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11.22.63 (2016)
Smart and engaging
Jack is a recently divorced teacher who gets involved in his dying friend Al's attempt to save JFK. Except that Jack lives in 2016 and he can only thwart the assassination by travelling to the past. The other catch is that the "door to the past" opens only to a single day in 1960, which means Jack will have to hang around for three years in the past.
It's an intriguing premises, developed in a clever way. The device of the Al character serves the purpose of giving enough information to Jack, so that he can have a smooth sailing in the past and the audience doesn't have to be bogged down with details about the JFK story, which is usually well known. In any case, this series is not about saving the president, but about the consequences of getting involved.
Al advises Jack NOT to get involved with anybody in the past but obviously Jack does and his involvement derails considerably his mission. He falls for beautiful Sadie and his attempts to help her almost prevent him from completing his self-imposed mission.
Some viewers may be disappointed by the turn for the romantic about half way, when the JFK plot becomes secondary, but it is actually a clever move to make the story relatable, with a situation anybody may encounter in real life: what if breaking up with the person I love would improve their life?
My only negative remarks are about the "vagueness" of the antagonist, the "Past" that wants to prevent the change of history with random interventions that don't make much sense and in the last episode, Jack literally dragging Sadies upstairs in the Texas School Book Depository. She had nothing to do there except getting in danger to fulfil the final part of the plot.
I didn't read the novel, so my review is based only on the show but considering that Stephen King worked at the adaptation, it means that even him thought this was good enough.
Fiasco (2024)
A faulty farce
I watched two episodes of this series, hoping it would improve but unfortunately, it just got sillier. It seemed funny from the trailer, about a shy, first-time director making his first movie, and everything escalating into a huge disaster, but the cast is too big, and none of the characters is more than a stereotype (the director in love with the female movie star, the pretentious actor, the stupid producer, etc...) and the chances for laughter are few and far between.
The character of Raphael is just unbelievable, nobody that weak would have the drive and perseverance to get the financing for his movie, and the plot about his grandmother seems predictably silly and not something that would get financed.
I also found the "mockumentary" style particularly grating, with the invasive presence of one or more cameramen filming everything on the sly and the constant use of social media.
Ehrengard: The Art of Seduction (2023)
Sterile but beautiful
The plot is little more than a farce, taking place in a fake German dukedom. The duchess, married to a much older duke, has the hots for lascivious painter Cazotte, who's not interested in her but rather in the fearless Valkyrie Ehrengard.
Due to the duchess's machinations, Cazotte and Ehrengard have the chance to spend some time together, holding court to the dukedom heir and his pregnant wife and during this time Cazotte tries to "seduce" the engaged and uninterested Ehrengard with a plot bound to derail.
The locations and costumes are fabulous, the actors - all unknown to me - do a decent job and the plot moves briskly along, without causing any emotion apart from pleasure for the brilliant aesthetic. Shame about the silly ending.
French Kiss (1995)
Decent comedy
You know what your getting yourself into when watching a 90s movie with Meg Ryan. In this story her character is called Kate, but it's just another version of her trademark quirky, funny and rather goofy persona. What makes Kate just slightly different from other Ryan's characters is a limited and mostly unflattering wardrobe of oversize shirts and pants, offset by an occasional tight vest.
Kate is an American living in Canada and engaged with Charlie, an ordinary guy who during a business trip to France falls in lust with a French girl and decides to marry her. Despite her fear of flying and hatred for everything French, Kate decides to "take Charlie back" and embarks in a crazy adventure with French suspicious character Luc, played by Kline. Despite my reserve about an American playing a French man, Kline's accent is actually quite good and I liked his performance with his slow morphing into a more "human" character rather than staying a caricature.
What makes the movie less enjoyable is Ryan who plays her Kate as a slightly deranged and OTT woman. Also, at the start Kate has zero chemistry with Luc and while his change of heart is believable, nothing much appears to change with Kate, which makes the third act quite unbelievable.
Still, a decent comedy from those bygone times when a man and a woman could have a romance and an American could play a French character without cries of outrage from the social media mob.
Red Dawn (1984)
A relic that aged badly
Watching this for the first time 40 years after its release spares one from feelings of "nostalgia", but also makes appreciation harder.
Probably in the early 80s in the US there was a real fear of WWIII looming close (not that things have improved much) but the development of this plot just doesn't make any sense. Why would Russian and Cuban armies "invade" a village in the middle of nowhere and of no strategic importance? Just to give the teenage actors a chance to become partisans?
The absurdity of the invasion for me undermines the whole plot. It certainly doesn't help that the acting was not stellar, that the guerrilla actions were kind of absurd and that trained troops could be so easily exterminated by a bunch of teenagers.
Not "the worst film ever" but not that good, either.
The Gentlemen (2024)
Entertaining but not stellar
If you're familiar with Guy Ritchie's movies you know what you're getting yourself into. His stories are about eccentric British gangsters who use convolute language, violence and a lot of swearing. That sums up most of this series, inclusive of cool characters, fast editing, atrocious soundtrack and occasional visual tricks.
The saving grace are the interpreters of main characters Eddie (the Duke) and Susie (the Boss' daughter), who have believable chemistry, luckily without any sentimental strings attached. Ray Winstone as the Bobby the Boss is also good, albeit playing it too cool.
The Duke's family lives in a beautiful estate - slightly too grand and with way too much staff - and Eddie's mum is straight out of Lady Chatterley's lover, inclusive of liaison with gamekeeper Geoff and illegitimate offspring, even if both mum and daughter totally irrelevant to the plot, but someone must have told Ritchie a feminist touch was needed, so the daughter is single, pregnant and proudly parading her belly. What's got to do with the plot? Whatever...
Eddie's brother is the idiotic Freddy, I guess a parody of the useless, addict, degenerate aristocrat, but a very annoying character. On the criminal side, the annoying counterpart is Jimmy, a silly pothead who in real life would be terminated ASAP, but in the show he is the "comic relief" (Hint: he's not funny, just annoying as hell). However, the rest of criminals all seem more or less caricatures, starting from the demented Scouses to the suave but tax-evading Johnston, the spillover from Breaking Bad. The show includes the inevitable boxing scenes, gambling, car chases (green Lamborghini, nonetheless!) and Eastern European gangs. However, the criminal world seems to be more fun than aristocratic parties.
One glaring mistake: the Belgian character is a Flemish named de Groot but he speaks French! Ritchie's team should research better, since Belgians are very sensitive to this type of things and even I not being Belgian but having lived there several years, noticed the incongruity of a Flemish character who speaks French. That would NEVER happen.
On the whole it's entertaining enough even if very predictable with each episode creating a previously unforeseen problem to be solved and the introduction of a truckload of characters.
Dante (2022)
Flat storytelling
The film follows Boccacccio's journey from Florence to Ravenna to offer a monetary compensation to Dante's daughter. Dante had been exiled and could never return to Florence, dying in Ravenna after a long series of journeys across northern Italy. His daughter had followed him to Ravenna, to become a nun in a local convent, never wanting to go back to Florence because of the ill-treatment of her father.
Boccaccio, played by Castellitto, was already elderly and not in good health. During his own journey he meets and talks to people who knew Dante and we follow Dante's history as a series of flashbacks.
The problem is that the past and the present look exactly the same, the recollection of Dante's life jumps all over the place and the story never really takes off.
On the good side, the costumes and settings are suitable threadbare, living conditions are shown to be poor and kind of brutal. There are a couple of emotional scenes, but for others the setting is too artificial, made to look like some Giotto's paintings. On the minus side, I did not like the soundtrack at all and some scenes with Beatrice are just weird, inclusive of the creepy wooden doll.
3 Body Problem: Wallfacer (2024)
Gone with the snapped sail
The unfortunate last episode of a series that started with a bang and ended with a whimper. From mega cool video games, dehydrated bodies going back to life with a jump in the pool, and morally ambiguous Chinese scientists to a bunch of lovelorn ethnically correct failures.
The San-Ti are omnipotent and yet they send a pathetic white male sniper to kill Saul. Clearly, the guy was going to fail, because the show established that all white males are disposable, inept, or just plain bad. So why not send infallible Tatiana? She's a girl, she can do anything better. Or use the female Sophone, she is a supergirl and can kill people in various sophisticated ways. But no... they try with a stupid car accident and a sniper, kind of primitive and bound to fail.
The "Let's save Saul" plot took almost the whole episode, compounded by the trite clichè of the "reluctant hero". They give Saul a job he doesn't want and refuses, even if everybody knows he will end up doing it. Mega waste of time.
Will's brain is lost in space (or is it?) causing deep sorrow to Jin, who after having ignored him for all her life was now hoping for a resurrection.
Given that the target audience for this is young males (most SF fans are males, anyway) there is also a useless scene with nano-girl boss Auggie standing on her moral high ground and pouting about giving clean water to the poor in South America. Thumbs up Auggie!
I enjoyed only the final scene, with Clarence my favorite character, but I still wonder why the San-Ti didn't plan a better operation to wipe out everybody from planet Earth. Not that I would help them, but watching a show like this makes me feel hopeless about the future of the human race.
3 Body Problem: Only Advance (2024)
Another one bites the dust
One of the few remaining but disposable white males in the show is going to depart our sorrowful planet - metaphorically and literally. Will, or just the best part of him, is sent to the sky (literally), after having spent 19.5 million to buy a star for Jin, because he was madly in love with her even if they have zero chemistry, but after all they're physicians...
After a lengthy, soppy goodbye scene the show is finally ethnically cleansed from the embarrassing presence of the remaining British white male.
Elsewhere, nano-girl boss Auggie decides to flaunt her moral standard by metaphorically mounting on her high horse and riding away in the sunset. Probably her ego wasn't pampered enough, as a mere member of the Staircase Project. Probably they should have kissed her B side more.
Finally, Tatiana the ruthless killer-girl boss is resurrected for a mission to eliminate the now useless Dr. Ye. Not that I am sad about Ye's demise, even if I share her point of view about humanity, but this makes one wonder why the omnipotent girl boss Sophone needs to move her agents around the world to eliminate a useless and powerless old woman. Would you bother so much to squash a bug that's crawling out of your garden?
Arbitrage (2012)
Ambiguity at its best
A tale of greed and deception with a sprinkle of morality, Arbitrage is the story of Miller (an amazing Gere) a powerful businessman caught in what is probably the worst week of his life.
Allegedly a happily married man and a successful businessman, Miller is neither. His marriage is on the rocks, he has a young, French mistress and his business is on the brink of bankruptcy, for which he must find a buyer before it's too late.
As if this is not enough, more disaster strikes, in the shape of a car crash caused by Miller, which is likely to jeopardize his last hope of saving his money and his reputation. Enters Tim Roth as a detective too determined to find the truth and Miller must face a tough moral dilemma.
Definitely one of Gere's best which unfortunately got no rewards as it happens for too many great actors.
3 Body Problem (2024)
Nano-what?
I did not read the SF novel(s) on which this series is based, which however shouldn't be a requisite, therefore my review is only about the show.
The first episodes have the annoying non-linear structure so fashionable nowadays and used for every new show. The audience is thrown in the middle of a story and a series of flashbacks tells how it started. Chronologically, the plot begins in China in 1966, during the Cultural Revolution and the main character is a young female scientist, Ye Wenji sent to a remote part of the country to pay for her cultural sins. Good start and good acting.
Given her experience, the Ye character develops an understandable hatred for the human race at large, and thanks to her contact with billionaire Mike Evans, the two develop an "assistance plan" for an alien invasion. The clever twist of the plot is that it will take the aliens some 400 years to reach Planet Earth. Will the humans discover the plan and be able to do something to prevent it? So far, so brilliant and not a spoiler, since the alien part is revealed fairly soon in the series. What was worth 10 stars drops miserably with the development in present-day England (is that England?) where mostly non-English people and girl bosses take over.
Two mysterious investigators (Wade and Clarence) contact a group of "5 brilliant young scientists" to work with them. While Benedict Wong is quite good as the sour and unintentionally funny "investigator" Clarence and probably my favorite character, the "Scientists 5" are miscast, the elephant in the room being Eiza Gonzáles as a "nanoscientist" ... or whatever.
One would think she is too busy putting on makeup, going to the hairdresser, and pouting to be able to do any nanoscience, and her "crime" is compounded by the other young females (Tatiana, the Sophon, and Jin Cheng). These girl bosses take over the show with their arrogant, snotty attitudes, while the male characters are mostly disposable wimps. The plot dilutes into love stories, power struggles, and attitude displays while the aliens sail along in their spaceship.
Marie Antoinette (2006)
A pretty pawn in a wicked game
This movie about Marie Antoinette's "glory years" is loosely based on Antonia Fraser's biography and doesn't dwell on the final, miserable period of the queen's life.
The poster promoting the film gives hits of punk and post-punk atmospheres (that pink banner suggesting the Sex Pistols' God Save Queen single cover, etc....) but most of the audience seems to have missed the connection.
The plot shows how the young queen was a pawn in a political marriage, thrown into a court that was a web of deception and corruption, and left to cope with her limited resources. It did not help her that her husband Louis, future XVI, was not much interested in sex and left her sleeping in a cold bed for seven years.
Left to her own device and frustration, Marie "overcompensated" with the company of her friends, gambling and shopping. Not crimes "per se", but advertised as such to the peasants of France. Even her choice of spending time in the splendid Trianon's bucolic peace was criticized by the aristocrats, because she was neglecting the etiquette and by the peasants, as a sign of mocking extravagance. Whatever, Marie did, was wrong and it was easy as always to point out "lasciviousness" as her main wickedness. Like most women, sex was a cause for degrading libels, even if her one and only alleged lover was Count Fersen. When Marie gained some maturity thanks to maternity, it was already too late to save her reputation.
The settings, costumes, and for me even the choice of music underline the decadent opulence of the last days of the Ancien Régime, making for a magnificent experience. A lushness for the senses, with a melancholic ending, sparing the audience the worst part.
Nothing But the Truth (2008)
Stubbornly silly
Beckinsale is Rachel, the would-be heroic reporter who publishes an article about a female CIA operative (Farmiga), uncovering state secrets along the way.
The movie tries to celebrate Rachel as if she's a heroin because first of all, she's a mother, also a top-notch journalist but mainly a very stubborn person. One would think the movie was financed by the #meToo, always ready to celebrate anybody of the female sex, regardless of their merits.
Unfortunately, Rachel has no merit and behaves very stupidly, creating havoc and mistaking her stubbornness for "integrity". It doesn't help that this "heroic" character is played by Beckinsale, who has a limited range (with makeup and without).
The irony of the plot is that the source Rachel so stubbornly refuses to reveal is a child (who else? She's a mother after all..) and that this top-notch journalist based her detailed article on the words of a kid. So much for a careful verification of your sources and why on earth ruin the lives of everybody around you to protect a child who in any case wasn't going to be prosecuted? How sillier can this get?
PS I am a woman myself but I find this tripe unbearable.
Small Time Crooks (2000)
Wrong title but good fun
Tracey Ullman stars and shines in this comedy as Frenchy, the wise wife of the small-time crook Ray (Allen). Frenchy manages to create a profitable business while her husband and his associates develop a stupid plan to rob a bank.
The film's first part deals rather briskly with Ray's failed plan and his rags-to-riches fast climb, while the remaining two-thirds deal with the "problems" linked with having too much too fast.
The main one is being accepted in high society which is important for Frenchy and not at all for Ray, who just wants to retire to Florida. What follows is a breakup, quickly mended by the sudden loss of their money, perhaps a bit too fast, just as their ascent, but required by the plot.
There are many funny moments and witty dialogues and the result is a pleasant movie. My only remark is that the "crooks" and their illegal endeavor are a small part of the plot, while the main plot is about Ray and Frenchy, therefore a different title would have been better.
Radio Days (1987)
Winning nostalgia
The plot is a loose series of events that happens to Joe (the child narrator - a version of Allen himself) and his family, inclusive of parents, aunts and grandparents, intertwined with the story of Sally a loose girl who "makes it" in the show business (the weakest part of the plot, also because I don't like Mia Farrow).
From a description of his neighbourhood to a list of everybody's favourite radio programme, Joe gives an insight of life in the 40s in Rockaway and tell of his fascination with New York and the Radio City Music Hall, the best place in the world.
If one can be nostalgic of a time and place one did not even experience, this would be it for me. Just like the narrator, I find the period he describes charming and fascinating. Obviously, the soundtrack is top, one of the best in any Allen's film. The lack of a structured plot helps appreciate the film even more as a nostalgic trip to a past that by definition is always better than the present.
Nurse Betty (2000)
Yet another failed would be Tarantino
Betty is a doormat of a woman, married to Del, a guy who mistreat her and cheats on her to which she reacts by watching a soap opera, because she's in love with "Doctor David".
Enter two very unlikely hitmen Charlie and Wesley, (Freeman and Rock) looking for a McGuffin (drugs... how original) that Del stole (how? Why? Whatever..) and to make Del talk they torture and then kill him, while Betty is in the back room watching her soap on TV, but distracted just enough to witness the murder.
Charlie and Wesley are the poor person version of Jules and Vincent from Pulp Fiction. They swear a lot and have "philosophical conversations" but are not funny AT ALL, Rock being the main culprit.
Betty in a "fugue state", whatever that may be, drives to California to meet Dr. David, thinking to be a nurse previously engaged to David.
Some appreciated Zellweger in the role but I found her over the top cloying and playing deranged rather than confused. After a final confrontation, Betty is told by Charlie that "This is not the 40s" and she does not need a man, so she goes on living a happy single life and travels to Rome. Disjointed, badly acted and silly.
Secretary (2002)
Kicks... not so much
Whoever watched this based on the poster image and hoping for strong sexual content must have been very disappointed. I watched it out of curiosity and I was also disappointed, but mostly bored.
Gyllenhall plays Lee, a disturbed woman who "cuts herself", therefore a masochist, who gets her first job for lawyer Mr. Grey, an equally disturbed person more on the sadist side, but not too much, just sadistic enough for a mainstream movie.
The story drags on for what seems ages, while Lee develops a liking for her mistreatment at the hands of her boss (mostly spanking) and then she realizes she "loves" Grey. Whatever... to each, their own.
There are only two main characters in this boring plot, with minimal supporting roles (Lee's parents and unfortunate boyfriend) and most of the action takes place in Grey's claustrophobic, sinister office that looks like a set from Twin Peaks, just like the mildly weird, abundantly snooze-inducing plot.
Captives (1994)
The things people do for lust
The beautiful Ormond at the start of her career plays recently divorced Rachel, a dentist still very much upset by her breakup. When she starts working in a prison twice a week, Rachel becomes attracted to inmate Philip. Reading some other reviews, seems like Tim Roth is considered a chick magnet. I find him a good character actor, usually playing cool criminals (or undercover cops) and here he does a good job, albeit in his trademark, detached, almost sleepwalking way.
The "romance" between Rachel and Philip soon turns torrid, since he's allowed out once a week. The two have sex in a restaurant's toilet (charming), exchange glances in prison and have some awkward phone calls.
The elephant in the room is the crime Philip committed. For unknown reasons, Rachel seems not to care at first and doesn't ask Philip only to dig out the truth that he killed his wife. This could be the turning point for a character study, one way or the other, although with a wife killer I see only one way to go, but unfortunately the script takes another direction.
Maybe the inception of a criminal sub-plot was considered necessary to give some punch to what might have been considered a "love story", even if there is little love and a lot of angry sex. However, it derails the plot towards a stupid ending.
Also, it's hard to believe that somebody as attractive as Ormond could not find a suitor outside the prison. The plot would have been more believable with a less attractive female in the lead.
Eye of the Needle (1981)
Thrilling and chilling
A great spy story with minimal plot. The "Needle" is a German master spy comfortably nested in British society who gets accidentally discovered by his landlady in 1940, forcing him to disclose his game temporarily.
In the meantime David and Lucy get married and are ecstatically happy but unfortunately victims of a car crash. Fast forward 4 years later, on the eve of D-Day, when the Needle is doing some spying to find out whether the Allied invasion will take place at Calais or Normandy.
Having discovered the truth, the Needle must deliver precious photos to Hitler himself, but find himself stranded on Stormy Island, where David and Lucy live with their son. Their marriage is under a lot of strain and David mistreats Lucy, who feels lonely and hasn't had sex in years. This last detail for once is not irrelevant, because it leads to a believable, immediate, burning passion for the mysterious stranger.
A deadly game develops in which the participants look hurt, doubtful, and exhausted, not perennially strong and steely determined as in modern movies.
Love and Death (1975)
Early, but only mildly funny
Allen's early movies are supposed to be the "funny ones", but to me they're mostly a series of sketches loosely held together by a flimsy plot.
In this case, the plot is more solid than other early comedies, being the parody of Russian literature and most of the times it works. The first half of the movie is quite funny, with lots of memorable lines.
Boris, the Allen character, is a coward forced to fight against Napoleon's invasion of Russia, while he would prefer to spend his time with the beloved Sonja (Keaton) who's in love with his brother Ivan.
Once Boris manages to marry Sonja, the two have a turbulent marriage and then decide to kill Napoleon. This part of the plot goes downhill with lots of Allen's monologues and plenty of sexual innuendoes (with death, the stuff of most of Allen's jokes, but still...)
The ending is mildly funny, and luckily the movie is quite short. For me not a classic, but still watchable once.
Gods and Monsters (1998)
Loneliness is democratic
This simple plot follows the last, fictionalized, days of movie director Whale, spent in his comfortable albeit stuffy abode in the company of housekeeper Hanna and gardener Clay.
Whale directed some successful movies such as "Frankenstein" in the 30s but was forgotten by the end of the 50s. He was also gay, but for me his sexual orientation is irrelevant, since the theme of the movie is old age and the feeling of being irrelevant, which may hit everybody regardless of sex.
McKellen was good in his role and I liked the movie very much the first time I saw it. The second time I thought that Whale asking the reporter to strip during the interview would be considered sexual harassment. Can you imagine an heterosexual director asking a female reporter to strip to get answers?
But because of double - even triple - standards, Whale is presented as a mildly lecherous eccentric old man, meaning no harm.
However, Whale's relationship with the straight Clay works relatively well and Fraser gives the performance of a lifetime, even if the film didn't age well.
Bad Influence (1990)
Stylish thriller
Although released in 1990, "Bad Influence" has a distinctive 80s feeling, with rampant yuppies, expensive gadgets and two leading men from the era, the softie Michael (Spader) and the hard Alex (Lowe).
Between the end of the 80s and the mid 90s, Spader was in a string of movies playing more or less the same character of lovable, bespectacled, posh loser, before turning into the evil, bald Red Reddington of The Blacklist fame
Here Spader is still lovable, albeit wimpish. His Michael is a corporate yuppie who lives in a posh apartment, reluctantly engaged to what looks like a boring rich girl. Enters Alex (AKA Tony, Franco, etc...) and Michael discovers that life can be more exciting than trading bonds.
After a series of drunk evenings spent with Alex in the company of a seductive brunette, robbing night stores and assaulting colleagues, Michael's life turn into a nightmare when Alex shows his true colors and kills the brunette in Michal's apartment.
The story is well told and quite suspenseful, Lowe makes for a believable psycho despite - or thanks to - his good looks and Michael proves to be more than a tame pretty face.
Gorky Park (1983)
Decent thriller
A few years before the crumbling of the Soviet empire, inspector Renko ( Hurt) is charged with solving a triple murder. Renko is straight as an arrow and a honest man and he suspects KBG involvement from the start, given the fact that the three bodies found in Gorky Park miss their faces.
This gory detail provides an interesting development with the reconstruction of the victims' faces from the bone structure. In the meantime, Renko discovers that one of the victims was an American which confirms his suspicions about the KBG.
A girlfriend of one of the victims, the brother of the dead American and a shady American businessman are all involved in the intricate plot, based on a literary source. My favorite scene is at the end when Renko gives freedom to some furry creatures. Both symbolic and humane.
Toni Erdmann (2016)
Painfully slow and silly
The plot is interesting only on paper since it should explore a father/daughter relationship. Peter, a divorced music teacher tries to reconnect with hotshot daughter Ines, who works for a financial corporation in Bucharest. Unfortunately, Peter is an uncouth, non-lovable weirdo. Following his beloved dog's death, Peter invites himself to Bucharest and teaches Ines how to live by playing practical jokes and pestering her business associates with childish pranks, like wearing false teeth.
The false teeth gag goes on and on and it's not funny. It's allegedly based on the director's father who used to do it, so the audience must live through her memories because they are important to her, while irrelevant to me.
What's worse, Peter behaves like an intellectually challenged person and seems unable to string together a sensible sentence, while continuing his silly antics. Not that Ines fares much better though a series of cringeworthy situations that could have been edited out without any consequences. The movie drags on and on. I watched it hoping it would improve but it got worse with every useless scene stretched endlessly.
Forget about "comedy". While drama is international, humor is more difficult to "translate" and doesn't necessarily work the same way worldwide. I read that this is typical "German humor" and it must be, because it did not work for me.
Although much-hyped I have no clue what the hype was about. Maybe it's due to the current trend of worshipping any "female-written and directed" movie. Anything with a woman at the helm must be praised, regardless of mediocrity. I never heard of director Maren Ade and based on this, I am not interested in any other overlong and unfunny production of hers.
Ripley: VIII - Narcissus (2024)
Italians are stupid
The main point of this episode seems to be showing how pathetic and easily deceived Italians are. The biggest culprit being obviously Inspector Ravini. Not only he doesn't bother to get a photo of an allegedly missing person (Ripley), but he goes to Ripley's house, doesn't recognise him thanks to a ridiculous wig and moustaches and - worst of all - tells Ripley all details about an ongoing investigation.
Those are abysmally low investigative standards. Since when the police is at liberty to discuss a case with a person of interest? Not only that but Italian newspapers and magazines publish articles about Ripley and Greenleaf without a single photo of either... again, how believable is that? A big feature appears on a weekly magazine without a portrait of the missing guy when Marge could have provided tons? Yes, Italian are stupid and duped by smart Americans.
Being Italian myself I should be insulted, but I just found this last episode dragging on and being kind of OTT stupid. Even if Highsmith novel was good, sometimes a plot works only on paper but not so much when confronted with real details.