Hello there and welcome to this week’s newsletter. I’m exhausted! I even thought about giving myself a break this week and not writing the newsletter. But somehow, I found some energy to do it. The reason I’m so tired is that I spent the week covering this tech conference that happens every year here in Lisbon called Web Summit. It was fun and I had a chance to meet some cool people and learn a lot about what is going on in the tech world. However, my hectic schedule and a few late nights celebrations really got the best of me. But hey, if you are one of those people that I met at the conference or at one of the parties I went to, welcome to my newsletter! I hope you enjoy it and feel free to follow me on Instagram too. Let’s keep in touch!
Anyway, this week I share my thoughts on the latest MCU movie, ETERNALS. And don’t worry, there are no spoilers just complaints (Another goddamn long movie). I lament the lack of El Chapo’s extreme violence, political corruption, and “entrepreneurial innovation” in NARCOS: MEXICO. But I also praise the Korean series, DR. BRAIN, and the super family-friendly flick FINCH. And as always, there’s a playlist of 5 songs I enjoyed this week.
Quick Thoughts
NARCOS: MEXICO Season 3 - is set in the 1990s and looks at the continued conflict between the numerous groups that arose after Gallardo's incarceration. A new generation of Mexican kingpins emerges as newly autonomous gangs fight to survive political turmoil and growing bloodshed. Since the first time I heard about MARCOS: MEXICO I straight up thought about “El Chapo” he was one of the most notorious drug lords ever and I thought the whole show would be about him. But It wasn’t. And I not going to lie, that disappointed me a little bit. We see much more of Chapo in this season but his arc plays more like a supervillain origin story. Overall, I really liked this season. I think it was a nice way to finish the series and I still have hopes that Netflix will someday explore more of El Chapo’s story. A movie, maybe?
FINCH - This is an Apple TV+ post-apocalyptic science fiction film. It follows Finch Weinberg (Tom Hanks) a dying inventor who creates a robot (voiced by Caleb Landry Jones) to take care of his beloved dog after he’s gone. The movie is fairly basic for the said genre, but it’s a cute and enjoyable buddy flick. Hanks is superb and the movie has a poignant narrative about love, survival, and friendship that manages to keep viewers hooked. FINCH has also a lighter atmosphere and is really stunning to look at. It also avoids the customary brutality found in post-apocalyptic films. It will be one of the year's top crowd-pleasers. My only complaint is the robot kinda sounds like Borat and that bothered me a little.
DR. BRAIN - This is a Korean series based on a webtoon (also known as a digital comic), and is one to keep an eye on. It has some very talented people involved in it. It is directed and executive produced by Kim Jee-Woon (THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE WEIRD; A TALE OF TWO SISTERS; I SAW THE DEVIL) and it stars Lee Sun-Kyun, who portrayed the rich father in the Oscar-winning film, PARASITE. The series revolves around a scientist who invents a way to hack into people's brains to obtain memories. It has a little bit of everything. It's a procedural in the medical field, mysteries, and also science fiction. The first episode of the six-part limited series is now available on Apple TV+ and a new episode will be released every Thursday.
Eternals
The latest installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, ETERNALS, has a big ambition. The movie seeks to unveil new events in the MCU that occurred thousands of years ago and no one knew about it. It's a difficult assignment. The movie includes many time jumps, a large cast, and a lot of exposition dumps. And unfortunately, the entire package does not function properly.
ETERNALS isn't just another origin story for a slew of new superheroes; it's the genesis story for the whole Marvel world. The movie shows god-like, colossal entities forming the galaxy from 5,000 B.C. until the current day. It's the most self-reliant of all Marvel movies, yet you can see it's always bumping up against the genre’s constraints. That has a lot to do with the filmmaker behind the camera, Chloé Zhao, who has followed up her Oscar-winning NOMADLAND with this blockbuster. She tries to achieve the same expansive soulfulness of an indie film but only manages to achieve a few bursts of it. The movie tries to condense thousands of years of history into it. This results in a few occasions when you feel like an important plot component is missing.
ETERNALS is a very long movie. And by now, you guys know that bothers me a lot. It has a 157-minute run length, and it feels everlasting at points. The fight scenes are repetitive and tedious to watch. Most of the characters are underdeveloped. And as in every superhero movie, the third act falls into the "huge CGI combat" trap.
The flick has some good moments though. It brings to the forefront the kinds of moral dilemmas that Marvel has never truly dealt with in the past - the price of individual life, or if humankind is even worth preserving in the first place. The representation is great and doesn’t feel forced at all. People saying this movie is “Woke” are simply LGBTQ+ haters. So just ignore them. Kamil Nanjiani’s character was also a highlight for me. He is super funny and interesting. I would totally watch a solo movie about Kingo. But then, he decides to peace out and does nothing in the third act. Which I thought was weird.
Overall, ETERNALS largely underwhelmed me. Despite a few bright moments and a beautifully diverse cast, the movie feels like a hot mess. Too many charters, a lot of expositional issues, and the tone are all over the place. I think It would work better as a Disney+ series. But as someone who has enjoyed Zhao's previous work, I am looking forward to seeing what she does next. I just hope it is not another superhero flick.
Top 5 songs
These were the 5 songs on heavy rotation in my house last week. You can listen to them on Spotify and YouTube.