The first feature film produced by Aardman Animations, creators of the beloved series of Wallace and Gromit shorts, Chicken Run was a fairly significant box office hit in 2000 and, remarkably, still holds the record as the highest-grossing stop-motion animated film of all time. Even that being the case, I feel that the movie didn’t… Read More Poultry in Motion | Chicken Run (2000)
The new Netflix film Leave the World Behind presents a vision of the apocalypse perhaps a little more disturbingly plausible than most. It has no zombies, alien invasions, giant monsters, asteroid collisions, or coordinated global fungal pandemics. Instead, the movie shows how rapidly modern civilization will crumble when… shudder to even consider the possibility… the… Read More No Going Back to Normal | Leave the World Behind (2023) on Netflix
Following a brief and frankly uneventful theatrical release a few weeks ago, the latest feature from acclaimed filmmaker David Fincher arrives at what was always intended to be its true home on Netflix. Based on a French graphic novel series from 1998 that the director had been circling for adaptation at least as far back… Read More Stick to the Plan | The Killer (2023) on Netflix
Based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller novel by author Anthony Doerr, the new four-episode limited series All the Light We Cannot See is a prestige production with all the high-gloss production values a hefty Netflix budget can buy. It’s also completely ridiculous, to a frankly laughable degree. I suppose that’s what you get when you… Read More Hysterical Blindness | All the Light We Cannot See (2023) Netflix Limited Series
Based on a 2014 graphic novel published by DC Vertigo, Bodies has the type of intriguing high-concept premise that feels like it almost must have been written for the express purpose of being adapted into a Netflix limited series. At least, the Netflix limited series adaptation of it sure gives that impression. Some cursory research… Read More Know You Are Loved | Bodies (2023) Netflix Limited Series
October is the season for spooky delights, which makes it a fine time for Netflix to roll out the latest horror miniseries from producer/director Mike Flanagan. These things are getting to be nearly an annual tradition for the streamer. This year’s is The Fall of the House of Usher, based (extremely loosely) upon a mash-up… Read More Madness Is the Loftiest Intelligence | The Fall of the House of Usher (2023) Netflix Limited Series
Following in the footsteps of his pal Sylvester Stallone, legendary action star Arnold Schwarzenegger makes his debut as the lead in a television series with Netflix’s new action-comedy FUBAR. Notably, the show also marks the second attempt this year to adapt Schwarzenegger’s 1994 blockbuster True Lies into a television format. Of the two, this may… Read More Untrue Lies | FUBAR Season 1 (2023) on Netflix
The Netflix binge model, while obviously very appealing to viewers frustrated with the traditional weekly TV schedule, can sometimes do a disservice to shows that need time to build buzz and public awareness. The streamer’s terrific new political drama The Diplomat, for example, barely premiered two weeks ago yet already seems to have fallen out… Read More One Ambassador’s Plenty | The Diplomat Season 1 (2023) on Netflix
When trying to imagine a visual metaphor that defines the essence of the state of Florida, the image of an alligator rising to the surface of a lake carrying a gun on its back just about nails it. I wish I had thought of it. That scene actually happens in an early episode of Netflix’s… Read More The Goddamn State Is Shaped Like a Gun! | Florida Man (2023) Netflix Limited Series
Officially, the new Netflix thriller series The Night Agent is based on a 2019 novel by Matthew Quirk. If the TV adaptation follows it at all closely, the story seems to have been based in turn on the author watching a lot of Fox’s 24. At the very least, the Netflix show’s producers sure did.… Read More Maybe Someone Changed the Rules in Spyland | The Night Agent Season 1 (2023) on Netflix
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