Where did it all go wrong in Russia? Maria Pevchikh explains how liberal “reformers” and oligarchs looted the Russian state, and then appointed a corrupt, nondescript Chekist to power to guarantee their own immunity and ill-gotten gains.
Oppenheimer (2023) ★★★
Although Oppenheimer is a solid and historically accurate film, it is overly long – making its missed opportunities all the more glaring – and the key dramatic tension rests on speculation that was considered entirely fictional long before 1945.
Barbie (2023) ★★★★★
This might be a “Woke” film, but it is Wokeness with a human cafe.
Wheel of Time: Season 1 (2022) ★
Rafe’s adaptation of Robert Jordan’s world of eternal return keeps your eyes glued to the screen just on account of how utterly bad and cringe it is.
LEVIATHAN (2014) Rating: 2/5 Finally watched this major Cannes hit, and understood why it was so popular with the “professional” critics, if not quite as much with normies (Metacritic: 92% vs. 73%; Rotten Tomatoes: 98% vs. 80%). No redeeming characters. Main “hero” is a boorish, highly unlikable, impulsive, and violent alcoholic. His wife is a whore
CUTIES (2020) Rating: 3/5 You can access all of my latest book, film, and video game reviews at this link, as well as an ordered, categorized list of all my film reviews and ratings here: https://akarlin.com/films The creepy conservative obsession with pedophilia is just bizarre. It reminds me of the feminist obsession with rape.
CONTAGION (2011) Rating: 4/5 You can access all of my latest book, film, and video game reviews at this link, as well as an ordered, categorized list of all my book reviews and ratings here: https://akarlin.com/films Contagion (2011), which I watched in February – my only film so far this year – chronicles the spread of an
THE JOKER (2019) Rating: 5/5 You can access all of my latest book, film, and video game reviews at this link, as well as an ordered, categorized list of all my film reviews and ratings here: https://akarlin.com/films The Joker seems to be all things to all people. Tyler Cowen believes it is “the most anti-Leftist
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD RATING: 3/5. You can access all of my latest book, film, and video game reviews at this link, as well as an ordered, categorized list of all my book reviews and ratings here: https://akarlin.com/films/ *** I am interested in China. I am not so much interested in films. But I am very interested
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD RATING: 5/5. So all you losers whining about the Battle of Winterfell, or: The Charge of the Dothraki Brigade. You’re approaching this as you would a real medieval battle, criticizing show writers D&D for giving Winterfell such an absurd order of battle (cavalry go first; trebuchets out in front; palisades right behind the infantry;
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD RATING: 3/5. I largely lost interest in Game of Thrones by the end of Season 5 (the only TV series I follow through the excellent cable alternative qBittorrent). So much so that it was not until just a week ago that I realized Season 8 had already started. As I explained in
RATING: 9/10 NOTES: “Russia’s 300.” Also reminiscent of Ironclad, and perhaps Valhalla Rising. See my other reviews here: https://akarlin.com/reviews/ The Legend of Kolovrat (English: Furious) is a reasonably faithful retelling of the Tale of the Destruction of Ryazan [in Russian; not aware of an English translation], a medieval chronicle describing the Mongol invasion of Rus in 1237-40. The story starts with a
SPOILERS UP TO END OF SEASON 6 Review: 6/10 I am no longer a big fan of the series (the only TV series I follow through the excellent cable alternative qBittorrent). It’s not even that I’m a stickler for book accuracy, or a “bookfag”; as I have pointed out, I believe that some things the
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD RATING: 8/10. (Please note my ratings system is harsh and virtually no films get a 10). In 2011, American sci-fi giant Neal Stephenson bewailed the pessimism prevalent in the genre and called for writers to start thinking more positively about the possibilities of technology in order to inspire new generations to “get big stuff
I finally watched the film Гибель Империи. Византийский урок (Death of an Empire: the Byzantine Lesson), narrated by Archimandrite Tikhon Shevkunov, the father-confessor of Vladimir Putin. This film takes a stylized interpretation of the decline and fall of the Byzantine Empire – the root cause of which is attributed to mystical factors such as loss of faith