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I have to be honest. I did not watch all eight episodes of this series. After the first episode, it became quickly apparent to me that I wasn't going to like the series and I would find little enjoyment in it. In the teaser or trailer for this series, there is a scene from Episode 5 that suggested something interesting. Sharronda Williams of the Pay or Wait YouTube channel had also remarked that she didn't enjoy the series but that Episode 5 was one to check out otherwise. Instead of scrapping the review all together, I decided to give my thoughts on those particular episodes, the first and the fifth. For a broader and more comprehensive look at this series, I recommend Williams' review. As many other critics have also pointed out, this series is a rip-off of HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm , a brilliant comedy series, created by Larry David. This series, created by Kenya Barris, has him putting himself in the Larry David role. It's not that crazy. There are some parall

In 2001, news broke that a million-dollar fraud and theft were being perpetrated with the McDonald's Monopoly game, which had been a promotion happening every year since 1987. People who bought products at any McDonald's restaurant could get game pieces that allowed them to win cash money or other prizes. Prizes included single monetary wins of a million dollars. Literally, a person could find a game piece that gave them exactly one million dollars. Those pieces were supposed to be sent out randomly to places all over the country for people. However, it was revealed that someone was stealing those high-value game pieces and manipulating people in order to give those millions to himself or to members of his family. Documentary filmmakers James Lee Hernandez and Brian Lazarte talk to the people involved on both the law enforcement side and on the perpetrator's side in order to recount what led up to the news breaking of this story. The FBI are the ones leading in the storytel

Alex Garland is an Oscar-nominated writer for his film Ex Machina (2014). It was a highly acclaimed, science fiction film about robotic technology. Garland has also written highly acclaimed, sci-fi like Never Let Me Go (2010). It's no surprise that his TV series, which he wrote and directed every episode, is also science-fiction of the highest order or that aspires for prestigious levels. It's not sci-fi in the way of Star Wars where action or even visual effects dominate the day. Garland's sci-fi is more contemplative and intellectual, more in the vein of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). His work is also in that same tone where it's more about the potential and possible horror from technology. It's not Star Trek , which is more about the potential and possible hope from technology. Unlike Ex Machina , this series isn't necessarily about the technology turning or being used against humanity. It's more about what the technology means ph

Writer-director Yuval Hadadi's feature debut tackles issues of aging in the gay community, as well as an issue that isn't often addressed. PBS' Independent Lens did a series on what's known as voluntary childlessness or being child-free. Some people are childless not by choice but who accept that for whatever reason they will never have children of their own or even necessarily through adoption. This film centers on a man who is child-free and who wants to remain child-free. He's been fine for his whole life without children but now his best friend and his boyfriend are both saying things and making moves that are challenging his child-free existence. He doesn't like it and Hadadi's film deals with all of their reactions in the wake of it. Oded Leopold stars as Yoav, a 42-year-old architect living in Tel Aviv, Israel. He seems like he's very successful at his job. He has an office downtown in a tall building with a great view of the city. He actually ma

This film was directed by Jeff Chan and it was written by Chris Pare. Both Chan and Pare are relatively unknown in the film industry and new to it. The names of which to take note are the two actors who are the true force behind this project. Robbie Amell and Stephen Amell are two young actors who have become well-known on television, specifically on the CW network. They're cousins from Canada who are especially well-known for their super-hero personas on TV. Stephen Amell is the older cousin and he's probably the most famous. Stephen is the star of the series Arrow (2012), which ran for eight years and spawned four spin-off series, including The Flash (2014) on the same network. Robbie Amell is the younger cousin and arguably less famous. He's had a great career, but he's never been the lead in a hit series like Stephen. His closest shot was being the lead in The Tomorrow People (2013), which was a really great super-hero show. Unfortunately, that program was cancel

This is the latest film from WWE Studios. WWE Studios is the movie production arm of the famous TV wrestling enterprise. WWE Studios has produced over 50 films, since it started in 2002. The majority of those films have been vehicles for the various wrestlers who are popular, often to boost their profiles. Its first film was The Scorpion King (2002), starring Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock. That 2002 blockbuster stands as the most successful film in its 18-year history. Johnson remains its most successful star. The only other star to achieve mainstream status is John Cena. Other wrestlers who have been pushed include Randy Orton and Michael Mizanin aka The Miz. Other wrestlers don't prove to have the charisma or acting talent to achieve the same acclaim as Johnson or Cena. Most of the films that WWE Studios produces are straight-to-video that seemed more for true or even hardcore fans of wrestlers. It would make sense that those films are tailored to those fans or people who either

Some critics compared this film to Four Weddings and a Funeral  (1994). Both are British, romantic comedies that start off in similar ways. A couple meets. The guy is from the UK and the girl is from the USA. They have a connection, but they separate for years and don't meet again until they run into each other at a wedding. In Four Weddings and a Funeral , it makes sense that the couple don't meet again until the next wedding. It doesn't make all that much sense here that the couple essentially loses touch. That 1994 film was before the advent of the Internet and social media. Obviously, there were phones, but it was before the advent of mobile phones and everybody having one. That's not the case here. This film opens with a couple connecting so much that they almost kiss. They get interrupted and they part ways. Yet, they have a mutual person in common. Why the two wouldn't stay connected through social media doesn't seem plausible, if we believe the two conne

Alan Yang was an actor-writer-producer on the series Parks and Recreation  (2009). He became notable in 2016, gaining some fame when he won an Emmy Award for writing Master of None . He specifically won for writing an episode titled "Parents." That episode was about two Asian immigrants, one from Taiwan and one from India who come to the United States to make a better life for themselves and their children. However, things don't quite work out as they think and their children end up not appreciating any of the things their parents have done, taking their American lives for granted. It's structured with the parents looking back at their lives in their native countries and the journey they had getting to the U.S. This film basically takes that same structure and stretches it out to feature length. Instead of being a more comedic take, focusing on their children's ignorance, apathy or self-regard, it's more a dramatic take, focusing on their parent's struggle

Nominated for Best International Feature at the 92nd Academy Awards, this film was the official submission from France. The fact that it's the official submission from France is the result of it winning Best Film at the César Awards. It also won the Jury Prize at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival where it premiered. The ending of it reminded me of another, French film that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, but at the 68th Cannes Film Festival. The ending reminded me of the Palme d'Or winner, Dheepan (2016) . Both films involve a person of color in France in an impoverished neighborhood, which ultimately erupts in violence. When it came to French films that could have been the official submission to the Academy Awards, a lot of prognosticators wanted Portrait of a Lady on Fire to be the nominee and not this one. Having now seen both, I think the French submitted the correct film. Portrait of a Lady on Fire is excellent on a technical and on a craft level, but it doesn't

It feels like a modern, Mexican version of The Big Chill (1983). The idea of a group of friends gathering for a weekend getaway at a vacation house or summer house was popularized in that 1983 film. The friends usually gather to hangout, do drugs and have sex, typically with various partners. The Big Chill didn't invent this idea. It's an idea that's often the premise for a lot of horror flicks. In horror though, people come to a cabin in the woods where they're cut off and are slaughtered one by one. Yet, The Big Chill popularized the idea of the whole piece being just about the drama of interpersonal relationships, who wants to have sex with whom. There have been gay versions like Maurice Jamal's The Ski Trip (2006) and Rob Williams' 3-Day Weekend (2008). There have also been mixed orientation versions like Chris Lowell's Beside Still Waters (2014), William Sullivan's That's Not Us (2016) and Vicente Alves do Ó's Sunburn (2019). This fi

Mark Blane's directorial debut feels semi-autobiographical in various ways. Blane lives in Brooklyn, New York, having come there from Indiana. His protagonist here is also a Brooklynite who's a transplant from the same Midwestern state. Both Blane and his protagonist are artists. Yet, despite some, parallel, personality quirks, that might be where the similarities stop. Blane's protagonist comes to New York with not much of a plan. He's probably representative of a lot of artists who come to the Big Apple on not much but a whim and eagerness or exuberance to experience the liberal and metropolitan life that is New York City. That whim is just a drive and compulsion that brings the artist here and it is then up to that person to find a way to survive with some being more lucky than others. Yet, Blane's purpose here isn't just to depict the struggling artist, which is an oft-used cliché. He also wants to say something about sexuality along side something about the