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drama

Climax – Gaspar Noë (2018)

For some reason I thought this was a film of Julia Ducournau. Now I see that is is a Noë. Maybe that explains why I felt like watching “Enter The Void” afterwards.

“Climax” is by and far not was good as “Enter The Void”. We follow a French group of dancers. You get scenes in which the group wildly dances (is this the style they call “Vogue”?) The style of dancing is intense en erotic and the next scenes are nothing but dancers talking about sex. This goes on for about an hour.

Then after one show, the usual Sangria is served at the afterparty and apparently the Sangria has been mixed with some sort of zombie drug. Some people get sick, other get horny, but generally the atmosphere becomes a whild nightmare with turning and twisting cameras, close ups, screaming people and all that jazz. This long last scene is indeed not your usual kind of film, but even for Noë it is too much.

The first part is boring, the second half quite uninteresting.

Small Things Like These – Tim Mielants (2024)

  • drama

Cillian Murphey plays Bill Furlong, a trademan in coals in rural Ireland a couple of decades ago. He has a hard life, but a loving wife and five daughters.

One of his customers is a nearby cloister which is a so-called “Magdalene asylum”. Young women, usually pregnant without a partner, are sent there and Bill starts to realise that they are not treated very well.

“Small Things Like These” is a slow, gritty, minimalist film based on the fairly famous book by Claire Keegan.

The Vast Of Night – Andrew Patterson (2019)

1950’ies New Mexico. The whole of the small town is at a basketball game. Everybody, but Fay who mans the telephone switchboard, and Everett who hosts his weekly radio show.

A strange sound is heard and Everett asks his listeners. Two callers have more information and Fay and Everett set out to investigate. Something is in the sky over the town and it is not the first time that there are visitors.

An alright drama.

Baby Reindeer – Richard Gadd (series 2024)

Donny works at a bar. One day a woman comes in, both fragile and self-confident. When Donny is friendly, she returns next day, and the day after, and the day after.

Being both alarmed and fascinated, Donny is not sure how to handle the situation. Martha, on the other hand, knows exactly how to manipulate him and she becomes his stalker. From coming to the bar every day to massive amounts of messages, sitting outside his house, contacting people he knows, Martha becomes a growing problem for Donny. Things do not get better when Martha obviously does not take no for an answer.

Based on true events, the series show both positions, resulting in a descent drama series with a story that sounds quite incredible, but on the other side, contains elements of life that would normally not come to the surface.

Behind Her Eyes – Steve Lightfoot (series 2021)

Louise is a pretty single mom who almost takes a man home from a pub where she was actually supposed to have a drink with a friend. The day after, the man turns out to be her new boss. A strange relationship develops between the two.

But that boss has an even stranger marriage. He is a psychiatrist and his wife seems to be a patient. For most of the series it remains unclear who controls who though.

In six episodes a descent story develops. The last episode gave me double feelings. On the one hand, the two surprising plot twists were not really necessary; while on the other hand one element and the title of the series in a way I had not seen coming.

Straw – Tyler Perry (2025)

  • drama

Janiyah has a particularly bad day. After another night in which her neighbours play loud music all through the night, she has to arrange money for her daughter’s school lunch. When she goes to her second job, her boss proves to be an asshole. After a traffic accident and another accident at work, Janiyah snaps.

Crushed between the millstones of the ‘I-culture’, Janiyah appears to be a victim in every situation. Racism, a landlord who only cares about herself, police violence, a distrustull employer, nobody cares about Janiyah’s precerious situation. Even when she tries to fix things, everything goes awry and she becomes the boogieman of the town.

Karate Kid: Legends – Jonathan Entwistle (2025)

Li Fong lives in Bejing and trains at a Kung-Fu school. He lost his brother after a tournament. When his mother gets a job in New York, Li befriends Mia. Of course, even when he promised his mother the fighting is over, Li finds himself in situations compelled to fight.

Entwistle made a very ‘vanilla’ and predictable fighting drama in which Jackie Chan can be the Kung Fu master one more time. Besides Kung Fu, Li also has to study Karate and I do not think I give too much of a spoiler when I say that in spite of setbacks, Li wins an important tournament and the heart of a girl.

Cruella – Graig Gillespie (2021)

  • drama

A strange, little girl with black and white hair causes problems at school and her mother decides to leave theor little town and move to London. During a stop underway, mother gets an accident and Estella flees the scene. She ends up in London and befriends two young criminals.

Ten years down the line, Estella is employed by a pomp fashion queen and it turns out that there is an open bill between the two. Estella uses her alter-ego Cruella to terrorize the fasion queen.

Gillespie made a film with a bit of a Tim Burton vibe, with some heist elements, a pinch of V For Vendetta, resulting in an amusing film starring Emma Stone, Emma Thompson and Mark Strong.

Maniac (series) – Fukunaga & Somerville (2018)

These mini series (10 episodes) are frequently recommended when someone is looking for something strange. The first episodes are indeed amusingly set in some surreal retro future, but following episodes are rather only strange because the concept allowed the creators to make weird episodes (dreams).

We follow the boring (and autistic) Owen who unsuccessfully tries to keep distance to his decadent family. Then we have Annie who lost her lust for life when her sister died. For different reasons, the two end up at some experimental psychological institute where in a combination of drugs and brain stimulation, they are exposed to their darkest dreams.

I never really noticed Emma Stone before “Poor Things“, but she is great. Especially what she can do with facial expressions is amazing. For some reason Annie and Owen encounter each other in their dreams. This and other encounters result in an unlikely relationship.

Then we have that odd institute led by James Mantleray (a great Justin Theroux) and Azumi Fujita (Sonoya Mizuno) which is based on an AI computer with psychological problems.

Indeed, not your average series, but “Maniac” is not that strange. Quite an amusing watch though.

Pedro Páramo – Rodrigo Prieto (2024)

  • drama

On her deathbed, the mother of Juan tells him to visit the village where she met his father. Juan finds a completely desolate village. The story of his father, Pedro Páramo, slowly unfolds,

Páramo saw a youth love leave his village. After that he decided to become the most powerful man in the neighbourhood and he succeeded. He was quite a villainous overlord too.

The film is told in a cut-up way, with a dreamy, surrealistic atmosphere.