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Expats is a smart and compelling drama
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Masters of the Air is an epic saga of courage and sacrifice
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Past Lives is a remarkable and humane love story
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For the love of the game – how Final Fantasy XIV conquered the world – and me
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The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered is a complicated game to love
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True Detective: Night Country is a brilliant return to the darkness
When the first season of True Detective premiered almost ten years ago, to say it made waves would be an understatement. There was the McConaissance, endless parodies and copies of the banging opening credits, and a gold rush to make even more procedurals, each missing the point of what made the original so good. To date, people still speak of it with hallowed reverence. Any new series featuring troubled protagonists, Lovecraftian vibes, and remote locations, gets the same treatment. There’s the curious first gander, followed by a sniff of “well, it’s not True Detective, is it?” Even the anthology series that followed was, for many, a shadow of the lurid, dreamlike first one. Well, I’m not m
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Next Goal Wins is an offensive misfire
★ | Foul ball Buying into your own hype is dangerous. The moment you believe you’re the cat’s pajamas is when you lose sight of what made others fall in love with your work in the first place. Such is the case with Taika Waititi, the New Zealander who charmed the world with his off-beat comedic dramas like Hunt for the Wilderpeople and the screwball mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows. After his Oscar winning Jojo Rabbit (which I loved), Waititi boarded the Marvel-train and made himself into a brand all of its own. But after the disastrous release of Thor: Love and Thunder and numerous cameo roles, all of which felt like the same shtick, Waititi’s shine has started to wane. In that sense,
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My Favorite Games of 2023
Two things are true of 2023: it was a great year for high-quality titles, and a horrendous year for gaming in general. With almost 10,000 layoffs across the industry, running all the way until Christmas, it’s hard to imagine a worse year for talented game developers. As news trickle in of thousands abandoning games entirely, the shortsighted and malicious firing frenzy executed by studio executives will hurt the industry for years to come. Which makes a list like this feel bittersweet. I want to celebrate the works of passionate artists, but doing so comes with the knowledge that many are out of a job, and some will never return to work in this field again. Consider this my salute to those w
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My favorite gear of 2023
2023 is coming to a close, so what better time than now to look back at some of my favorite gear that I reviewed this year. Here are my five picks for essential tools, gaming devices, and just plain fun that I used this year. Turtle Beach Atom Controller for iOS This nifty little controller arrived on my doorstep in late October, just in time for the last bits of international travel I had ahead this year. Designed specifically for mobile gaming, its initial impressions aren’t exactly revelatory, but once I understood both the limitations and intent, the Atom controller became a definitive item in my always carry bag. The setup process is a bit of a pain, as the Bluetooth connection on my iP
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Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire is a dull, lifeless slog
★ | The moon won’t help us this time Zack Snyder calls Rebel Moon: A Child of Fire a “wild and original sci-fi epic”. Within seconds, that proves untrue. While technically this is an original film, in that it isn’t tied to an existing IP, there is barely an original idea in it. It’s also a tame, lifeless, and dull slog that’s only halfway done by the end. From Dune to Star Wars, Battle Beyond the Stars, Seven Samurai, and a host of other – far better – films, Rebel Moon is a collage of influences that rarely work together. It’s the work of a great visual stylist who either has no understanding or interest in the context of what he’s putting on screen. The threadbare plot has little to say, y
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Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget is cute and harmless
★★★ | Bit of an odd duck, really In the seemingly never-ending series of “wait, did we really need a sequel?” comes Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, the follow-up to the Aardman Animations cult classic from two decades ago. If you’ve desperately spent those years wondering what happened after happily ever after, you’re in luck. If, like the rest of us, you almost forgot the original was even a thing, you’ll probably still be mildly amused by this harmless and decidedly by-the-numbers retread. After the events of Chicken Run, the escaped chickens have settled into a happy life of ease on a remote island somewhere in the British countryside. Rocket and Ginger spawn a kid, the headstrong and cu
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Turtle Beach Atom Controller brings console-level gaming to your phone
I’m not a big mobile gamer. Not because I have some snobbish attitude about it “not being real gaming”, but simply because I’ve never gotten the hand of on-screen touch controls. For me, physical buttons are still king. That’s why my trusty Nintendo Switch travels with me at all times. It hasn’t let me down yet. So when I got the chance to try out the Turtle Beach Atom Controller, I was curious. Could this be the addition to finally break the curse, and let me try out some of the potentially great titles I’ve heard so much about? The first impressions weren’t great, I must admit. The controller comes in a nondescript-looking box with the Turtle Beach logos, and the actual unboxing experience
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Alexandre O. Philippe on You Can Call Me Bill, Leap of Faith, and our shared cultural experiences
Director Alexandre O. Philippe came to visit Helsinki for the Night Visions film festival, and to premiere his latest documentary, You Can Call Me Bill. I was lucky enough to speak with him about his works over the past decade, working with the two Bill’s, Friedkin and Shatner, and how to grapple with big questions that no one has the answers to. This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. JI: I’m thrilled to meet you in person, because I’ve watched your films for over a decade, and they’ve been such a huge part of my film education. The first ones I saw were Doc of the Dead and The People vs. George Lucas, which are great, but they’re very different from your style today. A co
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Annabel Logan and Evrim Ersoy talk about multiverses, pandas, and divas.
Hostile Dimensions is a wildly ambitious story about vloggers discovering a modern day cryptid in the form of an inconspicuous wooden door, which leads to alternate dimensions every time it’s opened. Shot on a miniscule budget, its imagination and dedication to the setup make it feel much grander in scope. In person, Ersoy and Logan are immensely charming and open. Our freewheeling conversation was punctuated by a lot of laughter and asides, which isn’t something you take for granted when conducting an interview. During our talk, we cover topics such as producing with limited means, covering difficult dialog about multiversal travel, and how to deal with very specific diva behavior on set. J
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Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is two shows – and only one of them works
There are two competing stories in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. One of them is full of excitement and intrigue, compelling drama, and stellar performances. The other is a dull, lifeless slog that made me question why would I want to spend another minute with these characters. You can guess which one the series chooses to focus on. The better story is set in the 1950s. The World War is over, and the Cold War has just begun. Officer Lee Shaw (Wyatt & Kurt Russell, depending on the timeline) is tasked with protecting Japanese scientist Keiko (Mari Yamamoto), who searches for answers to unexplained radioactive phenomena. They are joined by Bill Randa (Anders Holm), who believes he may have
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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is a bittersweet goodbye
After six long years, the Guardians of the Galaxy return for one last curtain call. With a mammoth runtime of two and a half hours and the nervous gaze of an audience finally showing signs of Marvel-fatigue on them, director James Gunn has his work cut out for him. Luckily, the man who took a handful of D-rate comic book characters and made them beloved icons of the MCU shows no signs of stumbling. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is a perfect conclusion to the story, a heartbreaking goodbye, and a satisfying farewell that still put a smile on my face as I left the theatre. In the aftermath of The Infinity Wars, the Guardians have settled into an uneasy life on Knowhere. Quill wastes his days
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Peter Pan & Wendy is a bold and thoroughly lovely retelling of a classic
I really like David Lowery as a director. He takes wild swings that don’t always connect, but sometimes it’s the swing itself that matters. Such is the case with Peter Pan & Wendy, a loose adaptation of the animated Disney film, but also a retelling and new contextualization of J.M. Barrie’s timeless story. It’s a film at odds with itself. At once wild and free to explore the things its predecessors wouldn’t, but also gangly and awkward, as if uncertain of itself and all its potential. In a way, it’s a perfect metaphor for the teenage years our hero, Wendy, faces as her childhood comes to an end. Everything is still ahead, yet closing the door behind
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Citadel – Prime Video’s ambitious high-concept thriller is a blockbuster in disguise
You’ve got to admire the ambition. Citadel, Prime Video’s big gamble, isn’t just a streaming series. It’s multiple spin-offs in a multimedia franchise the creators say will encompass the entire planet. That’s a lot to throw in on a series, let alone an untested property. And after watching a little over half of the first season of the flagship series, I’m not sure it warrants all the bravado – some of it, but not everything. Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra Jonas, both in peak James Bond audition mode, are the main draw here. As a leading pair, they’re effortlessly charming and entirely believable as cocksure superstar agents finally face-to-face with an enemy they can’t beat. If the serie
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Priyanka Chopra Jonas & Joe Russo talk about making Citadel stand out in the spy genre
I traveled to London last week to speak with Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Joe Russo about their latest project, the massively budgeted high-concept thriller series, Citadel. The invite, from Amazon, was to meet with some of the cast and crew and come see the first half of the new series, premiering later this week. As a sucker for anything involving spies, exploding helicopters, and big globe-trotting espionage, I couldn’t refuse the opportunity. Citadel is a big, showy adventure thriller about two spies, Mason Kane, and Nadia Sinh, who find themselves double-crossed and left for dead. Years later, they’re needed once again. But time has left wounds that can’t heal, and there’s more to fear tha