On the list this week: Drackula, The Joker, and social media are up to no good.
Castlevania season 1
Castlevania is one of the greatest video game franchises of all time, but it may soon be one of Netflix’s best original programs as well, thanks to a new animated adaptation of Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse. Set in Medieval Europe, the show follows Trevor Belmont’s (Richard Armitage) quest to destroy the vampire Dracula (Graham McTavish), whose evil is spreading. Trevor is joined by the magician Sypha Belnades (Alejandra Reynoso) and Dracula’s own son, Alucard (James Callis). Lest anyone worry that Castlevania will be a show for kids, the show’s producer, Adi Shankar, told Collider: “The goal is to bring hard-hitting anime to America and be America’s first animated series for adults.”
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Dark City
Alex Proyas’ Dark City begins, as so many thrillers do, with a man wanted for a crime he may not have committed. John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) wakes up in a hotel room, with no memory and a woman’s corpse in the room. The telephone rings, and a voice warns him to get out, just as a group of men known as the Strangers are coming for him. Murdoch must evade the Strangers, while uncovering the secrets underneath the city where he lives, a city where night is eternal. Dark City is a puzzling film, blending noir and sci-fi into a fiendishly inventive plot. It is also a gorgeous film. Proyas conjures up a vision of a city so close to normal that it makes the things that seem off all the more disturbing.
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The Dark Knight
Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins resurrected Batman’s reputation in film, but it was his follow-up, The Dark Knight, that pushed the superhero genre to new heights that no one else has reached. Set not long after Batman Begins, the film opens in Gotham City, where Batman/Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) and Police Commissioner James Gordon (Gary Oldman) have formed an alliance to take down organized crime. Their methods are working, until The Joker (Heath Ledger), a self-proclaimed “agent of chaos” in clown makeup, shows up in town. Unlike the other criminals in Gotham, he doesn’t want to merely kill Batman — he wants to corrupt him. The Dark Knight received overwhelming acclaim when it premiered, and the praise is deserved. The film explores and interrogates the conventions of the superhero genre, and is set in a realistic world where even noble actions have consequences.
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Loving
Based on the true story of the Loving v. Virginia case, Loving follows Richard (Joel Edgerton) and Mildred Loving (Ruth Negga), a white man and black woman who fall in love in 1950s Virginia. When they attempt to get married, they find themselves arrested for violating Virginia’s anti-miscegenation laws. For years afterward, they plead their case to the justice system, eventually making their way to the United States Supreme Court. Director Jeff Nichols doesn’t take a flashy approach to the film, and his restraint allows the characters to take center stage. A sa result, both leads give outstanding performances, particularly Negga.
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Nerve
Last year was an excellent year in film, but the downside in a year of monstrous successes is that some cool films fly under everyone’s radar. One example is Nerve, a frenetic thriller that explores the dangers of social media and society’s declining social inhibitions. The film follows Venus “Vee” Delmonico (Emma Roberts), a high-achieving high school senior who never takes risks until her friends challenge her to play Nerve, an online game in which people complete dares for money and stream their escapades online. Vee’s path crosses with that of Ian (Dave Franco), another player, and their fun night of playing the game starts to go south when viewers issue increasingly dangerous dares. Nerve is an action-packed sci-fi thriller, with social commentary that doesn’t come across as too didactic.
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