Animated favorites return and South Korea delivers a new violent survival thriller ready to be plowed.
FILM
(3/7)The brain-dead Eastern European slaves in "Minions" are less irritating in the "Dumb and Dumber" film series than in their own films, probably because the failed supervillain Gru provokes so many sadistic giggles. In the fourth installment, Gru gets an addition in the form of son Gru Jr, who has decided to make his dad's troubles even worse.
(5/7)An "arthouse"-conscious audience will certainly remember "120 Beats Per Minute" – the Moroccan-French director Robin Campillo's HIV activist drama from 1990s Paris. A film that was praised to the skies. His new "Red Island" takes place on a French military base in 1970s Madagascar. A time and period when post-colonial tensions vibrated in the air. The partially biographical story has received a slightly weaker reception than Campillo's previous works, but also has devoted fans.
(5/7)The Swedish debut director Niclas Larsson has gathered an impressive star-studded ensemble with Ewan McGregor, Lara Flynn Boyle, and Taylor Russell in his film adaptation of Jerker Virdborg's novel. A slightly surreal chamber play about a matriarch who follows her adult children to a furniture store and suddenly refuses to leave the couch she sat on. The film had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival and has divided both the audience and critics.
TV/STREAMING
(3/7, Netflix)Documentary series with a lot of pre-talk about a sperm donor whose fertilization "philanthropy" has resulted in children for hundreds of families.
(3/7, Disney+)The beloved children's program from Australia was threatened with shutdown but instead makes a comeback in an extremely short format with episodes between one and three minutes, but with the unsentimental subtlety intact.
(4/7, Skyshowtime)Fleshed-out thriller series about sex buyers who get deceived and become victims of organ thieves. But after they are lured to a hotel, an earthquake hits the building. The main characters get trapped in the rubble with both organ thieves and buyers and must fight to survive. South Korea's "soft power" with well-produced TV series and socially critical elements continues towards a pop cultural world domination.
