All posts by Ben Sears

TV Reviews

The Crown Season 6, “Willsmania” Review

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“Willsmania”

  • Creator: Peter Morgan
  • Starring: Imelda Staunton, Leslie Manville, Jonathan Pryce, Dominic West, Ed McVey, Luther Ford

Grade: B

Warning: Reviews of The Crown season 6 will contain spoilers.

Sounds plays an unexpected, minor role in Willsmania in getting into Prince William’s (Ed McVey) head space. In the opening moments, it comes as William drowns out the morning noise with music, followed by the ambient clicks and clacks as his father makes and eats his breakfast. But it’s all quickly eclipsed by the maniacal screams of William’s female fans, which dominates the episode.

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Movie Reviews

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget Review

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Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget

  • Director: Sam Fell
  • Writers: Karey Kirkpatrick, John O’Farrell, Rachel Tunnard
  • Starring: Thandiwe Newton, Zachary Levi, Bella Ramsey, Imelda Staunton, Lynn Ferguson, David Bradley, Nick Mohammed, Miranda Richardson

Grade: B

Nostalgia can be a deadly weapon. More often than not, our fondness for the pop culture of yesteryear can propel us to tack on an unecessary coda to what was already a perfectly fine artistic statement, whether it be a prequel, sequel, or spin-off. Though there are, of course, exceptions to this rule, like last year’s Top Gun: Maverick. I have tremendous nostalgia for 2000’s Chicken Run, as the VHS was on constant rotation on family road trips, so I greeted the news of a sequel, coming 23 years later and dropping on Netflix on December 15, with reserved skepticism.

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Movie Reviews

The Boy and the Heron Review

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The Boy and the Heron

  • Director: Hayao Miyazaki
  • Writer: Hayao Miyazaki
  • Japanese Voice Cast: Soma Santoki, Masaki Suda, Yoshino Kimura, Ko Shibasaki, Kaoru Kobayashi, Jun Kunimura
  • English Voice Cast: Luca Padovan, Robert Pattinson, Gemma Chan, Christian Bale, Mark Hamill, Florence Pugh, Willem Dafoe, Dave Bautista

Grade: A

Over the course of his 40+ year career, animation master and Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki has made some of the most transcendent films ever made, animated or otherwise. They’re films like My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, and Spirited Away that have crossed oceans and cultures to remind audiences of what storytelling can be. They’re films that casual movie fans and diehard cinephiles alike can enjoy, and they provide a much-needed rebuke to the often predictable storytelling mechanisms of Western animation. His latest, and possibly last film, The Boy and the Heron, feels like the film that he’s been building towards his entire life, a culmination of a lifetime’s philosophy in a beautifully rendered package.

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Movie Reviews

Eileen Review

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Eileen

  • Director: William Oldroyd
  • Writer: Ottessa Moshfegh, Luke Goebel
  • Starring: Thomasin McKenzie, Anne Hathaway, Shea Wigham, Marin Ireland

Grade: B

Eileen lives in a beige world. When she’s not staring out the window of the drab prison office where she’s employed as an office drone, curiously transfixed by the new inmate who murdered his father, or taking care of her alcoholic WWII vet father, she’s practically drowning in the grays and browns and mustard yellows of her 1960s seaside New England town. So when a pop of color arrives in the form of a noticeably red sedan that pulls into the prison parking lot, she’s instantly curious. But when she sees that the driver of the sedan is blonde bombshell Dr. Rebecca St. John, the prison’s new psychologist, she becomes so transfixed that she may never be the same.

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TV Reviews

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Review

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Monarch: Legacy of Monsters

  • Creator: Chris Black
  • Starring: Kurt Russell, Wyatt Russell, Anna Sawai, Mari Yamamoto, Anders Holm, Kiersey Clemons, Ren Watabe
  • Eight episode season, five episodes watched for review

Grade: B-

Hey you! Yes, you! Do you like seeing giant monsters destroying things, wreaking havoc on everything they come across? Of course you do! Do you have at least a passing familiarity with Godzilla? Great! Do you like only seeing those monsters, including Godzilla, for a couple moments at a time, surrounded by many, many scenes of people talking about mildly interesting conspiracy theories? Have I got a show for you!

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TV Reviews

The Crown Season 6, “Aftermath” Review

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“Aftermath”

  • Creator: Peter Morgan
  • Starring: Imelda Staunton, Leslie Manville, Jonathan Pryce, Dominic West, Elizabeth Debicki, Olivia Williams, Salim Daw

Grade: B

Warning: Reviews of The Crown season 6 will contain spoilers.

To my recollection – and I’m willing to be corrected if necessary – The Crown has never dipped into supernatural matters. There may have been some moments of unnatural coincidence or fabrication, but nothing comes to mind that was as explicit as what we see in Aftermath. I suppose that now is as good a time as any, when two central figures have passed away. But is it necessary? Could the show have conveyed what the spirits of Diana and Dodi are communicating otherwise, without them making appearances beyond the grave?

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TV Reviews

The Crown Season 6, “Dis-Moi Oui” Review

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“Dis-Moi Oui”

  • Creator: Peter Morgan
  • Starring: Imelda Staunton, Leslie Manville, Jonathan Pryce, Dominic West, Elizabeth Debicki, Olivia Williams, Salim Daw

Grade: B-

Warning: Reviews of The Crown season 6 will contain spoilers.

Does The Crown need a villain? The early proceedings of each of these episodes in season 6 so far show that Peter Morgan is choosing to show Mohamed Fayed as the puppet master of Diana and Dodi’s fateful night in Paris. I said previously that I don’t necessarily have a problem with this, and generally like the Greek tragedy angle of the show in this regard, but I can’t deny the optics of the show’s only non-white characters being portrayed so negatively.

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TV Reviews

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off Review

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Scott Pilgrim Takes Off Season 1

  • Creator: Bryan Lee O’Malley, BenDavid Grabinski
  • Starring: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Brie Larson, Kieran Culkin, Anna Kendrick, Allison Pill, Aubrey Plaza, Ellen Wong, Chris Evans, Brandon Routh, Jason Schwartzman
  • Eight episode season, eight episodes watched for review

Grade: A-

You may ask yourself, while sitting down to watch Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, why am I watching this? Why did this need to be made? You may recall that Edgar Wright directed the film adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s comic series in 2010, and was seen as a mild disappointment at the box office, but still garnered mostly positive reviews. You may also notice that the voices of Scott Pilgrim Takes Off are the same actors playing the same roles from the original film adaptation. You may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile. (Sorry.) So why make an animated series, when Wright injected so much energy and visual flair into a film that already felt like a live-action cartoon?

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TV Reviews

The Crown Season 6, “Two Photographs” Review

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“Two Photographs”

  • Creator: Peter Morgan
  • Starring: Imelda Staunton, Leslie Manville, Jonathan Pryce, Dominic West, Elizabeth Debicki, Olivia Williams, Salim Daw

Grade: B+

Warning: Reviews of The Crown season 6 will contain spoilers.

What was it that killed Princess Diana? Yes, the official cause of death was a car accident, but there were so many contributing factors that seem insignificant at first. Conspiracy theories have swirled since 1997 about the myriad ways that the paparazzi, and even the royal family itself, were responsible, and Two Photographs provides enough evidence to make them all plausible.

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