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edwin-wks
Reviews
Blitz (2024)
Toothless Blitz
Imagine a 13-year-old teenager asking their parent/s to take them to see a movie about fictitious commoners in London living through constant bombardment by the Luftwaffe in WWII, and we might start to understand what went wrong with Blitz and what it could have been. It's inconceivable why this is intended as PG-13.
At its core, Blitz is a sheep in wolf's clothing, dressed as a war drama when it is really about racial tensions and navigating life as a mixed-race child in the early half of the 20th century. Despite scenes of devastation, there is no blood, gore and charred corpses typical of such events. The most violent scene was Stephen Graham's character repeatedly hitting himself in the face. Personally, I felt catfished by the marketing of this movie.
I imagine Steve McQueen of 12 Years A Slave fame was hoping for another Academy Award success in Blitz, an atypical drama set in WWII with themes of race, identity and nationhood. Unfortunately, the elements are not fully realised and we are left with a hodgepodge of a story that is neither here nor there. The best characters, Tommy and Ife, are underutilised and removed too quickly, and the focus on George becomes tedious and boring.
What you can expect from Blitz is not a tense and suspenseful war drama filled with scenes of destruction and human carnage, but rather a tepid tale of a mixed-race boy trying to make his way home to his mother, who evacuated him for his safety, in a London brimming with racial hostility. It was a lot of dressing and stuffing, but not much meat. Contrary to McQueen's lofty aspirations for the film, Blitz is more akin to a made-for-TV matinee and making a dull war movie should be a crime against humanity.
Shackleton: The Greatest Story of Survival (2023)
Peak white male privilege
There is nothing you will learn in this documentary that cannot be gleaned from museum exhibits or historical and scholarly articles about Ernest Shackleton, the man and his expeditions. So why does it exist? The answer lies with the person whose voice is the only one we hear in the entire 90 min runtime. There is an amazing story of grit and survival against all odds that would have been better retold in an action movie, but Tim Jarvis would not have been its central focus.
Shackleton: The Greatest Story of Survival comes across to me as little more than the vanity project of a man obsessed with reliving the life of an explorer who captured his imagination. The documentary plays out with Jarvis regaling the audience about his own excursions to emulate the arduous journey of Shackleton and his crew - here is me traipsing through Antarctica in the insufficient attire and equipment that Shackleton used in 1914, but let's ignore the modern gadgetry and film crew I have at my disposal to make sure the world gets to see me LARPing as Shackleton.
The most tone-deaf aspect of Jarvis' ego-massaging endeavour is the half-hearted call to environmentalism and combating climate change in the latter third of the documentary - here is where the glacier was almost 100 years ago, and this is how much it has receded. I wonder how much money he and his entire crew have spent in recreating Shackleton's adventures and funding this self-indulgent documentary that could have gone into actual efforts to protect the environment. No one else, historian or environmentalist, was invited to offer insights into Shackleton and his ordeal or discuss the environmental catastrophe facing Antarctica, because it's the Tim Jarvis show.
A Different Man (2024)
The Non-Substance
If you're thinking that A Different Man has something profound and insightful to say about living with a physical deformity, you might be disappointed. Despite its subject matter, the movie fails to present any discernible point of view about the challenges and impacts of possessing conspicuous facial disfigurement. Schimberg could have used a few pointers from The Substance in how to stick an impactful and outrageous ending.
The story meanders clumsily through what is essentially a love triangle, pitting Edward/Guy (Stan) against Oswald (Pearson) for the affections of Ingrid. The true tragedy is that there is nothing compelling about Ingrid, a self-proclaimed playwright, nor her decision to produce a play about her presumed-deceased neighbour Edward, whose affection she spurned due to his disfigurement. Even more bizarre is her sudden change of heart about the disfigurement and attraction for Oswald, which precipitates Edward's, now Guy, descend into stalker territory.
There is insufficient exposition of Edward's new life as Guy post-treatment, his astronomical rise as poster child of a real estate company, and his continued infatuation with Ingrid, regardless of other women he has met and dated as Guy. The appearance of Oswald and his sudden omnipresence are similarly abrupt. He inserts himself into every scene with an uncharacteristic ease and preternatural charm. In real life, Schimberg explained that he was taken aback by Pearson's charisma, which Pearson explained as a compensatory mechanism to disarm people with friendliness before they can judge his appearance.
I think Schimberg was well-intentioned, but Oswald became a caricature of Pearson; the scene where Oswald was doing yoga in a park dressed in traditional Indian garment was an especially egregious example. A Different Man would have been more effective as the battle between the vulnerable true self represented by Edward, who is painfully self-conscious and a hermit by necessity, and the grandiose false self of Oswald, who traipses through life as if his disfigurement is not at all a hindrance. And the movie would have had Edward/Guy vanquishing the grandiose Oswald to attain holistic integration between his old and new self. That movie would have been 8/10.
Mr. McMahon (2024)
A toxic personality
"When we stop growing, we die" is what McMahon said. It is ironic because the man has not grown emotionally since his adolescence. Paul Heyman, the voice of reason among the talking heads, said it best, that McMahon is overcompensating for the deprivation that he endured in the first 12 years of his life. He was abandoned by his biological father and severely abused by his stepfather, resulting in a core belief of defectiveness. Nothing he has ever achieved, no amount of success or adoration, will ever truly be enough to heal that inner child who still feels inadequate because daddy left him.
It may be true that, without McMahon's voracious appetite to make something of himself, we would not have the behemoth that is the WWE. However, his true legacy lies in normalising domestic violence, fuelling misogyny and encouraging toxic masculinity in the storylines he conceived of to achieve ever higher ratings, including putting his own family drama on full display in his shows. What kind of person accuses his daughter of being selfish for not wanting her wedding televised on pay-per-view, and then arranges a wrestling match against him to humiliate her?
Despite his insistence that Mr. McMahon is only a character, it is nevertheless one borne out of and embodying his unconscious desires, a medium through which he can express his true self with impunity. Mr. McMahon was his Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free card; "Oh, I did something wrong? That was my character, not me". He is not a role model to any man, not even his son, from whom he withheld affection and validation the same way that his own father did to him. This man lives in the fantasy that he does not perpetuate abuse in spite of his abusive childhood and clear evidence to the contrary. This documentary is one of abuse and the legacy of abuse, more than it is about wrestling, and it need not have been six hours long.
The Menendez Brothers (2024)
Justice for the Menendez brothers
It is bewildering that complex PTSD is still not recognised as a disorder in the DSM-V in 2024, let alone be taken into consideration in the Menendez trials when the concept was in its infancy. This documentary presents a comprehensive overview of the salient details of the Menendez brothers' case from the origins of the killings to the current TikTok movement to emancipate the brothers after 34 years of incarceration and counting, including advances in public awareness of sexual abuse of boys committed overwhelmingly by the men to whom the powerless boys were entrusted.
Supported by the testimonies of family members and forensic criminal experts in the first trial, it was established that both Lyle and Erik endured years of grooming and violence (physical, emotional and sexual) by their father, while the mother, herself lacking a moral compass, abetted the father through her passivity and silence. She was more distraught over his affairs with other women than his grotesque tampering with her own flesh-and-blood. Also fact was that the prosecution could not obtain character witnesses for either parent because they were such deplorable human beings.
In the 1990s, trial by media was the new sensation, Judge Weisberg had presided over the acquittal of four police officers of a hate crime (arising in the 1992 LA riots), the six male jurors in the first trial insisted on murder (to exculpate the father and themselves) while the women pressed for manslaughter, and OJ Simpson got off scot-free for murder due to his celebrity status. So Weisberg prevented crucial information from being fairly presented in the second trial to engineer a much-needed win for the DA's office, leading to a 12-0 ruling for first-degree murder within just a week.
As an outsider in Australia, I find the justice system in America bizarre. There is no neutrality when prosecutors like Bozanich and judges like Weisberg have a huge incentive to pursue certain convictions in order to further their public careers. Bozanich is so blind to her own self-righteousness that she doesn't recognise the hypocrisy when she says of the TikTokers, "their beliefs are not facts". She herself remains convinced of the brothers' intent to murder their parents out of greed despite all evidence presented by the defence. "They were just these dumb jock killers", she says of her first impression of them. She claims that she only agreed to participate in this documentary to show up for the slain mother, but it's a feeble disguise for her self-serving motivations. People like her don't care about justice, only themselves.
RuPaul's Drag Race Global All Stars: Mmm... A Rich International Roast (2024)
The Kitty and Kween Show
Kitty and Kween win the roast challenge, and will probably get an advantage picking their make-over partner in the next challenge. Begrudgingly, Kitty had the best roast and her runway outfit actually wasn't trash this time. But if anyone should have shared the honour with Kitty, it should have been Nelly. Ru was waxing lyrical over Kween's ability to wait for the joke to land, bizarrely attributing it to her dance background, and how she really worked that cheap lamé fabric to her advantage. From her animosity towards Nelly, I don't think Kween skipped over Nelly since she roasted every other queen. It was most likely too mean and distasteful to be included in the final edit.
Poor Nelly thinks that Kween is joking with her when Kween calls her rude. Nothing is ruder than continuing to antagonise someone when they clearly don't understand your passive aggression that you disguise as harmless jibes. Let's just say that gaslighting and passive aggression are tools of narcissistic people. I think Kween's behaviour towards Nelly is symptomatic of projection; she feels threatened by Nelly's talent and is secretly envious, so tries to undermine Nelly whenever she can. It's a travesty that Nelly, who has been the most consistently top performer, has not won a main challenge, while Kween, the most consistently safe performer, has won three.
Nelly would be the most deserving winner of this season, but we all know that she won't be. I hope that she can at least win the makeover challenge next episode. Whatever happens, I would hate to see Kween take the crown. She is the real See You Next Tuesday of the season. Here's a read for Kween, even with the best fabrics and designers working for you, you will still be the best looking man in a dress. Projection, darling. I see you. I score this episode an extra point only because Kitty complimented Nelly on her roast performance.
Monsters: Hang Men (2024)
Projection. Projection. Projection.
What is every parent's worst fear? That their children will die before they do, that they have messed up their children irreparably, or that they will be abandoned or even killed by their children? The final option probably never crossed the minds of those at the trials, including the judge, prosecution and jurors, until they came face to face with the Menendez brothers. Unless they are exemplary parents and most aren't, it is enough to make them wonder if the same fate might befall them. They may also be forced to reckon with their own maltreatment of their children; if they excuse Jose and Kitty's abuse and emotional neglect of their sons by finding the sons guilty of murder, then they absolve themselves by extension.
In 1998, after the brothers had been sentenced to life without parole, the Adverse Childhood Experiences study by CDC-Kaiser Permanente found that 16% of males and 25% of females among over 17,000 adult respondents reported having experienced sexual abuse in the first 18 years of life. That is 1 in 6 boys and 1 in 4 girls. In the 90s, the concept of complex PTSD, stemming from prolonged exposure to traumatic events like childhood abuse, was still in its infancy. What people saw back then as temper tantrums by Lyle and Erik could in fact be explained by emotional dysregulation and acting out as a consequence of C-PTSD.
I think the outcome for a similar trial today would be different due to greater consideration for childhood trauma and better understanding of the impacts of C-PTSD. There were some creative liberties taken in the Menendez series as expected and the character of Dominick Dunne seemed superfluous to the storyline to me. But overall, I enjoyed this more than I did the Dahmer series, probably because I knew very little about the case prior and it helped me gain a deeper level of empathy for the brothers.
Kinds of Kindness (2024)
The tyranny of work
Lanthimos' works have a deeper hidden meaning. He wants us to find the message rather than just giving it to us. But Kinds of Kindness could be his most opaque work so far. Many people just want to be entertained and not think too hard about what the film is trying to convey, which might explain why it is languishing in the mid-sixties. Personally, I enjoy the challenge and think that the three stories presented have the common theme of work.
In the first story, a man complies with the directives of his boss, which include when he should copulate with his wife. When he is ordered to crash his vehicle into another and kill its driver, he finds this morally objectionable and declines to great consequences. His wife leaves him, he falls out of favour with his boss and he risks foreclosure of his home. Desperate, he enacts the very thing that he initially turned down. This story seems to be about sacrificing one's autonomy in the pursuit of the status and wealth that work affords us.
In the second story, a man's wife goes missing for several months as she embarks on a scientific excursion. Upon her return, he is convinced that the person standing before him is not really his wife. She looks like his wife, sounds like her and professes her love for him, but he remains adamant that it is not the same person. He tests her with increasingly bizarre and gory challenges that eventually claim her life, upon which the real wife materialises at his door and he welcomes her with open arms. This is an allegory for losing oneself to work to the extent that loved ones no longer recognise the people we originally were.
In the final story, a woman and her colleague dedicate their lives to seeking a fabled figure who has the power to bring the dead back to life. They are part of what appears to be a cult and any interaction with their former lives, including with their partner and children, is considered impure and grounds for banishment. It is not a stretch to imagine that this story is about how the blind obsession or commitment to work impedes the connection one has to family and destroys important relationships.
To sum it up, Kinds of Kindness is potentially a cautionary tale about losing ourselves to work and thereby sacrificing our autonomy, self-expression and relationships. It is about people watching what is transpiring on the screen, perplexed and repulsed, when it fails to dawn on them that they are witnessing the story of their lives and the disgust should be directed at what they have given up in the name of work, reputation and material wealth.
Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter (2024)
Her name was Aundria Bowman
"She never called me Mommy but I am her mommy all the way to the bone... I'm as close as you're gonna get to her spirit... I almost became her. A more mature, more angry her... It's like walking into a fire and that transformed me" is what Cathy, the birth mother, said at the end of the almost 150 min documentary about her lost child. She often comes across as more than angry; there is a glint in her eyes and a delight that she derives from her self-righteousness that makes her unlikable to me. She has managed to make Aundria's short life and tragic end all about her.
Perhaps it's overcompensation for the guilt she must feel for giving her daughter up to a dysfunctional couple later responsible for her untimely demise at just 14. Her determination at seeking justice for Aundria was driven by not just her desire to have the adoptive father, Dennis Bowman, finally put away from his crimes, but also to ameliorate the guilt over the decision that ultimately sealed Aundria's fate. She had to be angry at someone else, so that she was not consumed by anger at herself.
Yet in her attempts to absolve herself, she manufactured an imaginary connection to teenage Aundria, refused to use the only name Aundria had ever known, and was prone to self-indulgent theatrics, like her personal affront at Brenda Bowman's offer of half of Aundria's ashes. Not to add salt to the wound, but Cathy missed Aundria's first steps and first words, her first day at school, etc. Aundria never knew her biological mother because she was not present.
By all accounts, Cathy would have been a total stranger to Aundria. She had 14 years to track down Aundria to rectify the mistake of abandoning her, but was finally spurred into action 20 years after Aundria's disappearance, meaning that she had no idea Aundria had been missing all that time. Still the narrative here is that Cathy helped solve the mystery of Aundria's disappearance and atoned herself. It was questionable how the documentary positioned Cathy as the central figure, instead of Aundria. It does not feel right.
RuPaul's Drag Race Global All Stars: It's 5 O'Clock Somewhere (2024)
Kitty Scott-Ninelives... I can't even...
Kitty survives the bottom 3 wearing something from the Wilma Flintstone collection. Never mind the brief was for the dress to be above the knees and hers is just above one knee. Kween is in the top 3 looking like the drag mother of a frilled lizard. Gala finds herself the sacrificial lamb yet again, earning herself a bottom 2 placement for a dress that is clearly too symmetrical for Ru's liking, and is fast becoming the lip sync assassin. Vanity escapes the lip sync looking like she's emerged from the cocktail party from hell; so lit it's giving scorched earth. Kitty and Kween continue their Mean Girls impression on Nehellenia, who is faulted for expressing her disappointment at the content of Kitty's box. But no one whispers a word at Alyssa's incessant moaning of the "scraps" she finds in Tessa's suitcase. Nehellenia continues to be overlooked for creating something cohesive and classy with Kitty's rags. Pythia constructs her dress in mere minutes because this challenge is beneath her creativity.
I approached this episode with a mixture of dread and disinterest... Dread of now apparent riggory (what will they think of next?) and disinterest in the queens expected to make the finale. We are halfway through the season, with another four queens to be eliminated before the final four compete for a completely meaningless title, and I'm just like, Meh. I am more interested in seeing whether each episode can score lower than the previous. Let us make our dissatisfaction known and get the rating of the finale as close to 1.0 as possible. This episode gets a 2 from me only because Tessa won fair and square.
RuPaul's Drag Race Global All Stars (2024)
RuPaul's Highest Viewership Race
Any hope of impartial judging and a fair fight has been quickly dispelled in the last couple of episodes (ep. 3 and 4). As some people on social media have astutely pointed out, it is about viewership and Paramount+ getting back as much of its investment in this maiden Global Drag Race as possible. With an American judging panel and production pressure to retain contestants from high viewership countries further into the series (English as first language, higher populations, more liberal), the unceremonious axing of the first two queens is less surprising and the trajectory of the remaining queens become predictable.
My predictions for next contestants to go are: Soa de Muse (underwhelming), Eva Le Queen (can't lip sync to save their lives), Tessa Testicle (amusing but overshadowed), Vanity Vain and Gala Varo. And the last ones standing probably are: Pythia (CAN, creativity only gets one so far), Kween Kong (AUS/NZ, dancing only gets one so far), Nehellenia (ITA, underdog character arc), Kitty Scott-Claus (UK, need I say more) and Alyssa Edwards (USA, duh). What was initially excitement at a global season has deflated into resigned acceptance that diehard fans from around the world will not be getting the Olympics of drag they deserve.
Worst Ex Ever (2024)
Here we don't ask why...
The Worse Ever series are fine if you just wish to wither a couple of hours away without using your brain cells or have it in the background while you do something else. Don't expect any earth-shattering insights or nuggets of wisdom because this is true crime lite. There is nothing more to glean in these episodes than if we were to simply read about the events as reported in the news.
Some of these events are so recent, like episode 1, that it makes it impossible to invite further comment and investigation by forensic experts and psychiatrists without risking a lawsuit as there are still living members in the immediate family of the perpetrators, who may object to being cast in an unflattering light. But it is really true crime if the motivations and machinations of unhinged people like Benjamin Foster are not explored at all?
How did Ben turn out the way he did? What was his childhood like? How was his relationship with his parents? What did his brother have to say about their experiences growing up together? Why didn't his parents seem more upset when spoken to about him being on the run? Could they have done more to intervene after his initial brush with the law or did they not care enough to? What skeleton in the closet is his family hiding? When he misdirected his rage and sadism at the women, who in his mind was he really lashing out at? All of these questions and not a single answer.
There is also a curious absence of reflection from those affected by these malevolent characters. What lessons did they learn from their experience and how has their ex affected the way they view the world or interact with others? What advice or recommendations do they have for anyone who should find themselves in the same unfortunate predicament of facing a toxic partner?
Bôifurendo (2024)
Same-sex Terrace House
If you have watched Terrace House, the setting will be familiar, as will some of the faces on the talking panel that comment on the happenings in the series. Instead of three guys and three girls, we have eight single gay men, ranging from 22 to 36, moving into a share house, looking for connection and love. This represents a huge step for Japan where most queer establishments remain discreet or underground, sending the message to queer Japanese people that they have to stay invisible.
The Boyfriend takes Japanese gay culture to the mainstream and on the biggest streaming platform, so its significance cannot be overstated. However, it suffers from a visibly low budget, which hampers the natural development of relationships between the men and results in a very static atmosphere. It makes me wonder whether the lack of funding has anything to do with the sexuality of the housemates.
The house pales in comparison to the luxury displayed in seasons of Terrace House, which allowed the housemates to go about their regular lives and their interactions were mostly unscripted. Here, the men are tasked with operating a coffee truck to earn extra income to supplement their daily meal allowance of 6000 yen, which is only US$5 per person. We also do not get to see them interact with each other in their natural environments outside of The Green Room.
Instead of focusing on the dynamics between the housemates, as we saw in Terrace House, there are banal distractions like negotiating the budget for one housemate's penchant for boiled chicken. With only one ostensibly queer person on the panel, almost serving as a cultural representative, the straight members of the panel were out of their depth when commenting about nuances between the gay men that they do not comprehend.
Of all the housemates, Usak, the Adonis gogo dancer, showed a moment of rare vulnerability when he expressed that he did not know who he was because he has been so dependent on meeting the expectations of others to the expense of his authenticity. This is true for many gay men and it arises from a fear of rejection. When they have faced rejection from family, community and society for as long as they have been gay, it seems unnecessarily cruel to set these men up for further rejection through gimmicks, such as writing each other anonymous letters, for the sake of creating drama and suspense, instead of encouraging direct and open communication.
Despite being a much belated pioneer of its kind in Japan, I struggle to rate The Boyfriend any higher due to its severe limitations. If granted the budget of Terrace House and a more diverse panel, it has the potential to be much better. It is still worth watching for one particular duplicitous and capricious heartbreaker of a housemate; he is the epitome of never "judging a book by its cover".
The Man with 1000 Kids (2024)
Temu Brad Pitt
I wonder if, when he looks at himself in the mirror, JJM sees Brad Pitt gazing back at him. Somehow most of the mothers in this documentary seem to be of the opinion that JJM is much better looking than he actually is, and were thrilled to have sourced a donor with his piercing blue eyes, long flowy golden locks and white gleaming smile.
This hints at a shortage of sperm donors across the world and how JJM is the pick of a very average bunch of men who become sperm donors. The most disturbing part of this documentary to me was not actually the actions of JJM, but the quote from Anthony Greenfield at the end of episode 3, "But soon more countries to be colonised by my glorious and mighty white seed". Already we have two examples of delusional white men, one a grandiose narcissist and the other an incel, fathering children across the world.
The documentary informs that fertility clinics worldwide "still have no way to check how many children a donor has" because there is presumably no global DNA database for each clinic to see where else and how often the donor sperm has appeared. Without DNA sequencing, it is also possible that men with hereditary diseases are propagating their faulty genes. While the Dutch court has put a cease to JJM's seed giving, this documentary may unwittingly inspire others like him to follow in his footsteps because there are no safeguards to this $5 billion industry.
Strangely, after campaigning so hard to stop JJM, citing grave concerns of future incest amongst their JJM children, the parents are shown having a gathering to celebrate their win against JJM and they have all brought their children together to play with each other, going as far as to contradict themselves by saying, "... they see each other and have this instant connection... so weird and magical to see". One mother refers to the other mothers as "sister wives" and it is like they are one big happy extended family. Is this not precisely what they were so against in the first place?
I think The Man with 1000 Kids missed a golden opportunity to get medical and ethical experts to weigh in on this trend of would-be parents shopping around for donor eggs and sperm. It could also have asked these parents the question why they did not opt for adoption if it was not possible for them to conceive a child naturally with another man or woman. To want little copies of yourself is not a good enough reason.
A Family Affair (2024)
Ken meets widow Barbie
I watched A Family Affair a couple of days after The Idea of You. Both stories feature a romantic fling between an older female and a younger celebrity male, with the age difference being 16 years in both cases. Both mothers also have a daughter, who comes in between them and their new admirers. While The Idea of You is commendable in its attempt to convey the challenges that such a coupling brings, A Family Affair prefers to keep it light and vacuous.
Unlike most rom-coms where the eventual couple act coy, misread each other's intentions, get involved with a third party, develop their bond over time, have a crisis near the final hurdle etc., A Family Affair does away with all of that by having Chris, Efron's movie star, jump Brooke's, Kidman's widow mom, bones on the very first time they meet. At this point, we know little about Chris and even less about Brooke. Without any suspense or believability about their pairing, I found it wholly impossible to be invested in their staying together.
Besides their frozen faces, flat acting and abject absence of any sexual tension, Efron and Kidman portray one-dimensional characters that don't evoke sympathy. The daughter, Zara, is especially on-the-nose with her incessant whining and self-absorbed opposition to her mom dating her celebrity boss. Not even Kathy Bates as Grandma could save this dumpster fire. Why is she even in this? A good rom-com makes us root for the couple as corny as the ending may be; A Family Affair has zero stakes and utterly fails as a rom-com.
Geek Girl (2024)
Ode to neurodivergence
Those criticising Geek Girl for being unrealistic or juvenile are missing the true point of the show. At its heart, it is about a neurodivergent teenage girl doing her best to navigate a world dominated by neurotypical people and their inscrutable customs. In episode 9, Harriet speaks to Toby about how he copes with "being a polar bear in a rainforest", referring to her prevailing sense of being in a world that is not designed for her.
While the show does not explicitly state that Harriet and Toby are autistic, it is implied through their mannerisms and thought patterns. This is where Geek Girl shines - its allusion to the myriad of autistic traits through these two characters and demonstration of the challenges they face with the neurotypical majority, who may not understand their differences and find fault with them. Lexi, the thorn in Harriet's side, is the personification of barriers that autistic people encounter when neurotypical standards are imposed on them.
Geek Girl similarly portrays ADHD through Harriet's dad, Richard, who is fun-loving, a graphic designer, has a room dedicated to his music, and described by his neurotypical wife as a "kidult" after he impulsively heads off to Canada with Harriet for her first modeling gig and puts his own job in jeopardy. As many as one in ten people in the world are neurodivergent; the rates of autism and ADHD are not increasing, they only appear to be as more neurodivergent people are getting diagnosed younger and as adults. Unless we have been living under a rock, we have all interacted with or known someone who is neurodivergent.
I commend Geek Girl for its sensitive portrayal of neurodivergent characters in a script ostensibly aimed at a neurotypical audience. It strives to promote greater awareness and consideration for neurodivergent people, while holding a mirror for some neurodivergent people to see their experiences reflected. Many of us make an effort to respect and appreciate the culture of a country different to ours; Geek Girl is appealing to us to do the same for neurodivergent people and their respective cultures. This is why it is worth a 10.
Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial (2024)
The cult of Nazism
Hitler presided over possibly the largest cult in human history, numbering the populations of Germany and Austria. He was a malignant narcissist, like most infamous cult leaders like Jim Jones, whose unwavering grandiosity helped sway the German population, who felt isolated and were looking for relief from their overwhelming post-WWI uncertainty and austerity, into his spell.
A malignant narcissist is so named because of their nihilism and perverse appetite for destruction. Like all narcissists, they rely on external validation to create an identity and sense of worth. Malignant narcissists are the most extreme in the sense that they will stop at nothing to achieve and maintain that tenuous identity they have created; there is no morality and no empathy. Without that identity, they are nothing and hence nothing else matters.
Like any plane crash, a series of unfortunate events have to occur to precipitate total catastrophe. The first in the case of WWII was Hitler's failed attempt to be an artist. No doubt he blamed the art world for not recognising his brilliance. His "woe is me" and underdog persona endeared him to many Germans, including his Nazi henchmen, who felt hard done by following what they perceived as unjust treatment for Germany's role in WWI. Combined with his absolute certainty in himself and Aryan superiority, it proved an intoxicating salve to the impoverished German masses.
I am no historian and am unqualified to comment on the veracity of the content of this docuseries. What I appreciate about it is that it gave me a glimpse into the mind of Hitler and how it is plausible that such horrific events can happen again, because people remain too susceptible to the empty promises and false narratives wielded by mentally-unstable and self-serving leaders like Hitler. 20 million dead in Europe in WWII because Adolf had a bad childhood and people are still not good at identifying malignant narcissists, let alone mounting a defense against their fake charm.
Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult (2024)
When cult leader meets Tik Tok influencers
Robert Shinn saw a golden opportunity to expand his flock by 7 million followers through his son's band of influential Tik Tok dancers, and dollar signs danced across his eyes. His true intent lies plainly in the title of company he set up to do so - 7M Management, that is to manage 7 million potential followers and their coffers, because those who follow these dancers would by proxy be following him in his demented grandiose mind.
It was especially heartbreaking to see Dean, Miranda's father, breaking down in tears as he described his horrific realisation that he was losing his daughter to the cult of Robert Shinn. Only thirty minutes into the first episode, you can see the mechanism of the cult churning away at isolating the dancers from their families to gain total and complete control over them in the name of Jesus.
I am not a believer in religion but I also would never believe something as omnipotent as a god would care for a portion of our earnings; what use would they have for it. What has Robert Shinn or any of the other proselytisers done with all the money they have stolen from their followers, other than spend it on themselves? These malignant narcissists know the power of religion and wield it to gain supply, but their appetite is insatiable. In the age of social media and rapid influence, it is more relevant than ever before to question someone's motives when they use the influence of religion on you.
Baby Reindeer (2024)
Masochistic trauma porn
With his self-portrayal of his own personal disturbance and traumatic experiences in Baby Reindeer, Richard Gadd could be the new face of masochism. He spared no effort in depicting every sordid detail of being victim to rape, harassment and stalking, taking the saying "airing one's dirty laundry" to unchartered territory. When have we ever seen a survivor of such grotesque abuse approach the re-enactment of their various traumatic events, by themselves no less, with such unbridled gusto and painstaking detail?
In the public meltdown that he enacts in episode 6, Gadd described his love for Teri as being surpassed only by his self-hatred; the result of which, his epically low self-esteem, he attributed as the reason for his repeated returns to his rapist (including towards the story's conclusion), and his continued dependence on Martha and her voice messages for validation even after she had pled guilty and was sentenced to nine months in prison.
While it might seem to regular viewers that Gadd has sublimated a deeply distressing period in his life in the mid-2010s into a fearlessly creative and cathartic endeavour that ultimately culminated in this Netflix series, I think the truth is far more sinister. Gadd has finally managed to obtain the fame and approval that he admitted to desperately wanting by publicising and capitalising on his personal trauma. Baby Reindeer is his OnlyFans, with the content being his neuroses, self-loathing, public humiliation and other miscellaneous suffering, and now viewed by millions who are applauding this trauma porn.
"Truth is stranger than fiction"; this rings especially true for Gadd and Baby Reindeer. Had this story merely been fictional, it would have been an expertly crafted and enthralling story and character study. As a true story depicted by actors removed from the events, it would have been a difficult but fascinating watch. However, to have Gadd play himself is to watch him intentionally reliving his trauma and potentially retraumatising himself ostensibly because he is still very much enslaved to his special brand of shame. As such, Baby Reindeer is not the product of someone who has overcome their inner demons to finally cultivate a healthy relationship with themselves.
Beau Is Afraid (2023)
Beau is having nightmares
I think the best way to approach Beau Is Afraid is to consider it as a series of Inception-styled existentialist nightmares that the real-life Beau is experiencing as he is safely ensconced in his comfy apartment in an upscale part of town. Everything that happens in the movie is then figurative, merely how Beau's mind is trying to process and resolve the difficult aspects of his life that may be hidden from his consciousness. The story consists of three nightmares or acts, each with its distinctive theme.
In Act 1, Beau lives in his dull but orderly apartment, surrounded by the chaos that happens in his building and the lawlessness in the streets. The theme here is that the world is a dangerous place; Beau feels vulnerable, believes that bad things will happen to him, and his apartment represents his safe inner space, which is fragile as danger is always lurking beyond its four walls.
In Act 2, Beau finds himself convalescing in the home of Roger, Grace and their volatile teenage daughter, after an accident. The couple seem inordinately concerned with the welfare of a stranger, yet has placed an ankle bracelet on him. Later, they set their other deranged ward, a combat veteran with PTSD named Jeeves, after him following an incident with their daughter. The theme here is that no one can be trusted. Fleeing from Jeeves, Beau runs into a theatre troupe. During their performance, like a nightmare within a nightmare, we see a story of Beau having a family and subsequently losing them in a natural disaster, only to reunite years later and discover they were never real to begin with. This family represents the life Beau could have had if it were not for his mother's influence on him.
In Act 3, Beau finally arrives at his mother's lavish residence but is too late to the funeral. Mona reveals that she is not actually dead and the body in the coffin is that of the housekeeper, whose death she had bought. When Beau tries to stand up to Mona after years of her tyranny, he is banished to the attic where he finds his emaciated opinionated twin and a representation of his late father's genitals. Jeeves bursts in and starts attacking the father, because if the father is rendered impotent, Beau would not have been born. Jeeves is probably a manifestation of Beau's self-destructive tendencies. In the final scene, Beau stands trial accused of being ungrateful to his mother and is executed as she watches. We see him accept his fate and her shedding tears of self-pity when he disappears into the water. The theme here is subjugation; Mona had always put her needs before her son's, and made him neurotic and dependent so that she had control over him. She did not want her child to differentiate from her and become his own person. Beau Is Afraid is the tale of a narcissistic mother who enmeshed her son, hence Beau's demeanour throughout the movie is that of his young and terrified self.
It is a big ask for people to sit through three hours of this. I watched it in two halves; I was thoroughly derisive in the first half but I appreciated the overall experience and meaning of the story as the second half progressed. Hence I empathise with the detractors and those who applauded this movie alike. As much as Aster might have been self-indulgent in creating this bloated excursion possibly based on a personal experience, I hope that he found catharsis in doing so. Still, I wouldn't recommend the movie without some forewarning and clues.
The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping (2024)
Hurt people hurt people
This comprehensive documentary exposes the troubled teen industry for being the opposite of what it purports to do - instead of its supposed mission of helping troubled teens get back onto the "right" path in life, what we see is the systemic exploitation and abuse of disadvantaged or misunderstood teenagers who are acting out because of their childhood trauma and are being further traumatised by the program.
The son of Narvin Lichfield described his father as being a man with two faces. Just like the troubled teen industry that he established with his brother, there is the public persona and then the private persona. Such duplicity is characteristic of people with the dark triad of Machiavellians, narcissists and psychopaths. Growing up in poverty with neglectful and potentially abusive parents, the Lichfields became Machiavellian sociopaths who have no qualms about being responsible for creating an industry that benefits from the pain and suffering of others. With these individuals, there is no accountability.
It is a disturbing fact that most of the pain and suffering in the world lay in the hands of few like the Lichfields who have lost their humanity and pursue power at any cost. There is also a lack of understanding of "troubled" teens who are judged in comparison of more privileged and neurotypical children. Children cannot choose not to be born into disadvantage or not to have ADHD. Many of the teenagers enrolled in these programs, including Katherine Kubler herself, probably have ADHD and subsequently their behaviours were misunderstood. What these children need are awareness and compassion, not re-programming.
Bad Surgeon: Love Under the Knife (2023)
In the prison that is his mind
Imagine a child who was taught by those around him to believe that who or what he is is unacceptable, repulsive and deserving of deep unrelenting shame. He fashioned for himself an alternate reality and alter ego where he is the hero, flawless and beyond reproach. Grossly overcompensating for his innate sense of defectiveness, his sole aim in life is to evade his belief that he is deeply unlovable by striving to achieve the adulation and recognition of others by all means necessary, even if it means costing lives and leaving a trail of destruction. One could say that Macchiarini is in a psychic prison of his own making, unable to break free from being a wretched automaton driven by his insatiable ego because he cannot stand to face his mistakes and therefore has to commit to his own con or risk utter obliteration.
There are millions of Paolo Macchiarinis walking amongst us. As much as this Paolo Macchiarini would love to think that he is an exceptional human being and just short of godliness, he is not. As egregious and intelligent as he was to make it as far as he did, he also had help from those around him who saw him as a fast ticket to fame and fortune. A Paolo Macchiarini who was not fatally shamed in childhood could have used his intellect for good. Instead he has destroyed lives and continues to live in his fantasy world. He might have only received a sentence of 30 months in prison, but he has already been sentenced to a lifetime of self-hatred and self-delusion. The documentary would have been more complete with a look into his formative years and testimonies from those who knew him before the ignominious events at the Karolinska Institute.
Never Let Him Go (2023)
A portrait of grief
The title Never Let Him Go may allude to either Steve's tenacity at seeking justice for Scott or his inability to resolve his unbridled grief and letting Scott go. The documentary itself was balanced and unbiased with accounts from all key players: from the family members to the attending officer back in 1988 to the lead investigator at unsolved murders. For a saga spanning nearly four decades, I thought the four hours runtime was appropriate.
The most interesting part to me was in episode 3 where we saw the clash between Pamela and Steve. I had a lot of empathy for Pamela and could appreciate her transference when she perceived Steve as an entitled rich white man who undermined her authority and professionalism. This was a woman who had to claw her way to the top in a white male-dominated environment. Steve on the other hand displayed no empathy towards Pamela, gloating later about how Pamela shot herself in the foot when it was he who loaded the gun by leaking her email to him to the media. Her tone remained composed while his own earlier reprimand of her can be described as spiteful.
After the killer was apprehended, found guilty and sentenced, a result that not even the family believed was possible, Steve conceded that he would never get closure and that he would keep returning to the site of Scott's death to mourn what could have been. While it is true that everyone processes grief in their own time, I wonder how much counselling if any Steve has accessed. Almost 35 years since Scott's death, he seems no closer to accepting the loss of his brother, in spite of all the effort spent in the pursuit of justice. Money may have bought him his brother's killer but it is not bringing him any peace.
Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones (2023)
Association does not imply causation...
Say it with me, "Association does not imply causation". That Buettner is a journalist, not a scientist, is painfully evident in the conviction with which he makes his statements and declarations. The series begins rather well with episode 1 looking at Okinawans, falters with episode 2 when the attention is turned unconvincingly towards Loma Linda, and finally crashes and burns in episode 4 where it becomes a propaganda piece for the authoritarian Singapore government.
For a program investigating centenarians, there are precious few of them featured here; I can recall only two, Giulia in Sardinia and Dora in Ikaria. Buettner revealed his ignorance of complex carbohydrates vs simple sugars when he called bread and pasta simple carbohydrates. His summary of the common factors across the five blue zones is also problematic - eating well, moving naturally, faith, purpose and connection. It disregards the benefits of structured exercise and things like yoga. People with an excess of faith sometimes reduce their life expectancy when they turn away from modern medicine.
Longevity comes down to two things: good physical health and good mental health. Contributors to good physical health include eating natural food and avoiding processed food, ample hydration, adequate sleep, regular physical activity and minimising stress. Contributors to good mental health include love and belonging, self-esteem, self-actualisation, regular physical activity and minimising stress. Modern urban life typically gets in the way of these, something that the centenarians did not have to contend with.
Life expectancy in Singapore increased due to a higher standard of living and modern medicine, like in many other nations. Australia has a similar environment to the United States - high reliance on automobiles and modern diet high in processed food - yet their overall life expectancy is still comparable to Singapore's and routinely in the world's top 10. Due to Singapore's highest cost of living in the world, its younger citizens are generally too stressed and overworked to ever have time for connection, play and spending with their parents. As a former Singaporean who moved to Australia to discover his identity and ikigai, I doubt Singapore will ever truly be a blue zone.
Couples Therapy Australia (2022)
Pale imitation of Couples Therapy US
There is nothing fundamentally wrong with Couples Therapy Australia; it is simply not as good as Couples Therapy US. We see a similar waiting room, similar therapeutic space set up for the program, and couples with similar issues and dynamics that we see in the original version.
The biggest difference is the therapist, and she does not come with a dog this time. Marryam is an extremely competent therapist. In fact, I would want her as my therapist. She is so warm, welcoming, empathic and expressive, that one can sense the drain on her to be so generous and giving. But I also sense that she is inexperienced in couples therapy or at least not well-suited.
Marryam addresses each half of the couple separately and she makes this clear by insisting on a physical space between the couple sitting on the couch. It was uncomfortable watching her dissuade a husband from consoling his teary wife as he slinked across to hold her hand. This is in contrast to Orna, who allows the scene to unfold organically, while deftly shifting focus from one half of the couple to the other in a quiet harmony.
There is a noticeable absence of circular questions in Marryam's approach. When she highlighted that Cat's way of expression is preventing her from getting her needs met by her husband, she did not ask Cat to consider how her words could be perceived by him. This is fundamental in getting the couple to appreciate each other's perspective. Hence this Australian series suffers from not having a true couples therapist like Orna.