Il Cho’s #Alive dials up the pandemic to the horror level. The virus turns humans into violent, blood-sucking zombies. Once infected, the zombies would look for more humans to attack and spread. This virus makes COVID-19 seems much milder. With COVID-19, you can wear mask and stay home peacefully. It’s a comic relief for quarantining.

Maïmouna Doucouré’s Cuties is a coming-of-age film that has been mistaken for underage sexualization due to Netflix’s botched promotion. It is uncomfortable to watch eleven-year-old girls dancing erotically in their skimpy outfit, but that is the point Doucouré tries to make.

Amy (Fathia Youssouf), an eleven-year-old Senegalese, has the responsibility of looking after her two younger brothers and she must obey the Muslim tradition. Her father is about to marry a second wife and his first wife and kids must welcome them back into their house with a wedding celebration. Amy rebels her family by joining the dance group. She befriends Angelica (Médina El Aidi-Azouni) who is the group’s leader with the resemblance of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Because her parents always busy working at the restaurant, Angelica is left on her own and she is troublesome.

It is about immigrant children growing up in housing apartments. With lack of support from teachers and guidance from parents, they get their influence from the pop culture. It is an eye-opening film that reminds me of Larry Clark’s Kids in the 90s. I hope that Netfilx is not going to pull it.

I enjoyed watching Street Food: Asia with my kids, particular my eight-year-old son who likes to cook. In addition to the mouth-watering dishes, the stories behind the chefs were inspiring. They sold food to survive. They showed up and worked hard everyday. The perfected their craft over the years. Seeing people enjoying their food brought them joy. I definitely biased, but the episode in Sài Gòn, Việt Nam was my personal favorite. I loved snails and enjoyed different dishes of snails.

Spike Jonze’s Her is a romantic love story between a man and his computer. Played by the incredible Joaquin Phoenix, Theodore Twombly was going through a divorce while working as personal-letter writer. His life changed when he installed a new OS and fell in love with an AI, voiced by Scarlett Johansson. Their intimate relationship felt real. The film is both imaginative and moving. I am glad I caught it before Netflix removes it tomorrow.

Jefferies dropped a lot of the c-word in his latest Netflix special. From French cuisine to animal testing to the Millenials to peanut allergy to his own lactose intolerance, Jefferies delivered harsh-yet-hilarious materials throughout the set. He defended the art of comedy. As a comic, Jefferies continues to push the boundary to see how far he can go. He makes the gamble. Sometimes he loses and sometimes he wins. Having watched his previous specials, I was expecting him to roast the cunt in the White House, but he managed to stay away from U.S. politics. Nevertheless, Jefferies can make us laugh for talking shit.

The title of George Lopez’s latest Netflix special based on his snarky tweet on the president; therefore, I expected some heavy-handed criticism on the target. Unfortunately, he only poked a few holes. The materials were not fully developed. Lopez went all over the place from getting old to parenting to the Latin-American community. Lopez used quite a bit of Spanish without bothering to translate or explain. I must have missed half of his half-ass jokes.

I rewatched Reloaded and Revolutions. The special effects and animations on these both films are astonishing. The sex scene in Reloaded was hot. The battle scene in Revolutions was mind-blowing. As for the story and the script, the first one was still superior. I am definitely looking forward to seeing the forth installment in 2022.

Spike Lee’s new joint for Netflix takes four Black-American veterans back to Vietnam to recover their soul and gold. The journey takes on a dark path once they found what they were there for. Lee joined forces Black actors (Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors, Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis, and Isiah Whitlock Jr.) with Vietnamese actors (Johnny Trí Nguyễn, Ngô Thanh Vân, Lê Y Lan, Nguyễn Ngọc Lâm, and Sandy Hương Phạm). Lindo gave an unforgettable performance. He looked so damn menacing in the red MAGA hat. Perhaps you don’t want to fuck with a Black veteran who voted for Trump. It’s missed opportunity with one-sided perspective.

Chappelle is on fire on 8:46, which was his birth time as well as how long George Floyd’s neck was blocked by the police’s knee. Chappelle is thoughtful and provocative on the murder of George Floyd. He calls Laura Ingraham a cunt and calls out the stupidity of Candace Owens. I have not seen any living comedians can speak their minds like Chappelle. Given his status in the comedy world, I respect him even more. He’s a comic who does not afraid to speak the truth and he does not back down whether you agree with him or not.

I rewatched The Matrix last night after 21 years. The first time I watched it in a theater I did not understand what the heck they were talking about. My English was still pretty limited back then. The dialogs make more sense to me the second time around; therefore, I enjoyed it immensely.