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TRUE DETECTIVE, 2.4 – ‘Down Will Come’
We’re half way through this second season of True Detective, and one of my biggest problems remains the constant line it walks between addictive drama and outright parody. It’s an issue that largely stems from a tendency to be too on the nose. Thus, it’s not enough for Ray (Colin Farrell) to astutely note that he,…
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HANNIBAL, 3.6 – ‘Dolce’
“If I saw you every day, forever, I’d remember this time.” That could be a line from, say, The Notebook, but it’s actually delivered by Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) during his overdue reunion with Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) in this week’s episode, “Dolce”. In an excellent hour full of gory bits and major plot developments, one of…
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Trailer: BATMAN v SUPERMAN – DAWN OF JUSTICE
What’s it about? Take a wild guess. The Caped Crusader has a score to settle with the Man of Steel, after the latter’s ruckus in Metropolis with General Zod resulted in citywide destruction and untold thousands of deaths. Who’s directing? The so-called “visionary director” Zack Snyder, returning from Man of Steel, who’s also brought us…
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THE VOICES (2014)
Thoroughly bizarre from start to finish, The Voices is the brainchild of screenwriter Michael R. Perry (whom I’ll always respect for writing Millennium episode “The Mikado”), and Iranian-born French director Marjane Satrapi, who wrote the autobiographical comic-book Persepolis (which she later co-adapted into an Oscar-nominated animation). It stars Ryan Reynolds as Jerry Hickfang; a cheerful oddball working…
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ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK – Season Three
And now for something a little different. Orange is the New Black’s showrunner Jenji Kohan set herself a tough task following up the first two seasons, but season three of her prison dramedy matches their highs while cleverly subverting expectations. Though Kohan stops short at reinventing the wheel, this season she cannily shifts the show’s focus—it’s less…
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KNOCK KNOCK (2015)
With Knock Knock, director Eli Roth (Hostel, Cabin Fever) progresses from “torture porn” to psychological torture, but with a premise straight out of porn. Set in Los Angeles, the plot has family man Evan (Keanu Reeves) welcoming two drenched party-going girls into his home during a thunderstorm, so they can call a taxi and dry off.…
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HUMANS – series one, episode four
After last week featured a few sloppy moments creeping in, episode four tightened things up brilliantly, pulling several of the show’s strands together and perfectly judging the slow-drip of answers and reveals. Leo (Colin Morgan) and Max (Ivanno Jeremiah) have been the least compelling aspect of Humans thus far, but here they finally cross paths with…
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TRUE DETECTIVE, 2.3 – ‘Maybe Tomorrow’
We were firmly in David Lynch territory this week on True Detective, as a blue-lit dream sequence paid direct homage to Twin Peaks; with Ray Velcoro (Colin Farrell) hovering unconscious on the floor, having an existential dream conversation with his father (Fred Ward), who also turns out to have been a cop. And almost certainly…
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HANNIBAL, 3.5 – ‘Contorno’
A while ago, I chimed in on a Facebook debate among friends about whether Anthony Hopkins or Mads Mikkelsen is the better Hannibal Lecter (I don’t recall any Brian Cox loyalists weighing in). I argued that the two actors are essentially playing different characters; not only because of the differences between episodic and feature storytelling,…
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TERMINATOR GENISYS (2015)
Fairly early into Terminator Genisys, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Pops utters this line to Emilia Clarke’s Sarah Connor: “This is a meaningless gesture. To hold onto something when you know you must let it go.” The cyborg’s expressing his confusion at the human act of hugging, but he could just as easily be talking about this sequel’s endeavour. Genisys…
