Character Development

The Count of Monte Cristo (2024) - overrated. Winner in The Most Overrated Challenge.
Disclaimer : I don’t recommend reading this if you don’t know the story at all, or have not at least watched one movie. Major spoilers ahead.
By Precillia Cecile2 months ago in Critique
Pretty Good, Pretty Bad, Pretty Woman
Vivian is standing in that poured-on long red dress, with upswept hair, twinkly eyes and enormous Julia Roberts smile. Edward approaches, spiffy in a tux with a black bow tie, twinkly eyes and smug Richard Gere smile. He extends his arms and opens a jewelry box. With her white glove-enswathed arms, she moves to reach the sparkling diamonds and rubies inside. He snaps the box shut; she laughs. You can hear it. Roy Orbison croons “Pretty woman, walking down the street....” Even if you’ve not seen it, you know about the movie “Pretty Woman.” Millions saw it in theaters, millions more have seen it in the past decades, it remains a fun and popular favorite.
By B.B. Potter2 months ago in Critique
It Could Have Been good…. Top Story - August 2026.
I was introduced to Dhar Mann videos rather reluctantly, via them showing up everywhere I scrolled. YouTube, Facebook... All I wanted to do was scroll through some videos while exercising, and bam! Every other clip was one of those infernal, badly-acted Morality videos that made it very easy to understand why Morality Plays were only ever popular when people didn't have a choice in their entertainment.
By Natasja Rose2 months ago in Critique
Train Dreams
The reviews were good, and it received 4 Academy Award nominations, among other awards. It was streaming, so my husband sat beside me, and we watched Train Dreams , starring Joel Edgerton. It is touted as an extraordinary story of an unremarkable life. Really, though, is any life so ordinary when we examine it closely?
By Andrea Corwin 2 months ago in Critique
Too "Frozen" to Commit
Now that it’s been well over a decade since its release - with the next sequel already under way, from what I hear - I feel like I can finally tackle this topic without feeling the wrath of little girls and Disney-adults everywhere:
By Taylor Rigsby2 months ago in Critique
The Key, the Goddess, and the Abdication of Reason: Why BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER Season Five Is Overpraised
There is a peculiar standard by which works of popular art are sometimes praised: the more misery they inflict upon their characters, the more profound they are assumed to be. A heroine cries; therefore the writing is "mature." A family collapses; therefore the season has "depth." A supernatural mythology grows more arbitrary; therefore the story has become "epic." A character behaves irrationally; therefore he has become "complex."
By ANTICHRIST SUPERSTAR2 months ago in Critique
House of Dragon, S3, yawn
Game of Thrones was an enthralling HBO series with characters you grew to love, only to have the writers kill them off. I gasped aloud when Ned Stark was beheaded. His daughter, Arya, was a fighter and survived many challenges. Cersei was so evil I wanted to strangle her and her horrid son myself. She was so cruel and cunning, yet I felt sorry for her during her naked walk of shame. Tyrion Lannister was always fun to watch and see the scheming he did. Cersei was cruel to him, her brother.
By Andrea Corwin 2 months ago in Critique
Twilight should have died faster than it grew. . Honorable Mention in The Most Overrated Challenge.
Twilight was huge when it came out, with the first movie hitting the big screen in 2008 and the book hitting the shelves in 2005.
By Jen Phillips2 months ago in Critique
No Redemption for Andy Dufresne
The Shawshank Redemption is one of those films that sits comfortably in the upper echelons of the movie talkie colour picture. It's become shorthand for the greatest film ever made—or GOAT, as the kids insist on calling it.
By Paul Stewart2 months ago in Critique
Breaking Bad? No, Just Bad.. Honorable Mention in The Most Overrated Challenge. Top Story - August 2026.
There was a period in time during which not having watched Breaking Bad felt like being an undercover witch in the heart of 17th Century Salem, Massachusetts. Colleagues, acquaintances, Facebook friends and drunks on public transport seemed to know instinctually that I had not watched it and made it their personal mission to impress upon me that this was a Good Show™, a masterpiece, an absolutely-must-watch-ground-breaking-so-much-going-for-it smoke show of a story.
By S. A. Crawford2 months ago in Critique
Disney Is Why You’re Sad. Content Warning.
I have come to the conclusion that Disney is overrated. I realize this is dangerous territory. Americans will tolerate criticism of their government, their religion, possibly even their mothers, but tell them The Little Mermaid might not be the pinnacle of children’s storytelling and suddenly you’ve gone too far.
By Jesse Lee2 months ago in Critique
LaLaLand: All That Jazz and Absolutely No Joy. Top Story - August 2026.
I wanted to love La La Land . In fact, for approximately five glorious minutes, I did. The film opens on a Los Angeles motorway, where an ordinary traffic jam explodes into colour, movement and music. Drivers climb out of their cars, dancers leap across bonnets and an entire gridlocked road becomes the stage for “Another Day of Sun.” It is bold, joyful and unapologetically theatrical. Here, at last, was a modern film musical that understood the sheer pleasure of the genre. It was not embarrassed by people bursting into song. It did not apologise for its choreography or try to disguise its sentimentality beneath layers of irony. It promised romance, spectacle and a little bit of magic.
By Millie Hardy-Sims3 months ago in Critique