-
BRIDGE OF SPIES (2015)
Bridge of Spies (or Mr. Hanks Goes to East Berlin) is a seriously classy piece of refined, plush cinema that manages to balance the heft of the countless geniuses involved in the film (Steven Spielberg, the Coen Brothers, Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance) with delicate, elegant ease. You feel safe watching this film. It’s the kind…
-
THE GOOD DINOSAUR (2015)
Pixar’s second film of 2015 couldn’t be more different from its first. Whereas Inside Out was a complex, grown-up fantasy very much from the studio behind Wall-E and Up, The Good Dinosaur is a more straightforward kids film. The nod-wink jokes are in short supply, and the film’s more plainly a fable than anything the studio’s…
-
YOU, ME & THE APOCALYPSE – ‘Episode Nine’
Well, everything’s coming into focus now as we head into the final straight. Or at least we have a pretty good idea of how most of our disparate gang end up in the Slough bunker, and why some of them are wearing such, um, unexpected outfits. This was an episode of You, Me & The Apocalypse…
-
THE LEFTOVERS, 2.8 – ‘International Assassin’
I don’t think anybody expected The Leftovers to kill its protagonist, Kevin Garvey (Justin Theroux), last week—after he drank poison at the behest of a numinous old man who promptly blew his own brains out with a revolver. It was a jaw-dropping cliffhanger, and “International Assassin” follows it with this show’s most audacious episode; one…
-
DOCTOR WHO, 9.10 – ‘Face the Raven’
Every song must end. Clara Oswald’s (Jenna Coleman) comes to an end so matter-of-factly when Rigsy (Joivan Wade), last encountered in “Flatline“, rings her in the TARDIS. He’s concerned about a strange tattoo he acquired overnight. It doesn’t augur well, however, if we consider the symbolism of tattoos. In the nineteenth century, tattooing was a…
-
THE KNICK, 2.6 – ‘There Are Rules’
“There Are Rules” opens with the striking image of a human eye staring back at you. It takes a moment to parse exactly what it is—could this be Edwards (Andre Holland) inspecting his own troublesome eye in a mirror, perhaps? No, as it happens, although his ocular difficulties remain a background thread. The image is…
-
THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY – PART 2 (2015)
Mockingjay simply isn’t a very long book. It’s worth acknowledging that when pondering why it was a misguided decision to split the final Hunger Games film in two. And it’s what makes this saga so different to previous situations with the Harry Potter and Twilight franchises, which had longer final books. As a novel, Mockingjay is…
-
AMERICAN HORROR STORY: HOTEL – ‘Flicker’
In retrospect, an undead, bloodsucking Rudolph Valentino is just what American Horror Story: Hotel needed. This week’s episode, “Flicker,” is mostly comprised of flashbacks to 1920s Hollywood, where the Countess (Lady Gaga)—here, a smalltime actress named Elizabeth—is seduced and eventually transformed by Valentino (Finn Wittrock) and his wife, Natacha Rambova (Alexandra Daddario). If “Devil’s Night” represented the…
-
YOU, ME & THE APOCALYPSE – ‘Episode Eight’
Well, that was an episode and a half! Ever since You, Me & The Apocalypse began I’ve said viewing it as a straight-forward comedy is a mistake, and as the season has progressed, and the end of the world has edged closer, so the storyline’s become increasingly dark. Tonight’s bleak, brilliant episode was the culmination of…
-
UNFORGOTTEN – Series One
Despite being lumbered with one of those bland, generic and, yes, forgettable one-word titles that soil ITV’s larder like mounds of rotten cheese, Unforgotten is a surprisingly thoughtful, superior crime drama. Spread over six compelling episodes, it’s unusual in that—unlike most police procedurals—it actually has something meaningful to say about the human condition. It’s testament…
