Tag: Love

The Greatest Hits (2024) | REVIEW

Lucy Boynton in Ned Benson’s THE GREATEST HITS — PHOTO: Disney+ / Hulu.

Directed by Ned Benson — Screenplay by Ned Benson.

Ned Benson’s The Greatest Hits is a romantic fantasy film that follows Harriet Gibbons (played by Lucy Boynton), a woman mourning her boyfriend Max (played by David Corenswet) who recently died in a car crash. To recover emotionally, she takes part in grief support group meetings, but she doesn’t know how to move on because whenever she hears a song that she listened to while she and Max dated, she is emotionally transported through time to the moment she heard it, while, for everyone else, it just looks like she is passing out or having a seizure. Harriet has become obsessed with the idea that she can use this condition and/or ability to travel in time and prevent Max’s death. However, she is also starting to become emotionally involved with another member of the support group named David (played by Justin H. Min).

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Aftersun (2022) | REVIEW

Frankie Corioo (L) and Paul Mescal (R) in Charlotte Wells’ AFTERSUN — PHOTO: A24.

Directed by Charlotte Wells — Screenplay by Charlotte Wells.

There is no getting around the fact that I am extremely late to the party when it comes to Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun. Frankly, there are two reasons for that. Firstly, the 2022 film was released in February of 2023 in my region, so I would always be late to the party for this film which was first released at the Cannes Film Festival in May of last year (and which was already one of the most celebrated films in critics’ circles long before Danes would even get the chance to see it). Secondly, its local release back in February was inconvenient for me, as it came out at a time when I was preparing myself for something quite time-consuming (and potentially draining) in the first half of the year, as well as the fact that I was also scrambling to cover new 2023 releases at that time. I was, honestly, overwhelmed at that time — both in my daily life and by the hype that had snowballed rapidly for months with no end in sight. 

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Broker (2022) | REVIEW

Song Kang-ho and Gang Dong-won in Hirokazu Kore-eda’s BROKER — PHOTO: Zip Cinema & CJ ENM Co, Ltd, All Rights Reserved.

Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda — Screenplay by Hirokazu Kore-eda.

First released in competition at the Cannes Film Festival last year, Broker is the 15th narrative feature from Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda. The film takes place in South Korea, and it primarily follows Ha Sang-hyeon (played by Song Kang-ho) and Dong-soo (played by Gang Dong-won) as they steal a baby from a baby box (a concept that was new to me) — a box where mothers can leave their newborn babies and thus anonymously give them up for adoption or an orphanage — to sell it on the adoption black market. Soon, the young mother (played by Lee Ji-eun) who abandoned her child tracks them down and joins them on a road trip to help them interview the child’s potential parents. Meanwhile, the authorities are on their trail and trying to catch them in the act of selling the bay.

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I’ll never forget you, Cena

Monday — July 29th, 2019 — was another incredibly difficult day to live through this year. My family and I had a really tough day yesterday. In February, one of our two collie dogs, Deus, passed away. Yesterday, we had to say goodbye to our other collie — Deus’ brother — Cena. Losing two dogs in one year is inconceivably difficult. Ever since we lost Deus, we’ve been looking for signs to see how Cena would deal with losing his brother who he had lived with his entire life. There were signs. He would walk around in our yard to look for him. In the first few days after Deus had passed away, Cena wouldn’t want to leave the yard, because he wanted to find his brother. It was heartbreaking. As we said our goodbyes to Cena, we assured him that now he would get to see his brother again. He was just going to be with Deus again. Continue reading “I’ll never forget you, Cena” →

I’ll never forget you, Deus

Wednesday – February 13th, 2019 – was really tough to live through. Yesterday, my family and I said our goodbyes to our beloved dog, Deus. We had him for eleven years, but yesterday, just a few days after he and his brother’s birthday, was his last day with us. Now he’s up skateboarding (that’s an inside joke, of sorts), chasing balls, and barking with our other lost loved ones in heaven.  Continue reading “I’ll never forget you, Deus” →

Man of Steel – Polarizing #1

Polarizing

Polarizing is a new unscheduled opinion piece revolving around polarizing topics, shows, or films.

Man of Steel – the beginning of the DC Cinematic Universe – might be one of the most polarizing superhero films of all-time. At the time of writing, with 289 reviews counted, Man of Steel is at 56% on the Rotten Tomatoes ‘tomatometer’, meaning that it literally is a polarizing film with critics. Now, with its sequel Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice releasing in theaters next week, I thought I’d address one of the films that I really had a tough time having an opinion on.  Continue reading “Man of Steel – Polarizing #1” →

REVIEW: Love – Season One (2016)

LOVE REVIEWED

The following is a season review of Love, a Netflix Original show.

Love is the newest Netflix Original show, and it came with a lot of baggage and expectations. Netflix Original shows have mostly been pretty excellent, and the last romantic comedy to come from Netflix (Master of None) was one of the better comedy shows of 2015. Also, Judd Apatow is the co-creator of Love, and therefore I had high expectations. Love is some sort of mixture of HBO’s Girls and Trainwreck, but it isn’t as good as either of them. I definitely don’t love the first season. Continue reading “REVIEW: Love – Season One (2016)” →