Escobar512 Reviews

Black Summer (2019–2021)

Season 1 Review, feels real, characters are great, interesting scenarios

[7/10 · 17 July 2021]

I liked season 1 a lot, this show has a certain feeling of immediate action that translates well to how I think things would turn out were a scenario like this to happen in our real life. Particularly the briefness with which characters address each other, everyone knows people can die any second and I loved that they didn't make me sit through tedious talks and viewer hand-grabbing dialogue. Everything is kind of implicit and swift, for me that feels as a blessing but can also be a curse by leaving little to no time to put heavy attention into detail, profoundness to the plot and story building in general.

A thing that I appreciated is the commitment to be blunt about the real colors of violence and abuse that would take place in such a situation. The usage of sex (but most likely women in general) as a form of currency and favor is one that I've personally never seen depicted in other movies like this, I can say the same of how people kill and make quick decisions, take empathy as a secondary measure, or it being just applied to what you feel is "your" group. All this executed with such a rapidness that it could seem like nothing, but it adds to the sense of commonality it imposes on the viewer, utterly terrifying and disgusting, but expected nonetheless.

I'm hoping they reach a better balance between downrightness and world building/attention to detail.

Guava Island (2019)

Great movie compensates for avarage writting with other great elements.

[7/10 · 13 April 2019]

I thought that the writing was pretty much average, but in this case, and knowing Gambino´s work as well as Murai's, I can tell that this is case in which quality of the story can be overshadowed by excellent direction and photography as well as an ambitious way to merge Gambino's music with the story itself.

It puts you in a pretty relaxing tropical vibe throughout all 55 minutes of runtime (which I find an excellent format to make movie, I would like to see more short films like this), and of course Gambino's always quirky characters makes you rapidly fall for him and his dreams.

Some things were predictable in the way the story was told, others didn't make much sense to me, but I find it to be an entertaining movie that brings you some joy and offers you a refreshing experience in the greater scheme of cinema.

Love, Death & Robots: Sonnie's Edge (2019) Season 1, Episode 1

Awful story

[4/10 · 8 April 2019]

The animation was cool, although I don't really appreciate those half real half cartoony human models.

The story, wow, it was really bad. It felt like and angry teenage girl writing her approach on violence toward woman. The character feels really masculine, violent, hateful, lustful, kind of protective with the blonde girl. I thought it could be just a good intention, considering the point trying to being made, but then I realized writers were all men and it stroke me, it was just badly written. The twist at the end was kind of "meh", inventive but not surprising. To execute twists in narrative in shorts it's a really hard task, because it is really good or else really bad.

Good animation, bad approach to sci-fi and a forced masculine female characters that really tries to be badass but doesn't succeed.

Mirage (2018)

Cliché and overused thematic

[4/10 · 24 March 2019]

The time travel is getting a little bit old. I appreciate the force of production that we can see now a days to recreate different times in history and blablabla, but this parallel reality thing is getting out of hand, specially when is executed in this way, with awful plot-twits, is not you could see them coming, but when they do happen you get this "really? thats it?" feeling, maybe it's the fact that this movie is invested in romance but not quite to call it a main theme, it's just there as a tool o justification of the character actions and I dont like that, especially cause it feel weirdly acted and some lines feel forced. (I saw it in spanish as it is my main language). Anyways, just an opinion.

Its great to see international directors come out and do stuff on netflix, but this I dont like at all.

Stop Making Sense (1984)

Weird and comfortable

[9/10 · 2 January 2019]

Talking Heads is a band full of weridos who want to express themselfes in any way they can. And that makes me pretty comfy with myself in general too.