The Hardy Boys – Welcome to Your Life

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  • Title: The Hardy Boys – Welcome to Your Life
  • wiki: link

The Hardy Boys - Welcome to Your Life television review

“Welcome to Your Life” is all introductions. We meet the athletic Frank (Rohan Campbell) and his younger brother Joe (Alexander Elliot) who are whisked away to the town of Bridgeport following the sudden death of their mother (Janet Porter). On the first couple days in the small town, the Hardy boys are introduced to some new friends (Keana Lyn, Adam Swain, and Riley O’Donnell) and a pair of mysteries. The first involves the destruction of their grandmother’s boat for something valuable found at sea. The second involves the circumstances of their mother’s death which may not have been a car accident after all.

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Dear Santa

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Dear Santa (2020)
  • IMDb: link

Dear Santa movie reviewIn a year of quarantine, social distancing, and both political and social unrest, Dear Santa is the salve we need. Not to be confused with the 2011 film starring Amy Acker, the documentary from Dana Nachman highlights the work being done in several cities around the United States to get Christmas presents to families in need. The documentary focuses on the United States Postal Service Operation Santa program which collects letters sent to Santa and allows anyone to adopt and send gifts on behalf of Santa Claus.

Nachman’s documentary highlights the history of the program, those currently in charge in multiple cities, how the program works, and volunteers from an elementary school classroom to a group of friends to an organized coalition who work every year to identify and offer Christmas cheer to those who need it most. In a year about what pulls us apart as a nation, Dear Santa reminds us of what can be achieved when we come together. If you are looking for some cathardic holidy schmaltz to make you feel better about where we stand, or if you are interested learning more about the program and helping out on your own, Dear Santa might be the right gift for you this Christmas.

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Black Bear

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Black Bear
  • IMDb: link

Black Bear movie reviewA filmmaker (Aubrey Plaza) facing writer’s block travels to a remote house in the Adirondack Mountains hoping for inspiration to strike. What happens next is subject to debate as any or all of the events could be nothing more than the actress turned director’s dark musings and may or may not have any connection to reality. Written and directed by Lawrence Michael Levine, Black Bear is primarily a vehicle to showcase Aubrey Plaza who owns the screen playing two different versions of the same character each trapped in a situation spiraling out of control.

In one version, Allison (Plaza) is greeted by the house’s owners (Christopher Abbott and Sarah Gadon) who are stuck in a failing marriage with a baby on the way. Allison’s arrival only further exacerbates the couple’s problems by introducing an attractive unknown variable into their lives. In the second storyline, Allison is an actress starring in her husband’s (Abbott) small independent film. With shooting nearly complete, he uses Allison’s jealousy towards her co-star (Gadon) to force the best possible performance no matter what his psychological games to do her emotional state.

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Totally Under Control

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  • Title: Totally Under Control
  • IMDb: link

Totally Under Control movie reviewTotally Under Control is an indictment of President Donald Trump and the national mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s both a chilling and enraging experience to have the months of inaction, series of missteps, casual disinterest, politicization of a health crisis, and frightening ineptitude chronicled with such precision. Interviewing medical professionals, scientists, and whistleblowers from within the CDC to Jared Kushner‘s volunteers, Totally Under Control highlights the many, many places where the United States went wrong in its policies towards COVID while comparing them to South Korea’s far more aggressive early measures which avoided the large death tolls continuing to rise in the United States.

One idea shared by directors Alex Gibney, Ophelia Harutyunyan, and Suzanne Hillinger is that every health crisis could have been handled better. However, the staggering failure of the United States with COVID runs the gamut from a President not willing to hear the truth, experts fired for telling the truth, and policies put in place making it harder to get life saving masks and drugs to medical professionals until Trump was able to personally profit.

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Silk Stalkings – Shock Jock

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Silk Stalkings – Shock Jock
  • IMDb: link

Silk Stalkings - Shock Jock television review

Throwback Thursday takes us back to the unsolved crimes of passion in the wealthy playground of Palm Beach, Florida. Chris (Rob Estes) and Rita (Mitzi Kapture) investigate a sleazy radio host (Rodger Bumpass) who they both like for the murder of his longtime girlfriend (Rochelle Swanson) who was planning to leave him just as the shock jock hit it big. However, the man was on the air during the time of the killing. When an unstable caller (Marta DuBois) admits to the crime before committing suicide in prison, Donovan (William Anton) is ready to call the case closed, but Chris is unwilling to walk away even when it gets him in hot water and brings a harassment lawsuit against the department.

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