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Flow – JenEric Movie Review

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Hello Cinephiles,

Today we’re talking about the 2024 film Flow.

Story

A strong and almost Ghibli-level narrative that is only marred by a weak ending.

Score: 0.5

Characters

All the characters are recognizable and have unique traits. It’s impressive how well they managed to bring that forward without any dialogue.

Score: 1

Dialogue

There are no words spoken in this movie but there is plenty of communication. The writers and animators managed to convey so much with just facial expressions and actions.

Score: 1

Visuals and Music

The visuals were stunning for what they were, but there were some odd choices like making the whales different but nothing else. I also found the style of animation kept making me think I was watching a cutscene from an older game.

The score was fantastic and really went a long way to elevating the movie.

Score: 0.5

Fun

The movie is fascinating and fun to watch but the ending doesn’t feel resolved and certainly wasn’t uplifting. We all enjoyed it except for the end.

Score: 0.5

Overall

Combining a lot of recognizable stereotypes while only using expressions to tell a story about animals in a post-apocalyptic world is a huge challenge. One that Flow mostly manages amazingly. The ending, however, falls a little flat, and a few of the choices felt unrelated to character or plot.

Final Score: 3.5 Stars out of 5

Time Cut – JenEric Movie Review

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Hello Cinephiles,

Today we’re talking about the 2024 film Time Cut.

Story

A fun mixture of time travel and slasher story elements but with a paradox twist that isn’t normally explored.

Score: 1

Characters

I have a soft spot for smart characters. They are rarely found in slasher films and unfortunately the smart idiot trope happens a lot in time travel. Thankfully neither is the case in this movie. They act fairly logically and they are smart.

I do think the quiet nerd being picked on and being rejected turns them evil trope is a little overdone.

Score: 0.5

Dialogue

The dialogue is pretty good but I would have liked the slang differences to be explored more. Other than fashion, the main character didn’t seem out of place.

Score: 0.5

Visuals and Music

The visuals are great. I like the choice of lighting and colouring to denote the decade. The special effects are minimal and mostly practical.

The music is oddly nostalgic for only being twenty years ago.

Score: 1

Fun

I was expecting a dumb movie and after really liking Totally Killer I didn’t expect to enjoy this one. I was happily wrong. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed the ending.

Score: 1

Overall

An excellent time travel movie with mild slasher elements. It doesn’t shy away from fun or asking question. It’s nice to see a movie that feels like a rehash do something different with its conclusion.

Final Score: 4 Stars out of 5

Molecular Coffee

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Hello My Imaginary Friends,

Atomo Coffee sounds like something from a science fiction story. Coffee that isn’t from coffee beans. It’s the lab grown meat of coffee.

My biggest worry with this sort of thing is allergies. I have a severe intolerance to coconut oil and milk, along with IBS, so I try to be very careful.

Here’s what they say:

Atomo will not have any allergen components or materials that impact metabolic disorders.

For the insoluble, non-volatile portion of the molecular grounds, we are still exploring many options and targeting an upcycled play that would take the byproduct of a current commercial operation and add value to it by using it as the carrier matrix for our flavor and mouthfeel compounds – essentially the proteins, carbohydrates and oil components you can expect from coffee grounds. Some examples of that would be watermelon seeds or sunflower seeds husks. Much of what we are doing at this stage is still proprietary as we have a good journey ahead to optimize the perfect molecular coffee that can be enjoyed as your daily ritual. All compounds and strategies will be shared as they evolve and are optimized.

The kickstarter is already funded and has 22 days to go.

I’m interested and a little skeptical. What do you think?

Éric