Streaming: "Heartstopper" Delivers An Equally Strong Season Two

by Christopher James

Who’s ready to get emotional? Season one of Heartstopper won raves for bringing to life the acclaimed graphic novels, which present a coming-of-age queer love story between the nerdy and shy Charlie Spring (Joe Locke) and the sensitive jock Nick Nelson (Kit Connor). Alice Oseman’s tale does a wonderful job of capturing the butterflies and emotions of falling in love for the first time, while centering it within the anxieties of coming out and defining one’s sexuality. Though it's meant to appeal to a teen audience, Heartstopper excels at placing adults back in their teenage years, where every text and fleeting glance can feel like an earth-shattering event.

Season two has not lost any of the magic. In so many ways, it examines what happens after “happily ever after” in teen worlds. Charlie got the guy that he wanted, but anxieties and hangups don’t vanish after one triumph. The show’s lovely, delicate touch never gets in the way of tackling hard topics in a realistic manner. Thus, season two is just as deep, emotional and swoon-worthy as its predecessor...

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Cannes: Nanni Moretti's "A Brighter Tomorrow"

Elisa Giudici reporting from Cannes...

It is not easy being coherent with your work when you have as strong moral compass as Nanni Moretti. The Italian director and Palm d’Or winner (The Son's Room, 2001) has built a career around his political beliefs and precise reading of reality. In Moretti’s world, everything is black or white, with some Communist Red. Compromising is surrendering to the enemy.

His new picture Il sol dell’avvenire  (English title: A Brighter Tomorrow) is a tale of how difficult it is to be alive in a world in which everything you love and believe in is either dying or betraying you. It is a movie within a movie with a half dozen other movies tied up in it (for me, a certain Tarantino picture came to mind but more on that later). After the disappointing Tre Piani, Moretti returns to what he does best: playing a fictional version of himself on screen, and letting the mask slip when necessary to reveal his pain...

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Streaming: Dark Comedy "Beef" Serves Grade-A Entertainment

By Christopher James

The littlest things can make a person snap. Minor inconveniences can pile up into a mountain of indignation, such as something being missing at the store or a garbage bag breaking when taking the trash out.

The two sides of Netflix’s pitch black comedy Beef have built quite an impressive mountain of rage, a volcano about to erupt at any second. Every business plan that Danny (Steven Yeun) comes up with has been destined for failure. He’s trying to provide for his parents but every get rich quick scheme fails and sets him further into a hole. While Danny thinks success will bring happiness, Amy (Ali Wong) proves that wealth and power doesn’t guarantee it...

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Review: Adam Sandler's SAG-nominated ‘Hustle’

By Abe Friedtanzer

Twenty long years ago, popular comedian Adam Sandler was in serious awards conversation for the first time for his dramatic collaboration with Paul Thomas Anderson in Punch-Drunk Love. Three years ago, a handful of prominent citations and an Independent Spirit Award for Uncut Gems looked like it might finally help him breakthrough to a first Oscar nomination (it did not). Now, Sandler is somewhat unexpectedly making an awards play (sports reference?) again thanks to a surprise SAG nomination for his basketball drama Hustle, which is streaming on Netflix.

Sandler stars as Stanley Sugerman, a scout for the Philadelphia 76ers who becomes tired of missing his daughter’s birthdays each year while he’s traveling throughout Europe or somewhere else in search of the next great talent...

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Awards Season Catchup: "Blonde" on Netflix

By Abe Friedtanzer

It’s hard to wait to watch a film months after its release and not be at least somewhat affected by what the public thinks about it. To say that the Marilyn Monroe biopic Blonde has not received favorable mentions is an understatement. Still everyone has opinions so it seemed possible that there might be something worthwhile about it, like Ana de Armas’ Golden Globe-nominated performance or the Oscar-shortlisted makeup and hairstyling. Seeing the NC-17 rating and the daunting 2-hour-and-47-minute runtime at the start of the film sets up certain expectations, and, somehow, this film still manages to surprise, and not in a good way.

Blonde opens in black-and-white on a young Norma Jeane Mortensen (Lily Fisher) and her mother Gladys (Julianne Nicholson), who shows Norma a photo of a celebrity she claims is her father. Gladys quickly descends into a manic state, driving her young daughter straight towards a fire while everyone else is running the other way...

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