Sneha Jaiswal's Blog, page 149

Brie Larson Ignites ‘Lessons in Chemistry’ Trailer

“Politics don’t belong in the kitchen. A man wants his wife to make him a drink after a long day at work”

“Why do you assume that his day was longer than hers? Why don’t you make the drink?”

Burn!

That’s already our favorite dialogue from the “Lessons in Chemistry” trailer starring Brie Larson. Based on the novel of the same name by Bonnie Garmus, the series stars Brie Larson as the protagonist, Elizabeth Zott, who dreams of becoming a chemist. However, her ambitions are temporarily put on hold when she becomes pregnant and is subsequently fired from her lab position. Instead of succumbing to despair, Elizabeth discovers her calling in a cooking show, reaching out to a broader audience of women than she ever could have as a chemist working in a male-dominated field.

The trailer for “Lessons in Chemistry” is enhanced by powerful, dramatic music and is filled with intrigue. Brie Larson effectively embodies the fiercely independent character of Zott, who fearlessly speaks her mind in front of powerful men who hold traditionally sexist views about women. Created by Lee Eisenberg, a producer known for his work on “The Office,” the hit mockumentary series “Lessons For Chemistry” serves up a delightful slice of 1960s nostalgia, featuring cooking lessons, female friendships, and feminism as its central themes.

Spanning eight episodes, the series will be available on Apple TV on October 13. You can watch the trailer below.

Love Class 2 Series Review – Rehashed Semester

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Unlike its romantic title, “Love Class 2” has a dark twisted opening scene, with a student witnessing a man jump off a building during the night. No further explanations are given and the scene shifts to a pleasant summer morning, where two friends are relaxing on their campus and wondering what they should have for lunch. And that’s really the essence of this Korean campus series, which follows the blooming romance between three different couples. It is mostly light in nature, but interspersed with some serious themes in between.

J-Min plays the artistic Lee Hyun, who signs up for a subject dubbed as “Love Class” when he finds out that a senior he has been looking for is also enrolled in it. Kim Yong Seok plays the mysterious senior Kim An, who is reclusive and doesn’t interact with anybody due to strange rumours about him being a criminal. However, Lee Hyun relentlessly pursues Kim An. On the other hand, Lee’s shy friend Min Woo (Woo Hyo Won) has a hopeless crush on the popular Ma Roo (Lee Kwang Hee), who is blissfully unaware of Min Woo’s feelings. As for the third pair, An Jeong Gyun portrays the confident, flirty student Joo Hyuk, who unabashedly asks his junior professor, Sung Min (Jung Woo Jae), out on a date. Even though the two go out for drinks, the student-professor dynamic complicates a potential romance between the two. How these three different pairs navigate their feelings and the challenges in their personal lives forms the crux of the show.

The cinematography of “Love Class 2” was on the gloomier side for a college romance show and the production team makes some rookie mistakes which were just hilarious. For example, in episode six, the editing team forgot to crop out their audio equipment in a scene featuring Lee Hyun and Kin An and it was very distracting to see the mic hanging above them. The same mistake occurs again in a later episode, where you can spot the audio equipment on top of your screen. At least these were two instances where the errors were blatantly visible to me. It is bizarre how nobody spotted the equipment before exporting the final cut of the series.

Regarding the storytelling, this sequel feels like a rehash of “Love Class,” with the creators mostly sticking to well-worn tropes. For example, the subplot where Min Woo agrees to fake-date a girl to make Ma Roo jealous is rather clichéd. Woo Hyo Won convincingly portrays Min Woo, but the character is a little creepy, especially due to a scene where he kisses a sleeping Ma Roo, while the two are still just friends. Despite his intense feelings for Ma Roo, Min Woo chooses to be passive-aggressive with his emotions, instead of being more upfront. The writers of the show try to make this look cute, but depending on who is watching, it could also seem problematic.

The student-professor plot featuring An Jeong Gyun and Jung Woo Jae is quite amusing and the creators try to address the problems that come with such an unconventional relationship. Joon Woo Jae is comically cute as the confused professor Sung Min, whose fears and confusion over being pursed by a student are genuine. They have the most fast-paced relationship on the show, but despite having seemingly straightforward personalities, the lack of communication between the two was kind of frustrating.

J-Min and Kim Yong Seok have the most intriguing plotline as Lee Hyun and Kim An, with mystery over Kim An’s past. J-Min is bunny-like adorable as a junior student and he does his best to get Kim An to open up, without being too intrusive, rude or disrespectful. However, with three couples and ten episodes, the series again doesn’t have to time to flesh out all stories properly, especially the one with Kim An. The revelation towards the end of the series about what really transpired with him was rather underwhelming and flat.

Everybody’s problems are magically resolved by episode 9 itself, so the last episode was like a special celebratory edition. The climactic episode reminded me Korean dating reality show “His Man“, with all the characters going on a trip together, where they camp and play games together and just have a good time. So, the ending for “Love Class 2” was very “feel-good” and sweet. Despite its rushed and oftentimes cliched portrayals of relationships, it’s an entertaining one-time-watch.

Rating: 6 on 10.

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Earwig and the Witch – Quick Movie Review

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

It has taken me a while to finally muster up the will to watch “Earwig and the Witch,” since, like most Studio Ghibli fans, I found the trailer to be lackluster. However, even though I started streaming the film with a lot of bias in mind, the first half was surprisingly enjoyable!

Based on the children’s novel of the same name by Diana Wynne Jones, the 2020 animated movie directed by Goro Miyazaki begins with a weird blue-haired witch leaving a baby named Earwig in front of an orphanage. Consequently, little Earwig grows into a spunky little troublemaker who is everybody’s favorite and loves her life at the orphanage. But when she is adopted by a mean intimidating witch-wizard couple Bella Yaga and Mr Jenkins, Earwig does her best to win them over and learn some magic herself.

The computer generated animation obviously lacks the charm and warmth of the usual Studio Ghibli creations, but it’s decent enough for a children’s film. I really enjoyed watching one of the initial scenes of Earwig and her friends running around in a cemetery dressed up like ghosts. It reminded me of my boarding school days, where the favorite pastime for us kids was to swap scary tales and stir up trouble. However, a lot of scenes were too plastic and plain, like an AI has generated all of it. It’s Earwig’s patient personality that kept me invested in the tale, she isn’t the usual tantrum throwing little brat who is always up to no good. While she does indulge in some mischievous behavior, she also works hard for Bella Yaga, hoping to learn some tricks of the trade in return.

The second-half of the film moves far too slowly, with little progress in Earwig’s adventures with magic, although she does start to like Bella Yaga and Mr Jenkins a little. A few brief flashbacks that were inserted in the runtime to give some insights into the child’s family history, but those scenes leave viewers with far more questions than answers. For example, Earwig’s mother is shown to be a lead vocalist in a band, but she suddenly stops playing and then disappears. Adult viewers can still guess what might have happened with the young woman, but since it’s targeted at pre-teen viewers, the plot can be very confusing for kids. Music is a big theme in the story, however the background score was a letdown. All the songs are all extremely generic, forgettable and sound like they are from a wannabe cover band.

The most disappointing about “Earwig and the Witch” is that is just suddenly and abruptly ends, leaving viewers feeling like they’ve only seen half the story. What happened to Earwig’s mother? We don’t really get to know. Maybe Goro Miyazaki and team were hoping to make a sequel if “Earwig and the Witch” did well, which is why they didn’t give viewers a concrete ending and that’s a gamble that really did not pay off. I would actually watch a sequel, if one ever gets made in the future, because “Earwig and the Witch” does have some fun characters, an endearing protagonist, and even with an interesting story, it’s just not executed too well.

Rating: 6 on 10. You can stream the film on Netflix.

5 Anime Titles to Watch by Shinji Ishihira, the director of ‘Sasaki to Miyano’

Shinji Ishihira is a Japanese anime director with an interesting body of work spanning various genres, including the popular 2022 BL series “Sasaki to Miyano,” now available for streaming on Netflix. He embarked on his anime directing career with “Ichi the Killer: Episode 0” in 2002, a 46-minute prequel to “Ichi the Killer” (2001), tracing the origin story of the protagonist, a serial killer. If you’d like to explore some must-watch anime by this director, here’s a list of five titles you might want to consider checking out.

Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy (2021) – Based on the Japanese light novel series written by Kei Azumi and illustrated by Mitsuaki Matsumoto, this anime series packs in a lot of cliches but is a fun fantasy ride that follows Makoto Misumi, a high school student who gets transported into a different world with some classmate & they are all bestowed with special powers. Makoto however is disappointed with his new power, but as he navigates the new world, he learns his weak skill has the potential to be incredibly powerful.Fairy Tail (2009-2019): Ishihira directed several seasons of this popular anime series, which is based on the manga of the same name by Hiro Mashima. “Fairy Tail” follows the adventures of Natsu Dragneel and his friends in the Fairy Tail guild as they take on various magical quests.Log Horizon (2013-2015): Ishihira directed the first two seasons of “Log Horizon,” an anime series set in a virtual reality MMORPG where players find themselves trapped and must adapt to their new reality. While the animation of this series isn’t at par with many other titles of the genre, Log Horizon has some great and diverse supporting characters, along with several plot twists that might just keep you hooked to the show. Super Lovers (2016-17): This is probably the most eyebrow raising title on the list. While it’s also a gay romantic series like “Sasaki & Miyano”, the lead couple are step-brothers, so some viewers might find the basic plot premise uncomfortable. But otherwise, the animation is really good and the story is both complex and comedic, following the journey of two youngsters trying to navigate the tricky waters of family and love.Tokyo Majin (2007): This anime series combines supernatural and martial arts elements as high school students in Tokyo combat dark forces threatening the city. Even though Tokyo Majin is not a fan favorite due to its slightly chaotic plot execution, it does have interesting characters and a lot of action-packed scenes.

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The Fall of the House of Usher Trailer Thrills Flanagan Fans

Most horror fans hold Edgar Allan Poe in high regard, and his Gothic tale, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” continues to be a wellspring of inspiration for creatives. Netflix has just unveiled the trailer for Mike Flanagan’s interpretation of this classic horror story, soon to be available as a series.

Flanagan, already acclaimed among horror enthusiasts for his 2018 Netflix horror hit “The Haunting of Hill House” (loosely based on Shirley Jackson’s novel), has brought back familiar faces from the series, including Carla Gugino, Kate Siegel, Henry Thomas, and Rahul Kohli. In “The Fall of the House of Usher,” these actors assume entirely different roles, much to the delight of Flanagan’s devoted following. Willa Fitzgerald and Zach Gilford take on the roles of the younger versions of siblings Madeline Usher and Roderick Usher. While the trailer doesn’t divulge much, it hints at the Usher family being haunted by a mysterious young woman, who terrorizes them over old secrets.

Infused with the customary Gothic horror elements, the trailer effectively establishes a dark and enigmatic atmosphere designed to captivate fans of the genre. Carla Gugino’s portrayal of one of the supernatural characters in the tale is creepy as hell. Though it might have been better if the trailer had left some of the “ghosts” shrouded in mystery. Regardless, it still succeeds in piquing your curiosity!

The Fall of the House of Usher will be available to stream on Netflix on October 12. Watch the trailer below.

Embroideries Review – Women Spill Lots of Tea

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Insta | FB | GoodReads)

There are few pleasures in life that come close to sipping your evening tea/coffee and conversing with the women in your life about everything under the sun. Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel “Embroideries” is all about a day spent gossiping and swapping stories with her grandmother, mother, aunts and girlfriends over cups of tea. Just reading it made me want to go back to my last family holiday, where we would all gather chairs and recall family adventures. Like the time a bunch of my father’s aunts beat up a thief who tried to steal from one of our relative’s house during a wedding.

Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel memoir “Persepolis”, an expansive coming-of-age tale about the author’s growing up years during the Iranian revolution is one of my favorite books. So reading “Embroideries”, which is just under 150 pages long, felt a little like reading a special chapter off “Persepolis”. Satrapi’s stark simple yet expressive black-and-white artwork weave a round-table of engaging conversations that explore the romantic and sexual lives of Iranian women. And their experiences are anything but black-and-white.

From an old aunt recalling how she escaped the clutches of her senior citizen groom as a 13-year-old child bride to the younger Satrapi making everybody in the room swear they won’t repeat a secret that isn’t even hers to share, “Embroideries” is an intimate, wild, funny tapestry of personal desires, mistakes, and regrets. Another woman recalls her catastrophic wedding night, while a different lady opines that it’s better to be ‘the mistress’ than the poor, suffering wife. There is an interesting clash of opinions throughout the book, but they are all interspersed with laughter and warm camaraderie.

While the graphic novel focuses on a group of women discussing only men, it’s important to note that the characters inhabit a patriarchal society. So their lives revolve around their husbands and boyfriends, which is why some of them feel it’s perfectly acceptable to shape themselves according to their partners’ whims and fancies, while others express their desire to escape to the West for greater freedom. Indian/Asian readers like me can relate with anecdotes related to the marriage market in Iran, where women are expected to virgin brides, even though their grooms might be 40-year-old men with several former flames.

While I have rarely had the kind of explicit tête-à-tête featured in “Embroideries” with family members, it’s always liberating to have a group of friends or community, with who you can share whatever comes to your mind. I have my girlfriends for that, just that Marjane Satrapi can count her feisty grandmother and a bunch of aunts as her girlfriends too. After a bunch of funny personal stories are swapped, the graphic novel ends rather abruptly and I really wish it had lasted longer.

Rating: 4 on 5.

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Listen to: 5 Graphic Novels To Read For Their Artwork (Also embedded below)

The Dinner After – Short Film Review

Rating: 3 out of 5.

After dodging multiple invitations, a guilt-stricken Angela finally visits her parents for dinner, but she doesn’t feel welcomed…

Directed by Matty Crawford and written by Paul Carey, the short horror film “The Dinner After” explores themes of grief, guilt, and strained family dynamics. Lucy Doyle portrays Angela, a nervous and anxious character who is clearly unprepared to confront the unresolved issues she has with her parents, yet she reluctantly joins them for dinner, unaware of the nightmare that awaits her.

With a short 12 minute runtime, “The Dinner After” takes on a lot on its plate and yet manages to cook its limited ingredients into a watch-worthy little film. The opening scenes initially give the impression of a social-themed family film, and when Angela’s father mistakenly calls her by the wrong name, it briefly hints at a potential twin-related twist. However, as the conversation escalates into confrontation between Angela and her parents, the true horror theme becomes evident.

The film is shot well, with the creators skillfully foreshadowing the source of Angela’s problems through the house’s decor. However, some viewers might overlook some of the subtler detail. (Hint – pay attention to the photos) Lucy Doyle delivers a gripping performance as the tormented Angela, initially portraying her as a composed young woman knocking on her parents’ door but gradually unraveling as the evening progresses. On the other hand, the older actors, Joanna Brookes and Johan Ramm, who play Angela’s onscreen parents, come across as exaggeratedly theatrical in their delivery. While it’s possible they were instructed to be over the top, a touch more subtlety in their performance could have intensified the film’s creepiness.

“The Dinner After” is a pretty good watch for a 12-minute horror movie made by film students, although it does feel like a small chapter of a larger plot.

You can watch the film on YouTube, it’s also embedded below.

Sasaki to Miyano Anime Series Review

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

The opening setting of Japanese anime series “Sasaki to Miyano” immediately reminded me of the 2016 animated feature film Doukyuusei (Classmates), a coming-of-age romance between two school students with the quintessential “opposites attract” theme. But while Doukyuusei feels more straightforward, serious, personal and nostalgic, “Sasaki to Miyano” is more of a teen romantic comedy, with a generous dose of hilarity.

Based on the Japanese manga series by Shō Harusono, the anime adaptation is produced by Studio Deen and directed by Shinji Ishihara who is known for his work on popular anime series like “Fairy Tail,” “Tokyo Majin,” and “Super Lovers,” among others. Spanning 13 episodes, “Sasaki to Miyano” introduces both its protagonists almost simultaneously: Miyano, a shy and sweet otaku* who loves reading BL manga (short for ‘boys love’), and Sasaki, his senior, an intimidating tall student who instantly feels drawn to his junior. Over the course of their school year, the senior-junior duo bond over manga and their unique friendship blossoms into something more.

The animation by Studio Deen is bright and has a very summer-romance touch to it and there are a lot of very brief nature-themed interludes that serves as smooth transitions to changing scenes. For example, after a conversation between Sasaki and Miyano, the scene will shift for two seconds to show a cat yawning on their school grounds; or if it’s raining, the animation would fleetingly show rain drops on a flower. The creators use a lot of pleasing natural ambient sounds throughout the series, instead of relying on music, and these sounds give a nice laid-back rhythm to the story.

All of the episodes are quite binge-worthy as Sasaki and Miyano’s clashing personalities offer a lot of comic relief and amusing moments. Even though both characters are confused over a lot things, Sasaki is calm, confident and a lot more self-assured about his feelings, while Miyano is an energetic mess with an inconsistent personality. A few of the side-stories involving their friends are also engaging. Miyano’s close friend Tasuku Kuresawa is probably my favorite after the leads, he is nerdy, collected and always supportive of Miyano. And even though Kuresawa is a great friend, he also always puts his girlfriend over friends, that might a be a pro or con, depending on how you see it. Sasaki’s closest friend Jirou Ogasawara also has a girlfriend, and just like Miyano, Jirou’s girl is huge BL fan and the couple is constantly fighting over her preferences and imagination.

“Sasaki to Miyano” relies on some typical BL tropes that might feel dated. For instance, Miyano is portrayed with girlish features, and when Sasaki first meets him, he mistakes Miyano for a girl, leading to a confusing crush on his junior. While the ambiguity around the leads’ sexuality is understandable given their young age, the series disappointingly leans towards the safe “they are only gay for each other” trope. Given that there are a substantial 13 episodes, the anime creators could’ve tweaked the script and spent more time in exploring the characters’ identities. Anyway…

Except for some minor bullying scenes in the beginning, this series is quite wholesome and funny. Almost all of Sasaki and Miyano’s friends are supportive, and some of them help the two navigate their feelings for each other, giving them a gentle nudge or two when needed. I really liked the friendships in this series and the slow-burn romance between the protagonists is obviously an added bonus. “Sasaki to Miyano” manages to evoke a sense of both slowness and rush simultaneously, cutely capturing the chaos, confusion, excitement, nervousness, frustration, and elation that come with teen love.

You can stream the series on Netflix.

(*Otaku – Japanese term for those who obsessively consume Manga and anime.)

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Ghosted Review – Ana De Armas & Chris Evans Click Onscreen

Rating: 3 out of 5.

How can someone who travels so much that they can only have cactus as a house plant, successfully date somebody who is constantly dumped for being too clingy and needy? By being an imaginary couple in a Hollywood romantic action comedy!

Ana De Armas plays top spy Sadie in “Ghosted”, who’s having a bit on an existential crisis due to her lonely life and thinks getting a low maintenance plant might add a homely touch to her cold sad house. She meets the charming farmer Cole Turner at the farmer’s market and the two end up going on a very memorable date. When Sadie doesn’t respond to his texts for days, Cole flies out of the country to surprise Sadie as a ‘grand gesture’, only to get swept up in a dangerous deathly adventure, as Sadie turns out to be a spy wanted by global criminals.  

Directed by Dexter Fletcher and written by Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick and Chris McKenna, “Ghosted” starts off like a nice modern romantic comedy, sweetened by Chris Evans and Ana De Armas’ chemistry as the duo make a cute onscreen pair in “Ghosted”. This is their second action flick together after “The Gray Man” and they also starred in the murder mystery flick “Knives Out”, but it’s the first time they’ve been cast as romantic leads together. Although, it’s easy to see how Scarlett Johansson, who was the first choice for “Ghosted” creators to play Sadie, might’ve made a grittier action lead. Chris Evans has been striving not to become synonymous with his “Captain America” role, and what better way to subvert that image than by portraying an American farmer who requires rescuing from his girlfriend?

The primary conflict in the story is like most spy films coming out these days – the bad guys are trying to get their hands on the code to activate a weapon of mass destruction. Some of the action cinematography and chase sequences are quite impressive, especially a bus chase scene along a treacherous mountain path. A sizable chunk of the movie is set in Pakistan, and a market scene looked more like it was out of a 19th century Arabia than the current time. Both the special effects and the dark dingy tone made the sets look extremely fake; it looks like Western creators still cannot get over picturing developing nations like they are stuck in the bubonic plague era.

The most fun bits about “Ghosted” are the several small cameos made by familiar actors, most of who have been in popular action titles. For example, Sebastian Stan has an entertaining blink-and-miss appearance as a contract killer and will have his “Captain America” fans thrilled. Adrien Brody who romanced Ana De Armas as Arthur Miller in the Marylin Monroe biopic “Blonde”, plays the primary antagonist in this film. Adrien is stylish and broody as Leveque, a French spy gone rogue.

With an almost two-hour runtime, “Ghosted” begins to get soppy and boring in the last thirty minutes as the comedy gets erode with more emotional scenes and bickering. And the background music must be one of the laziest compilation of songs I’ve ever header, it looks like they just picked a handful of popular songs from Tiktok/Instagram and randomly placed them through the runtime. Some of the placement is peppy and enhances the mood, while a few tracks sound completely out of place.

The climax was chaotic and reminded me of the ending from “Murder Mystery 2”, probably because the endings of both films take place in a posh hotel and there’s lot of money, guns and killing involved. If Dexter Fletcher and team could’ve trimmed “Ghosted” down to a 90-minutes instead of overstretching it to almost two hours, the movie would’ve been way more appealing. It’s still a decent one-time watch for action-romantic-comedy fans though. Chris Evans and Ana De Armas should team up more often.

Rating: 6 on 10. You can stream “Ghosted” on Apple TV.

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Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 Episode 7 Review

I hope you are here after having seen Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 episode 6 . Minor spoilers ahead.

Episode seven begins in the thick of things – crazy cursed spirit Mahito and Mechamaru/Kokichi are still locked in a tense battle, both of them quite sure of their win.

Mahito is such a whacko; he’d undoubtedly make it onto all those ‘Top Manga/Anime Villains’ lists you find online. He’s like a blend of Lucifer and an invincible shape-shifting vampire—a modern sadistic psycho who shows no regard for anyone’s life. Is it terrible if some of us still want to root for Mahito instead of poor Kokichi, who’s been desperately waiting for a comeback? Well, regardless of who you think should ideally win, the animators of Jujutsu Kaisen deliver an epic mecha showdown in this episode and throw in quite a few bloody surprises. It’s the kind of showdown that even gives pseudo-Geto a thrill as he quietly watches the face-off on the sidelines, only thing missing is a bucked of popcorn in his hands.

The second half of the episode shifts gear to focus on a completely different set of events. It’s October 31, in the year 2018 and a mysterious dark curtain cast over Shibuya traps Halloween revelers within it. While the ordinary humans have no idea what’s happening, a whisper/rumor spreads through the crowd, that only one person can save them – Satoru Gojo. A whole bunch of Jujutsu sorcerers arrive on the scene to solve the problem, but it is up to Goju to end the Halloween nightmare.

Swiftly paced and packed with blood, action, mystery, this episode gets over in the blink of an eye!

You can stream Jujutsu Kaisen on Netflix.

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