Highest 2 Lowest (2025) | REVIEW

Denzel Washington in “HIGHEST 2 LOWEST,” available to stream now on Apple TV+.

Directed by Spike Lee (Da 5 Bloods) — Screenplay by Alan Fox.

With Apple TV+’s Highest 2 Lowest, American filmmaker Spike Lee has made his second remake, or reinterpretation, of an East Asian classic in the last twelve years. The last time Lee did this was with 2013‘s Oldboy, a remake of the Park Chan-wook South Korean action thriller classic. Lee’s 2013 film was largely dismissed and criticized as an inferior work, but, at least initially, his second go-around in recent years with an East Asian classic, Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low, has been met more warmly by critics, even if it isn’t perceived as a slam dunk or an improvement. In my opinion, though, Spike Lee’s attempt at a Kurosawa remake is a disappointment. Although I love several of the master American filmmaker’s earlier works, I found his latest film to be difficult to connect with, largely due to quirks and performances that work against the film.

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Fountain of Youth (2025) | REVIEW

John Krasinski, Domhnall Gleeson, and Natalie Portman in “Fountain of Youth,” now streaming on Apple TV+.

Directed by Guy Ritchie — Screenplay by James Vanderbilt.

Guy Ritchie’s Fountain of Youth follows siblings Luke (played by John Krasinski) and Charlotte Purdue (played by Natalie Portman) as they eventually team up to go on an adventure to find — yep, you guessed it — the fountain of youth. While Charlotte works as a museum curator in London, Luke steals paintings to complete a job for Owen Carver (played by Domhnall Gleeson), a billionaire who is searching for the fountain of youth to prevent his own death from a terminal illness. Luke and Charlotte’s paths cross when he steals a painting from the museum where she works, resulting in her losing her job. When one thing leads to another, she reluctantly joins their mission, while Interpol, as well as a secret society dedicated to protecting the fountain, is chasing them.

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The Gorge (2025) | REVIEW

Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy in “The Gorge,” now streaming on Apple TV+.

Directed by Scott Derrickson — Screenplay by Zach Dean.

Scott Derrickson’s The Gorge follows two elite snipers, an American man named Levi Kane (played by Miles Teller) and a Lithuanian woman named Drasa (played by Anya Taylor-Joy), as they are both independently recruited for a top-secret mission in the middle of nowhere. At some unknown place in the world, there are two watchtowers standing across from each other, one representing the Western Bloc and another representing the Eastern Bloc. Each watchtower is guarded by mechanized turrets and bombs, and between the two watchtowers is a giant long hole in the ground — hence the title. Levi and Drasa have been hired to do maintenance on the weaponry and, at the same time, defend the world from what is hidden inside the mysterious valley. As they are the only two people in the vicinity, Drasa and Levi establish a connection, but when one of them accidentally falls down into the valley, everything changes and top secrets are revealed.

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Top Ten TV-Shows of 2024

Colin Farrell and Cristin Milioti in THE PENGUIN — PHOTO: Macall Polay/HBO.

I watched so many television (and/or streaming) shows this year. In my notes, I was trying to jot down all of the shows that I had seen and, given that I also watch a lot of movies every year, I was even a little bit shocked at how much time I spent watching entertainment (especially because I was very busy with other stuff this year). But, hey, I do love crashing and/or chilling in front of the television, watching a good show, and then jotting down my notes. And, you know, there were a lot of good shows this year. Some of the shows that it hurts to have to leave off the list this time around are Bad Sisters, Disclaimer, The English Teacher, Under the Bridge, The Boys, and Sugar (and I could, honestly, go on). But there can only be ten shows on this list, and let’s now have a look at what shows made it!

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Top Ten TV-Shows of 2023

Bella Ramsey as ‘Ellie’ and Pedro Pascal as ‘Joel’ in HBO’s THE LAST OF US — PHOTO: HBO / Liane Hentscher.

The long-awaited (and very late, sorry) list of the top ten TV or streaming shows of 2023 is finally here! I watched a lot of excellent shows in 2023, and I loved a great many shows that couldn’t land a spot on this list, such as Shrinking, Silo, Black Mirror, and Hijack. But, in the end, there are only ten spots on this list, and, well, there are some outstanding series here that just had to be on the list. Speaking of which, let’s now finally get to that very list.

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Wolfs (2024) | REVIEW

Brad Pitt and George Clooney in “Wolfs,” now playing in select theaters and streaming on Apple TV+.

Directed by Jon Watts — Screenplay by Jon Watts.

A couple of years back, a crime comedy with George Clooney and Brad Pitt as co-leads would’ve been all the rage. Now such a film is given a limited theatrical release before being chucked onto a streaming platform without much fanfare. It is a shame, really. As if Pitt and Clooney’s names weren’t enough, the attached director is none other than Jon Watts. Though not a household name, Watts spearheaded the production of the extremely profitable and popular Tom Holland Spider-Man movie trilogy as its director. His first attempt at a film outside of the Mouse House since Cop Car, Wolfs is designed to be more than merely an Ocean’s reunion between ‘Brad’ and ‘George,’ but is the reunion worth getting excited about? Your mileage may vary, but I eventually warmed to what the film was throwing at me, despite the film feeling relatively unremarkable.

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2024 TV Highlights Thus Far, Pt. 2 | Bite-Sized Reviews

(L-R, top then bottom) DARK MATTER (Apple TV+), BABY REINDEER (Netflix), TRUE DETECTIVE: NIGHT COUNTRY (Max), and CONSTELLATION (Apple TV+).

All five shows were definite recommendations in the first (of three) ‘2024 TV Highlights Thus Far’ review articles. They were all shows that I expect to end up on plenty of top 10 lists at the end of the year. This second part is a little bit different. Although, yes, I expect one or two of these to have enough critical appreciation for them to land on plenty of top 10s, the vast majority of part 2’s series weren’t home runs. They are highlights because I found something about each and every one of these series to be really effective, but not all of these are series that I’d easily recommend to friends and family. In fact, some of these shows even disappointed me from time to time, but I think there is enough in every one of these shows to merit them being singled out and discussed. In this part, among other things, I’ll be discussing two Apple TV+ series both of which revolve around parallel universes and the existence of multiple different persons of the same character. 

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2023 TV Catch-Up / Backlog: The Mixed Bags | Bite-Sized Reviews

(L-R) The Changeling (Apple TV+); Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (Apple TV+), The Crown (Netflix).

In this edition of Additional Bite-Sized Reviews, the point of this post is to function as a review compilation, if you will, of some notable 2023 television series that I’ve either caught up with in the last few months or which I never found the time to write about when they were released way back when (i.e. my review notes backlog). For this post, I have specifically highlighted three shows from the past year that didn’t fully work for me, even though I liked a fair bit about them.


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The Family Plan (2023) | REVIEW

Mark Wahlberg and Iliana Norris in The Familly Plan, now streaming on Apple TV+.

Directed by Simon Cellan Jones — Screenplay by David Coggeshall.

Simon Cellan Jones’ The Family Plan follows Dan Morgan (played by Mark Wahlberg), a car salesman who lives in Buffalo, New York with his wife Jessica (played by Michelle Monaghan), as well as his children Nina (played by Zoe Colletti), Kyle (played by Van Crosby), and Max (played by Iliana Norris and Vienna Norris). They seem like a normal family, but, in reality (and unbeknownst to his family), Dan isn’t the patriarch of the family’s real name and he is actually hiding from his associates from his past life as a hired assassin. When, one day, a picture of him is posted to the internet, he and his family are targeted. In an attempt to keep his family safe, he makes up an impromptu family vacation and has to keep hitmen off their backs on-the-go. Dan has to work up the courage to tell his family the truth, and, while they are on their road trip, he sees new sides of his beloved family.

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Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) | REVIEW

Lily Gladstone, Robert De Niro, and Leonardo DiCaprio in “Killers of the Flower Moon,” in theaters now — Photo: Apple.

Directed by Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver; Raging Bull; After Hours; Silence) — Screenplay by Eric Roth (A Star is Born; Dune; Forrest Gump) and Martin Scorsese.

Recently, I’ve been especially interested in how films sometimes act as history lessons to those who watch them, as well as how this can both be a good and a bad thing. Ultimately, films can be made for a variety of purposes depending on which person involved with the project that you’re asking. With films, there is often a commercial goal or an interest in serving as a piece of entertainment, and these aims can sometimes lead to historical films blurring the lines between truth and fiction to such an extent that you do history a disservice. Other times artistic expression is of the utmost importance, and then, of course, there are, indeed, times when films primarily exist to inform and teach. Most of the time, though, the true purpose of a film is a mixture of all of these motivations. Sometimes the artistic expression combines with a purpose to inform and thus the output manages to stand as a reminder of how certain events have been swept under the rug through history by those in power. Because ultimately history books are as easy to manipulate as any other medium. In the case of Killers of the Flower Moon, we have a piece of historical filmmaking that takes an intense look at the moral rot of America in the 1920s and 1930s. It is a bold and epic film about greed, betrayal, complicity, and a disturbingly very real attempt at genocide. It is an American tragedy from a master storyteller who shows for all to see that he understands exactly what his role is in telling this story, as well as who should be telling it.

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