Found

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Found
  • IMDb: link

Found, the documentary from Amanda Lipitz, introduces us to three American teenagers born in China, given up for adoption, and raised in the United States. Finding each other after genetic testing at 23andMe, which links them all as blood-related cousins, the three young woman connect with each other first visually and then in person when they travel to China in hopes of finding answers about their family history.

The documentary plays on themes of connection, discovery, friendship and family as we get to know a little of each of the three girls separately before putting them together on their journey to China. While the three girls aren’t the only ones Lipitz followed for the documentary, their combined story allows the director to capture their shared, but still deeply personal, journey as the search for answers (even if the film occasionally plays on the timing of revelations for a more cinematic experience).

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Alex Rider – Serpent

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Alex Rider – Serpent
  • IMDb: link

In order to follow the lead given him by the mysterious hacker, Alex (Otto Farrant) takes the place of the world’s best players of the Feathered Serpent video game, the only one of the world’s best players who hasn’t RSVP’d for  Damian Cray‘s (Toby Stephens) release party of the sequel. What Alex doesn’t realize is just how crazy Cray is and whose identity he’s assuming (which turns out to be that of an old friend). The episode is most notable for Alex playing the game in VR environment with the madman constantly raising the stakes and danger as the cocky teenager continues to out-perform his expectations. While somewhat goofy on-screen, the segment works and allows Alex to get close enough for what he’s come for.

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Spider-Man: No Way Home

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Spider-Man: No Way Home
  • IMDb: link

Because there’s so little plot in Spider-Man: No Way Home it’s hard to discuss the film without revealing its many secrets. What writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers tee-up for fans is a loose structure that allows for the film to throw everything but the kitchen sink, with an almost overwhelming amount fan service (admittedly pretty good fan service), into a single film. While it doesn’t measure up to the film that obviously inspired it, Spider-Man: No Way Home turns out to be a pretty fun ride. 

Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is fucked, and his friends (Zendaya and Jacob Batalon) are paying for his mistakes. In classic Spider-Man fashion, Peter’s attempts to rectify that situation caused by Mysterio revealing his identity to the world only make it worse. After finding a wizard and loophole to set things right, Peter’s interruption of  Doctor Strange‘s (Benedict Cumberbatch) spell to prevent anyone in the world from remembering he is Spider-Man backfires opening up cracks to the Multiverse allowing anyone who knows Peter Parker is Spider-Man from any other reality to bleed through. Let the chaos begin.

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Hit-Monkey – The Code

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Hit-Monkey – The Code
  • wiki: link

Things get a little crazy in “The Code,” and that’s say something for a show that was already about a murderous monkey in a suit haunted by the ghost of an assassin. The weakest of the episodes so far, but still a wacky ride (that may or may not require a tetanus shot after you finish), it certainly provides no end of violence as Hit-Monkey and his ghost travel down into the bowels of Sugano prison where even the guards don’t go, in search of the Accountant who has been running a bizarre world. The episode is notable for the monkey giving in to violence more and more and taking down Fat Cobra in the Accountant’s underground Fight Club. 

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The Harder They Fall

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  • Title: The Harder They Fall
  • IMDb: link

Although fictional, writer/director Jeymes Samuel‘s film is inspired by real outlaws, cowboys, and lawmen of color from the Wild West. The primary character of The Harder They Fall is Nat Love (Jonathan Majors). Tormented as a boy by outlaw Rufus Buck (Idris Elba), Love has grown into an outlaw who hunts and kills other outlaws while still seeking revenge for the massacre of his family.

With Majors and Elba, Samuel has the two pillars he needs to make the film work while surrounding each man with an assortment of strong characters played by the likes of Zazie Beetz, Edi Gathegi, Danielle Deadwyler, Regina King, LaKeith Stanfield, RJ Cyler, and Delroy Lindo. When circumstances allow the Buck Gang to free their leader, Rufus Buck returns to the western town of Redwood. This puts Nat Love, and his friends, and Rufus Buck, and his gang, on a collision course for an extended shoot-out on the Main Street of Redwood.

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