DEFENDING JACOB!

Hello beautiful people, how was your weekend? did you see something new? something interesting? if not, I bring you a show that you will not want to miss.

Defending Jacob is an Apple TV + show. It all begins when the body of a teenager appears in a park and automatically there is a main suspect, Jacob Barber (Jaeden Martell), who happens to be the son of the prosecutor who was going to take the case, Andie Barber (Chris Evans), and from a much-loved teacher in town, Laurie Barber (Michelle Dockery).

The interesting thing is that Mark Bomback's (War for the Planet of the Apes) work, which is based on William Landay's novel, does not focus so much on research as on the idea of living in the shadow of suspicion. The Barbers find themselves in an uncomfortable situation: their son claims he is innocent but there is evidence against him, and suddenly the community rejects them.

There are eight episodes that deconstruct the idea of the perfect family, fatherhood and motherhood with a well-treated mystery. Jacob's demeanor, who doesn't have a lot of social skills, fits wherever he wants: adolescent stupidity and psychopathy, so the game works wonders with a trio of always-effective actors.

Defending Jacob ends up with a much more ambiguous cut than William Landay's novel, and if you haven't read the novel and haven't seen the show I'm sorry to give you a SPOILER but I thought it was a good way to have an ending in which the viewer can create their own opinions.

SPOILER BELOW

After learning of a substantial cover-up to the case, and increasingly doubting her son's innocence, Laurie crashes her car into a wall. In the book, Jacob is killed instantly on impact, but in the series the young man ends up in a coma, leaving us wondering if the boy is guilty or not.

Mark Bomback spoke on this point and said the following:

“I think if the show had given a definitive answer on guilt, it would have been a bit frustrating. I was very interested in making the viewer feel the experience that parents have. In the end, what matters is what Andy and Laurie think their son may or may not have done".

Chris Evans, who had previously spoken about Defending Jacob, arguing that only by immersing ourselves in particular extreme situations could we understand the series, said this:

“I think in our version, everyone deals with shame and guilt differently. Laurie didn't know how to overcome such trauma, by now, it had become part of a complex lying mechanism. 

She even preferred to die rather than continue to deal with it. I think this ending is much more interesting. You don't know if it is better to accept the truth or find a difficult balance in a world of lies”.

END OF SPOILER

Defending Jacob was a surprise to me within the huge panorama of current series, especially police series. In a genre that is increasingly characterized by trying to catch the viewer from shock, strange narrative turns and the most horrifying secrets imaginable (sects, conspiracies, secret fortunes, etc.), a series whose axis passes through the consequences of a possible crime between two boys who got on badly in a high school ends up becoming something realistic and even credible.

If you dont have access to Apple TV, or dont want to pay for streaming, you can see it through the Cuevana page at the following link https://cuevana3.io/serie/defending-jacob

Hope you like it, let me know on the comments.

XOXO Li.

Trailer

SNOWPIERCER!

Hello beautiful people, how are you doing? Today I want to talk to you about “Snowpiercer”, a Korean film shot in English, directed by the genius Bong Joon-ho and written by Kelly Masterson.

Bong Joon-ho is a South Korean film director and screenwriter. His film works include Memories Of Murder (2003), The Host (2006) and the science fiction action film Snowpiercer (2013); these last two are among the highest grossing films of all time in South Korea.

In 2017, Metacritic ranked Bong Joon-ho at # 13 on his list of the 25 Best Film Directors of the 21st Century as his films feature awkward themes, dark humor, and sudden mood swings, a perfect mix that doesn't you see a lot today.

In 2019, his film Parasite won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and the Oscar for Best Film at the Academy Awards the same year, making it the first non-English-speaking film to win the category. But I will talk about this majesty in another post, ok, back to Snowpiercer

DEVELOPMENT

During the production of The Host in late 2004 in Hongdae Seoul, Bong visited a comic shop he used to frequent where he met Jean-Marc Rochette, one of the French cartoonists who is the author of the graphic novel "Le Transperceneige". After reading the comics he was fascinated to see how a group of people struggled for survival in cars classified by social status. Bong showed his directing partners Park Chan-wook the complete works and in 2005, the producer Moho Films acquired the rights for the film adaptation.

They say that it only takes 10 minutes to know if a movie is worth it, if in those minutes you are already thinking about something else, then there is nothing to do. Well, with Snowpiercer you don't need 10 minutes because after 5 minutes you are already caught in the plot and you do not even want to move to not miss anything.

SYNOPSIS

In 2014, an attempt to counter global warming through climate engineering is counterproductive, causing an ice age and extinguishing almost all life. The only human survivors are in the Snowpiercer, a massive train that travels the entire world at high speed without ever stopping to avoid freezing and preserve the lives of its passengers created by the transport magnate and inventor, Wilford.

By 2031, elites inhabit the flamboyant front wagons, enjoying all the luxuries and privileges, while the "scum" inhabits the tail in sordid and brutal conditions under the watchful eye of Wilford's guards; something we could relate to in this society.

This film features Chris Evans, Tilda Swinton, Ah-sung Ko, Jamie Bell, Song Kang-ho, Ed Harris, Octavia Spencer, Sir John Hurt, and a cameo by Jean-Marc Rochette himself (author of the novel on which the film was based).

I like Science fiction because, in the world of imagination, anything goes and, with the proper justification, even the most unthinkable, manages to make sense within a suitable framework. In this case, the class struggle can reach an expression as epic and emotional as it is dark and perverse. It is a crazy techno punk story in which you can discover something as evident as the commandment that we citizens respect, because things are like this and thus we have been told "each one in his place" (the first in front and the others behind).

All great actors, excellent direction, impressive visuals and an exact soundtrack result in a magnificent film that without prejudice and without fear is launched to tell an unusual, dramatic story, full of nuances, analogies, ulterior motives and interpretations.

Those who have not had the opportunity to see it, I say that you are missing something incredible, something you have not seen before and that will make you enjoy every second.

Trailer of the movie:

There is the series based on the movie and it is on Netflix, but personally I am not a fan of it, I feel that the narrative is a bit confusing and lthe show lost the symbolism that both the Rochette novel and the Bong Joon-ho movie have .

Anyway, the invitation is to look for this movie, watch it, digest it and give it a critique and if you want to watch the series, we can also discuss it.

XOXO Li.