One evening Alisi (17) climbs a huge tree and won't come down. As evening turns to night, her sanctuary becomes her prison - and her secret is out. Alisi is pregnant to her gay best friend, Mikaele (17), and it's all over Facebook. Mikaele finds Alisi, who blames him for being a blabbermouth, bringing shame to her Christian Pasifika family. Alisi tries to run away, but a search party of younger cousins turns up and texts her oldest brother Terence. Soon her whole familiy is camping out under the tree. As the stars turn and the night gets colder, Alisi must decide whether she will bow to cultural family traditions or find a new path - with or without her family.
The major flaw of the series is that it’s hosted on Netflix and barely makes malicious comments about it despite being focused on the lives of people directly affected by the Capitalist mentality of the OTT corporation.
It only seems to prove that when the company had their backs against the wall and needed an all pleasing, generic movie that had to make up for The Last Jedi, they chose to sacrifice almost everything that made their main protagonist interesting and that made her stand out as the strong female character that a generation of young movie goers was supposed to look up to. Instead, we were left with a Rey that was so much less than she could have been. And I guess that’s the real story of Rey and The Rise of Skywalker; they could have been so much more, but they were just more of the same.
"La Noria" deftly subverts audience expectations as it explores childhood grief, anxieties, and pain. The award-winning short shows us that often our monsters are often sprung from our darkest places.
The Invitation takes a creeping look at two simple premises: reuniting with forgotten friends and new-age spiritualism. Though one seems a bit scarier than the other, the film heightens social awkwardness to a macabre level that puts an uncomfortable look on when the social taboo of grief is put on public display.
A group of criminal animals tries their best to reform themselves into good citizens to avoid serving time in prison.
Eternals is an interesting concept and unique visuals, but slow pacing and rushed character development suggests it should have been a mini-series.
