All posts by Ben Sears

Radiant Black Volume 4 – Comics Review

Radiant Black Volume 4

  • Writer: Kyle Higgins
  • Illustrator: Marcelo Costa
  • Publisher: Image
  • Collects issues #19-24

Grade: B+

One of the things that’s drawn me to the Radiant Black series is in its depiction of real-life consequences to having superpowers. Its protagonists aren’t too dissimilar to Peter Parker or Spider-Man – the urtext for these kinds of stories, of course – always trying to do the right thing but inevitably messing things up in one way or another. Writer Kyle Higgins doesn’t portray being a superhero as either a hindrance or an escape from the real world. Rather, it’s more like another facet of its protagonists’ personalities.

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Silo: Season 1, “Freedom Day” & “Holston’s Pick” – TV Review

“Freedom Day” & “Holston’s Pick”

  • Creator: Graham Yost
  • Starring: Rebecca Ferguson, David Oyelowo, Rashida Jones, Tim Robbins, Common, Ferdinand Kingsley, Harriet Walter, Chinaza Uche

Grade: B+

Warning: Reviews of Silo season 1 will contain spoilers.

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Star Wars Visions Volume 2 – TV Review

Star Wars Visions: Volume 2

  • Creator: Multiple
  • Starring: Eva Whitaker, Daveed Diggs, Cynthia Erivo, Ashley Park, Maxine Peake, Charithra Chandran
  • Nine episodes watched for review

Grade: A

Star Wars has been in a state of flux since the Disney takeover; its Skywalker trilogy was a mixed bag, ending in disappointment, and the spin-off/origin story films were breezy but forgettable. On the small screen it’s been similarly divisive, with The Mandalorian being the expected heavy hitter, but besides the great first season of Andor, it’s been mostly forgettable. So when the first volume/season of its anthology program Star Wars Visions released in fall 2021 with little fanfare, it understandably flew under the radar for casual fans. But for Star Wars and animation fans, the gambit proved to be a welcome change.

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Ted Lasso: Season 3, “We’ll Never Have Paris” – TV Review

“We’ll Never Have Paris”

  • Creators: Jason Sudeikis, Bill Lawrence, Brendan Hunt, Joe Kelly
  • Starring: Jason Sudeikis, Hannah Waddingham, Brett Goldstein, Nick Mohammed, Juno Temple, Brendan Hunt, Jeremy Swift, Phil Dunster, Sarah Niles

Grade: C

Warning: Reviews of Ted Lasso season 3 will contain spoilers.

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Peter Pan & Wendy – Movie Review

Peter Pan & Wendy

  • Director: David Lowery
  • Writers: David Lowery and Toby Halbrooks
  • Starring: Jude Law, Ever Anderson, Alexander Molony, Yara Shahidi, Joshua Pickering, Jim Gaffigan

Grade: B

Disney’s live-action remakes of their classic films have largely been an exercise in futility. From the forgettably bland (Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King) to the simply forgettable (Mulan, Aladdin) to the creatively bankrupt (Pinocchio), the projects mostly fail to justify their own existence. They almost exclusively copy the plot of the original films beat for beat, with maybe an extra song thrown in, and utilize shoddy visual effects for the more fantastical elements. So why remake Peter Pan, when countless iterations already exist? Perhaps it was always meant to happen – I imagine that somewhere in the Disney offices lies a deck of cards, and Peter Pan’s was the next one drawn – but there’s an outside chance it’s because director and co-writer David Lowery had something unique to bring to the material.

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Ted Lasso: Season 3, “The Strings That Bind Us” – TV Review

“The Strings That Bind Us”

  • Creators: Jason Sudeikis, Bill Lawrence, Brendan Hunt, Joe Kelly
  • Starring: Jason Sudeikis, Hannah Waddingham, Brett Goldstein, Nick Mohammed, Juno Temple, Brendan Hunt, Jeremy Swift, Phil Dunster, Sarah Niles

Grade: C

Warning: Reviews of Ted Lasso season 3 will contain spoilers.

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Showing Up – Movie Review

Showing Up

  • Director: Kelly Reichardt
  • Writers: John Raymond, Kelly Reichardt
  • Starring: Michelle Williams, Hong Chau, Andre Benjamin, John Magaro, Judd Hirsch

Grade: B+

Kelly Reichardt has amassed a loyal following of arthouse cinema nerds over the course of her almost 30 year career, and she’s done so without repeating herself in each of her films. Though the subjects of her films are often vastly different, she’s shown a keen sense of understanding her characters, and the specific places they inhabit. With her latest film Showing Up, she utilizes this ability through the micro lens of the Portland art scene.

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Indy Film Fest 2023: Sisu – Movie Review

Sisu

  • Director: Jalmari Helander
  • Writer: Jalmari Helander
  • Starring: Jorma Tommila, Aksel Hennie, Jack Doolan, Mimosa Willamo

Grade: C+

You’ll see a lot of comparisons to John Wick in the reviews and promotional material for Sisu. These days, you see a lot of similar comparisons when virtually any non-superhero action film is released. More often than not, this can be decoded as an action film with impressive physical stunts, but the similarities generally end there. Just as Taken spawned a multitude of imitators in the wake of its success, the same can be said for the John Wick films. But what makes John Wick special isn’t just its commitment to doing the craziest stunts possible at any given moment; it’s the world-building, and the way Chad Stahelski stacks the rules within that universe against John Wick.

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