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DOCTOR WHO – Series Eight, Part Three
In preparation for next weekend’s arrival of Series Nine on the BBC (19 September), the concluding part of my review of Peter Capaldi’s debut year, Series Eight, covers the last four episodes, plus the 2014 Christmas special. (For previous catchups, read Part One and Part Two.) Writer Jamie Mathieson follows his marauding mummy tale with the…
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AMERICAN ULTRA (2015)
Weird movies deserve to be celebrated, and American Ultra is just about the weirdest movie to arrive in cinemas in recent times. It’s not its plot that is especially unusual, it’s largely different in how in handles its story and what it’s really about under the surface. This is a film about what it’s like…
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5 New U.S TV Shows to Watch this Autumn
The idea of television having seasons is largely an American term, but the term increasingly means less and less now the U.S have realised the value of filling the summer with good, original programming. There’s a captive audience all year around you can entertain and advertise to. However, it remains true that most of the year’s…
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SHOW ME A HERO – Part Four
The wheels finally came off Nick Wasicsko’s (Oscar Isaac) mayorship this week, as the oleaginous Henry Spallone (Alfred Molina) promised the white residents of Yonkers just enough to squeak into office. Of course, once there Spallone discovered, like the two mayors before him, that there’s no reversing Judge Sand’s decision: that public housing will be…
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HOW TO CHANGE THE WORLD (2015)
When you think of environmental activism, Greenpeace is likely the first name that pops into your head. Today the organisation is synonymous with campaigns like Save the Whales, and known for its high-profile protests against oil drilling in the Arctic Circle. But how did the organisation, start? And who started it? That’s the story that…
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NO ESCAPE (2015)
Try not to take the title of No Escape too seriously. If you’ve seen any of the trailers you’ll know that there are, of course, numerous escapes. Indeed, the very act of escaping from ludicrous scenarios is the fuel for the plot of this film, which is all about instinct taking over as a family…
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DOCTOR WHO – Series Eight, Part Two
In the lead up to Series Nine of Doctor Who in September, my review of Series Eight examines the merits and pitfalls of four episodes, from “Time Heist” to “Mummy on the Orient Express”, in the middle of 2014’s run. They demonstrate a series trying to find new ways of refreshing genre conventions while driving…
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AGENT CARTER – Season One
There’s been a lot of chatter over the past few years about Marvel’s inability to release a female-led superhero movie. Despite having a roster of comic-book superheroines prime for a trip to the big screen, the studio won’t unleash its first female-led movie until Captain Marvel debuts in 2018. Thank heavens, then, for Agent Peggy…
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HANNIBAL, 3.13 – ‘The Wrath of the Lamb’
“The bluff is eroding. There was more land when I was here with Abigail. More land still when I was here with Miriam Lass. Now you’re here with me, and the bluff is still eroding. You and I are suspended over the roiling Atlantic. Soon all of this will be lost to the sea.” Throughout “The Wrath…
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WITNESSES – Series One
Following their success with French supernatural drama The Returned (Les Revenants) two years ago, it’s hardly surprising that Channel 4 are keen to keep a toehold on the Euro Noir bandwagon. Viewed from a distance, their latest French buy-in, Witnesses (Les Témoins), looked like another wise acquisition… However, as BBC Four have discovered to their…
