Stranger Things

Nostalgic Things... Authentic 80s King style (children's level) Carpenter style (horror level) Spielberg movie (adult level) par excellence, in other words Super 8 done absolutely right. It can't be more retro. You will recognize (among countless others) for example Stand by Me, E.T., Poltergeist, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Cocoon, Nightmare from Elm Street, Peanuts, The Monster Squad (simply put, the production of Amblin at the time) and... And not surprisingly, even if everything in it (like really everything, a s mall town, an unbelieving self-grown sheriff, a high school, etc.) is purely overseas 80s, so it doesn't seem like a nostalgic copy, a parody of itself or in any way contrived (namely there are two allusions per every minute of the running time), on the contrary, it stand firmly on its feet. In other words, this one doesn’t pretend to be 80s. IT IS 80s in terms of visuals, Carpenter's-tangerinedream musical undertones, mood and generally by atmosphere. And by far the best part is that all of the above is just a foundation for a graduated, mysterious, captivatingly disturbing and deliberately insight into a intentionally second-rate cliché story, which is also enhanced by acting performances, including those of children (after all, you can see on their cast how much it is faithful at the time, none of the children is nice or cute), and everything is dependent on their performance (what such Millie Brown can play only using her eyes, her much experienced, awarded and older colleagues can only envy her, because in spite of everything it is mainly and above all a children's (but not childish) expedition for adventure. If the 80s shaped you, so using the words of Charlie Sheen... What's not to love? | S1: 5/5 | S2: 5/5 | S3: 5/5 | (15/07/2016)

The film makers make no secret of the fact that they do not take it as a second series, but as a classic 80's (not surprising at all) sequel, hence number two in the title. So it has all the attributes of the second movies, bigger, longer, more expensive, more epic, more relying on what worked in the first move, more characters, more at stake, and it is conceived (and built) in a way that the second Alien relates to the first Alien. You can hear criticism that it has a rather slow start, the individual story lines are independent for too long, some of the songs are used solely to impress and the stand-alone seventh episode is from another series (in terms of style but what is even worse, quality). And these are legitimate and true complaint. Especially the last complaint, I hope, does not foreshadow the direction it intends to take in the future. But... The pros (from the cast and the work with the characters, through the purely non-serial cinematicity to the impressive atmosphere mastering the multi-genre style and the congenial ball epilogue) still overwhelmingly prevail, and it is still in every thinkable respect tailor-made for me by Duffers, especially the fifth, sixth, eighth and ninth episodes. (05/11/2017)