Indie TV Series Showcase: Real Acting (2019)

We’re definitely living in the golden age of TV shows. It is enough to check out something like Mindhunter and see what David Fincher can do when he’s given 10 hours instead of two. But, the same golden age applies to indie creators and other genres as well. This is why today, a TV show like Real Acting is not just theoretically possible, but something that already has its full first season. Here’s how the show describes itself:

An out-of-luck acting teacher assembles a colorful cast of wannabe actors for his unique method of coaching in this comedy mockumentary series.

The director of the show, Bron Theron, clearly pulled a lot of inspiration from his own career. As an actor who got his first credit in 2005, he worked plenty behind the camera as well as in front of it. Now, in Real Acting, he used a simple premise of a modest acting school, equipped with a small stage and an even smaller auditorium, to offer his numerous character (and talented actors) a place to do everything and anything actors in training go through.

Over-the-top and obviously focused on exploring all the absurdity, talent, drive and despair to succeed, Theron created a series that is a must-watch not only for aspiring actors but anyone who is into minimalist indie comedy. If this appeals to the thespian inside of you, watch the entire first season of Real Acting right now on Amazon Prime.

Two-Paragraph Review: The Operative (2019)

It would be hard to argue that The Operative is not a very flawed movie. The biggest issue among all of those is it loses focus that easily shifts from Diane Kruger as the main character, a woman who slowly becomes a more and more important Mossad agent, and everyone else, who are basically not relevant. The same is true for the time frame in which the movie takes place and here it is hard to gauge what is when, but not in a good, mysterious way.

However, The Operative is also a very good movie. It offers a textured experience that is loaded with different levels of interpretation, looking from a geopolitical standpoint. At moments, it is also lightning-fast in its violence as well. Lastly, its director, Yuval Adler, does a wonderful job with the movie's ending, offering one of the main reasons for the film's relatively low score on most audience-based aggregators. For a spy drama set in the modern world, this film is what we need - a complex and hard-to-understand tale that is potentially unclear even to those who told it.

Watch Now: The Bachelor Party (2018)

Some movies simply ask to we viewed and enjoyed them with a group of friends over a Friday and Saturday night. The same viewing is even better if it includes some food, a few snacks, a drink or two and a whole lot of laughter and a good time. Fortunately, The Bachelor Party offers all of this and a chance to do it all for free, right now! The entire movie is available on YouTube in full HD and anyone can watch it right now. This parody merges romantic reality TV and spy films in one hilarious, fun and celebrity-filled gem ideal for a movie night.

The story follows Shawn "The Showstopper" Valentino, who is the world's most famous Batchelor. However, when his hero-figure passes away, Valentino has to make a choice - get serious with one of his numerous girlfriends or keep living the carefree lifestyle of an eternal bachelor.

Now, besides a whole lot of attractive actors and actresses and plenty of bathing suits as the film's main costume, The Bachelor Party has some insane cameos. In it, you can see Nina Hartley, the iconic porn actress with a decades-long career, always stunning former WWE Diva Shelly Martinez and none other than Marla Maples, the former wife of the current US President Donald Trump. To make the sheer appeal of the movie even bigger, the soundtrack features Snoop Dogg with his main theme California Party.

So, if you're up for some laughs and a good time, check out the entire The Bachelor Party right here!

Two-Paragraph Movie Review: I am Mother (2019)

Similar to Ex Machina, this film has a strong start and quickly establishes itself as a hardcore science fiction work of art. In the world of the distant future, humanity is gone and everything that is left is a bank of frozen embryos, run by an AI and its robotic manifestation. It unfreezes one of these and allows it to gestate into a baby, starting then to care for it as - you guessed it - Mother. The child grows and it is nurtured and attended for by Mother, but in this critical teenage years, the same girl sees her universe drastically change: a human survival appears on the door of their bunker.

The movie takes expected twist and turns from that point and while they are by no means badly done, they are also not much food for thought a hardcore sci-fi film should carry with it. In the last third of the film, the entire notion of the basic emotional triangle becomes strained and somewhat redundant as the girl faces an ever-dropping affection for both the survivor and Mother. In a similar way the movie ends - not with a bang, but with a hint of smart narrative design, but also one that never got a chance to gestate.