There has been a glut of new releases added on Netflix in the last few weeks, and I watched a good chunk of them…
In The Block Island Sound, fisherman Harry (Chris Sheffield) is suffering from strange black-outs, an affliction that his father also had n the latter part of his life. His friends and family think he is drinking too much but the reason is much more sinister. This is a cut above most of the routine horror flicks that appear on this platform. It is atmospherically shot by Kevin and Matthew McManus who also wrote the slow burn screenplay. Unfortunately, it does tail off a little towards the end.
The Block Island Sound: 6.5 out of 10
I have never been a fan of hidden camera/prank TV shows or films and Bad Trip may just be the worst example of the genre. Mixing scripted scenes with the set pieces involving members of the public, it is embarrassing and not once funny. A desperate mess but at unbelievably not the worst film of the week!
Bad Trip: 1.5 out of 10
In Get the Goat, two Brazilian cops get into scrapes whilst searching for a goat. Its one of those comedies that replaces wit and humour with a frantic pace and over the top performances. Quite painful to watch.
Get the Goat: 2 out of 10
Much better is Paper Lives. A Turkish man, Mehmet, has his life changed when he starts to look after a kid who has fled his abusive step father. As you can imagine this does get sentimental from time to time, and the twist ending is unnecessary. However, it does have heart and a decent performance from Cagaty Ulusoy as Mehmet.
Paper Lives: 6 out of 10
In 2019, a number of people were arrested in America for paying or taking bribes to get their kids into Ivy League colleges. Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal tells the story of the grubby affair. The story of how the scheme set up is pretty interesting, and it is good to see entitled rich people and their precocious kids get their comeuppance, even if the punishments were too lenient. However, the use of a mixture of real people being interviewed and dramatization of the events using actors doesn’t really work.
Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal: 5.5 out of 10
Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell is a much more straightforward documentary that tells the story of the rapper’s short life by using talking heads and archive footage. An early clip of his music has him referring to women as “hoes”, illustrating the sexism that features in a lot of rap but that sort of thing is not addressed in this hagiography. I can count the rap artists I like on the fingers of one hand (Public Enemy, The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy and De La Soul) and I expect that anyone else outside of his fanbase will find little of interest.
Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell: 3.5 out of 10
If you are in the mood for a very silly thriller you could try Deadly Illusions. A couple’s life is turned upside down when they hire a nanny who turns out not to be as sweet as she first seems. The plot is pure made for TV stuff with added sex scenes to spice things up. It is very predictable but Greer Grammar is effective as the psychotic young girl.
Deadly Illusions: 4.5 out of 10
For a breezy family comedy, you could do a lot worse than Yes Day. Jennifer Garner and Edgar Ramirez play harassed parents who agree to say yes to anything their kids ask for just one day. A lot of the comedy is broad and there are some poor musical moments towards the end but the kids are surprisingly likeable and the film has a good natured charm, unlike Caught by a Wave.
Yes Day: 6 out of 10
It feels like I have seen umpteen Italian comedies about teens on a beach holiday on Netflix, but it is probably only a couple. This has the usual bunch of rich boring kids getting involved in romantic entanglements and it is pretty tedious.
Caught by a Wave: 3 out of 10
There have been a few movies recently about religious cults brainwashing their members, such as Midsommar and Martha Marcy May Marlene. What makes A Week Away possibly unique is that it tries to present a case that they are a good thing, and fails spectacularly. Will Hawkins has gone off the rails and is in trouble with the law. Given the choice of Juvenile Detention or a Christian summer camp, he opts for the latter.
Once there he encounters a bunch of Stepford kids who burst into excruciatingly bad song and dance routines at any given moment. Inevitably, instead of questioning his fellow inmates sanity and escaping, he too becomes a non-thinking zombie. Badly written. Badly acted. Badly directed. I would rather have a life sentence in Wormwood Scrubs than spend a week in the nightmarish happy-clappy torture chamber.
A Week Away: 1 out of 10
The pick of this hefty selection is the documentary Seaspiracy. Activist Ali Tabrizi sets out to make a film about how we are damaging the ocean ecosystem. In doing so, he uncovers shocking scenes. That includes dolphins being slaughtered by fishermen so they can catch more fish and barbaric whale culling. He also unveils the corruption at the heart of the sustainable fishing industry.
If you are checking your tins of tuna for the sustainable mark, don’t bother as those are awarded to anyone who offers a bribe and their fishing practices are not regulated at all. Sure, its a one sided view and Ali’s faux naïve approach sometimes comes off as a bargain basement Louis Theroux. However, this is powerful and important stuff.
Seaspiracy: 9 out of 10