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drama

Sinners – Ryan Coogler (2025)

This film has been on my whishlist for a while, but it being a horror it was not too high. The Golden Globes made it rise enough to watch it.

The film starts wonderfully with 1920’ies American black culture. Some blacks are still working on cotton plantations, while others have made their (criminal) ways in the big cities. Segregation is massive. KKK still rules.

Two brothers who have become rich in Chicago return to the area where they grew up with the idea to start a “juke”; a black music bar. They know the gifted blues musician Sammie who has got the gift to play away the veil that divides the ‘real’ and the ‘spirit’ worlds.

While dancing to (modernised for extra effect) blues and other black music, the “juke” is attacked and the film turns into a horror.

The first part is the most interesting. The horror part is alright.

Eden – Ron Howard (2024)

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Ritter moved to one of the Galapagos islands to work on a radical new philosophy. His manuscripts are literally shipped to newspapers who happily publish his adventures (and philosophy?).

These publications inspire other people to also travel to the island, so all the sudden Ritter and his partner are no longer in only inhabitents of the island, they are accompanied by a family. Convinced that the family will give up soon enough, Ritter does little to help them.

Later also a pomp “baroness” shows up with the wild idea to build a luxury hotel on the island. From then on the different parties are going to try to play out each other against one another.

“Eden” is an alright drama about human behavior, but not exactly a high-flyer.

House Of Guinness – Steven Knight (series 2025)

Sir Benjamin Guinness of the famous Guinness brewery (who had already taken over from his father) dies and he has specific plans for his business, inheritance and children. He had three sons and a daughter. The inheritance is not to the liking of all the children and two of the sons think of a way to both honour the will of their father and rule the business as they themselves seem fit.

We are talking late 19th century, right in the middle of big tensions in Ireland between Catholics and Protestants. The Guinness family is Protestant. Catholics form the working class and start an organisation (the Fenian Brotherhood) to fight their oppression. This divide still shows in Ireland today.

Violent clashes, unlikely alliances, impossible romances; the series show a dramatised version of the rapidly rising star of Guinness beer, the influence of the family in politics, the scandals they were involved in and the way they tried to navigate this minefield.

A fairly interesting series about an interesting time in history. Judging the massive cliff hanger with which the series ends, I suppose more seasons are to follow.

Swan Song – Todd Stephens (2021)

  • drama

Udo Kier passed away on 23 November 2025. He turned 81 a month before. Kier played in many films, but I mostly remind him for his double role in Lars von Trier’s “Riget” series.

When a great actor passes away, I try to find a movie featuring that actor, preferably one that I did not yet know. I found “Swan Song” in which Kier played the main role, while he is usually more in the background.

Based on a real story, Kier plays Pat Pitsenbarger a flamboyant hair dresser in a rural town in the USA. We find him old and weak in a retirement home. When a former client of him passes away, the will specified Pitsenbarger for the hair dressing. Pitsenbarger initially refuses, but later decides to take the walk to the funerary hall.

Apparently Petsenbarger lived in the same town his entire life, also towards the end. Walking back into town, he relives memories. His deceased partner, the gay bar where he used to perform, the place where his house used to be, etc. Quite like in “Lucky” we see an actor at the end of his days, playing a character going towards his end with drama, memories and humour.

Kier proves to be an exellent actor whose face can show any emotion. “Swan Song” was beautiful yet heavy.

Frankenstein – Guillermo del Toro (2025)

  • drama

I guess the name of the director rose my expectations a bit too much. “Frankenstein” is good, but not great.

Del Toro made quite a dramatic version of the famous story. He added a few thriller elements because Victor Frankenstein is hunted by his “creature”. In flashbacks he tells the story of the creation of the “creature”.

The viewer gets the usual elaborate fantasyful world of Del Toro, but too often it is too obviously made on a computer. The story is known, there is a somewhat interesting element of forbidden love. Overal Del Toro presented just an alright drama.

Ballad of a Small Player – Edward Berger (2025)

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“Lord Doyle” (Collin Farrell) has exchanged England for Macau, China. In different ways he is looking for money and he had to flee. In China his attempts are trying to win in casinos, but his luck is not what he hoped.

Convinced that he will be able to solve his problems, he works himself into more and more problems. Not unpredictably, he is chased by people who lent him money. Slowly, but surely, “Lord Doyle” sinks away in a swamp. There is a tiny flicker of light when he grows closer to a woman who works in one of his casinos.

“Ballad of a Small Player” is an alright drama with an amusing Tilda Swinton.

Emma. – Autumn de Wilde (2020)

Anya Taylor-Joy is gorgeous as Emma Woodhouse, the 21 year old daughter of a a rich man. Emma leads the careless life that she pictures for herself, manipulating her surroundings and being the rich girl in general.

Emma brings people together or rather the opposite. From a nearby school for girls, she befriends Harriet (Mia Goth) who she tries to educate in her own way.

A plan of Emma concerning Harriet turns out differently from what she had in mind and Emma learns that she cannot control everything.

“Emma.” is a very amusing costume drama with nice, British humour.

Wednesday (series season 1-2) – Tim Burton (2022-2025)

These series had been in my Netflix watchlist for a while before I noticed that they are directed by Tim Burton. On IMDb the creators are listed. Is that perhaps because in many series different episodes are not directed by the same persons? I have not checked if Burton directed them all though, but I figured I would credit him.

The Wednesday from the title is Wednesday Addams of the Addams family. She is sent to a Hogwarts type school for “outcasts” where apparently her father and her mother met and where other family members also went to.

Wednesday is a “neo-goth”, grim looking girl with a too large ego. The series are full of the typical Addams family jokes in which the family members enjoy the darker things in life. The series are packed with interesting actors such as Catherine Zeta-Jones, Gwendoline Christie, Steve Buscemi and Billie Piper.

The stories are only mildly interesting, but the Addams family type humour is fairly enjoyable and the Burton atmosphere and stages are good. The result is a bit too ‘teen’ for my liking, but I suppose when the announced third series are available, I might watch them at some point.

Lions For Lambs – Robert Redford (2007)

Remembering Robert Redford (1936-2025) I picked a film that was directed by him and has himself as an actor. “Lions For Lambs” is a complex film. Not that the story is complex, but the subject it deals with is.

In spite of American presence in Afghanistan, the Taliban is slowly taking back control. Leaving is not an option (which is explained during the film), so senator Jasper Irving (Tom Cruise) has a bold plan to take back control.

Irving wants the public to be on his side, so he invites journalist Janine Roth (Meryl Streep) for an unusually long and detailed interview. This is one element of the film.

In other part, we see the soldiers who are to execute Irving’s plan. Then we have university professor Stephen Malley (Redford) who tries to convince a promising student to take an active role in the debate about the matter.

The complex subject is lighted from all sides giving a fair idea of the dilemmas of politics.

Crooked House – Gilles Paquet-Brenner (2018)

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Remembering Terence Stamp (1938-2025) we watched this Agatha Christie ‘whodunnit’.

The young private detective Charles is hired by an extremely rich family that lost its ‘pater familias’. Even though the whole family lives in one big house, there is a lot of tension between the members.

Needless to say that the suspect for the murder keeps shifting until the end. “Crooked House” is a descent old style crime film.