What We Do in the Shadows is Back for Season 3
What is the recipe for success for a half-hour comedy these days? Apparently, it's to take a beloved New Zealand mockumentary about vampires and adapt it to American television.
What We Do in the Shadows, helmed by Oscar-winning Taika Watiti and Jermaine Clement of the original 2014 film of the same name, is a vampire-centric mockumentary-style show entering its third season. For those unfamiliar with the show, the main premise is that a group of centuries-old vampires emigrate to Staten Island from Europe, hoping to conquer the New World, but end up just being roommates in a dilapidated manor, getting into weekly shenanigans.
Jungle Cruise is the fun ride we’ve been waiting for
There is a special characteristic to a work of art that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Jungle Cruise displays this quality supremely well and ensures that regardless of its flaws, we leave the theater with a warm, fuzzy feeling in our hearts. An adventure ride is transformed into a story of mirth and enjoyment, becoming an appropriate panacea for these harsh times.
New Members’ Favorite Movies
A new year brings a new group of Moviegoers! From horror to comedy and every genre in between, this year’s new staff writers bring a wide range of taste in films, and they’re excited to share their all-time favorite movies.
Ghosts: A Heart-Warming Comedy That’s Bound to Raise Your Spirits!
Not a fan of horror? Well, this is the perfect ghost-themed show for you. Full disclosure: I hate horror movies. Whether it’s because of the jump-scares, eerie music or avoidable bad choices made by the protagonist, horror movies have never been my style. I have, however, always been fascinated by the idea of spirits and ghosts and can’t help but ask the same question whenever I watch a horror movie: what happens to all the normal people who die? Are all ghosts really vengeful spirits or creepy kids?
Day In, Day Out: Anton Corbijn's Control
As the Factory Records legacy ossifies over time, its main protagonists have begun to pass. The stories themselves are also passing into recorded memory. The telling, and retelling of the all-too-brief four years that Joy Division existed, ending with the suicide of their lead singer Ian Curtis, has been visualized in two fascinatingly different, wonderful films.
Netflix’s Vivo boasts a big name with few redeeming qualities
When I heard about Netflix and Sony Animation’s Vivo, I couldn’t wait to soak up more. The promise of music by Lin-Manuel Miranda added to my excitement. The film centers around adorable kinkajou Vivo (Don’t know what a kinkajou is? Turns out it’s a relative of the raccoon) who has grown up under the care of a kindhearted musician named Andrés. The two walk the streets of Havana, performing their music for all who will listen. When Andrés reveals that he never got to profess his love to his old music partner, Marta Sandoval, Vivo embarks on a journey to Miami with Andrés’ niece, Gabi, to deliver one last love song to Marta before her retirement concert.
In Praise of EastEnders
Weighing in at over 6,000 episodes so far, the BBC soap opera set in Albert Square, Walford, a fictional neighborhood in East London, is one of the longest-running dramas on British television, with a massive, devoted fan base. I’m proud to count myself as one of the Walford faithful.
What would losing control feel like? The Father offers a profoundly believable answer
Hollywood loves to churn out umpteen thriller flicks, love stories and coming-of-age dramas every year. But every so often, we get a glimpse into the lives of those completely ignored by mainstream culture, whose stories are not only important but entirely cinematic. Florian Zeller explores this in The Father, which tells the story of an aging father suffering from dementia as he slowly begins to lose grip with his surroundings and loved ones.
Queer love is intimate, hilarious, and real in Feel Good Season 2
If you haven’t seen Feel Good, let me put you on to Netflix’s most chronically underrated series: an LGBTQ+ dark comedy about gender identity, addiction, and love. Canadian comedian Mae Martin writes and stars in the semi-autobiographical tale. The show’s cynical, self-aware humor mirrors that of Fleabag, and it similarly spans two seasons, each containing six perfectly packaged episodes. While the second season, released this year in June, falters on the comedic front in favor of a bolder, darker storyline, you’re certain to fall in love all over again with the complex characters and genuine relationships Martin so beautifully curates.
"I have no conscience, only nerves”: Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker
Based on Arkady and Boris Strugatsky’s novel Roadside Picnic (1972), Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker (1979) carries all the cinematic hallmarks of humanity’s carelessness towards the environment, and the clinical, cold and soulless climate of life behind the Iron Curtain.
Invincible: A Shocking New Take on the Classic Superhero Story
When my roommates told me they wanted our next viewing project to be an animated superhero show, I was ... hesitant. An adult cartoon? Those aren’t really my thing. Eventually I gave in because, after all, I had forced them to watch Survivor with me.
Minari
Cultures throughout human history have been able to unite around a simple fact: Dragons. Are. Awesome. Raya and the Last Dragon takes inspiration from Southeast Asian culture to tell the story of Raya, a battle-hardened princess fighting to unite the divided land of Kumandra. The movie is Walt Disney Animation’s first original feature film since Moana in 2016.
“On a clear day you can see the class struggle from here”: Mike Leigh’s Career Girls
Following the success of the apocalyptic Naked (1993) and the harrowing Secrets & Lies (1996), at the end of the nineties Mike Leigh turned to a smaller, more intimate subject, the nostalgia for youth. Leigh’s been vocal about his motivation for Career Girls, explaining that he was interested in the large life differences in what happens to us between ages 20-30.
When You Try Your Best But You Don’t Succeed: Shtisel Season 3 Review
Reviewing Season 3 of Shtisel brings back memories, since the series was the very first thing I wrote about for The Moviegoer! At the time of my initial review, Shtisel was one of my favorite shows. It had the cultural intrigue of Hasidic Jews without the sensationalism that usually characterizes other shows about these ultra-Orthodox communities. Instead of exoticizing the Hasidic community, the series sought to familiarize the audience with it by telling raw, human stories that touch on universal experiences.
Raya and the Last Dragon
Cultures throughout human history have been able to unite around a simple fact: Dragons. Are. Awesome. Raya and the Last Dragon takes inspiration from Southeast Asian culture to tell the story of Raya, a battle-hardened princess fighting to unite the divided land of Kumandra. The movie is Walt Disney Animation’s first original feature film since Moana in 2016.
Wandavision & What’s to Come from Marvel
WandaVision, starring Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany, concludes with a dramatic ending, inducing surprise, joy, grief, and for some eager fans, disappointment. The 9-episode Disney+ series combines sci-fi, drama, comedy, fantasy, mystery and of course, action. Its weekly serialized format makes room for eager Marvel geeks around the world to take to the internet to predict what comes next for the show that starts in a very confusing, open-ended way.
Alan Bennett's Talking Heads
In Pink Floyd’s Time, we learn that ‘hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way’, and this is certainly motivation for much of Alan Bennett’s wonderful Talking Heads series. Originally a collection of twelve fictional thirty-minute monologues first broadcast in 1988, they have recently been remade with contemporary actors, and specifically produced by the BBC under lockdown conditions.
Nomadland: A Study of Grief and Freedom
Nomadland, directed, written, and edited by newcomer Chloé Zhao, is a quiet study of grief, solitude, and the unspoken promises we make to ourselves and others. The film follows Fern (Frances McDormand), a recently unemployed widow, as she embarks on a solo expedition through the American west. She has no set destination, simply wandering from campsite to campsite, job to job, meeting eclectic yet oddly familiar characters; untethered nomads seeking temporary comfort in endless desert expanses, vast seaside cliffs, and each other.
Review: Normal People
2020 made us understand our need for intimacy, contact, and company. Normal People came at the perfect time to fulfill that need. The series elevates an evocative, layered book by Sally Rooney into a visual adaptation of astounding depth and virtuosity.
The show tells the story of the relationship of Connell and Marianne, two ambitious teenagers from the Irish town of County Sligo. It spans their evolution and growth during the span of 5 years, as they leave high school and go to university at Trinity College, Dublin.
Easy A: A Showcase & A Time Capsule
Let me start by acknowledging how unusual the plot is. The movie centers around a lonely teenage girl becoming an outcast after being shamed and bullied about losing her virginity. Not exactly Ferris Bueller's Day Off material. With that said, Emma Stone brings a certain sense of perky wit and sarcasm that makes the journey enjoyable and pleasant.