Released by Netflix on September 27 (after a world premiere at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, a week before) In the Shadow of the Moon is a movie that dips its toe in a handful of genres. It is a sci-fi thriller at its core, but it also incorporates elements that turn it into somewhat…
The news and opinion website Vox (owned by digital media company Vox Media) partnered with Netflix in 2018 to release a weekly show called Explained, which was based on Vox’s series of YouTube videos. Those YouTube videos were short investigative essays (on average, under eight minutes long), but in their Netflix incarnation they grew to…
“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me,” the saying goes. There is some truth to that. However, it is also true that words do hurt, they sting, they let you know how people feel, and sometimes that is unpleasant. An inner world will easily crumble at the drop a…
Traditionally, September has always had its own Coming and Going. Yes: the coming of fall, and the going of summer. No point in getting mad at September: September doesn’t know any better, and it’ll never change its ways. So let us cheer you up by helping you think of September in a different way, by…
Mindhunter is back. Its second season has been available for streaming on Netflix for about a week now. When we were first introduced to the universe of Mindhunter in season one, we were transported to 1977. At that point in time, a paradigm shift in understanding the criminal mind was starting to be forced upon…
Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj premiered in October of 2018 on Netflix. This past Sunday, Netflix released the first episode of Volume 4 (a new episode will be released every Sunday). It’s easy to categorize Patriot Act generally as a talk show, or a variety show, devoted to political satire. It wouldn’t be wrong, but…
This North American Summer has produced some record-high temperatures so far. If the trend continues, you’re probably better off staying inside and cranking up that AC. At which point, you may want to consider doing some actual, literal, Netflix and chill. And, well, an August guide to Netflix programming is all you need to be…
If you’re a fan of the BBC series Sherlock, you almost certainly will remember Charles Augustus Magnussen, a peculiar villain whose particular brand of evildoing involved access to sensitive information, which he then would use as leverage against influential people as a means to muscle his way into power. Sherlock Holmes called him the “Napoleon…
Be warned: spoilers ahead. Consisting of only three episodes, the fifth season of Black Mirror became available on Netflix on June 5. The second episode of this latest season is called Smithereens. Although not the only one of this particular kind, Smithereens is an atypical Black Mirror episode because, in it, the premise in play…
Summer is here. No reason for you to stay inside, immerse your eyeballs in Netflix programming, and let your brain and body decay into atrophy, unless… you’re a vampire. In which case we’ve got you covered. Here’s how Netflix is aiding the bloodthirsty in their commitment to stay indoors. The return of Netflix original series…
Human proclivity for storytelling combined with speculation has always been a means by which we attempt to understand the world. And, in that sense, science fiction shares a psychological lineage with ancient mythology. Regardless of the deep underlying truths, regardless of the universal and reoccurring cross-cultural themes, the outer layers of what is of substance…
Winner of the Best Film award at the 2018 London Film Festival, Joy was made available for streaming by Netflix on May 24. Written and directed by Sudabeh Mortezai, the film racked up more than a dozen wins and nominations in at least ten festivals in 2018 (among them, the Chicago International Film Festival and…
June is right around the corner. How is Netflix tempting the average mortal to resist the urge to step out and bask in late spring/early summer weather? Well, no plan would ever be full proof, but let’s evaluate the effort. Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston team up once again in Murder Mystery, an action/comedy/mystery hybrid…
Fire in the Maternity Ward is stand-up comedian Anthony Jeselnik’s fourth comedy special. Released on Netflix on April 30, this is Jeselnik’s second Netflix special. It follows 2015’s Thoughts and Prayers. How would one describe Jeselnik’s act to the unaware? In the school of Andrew Dice Clay, he created a charismatic and politically incorrect onstage…
Based on the book The Runaway Species: How Human Creativity Remakes The World, authored by composer Anthony Brandt and neuroscientist David Eagleman, The Creative Brain is a 2018 documentary that Netflix made available for streaming on April 16. Eagleman is a New York Times bestselling author who wrote and hosted the documentary series The Brain…