Ben-cherniavsky

Initially I had a fairly positive response to this film and would have rated it closer to a seven, However, as I reflected further on it and did some research on the actual events on which it is based, I had second thoughts. First, I don't think there is enough character development for Rodney, the serial killer. He should be the main character but we never get to know his story. Instead, most of the time is spent on Cheryl Bradshaw, the struggling LA actress. She is really peripheral to the real story, other than the fact that she was on the Dating Game with Rodney. I will admit that I found this part of the story intriguing, as I remember the Dating Game well. But the movie takes way too many liberties with how this game was played, or at least how Cheryl chose to play it. If you watch the actual episode on YouTube you can see that Cheryl is confident, flirtatious, and cute. Obviously the director (I suspect because she is a woman) took offence to this behaviour and chose to rewrite history, making Cheryl an initially nervous and reluctant contestant who found strength, confidence and a willingness to stand up to the show's chauvinism by "taking control" and turning the questions around so that the men look stupid. This had absolutely nothing to do with the Rodney Alcala story and just detracted from true events. I can see why some directors shoes to embellish true events in order to make the story more exciting or interesting, but in this case it just seemed like yet another unnecessary subliminal political message that she wanted the audience to hear. I'm miss being able to watch movies for pure entertainment and not having to suffer political lectures from Hollywood.

Overall a disappointment. Just an endless streaming of interviews with Novak and stock footage of people with tennis shoes and tennis racquets. No actual footage of his match and other than mentioning a few coaching changes and his gluten free diet it really says nothing about how he accomplished his amazing career. More could have been said about his physical and mental preparation and tactics. And of course it gets into his "anti vax" experience during Covid ending with the question "we may never see Novak play again." Wrong! Just like everything else that was sensationalized during Covid. 🙄

This is an outstanding documentary that covers the history of New York from the time the Dutch first set foot on Manhattan Island. So many great stories and rich history. Watching after recently spending a week in the city brought it to life even more. Only wish we had watched it before. My only criticism is that the last episode spends too much time on the "urban sprawl" and Robert Moses of the 1950s and 1960s and then rushes through the 70s and 80s in the last 15 minutes. There could have been so much more to learn about this era. The disco era. Studio 54. The clean up of the city. And it's amazing comeback. It was just a little bit of a let down at the very end. Otherwise an amazing film.