sucked

This entry in the Harry Potter franchise constitutes four-fifths of a great film. The good? First, the art direction and special effects are excellent. The sequences involving the pensieve and the “liquid memories” are gorgeously unsettling. There is a Quidditch match which looks fantastic, and an early sequence in what appears to be a ramshackle manor house is playfully fun. In terms of art direction, David Yates seems to have cast a thick veil of coal smoke over everything. Hogwarts has never looked so dilapidated and distressed. More impressive, Yates ratchets up the emotional angst and agony, capturing strong performances from all and delivering one of the most ominously creepy installments of the series. (more…)

Family Guy but not The Simpsons ? House and Lost but not The Shield ? Simon Baker!! but not Michael Chiklis? huh??

Torchwood is a spin off from Doctor Who. The marketing strategy is pretty clear: the BBC created one spin off for younger viewers (the Sarah Jane Chronicles) and this one for more adult viewers. Torchwood has much more sex and plenty of gore. Characters from Doctor Who move back and forth between the two series, with the lead being Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman). He leads a secret unit (Torchwood) set up by Queen Victoria to save the world from aliens. The first two seasons are enjoyable, and occasionally very good, but the third season — Children of Earth — is something special. It is a five-part miniseries, shown on five consecutive nights, dealing with a single alien threat. It is some of the best British drama I have seen in a while. If you get BBC America, look for it starting July 20th.

really great, complex, and thoughtful movie about an intersex kid who, although not reassigned at birth, has been raised as a girl and given appropriate medication to develop as such. am not sure about the biological accuracy — at 15, alex has small but nonetheless existing breasts, a high-pitch, definitely feminine voice, and looks most certainly like a girl — but the issues this small film (from the film movement) raises are doubtlessly rich and, it seems to me, as true to reality as fiction can make them. (more…)