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The Glorias

  • Title: The Glorias
  • IMDb: link

The Glorias movie reviewAdapted largely from Gloria Steinem‘s autobiography My Life on the Road, the latest from director Julie Taymor offers a look at the life and travels of Steinem through the performances of four different actresses. Following the film’s initial look at Gloria’s unorthodox childhood, where she is played by Ryan Kiera Armstrong and Lulu Wilson, Alicia Vikander then carries the role for the next hour exploring Gloria’s travels and development both as a writer and activist before handing over the role to Julianne Moore for the film’s final hour.

The structure of the film does allow the actresses to appear on-screen together at times as Gloria talks over decisions and regrets with both older and young versions of herself. This isn’t the only unusual technique Traymor uses of the course of the film, but it is by far the most effective. Otherwise, The Glorias plays much like a standard biopic, albeit with several scenes shown out of order.

Given the times, especially following the recent death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the film, and it’s subject matter, is certainly timely.

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Enola Holmes

  • Title: Enola Holmes
  • IMDb: link

Enola Holmes movie reviewBased on the young adult novels by Nancy Springer, Enola Holmes introduces us to the teenage sister of Sherlock Holmes (Henry Cavill). Taking much of its plot from the first novel of Springer’s series, The Case of the Missing Marquess, there are two mysteries here for the precocious Enola Holmes (Millie Bobby Brown) to unravel in both solving the sudden disappearance of her mother (Helena Bonham Carter) and discovering the identity of who is behind the attempted assassination of a friend (Louis Partridge) she meets on the road.

Millie Bobby Brown is the highlight here as a Victorian Nancy Drew who overcomes several obstacles, often breaking the fourth wall to talk directly to the audience, while searching for answers and attempting to prevent her brother Mycroft (Sam Claflin) from imprisoning her in a soul-crushing finishing school for girls of her age who hope for nothing more than to please a husband. Henry Cavill co-stars as an aloof version of Sherlock in his early years prior to meeting Dr. Watson. Sherlock loves his much younger sister, even if he can’t find a proper way to express that emotion most of the time.

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Mulan

  • Title: Mulan
  • IMDb: link

Mulan movie reviewWith 1998’s Mulan, Disney animated the Chinese legend of Hua Mulan about a young woman who dresses as a man to take her father’s place in the conscripted army. Making several changes to the source material, but staying true to the basic idea of the legend, we’re introduced to Mulan (Ming-Na Wen) who struggles with fitting in as the perfect daughter but finds a way to serve her family by sneaking off, stealing her aging father’s (Soon-Tek Oh) armor and sword, and assuming the role of a dutiful son to take his place in the upcoming war to fight off the invading Huns.

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Batwoman – The Complete First Season

  • Title: Batwoman – Season One
  • wiki: link

Batwoman - The Complete First Season Blu-ray reviewAfter a string of successes, it’s hard to believe The CW missed the mark so badly, and so consistently, as it did with Batwoman. The show introduced us to Ruby Rose as lesbian soldier Kate Kane, the niece of Bruce Wayne, who returns to Gotham years after Batman disappeared and picks up his mantle as Gotham City’s new hero.

As with every CW show, she’s surrounded with a small group of friends who know her secret and support her while fighting the city’s private army led by her father (Dougray Scott) and the return of her insane dead sister (Rachel Skarsten) and her creepy friend (Sam Littlefield) who plague the city.

From the start, the show was plagued with problems. While relying strongly on the sister vs. sister dynamic for much of the season, the show’s writers also pull in a group of D-list Batman villains for individual episodes to flush out the season with mixed success.

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The Sleepover

  • Title: The Sleepover
  • IMDb: link

The Sleepover movie reviewThe Sleepover is an innocuous exercise that attempts to blend a teen comedy about a pair of siblings (Sadie Stanley and Maxwell Simkins) and their friends (Cree Cicchino and Lucas Jaye) getting into trouble while saving their parents from ninjas with a bland heist storyline involving the kids’ cliche of a suburbs father (Ken Marino) discovering his wife (Malin Akerman) is a world-class thief with an ex-fiance (Joe Manganiello) who has been living in witness protection for 15 years and is now being blackmailed into one more heist by her former partners. Got that?

The film by Trish Sie and first-time screenwriter Sarah Rothschild is an unimaginative and forgettable affair that tries to appeal to as wide of an audience as possible without actually entertaining anyone. I feel sorry for both Akerman and especially Marino, who tries his best to make the insufferable Ron funny, for not being able to turn down such a lazy affair. The wacky kid segments have a bit more going for them, but there’s nothing you haven’t seen done far better countless times before. The Sleepover is so forgettable you might end turning off the television halfway through because you forgot you were watching it.

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