Loki (2021-3)

The Marvel universe has gotten unwieldy.  In the early years, they used to be pretty good at making standalone movies. But now they've started making TV shows too, it's all so interconnected. Season 1 was actually pretty decent. But I did not follow a single plot point in Season 2. Single season contained shows is the sweet spot for Marvel. There's too much happening in between seasons. 

The Time Variance Authority is not named accidentally. The acronym TVA recalls the New Deal Tennessee Valley Authority program. The design of the TVA evokes the FDR era. The production design is the best part of the show. That and Owen Wilson playing his usual self. Ke Huy Quan is fun too. I don't know if I completely buy into the message of the show either. We're made to believe that the sacred timeline is the inherently correct one. But the fact that there are branches suggests that to be untrue. And I think I had other problems with it back at season one but I don't really remember now.

Beauty and the Beast (2017)

I think Disney actually did an enchanting job with this remake of the (Oscar Best Picture-nominated) original. The acting and casting is spot on. Specifically, Emma Watson is simply divine. She's beautiful and charming and who knew she could sing? Her voice actually sounds very pure. She is helped greatly by the new orchestrations, modernizing the familiar tunes. Emma Thompson is fine as Mrs. Potts but I don't think her rendition of the title song can match the iconic Angela Lansbury. There are some new songs in addition to the old classics. And they're all quite good. There is a noticeable amount of diversity among the villagers and even some interracial couples, though in provincial France they were surely all white. Disney of course had the controversy with Josh Gad's flamboyantly gay Le Fou, but it was actually surprisingly tame. They're making a big deal out of nothing. And Josh Gad is perfect for Le Fou. Besides, shouldn't Le Fou be gay? It's really just reading a little deeper into his character. The one casting I wasn't crazy about was Dan Stevens for beast. I have to admit, I did not recognize him or his name, but it's Matthew from Downton Abbey! His face is only in a small portion of the film, but the big reveal at the end was shocking. He looked to pretty with his golden locks to be taken seriously. It was like a joke ripped from the cover of a romance novel. If Disney was really trying to push boundaries, the prince would've been black.

Visually, the castle and costumes are quite stunning. The Be Our Guest sequence is just like the original. I, personally, had a problem seeing the detail though. I don't know if it was the movie or me, but every time the camera moved, everything looked blurry. I couldn't make out any of the lines. It felt like watching a 3D movie without the glasses on sometimes. Maybe it was filmed in 3D? There are definitely 3D versions being shown, but we had a 2D screening in a large cinema in Dublin.

Concussion (2015)

This is a pretty solid and predictable movie. No frills or surprises, just exactly what you'd expect from a sports movie--or a football game.  The movie is about Dr. Omalu, a Nigerian medical examiner living in Pittsburgh where the Steelers are king. He is good at what he does, and does his job with care and respect. When his job only asks him to find the "how" he also searches for the "why" to understand the patient as he was in life. At its heart, it is a movie about a skilled immigrant (who does the job better) trying to become an American. He does what he thinks Americans do, by "faking" it. Soon he comes to realize that Americans care about one thing only: football. And corporations care only about money.

The movie is very Will Smith-centric. He plays the man with many degrees very convincingly. He sounds smart, nailing the scientific terms. He keeps the accent on the whole movie. Apparently, he doesn't sound quite Nigerian, but he certainly sounds African. It's a singing kind of accent; his voice goes up and down a lot. There is a scene in which Omalu tries to convince the man from the NFL to "tell the truth" and he his passion for his work shows honestly. It is his best performance in a while.