Radu_A

This premiered at Toronto last September to rave reviews so it was strange that the release got pushed into the summer, making an Academy Award nod this year impossible. It would seem that the studio had little confidence in the title and did not know how to market it. This could indicate a neglected masterpiece, as some here think. But it is indeed a difficult film to promote because of the reverse narrative structure which splits the story in two.

The weight of the first segment is a problem because at some point everyone will realize they're watching into the protagonist's mind, not a dystopian world's end. This is typical for Stephen King, so unless you've never read any of his novels, you won't be that surprised. The dance scene in the second segment is at the center of marketing but is not really driving the story. And the third segment delivers the message, but the resolution comes across as a little bland.

One can recognize that this is a short story adaptation, so as a film it feels too long and too short at the same time. So this is a nice little film with excellent production values, but not an epiphany. Compared to most US releases this year, it's considerably better, but you might want to revisit King's classics instead: the old Carrie, the old It, Stand by Me and perhaps the 1994 series of The Stand.

... Season Two is a trainwreck which has destroyed the premise Season One had constructed. Stop watching after Episode Two, it falls apart as badly as The Witcher in Season Three. I'd give it 5/10 like most people if it weren't for the most annoying cliffhanger in the history of television.

What makes this so terrible is that all characters who are physically credible to survive extreme circumstances die stupidly, while those who are too pudgy or smug to last five minutes in that world go on blundering. And queer backgrounds don't give depth to a story if they're written as blandly as these.

Instead of this overhyped schlockfest, try the surprisingly well done Murderbot.

If there's a genre-bending vampire flick one should have seen it's "From Dusk till Dawn". That film starts as a rampage turned hostage situation and evolves into a battle against vampires inside an Aztec temple turned titty bar. It's fast, dirty, funny and bloody - while this overhyped snoozefest spends an hour on exposition and blends Coogler's usual black power / whites oh so bad formula with not enough blues and too much pathos. People like this either because they were not alive in the '90s or continue to live in their lazy race bubble. A better recent genre update would be the somewhat feminist Canadian film "Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person".