Category Archives: DO NOT MISS

2021, Abduction, Abuse of Elders, Attempted Murder, Clever Plot, Conspiracy, Corrupt Care Givers, Disguises, DO NOT MISS, Drugging as a weapon, Greed, Identity Theft, Infuriating, Lesbian Theme, Murder, Netflix Streaming, Plot Twist, Revenge, Russian Gangster, Suspense, Torture, Unscrupulous drive to power, Valium appropriate, Violent

I Care a Lot (2021)

From Netflix:

A court-appointed legal guardian defrauds her older clients and traps them under her care. But her latest mark comes with some unexpected baggage.

From Netflix you can stream this 1 hour 58 minute complete film.

Easily one of the most clever, disturbing and infuriating films I have watched recently. In order to maintain your mental composure:

  • Do NOT watch this film before bedtime.
  • Do NOT watch this film on a full stomach,
  • Keep some medicinal relaxant nearby in case of emergency.
  • Remember, this is not the reality of Putin murdering innocent Ukrainians,  but rather a possible but unlikely fictional scenario.

Peter Dinklage, as far as I know, avoids appearing in mediocre or just plain bad films. Once again he fits his role, this time as a Russian gangster, well.

Rosamund Pike, as the evil Marla Grayson, inspires such visceral hate that you cannot help but admire her talent.

Dianne Wiest, as Jennifer Peterson, nails the role of a helpless victim to a tee. In early “Law and Order” episodes, she was Interim D.A. Nora Lewin.

Could this really happen?  Better review your last will and testament and your power of attorney. DO NOT MISS (if you can stand the emotions).

 

 

2021, Acceptable for teenagers, Alcoholism, Antique Cars, Based on a Book, Based on true facts, Bloody scenes, Brother-Brother relations, Bullying, Clever Plot, Could Be Hard To Watch, Dancing, DO NOT MISS, Drama, Embarrassing episodes, Emotional child abuse, Erotic Tension, Family Conflict, Gay theme, Homophobia, Netflix Streaming, Nudity, Period Piece, Puzzling Conclusion, Sexual Tension, Suicide, Suspense, Uncle-Nephew relations, Western

The Power of the Dog (2021)

From IMDB:

Charismatic rancher Phil Burbank inspires fear and awe in those around him. When his brother brings home a new wife and her son, Phil torments them until he finds himself exposed to the possibility of love.

From Netflix:

A domineering but charismatic rancher wages a war of intimidation on his brother’s new wife and her teen son — until long-hidden secrets come to light.

From Netflix you can stream this stunning 2 hour 8 minute film.

Filmed in New Zealand (and supposedly taking place in Montana), Jane Campion’s mystery film ended with my saying “Whoa! What just happened?”  After sitting for awhile in a daze, I thought I finally figured out what was going on in the story.  To check my conclusion I googled for “The Power of the Dog” and discovered that my own reaction was typical for the film.  There are lots of discussions and explanations concerning the plot. To my satisfaction, I had correctly solved the whodunit. And not a word more from me about the details. (Out of desperation, you might read a review.)

Needless to say Benedict Cumberbatch (as the villain Phil Burbank) shows off his consistently amazing skill as an actor-chameleon.  Note that his American English is pitch perfect.

But credits are due also to:

  • Kirsten Dunst as Rose Gordon, the fragile wife of George Burbank.
  • Kodi Smit-McPhee as her son Peter Gordon.
  • Jesse Plemons as Phil’s soft-spoken but steady a rock brother George Burbank.

Be prepared for Phil’s nasty cruelty. Let me know if you solved the puzzle.

DO NOT MISS!

2022, Abandoned child, Acceptable for teenagers, Alcoholism, Amazon Prime, America of the 1950s, Amusing banter, Based on a Book, Based on true facts, Brother-Sister relations, Coarse manners, Could Be Sad, Crude Talk, Disrespect toward women, DO NOT MISS, Eccentric cast of characters, Failed Father, Father-son relations, Fatherless child, Feel Good Not For Children, Friendship, Happy ending, Husband leaves wife, Local color, Sex Scenes, Social class differences, Uncle-Nephew relations, Vulgar, Wife Beating

The Tender Bar (2022)

From Amazon Prime:

​​From director George Clooney and based on the best-selling memoir, The Tender Bar follows an aspiring writer (Tye Sheridan) pursuing his romantic and professional dreams. From a stool in his uncle’s (Ben Affleck) bar, he learns what it means to grow up from a colorful group of local characters.

From Amazon Prime you can stream this gem of a film which lasts for 1 hour 46 minutes.

Ben Affleck’s resumé has seen its ups and downs, successes and embarrassing flops.  But with this wonderful film he has nailed a really memorable role.  Even one critic who found the film “bland” still conceded that Affleck (as Uncle George) delivered an excellent, terrific performance.

Although that Long Island neighborhood, home of a lot of foul-mouthed but warm-hearted men and women, was rougher than anything I ever experienced, nevertheless I admired their tight friendships.

Expect notable acting from:

  • Tye Sheridan as the young JR.  Naïve, plain looking, and hopelessly attracted to
  • Briana Middleton as Sidney. Did she ever love JR or was she looking for “experience” (as in “sex”)?
  • Quincy Tyler Bernstine as Sidney’s mother, whose sneering, smug, cruel treatment of JR left me boiling.
  • Daniel Ranieri as young JR.
  • Christopher Lloyd as Grandpa. “Don’t tell anybody I’m a good grandfather, everybody will want one.”
  • Lily Rabe as the  Mom whose life is centered on her son JR.
  • Max Martini as JR’s cringe-worthy drunk of a father.

In the IMDB entry for this movie, there is a sizeable user review that is much harder on the film than I have been. Still —

DO NOT MISS!

 

2004, Amazon Prime, Boarding school, British Drama, Chance Encounter, DO NOT MISS, Family Conflict, Father-daughter relations, Father-son relations, Gay theme, Happy ending, Homophobia, Romance, Senior citizens, Sensitive treatement of emotions, Wonderful acting

When I’m 64 (2004)

From Amazon;

When widowed cabbie Ray and retired teacher Jim meet by chance, they discover they long for the same things from life: adventure, challenge and love. Together Ray and Jim discover that being 64 means a new beginning: it’s time to try the things they never dared in their youth.

From Amazon Prime you can stream this 1 hour 27 minute complete British film.

Paul Freeman, who plays Ray,  is one of those supporting British actors you seem to have seen everywhere but just cannot place. If it helps, in “Monarch of the Glen” he played Andrew Booth. His resume is enormous.  Ray exudes a restless, vigorous, energy overshadowed by events in his past.

No less impressive is the resume of Alun Armstrong, who plays Jim. Jim’s character is sadder as a man who attended a school and then stayed on for the rest of his working life, Now he leaves that part of his life full of regret that he has never really lived.  He feels duty bound to go back home and care for his ailing, elderly father. But the father wants Jim to move on.

As a realistic British drama with wonderful acting, DO NOT MISS!

2020, Abduction, Action sequences, Amazon Prime MHz Choice, Bisexual theme, Bizarre Episodes, Clever Plot, Detective, DO NOT MISS, Eccentric Detective, Explicit sex, Family Conflict, Father-son relations, German, Grisly, Happy Family Gatherings, Hostage Taking, Husband leaves wife, Jewish Religious Observance, Kidnapping, Male Chauvinism, Marital Infidelity, MHz Choice, Mother-son relations, Murder, Murder by Robot, Murder Investigation, Nudity, Physical fighting, Police Investigation, Psychopath, Revenge, Secret Society, Serial Killer, Sex Scenes, Suspense, Torture, Unhappy Marriage, Violent

Tatort: Streets of Berlin (2020)

From MHz Choice:

Berlin is sexy, deadly and dangerous, devouring unwitting victims and the cops who walk its streets. In this latest installment of the Tatort franchise, Inspectors Nina Rubin and Robert Karow team up as a uniquely competent and dysfunctional pair.

From MHz Choice directly or through Amazon Prime MHz Choice you can stream the 11 episodes of the only season.  Each episode lasts about 1.5 hours. German with English subtitles.

Robert Karow is a single, smart, sexist, overbearing, bisexual detective that drives Nina Rubin to distraction.  Nina Rubin is separated (temporarily) from her husband while she tries to raise her two sons with great difficulty.

As with most of all the many different Tatort series, the plots are well imagined, the characters of the detectives are distinctive, and the level of tension is palpable.

Tatort Lindholm is better. Nonetheless, once again for a Tatort series:  DO NOT MISS!

2017, Abduction, Abuse of Women, Action sequences, Amazon Prime MHz Choice, Amnesia, Athletes, Bloody scenes, Corrupt policemen, Corrupt Politicians, Corruption, Could Be Hard To Watch, Detective, DO NOT MISS, Failed Romance, Forensics, Game hunting for humans, Gay theme, German, German Air Force, German Detectives, Homophobia, Journalist, Kidnapping, MHz Choice, Mother-son relations, Murder, Murder Investigation, Personal Betrayal, Serial Killer, Sex Scenes, Sex trafficking, Single Mother, Soccer, Suicide, Undercover police work, Upsetting ending, Violent

Tatort: Lindholm (2017)

From MHz Choice:

Lone wolf detective Charlotte Lindholm has an uncanny talent for solving crimes and fumbling all personal relationships.

MHz Choice ($7.99 per month in 2021) can be purchased directly or through Amazon Prime. From MHz Choice you can stream the 12 episodes of the only season available. Each episode lasts about 1.5 hours. German with English subtitles.

From Wikipedia:

Tatort (“Crime scene”) is a German language police procedural television series that has been running continuously since 1970 with some 30 feature-length episodes per year, which makes it the longest-running German TV drama. Developed by the German public service broadcasting organisation ARD for their channel Das Erste, it is unique in its approach, in that it is jointly produced by all of the organisation’s regional members as well as its partnering Austrian and Swiss national public-service broadcasters, whereby every regional station contributes a number of episodes to a common pool.

Charlotte Lindholm is a smart, determined, and courageous detective, as well as a single mother raising her young son. Throughout the episodes she will have many romantic relationships, none of which succeed.

Of the 12 episodes, number 10  “The Smooth Death”  is unsettling because the “bad guy” wins.  Sometimes in a series, one episode will have the evildoer win only to be followed by an episode in which justice prevails. Sadly, not so with this difficult episode.

Each episode is very tense and can be unnerving to watch. If that appeals to you, then

DO NOT MISS!

 

2021, Acceptable for teenagers, Addiction, Alcoholism, Amazon Prime, Big Pharma, Bullying, Career Competition, Conspiracy, Contract Killing, Cover-up, DO NOT MISS, Eccentric Detective, Failed Father, Father-daughter relations, Good Brother - Bad Brother, Greed, Lawyers, Mental Illness, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Opioids, Reconciliation, Schizophrenia, Suspense, Trial Scenes, Wonderful acting

Goliath Season 4 (2021)

From Amazon Prime:

In the final season, after Patty takes a job at a prestigious white-shoe law firm in San Francisco, Billy returns to his Big Law roots. Together, they try to take down one of America’s most insidious Goliaths: the opioid industry.

From Amazon Prime you can stream the 8 episodes of this last available season. Each episode lasts about 50 minutes.

As I have mentioned before,  you do best watching this series beginning with season 1, remembering that season 2 offers some ugly scenes.  Many characters have remained throughout the four seasons, notably  Billy’s sidekicks as well as some old enemies. Surprisingly Donald Cooperman (played by William Hurt) plays a positive role in resolving the lawsuit.  Wonderful performances are provided by:

  • Bruce Dern plays the good brother Frank Zax.
  • J.K. Simmons plays the evil brother George Zax.
  • Jena Malone plays the lawyer Samantha Margolis who is suffering from multiple sclerosis.

Part of the fun, as usual, is watching all the “Lawyer Trickery Bullshit” (which is the title of episode 7) as Billy and friends battle the opioid industry.

DO NOT MISS!

2019, Abandoned child, Adopted child, Alcoholism, Amazon Prime, Ambitious Dirty Tricks, American Indian culture, Attempted Murder, Binge worthy, Bloody scenes, Brother-Sister relations, Corrupt judge, Corrupt lawyers, Corruption, Courtroom scenes, Cover-up, DO NOT MISS, Drug trip, Drugging as a weapon, Drugs, Environmental concerns, Family Conflict, Father-daughter relations, Lawyers, Murder, Murder by poison, Suspense, Uncategorized, Violent, Water theft

Goliath Season 3 (2019)

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From Amazon Prime:

The unexpected death of an old friend leads Billy McBride to take a case in the drought-stricken Central Valley where he comes face-to-face with a new Goliath: a billionaire farmer and his sister and their scheme to steal California’s most valuable resource – water. As Billy and his team pursue the truth, old enemies and personal demons resurface forcing him to confront his own mortality.

From Amazon Prime you can stream the 8 episodes of season 3. Episode lengths vary but are always less than one hour.

Now (2021) and in the future, water will be a major issue for the entire planet.  Recall that Los Angeles was built using stolen water. In a quote from Google:

Is LA built on stolen water?
Los Angeles finally is giving back some of the water local residents say the city stole from them many years ago. A valve was opened at mid-morning Thursday and water flowed from the Los Angeles Aqueduct into Black Rock Channel, and then into the Owens River, which has been generally dry since 1913.Jun 6, 1986

 

Goliath’s themes are motivated by current abuses. Season one is about the arms industry.  Season two concerned political corruption. Season three is about stealing water. Season four is about opioids.

 

Although season two was cautiously recommended because of the intrinsic ugliness of the characters and their hideous modus operandi,  in order to appreciate season three you need only know that the corrupt character Marisol Silva became mayor of Los Angeles through the efforts of her Mexican brother who amputated the limbs of anyone standing in the way of Marisol ‘s election. Marisol reappears in season three.

 

Season one ended in a jury trial in which Billy’s nemesis Donald Cooperman was maneuvered into committing perjury.  At that moment Cooperman suffered a fairly complete stroke. As that season ended, Cooperman was supposedly bedridden for the rest of his life.  Miraculously in season three Cooperman reappears as one of the evil forces behind the conspiracy.

 

In season three the villains are methodically and cruelly stealing water by tunneling under federal land.  At times that causes the ground to sink. Because the wife of one of Billy’s old friends is swallowed up in such a sinkhole, Billy tries for a class action suit.

 

If you hardened yourself and actually watched season two, then you were probably upset that Marisol’s evil schemes make her mayor. Never fear, in what is almost a Shakespearean tragedy, many bad guys get their comeuppance.

 

Along the way there are all the well-written side issues.

 

Satisfyingly violent. DO NOT MISS!
1970, Acceptable for teenagers, Detective, DO NOT MISS, German Detectives, MHz Choice, Police Investigation

Tatort: Borowski (1970)

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From MHz Choice you can stream 5 seasons of this German detective series centering around detective Klaus Borowski. Seasons 1 through 3 offer 8 episodes each. Seasons 4 and 5 offer 4 episodes each.  Each of the 32 episodes lasts 1.5 hours.  Each episode is a complete story.

“Tatort” is the German word for “scene of the crime”.  MHz Choice offers 6 Tatort series of which Borowski is only one.

From Wikipedia:

Tatort (“Crime scene”) is a German language police procedural television series that has been running continuously since 1970 with some 30 feature-length episodes per year, which makes it the longest-running German TV drama. Developed by the German public service broadcasting organisation ARD for their channel Das Erste, it is unique in its approach, in that it is jointly produced by all of the organisation’s regional members as well as its partnering Austrian and Swiss national public-service broadcasters, whereby every regional station contributes a number of episodes to a common pool.

Because there are so many themes in the 32 episodes, that it makes no sense to attach categories to this blog post.

Klaus Borowski is a smart and experienced German detective.  If you follow all the episodes you can actually notice his aging. Along the way he has some love affairs and almost gets attached.  For the most part the plots are cringe-free and not very violent. Sometimes he gets hit over the head but, of course, survives the blow.

For me this is a superior detective series.

DO NOT MISS!

 

2016, Alcoholism, Amazon Prime, Blackmail, Bloody scenes, Career Competition, Conspiracy, Contract Killing, Corrupt Corporation, Corrupt lawyers, Corrupt policemen, Cover-up, Divorce, DO NOT MISS, Drama, Environmental concerns, Ethical struggles, Extramarital Affair, Failed Father, Failed Marriage, Father-daughter relations, FBI, Frame someone for a crime, Gay theme, Government cover-up, Illegal Weapons, Lawyers, Mother-daughter relations, Murder, Office Love Affairs, Personal Betrayal, Police Corruption, Prostitutes, Revenge, Suicide, Suspense, Trial Scenes

Goliath Season 1(2016)

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From Amazon:

Once a powerful lawyer, Billy McBride is now burned out and washed up, spending more time in a bar than a courtroom. When he reluctantly agrees to pursue a wrongful death lawsuit against the biggest client of the massive law firm he helped create, Billy and his ragtag team uncover a vast and deadly conspiracy, pitting them all in a life or death trial against the ultimate Goliath.

From Amazon Prime you can stream 4 seasons of this lawyer series.  This review is just for season 1 which consists of 8 episodes where each episode is roughly one hour.

Billy McBride is played by Billy Bob Thornton who has often taken unusual roles. You might recall him as Lorne Malvo in “Fargo”.  In season one he is up against the Goliath of law firms named Cooperman and McBride which he helped establish.  His personal nemesis is the other name on the company name,  Donald  Cooperman. Cooperman as one of the best “bad guys” I have ever seen is played to stunning and eccentric perfection by William Hurt. Not that Cooperman is the only villain.  His most notable lawyer-in-crime, Callie Senate,  is played with cunning malice by Mollie Parker, whose every smug smirk is a masterpiece of acting.  When you really hate one of the villains, that actor is doing her job. Mollie Parker played Jackie Sharp in “House of Cards”.

Rest assured the daemons get their comeuppance.  But the journey to get to that point is agonizingly frustrating.

DO NOT MISS!