hidden gems from Amazon Prime, Netflix, BBC iPlayer, and Hulu
Passion, creativity, and suspense in stillness… [A teaser of an essay for Patreon patrons and Substack subscribers only.]
Ewan McGregor
Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn movie review: fantabulous
Behold ladyrage given full candy-colored, sparkle-sprinkled voice in an ironically comical spectacle: Haha, isn’t this delightfully absurd? Or is it? This is kidding-not-kidding on celluloid.
Doctor Sleep movie review: a reckoning with the ghosts of the past
A wonderfully unexpected sort of horror movie, beautiful and delicate, but unsettling, too, with an authentic plausibility to the dichotomy between the invented uncanny and the human response to it.
T2 Trainspotting movie review: GenX running out of steam but chugging on
The sparse, cold satisfaction that could be wrung from Trainspotting’s punk insolence has been replaced by an exhausted cynicism. Which is exactly right.
Beauty and the Beast (2017) movie review: ever just the same, never a surprise
Like a theme-park mounting of the 1991 cartoon, or the blandified pop version of an enchanting signature character tune. A watered-down pastiche of itself.
Our Kind of Traitor movie review: ordinary everyday spies
Smartly elegant; the fantastic cast makes it worth your time. But it does feel as if it belongs on the small screen spread across six or eight hours.
Jane Got a Gun movie review: a woman’s view on the Old West
A gritty woman’s perspective on tropes of the western genre, a lean action drama that is sparse yet sympathetic, and laconic but simmers with deep emotion.
Miles Ahead movie review: where the music takes you
A fantasy about Miles Davis’s life and music; loose, free-flowing, a kind of cinematic jazz. An astonishingly assured directorial debut from Don Cheadle.
Son of a Gun movie review: wholesale cinematic heist
Misogynistic, predictable, crammed with tonal shifts, and devoid of likable characters. Another young filmmaker has taken all the wrong cues from Hollywood.
Mortdecai movie review: stinking mishap
This painfully unfunny spoof of teddibly British nonsense couldn’t be less amusing if it were actually calculated to be totally laugh-free.
