Fargo
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Planet of the Apes Sentimental Journey,
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StudioFX Productions,
The crime drama returns to the Land of 10,000 Lakes and rediscovers its best storytelling self.
Throughout the six episodes of Fargo Season 5 screened for critics, the series isn’t exactly subtle. From opening the season with an on-screen graphic defining “Minnesota Nice” as neighbor attacks neighbor during a school board meeting to Sheriff Roy Tillman (Jon Hamm) staring up at a campaign billboard of himself, the show loudly states its theses at the viewer over and over.
However, it never feels like creator Noah Hawley has lost control of the storytelling. It’s methodically over-the-top. The audience is on a roller coaster, but they can feel the quality of the engineering keeping them on the tracks. In other hands, this approach can feel alienating or blunting. Fargo Season 5 benefits from meeting Hawley’s signature energy with a game cast and impressively insightful art direction. As a result, the series turns in its best offering since Season 2’s near-perfect effort. Continue Reading →
Killer Joe
Upon the news of the passing of William Friedkin, every headline reporting on the news focused on two films. It’s not surprising that the media spent so much time talking about The French Connection and The Exorcist, two bona fide masterpieces that paved the way for a new era of American filmmaking. What was disappointing was this seeming willingness to reduce a cinematic legend’s legacy to a burst of time in the early 1970s, thus dismissing the five decades that followed as either negligible or outright unworthy of interest. Continue Reading →
Kaboom
There’s something to be said for a ramshackle film that delights in itself and doesn’t take anything especially seriously. Unfortunately, what a filmmaker and their fans find fun may read as piffle or drudgery to less dialed-in audiences. Case in point: Kaboom. Continue Reading →
Ted Lasso
Created byBill Lawrence, Brendan Hunt, Jason Sudeikis, Joe Kelly,
StarringAnthony Stewart Head, Billy Harris, Brendan Hunt, Brett Goldstein, Cristo Fernández, Hannah Waddingham, James Lance, Jason Sudeikis, Jeremy Swift,
Juno Temple Kola Bokinni, Nick Mohammed, Phil Dunster, Toheeb Jimoh,
Considering the number of statues, attention, and fans the series has collected over two seasons, it may feel odd to call Ted Lasso Season 3 a chance at a comeback. However, given the backlash that seemed to accumulate during the back half of the second season, it isn’t entirely off the mark. Viewers and critics (not this one, make of that what you will) expressed frustration with the show’s messier tone and longer episodes. Additionally, even as the show pierced it, people’s appetite for Ted’s (Jason Sudeikis) positivity had rapidly grown thin in some quarters. Continue Reading →
Palmer
SimilarA History of Violence (2005),
Tucked between Baton Rouge and New Orleans in the Southeastern corner of Louisiana, St. James Parish is home to several petrochemical plants. The state rewards billions in tax breaks for these places to operate, and in exchange, they pollute the water and air for nearby residents, who tend to live around the poverty line. This poisoning is so out of control that this stretch of highway earns the dubious title of “Cancer Alley”. Continue Reading →