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HBO Max Series Review: Love Life

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The second season of “Love Life” on HBO Max stars William Jackson Harper, as Marcus, with the first season starring Anna Kendrick – as two single people in their 30’s trying to find love. Both seasons are very good, with this review mostly about the second season. The premise of both seasons is all about – “The reality of what all human beings face, in the pursuit of finding love and a life partner”. At the end of season 2, I could not help to wonder considering what Marcus went through to find love was worth all of that pain and suffering for so long? At the very least any viewer of season 2 has to admire Marcus’ ability to stick it out after heartbreaking breakups this many times.

The first and second episodes of the second season are all about Marcus going through the trials and emotional upheaval of a divorce. Then what follows are a series of relationships, arguments, breakups, misunderstandings that are all well-acted throughout all 10 episodes. The stories within these episodes tell all of us what he already know: “there are no guarantees in life, not with how long you will live, or will ever get that great job, live in your dream home, have any money, or ever find love”. Many people continue to try and fail, mainly because they are afraid to be alone or they care so much about what other people think if they decide to stay single. Then there are others of us, who have limited patience in life’s most noble pursuit. For those who get married and stay married their lives will always be better than those who believe that the downside of emotional and financial ruin will never be worth the upside.

The acting in both seasons of Love Life is outstanding as is the writing. I agree with the high 80% ratings for this series and give a solid recommendation.

Hulu Series Review: The Bear

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With Rotten Tomatoes reviews of a rare perfect 100% score, the new Hulu series “The Bear” was a must-see from the start. Jeremy Allen White plays Carmen ‘Carmy’ Berzatto, who takes over his late brothers’ mostly run-down but high quality restaurant in the city of Chicago. Very quickly, within this 8 part Hulu series we see how hard it is to run and work in a restaurant like this. This is about nonstop movement, standing up all day, workers crashing into each other within a crowded kitchen, constant cooking, and cleanup. Never ending pressure to get the food done, always within an impossible time limit. Under conditions like this, people lose their temper, they can get very angry and impatient all the time.

Aside from all of this, the owner of the restaurant – in this case Carmen Berzatto (where the movie title Bear comes from) is in financial peril, trying to pay of huge debts that his brother, who committed suicide left behind. Another mainstay of the restaurant Richard ‘Richie’ Jerimovich played by Ebon Moss-Bachrach creates even more tension in the kitchen with his never ending bad moods and anger over one thing or another. His constant outbursts at times I thought was too over the top, but did create many great moments of solid acting by him, his cousin Carmen and other workers in the kitchen.

The third most important character in this series is Sydney Adamu, played by Ayo Edebiri is an extremely ambitious and intelligent chef at a level that one would wonder why she would want to work in such a run down restaurant. Her ambition causes major conflict in many well acted scenes with both Richard and Carmen and also another chef Tina who is jealous of Syndey’s higher position in the kitchen.

Ultimately all of this outstanding acting and constant movement and conflict over 8 great episodes, including the great food they all make creates huge respect for anyone who works in any high frequented restaurant within any major city in this country. This is very hard work, under huge amounts of pressure 8-12 hours a day, and for more than 5 days a week.

There is a good reason why this series is getting such high marks – it deserves it. I highly recommend The Bear.

Movie Review: Honk for Jesus: Save Your Soul

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Sterling K Brown is arguably, mainly based on his part on “This is Us” one of the best television actors we have ever seen. Unfortunately, at least so far, all of his attempts to parlay his huge television success have failed into making a movie that shows his great acting talent. The reason for this, as far as I have seen, is his choosing horrible parts in movies. His latest choice “Honk for Jesus: Save Your Soul”, where he plays Lee-Curtis Childs an evangelist, seems to be his worse choice yet as this movie is both boring and very bad.

It is hard to believe that any known actor could read a script this bad and still accept this role – regardless of how much money they were being paid. For someone who is as good an actor as Brown, he would be better off turning down roles until something great came his way – rather that continuing the same mistake of taking bad parts in movies. Then if no great dramatic movie role ever comes around, just stick with making television shows. There are rumors that Brown may reprise his role as Randall Pearson from This is US to play the President of the United States, working with the great writer Aaron Sorkin to make a “West Wing” like series. As long as the quality is there, it should not matter whether someone as good as Sterling K Brown is making a movie or a television show.

As far as this bad movie, Regina Hall plays Childs wife Trinitie Childs, and this entire story seems to be some kind of an attempted-Tammy Faye-Jim Baker-comedy-parody, that mostly does not work. There are many scenes where the actors are looking into the camera, trying to be funny, all of them fail. There is an inexplicable scene where Regina Hall has a long speech where she is wearing white face – what were they thinking there?

For me the only good way to see a movie this bad is on streaming using the Peacock service when you can save most of the cost of a movie ticket and see this online. This is a good idea not only for the savings but for the ability to skip past so many bad scenes and bad dialogue.

The IMDB ratings for this movie are a correct 5.1, and the audience ratings on Rotten Tomatoes are also accurate at 26%. For some insane reason the critics are giving this mess a 74% – which once again, makes absolutely no sense. This film is a very solid miss at all costs. Honk for Jesus and save your Money. Watch a documentary about Jim and Tammy Faye Baker instead.