daily stream: no place like home for the apocalypse
2021’s Silent Night is on AMC+ in the US, Prime in the UK, and other services as well.
Matthew Goode
daily stream: whistleblowing in a warmongering dystopia (a true story)
2019’s Official Secrets is on Netflix and Kanopy in the US, on BBC iPlayer in the UK.
Downton Abbey: A New Era movie review: should we improve society somewhat, or nah?
Steady your heart palpitations: it’s the same old era for the nicest feudal hangover. The delusional reactionary fantasy of wealth and privilege for some, cheerful servitude for others remains intact.
Silent Night movie review: house party at the end of the world
Apocalyptically sorta-satirical, bone-deep terrifying slap in the face that humanity has properly earned. Formidable, intense… and funny, in a very dry way that is nevertheless difficult to laugh at.
Official Secrets movie review: blow all the whistles
Not a spy thriller but a story of emotional and intellectual suspense wrangling with matters of patriotism and of conscience, and of just how far journalism’s watchdog role can and should take it.
Downton Abbey movie review: embarrassment of riches
Wherein the working class revels in servitude, and wealth and privilege are deserved. Deeply reactionary and unlikely to please anyone not already enamored of the show. I get Anglophilia, but really?
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society movie review: the stories too painful to tell
A wonderfully old-fashioned tearjerker, with a thoroughly delightful cast, where cosy quaint Englishness is leavened by a harsh reality of World War II that pop culture has ignored.
Self/less movie review: mind/less, brain/less, point/less
Glances at fundamental questions of identity and humanity and decides that they are best resolved via fistfights, gun battles, and car chases.
Belle movie review: untold stories
Wonderful true story about a mixed-race woman raised in aristocratic late-18th-century England; like the best Jane Austen romance with a social conscience.
A Single Man (review)
Fashion designer Tom Ford has made the cinematic equivalent of a fashion magazine spread…
