- Kodachrome Is a Road Trip Revelation Worth Focusing On
Kodachrome is something special. A road trip reconciliation movie about fractured relationships, that rests on the shoulders of an awesome ensemble cast. For anyone who likes their melodrama bittersweet, and those moments of realisation rife with melancholy, Kodachrome might be the movie for you. Rude, rambunctious, and riddled with cancer, world renowned photographer Ben is …Continue reading “Kodachrome Is a Road Trip Revelation Worth Focusing On”
- Tick, tick..Boom! Resurrects a Theatrical Wunderkind
Tick tick..Boom holds up. Released in 2021 and directed by Lin Manuel Miranda this adaptation of Jonathan Larson’s play is something special. Featuring a tour de force performance from Andrew Garfield, it leaps and soars with agility carrying audiences alongside in a story with some serious social commentary. Adept at dissecting the creative process and …Continue reading “Tick, tick..Boom! Resurrects a Theatrical Wunderkind “
- Emilia Perez Melds Music and Emotions Together in a Savage Social Statement
Emilia Perez, co-written and directed by Jacques Audiard, may have created Oscar buzz around Selena Gomez after the London Film Festival, but plaudits really belong to Karla Sofia Gascon. Submerged beneath prosthetics as cartel boss Manitas Del Monte, before transforming into Emilia Perez, this film lives or dies on her performance. Bold, brash, and brave …Continue reading “Emilia Perez Melds Music and Emotions Together in a Savage Social Statement”
- Ben Whishaw Makes Black Doves Worth the Season 2 Renewal
Courtesy of Netflix Black Doves comes from the mind of Joe Barton, who conjured up Banshee and The Lazarus Project featuring Paapa Essiedu. Keira Knightley might already be in line for a Golden Globe, but the Oscar adjacent actor gets overshadowed by Ben Whishaw throughout. Known to certain film fans as Q from the Daniel …Continue reading “Ben Whishaw Makes Black Doves Worth the Season 2 Renewal “
- Kaos Might Prove Problematic for the Unfamiliar
According to Kaos, Zeus (Jeff Goldblum) is a mean-spirited and capricious God, who indulges his whims without consideration for the collateral damage. Killing his home help like a petulant child being denied ice cream, this literal God almighty is going through a mid-life crisis. No one is playing by his divine rules and humanity have …Continue reading “Kaos Might Prove Problematic for the Unfamiliar “
- The Gentlemen Is a Drug Fuelled Dramedy With Backbone
The Gentlemen is vintage Guy Ritchie before live action Aladdin remakes lured him to Hollywood. This is brash, brazen, and uncompromising Ritchie that reminds audiences what an outlandish writer-director should look like. With a second season in the works, it will remain a jewel in the crown of Netflix executives long after the dust has …Continue reading “The Gentlemen Is a Drug Fuelled Dramedy With Backbone “
- Unfrosted Is a Breakfast Based Dramedy That Fails to Fill You Up
Writer-director Jerry Seinfeld is a sit-com legend. His self-titled television series Seinfeld ran for ten seasons and won numerous Emmys. With few mountains in comedy left to climb, turning to film with his debut feature Unfrosted feels like an obvious choice. Mining the potential comedy gold of rival cereal companies pursuing America’s perfect breakfast, Unfrosted …Continue reading “Unfrosted Is a Breakfast Based Dramedy That Fails to Fill You Up “
- Mindhunter: Season 1 – Continues to Be an Awe-Inspiring Series.
Created by Joe Penhall, who recently had his play The Constituent at The Old Vic in London, Mindhunter is a deep dive into serial killer territory. It charts the journey of Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany) as they interview convicted criminals in prison. Directed in part by David Fincher, this Netflix …Continue reading “Mindhunter: Season 1 – Continues to Be an Awe-Inspiring Series.”
- Eric Has a Lot More Going for It Than Benedict Cumberbatch
Eric might be marketed off the back of Benedict Cumberbatch (Vincent), but this latter-day superhero of the mystic arts is only half of what makes Abi Morgan’s (The Iron Lady) melodrama tick. In truth, it has more in common with the Emmy award winning Jim Carrey showcase Kidding. Each features a restless manchild with neuroses …Continue reading “Eric Has a Lot More Going for It Than Benedict Cumberbatch”
- With Buckets of Slowburn Bally Ho Bodkin Makes for a Meaningful Murder Mystery
Bodkin is Only Murders in the Building re-located to County Cork with some hat tips to Father Ted thrown in. The Arcona is a distant memory replaced instead by scenic beauty in buckets, an endless array of eclectic townsfolk, and some age-old skeletons hidden away from prying eyes. Substitutions for Steve Martin, Martin Short, and …Continue reading “With Buckets of Slowburn Bally Ho Bodkin Makes for a Meaningful Murder Mystery”
- Dead Boy Detectives Delivers the Goods for Netflix
Dead Boy Detectives feels like a perfect fit for Steve Yockey (The Flight Attendant), who helped steer Supernatural to consistent success alongside Eric Kripke (The Boys) between 2017 and 2019. Perfect because these Neil Gaiman (Sandman) and Matt Wagner (Grendel) creations, who made their first appearance in Sandman 25 for a storyline called ‘Season of …Continue reading “Dead Boy Detectives Delivers the Goods for Netflix”
- Sofia Vergara Re-Writes the Rule Book In Griselda
If the only man Pablo Escobar feared was a woman named Griselda Blanco (Sofia Vergara), then audiences best buckle up, because Netflix are intent on unleashing hell in this blood-soaked dramatisation of her rise to eminence as a Miami drug baron. Forging a path through dangerous waters as a mother of three and rising up …Continue reading “Sofia Vergara Re-Writes the Rule Book In Griselda”
- Pedestrian Pacing Hampers All the Light We Cannot See
Image via Netflix Best-selling novels with an award-winning back story come no weightier than All the Light We Cannot See, since the adversity of war trumps almost any obstacle. Throw in a siege perpetrated by the dreaded German army circa 1944, and suddenly stakes have been upped, antes increased, and audiences find themselves in Pulitzer …Continue reading “Pedestrian Pacing Hampers All the Light We Cannot See”
- The Fall of the House of Usher Lacks Something Fundamental
Image via Netflix With all the pomp and ceremony of an ornate Gothic horror, writer-director Mike Flanagan (Midnight Mass) casts an affectionate eye over Edgar Allan Poe as he dives into The Fall of the House of Usher, introducing an extended family of pampered siblings who are waiting around for Roderick Usher (Bruce Greenwood) to …Continue reading “The Fall of the House of Usher Lacks Something Fundamental”
- Bodies Is Much More Than a Back-Alley Murder Mystery
Time travelling sci-fi murder mysteries are not only a real effort to say in one sentence, but rarely measure up to the expectations of others when so many genres are packed into one show. Bodies is a rare exception that bucks the trend, makes a mockery of conventions and does away with any assumption audiences …Continue reading “Bodies Is Much More Than a Back-Alley Murder Mystery”
- Sex Education S4 review: Netflix hit goes out with a bang
Heart-felt yet hedonistic, Netflix’s Sex Education concludes with one final swing for the fences, bringing back Jean (Gillian Anderson), Otis (Asa Butterfield), Eric (Ncuti Gatwa) and Maeve (Emma Mackey) in a fourth season that hits home. From the audacious opening season that tore down taboos in 2019 without thinking twice, this Netflix trailblazer has always …Continue reading “Sex Education S4 review: Netflix hit goes out with a bang”
- Painkiller review: Netflix drama treads familiar ground with lacklustre results
The drama is out on Netflix now. Painkiller aims for audacious satire, dishes up indignation and looks to ignite the embers of debate around the US’s opioid addiction over six incisive episodes. By telling a fictionalised version of the story of Oxycontin — which Disney+ did so successfully with Dopesick — creators Micah Fitzerman-Blue and …Continue reading “Painkiller review: Netflix drama treads familiar ground with lacklustre results”
- Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror Offers Lashings of Savage Satire in Its Sixth Season
With an on-going threat of Eastern bloc uprising from an obsolete superpower, openly corrupt world leaders pleading their innocence both sides of the pond, and global economies in freefall – it seems an ideal time for another Black Mirror from Charlie Brooker. Between himself and producer Annabel Jones, Black Mirror moved from being a cult … - ‘Lockwood & Co.’ review: A supernatural hit for Joe Cornish and Netflix
Headlined by a charismatic cast, Netflix’s new fantasy series Lockwood & Co — streaming from 27 January — proves that quantum realms and alternate dimensions are old hat. Based on the hit YA books by acclaimed fantasy writer Jonathan Stroud — the creator of the Bartimaeus books — this glossy adaptation from writer-director Joe Cornish (Attack the Block) introduces a supernatural …Continue reading “‘Lockwood & Co.’ review: A supernatural hit for Joe Cornish and Netflix”
- ‘The Sandman’ review: Neil Gaiman’s seminal comic gets the adaptation of dreams
As the long-awaited adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman comes calling to conjure our dreams before dawn, who knows what awaits those who consider themselves immune to his advances? Only time will tell as show runner Allan Heinberg (Wonder Woman), creator Neil Gaiman (American Gods) and DC wunderkind David S. Goyer (Foundation) bring their vision to Netflix …Continue reading “‘The Sandman’ review: Neil Gaiman’s seminal comic gets the adaptation of dreams”
- We Got This Covered – ‘The Witcher’ Season 2
Few books can claim to have carved a franchise furrow in popular culture encompassing both gamers and the streaming studio elite. Fewer still have successfully crossed over with a show headed up by a marquee star with character acting credentials. That the aforementioned gamers were ready to lynch up all comers when it came to …Continue reading “We Got This Covered – ‘The Witcher’ Season 2”
- Netflix Review – Jupiter’s Legacy
This is landmark stuff. Mixing dysfunctional family dynamics with enhanced human protagonists, Jupiter’s Legacy feels mythical. Author Mark Millar already has form at Marvel, is lauded for Kick–Ass as well as secret service curveball Kingsman: The Secret Service. He is an edgy Scot with mainstream pretensions, who has fine tuned his own brand of comic book creation into something unique. …