-
HUMANS – series one, episode eight
Had this been the last episode of Humans ever, it would be easier to be more vitriolic about the ways it disappointed me, but with this week’s announcement the show will definitely return, it’s somewhat easier to forgive its failings—at least this isn’t how it ends. It’s a solid enough hour, really, but it’s one that struggled to…
-
TRUE DETECTIVE, 2.7 – ‘Black Maps and Motel Rooms’
Among the many problems I have with season two of True Detective, probably the main one is the show’s insistence on writing cheques its plot simply isn’t cashing. “Black Maps and Motel Rooms” was a taut episode in many ways, and one which set things up nicely for an interesting and no doubt action-packed finale,…
-
IT FOLLOWS (2014)
It Follows opens with a shot of a quiet, average suburban street, with the seeming calm of the camera’s slow pan across the neighbourhood interrupted by a terrified young woman abruptly exiting her house as she flees an unknown threat. The shot continues moving in a 360-degree pan as she pauses when her dad asks if…
-
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – ROGUE NATION (2015)
There’s never enough at stake in Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation. It whizzes along at a quip-a-minute, with stunning stunts from handsome Tom Cruise, and a gleeful indulgence in globetrotting that sees various set-pieces unfold in dusty Morocco, postcard London and, fleetingly, perfect Paris. But something about it feels lightweight and misguided—as though the first draft’s…
-
GHOSTBUSTERS: I Ain’t Afraid of No Girls
Any moviegoer would have predicted Ghostbusters to become one of the most sequelled movies ever, but the 1984 comedy’s live-action hopes fizzled after 1989’s poorly-received follow-up—which had fun moments, but was ultimately a pale shadow with a dumb villain. Since then, rumours of a third Ghostbusters have floated around almost continually, with creator and star Dan Aykroyd fanning the flames of idle…
-
HANNIBAL, 3.8 – ‘The Great Red Dragon’
Let’s start with the most unmistakably meta moment in “The Great Red Dragon,” which occurs when Dr. Chilton (Raúl Esparza) visits the now-incarcerated Dr. Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen). When Chilton, comparing Hannibal to serial killer at large ‘the Tooth Fairy’, tells the doctor that “You, with your fancy allusions, your fussy aesthetics, you’ll always have niche…
-
HUMANS – series one, episode seven
Well, Humans certainly isn’t dragging its heels now, is it? Unsurprising, perhaps, given that this is the penultimate episode, but the level of incident was ramped up drastically. This hour wasted little time in revealing the show’s big remaining mystery: that DCI Karen Voss (Ruth Bradley) began her “life” as a synthetic replication of Leo’s deceased mother, created…
-
TRUE DETECTIVE, 2.6 – ‘Church in Ruins’
If the first season of True Detective felt like the work of a TV writer who’d read far too many novels (with its heavy doses of Lovecraft and Chambers), then season 2 feels like the work of one who’s watched too many movies. It’s peppered with the lewdness of Lynch and the atmosphere of Polanski, with the…
-
SOUTHPAW (2015)
There’s a theory espoused by former Grantland editor Bill Simmons that sometimes people are just ready for certain movies; that the success of some films is predetermined by a shared cultural desire, and that it doesn’t necessarily matter how good or bad a film is—it will do well on the grounds that people are in…
-
WATERWORLD (1995)
Waterworld still evokes feelings of cinematic misfortune, two decades after the post-apocalyptic action film’s summer release, but time’s been kind to this 1995 ‘flopbuster’. Indeed, despite its dismal reputation (earning itself nicknames like “Fishtar” and “Kevin’s Gate”, alluding to fiascos Ishtar and Heaven’s Gate), there are much bigger financial and creative disasters. Until James Cameron’s similarly aquatic Titanic was launched in…
