Netflix – Page 6 – Movie Meister Reviews

December 8, 2021July 22, 2022 leebutler Review

Single All The Way (2021) – Merry and Gay

Released: 2nd December
Seen: 6th December

Last year the Christmas film Happiest Season came out to rave reviews, as it should. It was a simple, sweet, charming Christmas film that also broke boundaries by being a wide release Christmas film that featured a gay couple. Strangely, Christmas films focusing on members of the LGBT community either have to be little underground affairs that don’t get big releases by major companies… well, Netflix clearly wanted to try and correct that by making their own gay Christmas film, Single All The Way. I guess it’s nice to know that we’re getting to the point where gay Christmas films can just be as cliched as the straight ones.

Continue reading →

November 29, 2021July 22, 2022 leebutler Review

The Guilty (2021) – All Too OK

Released: 1st October
Seen: 27th November

While some films have large elaborate casts, there are those that are designed specifically to focus on a single performance. When these are done right, they can lead to some genuinely fascinating films with incredible central performances, we had one earlier this year with Oxygen, which bore a lot of similarities to Buried. The trick is to somehow maintain an audience’s intrigue for an hour and a half with only one performer and one location. Joining that group of films is The Guilty, a film that gives Jake Gyllenhaal a chance to show off just what he can do… interesting choice to release it around the time we’re apparently meant to hate him because a song said so, but hey that’s how things happen sometimes.

Continue reading →

October 15, 2021July 22, 2022 leebutler Uncategorized

There’s Someone Inside Your House (2021) – Nobody Home

Released: 6th October
Seen: 12th October

The slasher genre seems to be enjoying another big resurgence lately. With the monster hit Halloween, the upcoming Halloween Kills and the Scream reboot (along with Candyman, The Fear Street franchise, Wrong Turn and Spiral to name a few) all getting a ton of attention it seems as though everyone wants to revive the darling of 80s horror that was the slasher movie. The trick with slasher movies is you need to have a good villain to work with, an interesting array of victims and hopefully a lot of creative gore to excite the fanbase… There’s Someone Inside Your House certainly has some of those and an interesting idea, but that’s about it.

Continue reading →

October 9, 2021July 22, 2022 leebutler Review

Diana: A True Musical Story (2021) – A Royal Mess

Released: 1st October
Seen: 7th October

Princess Diana, also known as the people’s princess, died in August of 1997 after a group of paparazzi chased her through a tunnel. The crash also took the lives of Diana’s partner Dodi Fayed and the driver of the car, Henri Paul. This was in 1997 and the obsession with Princess Diana has not abated for even a moment since that day, I would dare to say that there isn’t a week that goes by when she isn’t on the cover of a magazine that probably paid the very paparazzi that contributed to the events that led to her death. Her life was fascinating and full of truly great highs and lows… and is the subject of possibly the worst musical I’ve seen in my life and keep in mind that the Cats movie still exists so that’s a low bar.

Continue reading →

October 7, 2021July 22, 2022 leebutler Review

Hating Peter Tatchell (2021) – Love Peter Tatchell

Released: 11th August
Seen: 28th September

Throughout queer history, there is a long list of people who, in some form, have pushed forward the cause of queer acceptance. From major events like Marsha P Johnson throwing the first brick at Stonewall, to the founding of Act Up by Larry Kramer, to Harvey Milk becoming one of the first openly gay people elected to public office, there are many figures who in some way or another have done something to push the cause of LGBT people forward.

One name that should be up near the top of that list is Peter Tatchell, a proud polemic figure who has put his body and life on the line to fight for gay liberation and Hating Peter Tatchell is absolutely essential viewing for anyone even slightly interested in the power and the cost of protest.

Continue reading →

September 8, 2021 leebutler Review

Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed (2021) – Paints An Interesting Picture

Released: 25th August
Seen: 6th September

Bob Ross Happy Accidents Betrayal & Greed Info

Between 1983 and 1994, Bob Ross delighted viewers with his charming little show The Joy Of Painting. For over 400 episodes, Bob and a series of guest stars would talk the viewer through methods of painting landscapes and he became a cultural phenomenon. Even now, years after his passing, the image of the cheerful man with the giant afro and the well-used painter’s palette is iconic. Hell, it’s well known enough that a recent episode of Drag Race had someone recreate the look with a wig made of squirrels (and sure, they were in the bottom that week but you still knew who they were). Well, turns out the story of Bob Ross’ legacy wasn’t exactly as happy as the little trees that were in many of his paintings.

Continue reading →

September 2, 2021July 22, 2022 leebutler Review

He’s All That (2021) – That Don’t Impress Me Much

Released: 27th August
Seen: 29th August

Pygmalion is a 1913 play by George Bernard Shaw about a little flower girl being taught how to be a proper English lady after a bet between two men, Higgins and Pickering. If this sounds familiar to those who’ve never heard of Pygmalion that’d be because this play ended up being the inspiration for the mega musical My Fair Lady. It also inspired the 1999 film She’s All That, which hasn’t aged well but I promise you was a gigantic hit back in the day. It was part of this period of time where a lot of classic stories got updated for a 90s teen audience and it might have been the most successful of the bunch, although Cruel Intentions and 10 Things I Hate About You have seemed to live on a lot stronger in pulp culture.

Continue reading →

August 9, 2021July 22, 2022 leebutler Review

Vivo (2021) – Magical Monkey Business

Released: 6th August
Seen: 8th August

While Netflix has been kind of hit or miss with a lot of their releases this year, I have to admit that their animation stuff has been knocking it out of the park almost every time. Arlo the Alligator Boy, Wish Dragon and The Mitchells VS The Machines are some of the best animated films of 2021 so far and it’s nice to see Netflix assuring them wide releases. Now the newest release, Vivo, is gunning to be the 4th great Netflix animated film of the year and goddamn it might be the second best of them all (…hey, Mitchells VS The Machines is a hard act to beat, OK?)

Continue reading →

August 7, 2021 leebutler Review

Pray Away (2021) – One Of The Most Important Doco’s Of The Year

Released: 3rd August
Seen: 3rd August

If you want to get on the express ticket to my bad side, be on the side of Conversion Therapy. Conversion Therapy, otherwise known as Pray Away The Gay, is the idea that people can be turned straight via some form of extreme therapy. In reality, it’s a way to force queer people into suppressing their true selves in order to be accepted by a group made up of bigots who have only read one book and decided that the part of that book that said gays were bad was a rule they had to follow forever but the part about mixed fabrics was up for debate. Over the years there have been a lot of documentaries regarding this movement but the recent documentary Pray Away might be one of the best of the bunch.

Continue reading →

July 30, 2021July 22, 2022 leebutler Review

Hostage House (2021) – Hell House

Released: 27th July
Seen: 29th July

Film releases sometimes happen in little patterns. A certain period of the year is usually for the big blockbusters, another period tends to be for the prestige films trying to get an Oscar, other periods are known as dumping grounds go. Well I’m noticing a new pattern forming, it seems like this point every year is when Netflix seems to release a particularly pathetic wannabe TV movie thriller. First was Secret Obsession, then Dangerous Lies and now we have the utter excrement that is Hostage House, a movie I wouldn’t even program at 3am on the cheapest network you could contemplate.

Continue reading →