Primarily, the women seemed to critique Ms. Sutton Stracke, which, since I’ve never been fond of her on the show, gave me great satisfaction. The first dinner in St. Lucia was particularly enlightening, as we observed Sutton echoing the ladies’ remarks as they were being made.
Following the screening of “No Other Land” at O Cinema, I advocated for the termination of their lease and an immediate halt to approximately $40,000 in city funding. I deemed the film a biased one-sided propaganda that unfairly targets Jewish people, which contradicts the values we uphold as a city and its residents.
The finale of Adolescence makes sense because it’s something we should have anticipated. As parents, there are moments when our children do or say things that make us realize, “Oh, I see now, that was my fault.” (Like the first time your child uses inappropriate language in public.) We understand the potential for mistakes as parents, but we’re often juggling so many responsibilities – work, cooking, cleaning, running errands, managing relationships, and more. Every parent is striving to do their best, even if they aren’t always succeeding. They are aware of their goal.
This week’s viewing of “The White Lotus” unveiled a fresh, vacant-eyed reaction shot starring Walton Goggins as Rick, during his conversation with Frank – an unexpected appearance by Sam Rockwell. As Frank expounded on his spiritual voyage in Thailand and its rather unusual genesis, one might say.
On March 18, amidst clashes between pro-Israel and pro-Palestine demonstrators outside an event, Gal Gadot was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In footage shared on social media, a protester supporting Palestine took an Israeli flag from another supporter and fled, pursued by law enforcement. The nearby announcer mentioned that the … Read more
In this installment, the entire story unfolds within a children’s psychiatric center, where the atmosphere is simultaneously vibrant and melancholic. The facility houses boys who have been injured, such as one with radiator burns screaming in distress. The staff appear indifferent towards their jobs they claim to despise, and security personnel are always present. However, an independent psychologist named Briony (played by Erin Doherty) manages to slip Jamie a hot chocolate with sprinkles and half a sandwich during their session, which takes place in a room filled with books, games, and computers. Despite the seemingly comfortable surroundings, for a troubled teenager like Jamie, losing control can only lead to more hardship, as is emphasized later in the narrative.
Wouldn’t I rather steer clear of a high school now, brimming with teens? Back in the ’90s, it was already a challenge with its parties, social groups, and assorted drama. But today, with smartphones, social media, gossip, and the pressure to comment on every Story… It’s hard to imagine something more unappealing.
The high stress of executing the “oner” needs to mirror the tone of the scenes — or the complete films and episodes — themselves, so the one-take formula is typically used to exaggerate tense circumstances. That’s not to say all are like that, but increasingly, this is the one formal trick that makes any scene more stressful than it ought to be, with the audience distracted and left wondering if the show can really pull it off. In Adolescence, the four-episode limited series created by His Dark Materials’s Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham (who also stars), 13-year-old Jamie (Owen Cooper) is accused of murdering one of his classmates, and each episode was filmed in a single take — a process explored in this Twitter thread — from a scene as straightforward as two characters speaking in a row to some complicated aerial drone magic. Graham, who plays Jamie’s father, was quite familiar with this format, having starred in Boiling Point, a feature-length one-shot film about a chef, as well as its spinoff TV series (made in a few shots but not many). While Boiling Point might have pushed the possibilities for just how manic a single take could be, Adolescence opts to use the technique for a greater range of emotional realities. Rather than each episode being filled with heart-pounding action, the series establishes itself with a frantic, stressful raid on Jamie’s house and his subsequent arrest, then dissolves into a crime show that’s much more meticulous and robust beyond the thrills at the top.
The only thing that I find even a little upsetting about this Goggins confluence is the sudden realization that it has been a possibility all along, this idea of filling up our HBO Sunday night with shows that feature Walton Goggins in some way. Think of what he could have done with a season of recurring guest spots on The Sopranos and Entourage in the incredibly weird handful of years when those two shows aired back-to-back. Or Westworld and Veep. Or Succession and Barry. I could keep putting hypothetical Goggins characters into HBO Sunday night shows for hours. Game of Thrones is probably my favorite, but only on the condition he kept his Southern accent and it was never addressed; I thought about this for two seconds and immediately heard him say, “Well now, Daenerys, it appears you got yourself some dragons.” Now you’re hearing it, too. This is the power of Goggins.
What you hope you never, ever, ever have to worry about is the subject of Netflix’s new series, Adolescence. The four-part British crime drama tells the (fictional) story of Jamie Miller, a 13-year-old suburban boy who’s ripped from bed in the morning, accused of murdering a classmate. Created by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham — who also plays Jamie’s dad, Eddie — the show is an emotional gut punch, aided by the fact that each episode is shot in real time in one take.