Brief reviews #7

Here are a few brief reviews of some of the things I have been watching and reading lately.

Movies/TV series

• Adults (2025): A light comedy. There are some really funny episodes in the first season, and if you are looking for a show that is a good mix of Friends and Girls but set in 2025, this is most likely a show for you. I will be watching the second season.
• Affeksjonsverdi (2025): I have not seen a bad movie by Joachim Trier yet, and this one is another great movie (it is impressive how consistent he is in making great movies). The plot is strong (albeit with some minor weaknesses) but what makes this movie stand out is the stellar performances by Renate Reinsve and Stellan Skarsgård.
• All of You (2024): I am not sure whether I would have enjoyed this movie more if I had watched Soulmates prior to this movie. The universe and in particular the nature of the so-called test is underdeveloped in this movie, and I do not really care about any of the interactions between the characters. It is also fair to conclude now that Brett Goldstein is not a good actor, or he is only able to play one type of role.
• Alles is liefde (2007): Love Actually but with Sinterklaas instead of Christmas. If you thought Love Actually has aged like milk, you have yet to see this movie. This is a movie that will only get more interesting with time as a testament to how much Dutch culture and norms have changed since 2007. I can highly recommend watching this movie with Dutch people. No need to watch it if you are not familiar with Sinterklaas or Dutch culture.
• Amsterdam Narcos (2025): A documentary in three episodes, each zooming in on a decade and the drug of popular demand and supply in that decade. I would have liked a better connection between the three episodes, and the main challenge is that each episode focuses too much on a few characters (and I am not sure how credible former criminals are as sources). The documentary is a bit too dramatised and I would have appreciated if they just spoke Dutch throughout (and only the actual English-speaking criminals speak English). As the port of Rotterdam in many ways is crucial to understand the drug trade in the Netherlands and Europe in the period of interest, I am sure they could have come up with a better title than Amsterdam Narcos.
• Captain America: The First Avenger (2011): A generic movie within multiple genres. I do not mind a superhero origin story in the context of the Second World War, and while it might be one of the better MCU movies, it is still pretty bad. Only of interest for the MCU completionists.
• Caught Stealing (2025): I was looking forward to this movie. Darren Aronofsky making a dark comedy with Austin Butler. There are some funny scenes but it is not a great movie. It is not working as a mainstream action movie (a la Guy Ritchie) and the problem is primarily with the screenplay. Can safely be ignored.
• Den sidste viking (2025): Overrated. Such a bland movie. The worst thing about the movie is how little has changed since movies such as Blinkende lygter, De grønne slagtere, and Adams æbler. This movie is not worse than any of these movies per se, but it is obvious how this movie has not kept up with the times. That being said, it is hugely popular in Denmark and critics seem to like it. I don't get it.
• Den sista resan (2024): A Swedish documentary about a son taking his dad on a roadtrip to France. There are a lot of good scenes but I disliked the staged scenes (e.g., the monologue-interrupted-by-train scene and the road rage scene). Specifically, there are a few scenes that make this a much weaker movie than it could have been.
• Dictator - The Hitler Interviews (2025): A miniseries in three episodes. The first episode, 'Populist', is about the rise of Hitler. The second episode, 'Tyrant', is about the success. The third episode, 'Fanatic', is about the downfall. There are clips from a lot of interviews I have not seen before, so unless you have already watched a tremendous amount of Second World War documentaries, you will most likely find this documentary interesting.
• Drømmer (2024): One of the best movies I have seen in 2025. Much better than the first movie in the trilogy. There is a strong plot (with a great amount of voice-over monologue), beautiful Scandinavian architecture and design (with some of the best staircases you will see in any movie), religious symbolism (again, a lot of staircases), and brilliant acting. A must watch.
• Empire of Light (2022): The most interesting thing about this movie is to see how Margate today can easily be used as the setting for Margate in the 80s. It is interesting because it says a lot about nostalgia and deprivation in the UK today. Alas, the psychological drama of the movie is one-dimensional and there is no reason whatsoever to watch this movie. A rare miss from Sam Mendes.
• Eojjeolsuga eobsda (2025): A great dark comedy. Highly recommended if you liked Park Chan-wook's other movies. There is a lot to unpack here on identity and career, and especially what it means to have 'no other choice' in a corporate environment (cf., the title of the movie). The humour would have worked a bit better for me if the movie was, say, 15 minutes shorter.
• Fast & Furious 7 (2015): Unsurprisingly, a bad movie. A waste of time. It has not aged well. No need to reflect any further upon this so-called movie.
• Good Boy (2025): An Indy movie. The concept of the movie is interesting, and while I am not saying that it is impossible to make a good supernatural horror movie with a dog in the leading role, the movie does fall under its own concept. Only recommended if you truly care about movies with dogs.
• Hjem kære hjem (2025): The best Danish movie of 2025. We follow a home carer and her interactions with the people at her job, both her colleagues and the elderly clients. Of course, there are specific external (workplace) and internal (family) struggles throughout the course of the movie for the protagonist to deal with. While not necessarily subtle, I did enjoy how the repetition of certain behaviours slowly changed throughout the movie to emphasise the well-paced progression in the plot. Again, if you only watch one Danish movie from 2025, this one should most likely be it.
• How to Train Your Dragon (2025): Better than expected (which says more about my expectations). It is nowhere as good as the original animated movie from 2010 (which is something you can say about most live action remakes of animated movies). The animated movie works a lot better as a coming-of-age story for everybody, whereas this version is more of a family movie for kids.
• I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson (2019): I think you should ... watch this. It is full of weird sketches and some of them are too strange for my liking, but each episode is only around 15 minutes and when it is funny, it is really funny.
• Kjærlighet (2024): I was expecting Drømmer to be the best in the Oslo trilogy, but Kjærlighet is the strongest of the three movies. I found the conversations between the characters engaging throughout. You can easily watch this movie without seeing any other movie in the trilogy, though I would recommend watching both Drømmer and Kjærlighet. Yet another confirmation that we see more great movies from Norway than from Denmark these years.
• Miraklet i Gullspång (2023): If you are into documentaries, you should definitely watch this one. I am not saying it is a good documentary, and if anything I would recommend this movie because it is a 'bad' documentary. The movie not only leaves you with lots of unanswered questions, but also questions about the questions. A traditional documentary would do proper research and dig into the historical archives to pursue the truth. In this documentary, any attempt to get closer to the truth only makes people wish the truth was different, and one truth is replaced or contradicted by another, without any redemption. It looks like the director has no interest at all in exploring the details, and any details explored and presented are out of context (but we lack the context to evaluate that, most clearly in the final statement being presented in the movie). I am not saying that the movie deliberately obfuscates the facts, but it is a bit frustrating to watch.
• Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (2025): Excruciating to watch. The movie is full of exposition with several unnecessary flashbacks to the previous movies. A few good set pieces, but the movie is among the worst in the M:I series (if not the worst). Rewatch some of the fantastic M:I movies instead of this one.
• Mr. Nobody Against Putin (2025): How is it being a street-level bureaucrat in the time of war? This documentary follows a teacher in Russia after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and how the school is expected to teach a specific narrative. I did not find the involvement of the teacher in the life of his students particularly interesting in this setting, and I would have liked for the movie to go into much greater detail with the actual practicalities of how the education system works.
• Mr. Scorsese (2025): A great documentary series about Martin Scorsese. The documentary goes through the life and career in a chronological order with a perfect balance between the art and the personal, making it clear that such a distinction makes little sense if we are to understand the movies of Scorsese, from Mean Streets and Taxi Driver to The Irishman.
• National Theatre Live: Leopoldstadt (2022): Tom Stoppard's final play (RIP). The play is 2 hours and 30 minutes but it feels like a lot less. The story is about a Jewish community in Vienna before and after the two World Wars. The writing is superb. The scenography is brilliant and especially the lighting works well in bringing the story and emotions to life. The editing is also great in a way that makes you appreciate watching a recording of the play.
• Nikita (1990): Premise over plot. Style over substance. I would be a lot more sympathetic towards the shortcomings of the movie (and there are a lot!) if this movie was from 1970 and not 1990.
• Nobody Wants This (2024): The second season is ... typical Netflix. A waste of time. Ignore it. The first season was more than fine, and there was absolutely no reason at all for this second season. I do not intend to watch the third season.
• Now You See Me: Now You Don't (2025): I had low expectations for this movie, primarily because I found the first two movies bad (the expectations were even lower when I saw the full title of this movie). The main problem with this movie is that it assumes that I should care about the characters from the first two movies and a new set of characters. Too many cooks, etc. The most annoying thing about the movie is that it wants the characters to be punk and anti-capitalistic, and yet they end up in Abu Dhabi. Well, the irony is not lost on me.
• Sisu 2 (2025): If you liked the first movie and enjoy over-the-top one-person army action movies with nothing but pain and blood, this might be for you. I did not see a reason for a sequel after having watched the first movie, and after having watched this movie, I am even less convinced.
• Sweet and Lowdown (1999): This was the most recent movie from Woody Allen that I haven't seen. It has all the trademarks of a Woody Allen comedy. Neurotic men, snappy dialogue, jazz, slapstick comedy, etc. Alas, a good performance by Sean Penn aside, there is nothing here that sets this movie apart. And, as a general rule, it is never a good sign for the plot in a Woody Allen movie when there are gangsters.
• The Celebrity Traitors (2025): I watched an episode of 'Deal or No Deal' the other day. It was depressing to hear a contestant talk about how much £5,000 would mean to them. Similarly, in The Celebrity Traitors, celebrities are expected to be impressed by a few thousands. I know it is for charity, but when the net worth of some of these celebrities participating in the show are in the millions, you do see that they are indeed good actors. That being said, I enjoyed everything about this show when it was not about the tasks and the prize pool. Jonathan Ross is great as a traitor (no spoilers), and I would not mind a second season.
• The New Yorker at 100 (2025): A love letter to The New Yorker due to the 100th anniversary of the magazine. I value my subscription to The New Yorker and this documentary gives a good overview of what makes The New Yorker unique and worth reading.
• The Offer (2022): A show about the making of The Godfather. I have read Mario Puzo's book and watched all The Godfather movies (including the 1977 miniseries), so it goes without saying that I found the show interesting to watch. What I liked about the show is that while there of course is a lot of focus on the writer and the director (as there always is when we discuss movies), the focus here is on the producer, Albert S. Ruddy. I am not sure how much of it is true, and if it is, if it happened in the way depicted here (I doubt it).
• Twinless (2025): An amazing movie striking a great balance between drama and comedy. Most likely the best dark comedy of the year. There is no need to read about the plot or anything, just watch it.
• Wake Up Dead Man (2025): I liked the previous movies in the Knives Out series more than this one. This is a great movie, but not for me. It feels like you will get a lot more out of it upon a second or third watch, but there is nothing in the movie that makes me want to watch it again.
• Wick Is Pain (2025): 'It hurts so good.' If you like the John Wick movies, this one is worth checking out. The chemistry between Chad Stahelski and Keanu Reeves is great. John Wick 4 is one of the best IMAX experiences you can ask for, and this documentary makes you appreciate and understand the action sequences in the movies even more.
• Wicked: Part I (2024): A beautiful movie but way too long. Upon watching this movie you are left with the feeling that they should be able to tell the full story within three hours and not have to split it into two parts. Ariana Grande is doing a fine job but her role is one-dimensional and stupid (even for musical standards).
• Yek tasadef sadeh (2025): Jafar Panahi is one of the most interesting contemporary directors. This movie is amazing but you do need to know a bit about Iran if you are to get the most out of this movie. It is at the same level of Taxi, and as with many Iranian movies, a lot of the action takes place in and around cars. Definitely recommended.

Books

• Brilliant Maps for Curious Minds: 100 New Ways to See the World by Ian Wright: There are some good maps in this book but I would not call them brilliant. I acknowledge that there is a coherent design throughout the book, but I would have liked for the book to explore more different ways to present numbers and data. Most of these maps are also about countries. Only recommended if you care a lot about spatial data visualisation to the extent where you collect these kinds of books.
• Coding with AI: Examples in Python by Jeremy Morgan: A decent introduction to coding with LLMs. The main issue is that there is too much emphasis on specific examples rather than general principles. The focus on commercial solutions such as Tabnine and Blackbox AI makes sense, but I would rather have liked to see a lot more attention to open source tools (such as working with MCPs). Furthermore, too much space is wasted on showing code and there is no need to demonstrate multiple times how to activate a virtual environment in Python (on Windows, Linux and Mac every time). The final chapter on Cursor is also not adding any value that could not have been demonstrated in Visual Studio Code.
• Every Day I Read: 53 Ways to Get Closer to Books by Hwang Bo-Reum: A collection of essays on reading (and writing about) books. I guess for most people picking up this book it will be preaching to the choir but I did not find it engaging. There are no original thoughts on how, what, when or why to read in this book. The only nice thing I can say about this book is that it was easy to get through.
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling: The penultimate book in the Harry Potter series. It is difficult to say what I liked about this book without getting into the spoilers, so I will just say that I believe this is one of the best books in the series, if not the best.
• Hold da kræft mand: En sørgmunter beretning om livet med prostatakræft by Hans Jakob Helms: A personal memoir of the author's experience with prostate cancer. I got some new insights from reading this book, but I had much higher expectations of how much I would get out of it. The personal reflections are quite trivial. An easy read without too much substance.
• Ingram by Louis C.K.: Louis C.K. trying to write an American classic - and failing. It is not a good book by any standards. I would be surprised if the author decides to write another book with a similar style, but if he does, count me out.
• New Teeth: Stories by Simon Rich: Such a funny book! Not all the short stories work well, but mostly because I do not get the context or the premise of the story. The ones where I do are brilliant. My two favourite stories in this collection are Chip and Clobbo. Recommended.
• Notre-Dame: A Short History of the Meaning of Cathedrals by Ken Follett: A very brief book on Notre-Dame de Paris written in the days after the fire in 2019. I visited the cathedral recently after it reopened and I guess I would find it more impressive if I was a Catholic. The place has a strong 'exit through the gift shop' vibe. Luckily, this book made me appreciate Notre-Dame more and better understand the history and culture of the cathedral.
• Om at opleve design by Thomas Dickson: This is a great book for everybody into the design of everyday objects, and in particular Danish design. And if you are not into design, this book will most likely succeed in making you interested.
• Stil består: Om tøj til mænd by Torsten Grunwald: An introduction to menswear and style. A good primer if you want to think a bit more about what to wear (and how and when). Several pictures and illustrations throughout to show the main points.
• The GitHub Copilot Handbook: A practical guide to transforming the software development life cycle with GitHub Copilot by Rob Bos and Randy Pagels: A good primer on using GitHub Copilot. The focus is primarily on VS Code, but with several other examples (including how to use the Copilot CLI). I guess the main concern is how much of this information will be relevant in a year from now. That is, I expect a lot of the details in this book to be outdated rather soon. I liked that each chapter included a lot of 'best practices' and 'common pitfalls to avoid', making it easy to get through the main points of the book. There are also some good examples on GitHub integration (including letting GitHub Copilot work as a reviewer on PRs), but mostly material that can also be picked up from simply following good AI workflow blogs and tutorials.
• Ultimate Spider-Man, Vol. 1: Married With Children by Jonathan Hickman: I got into this due to the premise. Peter Parker is not Spider-Man. Or, he gets married to MJ and has two kids prior to becoming Spider-Man. I enjoyed this one but towards the end it seemed more like a generic Spider-Man story in the making. Accordingly, I have no plans of continuing with the other volumes in the series.
• World Cup Wishes by Eshkol Nevo: A book about friendship recommended by a good friend. A group of friends decide to write down their dreams, hopes, and wishes for the next four years (during the World Cup) with the explicit aim of revising the wishes during the next World Cup. Unsurprisingly, a lot of things happen during four years. While I enjoyed the book I couldn't escape the feeling that certain things that make the book funny were lost in translation (from Hebrew to English).