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THE LEFTOVERS, 2.9 – ‘Ten Thirteen’
It’s the penultimate instalment of The Leftovers season 2, and no coincidence “Ten Thirteen” takes place on the eve of the Great Departure’s anniversary—14 October—hence the title. But there was also a large chunk of the story that filled in gaps from the past—mostly involving Meg (Liv Tyler), who’s only appeared in one scene during “Off Ramp” this season,…
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DOCTOR WHO, 9.11 – ‘Heaven Sent’
“As you come into this world, something else is also born. You begin your life, and it begins a journey towards you. It moves slowly but it never stops. Wherever you go, whatever path you take, it will follow,” intones The Doctor (Peter Capaldi) over a slow montage of endless corridors swept by the passage…
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THE KNICK, 2.7 – ‘Williams and Walker’
The Knick is often referred to as a circus, and in “Williams and Walker” there are plenty of nods to that. In the opening scene, Thack (Clive Owen) is still persevering with his own hypnosis techniques, having been inspired by a more literal circus, and it would seem to be bearing fruit. It’s curious that…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
