Reviews of the Bosch

Sergei Eisenstein made three sound films before his death in 1948 . Only one part of his duology Ivan the Terrible was released publicly in his lifetime -it’s second-half banned by Soviet censors. But his earlier film Alexander Nevsky from 1938 had no such issues -perhaps because while his take on Ivan was more complex, on Nevsky he aligned more strongly with the interests of Stalinist Russian propaganda -though this film was censored for a brief time during the Molotov-Ribbentropp Pact due to its depictions of Germans. Most historical films of this era, especially those with a nationalist bent, were always more about the political climate they were made within rather than the setting much removed. Even by those standards though, Eisenstein is quite blunt in Alexander Nevsky . Not only are the somewhat anachronistic names of Russia (in lieu of Novgorod) and Germany (rather than the Holy Roman Empire) used, but the Germans are depicted with subtle swastikas in their apparel as are the ...

As much as I love Futurama for its outrageous concepts and sense of humour, the episodes that have always resonated the most for me have been the sweet ones. Silly though they may be, I really love these characters and I like seeing them in contexts that are a little more earnest, revealing, that connect you more to their humanity -even the ones who aren’t human. “Late Bloomers” does that, specifically with two characters, and while it goes down a couple strange paths, it comes for the heart. And it makes you feel good. The episode is in fact a direct follow-up to two previous shows, starting with “Planet Espresso” . That episode ended with Hermes’s father reincarnated as a coffee bean plant, and here we see he is living with the Conrads -though only speaks to Hermes. Badrick as it turns out is dying from some plant disease, and Hermes not wanting to go through the death of his parent again, especially now that they are on better terms, is desperate to save him somehow. This leads int...

“Space… the Final Frontier.” It’s a provocative phrase, isn’t it? The Final Frontier, the last great mystery of exploration. In 1966, one of the most popular television genres was western adventure - Gunsmoke , Bonanza , Rawhide , episodic stories about life on this particular romanticized frontier were everywhere. What’s a competitive show to do but take it a step further? Where do you go once the west has been thoroughly demystified? How about a Wagon Train to the Stars? That was the phrase that one Gene Roddenberry used when pitching a series concept to Desilu Productions that would go on to be Star Trek , the basis of a sixty year television franchise (and occasionally film too ) , that would have one of the greatest out-sized impacts of a cultural phenomenon of the twentieth century. Desilu green-lit the idea (founder Lucille Ball specifically) and the rest is history. Three seasons that struggled in the ratings but gained an enormous fan following, a short-lived animated follow...

About twenty minutes into The Dog Stars , Jacob Elordi’s Hig loses his beloved German Shepherd Jasper. And the movie never recovers. It is called The Dog Stars , based on the book by Peter Heller, and whatever reasoning for that title there actually is (the film never reveals it), one would expect the dog introduced as chief companion to the protagonist would have some major part to play. But even posthumously, Jasper isn’t particularly significant to this apocalypse story about struggling to go on and find reason to live amidst societal collapse. I’m broadly an agnostic where dogs in movies are concerned, but this one is markedly dimmer once the dog exits the picture. Director Ridley Scott however tuckers on just like his lead, yet fails to make the point that character and those who matter to him are meant to. It’s the nearest Scott has come to making a zombie film, and it bears more than a little passing resemblance to 28 Years Later , in both its hordes of nebulously-infected dehu...

The romantic-comedy genre is not what it used to be, for good or bad. Its tropes are extremely understood by now, and it is a genre that seems to turn more people off than any other. I know folks who will watch any kind of movie except a rom-com. And that may be a part of the reason the genre has fallen out of fashion in recent decades. When we do see them, they have to be wrapped in either undeniable movie stars like Anyone But You or conceptual gimmicks like One Night Only or Palm Springs or just be attached to other priorities alongside the romance like Voicemails for Isabelle or The Idea of You . And it also helps if they can work in a number of flashy antics. The filmmakers behind Finding Emily , director Alicia MacDonald and writer Rachel Hirons, by contrast seem to really believe in the sincere rom-com that doesn’t need any of that stuff, and are also perhaps annoyed by what they perceive as a more cynical culture that has wounded it. Specifically it is a movie that points t...