Reviews of the Bosch

One thing missing from a lot of media that depicts very young children is an understanding of how relatively sophisticated their minds are -or at least as it feels to them. It is something that cartoons and comic strips occasionally get right -the infant who can think beyond their ability to act or process. It’s one of several things that is very refreshing about Mailys Vallade and Liane-Cho Han’s humble animated film Little Am é lie  based on the  semi-autobiographical novel The Character of Rain  by Amélie Nothomb. From before birth to the age of three, we are put in the multi-faceted head-space of this little girl beginning to define her reality. It is a reality of a very specific kind, as Amélie is born into a family of four expatriates, her father a Belgian diplomat in Japan in the 1950s. Amélie’s is actually a slow development, barely emoting, moving, or making a sound for her first two and a half years, until suddenly it all comes in a burst, coinciding with an ear...

It’s always another battle, isn’t it? Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another  was written, produced, and shot in an era when the fight and pressure had died down to do something about the American immigration crisis, to end the immoral detentions of so many migrants and families. The Biden years weren’t terribly distinct from the Trump years to those who paid attention and suffered through the horrors of ICE, which Biden never disbanded. But it was a moral battle not taken up, and it is perhaps for that reason the draconian crackdown we are living through currently was allowed to flourish. And this movie arrives in a moment where it feels so timely. It would always have been timely though -the fight does not end. Still it feels extremely pertinent. I’ve come across a lot of disbelief from critics that One Battle After Another  was allowed to be made in the context it was -a studio production with the highest budget Anderson has ever worked with in service of a st...

Fry and Leela have had their ups and downs as a couple or would-be couple over the years, but it’s been a while since an episode was entirely devoted to their relationship (and not in a poignant season finale kind of way). For the most part this Hulu run has been content to depict them as cute and stable; which is nice, but “Fifty Shades of Green” addressing their dynamic as a couple seriously was an important move. And though I wish it had done a little bit more and been a little more fresh in its themes, the acknowledgement is appreciated and the episode is a mild step up for this season so far. I like that the show didn’t feel obligated to do another XMas episode for the sake of it, beginning here at the end of XMas and the awkward week between it and New Years. The writers were clearly attentive of the fact that this is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the series and consequently in the show of Fry and Leela meeting -though Fry isn’t sure which anniversary (“Who knows” says the Prof...