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American Gods – Bryan Fuller & Michael Green (series, season 3) 2021

  • series

It took me a while before I watched season 3. 2 Was not too great, it took a while before 3 got out and then I couldn’t find a version with subtitles. I ended up joining Amazon Prime to watch this.

This time there are 10 episodes rather than eight, but again the series end with a massive cliffhanger. Mr. Wednesday is still amusing and still gathering old Gods to wage war against the new. At the same time he gets in trouble with some of the other old Gods (very close too) and gets on better terms with some other.

Nothing much happens. Shadow Moon (this time with hair) ends up in a small village in the cold North. His dead wife is no longer dead. We meet some old and new Gods and other spiritual beings which are sometimes new to me in general. There are some strange scenes in season 3, but not as psychedelic as towards the end of 2.

I like the subtle references to mythology, while other elements are a bit overdone.

Amusing, not great.

Black Panther – Ryan Coogler (2018)

The follow-up was a preview before “Woman King“, which made me somewhat curious about the film. “Black Panther” holds the middle between adventure, science-fiction and superhero action.

The imaginary African state of Wakanda is built on a vibranium mine. Vibranium is an odd substance that came with a comet and allows the inhabitents of Wakanda extremely high-tech sollutions; hence the sci-fi elements. The Wandians have super-cars, super-suits and super-weapons which gives the film the superhero elements. The movie is indeed based on a comic.

A piece of vibranium that was kept in a museum outside Wakandu was stolen and the Wakandians set out to retrieve it and to prevent the powers of vibranium falling in the wrong hands.

“Black Panther” is a bit of a ‘blacksploitation’ with mostly black actors (the white ones are the villains). Besides all the sci-fi and spectacle, there are also ‘African elements’ which bring the ‘adventure’ elements that are somewhat out of place. This is exactly what makes the film somewhat atypical which is not a bad thing.

All in all not a masterpiece, but an enjoyable sci-fi, superhero action.

The Woman King – Gina Prince-Bythewood (2022)

In the 18th century European countries not only colonised parts of Africa, but they started making money by selling the people who live there as slaves. Using conflicts between tribes, the Westerners even got come tribes as far as selling them their prisoners. Of course this becomes lucrative for both parties.

The film is mostly about the tribe of the Dahomey who do business (of sorts) with the Portuguese and their enemies of the Oyo who are armed by the West. The Dahomey have an elite female fighting force called Agojie.

So, there we have Nawi who does not obey her father and is sent to ‘serve the king’. Also we have Nanisca who leads the Agojie and who has the respect of her king. Nawi is trained by the Agojie and of course the film moves towards the final conflict.

“The Woman King” has everything a large-audience movie is supposed to have. Battle scenes, a victorious underdog, drama and some romance. What is less common, is that the West is the enemy. The saddening history of slavery is quite in-your-face. The way the Westerners manipulated the situation for their own gain is quite disgusting. What is even more, of course the story is molded into a Hollywood format, but there appears to be more ‘based on actual history’ than what the inattentive viewer may expect.

The names of actors contain many African names. It seems that the makers got a couple of actors and a lot of locals. The result is a well-made film which may be a bit ‘too Hollywood’ here and there, but at least now there is some attention for a piece of history that many countries struggle with nowadays. Watch “The Woman King” and find out why.

Russian Doll – Headland, Lyonne, Poehler (2 series) (2019, 2020)

Meet Nadia Vulvokov an American of Russian and Hungarian descent on the party for her 36th birthday. Nadia is a free-minded, big red hair and smoking cool lady. On her party she dies and returns to the party and then again, and again. She finds out how to prevent dying, but she keeps doing so in different situations. Sometimes a ’round’ takes an hour, sometimes a few days. Then she finds out she is not alone in her situation. Season one is amusing.

In season two, Nadia is transported back in time into her mother’s body when she takes a certain train. The creators used some interesting music choices for 1982. Did you ever hear Danzig in a series? The track “Mother” is from 1988 though, but I will not complain.
In any case, season two is somewhat amusing as well. Towards the end it gets vague and a lot better.

Not wildly original or great, but a descent twist to a fairly known story with an odd and lovable chain smoker.

The Young/New Pope (series) – Paolo Sorrentino (2016 2019)

Sorrentino created two short series about the Vatican, produced by Jude Law who also plays the leading part. I guess he really wanted to play the Pope.

The Vatican cannot decide on who will be the new Pope, so as a solution they pick a young (50 years old) cardinal who can be easily directed. Not so. Pope Pius XIII does everything the Vatican does not want. He is not overly progressive, but rather extremely conservative taking the Church back ages in history scaring away the believers in order to create a mystery that will in the end bring them back.

When Pius XIII is just about to become appreciated he is no longer able to lead the Church and he is replaced by two new Popes in the second series, played by John Malkovich.

The series make an amusing critical view on how the Vatican works. The powerful men behind the scenes, manipulation, politics, the way Italian politics try to interfere, how the outside world (women’s rights, homosexuality, Muslim terrorism, etc.) effects the Church.

All this is done with witty dialogues, uncommon choices of music, a thick layer of ‘artsy fartsy’ filming and themes, a touch of melancholy, humour, sensual women, you get it, this is really a Sorrentino production.

Bullet Train – David Leitch (2022)

Brad Pitt returns to the violent action comedy genre as the goofy “Ladybug” who is a former hitman who has retired. He is returning to his old profession though, but he will only do easy jobs, such as picking up a case on a Japanese high speed train (from the title).

But there is also the story of Kimura whose son was pushed off a roof who sets out to find the perpetrator. Also we have Wolf, a Mexican criminal whose family, including his wife, was killed during the wedding. Tangerine and Lemmon are two hip criminals who are also on the train for another job. Needless to say that the storylines get together as the film continues.

“Bullet Train” is a film as we have seen before. Witty dialogues, over-the-top bloody scenes, dark humour, action and a story that unfolds before the viewer. The result is an amusing movie with amusing elements of Japanese culture, Thomas the Train and well-read bad people.

Lucifer (series) – Tom Kapinos (2016-2021)

The devil is on vacation in the city of angels (LA) and he intends to stay. As the playboy Lucifer Morningstar he owns a club called Lux and he has no lack of money. Filling his time with partying and women, Lucifer runs into the detective Chloe Decker who is somehow immune to his “mojo”. Fascinated as he is, Lucifer joins forces with “the detective” in the LAPD.

A long stretched storyline which is bound to lead to a Lucifer/Decker romance unfolds with plenty of sub-plots, laughter and drama. The series start off as a bit of ‘screwball’ with a fairly childish devil who thinks the world revolves around him and who -even though he never lies- nobody believes to be the devil anyway. That will change though.

Lucifers family also starts to visit earth. To mock him, to try to get him back, sometimes to stay. Lighter and darker storylines develop and the inspiration for all that does not seem all Christian, rather Jewish perhaps.

Anyway, some sub-plots are interesting, some less so. The red thread is sometimes interesting, sometimes less so. There are amusing characters, characters that undergo a big transformation during six seasons. Some come and go, some come to stay. The biggest transformation is for Lucifer himself.

There is the obligatory enlarged drama, that for some reason sometimes ‘works’. There are some interesting musical choices in the soundtrack too. Also there are a lot of scenes that made me say ‘fast forward please’. All in all the series are good enough to keep watching.

So drama, romance, thriller, action, it is all there. Highs and lows; making the final score the average:

È Stata La Mano Di Dio – Paolo Sorrentino (2021)

  • drama

There proved to be some productions of Sorrentino on Netflix. I am now watching the “Young Pope” series, which appears to be followed by a “New Pope” series, so I more or less expected “Hand Of God” to somehow belong to that ‘cluster’. That turned out to be wrong.

“Hand Of God” is a drama playing in Italy, spoken in Italian too, about an extended family in Napoli in the time of the heydays of Diego Maradona. Sorrentino shows the sensual and spirited life of Napels with soccer crazy and sun-loving people who like some family members and continuously scorn others.

As we are used to from Sorrentino, the camera work is beautiful and the film contains both chuckles and drama. Story wise, “Hand Of God” is mostly a short period in the ordinary life of a group of Italians.

Byzantium – Neil Jordan (2012)

  • drama

The cover suggests (to me at least) more of a sci-fi or perhaps an “Enter The Void” drama, but “Byzantium” is actually much more like “Only Lovers Left Alive“: a slow and minimalist vampire drama.

Eleanor is a very exuberant woman who has no problems with making money by prostituting herself. Clara is the complete opposite. Still the two have been together for a long time. A long, long time as the viewer soon finds out.

In flashbacks Jordan tells the story of the two women and other characters they have encountered in their lives. Of course the past catches up with Eleanor and Clara to bring some tension to the film.

“Byzantium” is an alright drama with thriller elements.

The Gray Man – Anthony & Joe Russo (2022)

  • action

So that he would not be remembered for playing in slow action films, Ryan Gosling plays in a fast one.

In a typical story undercover agent Six has to retrieve a single object that apparently can cause world destruction. Of course his boss turns against him (or the other way around), so not only the enemy, but also his own organisation hunts him down. Unsurprisingly, Six turns out to be an uncatchable one man army.

In spite of the unoriginal and predictable story, “The Gray Man” is a descent over-the-top action film with a lot of fighting and shooting and not to forget Ana de Armas as Dani and Billy Bob Thornton as the bad guy.