Saturday, January 21, 2023

I renewed Netflix for a month and here's what I enjoyed

In the order I watched:

Glass Onion: The first half has terrific fashion and propulsive energy. (This is a good review.)

Margin Call: Excellent drama about 24 hours in the mortgage crisis financial collapse...once you get past the propagandist view of traders as gorgeous, smart, well-spoken, polite, rational, caring, etc etc. 99% of the speaking roles are white, too

The Viewing (Cabinet of Curiosities): An eclectic group of experts is summoned to a wealthy recluse's estate to help him explain a great mystery. Basically an enjoyable hour of ominous synthwave that'll melt your face off

The Fable: A John Wick-style assassin with a heart of gold and no basic social skills has been so successful that he must lay low for a year, and ends up doing so in a town absolutely overflowing with killers. Does a good job mixing screwball comedy with satisfying gun-fu. Netflix has the sequel, too.

His House: Solid haunted house horror about a traumatized and instantly likable young couple of war refugees that made it to England only to realize they were followed by a lot of tormented ghosts 

Emily the Criminal: Terrific, relentless thriller about low level crime (think Uncut Gems or Drive), but should have ended at the bus stop. (Between Aubrey Plaza in this, and Amber Midthunder in Prey, maybe Legion can get some retroactive attention?)

Hail, Caesar: OK, this I'd seen once before, but many years ago. It's great! So many actors turning in gems of performances with so little time on film.

*Immortality: Froze constantly on the two devices I tried it on, and as far as I could tell, didn't properly support controllers, using awkward touch controls instead (many PC reviewers described using a controller as vital to fully enjoy the game). Reviews in the appstore indicate my experience was common.

*The Bad Guys: Seemed perfectly competent from the amount I watched. Good design on the hacker: