When we heard that Derek Cianfrance sat in the directors chair of I Know This Much is True, it aroused our immediate interest. The director is behind excellent drama films such as Blue Valentine, The Place Beyond the Pines and The Light Between Oceans. With this HBO series, he tops his relatively short directing career. …
Netflix’s new action thriller Extraction is based on the cartoon Cuidad (by Joe Russo, who also wrote the screenplay); and it seems – for better or worse. The lone wolf Tyler Rake (Chris “Thor” Hemsworth) is a mentally injured elite soldier who now rents out his “services” to the highest bidder. He works within a …
Robert Eggers (The Witch) has written and directed an intense drama set on a barren, desolate rocky island off the rugged coast of New England in the 1890s. Old age collide with youthful enthusiasm The old lighthouse is powered by the aging laughter bit of a sea urchin, Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe). He knows the …
At a time when streaming services have been impacted by a dearth of new show launches (as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic) it’s gratifying to see that autumn’s big gamble from HBO delivers on its promise. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvamPJp17Ds Jim Crow Matt Ruff wrote the eponymous novel on which Lovecraft Country is based. We find ourselves …
Since 1956, we Europeans have been able to enjoy the annual music competition «Eurovision Song Contest», which with its 64 completed shows is the world’s most tenacious, and largest, singing competition. In other words, a competition that is very famous, loved and hated in Europe – but completely unknown in the United States. A little …
Ask yourself: When was the last time you saw a Polish movie or TV series? Long ago yes? You are definitely not alone in this. The Woods have the potential to change this trend. In the hot summer of 1994, a group of young people in their late teens find themselves in a summer camp, …
If you watch a dozen American police films, you must undeniably draw the conclusion that 40-50% of the police force is thoroughly corrupt. Corruption, drugs and easy penchant for dirty bribes are a theme that has been taken up in countless crime and action movies from across the pond. So too with 21 Bridges; and …
Elisabeth Moss has largely impressed with subtle and believable human acting in the complex role that oppressed Offred in the TV series The Handmaid’s Tale. Last year we could see Moss in her horror debut in scary Us. A film that must have given more flavor, because in the “remake” of the Universal classic about …
The very talented, and versatile, South African actress Charlize Theron (who we last saw in solid Bombshell), has repeatedly shown her abilities as an action heroine on film. In Fast & Furious 8, Æon Flux, Atomic Blonde, and not least, Mad Max: Fury Road, Theron has shown that she is fully on par with male …
In his first major role since the thrilling thriller The Americans, Matthew Rhys now returns to the series format. This time to portray one of the most archetypal fiction detectives, Perry Mason. Who would have thought that someone would brush the dust off one of the oldest and most reliable TV detectives of all …
After Will Smith took the step from the light-hearted TV sitcom (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air), it was Bad Boys (1995) that became his major film breakthrough. Eight years later came the sequel, Bad Boys 2. Movies that really put Smith in the box as a action hero. So it would take another 17 (!) …
Netflix shows us how it can go when the military is about to turn around, and almost act in affection on the tweets from an unpredictable American president. Comedy legend Steve Carell has a long comedian career on his backside, including as a stunt reporter on The Daily Show and a regular on Saturday Night …
This year, Oscar for Best Picture of the Year went, for the very first time, to a foreign language film. South Korean director Bong Joon Ho walked away with the world’s most generous award for the bitter comedy Parasite. In 2013, Ho directed the dystopian film Snowpiercer. Now the streaming giant Netflix has thrown itself …
April 6, 1917: The two young British corporals Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) and Schofield (George MacKay) are given the task of warning one of their companies that they are about to attack in the middle of a well-planned German ambush. The lives of 1,600 young men are at stake if they do not reach Colonel Mackenzie …
It was comedian legend Robin Williams who made the original Jumanji (1995) a notable film, and a formidable box office success. The concept was kids being sucked into a magic board game, where Williams had been trapped for decades. In 2018 came a kind of sequel, where the teenagers were now “uploaded” in a video …