EDITORIAL: Enjoy the ultimate binging experience with the best Netflix Tips for 2021

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Enjoy the ultimate binging experience with the best Netflix Tips for 2021

With more than 200 million active subscribers, Netflix has so much in store for the next coming months. Here are some of the best shows you can expect on Netflix in the next few weeks, ranging from reimagined fairy tales to raucous comedies.

Tribes of Europa

Set to be released on February 19, hopes are high for this sci-fi German TV series set in the post-apocalypse period of 2074. The show follows three siblings who are caught up in a deadly war after discovering a much-coveted cube. This six-episode series stars familiar faces, including James Faulkner, which may convince a wider audience to tune in.

Shadow and Bone

If you are looking for a show to look out for in April, Shadow and Bone is set to be released on April 23 and is an adaptation of two young adult novels into a TV show. This is an epic tale that follows a newly discovered superhero on her quest to save her dark world. For this TV show, Shadow and Bone transports the spies, soldiers and sharpshooters from the Six of Crows trilogy. Some familiar faces include Ben Barnes, who plays commander and Jessie Mei Li plays an orphaned teen with a superpower.

Pinocchio

Guillermo Del Toro can finally bring Pinocchio back to life following his success with the Oscar-winning show The Shape of Water. This stop-motion animated show is set in the 1930s in Italy. This famous number is sure to leave you enchanted, as with Ewan McGregor as the voice-over for the Talking Cricket while Tilda Swinton plays the Fairy with Turquoise Hair.

5 tips and tricks to enhance your viewing experience

1. Personalize your accounts

On Netflix, you can create multiple profiles for different people using the same Netflix account. Having your personalized profile ensures you enjoy tailored recommendations for shows depending on your preference and viewing history.

2. Turn-off previews and auto-play

If you prefer not to have Netflix automatically play title preview while browsing or prefer not to auto-play episodes, you can make the changes from your profile settings. From your profile, click on the 'account' option and scroll down to ‘profile and parental controls’. Select the profile you wish to change and scroll to ‘playback settings’. Click on the change option and select the option you want to apply.

3. Unblock geo-restricted shows

If you cannot access shows from your country when travelling abroad, it is normally due to copyright control and geo-licensing. Getting access to geo-restricted content on Netflix is possible with a Netflix VPN.

A VPN tricks Netflix servers by routing your connection through different servers located in different parts of the world. This way, it seems as though you are streaming from an authorized country no matter where you are.

4. Viewing Netflix for free

It is possible to access some Netflix originals free, including award-winning shows like Bird box, documentaries like Our Planet and science fiction series like Stranger Things. Search for Netflix shows to watch for free to find out what is currently available.  

5. Download titles and watch offline

If you plan to be on the road for a while with no internet connection or have a slow internet connection, it is possible to download Netflix titles and watch them offline. 

Open the app on your smart device, search for your favorite show and click on the download option.

If your show is not available for download, you can find other shows to watch offline from the ‘find something to download’ option from the download menu.

With so much to watch on Netflix in 2021, these tips and tricks are sure to enhance your binging experiences.

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MOVIE REVIEW: Silk Road

SILK ROAD-- 2 STARS 

Several aspects read as off-key between the real story of Ross Ulbricht and Silk Road’s movie adaptation. Don’t get me wrong. Filmmakers grab two crude tools for dramatic license all the time. They pick a blade of choice, anything between a guillotine or a scalpel, for whatever is the desired severity or precision. They also pick a mechanism for inflation, which can range from a bulbous hand pump to whatever engine fills a hot-air balloon, because movie’s need entertainment value that floats. 

When you read the source material coming from David Kushner’s 2014 long-form piece from Rolling Stone and then watch the movie, the character traits and tonal choices just don’t fit. Silk Road has an astounding and blistering story to tell that seems mishandled by those two filmmaker tools for dramatic effect. We too easily see the chopped scars from a machete and the lift of a weakly deflated Thanksgiving Day parade balloon from something that could have been as sharp and heady as The Social Network.  

LESSON #1: THE ORIGIN OF THE MOST SOPHISTICATED AND EXTENSIVE CRIMINAL MARKETPLACE ON THE INTERNET-- For the uninformed, Ross Ulbricht was merely 27 when he found the movie’s titular darknet shopping hub. For two-and-a-half years of encrypted operations and Bitcoin-fueled fortunes, more than 100,000 customers logged over a million transactions on Silk Road that amassed over $1 billion in revenues and netted $420 million of commissions. By 2015, Ulbricht would be pinched on money laundering, computer hacking, and two conspiracy charges and slammed with a double life sentence plus forty years without the chance of parole. Take about throwing the proverbial book at a guy.

LESSON #2: WHAT KIND OF PERSON WOULD DO SUCH A THING-- It takes a smart and twisted cookie to exploit our convenience culture to pull this off. Kushner’s piece describes the flaming Libertarian Ross Ulbricht as “grandiose as he was cold-blooded, championing freedom while ordering hits on those who crossed him.” He would further detail Ross as “one who, with seeming ease and lack of conscience, nonchalantly ordered murders for hire amidst fixing server bugs and answering customer-support tickets.” You would think the actor portraying a figure like that for a movie treatment would need to be one compelling slickster.

To watch Love, Simon star Nick Johnson embody Ulbricht, also known as the Princess Bride-inspired handle “Dread Pirate Roberts,” and hear him read the voiceover monologue diary in telling this sordid tale, you get about half of that impression and a heaping dose of the Hollywood trope of a romanticized bandit. The cocky young charm and intriguing pull is there in Johnson. However, the first sign of trouble for this lukewarm thriller from writer-director Tiller Russell (Chicago P.D., Chicago Fire) becomes the dramatic inflation. 

Many of Johnson’s opening “I want to change the world” and “I did something to help people” lines hit the required cheesy marks for giving enough rosy blush for audiences to take his Robin Hood-ish side before the eventual fall from grace. Still, they too often dumb down the man’s stiffer motivations and paraphrase the real-life figure’s quotes of “what seemed to be insurmountable barriers between the world today and the world I wanted” and “every action you take outside the scope of government control strengthens the market and weakens the state.” There’s strong commentary possible that is entirely glazed over for showy internet minitua. Tack on disapproving parents of privilege and throw in a mostly meaningless love interest (Alexandra Shipp of Endless) and any possible icy hardness is melted away.

LESSON #3: THE VILLAIN IS ONLY AS GOOD AS HIS HERO-- Where Russell and Silk Road really fail the most is in chronicling and characterizing the wrecking ball swung for Ulbricht’s historical undoing. To flip the famous quote, “a villain is only as good as his hero.” That person too better be one equally compelling slickster. Well, the movie pits, essentially, the smartest, most cunning, and most connected guy in any room against a cowboy caveman, breaking ranks from his commanding suits, and sets it up where the dimwit tough guy going solo dominates and wins, something far from the Kushner facts. Go ahead and deflate the whole balloon of exciting stakes.

A top-billed Jason Clarke plays the composite character Rick Bowden, a former coked-out DEA agent coming out of rehab and demoted to cybercrimes to play out his string to pension. He’s an imposing old school door-kicker who can barely turn on a computer and stands as an aging and useless dead weight for his Millennial boss (Will Ropp of The Way Back) and task force commander (TV vet Jimmi Simpson). Putting legbreaker-style pressure on his former street informant Rayford (Darrell Britt-Gibson of Judas and the Black Messiah), Bowden teaches himself to become a Silk Road user and Bitcoin customer with high ideas that he can infiltrate and bust the entire ring while pocketed some money himself. 

LESSON #4: MISSING THE BIGGER PICTURE-- There was wide open acreage for a movie like Silk Road to cut deep with the implications of a failed war on drugs and the powerful grips of liberty and anonymity sought by the internet communities. Rather than dive into such wide-ranging details, Silk Road hides the full scope away and turns the authorities of a constricting multi-agency government investigation into lucky boobs. By the time Bowden is single-handedly taking down one of Ulbricht’s underbosses (played by Richard Jewell’s Paul Walter Hauser) and using him to force the hand of contract killing out of the dot.com mogul, it all just mudslides to farce instead of heightened fear, maddening obsession, and true paranoia. 

To hear Rayford’s character call out Bowden as the “walking cliche” of a “white man buying drugs from a n---- in the hood” might as well be damning confirmation for the whole movie, thanks to this horribly mismatched and oafish proxy representing the law coming down on Ross. Clarke’s entire character arc in Silk Road, complete with a deadbeat dad component latched to a suffering wife (Kate Asleton) and naive young daughter (Lexi Rabe from Avengers: Endgame) at home, steals oxygen, believability, and credit from the whole story the same way Mark Wahlberg’s impenetrable and do-it-all hero did in Peter Berg’s Patriot Day. 

Shave Clarke out or make him part of a team and the movie gets far tighter. The extent of Robinson’s acting is looking dramatically at and away from a computer screen. Likewise, the extent of Clarke’s acting is strong-arming everyone around him and doddering like a dinosaur. Along the way, Shipp, Britt-Gibson, Ropp, and Hauser are composed as thin by-standers. Enable a capable ensemble to tell a capable ensemble effort. Spread the wealth, multiply the tension, and increase the impact. There are movie-making formulas for that better than brains reduced to frazzle versus brawn granted dumb luck. The Ulbricht story is a dynamite premise scrambled to bits by Silk Road with too much wasted talent.

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GUEST CRITIC #59: Sound of Metal

As busy I get from time to time, I find that I can't see every movie under the sun, leaving my friends and colleagues to fill in the blanks for me.  As poetically as I think I wax about movies on this website as a wannabe critic, there are other experts out there.  Sometimes, it inspires me to see the movie too and get back to being my circle's go-to movie guy.  Sometimes, they save me $9 and you 800+ words of blathering.  In a new review series, I'm opening my site to friend submissions for guest movie reviews.

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TODAY’S CRITIC: Lafronda Stumn

Lafronda Stumn is a student at Madisonville Community College and intends to graduate with an Associate's degree in Associate of the Arts. She plans on earning a Bachelors Degree in Motion Picture Studies and English at Wright State University. Her favorite Directors are Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and Spike Lee, and her favorite actors are Al Pacino, Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep, and Halle Berry. Lafronda contacted this page looking for a place to get published and I enjoy giving people that very kind of opportunity. This is her 26th guest review for Every Movie Has a Lesson. Welcome as always, Lafronda!

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HER REVIEW: Sound of Metal

The film stars Ahmed as Ruben. Ruben works as a drummer in a heavy metal band along with his girlfriend Lou (Olivia Cooke). One day while visiting a record store, Ruben’s hearing rapidly retreats. After visiting a doctor. Ruben goes to a sober house for addicts who are hearing impaired. He is resistant to go because he can’t take his girlfriend along for the resident sessions. It is there that he meets the head of the facility, Joe (Raci), who lost his hearing during Vietnam.

Several scenes really made a profound impression on me. In one, Ruben is being taught by a teacher to read lips while Ruben is observing the questions from a TV monitor. Earlier, Ruben puts a gun into mouth arguing with Lou about Ruben not wanting to go to the rehab home without her. There is a scene where Ruben is forced by his counselor Joe to write his thoughts on paper to better communicate for himself. In that solo scene, Ruben really struggles to put pen to paper. Later, there is a touching scene when Ruben teaches school students how to play the drums. Ruben and those students form a bond as Ruben adapts better to his life as a newly hearing-impaired person.

The director, Darius Marder, does an outstanding job. Marder directs effective scenes between Ruben interacting with school students and his fellow residents. Ruben goes to group meetings learning to sign language. Marder, also a co-writer for Sound of Metal, delivers with a perception of great nuance to combine sign language and speaking dialogue for Ruben. 

The performance by Riz Ahmed is truly intense and thoughtful. During the film, Ruben has a better relation to the deaf community and shows great affection towards them. Ahmed and Cooke have a great warmth of chemistry between them as well. Ahmed’s character goes through an array of emotions, from losing his hearing to adapting to the silence of everyday life.

The movie is how not only Ruben deals with hearing loss. Ahmed’s character goes through a fundamental change. Dealing with his transformation to hearing and loss of hearing makes Sound of Metal a great exercise of being reborn into a new way of life. It also emphasizes how such an experience can make you a better man or a man who believes he’s held back by what he perceives as a handicap. Raci, as the manager and counselor, believes that hearing is not a handicap. When Ruben contemplates getting implants to restore his hearing, there is a fundamental disagreement, which is the heart of the movie.

My only complaint is that heavy metal music played early in the film is not my favorite type of music. Overall, Sound of Metal is a perceptive film about the process of change for Ruben’s character. 

RATING: *** 1/2

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CONCLUSION

Thank you again, Lafronda! You are welcome anytime. Friends, if you see a movie that I don't see and want to be featured on my website, hit up my website's Facebook page and you can be my next GUEST CRITIC!

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MEDIA APPEARANCE: Guest on the "Kicking the Seat" live YouTube recap for "Wandavision" Episode 7

The big Halloween episode last week on Disney+’s WandaVision has led to a slight calm before the storm of the final two episodes to come. Don’t call this episode “filler,” though as plenty of new developments have come to light during this ‘00s-styled episode. Every Friday, Ian Simmons of Kicking the Seat hosts a live WandaVision “wecap” on YouTube. This week, Mark "The Movie Man" Krawczyk of the The Spoiler Room Podcast filled in for a very busy Emmanuel Noisette. He joined Ian, myself, and David Fowlie of Keeping it Reel in the “Earth’s Mightiest Critics” stable. We’ve hyped for the homestretch! Catch us every Friday at 8:30pm CST! Here’s our chat for Episode 7.

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7 Things You Must Know to Make It in the Film Industry

The film industry is a very volatile space, one day, you are up, and the next day, you are down. Success in the film industry is not achieved by just creativity. It is possible to have talent but to get the break you need sponsors, good actors, favors, experience, and a positive attitude. It is indeed a closely neath but very competitive atmosphere. The industry evolves daily, with directors and producers coming up with new ways to tell scripted stories. You have got to be on top of your game to stay in the game. 

The expectations are higher with every production, and in this industry, there are no limits as to how far anyone can go. Are you hoping to build a successful career in the film industry? There are a few pointers for your journey. 

Forge the Right Relationships

Many choices made for roles in films are not based on expertise, but on long-term relationships. These relationships might be more of the business type than friendships. Getting the job done is paramount to the success of a movie. A producer would always want to work with you when they are sure of your ability to deliver anytime, every time. The zest you bring becomes the bedrock for the relationship. It is like hiring a professional assassin to do a job, they are not your friends, but you are sure they would get the job done. 

However, there are those built out of friendships or business into lifelong friendships. Thus, the selection is because of trust and how well you work together. It emphasizes why you cannot take any role or opportunity for granted because whatever it is, you are forging something. It’s either a business relationship or a lifelong friendship. Be careful to associate with the right people and keep them close. Try to establish the right bonds at the upper, middle, and lower cadre of the industry.

Aggressive Networking

These days the most critical opinions come from the public. They are your focus and target market, so knowing how they reason helps you deliver better. There are focus groups for movies where you can get sincere opinions for your new films. These groups also provide a sample population for online surveys. The information provided can help improve your films tremendously.

If you want to know what’s happening or what’s new, you have to be in touch with the right people. Don’t negotiate yourself out of events or opportunities to meet new and old folks in the industry. It is a give-and-take world out there. If you were there for me, then I’ll be there for you. You would need to get familiar and interactive at events. You can crack opportunities by being seen and make the much-needed acquaintances that would have cost you a fortune to connect with on a regular day. 

Rediscover Your Uniqueness

One flaw in the film industry is trying to be someone else or becoming an imitation. It is okay to have mentors and role models, but the only thing that sets you apart is self-discovery. Every actor known, respected, and admired has something unique about their personality. Don’t downplay your dynamism, instead work on ways to develop, polish, and improve it until it shines. 

Become an Expert at Something

I am an astute believer that talent may be overrated, and practice makes one perfect. Everyone given enough time and focus can reach the zenith of their ability in whatever they set out to accomplish. The room for improvement has no walls, so get better and develop skills. Do you want to excel in the film industry? Become an expert at something. It is not enough to be average when there is room to compete among the best. 

Train hard and add more knowledge to yourself with every opportunity. Practice until you can excel in your art unconsciously. Do it until it becomes so much a part of you that it becomes you. Create your niche and own it.

Attention to Detail

Perfection might be an elusive thought, but excellence is attainable. Simple mistakes and the slightest errors can lead to huge setbacks in the film industry. What differentiates being very good from excellent is the extra attention, addition, and detail brought to light in the most significant ways. This is the ability to create an experience that connects with the emotional side of your audience. It leaves a message that many would live to remember. It involves you not taking any detail for granted.

Dismiss Impossibilities

To do the unimaginable, you have envisioned the impossible. We have been in awe as many demonstrations we once thought were impossible have been achieved in the film industry. To create something new, you must be open to new technology, innovative ideas, and unearthed storylines.

Enjoy Yourself

The best way to make life exciting is to make your work fun. It must not be seen as stress but as your playground. This way you do not wear yourself out, and you are a lot more fun to work with. Keep the spirit alive.

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COLUMN: Powerful Takeaways From New Documentary "CBD Nation"

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Powerful Takeaways From New Documentary “CBD Nation” - See How Facts Can Save Lives

CBD is growing popular and becoming more prevalent as people realize its benefits. The chemical compound CBD is present in cannabis plants - marijuana and hemp. It may help treat various health conditions. Studies state that CBD may help treat all anxiety disorders like GAD and PTSD. That said, CBD may help treat physical health conditions like chronic pain as well. 

There hasn’t been a dedicated documentary portraying the benefits of CBD.  However, that changed when Mad Machine Films made a documentary - CBD Nation. An eighty-three-minute documentary about cannabis and cannabidiol available on Amazon Video. The documentary features some prominent experts in medicine and cannabis research, including Dr. Raphael Mechoulam, an Israeli scientist. He discovered THC and the endocannabinoid system present in all mammals. He also found the ability of CBD to treat various health conditions. Dr. Raphael reveals that most medical reports and studies revolving around cannabis went ignored for almost sixty years. Here are some powerful takeaways from the documentary. These will help you understand the benefits of CBD and cannabis.

The demand for CBD is growing immensely. People of all ages are using it to treat many health conditions. Many manufacturers offer high-quality CBD products in many forms, ranging from CBD coffee to CBD vape juice.  

Rylie’s Law

The personal story of Rylie Maedler is the most fascinating of all. Rylie Maedler experienced a rare neurodegenerative disease when she was seven years old. It created a tumor that started eating the bones of her face. However, Rylie worked with the legislators in her home state Delaware, to gain access to medical marijuana. That led to the introduction of Rylie’s law. It allows access to children with specific health conditions to medical marijuana. Rylie is now fourteen years and remains the only person suffering from the disease and regenerated bones. Rylie mentions that she is living proof that CBD and cannabis behold a special place in modern medicine.

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Cannabis is More Than Just a Gateway Drug

People often consider cannabis as a gateway drug. David Jakubovic, producer and director of CBD Nation, explains how facts changed his opinion of cannabis. He mentions that cannabis and CBD can act as exit drugs for people using a prescription drug. For instance, U.S.A comprises five percent of the world’s population. But it consumes 75% of the entire world’s prescription drugs. David emphasizes that making the facts accessible to people may save many lives. Since CBD may help treat various health conditions instead of prescription drugs.

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Relationship Between Cannabis and the Endocannabinoid System

Dr. Reggie Gaudino, the VP of Research and Development, Front Range Biosciences, talks about the relationship between cannabis and the endocannabinoid system (ECS). He mentions that all mammals have an ECS (endocannabinoid system), and it monitors and balances all the other systems of the body. He also emphasizes that the internal chemicals of the body trigger the cannabinoid. That explains how CBD acts as an external chemical that triggers the CB1 and CB2 receptors of the ECS (endocannabinoid system).

Treatment for Epilepsy

Dr. Raphael Mechoulam expresses his concern over the need for more research around cannabis and CBD for its use in modern medicine. He mentions that his team published their findings nearly thirty-seven years ago. However, they did not receive a proper response in terms of research. He further emphasizes that most of the notable changes that happened over the years were because many desperate parents like those shown in the documentary have performed their research. That led to a conclusion that CBD (cannabidiol) may help treat epilepsy among children.

Natural Pain Reliever

The documentary also mentions the use of CBD as a natural pain-reliever. Dr. June Chin, an osteopathic physician, says that the body consists of several cannabinoid receptors in various parts. He states that the endocannabinoid system (ECS) and the immune system function in a similar manner. Thus, the ECS affects almost all the physiological processes of the body. Dr. June also states that cannabis and CBD act as a potent anti-inflammatory pain reliever. CBD numbs pain by interacting with the pain receptors. That explains how CBD may help relieve chronic pain in people experiencing arthritis.

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Safer Than Most Prescription Drugs

The documentary also features Dr. Sue Sisley, a medical specialist. She mentions the personal experiences of her patients who used medical marijuana to treat various health conditions. Dr. Sue is also a medical cannabis activist. She tells how she would initially disagree with the claims her patients made about the benefits of cannabis. However, when she saw most veterans commit suicide, she realized that prescription drugs are not efficient. Dr. Sue talks about how prescription drugs like Xanax and pain killers also make the patients high, but no one condemns or prohibits them. “So there is no point in vilifying cannabis as it is way safer than most of the prescription drugs," she adds.

Final Thoughts

The documentary ‘CBD Nation’ reveals some fascinating facts about CBD and cannabis. If you want to use CBD to treat any health condition, the documentary must be on your watchlist. It is an exciting way to access information mentioned in several research materials.

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MOVIE REVIEW: Flora & Ulysses

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When Flora rescues an injured red squirrel from a neighbor’s malfunctioning robotic vacuum running amok, she finds a bit of a buddy and a muse. Flora names him Ulysses (vocal effects by animation veteran John Kassir) and begins to see heightened intelligence and hints of superhero powers coming through this valiant yard rodent. Having a superhero around makes her feel like one too. This is her chance to fight for the weak in her community with reinforcements. That’s if the wily local animal control man named Miller (Community’s Daniel Pudi and director Lena Khan’s good luck charm) doesn’t nab him first.

LESSON #2: THE FLAWS OF CYNICISM-- If Flora has a kryptonite, per se, biking and skipping her way through life, it’s cynicism, a label she self-identifies. When she’s not do-gooding, Flora’s dropping sardonic zingers like “cynics invented contracts even if they live in defiance” or “cynics don’t hope; they see what’s real.” Lawler definitely plays her as smarter than the room, so to speak, in a winsome performance. Nevertheless, this streak of negativity pushes back against her heroic pep. The causes of this come from the action scenes and emotional moments that are made of flesh-and-blood rather than ink and paper.

What’s really jading Flora is the separation and possible divorce of her luckless parents. Her father George is a starving artist who has struck out with comics and now works at an office supply store, feeling every bit of a personal and supportive failure to his family. Matching him, Phyllis is a struggling romance novelist cooked up in her own house unable to write her next book since her husband left. They mean well and love their daughter, but, together, their mutual downward spirals seem irrecoverable. 

LESSON #3: LIFE DEFEATING FANTASY-- As principled as her graphic novel icons have made Flora, the blurred lines between creative fantasy and life’s true adversities skew her emotions. That cynicism has her lamenting how “superheroes never show up in real life.” Well, that is precisely where fantasy ends. Superheroes, not even an adorable squirrel, can fix parental problems and mend relationships. The best fantasy can do is escapism that can become a platform for positive coping mechanisms. It is from this place of anxiety amid the amazing that Flora & Ulysses thrives. 

Based on Kate DiCamillo’s Newbery Award winner and adapted by Ben Copeland (Wild Hogs, Ferdinand, Spies in Disguise), the tangible family themes of hope, disparity, unity, and risks from the source novel create something thicker than fluff. Nowhere near a full “Pixar Punch,” director Lena Khan (The Tiger Hunter) does an admirable job balancing the sunniness with the forlorn challenges. The ending driven by Pudi’s light villain gets a little too zany, but the core before it is sound. For a plucky little film that is well-boosted with slightly self-aggrandizing Marvel Comics love coming from the parent company’s convenient property ownership, this is reasonably brave territory for a pre-teen film. Feel free to drop your own “Holy Bagumba!” with a high-five washed down with a hug. You and the movie have earned it.

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