algerbryan

The Brutalist (2024), directed by Brady Corbet, is a sprawling, ambitious epic that ultimately buckles under its own weight. Clocking in at 215 minutes, this tale of László Tóth (Adrien Brody), a Hungarian-Jewish architect navigating post-WWII America, feels like an endurance test. While visually striking with its VistaVision cinematography, the film's glacial pacing and aimless narrative meander through themes of immigration, trauma, and capitalism without ever landing a cohesive punch. Brody's intense performance can't salvage the dreary, repetitive plot, which piles on suffering-rape, addiction, betrayal-with little emotional payoff. The second half, particularly, drags with underdeveloped characters and heavy-handed metaphors, leaving viewers detached. It's a cold, depressing slog that mistakes length for depth, offering stunning visuals but little substance.

High Stakes has always been my favorite poker show. Real people playing for real money and a LOT of it! It's so fun to dream of how it would be to play one hand for triple the average earnings of most Americans.

In past seasons there were great characters with personalities that you could relate to and root for, or against. But, a lot has changed in the poker world. A lot. With the discovery of GTO, a new era of poker was ushered in, attracting large amounts of subdued players with little or no personality. Or at least personality that they express. Case in point, the current commentator, Nick Schulman, is a great example of the change. Nick is, with out a doubt, a leading poker expert. He is a skilled player with a winning track record. However, he lacks presence and personality. His monotoned voice makes me a little sleepy, and I find it tough to get through sometimes.

All that said, it's still a great show, and with a few changes could be renewed to its former glory with the addition of likable characters we saw in Doyle, Barry, Daniel, and Durr. However, to me, a single change that would get the most mileage is to bring Gabe back, or someone with a similar flare as he has.

The main character, Yo-Yo, is selfish, depressed, and just over-all awful. This series left me feeling empty, sad, and like I wasted many hours on characters I couldn't like. Just terrible... miserable actually...

There's nothing about this mini-series that I could recommend unless you enjoy wallowing in depression and selfishness. I have to imagine that little or no people in this era acted like the main character otherwise we could have lost the war and we'd all be speaking German today.

The fact that this show has as high of ratings as it does makes me wonder...

This is by far the worst and most depressing show I've watched this year.