Penguin Bloom

I miss living in Australia and I’m a huge fan of Naomi Watts, so any Aussie film she stars in is a special treat for me. Unfortunately, she’s been in a series of pretty bad films recently, apart from Luce, so this was a nice change. This film is directed by Glendyn Ivin, who also made the wonderful Last Ride twelve years ago. The real question is, was this story worth making into a film? No. But I’m glad they showed us how she got injured, I was worried they were going to skip it.

7/10

Allen v. Farrow

We have all been waiting for this documentary for about 30 years. In episode two we finally get to see the tapes Mia recorded of a 7 year old Dylan disclosing her sexual assault. The tapes’ existence Allen’s fans have disputed for all these years. Just imagine adopting 12 children out of your good heart and compassion and occidentally exposing them to a predator. One of the guests of episode three is Gloria Steinem, who recalls interviewing Paul Williams, a renowned child sex crimes investigator who worked on 800 cases of child sexual abuse before being handed Dylan Farrow’s case. Williams was fired and silenced after saying he believed Dylan. Case workers who interviewed Dylan at another facility (there were two trials, one in NY and one in Connecticut), destroyed all of their notes from their numerous interviews with 7 year old Farrow before the trial. That’s all you need to know about the show, I seriously recommend you check it out.

8/10

All the Bright Places

The teenage version of me would have loved this, I skipped so much more school than Finch because of depression. I wish there were group therapy meetings for teens where I grew up. My school was not equipped to handle my problems. Why did it take me this long to watch the one decent Netflix teen original?

6/10

Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cycil Hotel

The most shocking thing is the manager telling the filmmakers she was once showing a guest to their room and came across a police sniper haunting a serial killer. Why would you tell people you and your staff are so incompetent they didn’t even tell you a sniper walked into your hotel. I remember watching the CCTV footage back in 2013, but I didn’t think much of it and I never heard anything about how this case was resolved. This was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

6/10

To All the Boys Forever and Always

The final part of the To All The Boys trilogy features college acceptance stress and trips to Seoul and New York. The second film is mostly yellow colour graded, whereas the third one is almost entirely green. My family decided to rewatch the other parts too, and my dad, who hasn’t seen any of them before, said this series is refreshing, because the teens in it don’t have sex, do drugs, swear or get chased by serial killers. And I can’t argue that. Is it realistic? Probably not, but the series is sweet and innocent and I can see why it’s so appealing to young teens. I also may have liked this part the most.

6/10

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga

I watched this with my parents and the fact that Polish Netflix got all of these actors to dub the dialogue instead of hiring a narrator, shows how big Eurovision is in Europe. I haven’t watched Eurovision since 2007 or so, simply because a teenage version of me thought it was lame. I still remember how happy I was when heavy metal band Lordi’s Hard Rock Hallelujah won in 2006. Some of Eurovision songs I still remember apart from the obvious, ABBA’s Waterloo, are Brotherhood of Man’s Save Your Kisses For Me, France Gall’s Poupee de Cire, Poipee de Son, Vanilla Ninja’s Cool Vibes and Wig Wam’s In My Dreams. Did I have to google some of these names, yes I did. This film is shockingly watchable, and the two failed performances are surprisingly funny. Also, how catchy is the Double Trouble song? It’s so typical of the early 2000s pop, it makes me nostalgic even though I’ve only heard this song today. I don’t usually like pop, but I’m adding it to my Spotify list for the month.

6/10

Where’d You Go Bernadette

Earlier this week I learned that I’m a victim of identity theft, so It’s been a tough couple of days. What a coincidence a film with a stolen identity plot is expiring from HBO Go this week. I picked up an A1 poster of this film from my local cinema in September 2019.

7/10

Catfight

This script is on crack and needs a real punch in the face. I also think if they haven’t invented a war, this had a potential to be rewatchable.

5/10

How To Deal

I have now seen all films Mandy Moore starred in as a teenager and young adult and this is the weakest one.

4/10