The Leverton Review

  This is a highly-intelligent dumb animated comedy for adults that manages to be funny and bittersweet. It isn't as dark as Bojack Horseman because the characters obviously do not exist in our world, both in terms of the plot, and plausibility. Archer, the main character is hard to describe. He's not a good person, but he has a good heart. He's not a smart person, but he makes obscure references to the inventor or discoverer of things which leads one to suspect he is incredibly well-read. He counts bullets and suffers from tinnitus, which you would expect from someone who has guns repeated discharged near his ears. The other characters are not well-rounded, but hilarious. The comedy is literate, and absurd. The plots are barely relevant. There are moments of emotional truth-when Katya and Barry end up together and the shot is of the emptiness in their eyes, but the show never takes joy from you, like Bojack Horseman does, and the animation, I don't know how they do it,...

 It is a truism that human beings are irrational creatures. In the 1970s,  a serial killer was active in Yorkshire. He killed any kind of woman who was unfortunate enough to come across him. Because of few of his early victims were rumoured to be prostitutes (they were not) he was dubbed by the local press the Yorkshire Ripper. And this was where the police wasted years looking for a completely different suspect. They said he was a prostitute killer, so other attacks were not investigated. A man sent a tape to a newspaper claiming credit for the murders, and he had a Geordie accent, so the numerous times women were attacked by a man with a Yorkshire accent were also discounted. The police in Yorkshire had a limited understanding of the world, and through that limited understanding they tried to catch a serial killer and made the situation much worse. It is not that they didn't catch him. The investigation that they lead was so disorganized and misguided that it allowed him to ...

 If you do any reading at all on the history of American policing, something shocking quickly becomes apparent. The police have always been an instrument of social control, and the laws that they enforce are those that benefit the power structures. This might seem like a socialist fantasy until you realize that the institution of American policing grew out of slave patrols in the South and protection rackets in the North. Keeping the blacks, and the immigrants in a lower position in society allowed the capitalist classes to exploit them. In 1968, the working and academic classes joined in a revolutionary movement to stop an imperialist war, and to fight for equality in American society. This was met everywhere with a violent reaction. The film begins as a courtroom drama-the protagonists are introduced and after about ten minutes of montage to set up who they are and what they represent the trial begins. The charge is that 8 anti-war activists crossed state lines to start a riot at...

 This should be prefaced with a disclaimer. I hate musicals. The only bearable one is Chicago. That being said this is a really horrible film. The plot is that a girl wants to take another girl to prom and the PTA reacts by cancelling prom. It seems strange that they found this out at all because is there a list of dates you can take to a prom? Maybe....my prom was centuries ago. So this fact is discovered by two washed up Broadway actors-one played by Meryl Streep and the other played by the actor who plays the gay stereotype in Modern Family. He does not stretch his acting chops much in this film. The songs are jarring and the plot is boring-so boring. I think this is the first review where I'm going to give it a zero. 0/5. 

  This film is a scathing indictment of the American justice system, and the French political establishment. One day, a maid is sexually assaulted in one of Manhattan's most luxurious hotels, by one of the world's most powerful men. The case seems pretty straightforward. The man, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the president of the IMF, with a history of sexual assault, attacked the maid. The New York police gathered the evidence, but it quickly became clear that Kahn could use all of his financial power to discredit the victim. She was accused of making it up, being unreliable and a prostitute. The prosecutor's office dropped the charges and did very little investigation of his background. If they had, they would have discovered that he was the person who lacked credibility (one of his victims had even been on television saying that he had attacked her)-of course, that was in French-so why bother investigating? Kahn's political career was ruined, but he served no time in jail,...

 This Netflix series takes a playful look at the various odd sports around the world. The favourite moment for me would be the dog dancing competition. The sheer ridiculousness of it is quite amusing. But don't expect anything too deep. 2/5.

 Sure this film is racist, sexist, homophobic and transphobic, but it's funny. It's always a problem when the standards of today are applied to art from a different age-and even though Eddie Murphy is still alive, this is definitely a classic from a different age. I'm sure the sight of Arsenio Hall in drag cracked up audiences in the 1980s, but the funniest parts of this film are when Akeem meets the woman he supposed to marry and it is clear they have different ideas of an ideal relationship. The other part is when he tells his new boss he knows how to use a mop-and it is quite clear that he does not. It is a quietly revolutionary idea that Akeem is out of touch not because he comes from poor Africa (the Americans always assume this), but because he comes from riches. Parts of it are genius, and parts of it are cringe- 4/5.

  This is the first movie I have reviewed for this project...because I have always thought that watching a movie is more of a social thing, and watching a tv show is something that I can do by myself. I know, that's a little bit weird. Anyway, after a very boring weekend, I decided to give this movie a try. I thought that the movie could be fun in a Wonder Woman kind of way....it had the potential to be a great idea-a kid turns into a man and a superhero at the same time. The execution was rather weak. The lead did a good job, but I don't see why every superhero has to save the world. What happened to just dealing with criminal masterminds?  Even Batman has been sucked into the void of world defending. That's the problem with Superman. Obviously he has the power to save the world...and you know he's going to...so where's the drama. It's the same with this story arc. There's no drama.  A few cute moments, but nothing more. 2/5

  This is a show for adults about kids written by adults who remember what it was like growing up. The characters are obsessed with sex, and think about it a lot more than they actually have it. They have problems with depression, anxiety and hormones and the show doesn't shy away from this. The characters also have to deal with divorce, being gay, bisexual and biracial. It is a show that some would write off as 'woke', but I think it captures the real diversity of life. A gay child comes out to his mom, who he has a very close relationship with, and she rejects him. He comes out to his more distant father, and he is totally cool with it. The characters are absurd, and yet so realistic. It's like Family Guy, but funny.  There are moments when I'm not paying attention, and suddenly-a gigantic laugh. 5/5

  This is a speculative documentary that attempts to show how different environments would affect evolution on different planets. It's a great idea, but I think they spent all of their budget on the graphics, which were bad and paltry. Paltry because each planet (there are four or five episodes) had only two or three scenes that repeated. It would be better to focus on one planet, and show how life could develop there, and how evolution could play out differently. The talking heads on the show were much more interesting, especially the guy who says we should be trying to make contact with aliens all the time, because if they were really threatened by us, they would have killed us already. The most disappointing episode was the last, an attempt to show a technologically advanced species. They are just neurons in a box. Robots and A. I. do everything for them. There's a throw away line about them becoming one mind and working as one...but what would the point be? To live in a box...

  A doctor and her comedian husband explain some of the weirdest things we used to do to treat illnesses. The tagline is don't drill a hole in your head. Episodes are 45 mins long. 5/5.

  Famous author Malcolm Gladwell's (the tipping point) podcast about looking at history from a different perspective. It's interesting but his voice is annoying. Episodes are under 45 minutes. 2/5.

  Leading British experts on a particular historical subject talk for about forty minutes.  From the BBC. 3/5.

  This is from the BBC, and it takes a country, like Germany, or Italy, and it shows how that country was created, often by examining little stories. The narrator is very British, and I learned a lot from it. Episodes are about twenty minutes. 4/5.

  This is an epic history podcast, but the host is entertaining and informative. He takes one topic, like for example the First World War, and he does about ten episodes on the topic. Episodes are about 5 hours long, so it's more like listening to a book than a podcast. 5/5.

  A podcast that examines the hidden stories of some of history's worst people. The host is Robert Evans, an author and journalist, and the format is that he invites comedians on the podcast and reads to them a biography on the subject. He's talked about people who everyone's heard of like Hitler, but also lesser known people, like a woman who went to Africa and pretended to be a doctor. The episodes are quite long, over an hour, and usually each 'bastard' is given two episodes.  I think it's funny, but sometimes it's like listening to some buddies who are drinking. 3/5.

People bring cases to a comedy judge, and he passes judgement with humor and wit. A pleasant listen. You probably won’t learn anything, and you probably won’t guffaw, but it’s a pleasant enough time. Episodes vary in length. 4/5.  

  An improvised podcast about the crew of a spaceship in a very unimportant part of space. Very funny. It is crazy that it is all improvised.  Each episode is about 30 mins. 5/5.

  A Canadian comedian and writer tries to solve other people's problems with various levels of success. It is autobiographical and manages to be sweet and funny at the same time. Each episode is about forty-five minutes. 3/5.

  This was a sitcom that was in syndication throughout much of my teenage years, so it was part of the background, like Cheers. I realized on this watch through that I had only watched the first two seasons of it. On rewatching it, a bunch of thoughts flowed through my mind. The most frequent was that this is a very bizarre sitcom. It begins as a typical fish out of water comedy-the ghetto vs the successful black family. But it often strays deep into the area of civil rights and what it means to be a black person in America. Carleton gets rejected by a fraternity because he’s not the ‘right’ sort of black person. The relationship between Carleton and Will eventually becomes the emotional heart of the series. There are a bunch of wacky sitcom hijinx- at one point Will jumps out of a plane as it is about to crash, and somehow survives. Will is portrayed as somehow goofy and yet irresistible for the ladies.  That doesn’t make any sense.  I don’t doubt he’d find a girlfriend,...