Critique-Opolis

Send us Fan Mail Merry Christmas and Stuff We explore the trails of being an out of place Navajo boy exiled by his parents for the summer to the reservation.  'Benny' (our main character) struggles with the challenges of being a city boy in the country trying to connect with his native roots and relatives he doesn't understand. Next, we hit the pause button on this episode for &apos...

Send us Fan Mail Special edition this week.  No - we have not done the latest movie review or Blacklist.  No - there is no recipe for you to dissect.  No - Jay still has not fixed the music import recording bug yet. We just wanted to review and discuss the latest movie industry buzz that we get from our weekly movie biz newsletter, 'The Dailies'.   P.S. Disney is taking over Hulu.  The M...

Send us Fan Mail A longer chat this time.  School of Life is a YouTube channel comprised of short, 3 to 10 minutes videos that break down the fundamental questions of being alive and how to tackle your existence: 'Passion vs Duty' 'How to Have a Transcendental Experience' 'Does Love Make You Weak' 'How to Listen to Your Body' 'Why You Are NOT a Loser&ap...

Send us Fan Mail Aubrey Plaza slowly sinks in the quicksand of debt when she agrees to be a 'dumb shopper' and get involved with credit card fraud.  'Yay' on the character building talents of the modern educational system.  'Juice' from Son's of Anarchy acts as her coach on the road to criminality.  I show you how to make honey and vanilla custard.  Louisa casts...

Send us Fan Mail Louisa subjected me to a movie with music in it. I know gross, right? Was I pleasantly surprised.  Tune in and find out.  I teach you to develop a drinking problem with honey and Scotch (more ideas, including a cocktail here ).  Then we look at a Blacklist pick from 2022 that the studios should be calling us to cast.  My rate is $10,000/hour. #Jessicamauboy #Deborahmailman #ChrisO...

Send us Fan Mail Indian movie - don't even ask me how it's pronounced - Louisa couldn't even do it.  Four friends who leave their dream of film making behind for more 'conventional' roles reconvene for a trip to Goa and reconnect with their original love to create celluloid glory amidst personal struggles. Then, I show you how to make a carrot cake that will make you forgi...

Send us Fan Mail Jason Bateman leaves us stunned with his command of the English vocabulary and his willingness to upset a national spelling bee by entering as a participant and subsequently TRASHING a bunch of 10 year-olds.  This was Louisa's pick and it was a BANGER! P.S. I have a fruit based dessert for you. P.P.S. I know you will love it.  You can find more here . #badwordstrailer #spelli...

Send us Fan Mail We reviewed two episodes - Jibaro & Three Robots - Jibaro wasn't Louisa's cup of tea but she was a trooper and gave an objective analysis.  I blow your mind with a simple apple appetizer that only has 4 ingredients and one of which is the limited edition Albizia Rose Apple honey (Hawaiian single pollen).  These were only 2 episodes of a 3 season set.  If you like ani...

Send us Fan Mail Ethan Hawke & Sally Hawkins tell the story of an arthritic Nova Scotia woman who, while working as a housekeeper, develops a talent for painting and slowly becomes a beloved community figure - all the while dealing with an acerbic relationship with her husband and a contemptuous brother and aunt.   Then we show you how to do shrimp stir fry followed by this week's Blackli...

Send us Fan Mail Patricia Arquette and U Aung Ko head up the cast of this 1995 release that lends a narrative to the backdrop of the 8888 Uprising in Burma (now known as Mayanmar).  Arquette's Laura Bowman visits Burma in an effort to assuage the pain of her recently murdered husband and son.  After losing her passport, she becomes entangled with a small group of peaceful students protesting...

Send us Fan Mail Yes - it's a documentary.  Yes - it's about painting.  Yes - the recorder failed multiple times!  And Yes - Jay had a tantrum.  You might think that this would be a natural snooze fest but prepare to be mistaken and mesmerized.  Whoever said they have no interest in  seeing a millionaire obsess over discovering an unknown painting technique used by a 17th century Dutch m...

Send us Fan Mail Going back to 1982 for this Werner Herzog classic starring Klaus Kinski and Claudia Cardinale as Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald and Molly - two German expats living in the Amazon.  Brian is a fanatical lover of opera who is having mixed success trying to bring refrigeration to the jungle.  He schemes to enter the lucrative rubber trade and use the profits to build an opera house in the...

Send us Fan Mail Irrfan Khan and Nimrat Kaur make us wish that happenstance and chance encounters were a regular occurrence.  Ila's marriage is loveless and going nowhere.  Saajan is a widower who quietly continues to morn the loss of his wife while he teeters on the edge of retirement. Everyday Ila preps a lunchbox for her husband which is picked up by the lunchbox delivery system. it is mis...

Send us Fan Mail Jennifer Aniston stars as Claire Bennett, a woman determined to uncover the truth about Nina, a woman who committed suicide in her chronic pain support group.   While struggling with her own demons and a poignant, personal tragedy, Claire develops a relationship with Nina's widowed husband.  Once a powerful L.A. defense attorney, Claire has been reduced to a pill popping misa...

Send us Fan Mail Adam Driver drives a city bus but moonlights as a poet while on his lunch break.  His wife has an obsession with everything black and white and rebrands herself mid-movie as the Elon Musk of farmers market cookie bakers.  There dog is a nitwit that SOMEHOW helps these two maintain a relationship. In short, it's a relatively healthy (and leisurely) character study on staying g...

Send us Fan Mail Let me preface this episode by saying, if you have an interest in checking out our recommendations, please be aware that Soft White Underbelly (YouTube channel by Mark Laita) can be ROUGH. Mark was a corporate brand photographer who switched gears to document the decay in Skid Row in Los Angeles by interviewing all manor of homeless people.  From drug addicts to child molestation...

Send us Fan Mail Bill Hader (Milo) and Kristen Wiig (Maggie) are estranged siblings who get the wacky idea to kill themselves on the same day.  Their respective plans get fucked up and, through a series of events, these two nut jobs try to fix one another (no flaw in that plan).  Then, I teach you how to make a cake that is so delicious, you'll want to beat up a vegan.

Send us Fan Mail Amy Irving is a BANGIN' American teaching English in Rio de Janeiro and gets hit on by basically everyone in the country.  Antonio Fagundes is an attorney who tries to woo her and spends most of the movie looking f***in' fantastic in a suit (why shouldn't he, his Dad is a tailor). After watching this movie I became convinced that all of Brazil is collectively horny...

Send us Fan Mail Hunt For The Wilderpeople - Taika Waititi made a movie were that puffy, super powered arsonist kid from Deadpool, gets adopted by the grumpy archeologist from Jurasic Park (Sam Neill).  A nationwide manhunt ensues.  Louisa makes dessert.  #samneill #taikawaititi #huntforthewilderpeople #gelato #jurasicpark #rhysdarby #juliandennison #2016

Send us Fan Mail In 1998, Walter Salles directed Fernanda Montenegro, Marilia Pera and Vinicius de Oliveira in a Brazillian picture from a screenplay adapted by Joao Emanuel and Marcos Bernstein.  In case you missed it, Montenegro won an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1999. P.S.  the movie also snagged a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. That usually indicates that this is something yo...

Send us Fan Mail We didn't love it.  However, we don't speak for everyone.  The life of a male ex-porn star is a rough one.  Anthony Jeselnik is one of our FAVORITE comedians and he LOVED it!  For those of you who like tales of the rough and tumbled souls living out there on the fringes, trying to reinvigorate their hustle, check it out.

Send us Fan Mail A blast from the past - that's going to be a thing with us - get used to it.  This go around we look at the darker side of marriage through the eyes of Danny Devito, Michael Douglas, and Kathleen Turner in the 1989 Twentieth Century Fox release of 'War of the Roses'.   Recipe: PEANUT BUTTER HONEY COMB PIE You will get fat. #waroftheroses #michaeldouglas #dannydevito...

Send us Fan Mail We review 'Columbus' - a 2017 film  were a Korean-born man finds himself stuck in Columbus, Indiana, where his architect father is in a coma. The man meets a young woman who wants to stay in Columbus with her mother, a recovering addict, instead of pursuing her own dreams.  Who would have thought there was anything to see in Indiana? The recipe of the week - Honey Soy Ch...

Send us Fan Mail What can we say - Louisa Loves Leo.  We do a deep dive on the hit movie staring Leo DiCaprio about the life and adventures of Frank Abagnale. There is (as always) a recipe - Fruit Au Gratin - if you can believe that.  Then, Louisa goes to Okinawa and doesn't bring Jay any souvenirs.