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bernardmlyons
Reviews
The Curse (2023)
Innovative, bizarre, but a bit flawed in some ways
The Curse is very clever, very unconventional, and was is a great social study of certain aspects of society. Themes of white savior complex, gentrification, impractical environmentalism...and hopeless do-gooders.
There's lots of great things that get sent up here. Some of the cringe is really well done, however, its the mismatch between all of it that perhaps means it doesn't work.
At some point, it appears to be a drama, and you invest in the characters, but at other points, that drama is thrown away for something to surreal to happen.
Major plotlines are not followed up and you are left wondering why they were really introduced. Characters make odd choices. The two main characters seems to unrealistically move in different emotional dir3ections that don't really make sense.
Asher's character is most developed, Whits is at times a great send up of the superficual white do-gooder, and dougie's while perhaps being the most interesting, is never really explored that much... with unsatasfying hints at what is going on.
There are also surreal elements that come into the show and really in my mind, don't quite fit.
While it has attracted critisism for being slow, that was not an issue for me, it was more the fact the show doesn't quite know exactly what it wants to be.
The F.J. Holden (1977)
Not great, but of interest to those who want to see a snapshot of the time
The acting is dodgy (both the main actors had little experience), the storyline pretty boring, the scenery bland.
I grew up in this part of sydney, and movies showing Australian suburbia were rare, so this was reasonably popular as it showed a slice of life of Australia - which we never saw on the big screen.
I remember Australians growing up in the time would refer to it, and it was pretty famous.
But its overall, pretty bad. Bad acting, plot is very basic and not particularly interesting - but it does show what life was like at the time pretty well, so its of value as a historical/social piece. Even a bit of casual racism played off as a joke!
Parts of it are so bad they are funny, and the two actors, instead of acting drunk, actually *really* get drunk in one scene, and can barely say their lines.
Its a really bad Aussie film, but yes, of interest to people who grew up in that time, or that part of Sydney.
Jury Duty (2023)
Insanely funny
The premise of this show is pretty clever, poor Ronald is part of a documentary on jury duty, but doesn't realise its all scripted and the jury duty isn't real.
Parts of this are insanely funny, I've laughed at this more than anythign in a long time. Like laughing till I was crying. Some of the humour is very clever, and the timing is amazing, but some of it clearly just happenned, and people have gone with it.
The part with the defence lawyer showing the "video" had my crying laughing so much, I had to wipe the tears away from my eyes.
But beyond that, there is just so much clever in this, and a fair bit of analysis of human nature too.
And of course, the main part of it is watching Ronald. Just the expressions on his face, the reactions to things going on around him.
But overall, its a complex piece of work and its fascinating watching it, and see how its all put together.
Frigging hilarious. Anyone with a sense of humour should watch this.
I watched it once, than watched it again with my wife staright away, was just as funny the second time around.