Ratings
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Ottoman Empire by Train (2024)
More like Turkey by train
Having watched the first episode I feel pretty misled by the title. It offered no great insight into the Ottoman Empire and frankly concentrated on some very peripheral sites which may well be photogenic or interesting in their own right but are they integral to the Ottoman Empire? The answer is an emphatic no. A very frustrating and pointless programme, marketed as history but more akin to a travelogue. I don't think that based on the first episode that this is going to provide any great revelations about anything really. All in all a disappointing foray by Alice Roberts into an area ripe for showcasing to the public.
Poor Things (2023)
Problematic
I watched Poor Things a couple of days ago and upon reflection feel some of the central themes are problematic in this day and age. Yes it is a fantasy but here we have a woman with the mental age of a child having lots of sex, transplant that to an adult in the real world and that feels wrong. If any of the characters had questioned the morality of this or pondered the impact and implications then fair enough but that doesn't happen. I feel this film will not age well and future audiences will wonder why it was rated so highly. Yes the set design and cinematography was strong but I can't say I'd watch it again. As Emma Stone was playing a creature of fantasy I am not sure how she could have been judged fairly against other Oscar contenders but that's another story. I would also love to know where on earth Mark Ruffalo's accent came from but perhaps that was meant to be fantastical too!
Navalny (2022)
A prelude to murder?
Whatever you might think of Navalny, the man Putin doesn't even dare name, the events in this documentary are quite shocking. What comes through is the constant intimidation and harassment of Navalny, his family and his supporters. The depiction of the poisoning of Navalny and his recovery then his incredibly brave or reckless decision to return to Russia are difficult to take in. It feels like a depiction of events from the 1930s not the 2020s. I am sure one day the truth will come out but as with many events in Russia there is always the ability to believe two realities at the same time. With the death of Navalny this week I hope other people watch this and understand his struggle and the true nature of a regime that only history will judge.
Saltburn (2023)
Vapid
Saltburn has got a lot of noise and publicity around it and indeed it looks good but after that not much can be said in its favour.. Fundamentally it's pretty derivative, the characters are quite thin and need fleshing out with the main protagonists relationship being utterly unbelievable. There is just no good reason why they become "friends". Indeed the plot takes a few contrived twists that don't really bear up to any close scrutiny before the film ends with a 2 minute explanation of the plot for anyone who wasn't paying attention or couldn't infer anything. This feels like it's poor compensation for the deficiencies in the filmmaking itself. The writing seems half baked and nobody took a critical step back to say this is just nonsense, albeit glossy nonsense.
Mr Bates vs. The Post Office (2024)
Excellent retelling of a terrible terrible wrong
This is a fantastic drama retelling an unbelievable miscarriage of justice and the impact it had on ordinary citizens, I say ordinary but in fact they were extraordinary in how they fought back and didn't give up. The casting is superlative with superb performances across the board. I cannot recall such an affecting "drama" I've seen in recent years, you really will feel so so angry and utterly disgusted in how the Postmasters were treated. The story is well paced and explains the ins and outs of the story well without being too intricate and thankfully not oversimplifying things. Everyone associated with this production should be congratulated and it's a must-see.
Such Brave Girls (2023)
A breath of fetidly fresh air
Such Brave Girls is definitely one of the best British comedies in recent years. The writing is strong and the performances hit the mark without fail. In some ways I felt I developed a morbid fascination with watching a slow motion car crash of a family dynamic, if that makes sense. It's pretty dark and deals with some fairly serious issues in a totally unsensational way, driven throughout by the sister's dysfunctional relationship with each other and with their mother. The only minor gripe I had was that sometimes the (almost) constant abuse Josie receives verges on the gratuitously cruel and that is walking a fine line. However, the series overall is a gem and the best thing I've watched in quite some time.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023)
So so
I am not a huge fan of the Hunger Games franchise but have seen some of the other films. This effort felt overlong, I really can't see why they couldn't have told exactly the same story in 45 minutes less. There's too much filler and needless scenes that,if anything, should have been used to develop the characters more.
The singing became a distraction and was overused, the violence was almost fetishised, with too much time and effort put into it at the expense of the relationships between the key characters. Plot twists and turns were never particularly explored or explained, and felt pretty arbitrary. I am guessing the book provides far greater depth than was achieved in this film.
The lead actors never really achieved great chemistry and their relationship was, again pretty shallow to begin with,and wasn't given adequate time to grow and evolve.
I can't say I hated the movie but I'd definitely not rush to watch it again, I doubt I'll remember much about it in a couple of weeks time.
The Change (2023)
Not very realistic
Bridget Christie is obviously talented and her character is portrayed very sympathetically. However I somehow doubt she's ever been to the Forest of Dean... the locals are portrayed so so patronisingly and also Bridget Christie clearly doesn't have a clue about how planning actually works in England. People don't suddenly start building roads or chopping down ancient woodland...yes the reality is years of bureaucratic wrangling, planning applications, appeals, judicial reviews and then maybe people will start camping in trees. It's a real shame that in a well intentioned drama to highlight issues related to the menopause that Bridget Christie was happy to perpetuate other stereotypes and half truths.
Wolf (2023)
A bit different
Firstly I've not read the books that this is based upon and feel anyone is on to a loser if they expect a tv series to remain 100% faithful to its source material. I found the series to be compelling and very watchable, not necessarily a masterpiece but undoubtedly there's more good here than bad. Sacha Dewan and Iwan Rheon are fantastic as a double act, they're funny, hammy, morbid, insecure and a whole lot of other things and that was inspired casting. However I would say that Owen Teale and Juliet Stevenson are completely wasted in this and their roles are fairly one dimensional which was a great shame. However the interlinked storylines worked well and managed to maintain a decent level of suspense until the end.
Russia 1985-1999: TraumaZone (2022)
It's a work of genius
Trauma zone is profoundly affecting, It's a series that is so disconcerting, chaotic, unsettling and surprising that I found I couldn't binge watch it. I had to take my time to digest what I was seeing. I lived through the period in question and had literally no idea of what was really happening in Russia. This is more a work of art or perhaps an "emotional history" than a straight history (and looking at some of these reviews some people have not appreciated this). It's aiming to reflect what it was like to live through this and frankly I am surprised if anyone in Russia retained 100% of their sanity with everything that happened. This series is stupendous in its breadth and the footage it includes provides a disturbing insight into a turbulent and almost hallucinogenic period of recent history for Russia and the former USSR. It's brilliant basically.
Asteroid City (2023)
Unsatisfying
What an unbelievable cast in an utterly unsatisfying film. In fact this may be the film that would hold the record for having the greatest cast for the weakest outcome. Of course the film looks great and there are a few interesting vignettes but overall it doesn't engage nor move the viewer. The storyline is fairly weak and lacks any central character to care about. We meander through this movie without ever being hooked and pondering what is the point in all this. The 1950s technicolour set does look great but this feels a prime example of style over substance and ultimately leaves one with a fairly empty feeling at the end.
Henpocalypse! (2023)
Set it up for series 2
Henpocalypse contains some fairly stereotypical characters in a storyline that veers between post and pre-apocalypse. Sadly it's not that amusing and the plot is not especially unusual, witty or suspenseful in any way. The plot is quite conventional even if the scenario isn't with a number of off the peg characters. Probably the only person who comes out with any credit is Danny Dyer who plays himself with...utter conviction. Could have been a whole lot better and the icing on the cake was the last unsatisfying episode where the writer had the gall for setting it up for another series. It's becoming quite tiresome with series trying to string out thin storylines over multiple seasons.
Then You Run (2023)
Pretty poor
As the series progresses the story gets more and more ridiculous and I started to get frustrated with the poor writing and plot. This series isn't worth watching unless you really have nothing better to do. All of the actors will go on to bigger and better things but this is just below average. It just doesn't make any sense and the characters lack complete empathy, there is nothing here to evoke anything but indifference. Some of the scenes are so unsubtle in their contrived nature that they insult the viewer. Sadly somewhere in this series there's a reasonable story but they've extracted the base material and come up with a poorly constructed drama.
The Sixth Commandment (2023)
Written from Maids Moreton
To be transparent I live in Maids Moreton and both victims were near neighbours of mine. Many people here viewed this upcoming drama with a certain degree of trepidation as to how this extraordinary and shocking story would be told.
I think the producers have managed to create something that showed a lot of regard for the victims and it is not sensationalised, for that they should be congratulated.
If I were to make any criticism it is that both Peter and Ann's lives were shown only through the prism of their surviving relatives and it didn't show that, whilst to a certain degree they were private, they did engage with the local community, especially Peter. It was also not clear on the timelines involved sometimes as to the sequence of events and how long a period had elapsed between Peter's decline and death and Ann being taken to hospital. However, I am guessing there were lots of things not included due to time constraints and some were frankly too upsetting to cover.
I feel it would also have been better to have included a bit more backstory on Ben Field and his sidekick Martin...
Yellowjackets (2021)
Starting to peter out
There are lots of good things about Yellowjackets, in particular the cast is very strong. However it's starting to fall into the trap of drawing everything out, never resolving anything and setting itself up for the next season.
Let's be honest some of it is very contrived and in some ways manipulative of the viewer. We never see what was going on at home after the crash, nor what efforts were put in to find them. I mean they did actually have air traffic control and radar then...It must have been traumatic for those left behind but we see nothing of this..We also see the teens in pretty good shape even though they're stuck in the wilderness without presumably fruit or vegetables or much sunlight...scurvy or rickets anyone?
It feels there's a lot of borrowed ideas from other shows and films too. I can't help feeling the Wilderness is heavily influenced by Twin Peaks. It also feels like the writers don't really know how to end this or what it's really going to mean. If in doubt add another subplot to pad things out a bit to eke out some more episodes.
Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
Bit incredulous at the amount of Oscars....
Firstly I should say I thought the actors did put in some very good performances and I can see why they were nominated although as to whether they deserved to beat some of their competitors is another matter.
I have to say I found this film to be tedious and almost unenjoyable to watch. It feels like a film made for the TikTok generation - no overall coherence with nuggets of scenes rammed together. Is this a film I would ever bother watching again - absolutely not.
Yes it is different - in much the same way The Artist was (and who talks about that film anymore?) but that doesn't make it good. It aims for a profound message whilst its style is overwhelmingly superficial. It's a film with little artistic merit or dare I say beauty (I am talking about the scenes and cinematography here not the actors) and it definitely did not move me except to pray it was going to finish.
In short it barely ticks the boxes of what I'd consider to be essential criteria for a great movie. Maybe this is the first of a new wave of this type of film and I am not getting it but when it had finished I felt pretty much nothing.
Im Westen nichts Neues (2022)
A good war film yes, a good adaptation....no
If this film had been made as an original work then I think I would feel about it differently. The acting and cinematography are great but sadly it also makes some significant mistakes and falls into cliche. Remember this is 1917 not 1914 when these boys are enrolling to fight, millions are dead and wounded by this point yet all we see is unbridled enthusiasm. Also by the end of the war trench warfare was over, which makes it very frustrating that the filmmakers didn't reflect the reality of the soldiers' experience in that Germany was in full retreat, things were falling apart and fast moving. The final assault is therefore a bit ludicrous.
What is perhaps most disappointing is that the film's message has become just a "war is bad and horrific experience, you rely on your comrades and don't believe the propaganda". No great or new revelations there. The whole point of the original book, even down to its title is that war is also mundane, it's boring and that traumatic things can happen on a personal level but in the scheme of things are not even noteworthy.
I can't help but think that this film is doing better than it otherwise would have done because of the obvious parallels with the events in Ukraine. If it had been released in 2018 I don't think it would have been up for so many awards.
Happy Valley: Episode #3.6 (2023)
Some implausible plot developments
Firstly I've enjoyed watching Happy Valley overall but in the same way The Killing became a bit cliched I think the same thing happened here. The writer should be congratulated for avoiding an all guns blazing Hollywood neat and tidy wrap up but the journey to the climax was a bit frustrating and unlikely. At least the main villain TLR was presented in more complexity and was able to display some humanity.
For the plot to work our heroine has to do the most stupid and irresponsible things and ignore basic police protocol - something that we can see in many of the other previous episodes is that she plays generally by the book. That is a bit of a let down and feels very contrived.
The subplots in this season also get jettisoned and are not resolved in a satisfactory manner - why spend so much time on them if you then hastily wrap them all up in about 20 seconds. They were quite intriguing and I felt deserved a bit more air time.
Corsage (2022)
Vicky Krieps performance is excellent!
I knew pretty much nothing about the protagonist in this film and I feel those hung up on historical accuracy have completely missed the point. This is a film about a suffocating society, a courtly culture that stifled a clearly very intelligent and emotionally complex woman. The title of the film gives a clear hint of this and we see through the course of the fictional or reimagined series of events the impact it has on Empress Elisabeth. If you're expecting a historical biopic then you'll be disappointed.
Vicky Krieps is excellent in this, her performance is really so good and it lifts the whole film throughout. I felt coming into watch this with no preconceptions has resulted in enjoying an unusual and refreshing film.
Catherine Called Birdy (2022)
Should've been a whole lot better
I haven't read the book but hopefully it has a plot that makes more sense than the film. The ending is so contrived to end happily that it seems to forget about everything that has gone before. The film has a good cast but frankly Birdy is pretty annoying and lacks a lot of charm and perhaps there were a couple of small laughs during the movie but I don't think I'd regard it as a comedy. It was more a lighthearted drama that also bears little or no resemblance to medieval reality....was that really a bicycle in Birdy's room at the end?! The themes were also hit and miss...why reference the Crusades without actually putting them a bit into context - the horror, the butchery, the religious intolerance - they were presented as some romantic endeavour. It didn't sit well when the film clearly wanted to make some points about inequalities and people's position in society. At best it's whimsical nonsense.
All My Friends Hate Me (2021)
Starts well, ends less well
This film approaches the themes of social anxiety and paranoia - just what is real, what has been misrepresented or forgotten...Centred around a birthday reunion at a country house. For about three quarters of the film there's a feeling of suspense and as a viewer I was waiting for some sort of revelation or reveal but it never happens. I felt the cast were all excellent and portrayed ambivalent characters but they were let down by the plot. The ending is a damp squib and totally disappointing, it had the feeling of a rushed arbitrary finish and it destroyed the promise of the rest of the film.
A bit frustrating as I feel there were great elements and it could have been a much better film with a better last 10 minutes.
Fever Pitch: The Rise of the Premier League (2021)
Totally misleading title...a wasted opportunity
This documentary series views the history of the Premier League totally through the prism of Manchester United.... The first episode is interesting because it gives good insight on Sky and what they were trying to achieve... by episode 2 it's become a pretty dull account of Man Utd's exploits. It's laughable that teams like Arsenal, Spurs, Liverpool are barely even mentioned in the first 3 programmes. What's even worse is there's NO coverage of what the Premier League meant for the leagues below or for the smaller teams who had to compete against the economic giants.... where are Ipswich, Norwich, Coventry, QPR, Aston Villa, Wimbledon, Crystal Palace etc etc.
The series is totally unbalanced and a poor effort at telling the story of an era where football changed utterly. Pretty frustrating that they've made such a hash of it.
Ammonite (2020)
Missed opportunity
I had high hopes for Ammonite, a great cast and the beautiful Dorset coast suggested good things. However, this film moved glacially and completely sidelined the work of Mary Anning. Taking real life characters and concocting a lesbian love affair at the expense of reality just feels a wasted opportunity. At times the situations felt laughably contrived and didn't feel in any way an accurate representation of Victorian England. Somehow even the beautiful coastline didn't manage to shine, what a shame.
The Dig (2021)
Superbly shot reimagining of Sutton Hoo
The Dig is a delightful film that reimagines the mainly true events of 1939 when Anglo Saxon treasures buried in a boat grave were unearthed. The cinematography captures the Suffolk landscape beautifully as the story unfolds with the local "amateur" archaeologist or excavator Basil Brown engaged by a local landowner Edith Pretty to investigate the mysterious mounds on her land. The story concentrates as much on the characters as it does on the dig itself and is all the better for it. Ralph Fiennes makes the best stab at a Suffolk accent that I think I've heard on screen, I think some criticism of it are way off the mark and I speak as having a father born and bred in Suffolk. There are only a couple of criticisms I'd raise which is the subplot of involving Edith Pretty's cousin and one of the archaeologists (played by Lily James) romance is fictional and really a bit superfluous. The fact Britain is about to plunge into war could have been handled differently. The other is where are the treasures! Anyone who has been to the British museum will know they are stunning. It would have been nice even in the end credits to have seen them. Overall I really enjoyed this film though and thoroughly recommend it
Out of Her Mind (2020)
Patchy...
I watched part of the first episode when first broadcast and it didn't really work... but I came back to it and tried again and it took a while for it to get into its stride. It is a bit disjointed and some scenes work far better than others. However, I did find the final episode to be pretty tedious and repetitive so it ended on a low. The middle four episodes though were pretty good, I don't think it's a classic but Sara Pascoe tried to do something different and that in itself deserves credit