1137 Best Film & TV Releases Translated Into Polish
The Big Cigar
SimilarChristopher Columbus, Faraway Downs, I Just Want To See You, Power Rangers Dino Force Brave, Spies of Warsaw, The Brothers Karamazov, The House in the Woods, The Killing Kind, The Quatermass Experiment, World War II: When Lions Roared,
A frequently offered solution to the problem of stale biopics involves ditching the cradle-to-the-grave format. Instead, focus on a specific era or significant event in the life of an important figure. Let that story define viewers’ understanding of the person, giving the audience an insightful perspective without the exercise of box-checking. The Big Cigar takes this advice, narrowing its vision of Huey P. Newton (André Holland) to (mostly) 1974. That year, Newton faced multiple criminal charges and became increasingly convinced the government was targeting him for more than arrest. In response, the Black Panther Party co-founder left the U.S. for exile in Cuba.
Joshuah Bearman’s Playboy essay gives co-creators Janine Sherman Barrois and Jim Hecht a fascinating launching pad for The Big Cigar. It’s not difficult to understand why Newton’s Hollywood-fueled escape just ahead of the FBI’s clutches would be a draw. Unfortunately, in adapting it for television, the creative team's tonal and structural choices undermine the series.
P.J. Byrne's on the line! (AppleTV+)
Hecht, coming off his work on Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers’ Dynasty, seems to have brought over some tonal impulses from his collaborator on that project, Adam McKay. As a result, The Big Cigar frequently tries to balance humor with dead serious topics like possible political assassination, government-orchestrated harassment, and gun violence. While the show manages those tonal juxtapositions better than McKay’s disastrous Don’t Look Up, it never delivers as well as The Big Short. Several jokes land without feeling disrespectful of the series’ more earnest moments or themes. Unfortunately, it is never as funny as it wants to be. That frequently creates a gulf between its humorous and solemn moments. They can’t seem to get both sides to integrate satisfyingly. Continue Reading →
Unfrosted (In Polish: Bez lukru)
I will give Unfrosted, director/co-writer/star/breakfast aficionado Jerry Seinfeld's heavily fictionalized, would-be-gonzo take on the invention of the Pop-Tart, this: I did laugh, albeit mirthlessly. For one sequence, Seinfeld and his creative collaborators push past stale, semi-affectionate satire and into the rarefied realm of "Yes, we're going for it." It's a funeral. The deceased is laid to rest with the highest honors a breakfast food developer may be accorded. Why is he dead? An office culture that prioritized the appearance of safety (testing the revolutionary self-stable fruit pastry in a full space suit, complete with isolated oxygen supply) over actual safety (keeping said oxygen supply next to an overclocked toaster). After all, beating Post to market is far more important than protecting your staff from violent immolation.
The Corn Flakes rooster, Toucan Sam (Cedric Yarbrough), Tony the Tiger (Thurl Ravenscroft, as played by Hugh Grant), and Snap, Crackle, and Pop (Kyle Mooney, Mikey Day, and Drew Tarver), among others, perform the rites. As the deceased's widow (Sarah Burns) looks on in increasingly horrified bafflement, these priests of the breakfast table lower the coffin into the ground and then dump cereal and milk into the grave, topped with fresh fruit laid by professional mourners. A cereal box prize is presented like the flags given to the family of slain soldiers.
It's an audacious, out-there scene, a moment of distinct, morbid silliness that reminds me of when Barry B. Benson had Winnie the Pooh sniped. In a world where rival cereal companies seek the aid of Kennedy (Bill Burr) and Kruschev (Dean Norris) and the head of Big Milk (Peter Dinklage) can have someone tortured for daring to suggest that breakfast might not always need cow juice, Full Cearal Honors feels like Seinfeld and company cranking up the dial to eleven and jamming while dancing around Stonehenge. What is there to do but laugh? Continue Reading →
Dark Matter
SimilarA League of Nobleman, And Then There was One Yuriko, Anna Karenina, Arrow,
Battlestar Galactica Birds of Prey, Blake's 7, Captain Star, Cooking Crush, Dark Winds, Dinner Mate,
Earth 2 Firefly Hero Return,
Justice League Longing Heart, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Miss Marple: The Body in the Library, My Fantastic Mrs Right, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Percy Jackson and the Olympians,
Pride and Prejudice Project Thouser, Quark, Spider-Man: The New Animated Series, Spies of Warsaw,
Star Trek Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,
Star Trek: The Next Generation Star Trek: Voyager Sweet Tooth,
Tales from the Neverending Story The 100, The Brothers Karamazov, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Incredible Hulk, The Irresponsible Captain Tylor OVA, The Jungle, The Killing Kind, The Ordinary World, The Rainbow, The Umbrella Academy, The Woods, ThunderCats, X-Men: Evolution,
In reviewing Dark Matter, it feels fitting to follow the moral of the show’s story. While it is easy to get lost in forever puzzling over details, the far more useful—and rewarding—path is to take a step back and fully appreciate a thing. There are elements in creator/showrunner Blake Crouch’s adaptation of his own work that do not work, especially concerning pacing. And yet, by the time the credits roll on the final episode, one is largely left satisfied and, perhaps, a bit exhilarated.
The temptation to dwell on each choice at the expense of the larger picture is something Jason Dessen (Joel Edgerton) knows well. But we’re already getting ahead of ourselves.
Dark Matters begins with the Jason I’ll christen “our Jason” for clarity. Our Jason is a Physics professor living in Chicago with his wife Daniela (Jennifer Connelly), a former artist who now focuses more on the administrative and business sides of art, and their son Charlie (Oakes Fegley). One night, Jason meets up with his friend Ryan (Jimmi Simpson) to celebrate the latter’s academic success. The vibe is strained, with parties seemingly aware that Jason should’ve received the same award, if not over Ryan, then certainly before him. Continue Reading →
The Fall Guy (In Polish: Kaskader)
SimilarArmageddon (1998), Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002), Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997), Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999), Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006), Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), Bring It On (2000), Dr. No (1962), From Russia with Love (1963), Ghostbusters (1984), Goldfinger (1964), Hellboy (2004), Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004), Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008), My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006), Night at the Museum (2006), Ocean's Eleven (1960), Renegade, Shrek the Third (2007), Snakes on a Plane (2006),
Star Trek: The Next Generation The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), The Simpsons Movie (2007), Thunder in Paradise,
StarringHannah Waddingham,
"Delightful." That's the best word for The Fall Guy. It's a movie about moviemaking that loves moviemaking. It's a Tinseltown fairy tale. In The Fall Guy's world, going big at San Diego Comic-Con ("Hall H!" is a repeated refrain) guarantees that a nerdy, bombastic film will go big with general moviegoers. (Mr. Pilgrim would like a word.)
The Big Bad Wolf is Tom Ryder, a gormless hunk with a smoldering gaze (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). He's the biggest action star in the world despite stealing credit from a stunt team he treats, at best, with disdain. The Heroic Lumberjacks are the passionate, the driven, the caring. For instance, Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt), a director pushing through writer's block to capture what she's carrying in her heart. Or Dan Tucker (Winston Duke), a stunt coordinator who knows the angles, timing, and how to bring out the best in his crew. And, of course, there's Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling), a stuntman willing to get set on fire or launch himself into a wall until the illusion looks like truth. Moviemaking is, in part, an act of love. The Fall Guy knows this.
Colt may be a ragged goofball who's fallen off his horse (not literally, though given his skills, he could), but he's still a knight. He cares deeply for first-time director-and-one-time-lover Jody. That's why he comes out of a self-imposed retirement triggered by the same accident that led him to ghost her. He wants to ensure the science fiction western war epic Metalstorm isn't her last film. Or that a conspiracy, gun-toting goons, and potent hallucinogens don't prevent it from seeing the light of day at all. Continue Reading →
The Tattooist of Auschwitz
NetworkPeacock,
SimilarA League of Nobleman, And Then There was One Yuriko, Anna Karenina, Annika, Återkomsten, Atomic Train, Blackeyes, Bodies, Christopher Columbus, Close Relations, Dark Winds, Dexter, Fallen, Fearless, G.B.H., Game of Thrones, Genesis, Gossip Girl, Jekyll, Long Time No See, Miss Marple: The Body in the Library, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Power Rangers Dino Force Brave,
Pride and Prejudice Quatermass II, Rebus,
Scully Spies of Warsaw,
Tales from the Neverending Story Tales of the South Seas, The Brothers Karamazov, The House in the Woods, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, The Killing Kind, The Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These, The Ordinary World, The Quatermass Experiment, The Serial Killer's Wife, The Singing Detective, The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty, The Sun Also Rises, The Woods, Tira, Troubles, Ultraviolet, World War II: When Lions Roared,
The Tattooist of Auschwitz opens on Lale Sokolov (Harvey Keitel in the 2000s “present-day” sequences) living in Australia. He's decided the time has come to commit his life story to paper. A nurse with writing aspirations Heather Morris (Melanie Lynskey), (the real-life writer behind the inspired by actual events but labeled historical fiction source material) is referred by someone in the community to help. With little prologue, he dives in, describing how he "volunteered" for a program about defending Jewish communities. Unfortunately, it was a trap. The train ride takes him to Auschwitz instead.
While imprisoned there, he (Jonah Hauer-King in flashbacks) became one of the tattooists. The position leads him to meet the love of his life, fellow prisoner Gita Furman (Anna Próchniak). Additionally, the position gave him a certain level of consideration not accorded to others, including access to medications. On the other hand, he faces resentment among the prisoners and decades of survivor’s guilt.
The book—and its two subsequent spinoffs/sequels—has a certain amount of controversy surrounding it. While I’m not an expert on the Holocaust, I feel it is at least important to acknowledge that fact. Wanda Witek-Malicka from the Auschwitz Memorial Research Center publicly worried that the book engaged in excessive “exaggerations, misinterpretations and understatements” that could render its text “dangerous and disrespectful to history.” Continue Reading →
Welcome to Wrexham
NetworkFX,
Studio3 Arts Entertainment, FX Productions,
It should be no surprise that the people promoting Welcome to Wrexham Season 3 are canny. Nonetheless, it is still worth calling out. One can see it in both the sequence of the season’s first three episodes and the decision to provide all three to critics simultaneously. Without the third, it is possible to conclude that success may have thrown a spanner in the works for the series. With the third, it becomes clear that the show remains committed to what makes the first two seasons so watchable. More importantly, it confirms the series’ score of producers—including the team’s two famous owners, Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds, and their right-hand man, writer and comedian Humphrey Ker—haven’t lost the ability to tell the stories.
The problem that immediately faces Welcome to Wrexham Season 3 is the team’s success. It is easy to catch up with what happened with the Red Dragons’ after achieving promotion at the end of last (both TV and football) season. However, if you are making a documentary series about how the team is doing, you have a responsibility to tell that story. This places the show in a place to chronicle the team’s celebratory trip to the United States and a lot of soccer games rapid fire.
When forced to be “just” a sports documentary, focused on the wins and losses and the on-pitch activities, Welcome to Wrexham is solid. As it has “taught” the audience football (soccer around these parts), it has grown looser and more comfortable, letting the on-screen action speak for itself. The break-ins by Reynolds or McElhenney to explain a term or mug about some “strange” rule happen far less, giving the audience a less mediated experience. Continue Reading →
Dead Boy Detectives
SimilarAgatha Christie's Poirot Ah! My Goddess, Amazing Stories, American Gothic, American Horror Story, Angel, Arrow, Baywatch Nights, Birds of Prey, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Captain Star, Dante's Cove, Deadly Class, Dinner Mate, Erased, Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes,
Flash Gordon GARO, KO One, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Sabrina, the Teenage Witch,
Sherlock Holmes Silver Surfer, Sonic the Hedgehog, Spider-Man: The New Animated Series, Suicide Squad ISEKAI, Tales from the Crypt, The Avengers: United They Stand, The Boys, The Fantastic Four, The Flash, The Incredible Hulk, The Umbrella Academy, X-Men: Evolution,
Dead Boy Detectives is, by its nature, a strange beast. Both a spinoff of MAX’s now-finished Doom Patrol series and Netflix’s own Sandman, it began as a sort of backdoor pilot two and a half years ago in the third episode of Doom Patrol Season 3. However, this series tossed the actors portraying the Boys and their living friend Crystal for an entirely different trio of performers. Now George Rextrew plays Edwin, the uptight turn-of-the-century boy. Jayden Revri steps into the jacket of Edwin's late 80s punk adjacent partner Charles. Finally, Kassius Nelson portrays their modern and still of this mortal plane third wheel, teen medium Crystal Palace.
Soon after meeting and freeing Crystal from the clutches of a demon named David (David Iacono), the boys take her in, although Edwin is less than thrilled at the idea. Missing large chunks of her memory, she is anxious to throw herself into the boys’ work investigating cases for and about ghosts, usually in the name of sending them off to the Great Beyond. Their first case as a trio takes them away from their English home to Port Townsend, WA. Unfortunately, even after they close the case, forces conspire to keep the three stuck in the town. With only time to waste, they decide to make the best of it by solving the problems of Townsend’s surprisingly bustling phantom population.
Kassius Nelson accesses those spooky-ooky powers. (Netflix)
This kind of “neither here nor there” of the show’s beginning and the characters’ “house arrest” soon reveals itself as a kind of meta reflection of the series itself. Steve Yockey, the writer of that backdoor pilot episode and the creator of this series, clearly has enthusiasm and love for the concept and the characters. The central relationship between the spectral friends has a striking sweetness without being cloying. The two's connection never feels in doubt, even as they bicker or revelations of unrequited sexual attraction come to light. The scripting deftly avoids needless "can their friendship survive" melodrama or after-school special syrupiness. It doesn’t hurt that, despite the roster change, Rexstrew and Revri wear the roles like comfortable clothes. They give Edwin and Charles a casual depth that extends behind their simple archetypes. Continue Reading →
The Big Door Prize
SimilarA Dance to the Music of Time, And Then There was One Yuriko, Cooking Crush, Game of Thrones, Hero Return, KONOSUBA – An Explosion on This Wonderful World!, M*A*S*H, Monarch of the Glen, My Fantastic Mrs Right,
Planet of the Apes Roswell Tales from the Neverending Story The 100, The Irresponsible Captain Tylor OVA, The Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These, The Shining, The Strain, The Wimbledon Poisoner, Troubles, Wedding Impossible,
Watch afterDexter: New Blood, Severance,
Silo The Night Agent,
StarringJosh Segarra,
In Season 1, The Big Door Prize felt like a cracked mirror version of a small-town Stephen King story. When the Morpho Machine—a device that spits out a card revealing the user’s “potential”—arrives in Deerfield, it does indeed disrupt life. However, most Deerfield residents are nice. Or, at least, they're not mean in the “could be tempted by Randall Flagg or Leland Gaunt” way. As a result, the disruptions were more of a “the principal buys a motorcycle” and “that dad grieving the death of his son declares himself sheriff without ever abusing power.” No escalating series of pranks culminating in out-and-out bloodshed or betraying one’s former friends to the dark embodiment of evil found here.
For those expecting The Big Door Prize Season 2 to start stacking the bodies like cordwood, I have bad news. It keeps the King’s small-town vibes without wandering into King’s “the secrets we keep will literally tear us apart” territory. Opening moments after Season 1’s end, the Morpho machine has stopped spitting out cards, instead offering the town folk a move to the next level. While the result is, essentially, yet another projective test, the results bring a distinctly different flavor to the mix. While the series retains a certain goofiness, it also gains a sadder complexity. The longer we look at the characters, the more forced their good-time silliness becomes. Instead of the exception, Season 1's Father Reuben (Damon Gupton) centric fourth episode feels more like Season 2’s template.
Mary Holland and Josh Segarra nail the couples' costumes category. (AppleTV+)
To find that tone, the series does reshuffle its character decks. Many of the students we met last year are nowhere to be seen, for instance. New characters are introduced, including a music teacher played by Justine Lupe. Others, like Cass’s (Gabrielle Dennis) best friend Nat (Mary Holland), get a much bigger spotlight. The overall result gives the series a stronger ensemble feel, even if it is not necessarily without downsides. Continue Reading →
Rebel Moon - Part Two: The Scargiver (In Polish: Rebel Moon – część 2: Zadająca rany)
Similar2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Alien (1979), Aliens (1986), Apollo 13 (1995), Armageddon (1998), Catwoman (2004), Code of Silence (1985), Con Air (1997), Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000), Die Hard (1988), Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995), Dune (1984), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), La Vie en Rose (2007), Live Free or Die Hard (2007), Sliver (1993), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), Star Trek: Generations (1994), The Fifth Element (1997), The Matrix Reloaded (2003), The Matrix Revolutions (2003), You Only Live Twice (1967),
Watch afterDune: Part Two (2024), Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire (2023),
My favorite moments in Rebel Moon: Part Two - The Scargiver come during quick breaths before a plunge.
In the first, warriors Tarak (Staz Nair) and Milius (Elise Duffy) come to terms with their likely imminent deaths at the hands of a smoke-spewing tank. Having spent years of his life consumed by survivor's guilt, Tarak thought having a cause to die for would be enough. It isn't. He wants to live, but he probably won't. The next best thing is to die fighting alongside a peer like Milius.
In the second, Kora (Sofia Boutella) is in the midst of blasting her way through the fearsome dreadnought King's Gaze. After slaying a warrior wielding a high-tech superheated sword, she takes a moment to catch her breath. With some pilfered cloth, she wraps the blade's hilt so she can use it without burning herself. It's a moment of improvisation, providing Boutella a chance to deliver a quieter piece of physical acting that stands in contrast to brawling with a corridor of goons or swordfighting Ed Skrein's Admiral Noble. Continue Reading →
Conan O'Brien Must Go
NetworkMax,
SimilarA Dance to the Music of Time, Power Rangers Dino Force Brave,
Scully The Wimbledon Poisoner, Tiger Lily, 4 femmes dans la vie, Troubles,
It's been four long years since Conan O'Brien has graced our television screens, ever since his late-night TBS show, Conan, ended in 2021. Since then, he's kept busy, of course, with podcasts like Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend and guest spots on shows like Murderville. But the late-night legend couldn't possibly keep away from the limelight for long; even at the ripe age of sixty, the guy is still the same spry, lanky chaos demon he always was, a tall column of Irish awkwardness more than willing to play the fool for a laugh. That's most acutely felt in his remote travel segments, like Conan Without Borders, where he travels everywhere from Finland to Ireland to suss out the sights, tastes, and people of Earth. Think of him like Anthony Bourdain, with absolutely zero shame or culinary knowledge.
For those who missed those segments, rest easy, as Max has gifted us with four episodes of full-length travelogue mayhem in the form of Conan O'Brien Must Go. Each installment, funny enough, spins off from an episode of his podcast, Conan O'Brien Needs a Fan: He speaks to an interesting new guy or gal from a foreign country, then flies out to meet them and take in the surrounding environs. Of course, he does this the only way he knows how: By making a complete spectacle of himself.
Conan O'Brien Must Go (Max)
In the show's opening minutes, a deceptively Werner Herzog-ian voice purrs to us that to appreciate the grandeur of our mother Earth, you must sometimes defile it. Cut to Conan: "Behold the defiler." That's the tack Must Go takes in its exploration of countries as exotic and beautiful as Norway, Argentina, Thailand, and Ireland: Let Conan loose in these nations, sometimes (but not always) with a game companion or fan along the way, and witness the devastation. One week, he'll make a Norwegian hip-hop song with an enthusiastic fan; the next, he'll try to help another fan get his podcast from four listeners to a whopping five -- all through the power of aggressive ad reads for yerba mate. Continue Reading →
Franklin
SimilarA Fortunate Life, A League of Nobleman, A Little Princess, A Respectable Trade,
Agatha Christie's Poirot And Then There was One Yuriko, Anna Karenina, Återkomsten, Atomic Train, Babel, Chicken Nugget, Cleopatra, Cooking Crush, Dark Winds, Dead by Sunset, Dexter, Fallen, Faraway Downs, Game of Thrones, Genesis, Good Morning Children, Gossip Girl, Heidi, Howards End, I Just Want To See You, Intruders, Jack the Ripper, Jewels, Long Time No See, M*A*S*H, Miss Marple: The Body in the Library, Monarch of the Glen, Murder in the Heartland, My Fantastic Mrs Right, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Ordeal by Innocence, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Peter and Paul,
Planet of the Apes Pope John Paul II, Power Rangers Dino Force Brave,
Pride and Prejudice Quatermass II, Rebus, RUSH: Inspired by Battlefield,
Scully Sherlock Holmes Son of the Morning Star,
Tales from the Neverending Story Tales of the South Seas, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The 100, The Brothers Karamazov, The Far Pavilions, The Fire Next Time, The High School Heroes, The House in the Woods, The Irresponsible Captain Tylor OVA, The Jungle, The Killing Kind, The Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These, The Lost World, The Murder of Mary Phagan, The Ordinary World, The Phantom of the Opera, The Quatermass Experiment, The Serial Killer's Wife, The Shining, The Strain, The Sun Also Rises, The Witness for the Prosecution, The Woods, Tiger Lily, 4 femmes dans la vie, Unterleuten: The Torn Village, Wedding Impossible, Wycliffe,
StudioApple Studios,
Michael Douglas's career so deeply connects him to as specific kind of late 20th/early 21st Century man. As a result, throwing him back to the 18th Century and into the body of Benjamin Franklin feels deeply counterintuitive. It is not surprising that Franklin—an adaptation of the book A Great Improvisation by Stacy Schiff—is one of the few period projects Douglas has done, joining the likes of The Ghost and the Darkness and those flashback scenes in the Ant-Man films. What is surprising, and to the series’ credit, is how quickly that strangeness recedes. It isn’t that Douglas manages to fade into the role of Franklin until he disappears entirely, but he does manage to recede enough that he doesn’t disrupt the show’s reality.
In some ways, Douglas proves a surprisingly apt selection. No stranger to playing womanizers on screen, Douglas easily finds the correct valence to portray Franklin’s specific flavor of late 18th-century skirt chaser. The metacommentary works in his favor as well, an aging icon who retains much of his skill but perhaps can no longer command the same buzz or box office returns embodying an aging icon whose mind remains sharp but whose body—and possibly will—has been beaten up by life and time. While almost a decade older than the Franklin he’s portraying, Douglas also excels at the moments where the audience witnesses the statesman energized like old times.
Thibault de Montalembert has neither the time nor the interest in your lame attempts at Call My Agent/Dix pour cent joke attempts. (AppleTV+)
Still, the script too frequently hamstrings the actor. Not bad by any means, the writing still suffers for trying to match Franklin’s reputation. It’s the old conundrum of trying to build a series, film, or play around a singular piece of art. How does a creator convince the audience that someone is singing the most fantastic song ever without truly writing the most fantastic song ever? Similarly, how do writers provide dialogue to what is, by historical reputation, one of the greatest wits in American History without simply quoting his greatest hits? Continue Reading →
The Sympathizer
SimilarA Dance to the Music of Time, A Fortunate Life, A League of Nobleman, A Little Princess,
Agatha Christie's Poirot Amnesia, Anna Karenina, Annika, Återkomsten, Atomic Train, Babel, Blackeyes, Bodies, Christopher Columbus, Close Relations, Cooking Crush, Dark Winds, Dead by Sunset, Dexter, Elizabeth R, Faraway Downs, Fearless, G.B.H., Game of Thrones, Good Morning Children, Gossip Girl, Heidi, Hero Return, Howards End, I Just Want To See You, Intruders, Jack the Ripper, Jekyll, Jewels, Knuckles, La Femme Nikita, Long Time No See, Love You Just as You Are, M*A*S*H, Miss Marple: The Body in the Library, Moeder, waarom leven wij?, Monarch of the Glen, Murder in the Heartland, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Peter and Paul,
Planet of the Apes Pope John Paul II, Power Rangers Dino Force Brave,
Pride and Prejudice Quatermass II, RUSH: Inspired by Battlefield,
Scully Sherlock Holmes Son of the Morning Star, Spies of Warsaw,
Tales from the Neverending Story Tales of the South Seas, The 100, The Brothers Karamazov, The Chestnut Man, The Fire Next Time, The House in the Woods, The Irresponsible Captain Tylor OVA, The Jungle, The Killing Kind, The Lost World, The Murder of Mary Phagan, The Ordinary World, The Phantom of the Opera, The Rainbow, The Shining, The Singing Detective, The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty, The Sun Also Rises, The Wimbledon Poisoner, The Witness for the Prosecution, Tiger Lily, 4 femmes dans la vie, Tira, Troubles, Ultraviolet, Unterleuten: The Torn Village, Viso d'angelo, Witchcraft, World War II: When Lions Roared, Wycliffe,
"All wars are fought twice. The first on the battlefield. The second time in memory." This line, emblazed in Vietnamese and English in the opening moments of The Sympathizer, is taken right from Vietnamese-American author Viet Thanh Nguyen's bestselling novel of the same name. Fittingly, it also serves as the thesis statement for Max's adaptation of the sprawling work, a fleet-of-foot miniseries that explores the malleability of identity and perception through the lens of the Vietnam War, and the dynamic lenses through which our lives and conflicts can be viewed.
That duality is encapsulated in the titular character, a French-Vietnamese biracial protagonist known only as The Captain (Hoa Xuande). From his childhood in Vietnam, he was always ostracized for being neither white nor Asian enough; his only solace came from his two friends, Bon (Fred Nguyen Khan) and Man (Duy Nguyen), who instead frame his heritage as being "twice of everything." Cut to Vietnam in the '70s, in the days leading up to the Fall of Saigon: He works for the Vietnamese Secret Police, interrogating Viet Cong prisoners at the behest of his arrogant martinet of a boss, The General (Toan Le). But he's also a communist mole, feeding information back to Man, who's now his North Vietnamese Army handler, and his daily life is a struggle to reconcile all of these varying identities.
That struggle is further compounded after the Fall of Saigon (an escape attempt rendered in the first episode as an exciting, terrifying barrage of booming explosions and a foot race to a fleeing cargo plane). The Captain and Bon make it to America, though not without some heartbreaking losses for the latter; now, the two are alone, the Captain still required to report on the General's activities while laying low for both his CIA handlers and the LA cultural figures who treat him as an object of curiosity. Continue Reading →
Fallout
SimilarBlack Scorpion, Dark Angel, Dark Skies,
Earth 2 Knots Landing, Knuckles, LBX Girls, Mortal Kombat: Conquest, Noah's Arc,
Planet of the Apes RUSH: Inspired by Battlefield, Sonic the Hedgehog, Sweet Tooth, Tales from the Crypt, The 100, The Tribe, The Umbrella Academy, ThunderCats, Thunderstone, World's End Harem, X-Men: Evolution,
Few titles in the world of video game RPGs are as stylistically significant and cherished by fans as Interplay Entertainment’s Fallout. First published in 1997, the post-apocalyptic RPG has spawned countless sequels (including the acclaimed Fallout: New Vegas) and garnered millions of devoted fans through meticulous worldbuilding and its (now signature) atomic age-inspired retrofuturist aesthetic.
Thanks to shows like The Last of Us proving naysayers wrong and paving the way for high-budget, critically acclaimed video game adaptations, Prime Video has joined forces with Bethesda to bring the Fallout franchise to the small screen with an eight-episode series of the same name. Bolstered by source material with a baked-in sense of aesthetics and a pair of winning leads in Ella Purnell and Walton Goggins, Fallout is a clever, twisted apocalyptic odyssey that soars as both a video game adaptation and a standalone series.
Starring Purnell, Goggins, and Aaron Clifton Moten, Fallout follows Lucy (Purnell), an idealistic, sheltered “Vault Dweller” who has spent her entire life in an idyllic vault built to keep wealthy Americans happy and healthy in the event of nuclear devastation. When surface raiders disrupt her vault’s peaceful existence and kidnap her father, Lucy is forced to leave the safety of Vault 33, encountering all manner of unlikely enemies and allies along the way. Continue Reading →
Baghead (In Polish: Dwie minuty do piekła)
SimilarAlien (1979), Wild at Heart (1990),
Watch afterInception (2010), Joker (2019), Parasite (2019),
Sometimes when a loved one exits this mortal coil, they leave us something we don’t necessarily want. Outstanding bills, for instance. Or perhaps a piece of truly hideous artwork, or a cursed doll collection, or a house stuffed to the eaves with worthless junk, and we’re stuck dealing with it.
Or, like the main character in Alberto Corredor’s Baghead, you inherit an ancient malevolent creature with a connection to the dead. What do you in that situation? Do you try to foist it off on a cousin you never cared for? Maybe sell it on Facebook Marketplace? Well, if you’re Iris (Freya Allan), you turn it into a moneymaking venture, because why not? What could possibly go wrong??
Iris has inherited a pub from her late estranged father (Peter Mullan) that’s inexplicably in the middle of Berlin, even though every character in the movie is British and the pub looks like the Winchester in Shaun of the Dead. Despite it being a pub, it doesn’t appear to have paying customers, or at least not the kind you’d expect. Iris learns that hidden away in a hole in the basement is some sort of female creature wearing an Elephant Man bag over her head, and who can shapeshift into dead people. Whatever customers her father had came to the pub to communicate with deceased loved ones through the creature, paying a substantial fee for the experience. Continue Reading →
RIPLEY
SimilarA Fortunate Life, A League of Nobleman, A Little Princess, A Respectable Trade,
Agatha Christie's Poirot Amnesia, And Then There was One Yuriko, Anna Karenina, Annika, Återkomsten, Atomic Train, Blackeyes, Christopher Columbus, Cleopatra, Cooking Crush, Dark Winds, Dead by Sunset, Dexter, Elizabeth R, Faraway Downs, G.B.H., Game of Thrones, Good Morning Children, Gossip Girl, Heidi, Howards End, I Just Want To See You, Intruders, Jack the Ripper, Jekyll, Jewels, Kidnapped, Love You Just as You Are, M*A*S*H, Moeder, waarom leven wij?, Monarch of the Glen, Murder in the Heartland, My Fantastic Mrs Right, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Ordeal by Innocence, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Peter and Paul,
Planet of the Apes Pope John Paul II, Power Rangers Dino Force Brave,
Pride and Prejudice Quatermass II, Rebus,
Scully Sherlock Holmes Son of the Morning Star, Spies of Warsaw,
Tales from the Neverending Story Tales of the South Seas, The 100, The Brothers Karamazov, The Buccaneers, The Chestnut Man, The Far Pavilions, The Fire Next Time, The Gold Robbers, The High School Heroes, The House in the Woods, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, The Jungle, The Killing Kind, The Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These, The Lost World, The Murder of Mary Phagan, The Ordinary World, The Phantom of the Opera, The Quatermass Experiment, The Serial Killer's Wife, The Singing Detective, The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty, The Wimbledon Poisoner, The Witness for the Prosecution, The Woods, Tientsin Mystic, Tiger Lily, 4 femmes dans la vie, Tira, Troubles, Ultraviolet, Unterleuten: The Torn Village, Viso d'angelo, Wedding Impossible, Witchcraft, World War II: When Lions Roared, Wycliffe,
StudioShowtime Networks,
Tom Ripley doesn't exist. Not just in the sense that he's a fictional creation of thriller novelist extraordinaire Patricia Highsmith, no; as a man, Ripley is a chimera, a shadow, a formless void that hungrily sucks in whatever nourishment it can from whatever or whoever is around him. Damn the consequences. He's one of literature's (and, in the case of several cinematic adaptations, moviedom's) greatest conmen, a remora with nothing behind the eyes except the next game, the next mark, the next place to flee when suspicions run too high. Now, writer/director/showrunner Steven Zaillian has adapted the first of Highsmith's novels into an eight-episode miniseries for Netflix (it was originally slated for Showtime before they sold it), and by virtue of those pedigrees, it's maybe the best original series the streamer has put out all year.
When we first meet Tom Ripley (Andrew Scott), he's a low-level grifter eking out a living with some street-level mail fraud in New York City. But one day, a private dick (Bokeem Woodbine) taps him on the shoulder and hauls him in front of a wealthy shipping magnate (filmmaker Kenneth Lonergan) for a special mission: travel to Italy on his dime to find his layabout painter-wannabe son Dickie Greenleaf (Johnny Flynn) and bring him back home to fulfill his business responsibilities. Ripley doesn't know the man, but he agrees -- the chance to start all over somewhere else (and be bankrolled for it) is too great. So he swans off to Atrani, a small beachside villa where he ingratiates himself to the pampered Dickie and his writer girlfriend, Marge (Dakota Fanning), two people as insulated by their wealth as they are by their respective artistic mediocrities.
RIPLEY. (L to R) Dakota Fanning as Marge Sherwood and Johnny Flynn as Dickie Greenleaf in RIPLEY. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2024
Unlike previous adaptations of the material, Zaillian barely (if ever) clues us into any kind of deeper humanity lurking under the surface for Tom Ripley. Matt Damon's version from The Talented Mr. Ripley was motivated by emotional impulse; here, Scott plays him like a reptile. There's something downright alien about his cold tilt of the head, those shark-like eyes (aided by Robert Elswit's chiaroscuro photography, which we'll get to later), the way his delivery teeters between blase deference and a flat, manipulative affect. He seems less like a desperate hanger-on than a predator, one all too happy to take rich people for everything they've got and discard them when he's sucked all the meat off their bones. He doesn't covet the lifestyles of the rich and famous, and even the script's frequent allusions to Ripley's subtextual lust for Dickie don't seem to fully account for his motivations. Continue Reading →
Música (In Polish: Muzyka)
SimilarAlmost Famous (2000), Ice Age (2002), Lost in Translation (2003),
As the director, co-writer (alongside American Vandal’s Dan Lagana), executive producer, and composer of Música, Rudy Mancuso’s filmmaking debut suggests he’s carrying a certain “do it all yourself” energy over from his previous career as a prolific YouTuber. Impressively, it does not feel insular or self-involved despite his hands being in nearly all aspects of the process. That isn’t to say, however, that it all works.
Mancuso plays, well, Rudy, a college student barreling towards graduation with little semblance of a plan for what comes next. His dedication to puppetry and music shows great creativity, but it doesn’t seem like a promising moneymaking venture if his occasional busking is any indication. Further complicating matter is his synesthesia, a condition that underlines every aspect of his day with a constant beat. It may be great for his musicality, but it also creates a distance between him and others. Often distracted, sometimes overwhelmed, by the music only he can hear, he frequently misses out on what others are trying to tell him.
Rudy Mancuso explains the "What's up Brother" meme to Camila Mendes. (Prime Video)
His perceived lack of ambition proves too much for his girlfriend Haley (Francesca Reale), leading to a break-up at the film’s start. This clears the decks for Rudy’s mom (Maria Mancuso, the filmmaker’s real-life mom) to start playing matchmaker with every Brazilian-American girl around his age she can find and for Rudy to fall for Isabella (Camila Mendes), an employee at a local seafood counter. When Haley returns, things fall apart quickly, thanks in no small part to advice from Anwar (J.B. Smoove), a food truck entrepreneur and seemingly Rudy’s only friend. Continue Reading →
Sugar
Similar4400,
Agatha Christie's Poirot Angel, Baywatch Nights, Black Scorpion, Dexter, Kidnapped, Knots Landing, Noah's Arc, Pope John Paul II,
Sherlock Holmes The 4400, World War II: When Lions Roared,
StudioApple Studios,
Some shows are difficult to write about because they don’t excite one’s passions. They’re not terrible or great, so they offer little to dig into. Sugar is not that sort of show. Instead, its difficulty stems from a plot development that seems too large to go unremarked upon. And yet, it would be unfair to those who haven’t yet watched the show to spoil it.
With all that in mind, I will delicately attempt to navigate a third path. This development is significant. It changes much of what you know about several of the characters. And yet, it largely doesn’t impact the show. I don’t mean it is a waste of time, only that the show’s positives and negatives remain largely unaffected by this development. Take it out, and the story’s heart will remain essentially the same. It’s the rare significant plot point that changes so much without fundamentally altering the series. So, while it would be interesting to write about and explore it, this review is still broadly comprehensive without touching it.
Amy Ryan bellies up to the bar and reminds us all she's excellent in noir stories. (AppleTV+)
John Sugar (Colin Farrell) is a private investigator specializing in finding missing people. Draped in bespoke suits, he insists he hates hurting people but does so with fluidity and ease. After completing a case in Japan, a message from legendary film producer Jonathan Siegel (James Cromwell) draws him back to LA. Jonathan’s granddaughter Olivia (Sydney Chandler) is missing. Despite a history of substance abuse and frequent absences—as well as the lack of concern from her father Bernie (Dennis Boutsikaris), a producer of…less quality movies—Jonathan is convinced this time is different. A film obsessive, Sugar can’t resist taking the meeting despite reassuring his handler Ruby (Kirby) that he’d rest and recuperate. When Olivia reminds the PI of his missing sister, he must take the case, promise or not. Continue Reading →
Star Trek: Discovery
Similar3rd Rock from the Sun, Batman Beyond,
Battlestar Galactica Ben 10: Omniverse, Blake's 7,
Caprica Captain Star, Crusade, Dark Skies, Dinosaur Corps Koseidon,
Doctor Who Duck Dodgers,
Earth 2 Eureka Seven Farscape,
Firefly First Wave,
Flash Gordon Future Man, Hyperdrive, Intruders, Inuyashiki: Last Hero,
Justice League Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight, Lilo & Stitch: The Series, Lost in Space, Marvel's Rocket & Groot, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Out of This World, Quark,
Red Dwarf Space: 1999,
Star Trek Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,
Star Trek: The Next Generation Star Trek: Voyager Star Wars: Droids, Stargate Atlantis, Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills, The 100, The Ark, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Irresponsible Captain Tylor OVA, The Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These, The Sarah Jane Adventures, The Transformers, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Threshold, ThunderCats, Torchwood, UFO, Ultraman,
StarringAnthony Rapp, Blu del Barrio, David Ajala, Doug Jones, Mary Wiseman, Sonequa Martin-Green, Wilson Cruz,
The 1960s Star Trek show did not have the chance to do a true series finale. All of its successors did though, until now. From The Next Generation to Deep Space Nine to Voyager to Enterprise to Picard, every show had the opportunity to make a final statement and sum up the years of adventures in some fashion. Yet, despite being the primogenitor of the franchise, The Original Series just sort of ends, with the sense of the conveyor belt simply stopping, and its last output accidentally becoming an end, if not quite the end.
And yet “Turnabout Intruder”, infamous though it may be, is a surprisingly fitting finale for TOS. It features the good notions and abiding themes of the 1960s show: the idea that this crew knows their captain well enough to sniff out a fake; that become a well-functioning team that can work through even the most unorthodox problems, and that after seventy-nine episodes’ worth of outlandish adventures, they remain open to new and unexpected possibilities. It also features the bad ideas and problematic elements that plagued series time and again: from a mixed-at-best perspective on women to William Shatner’s over-the-top acting. In that, the show’s final outing is an inadvertent but strangely apt swan song for the series.
In its new season, Star Trek: Discovery follows in those hallowed, unexpected footsteps. This is Discovery’s fifth and final year on the air, but as reported by the cast and crew, they didn’t know that when writing or filming it until the last minute. Despite the promise of a hastily-shot coda to give the show an air of finality, that makes this last leg of Discovery’s mission an accidental ending, not unlike the one endured by the original Star Trek series. Continue Reading →
Palm Royale
SimilarA League of Nobleman, A Respectable Trade, And Then There was One Yuriko, Anna Karenina, Annika, Återkomsten, Blackeyes, Bodies, Brides of Christ, Cooking Crush, Dark Winds, Dead by Sunset, Dexter, Fallen, Fearless, Game of Thrones, Gossip Girl, Hero Return, Jewels, KONOSUBA – An Explosion on This Wonderful World!, Monarch of the Glen, My Fantastic Mrs Right, Oh, Doctor Beeching!, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Ordeal by Innocence, Percy Jackson and the Olympians,
Planet of the Apes Pride and Prejudice Rebus, Spies of Warsaw,
Tales from the Neverending Story Tales of the South Seas, The Brothers Karamazov, The Chestnut Man, The Far Pavilions, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, The Irresponsible Captain Tylor OVA, The Jungle, The Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These, The Ordinary World, The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty, The Strain, The Sun Also Rises, The Wimbledon Poisoner, The Witness for the Prosecution, The Woods, Tira, Troubles, Unterleuten: The Torn Village, Wedding Impossible, Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, Witchcraft,
StudioApple Studios,
There’s something undeniably inspired about casting Kristin Wiig as Maxine Simmons in Palm Royale. A social climber attempting to ingratiate herself into late 60s Palm Beach high society, Simmons shares with Wiig a certain constant desire to change herself. The actor's years at Saturday Night Live and subsequent film roles have established her as a chameleonic performer. She has enough versatility to play everyone from the painfully grounded to live-action cartoon characters. In this case, Wiig pours that talent into a woman trying desperately to be a different version of herself.
As a kind of middle-aged conservative version of Tom Ripley, Wiig does indeed excel. The actor invests a mix of brute force cunning and barely hidden desperation in Simmons. That makes the would-be social maven compelling and repulsive in equal measure. Her machinations are too intriguing to ignore, but her very presence can be almost unendurable, especially for viewers with an overactive sense of vicarious embarrassment.
Kristen Wiig and Allison Janney try to hash it out. (AppleTV+)
The show also adds an interesting layer to her performance of wealth and class. Simmons’ claims often sound outlandish, the scrambling lies of someone trying to stay one step ahead of being exposed. However, Palm Royale slowly confirms a great many of them. Unlike Ripley or Saltburn’s Oliver Quick, she’s not a total fabrication. She has the credentials for the inner circle, but can’t stomach the time it takes. Continue Reading →
X-Men
Regardless of what one thinks of nostalgia—a toxic force or a pleasant refuge from the chaos that is existence—there’s no denying its significant role in shaping and guiding our pop culture. Rather than simply rallying against it, we must, from time to time, acknowledge it and evaluate its accuracy. The launching of X-Men ’97 gives The Spool a unique opportunity to look back at ’97’s progenitor, the early 90’s series X-Men, also commonly known as X-Men: The Animated Series.
However, this is not a task for one person. An objective of this size requires a team-up, in the Merry Marvel Tradition. Tim Stevens, The Spool’s steadfast TV Editor, whose stoicism conceals a maelstrom of doubt and rage, much like ruby quartz holds back optic blasts, tackled the first half of the series. Then, Justin Harrison, our near-feral writer with a gift for mentorship and a head full of implanted memories, closes things down with his take on the second half of season 3 and all of seasons 4 and 5.
With that, there’s no time to waste. Hop in the Blackbird and come with us for a look at the highlights—and occasional lowlight—of the X-Men! Continue Reading →
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (In Polish: Godzilla i Kong: Nowe imperium)
SimilarBack to the Future Part II (1989), Back to the Future Part III (1990), Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), Fantomas vs. Scotland Yard (1967), Ghostbusters (1984), Godzilla Raids Again (1955), Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001), Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), Jaws: The Revenge (1987), King Kong (1933), King Kong (2005), Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008), Shrek 2 (2004), Shrek the Third (2007), Spider-Man 2 (2004), Spider-Man 3 (2007), Superman Returns (2006), The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), The Crow: Salvation (2000), The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999),
Watch afterDune: Part Two (2024),
The most frustrating thing about Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire isn't that it's stupid. It knows it's stupid; it's banking on that. It's not even that its luster has been eclipsed by Japan's most recent entry in the terrible lizard's decades-long rampage on the cinematic landscape, the now-Oscar-winning Godzilla Minus One. It's that somehow, director Adam Wingard and the team behind the MonsterVerse have forgotten how to be the right kind of stupid, fumbling the formula that 2021's Godzilla vs. Kong captured with surprising charm. (Then again, our assessments of 2021's COVID-era output are innately suspect, considering most of us were just glad to be back at the movies at all.)
But the more you settle into the latest entry in Warner Bros. and Legendary's "MonsterVerse" -- the Americanized shared universe of Japanese-sourced kaiju movies that started with 2014's Godzilla -- the more confounding this exercise becomes. The end of the previous film in the series teased a kind of detente between Japan's favorite reptile and Skull Island's favored son, the two working together to take down MechaGodzilla after a movie's worth of preening spats on cargo ships and among the skyline of Hong Kong (no relation). You'd think screenwriters Terry Rossio, Simon Barrett, and Jeremy Slater would double down on the "what now?" of it all: how would these two reluctant allies share the Earth? That might be fun.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire Review (Warner Bros./Legendary)
Instead, The New Empire feels like a semi-retread of Godzilla vs. Kong -- actually, scratch that, more like a King Kong movie with a few bits of Godzilla peppered in here and there. Like so many sitcom roommates before them, the pair have drawn a chalk line halfway down the planet and decided to each keep to their own territory. Godzilla protects humanity from rogue Titans on the surface, and in between bouts, he curls up in the Roman Colosseum like a cat bed, one of the film's more charming images. Meanwhile, Kong searches for other giant apes like him down in the Hollow Earth. (Yeah, that exists now.) Continue Reading →