sleeplessinyorks Reviews

Masters of the Air (2024)

Highly Anticipated. Highly Disappointing.

[3/10 · 31 March 2024]

Where does one start and where does one finish? I mean, I have nothing more to add, than what it has already been written here by other fellow reviewers.

Why oh why, in the 3rd decade of the 21st century Hollywood still keeps pushing their historically inaccurate representation of USA's contribution to WWII?

• USA won WWII.

• UK could not function unless the Yanks were involved.

• The whole of Europe cheers USA for saving them.

Don't start me on the later end of the final episode where the USA flag is raised and all the allied forces worked around the Americans. Really?!?! I mean come on!

A Spark Story (2021)

Blah Blah Blah (whispering: We Need New Talent)

[6/10 · 1 January 2023]

Well, this is a documentary made by Pixar about Pixar's talent incubation programme that they run for their employees. As such, everything looks a-ma-zing!

Putting that aside, one cannot help but wonder, why is Disney doing this? Oh , yes! They need to esnure that they keep churning successful Pixar feature films. It is admirable, nonetheless, that a company looks inwards to find new ideas for their projects. After all, they employ thousands of artists. Statistically speaking, if one threw a stone, it would, more likely, hit a talent.

Visibility and inclusiveness are key! #fact Alas, it's been delivered in a very self-centered manner, coming across as Disney patting themselves on the back.

This is further compounded by having what appeared to be white cis-gender CEOs and COOs, (or whatever their titles were).

More diversified comment is needed, so such faux-factual programming has no need to be produced #fact.

Inside Man (II) (2022)

Great Potential Poorly Delivered

[5/10 · 17 October 2022]

I was so excited to watch this; the cast alone, David Tennant, Stanley Tucci, Dolly Wells, Lydia West, meant that this limited series had great potential. The writer, however, Steven Moffat, not so great.

Since the fiasco that was the last series of Sherlock, Moffat has really gone down my estimation as a writer. Alas, I thought to give him another chance; after all, it's been so many years since the last Sherlock.

Great opener; fantastic 1st episode, skilfully setting up the scene, characters and diagetic world, (a classic old Moffat writing, if you will).

By the second episode everything went down the drain...and it kept going with scene afte scene; a relentless cacophony of charcater development, caricature-esque plot twists...other members of the household gave up on it...I thought to keep watching, afterall there only a few episodes, and how bad can it get? And yet it did get worse.

This forms a great example as to why Steven Moffat has messed up Sherlock so spectacularly.... I am not sure that he can trully be brilliant on his own...something tells me that when he was collaborating with Russel T Davies, that was his best work.

Nomadland (2020)

A Film Riddled With Tripes

[4/10 · 11 May 2021]

Having been following Francis McDormand's career since I can remember, I was looking forward to this film. Especially when I read that she also produced this. Alas, COVID-19 pandemic meant I had to wait for Disney + to release it in my country... (the incredulity of this very fact is spectacular!)

Well, this film has been such a disappointment for me. McDormand's underplayed yet poignant performance aside, this film seems to miss fire on all levels and accounts. It had such a potential for self-reflection and self-evaluation, yet it did not deliver for me.

I feel that this is due to the economic elite, (see Hollywood's multi-billion dollar entertainment industry), attempting to be self-reflective on the American society and on those who have nothing...

This has been plagued with emotional and sociopolitical tripes of gigantic proportions; vis-a-vis, cliché after cliché; stereotype after stereotype, the film attempts to inculcate to the viewer the vastness and depths of the characterisation on screen. Yet it fails to deliver for me.

Perhaps the film's themes and leitmotifs cannot transpose onto an international market; especially as the world still tries to get its head around the catastrophic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic; perhaps this endeavour is aimed at a US-specific audience / market only.

Eastsiders (2012–2019)

Me; Me; Me... oh! Wait!... Me

[2/10 · 28 April 2021]

That's the title that I could come up with for this review. Heads up, I only reached up to episode 3. I simply couldn't carry on watching.

"... we've been together for four years! We have a cat. In gay terms that's like 2.8 kids..." That line at the dtart of episode 1 sets the tone of the tripe stereotypes that this is full of.

Self-centred; self-important; self-involved characters who are not able to see beyond their own noses. That's about summarises the wafer deep characterisation of the protagonists.

Such a shame to miss such a great opportunity to tell some interesting stories. Alas, the show did not deliver for me. Riddled with gay representational stereotypes of the yesteryears, that are regurgitated some decades down the line. Yeaaaah! Well-done writers! You have SO moved the conversation along... NOT!

Simply put, do not waste your time with this banality.

Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema (2018– )

Dry, Shortsighted & A Miss Fire

[2/10 · 15 January 2021]

Kermode's droll delivery is what makes this documentary series somewhat easier to watch.

That aside, this documentary had such potential. Nevertheless, Kermode remains dry in his delivery, with a steady, almost monotonous exposition, with robotic emotivenes of a person who "now I am delivering information to you" approach alienated me completely.

The exposition is further let down by a writing that is anachronistically passé. It is almost as though the aforementioned are utilised here in a attempt to add a bursh of highborwn stroke, alas remaining well within the faux melieue, to use the presenter's one of favourite words.

Not sure why BBC would commission this programme within this packaging. Shame.

Little Fires Everywhere (2020)

Sheer Brilliance

[10/10 · 12 August 2020]

Such a brutally honest limited series. Kerry Washington brilliant acting. The dialogue is oh so craftfully written and impeccably executed. A heavy and at times difficult to deal with insight into human emotions. Bravo to all involved.

Everything Is Copy (2015)

Drowned In The Writer's Own Self-Importance

[5/10 · 30 July 2020]

With anticipation I wanted to watch this documentary. Nevertheless, I think the writer and directors didn't do the amasingly brilliant Norah Ephron any justice.

Early into this feature length documentary, I kept having a nudge in my mind as to something not being quite right with this factual programme.

Regardless, I continued watching. Certain elements were indeed very insightful. Alas, zooming out and looking at this in its entirety, for me this simply did not deliver.

Upon reflection, I believe this is primarily down to the auteur of thia documentary film; he simply is too close to his subject mattet to keep some kind of overall balanced value.

Instead, interview after interview, the writer and the directors alike, reinforced the idea of self-indulgence; gossip-lead; self-centred; high life of New York society of a certain era, by not delving deeper into more difficult questions. It is clear to me, that in many interviews, the writer and directors often lost the control and allowed the interviewees to take over and dectate the tone and pace of their 'insight'.

I do not know whether this is because the writer is the son of the subject matter or whether because he is trying to cling on to 'look how fabulous my mother's life' or 'look the names of the then New York society who are linning up to be interviewed'. Regardless, this failed to truly provide a genuine insight into such a remarkable and trailblazing woman, whose work haa touched oh so many lives.

Hillary (2020)

An Excuisit Documentary

[10/10 · 23 July 2020]

As an international viewer I am perhaps more free from the US partisan shackles, which I believe that most of the negatively low ratings and reviews seen here are conflated by.

From the trailers and the little I read about this factual programme, I initially thought that this would be from a severely 'pro Hillary Clinton' biased vantage point. Apropos, I couldn't have been more wrong!

Digging further into the auteurs of this factual film, and just 10-minutes in, I realised that this is a story of a pioneering woman in USA. One who was becoming an adult during pivotal times of the US political stage, see women's rights; first generation of women lawyers at Yale university.

To continue through the rollercoaster of ups and downs, all of which had to be dealt with in an oh so public way, see the barrage of smeer campaigns, not to mention the Monica Lewinsky case.

I was also surprised by the honesty and unapologetic manner in which these ups and downs, successes and failures, right and wrong decisions, were reflected upon candidly not only by Hillary Clinton herself, but by numerous key figures, friends, family, colleagues and Presidents as well.

This theme carries throughtout all four riveting and fully engaging hours, with a crescendo of Hillary Clinton's concession speech at the 2016 US Presidential Election; a poignant yet so powerful message to young women of the future, which for me epitomises the spirit of this programme.

Irrespective of one's partisan US political views, this is a story of a true trailblazer.

Liar (2017–2020)

What Was That?!

[5/10 · 8 April 2020]

Such a great potential! First episode set up intriguing enigmas. Yet episode after episode I was hit with one disastrous writing train crash after the other.

Acting is great! Alas what can one actor with such disappointing material?!

I read quite a few reviews on here. I do not have a problem with representational set ups that go against the heteronormativity; see beta male stay-at-home dad; queer police officer.

Sadly, this drama reinforces itv's negative expectations aka populist drama that deliberately avoids engaging the audience in any cerebral shape or form. Cliché after cliché whose only function is to make the audience respond on the moral panic plat du jour.

This gets just 5 stars thanks to acting, filming, visual mood and feel that has been carefully constructed.

The other 5 starts have been lost in deplorable writing; see archetypal villain with cringe-worthy lines; police officers being represented as dumb sidekicks; main hero "taking matters into their own hands" in the most surreal, improbable and unrealistic way; side plot devices, characters with even more cliché lines; single parent father - son relationship infested with poor dialogue; supporting characters whose function is only to help the hero deliberate some kind of common sense before all that is thrown into the wind in a New York minute. .. the list is endless.

The subject mater is of very high interest, yet I fear that many itv viewers will simply bite on the moral panic bandwagon. Such a shame, especially considering how much input the writers have had from a range of relevant support groups.

... and then series 2 came along... WT! (I really would have liked to be a fly on the wall in the room where the series 2 commissioning meeting took place). Baffled...

American Son (2019)

Hard Hitting Ephemeral Drama

[9/10 · 2 November 2019]

I read about the eponymous Broadway play, and I must admit I was somewhat sceptical as to how this would transfer on film.

A film being set in one single location must have a great script and even more superb performances to carry the film through, whilst remaining fully engaged until the end.

Alas, American Son had it all. The whole creative team and cast of the play also were involved in this film. Kerry Washington's performance is amazing, carrying through difficult emotional prose and dialogue.

I understand why many have given this film such a low score here. The politics and social issues of what this film deals with are raw and difficult for many to deal with.

For me the film moves beyond race, as it powerfully explores themes of family, love and identity at its core. At times I felt that some scenes were heavy, yet concurrently, I understand that they needed to be so that it can communicate to the audience that some social issues are deeply engraved across generations.

Certainly worth your watch. Certainly not light entertainment.

The I-Land (2019)

Awful, Terrible Acting Swallows A Potentially Interested-ish Story

[3/10 · 2 November 2019]

Where does one begin?! Let's start at the beginning...

Setup, setting, suspense, all have great potential.

Yet, all, and I mean all, are destroyed by very bad acting. Or, whoever did the casting, focused only on beauty and ethnic representation, rather than chemistry amongst the cast.

Then it's the reaction of the i-landers to the plot development points. Common sense is thrown out of the window, (or in this case wrapped around a rock and thrown into the sea). Some characters simply hate others from the 'get go', before the other person says 'hi'. Yes KC aka Kate Bosworth, I'm talking to you!

I guess it's the pressure from Netflix on the creators to make something good, that perhaps forced characterisation onto the audience, without letting story time justify the characters' reactions.

Dialogue is not the best either. Yet again, I may be biased as the majority of the acting didn't do it justice. When one says: "I have a bad feeling about this!" after a fellow i-lander was just bitten by a shark, makes it a null point. I mean, "You don't say!?!"

Neil LaBute and Co. created something of a disaster here. No matter how much I tried to keep watching, wait for episode 3 for some exposition as to how and why, I simply couldn't keep watching.

Lost-esque flashbacks/flash forwards try to propel the plot further, in an attempt to keep your interest going. Similarly, it's the same for the Matrix-esque concepts of what's real and what's a simulation.

Photography looks oh so amazing with HDR!

It baffles me why Netflix commissioned something like that with no quality control! Not to mention that they keep cancelling legitimate series. For what? To fund productions like this one?! (I still morn Sens8, #justsaying).

Watch it at your own peril. You've been warned!... Then again, this may be your thang!

P. S. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall during the commissioning meetings for this show, so that I have an idea what Netflix was thinking to green lit this project.

Years and Years (2019)

A Great Allegory Of The Madness That Surrounds Us. all

[9/10 · 25 June 2019]

The reason I did not give this a 10 is because it took a couple of hours of screen time for Russel T. Davis' writing to find it pace.

Bypassing that, get ready for a story, which, should it was told/produced, say some five years ago, we would all be laughing at it. Alas, here we are, presented with this brilliant co-production of BBC and HBO.

In a classic sci-fi genre fashion, a most interesting ephemeral exploration of how our world could be in a post-truth era, where charlatans pose as politicians and saviours, where lies masquerade as truth, and truth is lost in the hands of the purveyors of lies.

Great idea to focus on a family, which for the necessities of true wide-spectrum representation, is umber diversified. Great to see characters that who they are, or what they are is no longer le mot du jour. Instead, they are multidimensional, with complexities and variations as any of us could possess.

The pacing of the story at the start seems all over the place. Stick with it, and Russel T. Davis finds his grounding. Some, may find his writing grandiose, or even pompous and artificially over-intelextualised. I can see that, but personally I get it! I see what he's trying to do. Some hours in and I found many of my thoughts on the wolrd and where it's going, vocalised through the characters.

Heavy on prose, you may say, yet how can an allegory work without it? So many semiological elements, so many brilliantly delivered dialogue and so many excellently executed scenes. I feel that having cast the brilliantly talented Emma Thompson and Rory Kinear, this endeavour would not have walked too far. I trully believe these two amazing actors carry some of the not so exquisite cast.

Then, there's the loss of a loved one. So sadden, and yet so eloquently delivered. I guess, the writer's own, private losss, (see dedication at the end of the final episode), was inevitable not to leave its footprint throughout this show. This is why, I think, there is an undercurrent sense of sadness, of loss throughout, like and internal clock.

Apropos, there is also a strong and constant undercurrent feeling of love, equally like an internal clock. This is manifested throughout the characterisation, moments, events, representation of family and overall story. Isn't, though, how life is? Complex? Happy? Sad? Silly? Joyful? Difficult? Lighthearted?

It is also refreshing to see that Russel T. Davis has somewhat, (see point further on), has finally moved on from his obsession with gay youth. After all, one cannot stay young forever, neither life is like that. Yet, the obsession of the archetypal gay beauty is still present, how cares though, really?

Embrace it. Let it take you on this journey. Let it challenge you. Let it check your thinking of the workd we live in. Let it make you think. You shall not be disappointed.

Thumbs up all the way!

P. S. A message for the fellow IMDb reviewers, do not compare it with Chernobyl! Please! You're comparing entirely different beasts. #justsaying

Book of Monsters (2018)

A Fun Ride To A Retro Monster Galore

[7/10 · 24 March 2019]

Having backed this film on Kickstarter, I couldn't wait to see the final result!

Everything you expect from this genre is there and plentiful! Gore, monsters, laughs, screams... it's all there!

Great script from Paul Butler and pacy and tight direction from Stewart Sparke. Lyndsey Craine as the lead carries the film oh so very well!

At times some of the acting lacked punch, yet this is balanced with good soundtrack and some moments that do stand out indeed! One of my favourite scenes is the one with the two police officers getting slashed, and the one of the "sacrifice of the virgin", turning the genre expectation on its head!

If you want to see old school SFX, kick ass female led cast, laughs and jump scares, then this is for you!

Spacewalk (2017)

Excellently Directed and Acted Space Era Drama From The Opposite Side

[9/10 · 4 January 2019]

Discovered this film just recently and what a great and welcoming surprise it has been. I read the reviews here, and especially the low rated ones. People have been complaing about being patriotic, or the score being too emotional... well we are bombarded with these themes in many similarly themed films and TV dramas from the US. What is wrong seeing the same from other countries? It's part of the film's genre expectation, especially one that takes a retrospective look to the past glory days to see such sentimentalities.

My advice? Bypass all that and get ready to be immersed in a most engaging story, that is artfully, and at time expectedly, directed. The nostalgic undertones and some contemporary attempts to make some kind of political statement of the time's Motherland, are also present. What should expect these, especially when the lead technical advisor is one of the people that were involved in the Soviet Cold War Space Race.

What do stand out, nevertheless, are the amazingly skilful performances from the two leads; the score that anchors the meaning safely into yout heart and the AAA Class CGI. Lest not forget the Direction of Photography too!

I was engrossed into the story, which, really for me, was a childhood dream becoming reality; about how a visionary can go through the difficulties of life with one goal... it's OK to dream and to have hope.

You may find it uncomfortable seeing the Soviet side of the Space Race during the Cold War, especially when so many Hollywood iconic films have dominated our popular culture. For this alone this film is certainly worth your watch.