J*A*S*M

A rather unexciting period piece that is unfortunately too uninteresting for most of its running time to afford to be so slow (and long). I was about to give it two stars, but the final reveal improved the impression a bit. Anyway, it's a shame, had it been written and directed a little more vividly, it could have been a different cinematic experience.

I was cautiously enthusiastic for the first three episodes, enjoying the fact that for once Refn's poetics were serving a story that, while strange, was meaningful and grounded in reality. The three episodes that follow plummet into shit, if instead of 6 episodes it was maybe 10, I would have given up along the way.

Nonsense of a similar level as the latest Iñarritú. This trend of a streaming giant giving an A-list director unlimited funds to film whatever he or she wants without scrutiny is becoming unbearable and needs to end, as it produces always the same: a ridiculously long, egomaniacal, unfocused mess. There are some interesting details, and the craftsmanship is good, but it doesn't hold together at all.

A tangled mess between the characters, the creators and the audience, so basically a classic Oriol Paulo. Fans will definitely get what they expect, but for me, the screenplay structure is so overwrought and, paradoxically, predictable in its unpredictability, that my viewing pleasure disappears. It's crammed with twists and turns, but the layering of one on top of the other could go on forever in this style, as long as the runtime would allow. Moreover, I found it somehow tedious, safely delivered, so that no viewer will get lost in it.

You know those reviews where the author really wants to trash a film and says that it would have been more entertaining to look at the wall for those 100 minutes? This is exactly that. A horror experiment that should have been half an hour long at most. The premise is original and attractive, the execution is also original, but I can’t believe I didn’t turn it off before the end. There are a few passages that work, but in most cases is thanks to cheap jump scares. If we complain about unfair jump scares in mainstream films, I don’t see reason why they should be praised here. In my opinion, you'll only really enjoy Skinamarink if you convince yourself strongly enough before the screening that you'll enjoy it, so that you can then tell your TikTok followers that you've seen the scariest movie ever and be interesting by appreciating a weird movie. But what do I know, I'm not a representative of fucking Generation Z to get anxious about every fucking thing, so maybe the cries of disbelief I'm reading about this film on the internet right now are meant sincerely. Anyway, one star for thinking out of the box, and another for the fact that the filmmakers will probably manage to make a profit from something like this, which is kind of genius (just today the news came out that Skinamarink will be released not only on VOD, but also in cinemas!).

If I had to complain about one thing, it would probably be that The Devil's Hour does not have a very distinctive author’s touch, it looks like any other British TV series, otherwise, everything is great. From various more or less familiar mysterious elements, it puts together a picture that in the end looks fresh and unconventional. In this respect, special mention must be made of the final episode, which explains everything beautifully and reveals a well-thought-out concept that I've probably never seen before. It is rather rare in this mystery subgenre that everything fits together so neatly, including various small details, as in The Devil's Hour. For my part, I would also point out the excellent horror sequences (most of all in episode 3) and the extremely creepy kid.

An entertaining satire, only lightly tinged with horror, that sacrifices pure genre pleasure in the second half, which would have required at least a basic believability of the characters' behaviour to keep the concept going, and, as a result, it ironically becomes part of what it’s mocking. That said, the fun more or less doesn't let up, and the great actors pull it off.

After three hours, I decided I wasn't going to invest another five hours on this. It's a competently put together mystery show, but I am not enjoying it at all. I am not enjoying the characters, I am not enjoying the mystery, I am not enjoying how fucking seriously everything is taken, and I don't give a shit what happens next or how it ends. If it turns out to be something brilliant, let me know, but I won't bother further at this point. And yet, when it comes to the premise, I am the target audience. Oh dear.

At first, I saw the promise of a fairly enjoyable wild night thriller (a supernatural villain capable of manipulating other people playing cat and mouse with a vulnerable heroine). Unfortunately, as time goes on, it becomes a) tiresome (in the way the creators forcefully and literally push the ideas they want to convey) and b) ridiculous (by building a mythology around the villain).

Very nicely put together in terms of production, but still unexciting, forgettable and without substance. In other words, typical Netflix of recent times. For me, with the exception of the solid The Autopsy, by David Prior, all of the stories are united by their inability to engage and draw you into the plot until something explicitly genre-worthy starts happening, which in most cases happens near the end, instead of the beginning.