Robots (2023) | REVIEW

Shailene Woodley and Jack Whitehall as Elaine and Charles, plus their identical android doubles in Ant Hines and Casper Christensen’s ROBOTS. — PHOTO: NEON.

Directed by Ant Hines and Casper Christensen — Screenplay by Ant Hines and Casper Christensen.

Based on Robert Sheckley’s 1973 short story titled The Robot Who Looked Like Me, Ant Hines and Casper Christensen’s Robots is set in America in 2032 at a time when humanlike robots are used as servants and for labor work. The film follows Charles (played by Jack Whitehall), a womanizer, and Elaine (played by Shailene Woodley), a gold-digger, both of whom illegally make use of identical android doubles of themselves to make their lives easier so that the womanizer only has to sleep with women without having to date them (which his robot does), whereas the gold-digger can profit off the men while her robot sleeps with the men. However, when their respective robots meet, fall in love, and decide to run away together and frame their human counterparts for mass murder, Charles and Elaine must team up to clear things up and get their lives back.

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REVIEW: The Mauritanian (2021)

Tahar Rahim as Mohamedou Ould Slahi in Kevin Macdonald’s THE MAURITANIAN – Photo: STX Films / Amazon Prime Video.

Directed by Kevin Macdonald – Screenplay by M.B. Traven, Rory Haines, and Sohrab Noshirvani.

Kevin Macdonald’s The Mauritanian is a legal drama based on Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s memoir Guantanamo Diary. The film tells the true story of Mohamedou’s experience as a detainee at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, in which he was subject to so-called ‘enhanced interrogation techniques,’ which essentially amounts to torture. The film juxtaposes the perspectives of two lawyers — Lt. Colonel Stuart Couch (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) and Nancy Hollander (played by Jodie Foster) — who are both trying to make sense of exactly what made Mohamedou (played by Tahar Rahim) confess to crimes of terrorism. To do so, Nancy and Stuart must try to gain access to thousands of redacted classified documents.

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REVIEW: Big Little Lies – Season Two (2019)

Release Poster – HBO

The following is a review of the second season of HBO’s Big Little Lies.

The second season of Big Little Lies — now directed by Andrea Arnold, but more on that later — follows the so-called Monterey Five — Madeline (played by Reese Witherspoon), Celeste (played by Nicole Kidman), Jane (played by Shailene Woodley), Renata (played by Laura Dern), and Bonnie (played by Zoe Kravitz) — during the aftermath of Perry Wright’s death. Bonnie is struggling as she feels incredibly guilty about what she did. So guilty, in fact, that she considers turning herself in to the local police. Just as Celeste is struggling as a single mother, Perry’s mother, Mary Louise (played by Meryl Streep), starts to question not just her son’s death but her daughter-in-law’s claim that she is a victim. Meanwhile, Madeline’s marriage is coming apart and Renata’s financial security is at risk of collapsing. Continue reading “REVIEW: Big Little Lies – Season Two (2019)”