Illyana

I review shows + trailers!

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Today we are going to be talking about a Netflix show that has been out for 2 months called the Queens Gambit. The show is about a young girl who moves to a orphanage when her mom dies in a car crash at a young age. While living there she meets the janitor who teachers her how to play chess, she ends up becoming quit good at chess. At around 13 she gets adopted by a husband and wife and moves into a house. She ends up finding a competition for the Kentucky state which she asks her adoptive mother if she can compete in. When there she ends up beating everyone and even the state champion. Since she was a girl and young they called her a child prodigy. A chess prodigy, the story follows on her life and a girl in the world of chess among men. She battles things like addiction and if knowing if she is crazy or just a genius. The story isn't about chess which is why its amazing. You don't have to know what chess is or how it works but the emotion within the story makes it like you are in the main character, Beth's eyes. The story surrounds Beth's life and what she struggles with and her not finding her own peace. The story is interesting with grappling characters that make you want to watch more. The emotion in the chess scenes like the one in Paris against Borgof you can see the emotion from her face to know how hard the game is going and the position she is currently in. The way the screen writers created this, the acting is absolutely amazing in my opinion. I am not going to spoil this anymore, but this show is differently worth it to watch, its a miniseries with 7 episodes. All around 1 hour through 40 minutes long. If you are a child as this is rated MA please make sure to have permission from a adult to watch it.

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Today we are going to be reviewing the movie Tenet, just a warning there is no spoilers. The movie is mostly in code for a bit, they only tell you things twice. So if your going to watch it I am going to suggest you use subtitles. Thats mostly likely why people didn't really like it that saw it in the movie theater. The film is also really long, it is 2 hour and 30 minutes long. And for the first hour and a half while I was enjoying what I was seeing and the performances I didn't really get the movie. Well this film looks amazing but I have no idea what Nolen is trying to do here. However in the final hour after I was getting pretty bored and annoyed that I had to sit through another hour of this low and behold everything came together. It all went into place and I was just so amazed on how good it was. So if your watching it and saying the same thing as me that your getting sick of it don't give up and watch it all the way through. I think you will have the same experience especially if you have your subtitles on. It was at that moment that everything really like clicked into place and that it really needs a prequel squeal that Nolan sets up here. Not to sure that will happen though because of the pandemic which hurt Tenet financially which is why other people are arguing that Warner Brothers is trying to destroy their franchisees.Because Tenet is clearly supposed to be a franchise. But also because Nolan and Warner Brothers have deeply hurt each others feelings at this point in time. Like all Nolan movies the set pieces are particularity good. So elegant I mean he's basically been making bond movies for a long time now, and again now that he and Warner brothers have maybe broken up maybe now he'll finally make a bond a movie which he has wanted to do. Speaking of timing the timing has just never worked out. The opera house scene, oh my god when john David Washington slides under under to get to the code check area. I mean the whole scene sequence I was like this is phenomenal the airport heist, I laughed out loud several times during that sequence it was just so funny and so cool. Then the big mission at the end which i can't discuss because it would involve spoilers, but that to me was fascinating I loved that. I not only found the last two sequences visually compelling, but intellectually stimulating as well. Nolan's like that's what I was going for because they not only had brilliant strategies but theories. Well that's my rap up for this I would definitely check this movie out! (PS: Sorry for missing the last 3 days I have been very wrapped up recently.)

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Today we are going to be going over Mank, which is a truly impressive film. It starts out as a film about Tinseltown it slowly transitions into a movie about politics and in that transition it becomes more meaningful but also less entertaining. The first third of mank is for everyone by the time you get to the end of mank a lot of people might have stopped watching it due to lack of interest. But that's what some people say about the greatest of art, that it challenges you and disgust some people and manks definitely up there. But how can you not love a movie where bill Nye the science guy has a brief but brilliant cameo as Upton Sinclair the Bernie Sanders of the 1930's. By far the most impressive thing about mank to me is how it recreates classic filmmaking. It is a shame to me and quit tragic that people do not appreciate classic cinema. And then Hollywood one of the reasons that you know I like the nostalgia kick in bringing back franchises but I'd really dislike remaking classic films. Because the originals are amazing, there is really no need to remake. You would think you can't do that anymore, capture that classic Hollywood magic. But in Mank David Fincher proves that you still very much can. David Fincher doesn't just recreate classic movie making in terms of directing and cinematography, by the way if you noticed that he has that mark you know for the real change that he highlighted in his own fight club. And also the sound quality, it sounds like a classic film in terms of the recording.Which is incredible since its such a attention to detail but also the acting. I want to call out in particular Lily Collins and Tom Pelfrey who were able to recreate the diction and physicality of 1930's and 1940's acting. It was amazing how they did, there are points watching mank and its such a cool trick to pull off, that if you didn't know you were looking at a modern day actor you could swear you were actually watching a classic film. The other thing that makes the biggest impression here is how mank highlights that the more things change the more they stay the same. I mean there is the great depression here which is effecting the movie business in similar ways to the pandemic is today. And than even more importantly it highlights how Hollywood was mixed up in politics even back in the 1930's. And the conversations, dirty tricks and smear campaigns used in this movie. Mirrored today so closely that it's shocking. Now I am not going to say anything more as I have already said a lot but if you want to watch this I would. Its very good and if you can watch it till the end thats very good to as not everyone is as interested in the politics side of thigns as others. So thats why people most likely lost interest. Yet this film was amazing and definitely worth it to watch.

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Today we are going to be going over the Crown Season 4 and one of my favorite episodes. If you don't already know what the crown is well than its the basically the drama chronicles of Queen Elizabeth II starting from the 1940s till now. Season 4 introduces a new yet important and critical character in the historical time frame, Margaret Thatcher. Also known as the "Iron Lady" was the first female Prime Minister played by the outstanding Gillian Anderson. The season retells about Thatchers rein as Prime Minister and of course Princess Diana's marriage and love story to Prince Charles. The show also highlights some topics that the Royal Family wasn't so thrilled about. For example [spoiler] in episode 7 Princess Margaret firgures out a dark secret that the family has been keeping from the public when questioning her own sanity. Which was the public discovery of Katherine and Nerissa Bowes-Lyon. Which honestly was the most interesting thing for me in the series. In the show the family made records saying they both died, but yet they were very alive in a Asylum. The 2 women were the daughter of the Queen Mothers older brother, John Bowes-Lyon. They were commited to th3 Earlswood Asylum in 1941 and both were listed in Butkes Peerage as having died by 1961. The truth was that the sisters were very much alive in the episodes that take place in around 1985. Nerissa died in 1986 and Katherine died in 2014. When Margaret sees that they are officially called dead vy the Burkes substantiates official declartion she belives that something just isn't right. Since after being demoted she gets so much time put into her hands she decides to investigate. She enlists her former gay lover Derek Jennings to do some mental-asylum detective work. Dazzle than confirms both sisters are alive after going there. Margerat than confronts the Queen Mother about this angrily. I think this episode beautifully put this out. It was very emotional and interesting. Even though the real royal family denys that it was kept secret that they were alive as the show runners made that for a make believe aspect.

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Recently netflix has released part 1 of a 9 episode series called Selena. It is about Selena Quintanilla and her life story. The first about 5 episodes was pretty good than it just got boring. The pacing of the show is the problem, i mean they have enough story for the 2nd part but the pacing isn't done properly. Some problems with the series is that the creators turned it into a pretty standard bio pic and removed all the elements that are unique to Selana. Particularly how hard it was in the 1960's for latino music to become popular. Selena idolizes people like Jannet Jackson, Madonna, etc. While only Gloria Estafan managed to crossover at the time. Of course at a very different look than Selena, and that leads to another big problem. Because while Christian Serratos is certainly talented and charming and a great singer, she looks and acts nothing like Selena. At first glance she kinda does but she just doesn't capture it. There is many more things I'd go over but I don't want to spoil to much.

(Image made by me)