Whilst there are still a hundred movie reviews here I will keep available, the new home for I Quote Myself is on Substack. If you enjoy my shenanigans here, they will continue there, because IQM will never die, it just changes places. Thank you for your support.
Born in 1855, Lidia Poët was inscribed in the roll of lawyers in Turin in 1883. The office of the procuratore generale (attorney general) was not pleased, and filed a complaint leading to Poë being removed as women were forbidden by law to become a lawyer. (She is not, as you may suspect, a “poet.”)
Thus began the struggles of Lidia Poët, who eventually overcame many obstacles to become the first woman lawyer in Italy. This Italian six-episode series from Netflix is “based on a true story,” although that is about all the show got from history.
Italy is one of the two countries I most wanted to visit (the other is Ireland). It is the home of buttery sunshine beaming down on afternoons spent in the best roadsters in the world, roaming far and wide to enjoy the most beautiful women and the most delectable food in the universe.
Or so I am told by the movie business. This show is subtitled, which was no problem for me, as I can listen to Italians speaking Italian all day. It is a beautiful language, and has enough similarities to the Spanish I know well that I can easily keep up.
Playing the key role of Lidia is Matilda De Angelis. She has been the lead in several Italian films, but you may know her from the HBO series The Undoing or the Netflix film Rose Island. Here she carries herself like an aristocrat, using her icy stare to withstand the misogyny thrown in her direction.
De Angelis is wonderful here, expressing her concerns and frustrations with family and her few real friends. Her brother, played by Pier Luigi Pasino, is an established lawyer, and he pleads with Lidia over and over again to stay out of the courtroom and stop investigating cases, even though he knows she will never listen. Lidia is doggedly persistent, with brilliant skills of observation and deduction which cannot be contained.
Lidia wants to get fingerprints for one case, which most people have never heard of as they are a recent invention in this time. She also requests a volumetric glove, which we see operating as a primitive lie detector. Another scientific breakthrough. I could find no evidence of this happening in real life, but these additions help describe Lidia’s progressive technique.
There is some current music used in montages (and the show ends with a song by Florence + The Machine), but this is not as jarring as it has been in some of these stories of late (Dickinson, for example.) My favorite of these scenes is Lidia in her full-length skirt struggling to ride a bicycle and scandalizing all of Turin with a smile on her face.
As you can see from the picture above, Lidia wears outfits which are nothing but glorious embroidered tailored big shouldered masterpieces. She wears about six different ensembles every day, which is not historical, but it’s beautiful to watch.
I am a fan of legal dramas, and I’ve seen many stories “based on a true story” about women overcoming misogyny, and most are fantasized, but they tell important stories for this struggle that sadly is ongoing today.
I enjoyed every episode of this series. I would happily watch the delightful Matilda De Angelis in her future endeavors, and I’ll be looking for more Italian fare on Netflix while I dream of pasta and Ferraris.
I just watched the S1E1 show of the 2004 Battlestar Galactica, called “33.” I confirm that it is one of the best television episodes I’ve ever seen.
I had forgotten how much “shaky cam” is being used. There is no scene that does not involve the camera moving, even if it’s slightly so. For this episode, that direction is perfect.
So many plot elements are here: Helo on Caprica killing Centurions and meeting new Sixes and Eights; Baltar and Six heatedly arguing about God; Billy and the President with their running count of survivors; two Viper pilots shoot down a civilian ship.
It’s all so perfect. The strain of the crew is evident in all their faces. In the first half of the episode, Kara makes a joke about Boomer, saying “that’s because she’s a Cylon.”
“Drink the ooze! Did you drink the ooze?”
When I started reviewing movies on my blog again, I decided not to review Marvel movies. I have been a fan of the Marvel comics for over sixty years, so I am not able to be objective in any real way.
However, whatever. Here we go. (There Will Be Spoilers.) I’ll be rating parts of the movie individually, because frankly, it doesn’t work together all that well. When you see a Marvel movie, you have a Bingo card, and as long as you can check off enough spaces, you win.
The Quantum Realm: Another reviewer said that the setting of the movie was just too busy, distracting, and tiresome to look at. I felt like the pacing of the movie was slow, and maybe it was just the Quantum Realm mesmerizing me into sleepiness. It’s silly that this place doesn’t have a look of its own. It’s just a mess of leftover cosmology parts, like a box of used LEGO bricks. ⭐
Kang, the One in This Movie: If you’ve done your Loki TV show homework, you already know that there are lots of Kangs. Maybe one dies in this movie, but like Captain Cockroach once said, “Crunch all you want, I’ll make more.” Johnathan Majors has made this character a delight in all his appearances so far. Here, he has the calm demeanor and dramatic pauses of any megalomaniac arch-villain, and he’s wonderful to watch. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Hank and Janet (and the Ant Cavalry): I agree that Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer are criminally underused in this movie, but the parts they are given they completely enhabit and I love them both. ⭐⭐⭐(The Ants had to save the movie, because you think they’re dumb, but Hank is always right. Still, ⭐⭐)
M.O.D.O.K: If you haven’t seen the MODOK TV show, just believe me when I say MODOK is some dumb thing that some brain-addled writer at Marvel came up with, and his story arc here is good enough for me. Connecting the dots with Darren Cross was cool, and casting Corey Stoll again for the fat face was a quality move. He redeems himself and then dies, and it doesn’t get better than that. Also, MODOK’s tiny butt looked amazing (see the movie again, it’s worth it.) ⭐⭐⭐
Lord Krylar: A blink-and-you’ll-miss-it performance from Bill Murray provides closure by his death caused by an enlarged version of something he just ate. Nice to see Bill getting work at his age. Also good that Lord Krylar died, because… what a doofus character.⭐⭐⭐
Cassie Lang: The third actress to portray Scott Lang’s daughter is Kathryn Newton. Her big eyes and precocious smart-ass dialog I found very endearing . She got her own super suit, and became a Marvel Superhero(TM) in every way, except that she doesn’t have a “codename.” In the comics she was known as Stature ⭐and Stinger ⭐⭐⭐and she’ll probably be the latter because that’s what her suit here looks like. I’d have a big crush on Kathryn except that I’m old and that is way creepy. But I can’t wait to see her in Young Avengers. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
What do I think of Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania as a whole? Even though I found it kinda boring, I liked the character interaction and the strong family vibe that you always get from a Marvel movie. My Bingo card was filled when I realized that “Quantumania” includes the words “ant” and “man.” Brilliant.
It’s one of those movies that the more I think about it afterwards, the more I like it. By the way, writer Jeff Loveness also wrote six episodes of Rick & Morty, so he was quite facile with multiverses and timelines and other such things. But I digress.
“Baskin Robbins always finds out.”
You were scrolling through some streaming service and found this movie title. What? What was that again? Did what? My curiosity was piqued when I saw that it stars Sam Elliott.
Robert D. Krzykowski is the writer and director (first time) of this movie, and it reminded more than anything of Jeanne Dielman. The genre has been labeled “slow cinema.” What actor would be better at slow cinema than Elliott? None whatsoever.
I don’t want to ruin the plot, and to be honest, there isn’t much plot to ruin. To answer your questions: he does, and then he does. I can’t recommend this movie to anyone but a die-hard Sam Elliott fan.
Anne Rice’s story of Louis de Pointe du Lac and his relationship with the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt is visited here once again. The novel certainly begs more than just the two hours of a film, and is well-suited to an episodic television series.
Jacob Anderson (Grey Worm of Game of Thrones) is Louis, with an enthralling performance, and a charismatic presence. Anderson is excellent both as modern-day Louis, revealing his story to Daniel Molloy, the interviewer of the title (played by Eric Bogosian), and in flashbacks as a black man in the early 1900s.
Rice’s novel follows a similar format, but its backstory takes place in the 1700s. Also this Louis is black, and we learn about his struggles as a man of color in the society of New Orleans. The rest of the supporting cast include other actors of color, and the update is welcome.
Sam Reid plays Lestat, and he is equal parts smooth-talking Frenchman and wild, untamed beast of the night. The violence is sudden and quite graphic. The conversations in-between are a joy to watch.
The show provides everything any vampire fan could want: erudite dialog, gorgeous production values, and tragic figures with immense powers who still find things to brood about. Some scenery is chewed, but over the top is the only way to tell a supernatural story like this.
This show is part of the “Anne Rice Immortal Universe,” meaning that AMC will make shows of other novels of hers, starting with the Mayfair Witches. I hope that all the new productions will have done such a wonderful job at updating and improving on Rice’s work, and creating characters that still seem they could have jumped out of her printed pages.
The movie that Federico Fellini made after his eighth movie, 8½, is a surrealistic fantasy romp about a movie director hallucinating about past and future and weird things happening.
At least, that’s about the best way to sum it up. I understand that in 1963 it was avant-garde and, as a result, very influential on other filmmakers. Many directors cite 8½ as one of their most favorite influences.
8½ is a film about making a film, and that work in progress is the film that you are watching. It is a film that expands the envelope of things possible, in a way not seen before. Showing the audience–and other filmmakers–something interesting that can happen only in film is worthwhile and noteworthy.
It’s not unusual to find boring something that is/was avant-garde. I recommend 8½ only to scholars of filmmaking who are wondering what all the fuss it about.
I have loved every one of William Gibson’s novels, and The Peripheral is no exception. When this book first came out, I had to decide whether I wanted to continue my hardback collection, or go digital. I decided to go digital. I had trouble reading the Kindle version, and bought the book anyway. There is certainly a parable there about digital vs. analog, but I’m not ready to elucidate that yet. Working on it. But I digress.
Gibson writes about the future and/or near future, and his grasp of pop culture and dialog is so good, he writes as if you already know this stuff. Trust me, you don’t, because he just invented it. This style can be off-putting, but give him the reins and jump in, it’s a hell of a ride.
The TV show is no different. You’ll need a few episodes to get some plot under your feet, but a limited TV series is the best way to adapt a complicated novel.
Flynne Fisher (Chloë Grace Moretz) and her brother have been playtesters for an immersive new VR gaming experience. He brings her a new game to try, but she slowly figures out that this is much more than a game. It’s a portal to the future of 70 years from now.
The story soon inhabits both the present day and that future version of London. Flynne is your guide as the plot jumps back and forth between two timelines. A number of interesting characters populate both locations. I was thrilled to see Inspector Ainsley Lowbeer appear in Future London; played by Alexandra Billings, Lowbeer ramps up the tension and threat as you, along with Flynne, have to decide if she is friend or foe.
Any explanation of the story for the first season’s eight episodes would be lacking here. Finding out what’s going on and who the good guys are is always a tricky task with a William Gibson story. I love this show, and I can’t wait for more; the second season has just been announced.
I couldn’t sleep at 2:30 this morning, but that’s why I have a notepad in my nightstand. Inspired by the third episode of The Last of Us, I started to make a list of single TV episodes that I remember most. These shows all shocked me in one way or another, often resulting in my jaw on the ground.
If you haven’t seen them, I suggest you do. Most times, you don’t even have to watch the rest of the series. I’ve tried to avoid pilots and series finales, since they have their own special importance. Here are my most memorable, in chronological order.
“It May Look Like a Walnut” – The Dick Van Dyke Show 1963
“The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice” – Moonlighting 1985
“The Last of Newhart” – Newhart 1990
“Beyond Life and Death” – Twin Peaks 1991
“The Contest” – Seinfeld 1992
“Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” – The X-Files 1995
“Hush” – Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 1999
“Two Cathedrals” – The West Wing 2001
“Objects in Space” – Firefly 2002
“Pilot” – Lost 2004
“33” – Battlestar Galactica 2004
“Slap Bet” – How I Met Your Mother 2006
“Blink” – Doctor Who 2007
“Pie-lette” – Pushing Daisies 2007
“The Getaway” – Dexter 2009
“Remedial Chaos Theory” – Community 2011
“The Rains of Castamere” – Game of Thrones 2013
“Michael’s Gambit” – The Good Place 2017
“Long, Long Time” – The Last of Us 2023
To paraphrase a famous emperor, “I have watched the career of Alexandra Daddario with great interest.” In the interest of full disclosure, I report that her statuesque frame, alabaster skin, raven hair, and ice blue eyes have something to do with that.
Since her role as Annabeth Chase in 2010’s Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, I have watched her grow as an actress. Following her ventures into film and television acting, I am sorry to report that she has not improved very much.
Until now! he says, dramatically. In the new AMC series Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches, Daddario plays Rowan Fielding, a neurosurgeon with a complicated past and strange powers she does not understand. Anyway, the point is: She is great in this role! I am seeing a range and depth from the actress I have never before witnessed. I am being serious; this is not a joke. I am happy for her and I hope this leads to better parts.
I am a dyed-in-the-wool Anne Rice vampire fan, and I am thrilled to see another of her tales adapted for the screen. I haven’t read Mayfair Witches, but I imagine it is filled with dense backstory, deep intrigue, and complex characters, which makes it hard to adapt for a screenplay. Reasons why I love Anne Rice’s writing.
I’ve watched the first five episodes, and the narrative is bogged down and the pace is slow. I don’t have any concrete suggestions, but I feel there must be a more engaging way to tell this story. The writers are doing a better job than a rather average film I saw with a similar plot, 2022’s The Invitation. But not much better.
I do recommend the show for Rice fans, and anyone interested in such magical generational mysteries, although I suggest being patient. As for me, I will continue to watch my blue-eyed crush and thrill to every well-performed scene.
i quote myself. 