A lot has been written about 2020. It is obvious it will go into the history books as a year that has been memorable (in a negative way). Writer Charlie Brooker, who many will know as the creative mind behind Black Mirror, decided to make a Netflix movie. The end result? A satirical look back at the past surreal 12 months, mixing real imagery with interviews with “experts”. These are played by Samuel L. Jackson, Hugh Grant, Lisa Kudrow and Kumail Nanjiani among others. Continue reading
I can still remember it well. It was the early nineties and the second generation game consoles (from 8 to 16-bit) had just come out. One of the local department stores in the center of Rotterdam had a large electronics section on the second floor and the two systems were displayed behind glass: The Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis. It was a time without the Internet where you only heard stories of experiences from those you knew. But these systems were new and what this store had done was put in between the two systems a card with their specifications on it. How many colors the systems could show, what the processor was, etc. It is the first moment I can remember that you had the feeling that you had to make a choice between two systems. Which camp you belonged to. That rivalry in the games industry has never disappeared. You can still see that on almost any gaming forum. And although I now myself buy the systems on which the games I want to play are release (which have been several since), the original source of these wars was in the ‘battle’ between Nintendo and Sega, summarized for me at the time on that little note.
The documentary Console Wars shows how the employees at Nintendo and Sega experienced that time. Continue reading
Creativity and the creation of a work is sometimes elusive. It is sometimes unclear where the urge to make something comes from, how you come up with a certain idea and why you make choices to achieve the final result. That is something that is part of every creative expression, be it movies, paintings, music or anything else. Song Exploder is a podcast that has been interviewing musicians about a song they’ve created for years. The music itself is separated using the original files, sometimes per instrument. You will hear why certain choices have been made, what feeling is behind it or what message is being conveyed. They are relatively short episodes, often less than half an hour, in which you hear the final song in its entirety after the story and the music. With the Song Exploder series, podcaster Hrishikesh Hirway makes the step towards a visual medium with the same concept. Continue reading
15 years ago there was a group of friends who decided to start a hip hop group. They managed to turn a small basement of a bookstore into a place where they could practice and perform. They made up lyrics on the spot, based on suggestions from the audience. The group Freestyle Love Supreme would remain unknown for a long time, but a number of members have become superstars. Christopher Jackson broke through with his role of Washington in Hamilton, Thomas Kail accompanied the group and also did for Hamilton. And the best known is of course Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote Hamilton and now has a large number of filmroles to his name. He has also written several Disney songs for Moana and Mary Poppins Returns. This documentary shows the journey they have been on and the role the group played in their success. Continue reading
As you probably have read in my review of Hamilton, it has been a movie which has managed to take a hold of me. I still can’t get enough of it, even weeks later. And the great thing is that this musical is already five years old and if you want to know more there is a real treasure trove of material you can get lost in. While reading the Wikipedia page I saw that a TV documentary, called Hamilton’s America had been made. A quick search on YouTube immediately made it available. Did this one and a half hour movie manage to further scratch my Hamilton itch? Continue reading
Hype for a certain piece of entertainment can be dangerous. There may come a time when your expectations are so high that something can only disappoint. The play Hamilton, which is about one of the “founding fathers” of America, is something I had heard a lot of praise for in several podcasts. The play was always sold out and ticket prices were astronomical. And considering the subject, I had reservations. When the soundtrack was released I may have played it, but didn’t give it my full attention and that was it. I couldn’t imagine that this play was really that special. When Hamilton appeared on Disney+ last week, I had to see it, however, to finally give this piece my full attention and to form an opinion for myself about this historic musical. And I’m glad I did. Continue reading
It was Father’s Day recently and Apple took the opportunity to release the documentary Dads on their Apple TV+ service. A documentary that, as the title makes clear, is about fatherhood. Directed by Bryce Dallas Howard, this film features many fathers talking about their experiences with fatherhood. Besides well-known directors and actors, such as Judd Apatow, her own father Ron Howard, Neil Patrick Harris, Jimmy Fallon, Will Smith, Ken Jeong and Hasan Minhaj, there are also fathers from different countries and in different situations. Continue reading
The number of films (and with that, of course, the number of reviews) that I have watched in recent months continues to decrease. And that’s not because there is nothing to watch, on the contrary. My Netflix list is still huge and I keep adding titles and my IMDb list of movies I want to see consists of 379 titles. Still, I find my escape from reality a lot less in films the last couple of months. Partly because films don’t wow me as much anymore and I’d rather prefer to walk outside for one and a half to two hours in quiet areas, than to sit at home for an even bigger part of the day. Still, I was curious about the latest film by director Spike Lee. You can have different opinions about his films, but no matter what you think, you’ll have to agree that they are always unique. Da 5 Bloods is his latest and is available on Netflix. Continue reading
Ignoring a few exceptions (Boiler Room, Saving Private Ryan) Vin Diesel has mostly starred in action movies, which often can’t be taken very seriously.
Think of the XXX films (Diesel as “extreme sports” super spy), the Riddick films (in which he is an alien superhero) and the Fast and Furious franchise (in which he also plays a superhero who can survive the most impossible situations). Based on a series by Valiant Comics, Bloodshot also takes on the role of a superhero. Does that make for an entertaining movie? Continue reading
Netflix is a service that most of us can no longer imagine we didn’t have. With its wide range of films and a lot of original series, this VOD service has become a regular destination in the daily lives of many. The company was founded in 1997. This documentary looks at this video on demand giant and in particular how it has succeeded in becoming so successful. Continue reading