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Film Reviews: The Bike Riders and The Critic

 It is always refreshing to see a film or simply, a story, progress along its route, purely informed by the characters and their own motivations and the circumstances in which they live.  Whether it is the sixties in the American Midwest or the thirties in London, the principle and the tangled web that they weave among themselves and seemingly insignificant others, the appeal remains the same and keeps a strong hold on you from beginning to end. In both, you have a main character who will act as they see fit, regardless of how it affects others around them, as long as their life remains the same. The circumstances of both have times and attitudes who would either turn a blind eye or an indifferent one. The authorities in both are scornful and resentful but they appear when it seems right to act.  You, the viewer, see the seeds of their own downfall early on. They appear in the background, looked down on and dismissed by the main character, but in the back of your mind, you know that th
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TV series reviews: Masters of the Air & Manhunt

 If I've said it once, I will say it again, whenever a screenwriter delves into the dusty pages of history, one has to take special care in the telling of it. Not only doing justice to the real people involved and not just honouring their deeds and heroism but also a fair portrayal of those on the other side of the coin. For the first of those two, American pilots in World War II in Masters of the Air, I honestly wasn't expecting to be drawn in so intently and be so invested in the survival of the main characters (all based on real people), production values - especially the score by Blake Neely, is set firmly at eleven. I suppose I was just used to the typical war films all big heroics and sending in the cavalry at the last minute to save the day.  This production is five stars all the way. The ugliness of war is there for all to see, they do not go light on any of the details - which means both sides show the horrors of what everyone did to stay alive and the overall series i
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Film Review: Theater Camp

 In the middle of year six, I started attending Helen O'Grady's Drama Academy. Typical education sneakiness of actually teaching kids the skills to enable them to be confident out in the "real world" and with the fun bonus of how to project your voice while simultaneously messing about on the "stage" and acting out improvisation prompts and at the end of each year, a whole play. Nearly seven years, growing and learning in community buildings, after school during term time.  Good times all round. And it was definitely part of the draw card for me, for this new film, set at a summer theatre camp that beautifully illustrates the allure of performing on stage, telling stories and bringing them to life, for both the kids that attend and the teachers - and it's hard to tell who is the more committed or passionate about the craft. It's clearly a labour of love for Molly Gordon, Ben Platt, Noah Galvin and Nick Lieberman - all four wrote it, the first three a
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TV series reviews: The Bear & The Newsreader

 For your consideration today, two reviews for the price of one. The Bear and The Newsreader.  Not only do both series have a strong cast and gripping scripts for each and every episode but both also open the curtains for us to have a peek behind the scenes of a world usually off limits for mere mortals. We only see the finished product but here we see the shouting matches fuelled by emotional energy, impassioned speeches, tears, hugs and luck of the moment that brings it all together to make it work, that of a high end restaurant and the newsroom respectively. Both worlds also have that sense of the "other" family bond, strengthened by joint victories and triumphs and sour moments of failures made less painful by those in the room, bonded together through thick and thin to make a perfected dish or news television broadcast.  And indeed, they are not only fighting each other but up against the world, nameless - if not faceless, critics, ever judging, never silent and always o
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Film Review: Barbie

 So, a film about the most iconic (female) doll of all time, with decades worth of changes, faces, clothes and identities, roles, occupations and people are surprised with the overall message of feminism that shines through every moment?  Let's be clear from the get-go: Barbie celebrates every woman, every identity and our identities are intrinsically linked to our overall power (or lack thereof) as women overall. For every step that we've taken, every day, some feel compelled to take us a few hundred steps back.  To use a technical term, we have been quite literally biblically screwed since the start - it was Eve who tempted man and we've been stuck paying the price for it ever since. And in Barbie - which the beautiful Helen Mirren voiceover makes clear from the first frame, has been a reflection of ourselves since her arrival and the journey Barbie has been on reflects how women have changed over the decades, what power has changed for us and by us. Yes, feminism is a k
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Mini series review: The Offer

 Like the saying goes, don't let the truth get in the way of a good story.  This production telling the story of how one of the greatest films of our time got made might not be completely historically accurate but it is still a great thrill ride from beginning to end.  They have their fun and explore some fun 'what ifs' with the situation and keep their humour throughout, even with suit executives breathing down their necks with their unwavering ideas of what a movie should be. And here we have Burn Gorman and Colin Hanks portraying those grim faced people - Charles Bluhdorn and Barry Lapidus respectively. It can't be easy being the constant naysayers but these two really do measure up. Every key part of the film which we now recognise as being essential to the overall greatness was fought tooth and nail over and we're glad that they did. Al Ruddy (portrayed by Miles Teller) and Francis Ford Coppola, here portrayed by Dan Fogler, were battling every day to get the m
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Film Review: She said

 Hollywood does love a good story. But when someone is feeling brave enough to hold up a mirror - or in this case, Dorian Grey's portrait, you better have not just a good story, but a real story with the skill to pull it off.  It's not just a movie to entertain, the people behind this film had a very real responsibility to tell it right and honour those brave people who were able to come forward and put their names and careers on the line. Brad Pitt, who doesn't appear in the film, is credited as one of the executive producers. No one is messing about here. And the makers behind She said definitely brought their considerable best to the table. It's based on real events, real journalism - the kind we thought had been consigned to the history books, proper investigative reporting of the systemic abuse in Hollywood, that had far reaching effects in every other industry.  Megan Twohey and Jody Kantor are real women, and one of the many things that this film did really well,
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