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Wolfdeus
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The Handmaid's Tale: Safe (2022)
Incredible fall from grace
The first two, or possibly three, seasons of this show were magnificent. I mean, episodes were genuinely electrifying, frightening, inspirational and heartbreaking at times. It was edge-of-the-seat viewing! Depressingly, the show is now just a background filler for me.
It is saddening how steep of a fall in quality has happened so quickly. The characters are either flat or make choices or u-turns so unfathomable that it makes no sense and I am no longer emotionally invested and cannot care about them. The plot is an unholy and confusing mix of ludicrousness and being stretched thin that I am bored stiff. I don't know if the writers have changed, but the script is woeful and as much as I like Moss as an actor, she should not be directing.
It's a familiar story in TV nowadays, but at this point they are clearly milking this show for revenue, overlooking any degree of artistry and they should have done the dignified thing and going out on a high a la Succession by wrapping up long ago. The book, which is excellent, ended ambiguously where season 1 ends. The show was always more sensationalist (and a lot of the time it worked for TV), but I can't imagine Margaret Atwood being proud of the gargantuan mess they have made of her masterpiece.
Very sad, but I won't be watching the final season as it's beyond unsalvageable. If you haven't already, please do seek out the novel - it will blow your hair back, unlike this sad, meandering mess. Thanks for reading.
Blonde (2022)
Realise it's not a Marilyn biopic and you'll love it. Masterful.
What it is is a psychological horror. It's not a biopic and doesn't warrant comparison to Monroe's real life - that's really not the point. It's an imagined study of the effects of childhood trauma explored through a barrage of visceral images like an Aronofsky fever dream. It's Lynchian levels dark and far more reminiscent of Mulholland Drive than My Week With Marilyn. It's a pretty tough watch and it's jaw-droppingly well-made. An extremely stylistic vision of pure cinema and 100% uncomfortable inventiveness. Andrew Dominik has given a cerebral and visual artistic masterclass. What an experience.
If you want a glitzy, schmaltzy, vacuous biopic void of any artistic merit - maybe watch 'Elvis'..?