Author and writer Dennis Lehane has carved a niche in the crime and thriller genres. His credits include novels such as Live by Night and Gone Baby Gone, as well as screenplays like 2014’s underrated film The Drop. Lehane has even dipped his toe into television work with series such …
When Night Always Comes opens with news reports and radio shows hammering the housing crisis – wages too low to cover rent and basic expenses, evictions looming – the promise is clear: a direct plunge into a reality that pushes people to the edge. As the protagonist heads out to …
Upon the news that Murderbot has been renewed for a second series, we can all breathe more easily. This first series is the demonstration of how the Pinocchio became a real boy, or in this case, a genderless sentient construct that, without its armor, looks like an augmented human. But …
Finally we have reached the episode named after the novel from which the TV show Murderbot is adapted, although it’s only the penultimate one. The ways in which the differing plot strands twist together is incredibly impressive, not least in the amount of damage Murderbot (Alexander Skarsgård) suffers: the face …
Brothers Chris and Paul Weitz are maintaining the breakneck pacing of this show with what seems like the greatest of ease. As the mysterious enemy finally becomes clearer, there is at least enough respite to allow Bharadwaj (Tamara Podemski) to operate on Gurathin (David Dastmalchian), and for the throuple subplot …
Another action-packed episode, and packed with more than one kind of action, if you know what I mean. It’s Arada the biologist (Tattiawna Jones) who realises quicker than the others what the two creatures are doing on top of the hopper, which has glass panels in its roof. Murderbot (Alexander …
This mid-series run of Murderbot is some of the tightest episodes of television in a while. This episode also contains a great deal of humour, backrubs, some awfully graphic surgery, and then some even more graphic violence. The tonal shifts flow more naturally than that description sounds, which is especially …
Based on the novel of the same name by Jordan Harper, She Rides Shotgun follows Nate McClusky (Taron Egerton, Rocketman), an ex-convict who is forced to kidnap his 11-year-old daughter, Polly (Ana Sophia Heger), to protect her from a hit order issued by a neo-Nazi gang after Nate killed their …
Before the review begins: an apology. I originally misgendered Murderbot in my reviews of the previous four episodes, which have now been corrected. A publicist got in touch to inform us that Murderbot has no gender; I should not have presumed the gender of the human actor playing it had …
One of the neatest tricks Carême has pulled over the course of this fine first season is erasing Napoleon. He is there, when he needs to be, but he never speaks and the face of the actor playing him is rarely shown. The focus on the power games swirling around …
After all the machinations of the previous episode it’s no wonder this course of Carême chooses a different focus for all its power struggles. The episode takes place entirely within Talleyrand’s (Jérémie Renier) estate and revolves around Hortense (Lily Taieb) unexpectedly going into labour. For those of you not keeping …
Based on the novella of the same title and featured in the anthology Dark Forces by Stephen King, The Mist narrates the story of Bridgton, Maine. A city that suffered a thunderstorm and its citizens were affected by it, having their houses destroyed, energy cut, and no cellphone signal available. …
Stephen King is one of the finest writers of this generation, and although his stories are heavy on elements such as horror and thriller, his writings have been praised by one and all. Over the years, he has written several brilliant novels and short stories, but The Dark Tower continues to be …
There are some shots of actress Suzu Hirose in A Pale View of Hills that are so gorgeous the audience at the Cannes Film Festival gasped aloud. Cinematographer Piotr Niemyjski clearly made heavy use of visual effects in his work – not least for the many gorgeous shots of Nagasaki …
The generic title underplays the importance of this French war film, which does something utterly shocking from an American perspective: it pays respect to France’s allies, too. Not since the days of World War II movies have any American films bothered to mark our allies, even in passing. (A brief …
Now here is where things get very good. There’s a sense of humour in Escape Velocity Protocol which we haven’t seen before, just as we haven’t seen violence this serious in Murderbot before. But the main issue here is the dichotomy between the world as Murderbot (Alexander Skarsgård) understands it …
We’re off to the races! Can free planets handle themselves? Can Murderbot (Alexander Skarsgård) stand to be “stuck with these people and their pheromones in a small craft”? Although for a being that claims not to care about people, it sure does spend a lot of time paying close attention …
The six hippie scientists from the non-corporation planet that Murderbot (Alexander Skarsgård) is tasked with protecting on their mining mission are as follows: Mensah (Noma Dumezweni), the admired mission leader, parent of seven, and terraforming expert who is secretly prone to panic attacks Pin-Lee (Sabrina Wu), the non-binary lawyer and …
The eponymous hero of this new TV show Murderbot, based on the first of The Murderbot Diaries series of novels by Martha Wells, is strictly speaking a cyborg. It – though sometimes its clients misgender it as a he – has a metallic structure covered with cloned human flesh, including …
What is a “feel-good” movie? Is it just an uplifting story? Or something even more? That’s a tricky question that doesn’t have a distinct answer. Something that may be heartfelt to one person may be found schmaltzy and manipulative to another. Adding that idea to 2025 films makes the prospect …