Author: Lucy

This award-winning documentary follows the apprenticeship of a small group of interns as they learn culinary skills and wisdom through one of the best restaurants in the world, Mugaritz. It is a Michelin-starred kitchen, under the world renowned Chef Andoni Luis Aduriz. The documentary reveals the inner workings of a restaurant such as this, and the difficult, risky journey these interns have embarked on.

I am excited to see this documentary because I love watching highly rated chefs and kitchens in action, especially when they are showing new chefs the ropes. I hope I can also pick up some cooking skills on the way as well!

The documentary is available through the Michigan Theater, in their Virtual Theater Palace. The movie is $12 to rent, and less for members. Watch it here: https://www.michtheater.org/screenings/stage-the-culinary-internship/

Soul, released on December 25th, is the newest movie by Disney-Pixar, available exclusively on the Disney Plus platform. Unfortunately, I do not think it lived up to the Pixar standard, and was much more sub-par than most Pixar films.

While I didn’t think it was that superb of a movie, Soul definitely had its shining moments. I loved the interesting and clever representation of the Great Beyond (and Great Before), and I thought the all-powerful “beings” that controlled the after/before life that were so cute and well-designed. In fact, I think one of the movie’s strongest elements was its animation design. The characters were so richly different, when black cartoon characters are often overlooked or stereotypical. I loved all the different face shapes, hair, bodies, and voices, and I loved that basically the entire human cast was black, and the movie was not centered around their blackness in any way. That is not something you often get from a movie-making monopoly like Disney. Also, the design of the afterworld and the afterworld beings were awesome, especially the “god” figures, who were made up of abstract lines, and could travel along the lines of other things, which was so clever. And the unborn souls were basically little blobs that bounced around everywhere, so the element of adorable that is a key part of any Disney movie was kept intact.

However, I definitely think the movie had several flaws. For one, I was left with quite a bit of confusion and questions about the theme of the movie when it was over. The movie’s climax is when the main character differentiates between his “spark” and his “purpose”, which is never really elaborated on enough to be clear to viewers. They sort of make this differentiation at the end of the movie, but it is very much glossed over. I feel like if I had trouble understanding the main theme and point of the movie, then it is going to go right over the heads of the intended audience, mainly young children. While the movie was definitely adorable, I did not find that it had much meaning when it boiled down to the storyline and overall message. I know it was a Disney movie, but I feel like they usually have a bit more substance and meaning than this one did. I also thought the movie had such a good opportunity to display some fantastic jazz, and while they did have some, I thought it was a mediocre amount and quality. The movie could have had a ton more music, and they could have used recognizable tunes to make it more broadly relatable as well.

In conclusion, I thought the movie was cute and clever, but the plot line and theme were a little weak. I would recommend if you really enjoy Disney movies and were probably going to watch it anyway, but I would definitely not place this up there with some of the much better Pixar movies that have been released in the past.

Soul is the newest movie from Disney-Pixar, and came out on December 25th on Disney Plus. The cast is stacked, including Daveed Diggs, Jamie Foxx, and Tina Fey. The movie stars a middle-school band teacher who is still searching for his purpose concerning jazz music, which is his true passion and talent. But when he travels to another realm to help someone else with their passion, he finds himself along the way. Probably. This is a Disney movie after all.

If there is no singing in this movie by Daveed Diggs I think you all know what my review will look like, because that would be a waste of his talent. Otherwise, I am very excited to see how this much-anticipated movie turns out!

Watch it on Disney Plus here: https://movies.disney.com/soul

From the beginning of the show, I feel as though Big Mouth has had an important balance of comedy and real-ness. I think they have done a great job tackling some important topics that apply to kids in middle school, but also beyond middle school, especially in this new season.

This new season integrates a few more monsters like the anxiety mosquito, the recurrence of the depression kitty, and the gratitude toad. I loved this transition to more monsters and consequently more emotional difficulties, as the show becomes more complex. The writers did a great job of portraying the different monsters accurately as well, which I very much appreciated. The anxiety mosquito was horribly accurate, and I really related to each character as they were overtaken by its thoughts. I thought it was so clever that they had the depression kitty and anxiety mosquito work together too, as it is so true that depression and anxiety go hand in hand. But my favorite new monster was definitely the grati-toad, who helped several of the main characters, especially Jessie, to see what they were grateful for in their lives. I was  so excited to see a more positive “monster”, especially one that could possibly provide insight to viewers as well.

I also enjoyed the students being in different locations other than school this season. I think a lot of new interesting characters were introduced when the core cast went to sleep away camp, and through that medium were able to cover such important topics like transgender issues, more interesting problems with friends, and getting a period for the first time. Missy also had a huge transformation, and learned to embrace her blackness, which was an issue that I really didn’t know more about and loved watching.

I did, however, notice much less of the parents in this season, which I thought was disappointing as they were all very fun characters. I also wish there was more of Coach Steve. Well, I always want there to be more of Coach Steve. Another thing that I did not love was that there was more singing, and it wasn’t particularly funny or good. It was almost like they were trying too hard to make them sound like real songs, so that people would enjoy them, but by doing so actually made them less interesting, even if they were more “real” sounding. But I would say that was really the only thing that got worse in this season. I didn’t even like the inclusion of songs in the first place, so that was a bit disappointing, but the fact that everything else was great made the songs more bearable.

Overall, I think the new season did very well at building upon the show and continuing to be fresh, raunchy, and poignant. I cannot wait to see what other misadventures the Big Mouth crew has in the next season, and I think I’ve been inspired to watch the whole show over again!

Big Mouth Season 4 follows our classic cast as they experience summer camp, the first few weeks of school, and several new kinds of “monsters” that come along with being a teen. The season contains 10 episodes, about 20 minutes each, and they are all available now on Netflix. If you are a fan of Big Mouth, be sure to catch this new season!

I am excited to watch this season because I love this show so much. I think it does a great job representing lots of different experiences that people went through around middle school times, and also has hilarious and completely inappropriate jokes. What could be better? I can’t wait to enjoy this newest season!

Watch it on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/80117038

Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller is a new documentary series presented by National Geographic, following Mariana, a reporter, as she goes into dangerous black markets and interviews the people who profit from them. She explores how these people get their goods, the scammers’ motivations, and the inner workings of the trafficking world from multiple different points of view. The show premiers new episodes every Wednesday at 9/8c. So far, in this first season, only the first episode has come out. But it has got me hooked already!

Mariana goes into the inner world of scamming, in Jamaica and in Israel. In Jamaica, she learns how people get rich quick by phone calls telling people they won a new car, or millions of dollars, if they just send a deposit to the person doing the scam. And, not surprisingly, many of their victims who actually fall for it are older, white, American people. Mariana talks to several different scammers, women and men, who hide their faces and have their voices distorted so as not to be recognized by the police force that specifically hunts down those who scam. What was interesting to me was that a lot of the Jamaican people explained that they felt they were getting reparations that they never received from their people being enslaved, used, and not taken care of by the United States, which I think is a pretty solid argument. They also said that it is a really easy way to make money, as high-paying jobs, or really, any jobs at all, are somewhat scarce. It was very intriguing, and Mariana also commented on this, that the people who scam and take thousands of dollars from others do not seem remorseful or guilty at all. In fact, some of them even seem proud of what they do.

In Israel, Mariana investigates a different kind of scamming- fake stocks. Many undercover companies, sitting in plain sight in the hubbub of Tel Aviv, set up a very legitimate looking website and convince people to invest in stocks that do not exist. As soon as it seems like the people will not put in any more money, the company disappears from communications and keeps the money for themselves. One man who is interviewed explains that he knows what he is doing is wrong, but he is so entrenched in the company and knows so much that if he were to try to leave, he would probably be killed. Mariana goes undercover in this half of the episode, and pretends to interview for a job at one of the scamming companies. From her hidden camera, we see the boss tell her that she does not need any experience in finance, just a strong want to make a lot of money, and proceeds to boast about the thousands of dollars she will make in a month.

This first episode was extremely interesting, and gave insight into a world I had never known anything about. I cannot wait to see what other dark corners of the world she explores and what else will be unearthed!

Watch the first episode here:  https://www.nationalgeographic.com/tv/shows/trafficked-with-mariana-van-zeller