Nightbitch.

Despite its provocative title this is a limp wristed watered down smoothed over tale of a mother ably played by Amy Adams and her rebellion against her role as a stay at home caregiver to her charming son. The couples roles dictated by the white middle class strictures of modern society, which they both have somehow agreed to. None of this rebellion is directed against her son who she indulges and loves unconditionally. The initial wonder in having a child has worn off and she now is tasked with the sometimes increasingly mundane day to day work of steering this new being on a safe and caring path. It is this role she startlingly finds herself in, that upsets the apple cart. When set against her former life as a promising artist, which she has set aside long ago for her new life. The dawning realization of what she has given up is what finally sets her on a path of separation from her unsuspecting husband. The whole middle-class motherhood baby world increasingly grates and eventually disgusts her sensibilities. The imaginary regression into a feral world, their idealized image of randomness and freedom is simply an escape valve for her frustrations. What is missing in this tale is any culpable rage justified or not for the situation she finds herself in. It does (spoiler alert)(I don’t care). Have a happy ending. Wrongs are righted, tragedies avoided, art is restored, dogs go back to being dogs, and a new arrival hopefully sets things straight. (This ending really gets my goat)(Sorry....not sorry)

215 stars

 Disclaimer.

Successful yuppie couple (Wife has a secret). Long ago Italian seaside holiday.

(Husband has to leave early). Wife and young son frolic in the sand. Young stud who’s girlfriend has just left spies young mum and son. (Mostly mum) Mum notices stud taking pictures. Hot sex.

(Two versions) Version one. Lots of fun frolicking + naughty bits). 

Version two Not so much. Not fun. Nasty.  Mum falls asleep on the beach. Young son gets swept out to sea in rubber dingy. Wakes freaks out. Young stud swims out to sea and saves boy but drowns on the way back. Mum ignores drama of drowned stud. Parents of stud grieve. Wife goes off the rails dies of cancer. Bereft husband discovers secret fictional manuscript wife has written of incident. Self publishes book indicting yuppie wife. Goes on revenge rampage determined to kill now grown son of yuppie wife. Not going to tell the ending in episode 7. Director Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men; Gravity: Y tu mama tambien) has untangled this complex and sometimes confusing narrative into a 7 part TV miniseries. Starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Lesley Manville, Sacha Baron Cohen Leila George.   359 stars

Tuesday.

A young woman with a terminal disease is about to die

One day death in the form of a shape shifting parrot comes into her room.

So begins the intriguing tale by first time director Daina O. Pusić about death and humanities inability to comprehend and understand this universal phenomenon. Deaths appearance does not particularly upset or perturb Tuesday affectingly played byLola Petticrew. Her only request is that death delay its mission until Zora, her mother played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus returns from work. 

Her mothers reaction on seeing death and realizing what its presence means for her daughter beginning a mission to try and forestall its inevitable actions. Trying to kill the bird by various means she ends up swallowing the charred remains of the creature. By doing so forestalling its duties reports begin to come in of people and animals not dying from their injuries and roaming the countryside in zombie like states. Swallowing the bird has its own disastrous effects on Zora until her daughter makes her realize her mistake intruding to put off the inevitable.  In doing so she regurgitates the bird allowing it to complete its duties. After her daughters death she becomes demoralized. The bird on a revisit to ‘see how she is doing’ , she asks the bird to continue its mission with her, hoping for an afterlife where she can reunite with her daughter. The bird refuses, saying that the afterlife is a legacy in other peoples memories. How Zora lives her remaining days is her daughters afterlife. On pondering this is is reminded of a conversation she had with her daughter in her final day promising she would continue on trying to live her best life  in her memory. This is a strange and affecting film that with great humanity tackles a subject that is rarely visited with such style.  499.5 stars

 

 

 

  My Brilliant Friend

 
 I did an original review of the first three seasons of the HBO distributed series in  Feb 2023. The fourth and final season (The Story of the Lost Child) released this year has just concluded. The entire series spanning four years of production time.  Carrying on from the previous seasons the story continues the complex and sometimes tortured relationship between Elenor Grecco (Alba Rohrwacher) and Raffaella Cerulla (Irene Maiorino).  Elenor being the narrator and writer of their lives together. It’s a lifetimes story spanning their childhood into their old age. A vast complex detailed telling. The Tv productions being faithful to the original four volume set of books. What prevents this from being a giant soap opera, is the skill and authenticity of the original writing by Ferranti and the wisdom of the directors for following that writing so closely and  the actors for bringing their efforts to the screen with such riveting performances.

488 stars

 

At the end of his tour of Italy James May the British TV presenter gave a summation of his impressions of the country, He goes on to list that in spite of its chaotic political system, it’s unfathomable civil service its almost complete disorganization as a country in the nordic sense. But because of its many other attributes.  The food, wine, breathtaking scenery and history, unparalleled art, warmth of its people and general dolce vita ethos. The fact that the words ‘made in Italy’ add value to almost any modern manufactured item. Even its detractors who sneer and joke about the entire archipelago would secretly like to be Italian. I count myself amongst the people who would like to have come from that odd shaped piece of property sticking into the Mediterranean. Which brings me in a very Italian round about way to the TV police series:

The investigations of Lolita Lobosco

After a long period of work in the North, Deputy prosecutor  Lolita Lobosco returns to  Bari her hometown on the Adriatic coast in southern Italy.  In a world stubbornly ruled by males, Lolita chooses to remain herself without repressing her charm and beauty, indeed she uses these qualities to establish herself and fight prejudices. Freely based on Gabriella Genisi’s books. 

The backbone of the series like the dozens of other programs of this genre if fairly prosaic. A murder an investigation a solution. The thing that sets this series apart is the afore mentioned ‘made in Italy’ component. Shot mostly in the very picturesque seaside town of Bari our heroine Lolita (loli) Played by the striking Louisa Ranieri  and her sidekick Antonio Forte played by  Giovanni Ludeno . For Comic relief there is Esposito played by Jacopo Cullin.  All three with Lobosco in the lead set about solving misdeeds and murders in their town. Where this series differs from the others is the back story a kind of an elaborate rom com involving the whole extensive family, including Lobosco's mother Nunzia played by Lunetta Savino and her erstwhile romantic interest the sometimes bumbling greengrocer Trifoni played by Maurizio Donadoni and other neighborhood characters that most of the other series don’t delve into. The back stories are as engrossing and emotionally personal (often involving our lead actor) as the crime aspect. An ongoing story line is the death of Lobosco’s father early on in the series which forever haunts her, and is intent of finally solving.  Helping the cohesiveness, all the actors seem perfectly cast in their roles. You won’t have heard of any of them, its all there on the screen. Despite the crime aspect its mostly fun and romance, which is what sets this series apart.   322 stars

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Bear.

A  low level beef sandwich shop in the River North district of Chicago recently run by his deceased (by suicide) brother Michael.  Inefficient, chaotic, run by a chronically dysfunctional crew barely making a go of it. This is the world that Carmen Berzetto returns to after his years of training and work in Michelin- starred restaurants around the world. Having to deal with the chaos in every area that his brother has left behind. The staff headed by “Ritchie”, deceased Michaels best friend and completely unqualified manager.  Fiercely resisting and resentful of Carmens every move to modernize and upgrade the operation, simply adding to the turmoil. Hiring a young talented chef Sydney Adamu to be sous-chef exacerbates the tensions as a new level of authority is introduced. Trying to conquer these competing demands takes up a good portion of season one. Wearing down the obsessive “Carmy” with repeated fights, screaming matches and swearing, as in any stereotypical Italian family. This gets exhausting to watch after a while. There are many multiple setbacks which fleshes the story out in season two.Carmy persists and despite his own personal demons and private traumas, towards his ultimate goal of opening up a new restaurant. Slowly, painfully carves this iceberg into an elegant sculpture. The episodes get better as the season progresses. Thanks to (once again) The writers; Christopher Storer. Who also created the series.Matty Matheson, Will Guidara, Joanna Callo and Alex Russel.
The tent pole that holds this whole thing up is
Jeremy Allen White  as the bedeviled Carmen
Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Richie the mesmerizing  thorn in Carmens side.
Ayo Edebiri as Sydney the gifted Sous-Chef.
The rest of the substantial supporting cast are all top rate helping round out what ends up being a well worth compelling personality realistically presented study in people under sometimes extreme insane pressure. Proof of the award winning pudding (sorry soufflé) is season three is about too be released and season four is planned.   384 stars
 

 

 

 

 Three Body Problem.

This monster Chinese TV  science fiction tale was released to huge acclaim in China in 2023.  30 episodes in length (all with subtitles) is not for the faint of heart. Taken from an an epic three volume set of novels by Liu Cxin  The recipient of many science fiction awards it was hugely successful in China. The English translation was the first to receive a Hugo and Nebula award by an asian writer. Set against the turbulence of the cultural revolution  Ye Wenjie an astrophysics graduate sees her father a teacher beaten to death by the Red Guard. Sentenced to prison for her protests Ye is recruited by the military to work on a secret project to use high powered radio waves to damage spy satellites a technology far behind  what the USA and USSR are working on. Its real mission turns out to be a clandestine search for extraterrestrial life. Ye discovers that  by using the sun to amplify the outgoing radio waves success is more likely but tells no one.  Eight years later through her contacts she is told  that a message has been received from a planet in Alpha Centuri warning her not to respond or the inhabitants of Trisolaris will be able to calculate the earths location and invade. Ye responds anyway inviting the aliens to come to earth and settle its problems. Murdering her two co workers in order to keep the alien massage secret. The cat is out of the bag. By responding to the aliens message  Ye has set in motion a series of irreversible events which as the news spreads to various factions of humanity is responded to in predictably chaotic uncoordinated manner. This is just a brief historical synopsis of  the plot line It continues. In the present day a nanotechnology professor Wang is asked by the police to help with the investigations of the suicides of several prominent  scientists including Ye’s daughter. A meeting between Wang and Ye reveals people playing a sophisticated Virtual Reality game called Three Body.  The game portrays a planet whose climate randomly flips between Stable and Chaotic Eras. During Chaotic Eras, the weather oscillates unpredictably between extreme cold and extreme heat, sometimes within minutes. This unstable unpredictable atmosphere spells doom for the Trisolarans and their planet.   The game shows them building and launching colony ships to invade Earth, believing that the stable orbit will allow unprecedented prosperity and let them escape the destruction of their home.  Still not the end, which I will not reveal.The intricacies of the books plot are carried unsullied in excruciating detail into the Chinese TV production, hence the thirty episodes. Shot in weird 1960’s color gives the series and appropriately dated look. None of the actors will be recognizable although their performances especially Ye Wen Jie outstandingly played by Chen Jin and Edward Zhang playing Wang Miao and the police officer played byYu He Wei are all solid.
Then of course there is the the American adaptation. From the creators of Game of Thrones. As to be expected it is shorter (eight episodes) slicker, sexier and the effects are way more spectacular than in the Chinese version. Also a huge amount of the story is in the trash bucket. Probably, with good reason Benioff, Weiss and Woo decided that a US audience would not sit still for thirty episodes or anything near it. The casting is odd and inconsistent but dealing with such a truncated plot line took its toll. Rosalind Chao plays the adult Ye Wenjie, Benedict Wong plays the intrepid detective Da Shi.  The lead women actors. Jess Hong, Eiza Gonzales are far too good looking to be taken seriously in they roles. Liam Cunningham as the evil industrialist and Johnathon Price as the crackpot environmentalist are just thrown in for gravitas that neither achieve. As you can tell I think this version was just a money grab. Substituting glam for drama.  Glomming on to the much more authentic and compelling original Chinese tale. It’s not an entire bust though bits of the original story still poke through. My advice is to get a trashcan size tub of popcorn a case of your favorite soda and sit through the 30 episode version.   726 stars