Category Archives: 2017

2017, Abandoned child, Abduction, Abuse of Women, Bloody scenes, Bullying, Character Driven, Child custody, Conspiracy, Controlling personality, Cult, Cult Brainwashing, Detective, DO NOT MISS, Drugs, Eccentric Detective, Emotional child abuse, Ethical struggles, Lesbian Theme, Mental Illness, Missing Person, Mother-son relations, Murder, Murder by poison, Murder Investigation, Netflix Streaming, Police Investigation, Rape, Serial Killer, Small Town, Suspense, Trial Scenes, Violent

The Sinner (2017)

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From Netflix you can stream 4 seasons of this intense series centering on the central detective character Harry Ambrose.

Each season consists of 8 episodes, each about 42 minutes.

  • Season 1: “Cora”  Cora is a young mother that inexplicably stabs and kills a young man during a family beach outing.   Detective Ambrose must discover why she killed in order to defend her.
  • Season 2: “Julian” Julian is a young boy who confesses to murdering his parents. Ambrose has to investigate the cult to which the boy belongs in order to defend the boy.
  • Season 3: “Jamie” Jamie is the father of a family and is also a serial killer. Ambrose needs to understand Jamie in order to stop his killing and prove his guilt.
  • Season 4: “Percy” Percy is the troubled daughter of the Muldoon fishing family.  In the start of the story Harry thinks he sees Percy commit suicide.  Alongside personal relationship  problems, Harry must once again put himself in danger to get to the bottom of a serious corruption scheme.

As Harry Ambrose the actor Bill Pullman plays a stubborn detective with a very unique personality.  Quiet, always with a knowing shy smile on his face, Harry is his own mystery.  With the other “criminals” he shares a tortured past which we learn bit by bit. Harry takes some remarkable chances in order to solve a mystery.

As far as detective series are concerned:

DO NOT MISS!

2017, Acceptable for teenagers, Alzheimer's disease, Amazon Prime, Basically Sad, British, Could Be Hard To Watch, DO NOT MISS, Drama, Flashbacks, Missing Person, Mother-daughter relations, Murder, Mystery Film, PBS Masterpiece Streaming, Police Investigation, Possibly depressing, Wonderful acting

Elizabeth Is Missing (2019)

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From PBS.org:

Returning to television for the first time in nearly three decades, two-time Academy Award®–winner Glenda Jackson stars as a woman desperately trying to solve two mysteries as she declines ever deeper into dementia, in Elizabeth Is Missing, an adaptation of Emma Healey’s acclaimed novel.

From PBS Passport currently you can stream this 1 hour 27 minute film.  Amazon Prime requires that you pay to stream.

Again from PBS.org:

Jackson astounded critics during the UK broadcast of Elizabeth Is Missing in late 2019. “Glenda Jackson shines in this heartrending whodunnit” (The Guardian); “Jackson gave one of the performances of her lifetime” (The Daily Telegraph); “Jackson is remarkable” (The Independent); “a devastatingly real performance” (The Times); “brilliant” (Radio Times).

Glenda Jackson in 2019, when the show first aired, was 83 years old.  She is remembered for her role as Alex Greville in  Sunday Bloody Sunday which was made in 1971 when she was a mere 35 years of age.

Watching   her as Maud Horsham struggle against the onset of Alzheimer’s can be profoundly upsetting.  Some of our friends could not sleep after watching the drama.  “Will this happen to me?”  is a scary question.  Just as real as her studied and accurate performance are the reactions of those who care for her:  her daughter and her grand-daughter.

If you want to see superb acting, DO NOT MISS!

 

2017, Abduction, Abuse of Women, Acceptable Trash, Action Hero, Action sequences, B-movie, Binge worthy, Blackmail, Bloody scenes, Bromance, Brother-Brother relations, Chase film, Complicated, Contract Killing, Corruption, Cover-up, Death penalty debate, Detective, Extramarital Affair, Father-daughter relations, Forensics, Frame someone for a crime, Friendship, Happy ending, Improbable details, Invincible Hero, Marital Infidelity, Mediocre, Mental Illness, Mother-son relations, Murder, Must suspend disbelief, Netflix Streaming, Personal Betrayal, Police Corruption, Psychiatrists, Psychopath, Torture, Violent

Somewhere Between (2017)

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From IMDB:

A local news producer is given one chance to relive a deadly week and stop a serial killer. If she fails, she’ll lose her daughter forever.

From Netflix:

While investigating a serial killer, strange coincidences begin to pile up around news producer Laura. Suddenly, her daughter disappears.

From Netflix you can stream 8 episodes of this TV thriller. Each episode lasts about 43 minutes.

Give this production B or, if you are feeling generous, B+.  Why the negativity on my part?  Don’t misunderstand me, I binged from one suspenseful episode to the next. But in order to let the good guys win and the bad guys lose, this plot will supply as many implausible or impossible details as it takes to succeed.  As an example,  in one comical device that is used several times, our heroes are submerged in water and can hold their breath for practically an entire episode. Perhaps I exaggerate, but you get the idea.

If any of the actors managed to steal the show, it was the 8 year old Serena (played to smart aleck perfection by Aria Birch) who plays the daughter of the news producer Laura Price.

At least a whole raft of unknown actors got a chance to perform.

Rest assured, after watching all the bad guys come to their well earned demise,  you can enjoy a happy sappy ending.

2017, Abduction, Based on true facts, Cold Cases, Failing Marriage, Family Conflict, Father-son relations, FBI, Forensics, Lesbian Theme, Netflix Streaming, NOT violent, Race Relations, Racism, Serial Killer

Mindhunter (2017)

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From IMDB:

Set in the late 1970s, two FBI agents are tasked with interviewing serial killers to solve open cases.

From Netflix you can stream 2 seasons of this drama which centers around criminal profiling and its use in catching serial killers. Season 1 has 10 episodes and season 2 has 9 episodes. Episode length varies from 45 minutes to a bit over an hour.  Material in the series is based on real life events.

In the 1970s the idea of criminal profiling was new. In fact at first the FBI was sceptical about its usefulness. Why spend money sending FBI agents to interview murderers with the goal of solving future crimes?  During this period the agents involved invented the phrase “serial killer”.

Season 1 depicts the development of these ideas as they bump up against the bureaucracy. Certainly interviews with known serial killers, for example Charlie Manson,  are interesting.

Season 2 is mostly devoted to a true case of serial killing in Atlanta. In the time frame of season 2 the FBI work in this area has become accepted enough that the local police in Atlanta reluctantly allowed the FBI to help solve the case.

Along side the crime plot runs the personal problems of some of the agents on the team:

  • Bill Tench (played by Holt McCallany – Robert McCoy in Blue Bloods ) has a young son who was involved in the murder of a young child. Tench is always away in some other city for his work. As a result his marriage is in trouble.
  • Dr. Wendy Carr (played by Anna Torv – Olivia Dunham in Fringe) is a Lesbian looking for love and not having much success.

If you enjoy detailed police procedurals (and are a fairly patient viewer) then you might well be caught up in the plot.

2017, Binge worthy, Brother-Sister relations, Conspiracy, Corny at times, Cynical, DO NOT MISS, Drugs, Ethical struggles, Extramarital Affair, Family Conflict, Financial malfeasance, Government cover-up, Government Prosecutions, Illegitimate Child, Jealousy, Lawyers, Love Story, Marital Infidelity, MHz Choice, Money Laundering, Mother-daughter relations, Mother-son relations, Murder, Promiscuity, Sex Scenes, Suspense, Swiss banking, Tax Evasion, Transvestite theme, Unscrupulous drive to power

Banking District (2017)

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From IMDB:

A private banker goes into a coma. His sister becomes the director and finds out his coma might not be accidental as she finds obscure transactions her brother was involved in.

From MHz Choice you can stream the 6 episodes of season 1 of this French-speaking Swiss intrigue film with English subtitles.  Each episode lasts about 50 minutes.  IMDB seems to indicate that there is or will be a season 2 which, in my opinion, would be a shame.

REVISION for Season 2 which also consists of 6 episodes, each lasting about 50 minutes.

My above opinion about season 2 being a shame, is WRONG. Season two was just as good as season 1.  At least we know from the beginning of season 2 who the bad guys are. But now Elizabeth has the difficult task of removing the bad buys and cleaning up the bank ethics. However, the line between good and evil becomes increasingly blurred as the plot develops. Elizabeth has her troubles in spades. Expect cynical plot turns. And once again DO NOT MISS!

ORIGINAL review for season 1.

From the very beginning up to the very end there is a palpable atmosphere of intrigue, suspense, and danger (for the good guys at least).

Elizabeth Grangier is the black sheep of the Swiss Grangier banking family. In fact she is the black sheep because of her disdain for the crooked dealings of the Swiss bank.  More to the point, the whole series is an indictment of the shady Swiss banking system. We quickly learn that her beloved brother Paul, who lies in a coma for the entire season, was quite corrupt.  Besides Elizabeth, the only other honest adult seems to be her newspaper journalist former husband.   Impetus for most of the action comes from the United States hunt for American tax evaders.  Add murders to the mix.

Some details are left hanging.  Elizabeth cries a lot. We never meet the owner of the female phone voice that orders killings.  But the story grabbed me.  At last I have gotten used to and in fact admire the plotting technique in which the conclusion leaves many details hanging. Just use your imagination.

Despite some negative criticisms,  I rate this series a DO NOT MISS!

 

 

2017, Alcoholism, Blackmail, Bloody scenes, Brother-Sister relations, Creepy, Dark, Disturbing Image, Drama, Explicit sexual discussion, Father-daughter relations, Father-son relations, Marital Infidelity, Masturbation, Medical Theme, Mother-daughter relations, Mother-son relations, Murder, Netflix Streaming, Nudity, Occasionaly violent, Outrageous Behavior, Physical child abuse, Psychological Thriller, Revenge, Sex Scenes, Suspense, Tragedy, Unusual, Unusual ending, Upsetting ending, Valium appropriate

The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)

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From IMDB:

Steven, a charismatic surgeon, is forced to make an unthinkable sacrifice after his life starts to fall apart, when the behavior of a teenage boy he has taken under his wing turns sinister.

From Netflix you can stream this two hour complete film.

When I saw that the surgeon Steven Murphy was played by Colin Farrell and his wife Anna Murphy was played by Nicole Kidman, I was eager to see the film. Yikes!

“Weird” is the closest one word that seems to apply here. Other words might be “strange”, “creepy”, “outrageous” or “unnerving.”  Hopefully not everyone will even want to start watching after reading this review.  However, I was both hooked and horrified from the very beginning.

In Wikipedia you can find a discussion of the film but I have inserted below a summary from IMDB:

After the untimely death of 16-year-old Martin’s father on the operating table, little by little, a deep and empathetic bond begins to form between him and the respected cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr Steven Murphy. At first, expensive gifts and then an invitation for dinner will soon earn the orphaned teenager the approval of Dr Steven’s perfect family, even though right from the start, a vague, yet unnerving feeling overshadows Martin’s honest intent. And then, unexpectedly, the idyllic family is smitten by a fierce and pitiless punishment, while at the same time, everything will start falling apart as the innocents have to suffer. In the end, as the sins of one burden the entire family, only an unimaginable and unendurable decision that demands a pure sacrifice can purge the soul. But to find catharsis, one must first admit the sin.

In the film there are at times oddly explicit sexual discussions and situations.  Martin is played by Barry Keoghan whose physical appearance presents anything but a Hollywood type. Speech throughout the film is so stilted that it seemed I was watching a stage play.  Spoken lines, especially from Martin, seem at times inappropriate.

From the very stylistically rigid beginning and onward there was a sense of anxious foreboding that tempted me to stop watching this tragedy.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

2017, Amazon Prime, Bloody scenes, Child Molestation, Family Conflict, French, French Detective Series, Gory, Mother-son relations, Murder, Murder Investigation, Nudity, Occasional gore, Pedophilia, Police Culture, Promiscuity, Revenge, Romance, Sex Scenes, Sexual promiscuity, Unusual, Violent

Deadly Seasons (2017)

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From Amazon Prime:

A mysterious Superintendent with a troubled past teams up with a young, reckless female inspector to solve a series of troubling murders.

From Amazon Prime you can stream the 4 episodes of this French detective series. Each episode lasts a bit more than an hour and a half.  Spoken French with English subtitles.

No visual punches are pulled in these episodes: nudity, beheadings, headless naked bodies entwined and other delights.

What is even more of a novelty is that Mariella de Luca, the “young reckless female inspector,”  at night dons a disguise, including a silver wig, and has sex with male strangers she finds online.

Each episode features a separate crime,  while underlying all four episodes are two themes:

  • What happened to the missing adult son of Commissaire Rousseau,  Marielle’s boss?
  • Can Marielle ever find true love instead of being sexually promiscuous?

By the end of the last episode both questions are resolved.  And while getting to that end we can all enjoy a few visual shocks.

 

2017, Adopted child, Amazon Prime, Amazon Prime Brit Box, Bloody scenes, Boarding school, British Mystery Series, Brother-Sister relations, Child abuse, Could Be Hard To Watch, Crime, Dark, Disturbing Image, DO NOT MISS, Drug Dealers, Dysfunctional Lives, Emotional child abuse, Family Conflict, Forensics, Grim, Incest, Medical Theme, Murder, Murder Investigation, Personal Betrayal, Physical child abuse, Plot Twist, Police Corruption, Prison, Psychological Thriller, Psychopath, Revenge, Sadism, Sociopath, Surprise Ending, Suspense, Thriller, Unjust crime conviction, Valium appropriate, Violent, Wrongful Arrest

Bancroft (2017)

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From IMDB:

A dark thriller centering on Detective Superintendent Elizabeth Bancroft, a female detective with an explosive secret.

From Amazon Prime you can stream the four 45 minute episodes of season 1 of this nail biter.  If you subscribe to Amazon’s Brit Box you can stream season 2 which we have not done yet.

Season 1 was so cleverly tense that I labeled this story “valium appropriate.”  Soon you discover how damaged Elizabeth Bancroft (played by Sarah Parish) really is. She will stop at nothing to clear her son Joe (played by Adam Long) of a false murder charge. One of her  nemeses is the super intelligent sociopath Annabel Connors (played to perfection by Charlotte Hope) who has bewitched Joe.  Her other nemesis is the detective Cliff Walker (played by Adrian Edmondson ) who knows how broken Elizabeth is, but so far cannot prove anything.

Stayed tuned for a battle of corrupt wits whose season 1 ending is a satisfyingly twisted turn of events.

DO NOT MISS!

 

 

2017, Alcoholism, British, Dark, Depression, Disturbing Image, Drama, Explicit sex, Farm Life, Father-son relations, Gay theme, Grim, Grungy, Mother-son relations, Netflix Streaming, Nudity, Personal Betrayal, Possibly depressing, Romance, Sex Scenes, Small British village, Yorkshire setting

God’s Own Country (2017)

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From IMDB:

Spring. Yorkshire. Young farmer Johnny Saxby numbs his daily frustrations with binge drinking and casual sex, until the arrival of a Romanian migrant worker for lambing season ignites an intense relationship that sets Johnny on a new path.

From Netflix you can stream this one hour 44 minute complete film.

Francis Lee won a Directing Award (World Cinema — Dramatic) at the Sundance Film Festival for this BAFTA-nominated film.

Yorkshire farming as vividly and unsparingly portrayed in this film shows what a grubby occupation such work really is.  No one it would seem gets to remain free of mucky mud for very long.

Meet the Saxby farming family: Johnny is the gay, lonely, desperate, dutiful son. Martin is the father now crippled by a stroke. Deirdre (played by the famous British actress Gemma Jones, who was 75 years old during the filming) is the mother.  What a cold, barely speaking trio they make! All the father does is bark out orders, despite his stroke impaired speech.  Affection does not fit into this unrelentingly grim world.

Lambing season arrives and so does the temporary Rumanian farm worker Gheorghe.  Watching Gheorghe do farm work is a pleasure. He seems to care about the “beasts” (as the family calls the animals). In one scene a lamb is born dead, which happens a lot. At the same time another newborn lamb needs a mother. So we watch (in unsparing detail) Gheorghe skin the dead lamb and wrap that skin around the orphan lamb so that the mother of the dead lamb will accept the orphan and allow it to feed.

As far as the gay theme goes,  the growing love between the two men is developed in remarkable subtlety.  Never in the film is it easy (or initially even possible) for Johnny to express himself openly. Johnny is probably one of the most repressed and inarticulate men you may ever encounter. Be prepared for full nudity and their initial somewhat violent sexual encounter.

To encourage you to enjoy this remarkable film I will reveal that the story, for all the intermittent setbacks, has a happy ending. So sue me for the mild spoiler!

 

2017, Abduction, Abuse of Women, Blackmail, Bloody scenes, Boating, Brother-Brother relations, Brother-Sister relations, Child custody, Corruption, Could Be Hard To Watch, Crime, Cynical, Dark, Drug Dealers, Ethical struggles, Extramarital Affair, Family Conflict, Father-daughter relations, Father-son relations, FBI, Financial malfeasance, Gambling, Gay theme, Grim, Large-scale gang activity, Lawyers, Mafia, Money Laundering, Mother-daughter relations, Mother-son relations, Murder, Murder by poison, Netflix Streaming, Orphans in Foster Care, Police Corruption, Prison, Revenge, Suspense, Teenagers, Torture, Uncle-Nephew relations, Uncle-Niece relations, Violent, Vulgar, Wonderful acting

Ozark (2017)

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From IMDB:

A financial adviser drags his family from Chicago to the Missouri Ozarks, where he must launder $500 million in five years to appease a drug boss.

From Netflix you can stream two seasons. Each season consists of 10 one-hour episodes. You need to watch both seasons to come to a conclusion of sorts. Conceivably  there could be another season.

Before saying anything more let me warn you that this series is very VIOLENT!

In several places I have read that Donald Trump debases everything and everybody he touches. For a step-by-step detailed textbook showing how evil spreads to engulf even the originally most innocent souls, this series will more than suffice. The process of moral debasement portrays at the same time the “Wages of Sin.” Many involved characters receive harsh retribution, most especially the loss of life, love and respect.

Those of you with strong stomachs may well find these episodes captivating for their attention to detail in the plot, excellent dialog, and superb acting. No wonder the series received 9 Emmy award nominations!  Personally I was as hooked as I was horrified.  Seems I have become very jaded.

Hats off to some remarkable performances:

  •  “Arrested Development” was my first encounter with Jason Bateman who plays Marty Byrde. In both cases Bateman exudes a somewhat-repressed, matter-of-fact, nerdish comportment. Nothing seems to rattle him.  At each shock, after a thoughtful and facially inexpressive pause, during which you can almost hear his brain cells clicking, he manages to smooth talk his way through the crisis. You must wait for almost 20 episodes before you can see his despair.
  •  Laura Linney, who plays Marty’s wife Wendy Byrde constantly flashes the always beautiful smile that launches a thousand crimes.  After a while I finally realized that for the most part Wendy is one of the most evil characters.  Here I am reminded of Hannah Arendt’s phrase “the Banality of Evil”.  One rationalization leads to another.
  •  Julia Garner, who plays Ruth Langmore, turns in a bravo performance as a “white trash” daughter of a convicted criminal. Ruth’s character, while never innocent,  grows to recognize the lowness of her given state in life and does mature to rise above and take responsibility.  Her improvement owes much to the fact that she was born with a very intelligent mind.

Assuming you can get through the first stomach-churners, you may well become as addicted as was I.