Aarcflick

A technically polished, but mostly unshakeable, example of a genre (the documentary about kids doing something difficult) that is presumed to be inherently charming, Josh Greenbaum's The Short Game introduces us to eight children who travel to Pinehurst, North Carolina, to compete in the World Junior Golf Championship. Lacking drama for those who aren't passionate fans of the sport, and with barely interesting characters compared to some we've met in similar films, the documentary has little commercial appeal and completely lacks the sociopolitical content that has led festival audiences to support some less compelling children's documentaries. Filmgoers inclined to believe that the documentary world has relied too heavily on this "kids plus dreams equals crowd-pleasing" formula will find further evidence of exploitation here, as several of the film's subjects have fathers insistent enough to be honorary members of the sorority of theater moms. One father ...

The Bad Guys are now good guys in a sequel that's more endearing than funny, until it moves to outer space and becomes a rewarding watch. “Bad Guys 2” is a benignly boisterous cartoon about a quintet of creatures—the dapper Mr. Wolf (Sam Rockwell), the goofy, tough-guy Mr. Snake (Marc Maron), the flatulent Mr. Piranha (Anthony Ramos), the disguise-savvy Mr. Shark (Craig Robinson), and the brainy Ms. Tarantula (Awkwafina)—who are famously bad guys (known as “the Bad Guys”), but deep down, they're pretty good. They're like any movie team with a quirky twist, from the brigade in “Guardians of the Galaxy” to the escaped zoo animals in “Madagascar.” They're villains, just like Gru, from the “Despicable Me” movies, is a “bad guy”: a known troublemaker who's really just trying, in his own way, to do good. Directors: Pierre Perifel, JP Sans Writers: Yoni Brenner, Etan Cohen, Aaron Blabey Stars: Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, Craig Robinson In the three years since the first ...

The final episode of S Line will undoubtedly disappoint many people, especially because it feels like it's straight out of a completely different series. But after some research, I discovered that the webtoon picks up where the series left off. I'm not entirely sure if this is a prequel unbased on the original webtoon (since I haven't read it), but I think everything that happens in the series predates the webtoon's beginning. That said, the series still feels too rushed, resulting in an incredible number of abrupt changes, especially in the final episode, which feels like it's deliberately trying to break away from the previous five episodes and seek a new identity. But before this turns into a full-blown rant, let's move on to a recap of episodes 5 and 6. Episode 5 of S Line begins with a girl from Sun-A's school named Ji-Na showing up at the police station to report a classmate who's training to become a K-pop idol. As you know, by then Jin-Wook was a...

The Amazon Prime drama Rangeen is quite interesting, and I won't deny that it has a pretty entertaining premise. We are introduced to Adarsh, a journalist struggling to secure investors for his newspaper. Amidst all his professional troubles, he found out his wife was having an affair. To make matters worse, he discovered she wasn't actually dating anyone; she had just been paying a male escort to spend time with her. So let's find out what happened to Adarsh and if he managed to mend his relationship and get his life back on track. Adarsh was obviously very hurt to discover his wife had hired a gigolo, Sunny. Men have fragile egos, and he didn't know that what he called self-discovery was just a way to prove to his wife that he was better than the man she had paid. Adarsh kept telling himself that he had decided to work for Sitara because he wanted to have new experiences and discover what kind of man he was. His subconscious searched for ways to validate his actions, ...

 It's that time of year again, and now we have a gripping sports drama that motivates us to strive and be special (even if we spend all day in bed). Mainstream sports dramas always tend to succeed; even if they're bad, they motivate or inspire you to be better. So here we are with another Korean drama that I hope will be similar to the iconic Racket Boys. The Winning Try tells the story of a legendary rugby player, Ga-Ram, who won in 2022 against Japan. However, three years later, we discover that he retired due to being involved in a doping scandal. We already know the mystery of his doping scandal, but to make the series even more fun, Ga-Ram joins a sports school as the new rugby coach.  In the first two episodes, we see the resilience of a coach who seemingly betrayed his team at the peak of his career, but will it move the kids who really just want to play rugby? The first episode of "The Winning Try" shows Ju Ga-Ram at the peak of his game, winning against the J...

Directed by Shahi Kabir, Ronth tells the story of two police officers: one young enough to trust the system and be idealistic in his approach, and the other experienced enough to not hold it against him. More than a thriller, I found it to be a strong social commentary on India's police culture. I don't deny that, at times, it feels like, short of resorting to illegal practices, police officers don't have many options.  It reminds me of Sayaji Shinde's character in the film Kurukshetra, where he complains to his boss that, due to his supposed honesty, he couldn't take bribes or support his family. He openly states that, with the salary they were receiving, it wasn't possible to support a family. That said, I don't endorse the corrupt culture as a whole, but it does provide some context as to why the situation is the way it is. Personally, I didn't like the way certain scenes in Ronth were executed, but even so, it was an intriguing film and leaves you wi...

Until 2020, there was a concerted effort by Netflix's Indian arm, or perhaps I should say the Hindi arm, to tell stories set in the horror genre. While Bollywood's relationship with horror had been rather rocky, the streaming platform started off strong with Ghoul. With the ever-reliable Radhika Apte at the helm, the miniseries was a rather interesting take on John W. Campbell Jr.'s "Who Goes There?" Then came Betaal, which, unlike many people, I quite enjoyed.  The idea of the British returning to haunt us like zombies is an interesting concept, and it featured committed performances from Vineet Kumar Singh, Aahana Kumra, and Manjiri Pupala. Then came Typewriter, which looked promising because it had Sujoy Ghosh at the helm, but it was simply a boring mess. In Ghost Stories, let's face it, only the Dibakar Banerjee segment stood out; the rest was garbage. Leila was a comeback, but negative press ruined its chances of renewal. And Kaali Khuhi was the final nai...