[ Grimms’ Fairy Tales are some of the most recognizable stories in the world. This collection of stories, written by the German Grimm brothers Jacob and Wilhelm, was published in the 1800s, but has been delighting children and adults ever since with numerous adaptations. That includes everything from Rapunzel to Cinderella and several other familiar … Read more
[ Noir is having a moment this week, with the release of the arthouse take on Ripley on Netflix coinciding with the new Apple TV+ series Sugar, which is about a private investigator that loves old movies, has a moral code, and lots of secrets. Both are languidly paced, but both are enjoyable for different … Read more
[ There’s a reason why Showtime cancelled American Rust after its first, mixed-to-negatively-reviewed season; aside from the usual stellar performances by Daniels and Tierney, the show felt like a dark slog packed with people who had sketchy morals and little else in the way of personal characteristics. Despite that, Amazon saw fit to pick up … Read more
[ Shows about the intersection of religion and money aren’t new. But in a new Netflix series from Thailand, the focus is on the money-making aspect of a religious organization. The show accomplishes this by inserting three young entrepreneurs into the system, hoping to pay off debts and make some cash by running a struggling … Read more
[ At the start of Iron Reign, the new Netflix series from Spain, paragraphs of information tell the audience about how, since 6,000 containers arrive at the Port of Barcelona every day, and only 2% are checked, the port has become a leading entry point for drug trafficking; over 30,000 kilos of cocaine are smuggled … Read more
[ Survival stories are a dime a dozen, and The Dive (now streaming on AMC+) is definitely one of them. A remake of 2020 Norwegian thriller Breaking Surface, the movie stars Louisa Krause and Sophie Lowe as scuba-diving sisters who, to put it lightly, run into a little bad luck at 100 feet beneath the … Read more
[ The new Chilean series Baby Bandito is inspired by a massive 2014 heist in Santiago, where $10 million was stolen from an armored truck at Santiago’s international airport. The part where one of the perpetrators is a teenage skater, though, may or may not be completely made up. Opening Shot: A well-dressed young man … Read more
[ Thrillers often have their good guys and bad guys, but when there’s more grey area to explore, the better the stories in those shows are. And when that grey area is a fictionalized version of a real-life horror, that makes the story even better, as we see in a new Irish thriller. Opening Shot: … Read more
[ It’s been five years since Nic Pizzolatto’s HBO crime anthology series True Detective graced our screens, and it’s back in a big way. It’s got two-time Oscar winner Jodie Foster as its lead, the constant darkness of the Alaskan winter as its backdrop and a new creator and showrunner. But does the series feel … Read more
[ Jake Johnson writes, directs and stars in Self Reliance (now streaming on Hulu), an offbeat comedy falling under The Lonely Island production banner. It’s the directorial debut from Johnson, who we know from New Girl and Minx and, of course, for being the voice of Grouchy Smurf in the most recent Smurfs motion picture. … Read more
