Island of Lost Women (1959)

The trouble with Yara (2021) is that in its attempt to tell the whole story, it struggles to tell a consistently engaging story.

A sweet slice-of-life anime that visualizes all the ways we creatively hide our vulnerabilities from the world.

A dynamic journey of self-acceptance and identity.

Netflix’s Shadow and Bone has a complicated relationship with race. It has a diverse cast, but not without its problems. Based on Leigh Bardugo’s two book series, the show features characters from the Shadow and Bone trilogy, which is very straight and white, and the Six of Crows duology, which is much more diverse. When bringing together a cast and writing about these characters, the team behind the show expanded upon some of the representation missing from the first trilogy, then seemed to take away representation from the duology. Shadow and Bone seems to play a bit of a push and pull game when it comes to portraying diversity onscreen.

The actions that Verity confesses to are tragic.  But the way to prevent those actions isn’t to force the related emotions into the shadows. 

If “Good Time” was a lean exercise in suspense, “Uncut Gems” is an ongoing panic attack. It handcuffs us to an immoral man, made up of selfishness and unreliability. At every point, Adam Sandler connects himself to this idiotic soul, unearthing the misguided opportunism that comes with gambling addiction