Review of MAHAL KITA, BEKSMAN: Substantiating Straightness

November 19, 2022

For everyone, Dali (Christian Bables) is gay. He wore his hair red, had a stylish fashion sense, followed a strict facial care routine. He designed gowns for the boutique of his mom Gemma (Katya Santos). He does hair and makeup in Out of the Baks, the salon of his gay father Jaime (Keempee de Leon). Along with BFFs Marga (J-mee Katanyag) and Romy (Lei Ramos), he dressed up their friend Analyn (Donna Cariaso) for local pageants. 

While backstage during a beauty contest, Dali bumped into Angel (Iana Bernardez), and spilled his drink on her evening gown. When he caught a glimpse of Angel's face, it was instant love at first sight. To make up for staining her dress, he transformed it from plain white to flamboyant colorful right there on the spot. The next day, Dali surprised his friends and family when he declared that he was in love, and was actually straight.  

For this month of November 2022, there were two films by director Perci Intalan released, and they could not any further apart in theme and treatment. While "Livescream" was dark, violent and perverse, this one "Mahal Kita Beksman" was bright, cheerful and well, gay. Intalan had the same technical team behind him in both films, Emerzon Texzon for music, Carmela Danao for production design and Moises Zee for cinematography -- versatile artists all.

Fatrick Tabada (best known for writing the riotous 2016 family road trip movie "Patay Na Si Hesus") came up with an insightful script that tries to untangle the frequently confusing threads of the LGBTQ spectrum. His character of Dali is an interesting study of this intricacy, and Christian Bables (already acclaimed for his gay roles in "Die Beautiful" and "Big Night") gives another delightfully winning yet distinctly sensitive portrayal here.

Keempee de Leon went all-out flashy in his portrayal of Dali's unapologetically-gay father, who lived with his wife Gemma and his partner Boyet. Iana Bernardez, who had played an elusive muse before in "Gusto Kita with All My Hypothalamus" (2018), was beautiful, but had iffy romantic chemistry with Bables, who even looked prettier than her in some scenes. J-mee Katanyag made the most of Marga's confession scene, one of the best scenes in the film.

The film had plenty of fun celebrating stereotypically gay activities with Dali's swishy friends, like fashion, cosmetology, volleyball, while also poking fun at stereotypically male activities with Angel's macho brothers, like cars, gym, basketball. However, to also provide balance, it also came up with some memorable, well-written scenes with thought-provoking insights about being straight and the essence of being a man. 8/10. 

QCinema 2022: Review of TRIANGLE OF SADNESS: Rank Reversals

November 17, 2022

The QCinema Film Festival was born 10 years ago, with only 3 films in its maiden lineup. This year, there are no less than 58 films in 7 sections -- including several films nominated by their countries to the Best International Film category of the Oscars, as well as international films where Filipino actors made a mark this year. Also part of the line up is the final film by Ms. Cherie Gil, the latest Lav Diaz), digitally-restored classics like Mike de Leon's "Itim"). 

The opening film is "Triangle of Sadness" by acclaimed Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund. This black comedy premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May this year, and walked away with the coveted Palme d'Or (already Östlund's second after "The Square" in 2017). For Filipinos though, the main selling point of this film is the strong Oscar buzz around a possible Oscar nomination for Filipina actress Dolly de Leon, making it even more of a must-watch.

Östlund told the story of "Triangle" in three parts. In Part 1, models Carl and Yaya as they argue about paying for dinner, money and gender stereotypes. Part 2 was about Carl and Yaya's free cruise onboard a luxury yacht, the uber-wealthy passengers they met, all their quirks and idiosyncrasies. Part 3 was about Carl and Yaya and their fellow survivors on a deserted island after a stormy night of seasickness and pirates

Part 1 poked fun at the shallowness of the modeling industry and the pettiness of the people in it. While it seemed out of sync with the rest of the film, it did prepare us for the darkly comic mood this movie was going for. The main satiric meat of the film was in the over-the-top Part 2 particularly with the graphic dinner scene which will get everyone sick in the stomach (they gave out a barf bag at the door), yet still be rollicking fun to watch. The twist of Part 3 hits hard, whatever social stratum you're in.

Harris Dickinson and the late Charlbi Dean make a good attractive lead couple Carl and Yaya, both well-aware of the irony in their characters. Zlatko Burić and Sunnyi Melles as Russian fertilizer magnates Dimitry and Vera, who figure in some of the film's most memorably disturbing scenes. Hollywood star Woody Harrelson played the drunkard captain, while Vicki Berlin played Paula, the by-the-book chief of the service crew.

Of course, there is Dolly de Leon. As Abigail, the toilet manager of the yacht, we do not see her in most of the film, but in Part 3, de Leon is front and center. With a dominating screen presence despite her petite physical stature, there is no way she could be ignored. Her transformation from a lowly housekeeper on the yacht to a no-nonsense big shot among billionaires was loaded with brutally honest social commentary. 8/10. 

Review of SHE SAID: Systematic Sexism

November 13, 2022

In 2016, New York Times journalist Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan) released as expose about candidate Donald Trump's sexual misbehavior against women. Meanwhile, fellow NYT journalist Jodi Cantor (Zoe Kazan) was working on a separate story about Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, and how he had been sexually harassing actresses who were up for roles in films produced by his company -- Miramax Films.

After Trump won the election, Twohey worked together with Cantor on her story. Actresses like Rose McGowan, Ashley Judd and Gwyneth Paltrow told their stories, but were not willing to go on the record. They then began to turn their focus to interviewing women behind the scenes, like Zelda Perkins (Samantha Morton), Rowena Chiu (Angela Yeoh) and Laura Madden (Jennifer Ehle), who also fell victim to Weinstein's perversions. 

Films inspired by the investigation process of real-life journalists in order to uncover the truth about a controversial crime usually attract Oscar attention. Good examples of these films which were nominated for Oscars were: "All the President's Men" (1976) about the Watergate scandal, "The Post" (2017) about the Pentagon Papers, and the one that won Best Picture "Spotlight" (2015) about sexual misconduct in the Catholic clergy. 

The #MeToo movement was begun in 2006 by activist Tarana Burke to provide victims of sexual abuse a venue to vent the internal turmoil. #MeToo reemerged into public consciousness in 2017 and that was because of the story told here in "She Said." The momentum of that rebirth enabled several movies about real-life #MeToo stories to come out since then, including "Bombshell" (2019) and "Athlete A" (2020).

This year, there are three true-to-life films with a #MeToo theme vying for awards attention. These are:"Tar" by Todd Fields (where Cate Blanchett is touted to win her third acting Oscar), "Women Talking" by Sarah Polley (where Claire Foy and Jessie Buckley are up for supporting actress consideration), and this one "She Said" by Maria Schrader (where Zoe Kazan is up for Best Actress and co-star Carey Mulligan for Supporting).

While Kazan seemed to be onscreen longer, her character Jodi Cantor seemed to be more reactive than proactive. It always felt that each of her scenes -- with Mulligan, Morton, Yeoh, Ehle, and Patricia Clarkson (as her editor Rebecca Corbett) -- were memorable because of the other person she was with in the scene, not really her. I do not know the real personality of the real Cantor, but Kazan played her as low-key in spite of her inner strength.  

Carey Mulligan was nominated for Best Actress for the second time last year for a #MeToo adjacent role, playing a woman avenging her friend who committed suicide in "Promising Young Woman." This time she is again gaining Oscar buzz for her impactful performance here as Megan Twohey, a reporter who worked on both the stressful stories of Trump and Weinstein while going through her personal journey of first-time motherhood. 

Director Maria Schrader told the stories very matter-of-factly, as hard-hitting as the evening news. No names nor sordid details were spared when it came to the descriptions of impropriety, which fortunately were not given a visual flashback to spare us from disgusting images. The article was published, so the ending was not really a surprise. But the main point was the difficulty and suspense Cantor and Twohey went through to reach that point. 8/10. 

Vivamax Plus: Review of LIVE SCREAM: Payback for Pranks

November 12, 2022

Exo (Elijah Canlas) and his girlfriend Amanda (Pheobe Walker) are the hosts and content creators of EXAM, a prank video channel on the internet. Despite their popularity, Exo became bored with their usual gigs, and began experimenting on solo projects behind Amanda's back. He consulted a fan Barry (Lucky Mercado) about his own website, and hooked up with vlogger Raiza (Katrina Dovey) for a sexy collaboration

One night, Exo answered a knock on his door and was abducted. He woke up confined in a dark unfamiliar room. There was a laptop computer beside him with a video from man dressed in black, wearing a leather hood mask adorned with metal studs. There was a wall behind him with various holes, chains and straps. Thinking it was just a prank, Exo played along at first. But soon he would realize that this situation he was in was not a joke at all. 

The subgenre of horror films called 'torture porn" gained wider attention in the year 2004 with a little film by James Wan called "Saw". It was about two men who were kidnapped, trapped in a basement and forced to play deadly games by a masked man named Jigsaw. This film may have earned mixed reviews from critics, but ended up as a bonafide box office hit, launched its own franchise and influenced more copycats of its concept. "Escape Room" is a recent innovative variation of this theme. 

Even if the story of "Livescream" was basically an adaptation of "Saw" and "Escape Room," this macabre, sadistic horror movie was something new for the local film industry. Even if we have seen violent torture scenes in Filipino movies before, they were usually in the context of war ("Oro, Plata, Mata"), Martial Law ("ML," "Katips"), or more recently, Vivamax ("Kaliwaan"). However, "Livescream" brings punishment torture into the realm in the digital age, while also highlighting man's instinctive struggle to survive against all odds. 

We first saw Elijah Canlas as a 16-year old street kid in "Edward." He may already be 23 years old now, but it was still rather uneasy to see this boyish-looking actor in a long, totally gratuitous nude sex scene with a very daring 21 year-old Katrina Dovey, right off the bat in the opening credits. Canlas carried the rest of the film with his harrowing portrayal of this unlikable jerk's ordeal. His Exo suffered increasing intensities of disgust and humiliation and Canlas went all out, even it felt like director Perci Intalan held back a bit on execution. 

Even so, the film still looked pretty slick with Moises Zee's cinematography. The music of Emerzon Texon was unsettling and creepy. The production design of Carmela Danao was disturbing and perverse. Anthony Falcon's deep voice gave Mr. Nice a palpable gravitas of dread and danger. Writer Dominic Lim sends a message against cruel and insensitive content creators who are willing to hurt real people just to look "cool" online. This is not for everybody, but those in need of a torture fix will get a kick out of it. 5/10. 

Vivamax: Review of SHOWROOM: Sinful Secrets in Sales

November 11, 2022

Liezel Fernando (Quinn Carrillo) decided to leave her parents' store in Cebu to spread her wings in the city. She worked as a sales agent for the Candi Realty company selling condominiums. Driven and ambitious, even became their top agent. She used her paycheck to buy the signature brand luxury items she always longed for. However, she has lost her sales magic, is currently on a slump and was about to lose her job. 

One day, a new girl, Susan Rivera (Rob Guinto), was hired as sales agent. Shy and unassuming, even admitting difficulty in speaking in English, Susan surprised everyone by attracting several male buyers and selling them condos one after the other in no time. Intrigued and annoyed by Susan's immediate success, Liezel stalked her and soon discovered Susan's secret brand of "sales talk."

Quinn Carrillo adds another Vivamax erotic film under her belt as screen writer, after "Biyak," "Tahan" and "The Influencer," all produced and shown this year. While she was also in the cast of all these films she wrote, "Showroom" is the first one in which she took on the lead role. With all the seven capital sins in her seriously-flawed persona, her Liezel was as anti-hero as it gets. Carrillo could have attacked this role with more depth than camp.

Rob Guinto played down her glamorous look and came off credibly as a single mother down on her luck. Her Susan was a desperate woman offering irresistible freebies to her customers in order to close deals and raise funds for the surgery of her "sickly" daughter (played by a very healthy-looking child actress). A clean-cut Kit Thompson was miscast as Liezel's loyal friend and was almost inconsequential, until he later fell for her nemesis. 

Susan actually asked Liezel in two scenes (with almost exactly the same dialog) why Liezel simply won't get off her case and was doggedly determined to push her under the bus. Carrillo should not assume that audiences of this film only care about the sex scenes (Carrillo and Guinto certainly had a revolving door of male partners here) and won't care about the logic of her character's nefarious yet nebulous motivation. (Ok, they probably won't.)

Director Carlo Obispo built his career crafting sensitive films about children, like "Purok 7" (2013), "Gasping for Air" (2016) and just recently, the Cinemalaya 2022 Best Picture "The Baseball Player" (2022). It boggles the mind why Obispo would even consider to include a film like "Showroom" in his filmography. Whether it was to expand his repertoire or just for a quickie paycheck, it will always stick out like a sore thumb.  1/10. 

Review of BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER: Willful and Worthy Women

November 9, 2022

Wakanda was still mourning a major unexpected death when Ramonda returned to the throne as the Queen. As the other countries of the world learned about the powers of Vibranium, they are scouring the planet for any ores found outside Wakanda. One day, the Queen received a visit from Namor, the godlike leader of the Talokan, who can absorb oxygen via his skin underwater and fly with his winged feet.

Learning that it was a US-based scientist who had invented a metal detector for Vibranium, Ramonda sent Dora Milaje general Okoye and scientific genius Princess Shuri to go rescue 19-year old tech whiz named Riri Williams from imminent harm. This adventure led to a cascade of events that included a violent abduction, a daring rescue, a destructive invasion, a successful resurrection with a twist, and a spectacular battle in the mid-Atlantic.

Immediately prominent in this sequel are the strong stories given to its cast of talented black actresses. Angela Bassett as Ramonda, Letitia Wright as Shuri, Danai Gurira as Okoye, and Lupita Nyong'o as Nakia all give powerful performances as their roles were expanded from the original movie. Two new actresses joined their ranks -- Michaela Coel as Aneka, and Dominique Thorne as Riri, both stepping up in their hero game.

The new anti-hero Namor is played by charismatic Mexican actor Tenoch Huerta. The film gave him the full backstory dating back to the 16th century, telling the origin of his incredible abilities, and even how he got his name. Even if Namor was the main antagonist of the film, Huerta played him as a passionate protector of his undersea city of Talokan and the Vibranium that sustained it. His comics name Submariner has yet to come up.

Director Ryan Coogler's production design, costume design and hair and makeup teams outdid themselves in this sequel as they did not only designed Wakanda, but also Talokan. In the comics, Namor's underwater kingdom was called Atlantis, inspired by Greek mythology. However in this new film, Atlantis was given a decidedly Mesoamerican civilzation, from its architecture, costumes, language and culture.

Even though lead actor and original Black Panther Chadwick Boseman had already passed away two years, Marvel made this sequel a beautiful tribute to his memory. From the specially altered opening credits all the way up to the emotionally-rich mid-credits scene, and all the scenes in between with lines that looked back on the life and extolled the nobility of T'Challa, Boseman's spirit was still very much part of this new film. 9/10. 

Amazon Prime: Review of MY POLICEMAN: A Tangled Triangle

November 8, 2022

After they met at the beach in the year 1957, policeman Tom Burgess (Harry Styles) hit if off very well with school teacher Marion Taylor (Emma Corrin). To satisfy Marion's cultural interests, Tom sought the help of his friend, museum director Patrick Hazlewood (David Dawson), who brought them to art exhibits and musical recitals. Even after they were married, Patrick was still very much a part of their lives, which Marion got concerned about.

We first meet the three main characters in their old age in the year 1999. Tom (Linus Roache) and Marion (Gina McKee) had been married for several years. One day, Marion brought their old friend Patrick (Rupert Everett) into their home to nurse him after a stroke left him invalid. Tom did not agree with this, and avoided Patrick the whole time. Marion got to read Patrick's diary and learned more than what she bargained for.

This film is getting a lot of attention because of pop superstar Harry Styles being cast in the lead role as the titular policeman. He did not do badly, as he captured Tom's boyish charms and innocent curiosity down pat. However, his inadequacy in the acting department was rather apparent when he was side by side with his two more critically-acclaimed co-stars, Corrin and Dawson, whose portrayals clearly had more depth than Styles'. 

This film tackled the topic of male homosexuality in the 1950s, when it was considered endangerment of public morals and a crime. The gay love scenes between Tom and Patrick, while blocked with artistic care by director Michael Grandage, seemed to go on longer than necessary, as if that was the only aspect in their relationship. Even in the more permissive present, these scenes may not be an easy watch for more conservative viewers. 

The elderly versions of Tom and Patrick (played by Roache and Everett) did not coincide too well with how they were portrayed as younger men (by Styles and Dawson). They looked and felt like two totally different people. The 1999 scenes were very sad, no doubt, but the emotional connection of those scenes with those of 1957 felt forced and unstable. Ultimately, it was really the character of Marion that held the whole story together.  6/10. 

Netflix: Review of ENOLA HOLMES 2: Fighting for Fairness

November 5, 2022

Because the public during Victorian England was apparently not yet ready to accept a young female detective, Enola Holmes (Millie Bobby Brown) was about to give up on her chosen career. However, one day, a little girl named Bessie (Serranna Su-Ling Bliss) hired Enola to help her find her missing sister Sarah (Hannah Dodd). To start getting evidence, Bessie brought Enola to work in the match factory where she and Sarah worked.

In the factory, Enola found a list of girls who have passed away in the past two years while working in the factory, allegedly victims of typhus. Enola found another match girl Mae (Abbie Hern) dying with knife stuck in her belly in an address she figured out from the words in a love poem she found in Sarah's room. The ruthless Superintendent Grail (David Thewlis) accused Enola of murder and was relentless in his efforts to apprehend her at all costs.

This was the much-awaited sequel of the successful first film about Sherlock Holmes' spirited baby sister Enola which came out on Netflix in 2020. In my review (LINK), I expressed my wish that hopefully the sequel will have more interaction between Enola and Sherlock and this wish was definitely fulfilled, as it would turn out that the two challenging cases Holmes and Holmes were working on would involve the same people. 

Millie Bobby Brown was winsome and feisty as ever in the title role, with all the fourth-wall-breaking that she did to involve the audience in her thought processes. There were scenes here when she would go through how she figured out the meaning of puzzling clues left behind, although admittedly her logic can be rather overreaching. Enola and Tewkesbury trade lessons in fistfighting and waltzing in a romance which Brown's fans will find delightful. 

The setting up of the case actually felt too lengthy, with nothing much happening for the first thirty minutes or so. It was only when we saw familiar characters like brother Sherlock (Henry Cavill) and love interest Tewkesbury (Lewis Partridge) that the pace and energy eventually picked up. Holmes matriarch Eudoria (Helena Bonham-Carter) also got involved in an action-packed prison break scene, along with the loyal Edith (Susie Wokoma).

As with several current Netflix, there was woke casting again in this one, this time involving major characters, which promise to show up more in future installments. Like the previous episode, there was also feminism and political activism once again in this one. This was not only about Enola's independent streak, but also in the character of Sarah Chapman, who turned out to be based on a real-life pioneer of gender and labor equality.  7/10. 

Vivamax: Review of KARA KRUS: Doubling Down and Deadly

November 4, 2022

Adela (Denise Esteban) was the sweet, loving wife of Atty. Marvin Alejandro (Adrian Alandy). She was suffering from post-partum depression and was under medication. However, in secret, she harbored a split persona -- promiscuous party girl Lena. It was by a toss of an old coin that decided who will take over her body. This was a ritual the "sisters" did since their sad childhood (Lhian Gimeno), living with an abusive father (Manu Respall). 

One day, one of Lena's obsessed boytoys, Ramil (Ali Asistio), went to her house disguised as a delivery boy, hoping for a quickie. She was in her Adela mode at first, but in her panic, the Lena mode took over and ended the tryst in violence. Afterwards, Lena wanted to declare her freedom from their arrangement and run off with her boyfriend Jacob (Felix Roco). But this time, Adela fought back to regain control.

Writer Luigi Perez conjured up an insipid theory on how Adela had the Lena persona in her, a story that started in the womb of their mother. Lena started to assert her presence when Adela was in her early teens, and even came up with that preposterous coin toss thing to decide. It was a wonder of time management how Lena can do all her shenanigans when Adela had a husband, infant daughter and her mother (Raquel Montesa) living in the house with her. 

Director GB Sampedro chose a house with several mirrors so that Adela and Lena could have their "conversations." Even in the flashback scenes, their girls first talked with each other via shards of broken glass. However, there can sometimes be confusion on who was talking to who, Adela or Lena, not sure whether this was because of Geoffrey William's unimaginative editing or Garcia's indistinct portrayal of the two. 

This is another Vivamax film that followed its usual sex and violence formula. Once again, there is a mysterious woman who killed men after they have sex, this time dubbed as the "Carino Brutal" serial killer. Once again, the lead character had a split personality disorder, although her psychiatrist (Mickey Ferriols) did not exactly diagnose her as such. It was yet another variation of the overused "Ang Babaeng Nawawala sa Sarili" trope. 1/10. 

Netflix: Review of TO RUSSIA WITH LOVE: Cross-Cultural Clashes

November 2, 2022

Dennis (Gerald Anderson) was the eldest and only single son of Thelma Mercado (Isay Alvarez), the owner of a cocoa farm and restaurant in Dipolog City. One time, their employee Blessie (Malou Crisologo) hosted a pretty Russian tourist Oksana (Elena Kozlova) who used to be her ward when she used to work in Russia as a nanny. When Dennis met Oksana, there was instant attraction as he became her tour guide before she went home.

Upon the prodding of his mother, Dennis surprised Oksana by visiting her in Moscow. Oksana brought her to her opulent family home to meet her father Fyodor (Scott Alexander Young) who turned out to be a wealthy owner of a distillery of a popular vodka brand. As expected, Dennis was on a constant struggle to get on the good side of Fyodor, who was fond of activities Dennis was unfamiliar with, like wrestling, fishing and bear hunting. 

This is the latest film by director Veronica Velasco that brings us to a European destination, after Iceland ("Through Night and Day"), Greenland ("Nuuk") and Faeroe Islands ("A Faraway Land"). Unlike these previous films where the protagonists were both Filipino, this escapade to Russia told love story is a cross-cultural affair. Too bad though that Velasco was not able to make the most of her picturesque locations, as most scenes were shot indoors. 

Comedy was not exactly Anderson's strong point, so his supposedly funny scenes tended to be awkward and guarded. This was evident when he was trying to play "nervous" in front of the intimidating Fyodor and his hulking henchman Maximoff (Simon Szabo). It was also apparent when he tried to in vain to match the effortlessly outrageous comedic style of Kakai Bautista as Georgina, the "gorgeous" Filipina wife of a handsome Russian guy

Manila-based Siberian model Elena Kozlova was still quite obviously a greenhorn in the acting game, still very self-conscious when her acting. Anderson's skills in drama still made their romantic scenes together look very natural. She seemed sincere and earnest in her efforts to gel with her more experienced co-stars and this was delightful of her. She was able to deliver some Filipino lines here, hopefully to hear more in her next movie projects. 

As written by Biboy Calleja, these intra-cultural conflicts were rather predictable, especially when they were in Russia. Fyodor and Maximoff were played as stereotypical Russian men -- unsmiling, unfriendly, aggressive, intimidating. It was only towards the end that a rather comedic surprise about them was revealed. The only thing that was totally unexpected was Anderson's wrestling scene with a wild animal which was executed with realistic danger. 6/10.

Netflix: Mini-Reviews of CABINET OF CURIOSITIES, THE WATCHER, THE MIDNIGHT CLUB: Series for Scares

November 1, 2022

GUILLERMO DEL TORO'S CABINET OF CURIOSITIES

Created by: Guillermo del Toro

This 8-episode horror anthology series was created by Oscar-award winning director Guillermo del Toro for Netflix. Each 1-hour episode was introduced by del Toro himself while taking an item out of the ornate titular cabinet. "Lot 36" and "The Murmuring" were based on short stories written by del Toro himself. The episodes were directed by various filmmakers, most notable among them were Jennifer Kent ("The Babadook"), Ana Lily Amirpour ("A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night") and Catherine Hardwicke ("Twilight'). 

The three best episodes for me were: 1. Ep. 3 "The Autopsy" (by David Prior): F. Murray Abraham played a doctor performing an autopsy on a man parasitized by an alien being.  2. Ep. 2 "The Graveyard Rats" (by Vincenzo Natali): David Hewlett played a grave robber who got deep in debt when rats invaded his territory. 3. Ep. 8 "The Murmuring" (by Jennifer Kent): Essie Davis and Andrew Lincoln play a couple of ornithologists in a strained marriage who stayed in an old haunted house while studying birds in a lonely island. 

The other episodes also had interesting casting choices, like Tim Blake Nelson (in Ep. 1 "Lot 36), Dan Stevens (in Ep. 4 "The Outside), Ben Barnes and Crispin Glover (in Ep. 5 Pickman's Model), Rupert Grint (in Ep. 6 "Dreams in the Witch House"), Peter Weller and Sofia Boutella (in Ep. 7 "The Viewing"). Almost every episode featured a grotesque "monster" (from tentacled demons, to giant rodents, to lotion humanoids, to ugly witches, to meteor creatures), all of which are very typical of projects by del Toro. 7/10. 

THE WATCHER

Created by: Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan

Dean and Nora Brannock (Ben Cannavale and Naomi Watts) decided to leave their home in New York City to move to a beautiful house on 657 Boulevard in suburban Westfield, New Jersey together with their two children. They did not get along with their eccentric neighbors like Pearl (Mia Farrow) and Mo (Margo Martindale) who disagreed with Brannock's modern renovations of the old house. Later, they began receiving a disturbing series of threatening letters from a mysterious person called "The Watcher."

While this was a fascinating 7-episode series to follow because we would all like to know who "The Watcher" was, it was not easy to watch because ALL the characters were unlikable. You could not feel any compassion for the Brannocks's predicament because they were so brash and quarrelsome. Even the local police chief Chamberland (Christopher MacDonald) and particularly realty agent Karen (Jennifer Coolidge) had annoyingly suspicious behavior. After all of the heightened suspense and multiple suspects, to say that the final episode was disappointing is an understatement. 6/10.

THE MIDNIGHT CLUB

Created by: Mike Flanagan and Leah Fong 

Ilonka (Iman Benson) was about to start college when she discovered that she had papillary thyroid carcinoma with lung metastasis. When she was declared terminal despite surgery, radiation and chemo, she decided to spend her final days in a hospice called Brightcliffe Home run by Dr. Georgina Stanton (Heather Langenkamp). There, she joined a group of seven other terminally-ill young adults who gathered to share disturbing stories every midnight. They took a pact that whoever went first should give a sign to the others about the beyond.

With the story of Ilonka and her search for Julia Jayne (a former patient at Brightcliffe who got totally well), each of the 10 episodes included a macabre story being told by the kids to each other. Anya (Ruth Codd) and Natsuki (Aya Furukawa) told very riveting stories which clearly reflected their own experiences of depression. It was interesting to see all the actors also portraying the bizarre characters in the stories. Ilonka's meetings with holistic medicine entrepreneur Shasta (Samantha Sloyan) in the woods led to occult rituals which eventually resulted in predictable outcomes. 7/10.