy production. Which is an even bigger issue because they are the type of "actors" who are tragic even in one-dimensional characters, let alone in such multi-layered segments. In other words, despite all the undeniable qualities, it is still impossible to get rid of the feeling "how much better it could have been if made by HBO / Netflix / god-knows-who". However, it is still a true sci-fi quality that has long been missing on screens. Sorry, I meant thanks to this series, it is fair to say that it was missing and not missing any long.

Everyone in the movie cinema was laughing all the time, that´s true, but in turns. Children laughter alternated adult laughter, adult laughter alternated with children laughter. And it kept repeating during the whole movie. There are cheap infantile gags for little ones (and there are many of them) as well as sophisticated pop-cultural references for the teenagers and adults (and there is perhaps even more of this kind). The problem is that there is no connecting humor "for the whole family", where all age groups could laugh at the same joke. The second problem is that humor is overused. Every second of the footage there are at least three jokes. And that makes you dull after some time. Yes, that was a snag already in the Lego story, but here it's much bigger problem. Nor will the super bad team, made up of bad guys from various fictional worlds, entertain you as their potential is not properly used. Otherwise, there is not much to complain about, it is just as crazy and entertaining an influx of pop-culturally parodying grotesque gags as in all LEGO® series/short films/games/movies, as one would expect from a film for preschool boys, their older brothers and companions, including some lessons children might learn. But while you can fully enjoy the Lego story even without children, this time it´s not the case.

During the seventies political conspiracy thrillers were popular and this one is one of the most successful (at least in terms of overseas production), however, it is unjustly forgotten today. At the same time, it has the advantage over many others since it is very straightforward and has many excellent action sequences, a conflicting stubborn hero going against everything, a beautiful shoots, a cynical conclusion (which, admittedly, could have gone a step further, as he was both on board of the ship and the airplane, right? ...) and the compelling paranoid atmosphere "you cannot trust anything/anyone", which should be one of the cornerstones of all movies of this subgenre. And yet so many of them forget that.

A comedy show of (ab) normal Polish family or in other words a movie that evokes and leaves a feeling for which there is no exact name, something between indescribable sadness, disarming truth, sincere joy, unspoken between the lines, existential loneliness, claustrophobic block of apartment genius loci, voyeur depressive tragicomedy, and elusive beauty of all this. Strong words, a strong movie and a redefinition of the biographical genre as such. Beksinski's disturbing surrealist images do not address this, and yet it says it all. It gets stuck under the skin in a way that will calm down only by indifferent observation of the night sky, when lit one cigarette after another. No matter you have never smoked before. It is beyond my comprehension where the above come from in such a young (and debuting!) creator. Just... Congratulations.

I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK meets No One Lives Forever. An audio-visual refine non-comic psychedelic trip, with no single flaw until the moment when it fully turns into a standard comic book movie and it turns out that the seemingly sophisticated craftiness just simply does not do the job. At that moment, my interest reached zero.

An unadorned night routine of ordinary police officers in the form of a raw police procedure, which is in many respects ahead of its time (this style will be followed by the Fort Apache the Bronx a decade later. Most similar movies are devoted to detectives and not to patrol / cavalry policemen). The plot is absent, these are purely stories from night shifts in a neglected neighborhood from a time when no one considered inappropriate that the LAPD was not being diplomatic, rules and regulations rather loose (or non-existent) and the role of Hispanics and African Americans in society was view by the police as not that important. Naturalistic, truly in the style of seventies, brilliant acting, with a love for the profession and the city, and in the second half, after all, noticeably lacking gradation or at least some development.

The slow-flowing mix of pulsation à la Jim Thompson with the existential drama about the Vietnamese southern (non) being of a returned marine. And it is the specific pace of storytelling that is its strongest point... And the weakest too. It's not boring nor lengthy, it has an impressive atmosphere thanks to the pace, but it's true that a similar style of storytelling in eight episodes, which rather than working independently work better as an eight-hour movie, is not entirely appropriate. Because of that it´s inadvertently tiring, however more than properly constructed, written and performed.