Is there anything better than a great political documentary? All three of these are worth a watch and currently on Netflix… Oklahoma City…A documentary about the Oklahoma City bombing that may not reveal a whole lot of new information, but it does delve deep into the history of the radical rightwing that led up to…
Author: Alabama Liberal
Movie Review: Okja
Heralded as Netflix’s “breakthrough into mainstream film success”—which people have said about Adam Sandler’s Netflix-only projects or oscar-contender “Beasts of No Nation” years ago—the latest film from Snowpiercer’s versatile Bong Joon-Ho is about a genetically engineered super-pig that looks more like a hippopotamus with Dumbo ears. The pig is raised in the seclusion of the…
Why Are Entertainment Journalists Happy Netflix is Cancelling Shows?
A weird trend has been taking place lately in regards to news coverage of Netflix. And I don’t just mean that the Netflix has started cancelling series. In fact, I was pretty unaware that the network had a reputation for not cancelling series. But don’t worry because many, many headlines made me aware of this fact by loudly trumpeting…
In Memorandum of Cinemax’s Terrific “The Knick” and “Quarry”
I’m not sure what’s worse: that Cinemax cancelled the two best series they’ve ever put on the air or that the news was so low-key most fans of the series (like myself) didn’t even know they had been cancelled. Although I think there might be something even worse: Cinemax’s casual mentioning that they would no longer even…
Movie Review: 47 Meters Down
Just judging by the trailer, I pretty much dismissed this as a “The Shallows” knock-off with two women instead of Blake Lively. And even though it still pretty much is—don’t pretend this would’ve gotten made if “The Shallows” had flopped last year during the exact same time period—it’s more than worth watching on a big…
Movie Review: The Mummy
Can a movie sometimes benefit from bad expectations? Absolutely, because I was told this movie was so bad that when it did something right—and it does in a few scenes—it almost made me feel I was watching a good movie. But really I wasn’t… What Works: There are a handful of standout sequences, but except for…
Movie Review: Shimmer Lake, A Dog’s Purpose, Split
Sometimes a movie slips through the cracks, and I eventually catch up to it… Shimmer Lake…It’s too bad this twisty, well-crafted noir film didn’t get a theaterical release because I feel the Netflix-only model is tantamount to getting buried with a “straight to DVD” release. There are 100s of new things on Netflix every single…
TV Reviews: “American Gods,” “Fargo,” “Better Call Saul,” “Veep,” “Silicon Valley”
Various critically beloved shows finished their seasons over the last week. Here now, a quick review of all… American Gods…I’m not quite a believer yet, and even if I liked Bryan Fuller’s over-the-top, ghoulish style in “Hannibal” (adding a surrealistic dimension to a series that would’ve been laughably far-fetched otherwise), it tends to smother a…
TV Review: “GLOW” the Rare Critically-Beloved Series that Deserves Its Praise
GLOW…It’s tempting to dismiss “Glow”‘s critical praise as “Well, it’s a show about female empowerment, did you really think critics were going to shit on it?” But its larger empowerment themes are actually just sweet icing on an excellently acted, well-scripted, crisply directed cake that seems to have an actual narrative that’s actually going somewhere. [I would…
Family TV Reviews: “Bill Nye Saves the World” Begins and “Samurai Jack” Ends
Is there anything harder to find on TV than a “family show” you can watch with kids but can find in primetime? I can remember growing up watching “Seinfeld,” “Frasier,” a bunch of other sitcoms, and eventually “Lost” with my entire family, but what could you really say that about today? Cable TV has narrowcasted…
Does “House of Cards” Look Different in the Age of Trump?
House of Cards…After rebounding from a lousy season 3 with a series-best season 4, it’s another step backwards with a season that is a little off-the-rails and once again asks us to believe characters would do something that seems completely against their nature. During the season finale, you have to wonder if the writers were trying to…
Ranking and Reviewing the Seasons of “American Crime”
Normally, I’m ahead of the curve on a much buzzed-about TV show, and am perhaps a little proud of the fact that I watched “Arrested Development,” “Breaking Bad,” “The Shield,” etc. when they were actually on TV (from episode 1) rather than a year after they went off the air. “American Crime” is different in…
Ranking All Pixar Films from Worst to Best
Note: Really, even “the worst” Pixar film is worth seeing, and after I got to about the mid-point of this list I realized I was just ranking different degrees of excellence (the difference between an A- and an A or even an A and an A+). It’s truly remarkable what this studio has accomplished, that an…