Song Exploder (2020) – Review

Song Exploder review

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

Da 5 Bloods (2020) – Review

Da 5 Bloods recensie

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

Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness – Review

Tiger king recensie

Subcultures are sometimes able to surprise you. I can remember watching an episode of Louis Theroux dealing with exotic animals and it was unbelievable to me that some people would like to keep a tiger. Yet this is extremely popular in America. In fact, it is so popular that only in North America more tigers live in captivity than the number in the wild. Mike Tyson had a Bengal tiger for 16 years, but as the Netflix documentary Tiger King shows, there are always people who are even more extreme. Continue reading

Uncut Gems (2019) – Review

Recensie Uncut Gems

“Never say never”. That was the saying that came to mind immediately after seeing Uncut Gems. A few years ago, after seeing Pixels, I took the decision not to see a single film with Adam Sandler. His comedies are unfortunately bad and I didn’t want to expose myself to those horrors anymore. However, when I heard that he was playing the lead role in a new film by the Safdie brothers, I had to put my decision aside. Their film Good Time was one of those titles which grabbed the viewer and never let go. It showed how good Robert Pattinson is as an actor. When the brothers wrote Uncut Gems, they had Sandler in mind for the lead role. Continue reading

Between Two Ferns: The Movie (2019) – Review

Between Two Ferns the movie recensie

The web series Between Two Ferns, in which Zach Galifianakis interviews famous people in a very special way, has always been entertaining to watch. By means of his questions he actually criticizes the other and makes them more or less embarrassed, but his guests like to play along. The short format resulted in a lot of funny moments and it now has made the transition to a full movie on Netflix. But does such a concept work if you have to fill 82 minutes? Continue reading

Rim of the World (2019) – Review

Rim of the world recensie

The nice thing about Netflix is ​​that every week an enormous amount of content is added and you occasionally have absolutely no idea what to expect from a certain title. That may mean that you are pleasantly surprised, but also that you sometimes watch titles of which you think that they should not have been made. A while ago, Rim of the World appeared on the on-demand service. I hadn’t read or heard about it yet, but since the film was directed by McG (who also has directed, for example, 3 Days to Kill, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle and Terminator Salvation), my expectations were not high, but I was curious about the concept. I always have a weakness for science fiction and a movie in which teenagers fight aliens looked interesting on paper. Continue reading

Always Be My Maybe (2019) – Review

Always Be My Maybe review
We live in times of abundance, even when it comes to entertainment. The choice of books, video games, films and series is overwhelming. With that “problem”, the feeling of a shared experience has largely disappeared. It occasionally happens with big releases like a Marvel movie or something like Game of Thrones, but the chance that when you’ve seen a movie others have already seen the same title is small. Especially when such a film has not appeared in the cinema. That is also the case with the Netflix romcom Always Be My Maybe. A title that may be promoted temporarily through the service, but one which you may add to the long list that you probably already have, but which you will never get back to. Yet this is one that you should actually watch immediately when you are looking for a light-hearted film with lots of humor. Continue reading

I Am Mother (2019) – Review

I Am Mother recensie
Although I have not yet written my reviews for the fifth season of Black Mirror, I did conclude that Charlie Brooker can no longer achieve the same high level of previous seasons. The dark twists I am expecting are no longer present and elements from earlier episodes were used again, such as placing a consciousness in another object. At the start of I Am Mother, I immediately realized that the concept of this Netflix movie as a basis could fit well with Black Mirror. Continue reading