Happy as Lazzaro (2018)

There's nothing I have a prejudice against like I have for Italian cinema — dreadful acting, poor comedic skills, different and yet similar stories over and over again, dull direction, they can all be found in the majority of contemporary Italian films, and they always put me off watching films from my homeland. Lost among them all there's Happy as Lazzaro (Lazzaro felice), a film I ended up watching only because it was directed by a woman, Alice Rohrwacher; and it's a film I regret not seeing immediately after its release as it is a unique, mesmerizing and delightful film, as well as one of the most touching and yet heartbreaking and painful to watch I've ever seen. 

Thursday Movie Picks: Television Edition: 2020 Freshman Series

a weekly series hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves

I don't know how it is even possible since I watch TV series all the time but whenever it's time for me to pick new series from the previous year, my brain goes numb and I even forget about the most beautiful series I've seen lately. One of those I picked today I mention all the time and yet I remembered it was a 2020 series only when I accidentally stumbled on it on Apple TV. Anyway, without further ado, here they are. 

Thursday Movie Picks: Police Detective

a weekly series hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves

I've just started reading Delia Owen's Where the Crawdads Sing so it feels somewhat fitting to have films about police detectives as a theme for this week. Too bad me reading that book didn't make it easier for me to find three films to pick because I love detective movies but most of them involve private detectives — like Knives Out, which made it to the three until I started writing about it and remember Craig's character is a private investigator. Anyway, I struggled a little but I did find something worth talking about. 

Thursday Movie Picks: 2020 Releases

a weekly series hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves

I don't know whether it's related to the pandemic or not, but 2020 wasn't a good year for films. Sure, I haven't seen a lot of 2020 releases but most were overwhelmingly mediocre. Of course, there are some I loved, which are those I'm going to talk about today. But more specifically, I'm going to pick three films I had low expectations about but ended up liking.