Episode Guide
Ladj Ly Paolo Sorrentino Rachel Morrison Pablo Larrain Rungano Nyoni Natalia Beristain Sebastian Schipper Naomi Kawase David Mackenzie Maggie Gyllenhaal Nadine Labaki & Khaled Mouzanar Antonio Campos Johnny Ma Kristen Stewart Gurinder Chadha Sebastian Lelio Ana Lily Amirpour When Love, Death and Robots blasted onto our screens last year, it brought with it a whole array of creative and interesting uses of the animation medium. It essentially served as a showcase for what people could do with the various tools used to create animation and managed to inject both creativity and enthusiasm into a medium that’s long been a staple of cinema. Homemade then is essentially the short-drama version of that concept, as filmmakers from across the globe create various films while confining to isolation rules and combining them into one anthological collection of stories. Between a drone flying around France and taking in the sights to a solitary man listening to the news around a deadly virus wiping out the world’s population, there’s a lot of variety throughout this anthology that’ll keep you watching to see what else the show has to offer. Much like Love, Death and Robots, none of the films exceed the 15 minute mark keeping things light and breezy. This is actually a pretty easy show to dip in and out of too and given the sheer wealth of different material on offer, you’re bound to find something you’ll like. Kristen Stewart fronts one film here, honing in on ideas around mental health that’s beautifully captured by some striking and haunting extreme close-ups. This is arguably one of the better shorts in the series but those who disagree are bound to find a film better suited to their taste. Stylistically, a lot of the films are shot at home although it’s clear that some of these – like the Maggie Gyllenhaal film – have upgraded a bit to produce something on-location and with much better cameras that wouldn’t be amiss in a bigger budget collection of shorts. This isn’t a bad thing though and it helps pave way for other filmmakers to really think outside the box when producing their material. A lot of the more creative ventures make good use of drones and apps like TikTok, helping to add some variety to the array of episodes on display. It’s this pick’n’mix of influences and creative ideas that ultimately makes Homemade such an endearing concept. Not all of its episodes work, and some do fall flat compared to others on offer, but on the whole the series does a decent job capturing this crazy time in our lives into one digestible and entertaining anthology.
