'Pain Hustlers' (2023): An Opioid Crisis
What starts off as a success story for a single mother living below the poverty line, slowly begins to weave itself into a tangled web of greed, guilt, and destruction.

"holding hands with the moon" is a celebration of a not-so-common-coming-of-age inspired by isolation during the pandemic and the consequential anxiety that came with it. Terra is not only learning to live with her anxiety, but also appreciating all of the little things in life that bring her immense joy and her unwavering (and borderline obsessive) love for the moon. Through it all though, magic is never too far away from Terra’s familiar life.
What starts off as a success story for a single mother living below the poverty line, slowly begins to weave itself into a tangled web of greed, guilt, and destruction.
Seriously, and this is coming from someone who was extremely skeptical before giving it a watch. I assumed the show would be painfully boring, but one of the show's strongest qualities is you needn't know anything about the lore to get invested in it.
Him is visually stunning—all concrete cathedrals and bone-rattling impact shots that look like a nightmare highlight reel. Marlon Wayans is magnetic as this legendary quarterback who's basically selling salvation with a smile that never quite reaches his eyes. But the story keeps running in circles: more tests, more cryptic pep talks, more ritualistic drills. The sports-as-religion metaphor beats you over the head when subtlety would've been more effective. The middle drags, and that finale chooses spectacle over substance. It's undeniably stylish, but left me cold. Also worth noting: despite the Monkeypaw connection, this isn't actually a Jordan Peele film—he didn't write or direct.
One Christmas Eve, after a sudden snowstorm, a group of teenagers will discover how their lives will change forever.
"The Old Guard" doesn't break ground, but it sure does bust boredom and fictional heads as an entertaining action romp on Netflix.
Rather than focusing on the bleak, cynical aspects of life post-pandemic, the focus is optimistic and hopeful.