| FILM AND TV

AHSOKA
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AHSOKA (2023)
WATCH ON DISNEY +

Taking Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars: Rebels and Heir to the Empire as its core inspiration, the latest Disney+ show, Ahsoka, feels like a welcome return to the foundations of George Lucas' universe. Ahsoka shines from the outset due to the performances of Rosario Dawson, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, the late great Ray Stevenson, Ivanna Sakhno, Lars Mikkelsen and David Tennant and delights with the return appearance of Hayden Christensen's Anakin. Like The Mandalorian, Ahsoka bathes in the diversity, adventure and wonder of a galaxy far, far away, reminding us just how special George Lucas' characters and worlds are. Disney's Star Wars outings have been a mixed bag of brilliance, disappointment, creativity and fan service over the years; thankfully, Ahsoka is a joy, leaving you desperate for more as each beautifully crafted episode concludes, and much of this success comes from its embrace of Heir to the Empire and the legacy of the Clone Wars and Anakin's fall. Like The Mandalorian, Andor and Obi-Wan, Ahsoka provides further hope in Disney's ability to embrace Lucas' vision and sweep us away with intergalactic intrigue, adventure and excitement. May the force be with you.

AHSOKA
REMNANTS
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REMNANTS (2022)
AWAITING A RELEASE DATE

Three friends walk side by side across a desolate post-apocalyptic wilderness in Jack Roberts' indie flick Remnants. There is no safe place, no security and no certainty in their journey as they avoid the undead who roam the once-bustling streets, towns and communities that now lay empty and silent; they only have each other, their weapons and the hope of survival against all odds. Filmed over eight years, Roberts' hand-held movie, co-written by Dakota Sawyer, is a taut and beautifully shot road trip horror from its opening scenes, with solid performances from its lead cast, Ryan Wesen, Jack Roberts and Rebi Paganini. As with all low-budget passion projects, the commitment, artistry on a shoestring and dedication on display from all involved is admirable. But there are also times when the narrative stumbles, never allowing us to gain a complete picture of each character, their motivations and their connection, despite some beautifully staged one-on-one conversations during moments of calm reflection. However, there are also moments when Remnants soars above the budget restrictions surrounding it in the tension it manages to generate, particularly within its final act, which owes much to Romero's Night of the Living Dead. In direction, score, performances and cinematography, there is much to admire in Roberts' film, and while it may not tread new ground, there are moments of brilliance in this indie zombie horror.

REMNANTS
TRANSYLVANIE
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Transylvanie (2023)
FRIGHTFEST 2023

Ten-year-old Ewa claims she became a vampire last September. She spends each day avoiding the local bullies outside her high-rise block of flats while silently visiting the local cemetery, searching for rats to drink from. Her home is silent, with no sign of her parents, siblings or any support as Ewa sits in her bedroom talking to her silent ‘master’ about her loneliness and need for a companion. During these conversations, Ewa decides it’s time to find a boy who can join her in ruling the concrete kingdom she inhabits, and so starts her mission to find the right young man, one her ‘master’ would approve of. Written and directed by Rodrigue Huart, Transylvanie owes much to Let the Right One In (2008) as it explores childhood isolation, bullying and a need to find belonging in a world that alienates you. With a truly stunning debut performance from newcomer Katell Varvat, Huart’s delicate but striking tale leaves us with far more questions than it ultimately answers: Is Ewa really a vampire? Is her world imaginary or real? What happened to her family? These questions lock you into the action on screen as this delightful slice of folk horror plays out amid the tower blocks of a cold housing estate. But it is within the final act that Transylvanie packs its mighty and unexpected punch as Ewa finds the boy she wants, only to be confronted by the bullies she attempts to avoid.

TRANSYLVANIE
WHAM!
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WHAM! (2023)
WATCH ON NETFLIX

Despite constant negativity and snipes in the mainstream music press, Wham took the world by storm in just four years. It was the dream of a lifetime for the young Andrew Ridgeley and Georgios Panayiotou (later George Michael), who had become besties at Bushey Meads High School in Hertfordshire. The journey to stardom was short, sharp and full of unexpected opportunities, like a last-minute performance on Top of the Pops in 1982. Wham! became the epitome of a new upbeat 80s pop, built on good vibes, big hair, colour and bright white smiles. Director Chris Smith aims to answer these questions through archive footage and audio interviews with Ridgeley and Michael (who recorded many of his thoughts before he died in 2016). The result is an upbeat and affectionate portrait of two boys who achieved the dreams of stardom they talked about endlessly as teens. It’s a story of undying friendship, hidden trauma, and sacrifice that isn’t afraid to explore the darker corners of Wham!’s meteoric rise. However, despite the intimacy of the conversations, archive footage and the youthful exuberance of Wham! you can’t help but feel we are still missing parts of the story as Smith’s delightful documentary ends. But as a celebration of two friends who defied the negativity of the pop press and loudly exclaimed ‘Choose Life’ Wham! is, like them, playful, joyous and full of colour.

WHAM!
STILL: A MICHEAL J FOX MOVIE (2023)
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STILL: A MICHEAL J FOX MOVIE (2023)
WATCH ON APPLE TV+

From the opening scenes of Davis Guggenheim’s beautiful and poignant documentary, it’s clear that Michael’s life and career have been anything but still. From a young age, Michael was always on the move, always searching and striving for success. That success would come through Family Ties and Back to the Future, but the journey to that point was one of toil, long hours and an urge to make it big in a city where thousands of young hopefuls vied for the same roles. Therefore, when Michael was diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson’s in 1991 at 29, his impulse was to fight it with every sinew, pushing the disease and its devastating early symptoms to the back of his mind through work. Using archival footage from Michael’s long and successful career, Guggenheim’s documentary hums with the energy of a 400V battery and takes on the feel of a classic Michael J Fox movie. Yet, while the autobiographical elements are often front and centre, it is, at its heart, a documentary charting his journey alongside Parkinson’s disease and the importance of his wife and family in helping to shape that journey. Never downbeat, Still is inspirational, funny, reflective and sharp as we celebrate the man who gave us Marty McFly, a high-school werewolf called Scott, an aspiring business tycoon named Brantley and the ambitious and sharp young Alex P. Keaton.

STILL: A MICHEAL J FOX MOVIE (2023)
GOD'S PETTING YOU
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GOD'S PETTING YOU (2023)
RENT OR BUY

Jamie Patterson is a fascinating director, with elements of his work reflecting the creative genius of the late great Ron Peck. Like Peck, Patterson works with a creative collective of artists and technical talent, and while Peck was fascinated by the underworlds of London, Patterson delights in reflecting the different sides of his home town, Brighton. Also, like Peck, his filmmaking catalogue is a mixed bag from the sublime Tucked (2019) to the dour and vivid Justine (2020). Even when his pictures don’t entirely work, the creativity of the vision is nonetheless impressive. God’s Petting You could be described as ‘Bonny and Clyde Take Brighton‘, and there is much to love in this premise. However, despite the solid and thoroughly engaging performances from George Webster and Sky Lourie, the comedy at the heart of Patterson’s film feels dated and flat – a throwback to a range of 90s British gangster movies. That’s not to say there are not moments where the promise of Patterson’s film shines through; there just aren’t enough of these moments to ultimately keep our attention in a movie that only really finds its voice in the final 20 minutes.

GOD'S PETTING YOU
PICARD SEASON THREE
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PICARD SEASON THREE (2023)
WATCH ON PARAMOUNT+

Picard Season Three may embrace nostalgia, but it couples this with a damn fine cinematic story with plenty of punch, creating a beautiful and exhilarating celebration of the crew who breathed new life into Star Trek over thirty-five years ago. There is so much to love in Picard Season Three that you are left with a deep sense of grief as we finally say goodbye to Picard and Co. for the final time. Big, beautiful, expertly written, directed and performed, Picard Season Three is not only the last outing of The Next Generation we have waited so long for; it’s one of the best Star Trek outings of the past twenty years.

PICARD
PEARL
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PEARL (2023)
IN CINEMAS

Ti West’s incredibly clever homage to the origin of the slasher genre, X, paid tribute to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Psycho, to name just two, in exploring the foundations of porn, horror and art. But far from being a mere blood-soaked cinematic seminar, X explored our collective fear of sex and age. His sequel to X has taken a long time to reach British cinemas, and sadly, this may result in lacklustre box office takings, but I hope I am wrong. Part blood-soaked homage to The Wizard of Oz and part love letter to Joan Crawford’s underrated Strait-Jacket, West’s clever dissection of psychological horror is just as intelligent in its narrative structure and artistic vision as his first outing. But add to the mix the outstanding Mia Goth and Pearl becomes a twisted pleasure that deserves to be seen on the big screen.

PEARL
DAISY JONES & THE SIX
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DAISY JONES & THE SIX (2023)
WATCH ON PRIME VIDEO

Based on the bestselling novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid, Daisy Jones & The Six feels like an extension of Cameron Crowe’s sublime 2000 film Almost Famous. But here, the coming-of-age themes are replaced by a focus on internal band conflicts, romance and politics. Told over two timelines, interviews about the band’s collapse are weaved into a delightful exploration of the 70s music scene full of sublime original tracks. With more than a nod to Fleetwood Mac, the performances of Daisy (Riley Keough) and Billy (Sam Claflin) recreate a Nicks and Buckingham-inspired conflict, while the ensemble of Billy’s brother Graham (Will Harrison), bassist Eddie Roundtree (Josh Whitehouse), drummer Warren Rojas (Sebastian Chacon), keyboardist Karen Sirko (Suki Waterhouse) and Billy’s long-suffering wife (Camila Morrone) are an absolute delight. This is serial drama at its very best.

DAISY JONES & THE SIX
EMPIRE OF LIGHT
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EMPIRE OF LIGHT (2022)
WATCH ON DISNEY+

Set in 1981 on the Kent coast, Hilary Small (Olivia Colman) leads a solitary existence after finishing a stay in a psychiatric hospital. Sexually exploited by her vile boss (played with pathetic sleaziness by Colin Firth) and alienated from the rest of her colleagues, she trudges through life with no sense of purpose or direction. She starts an affair with Stephen (Michael Ward), the newest of the young ushers working in the cinema, who shows her the tenderness of which she is deprived. What follows feels like an inelegant soldering together of two different films. The first is a period film about an interracial relationship and attitudes towards mental illness in the vein of a Mike Leigh drama. The second is an ensemble piece about a ragtag group of cinephiles finding comfort and solidarity in their temple of the moving image. While these ideas aren’t necessarily in conflict, the two concepts never converge. Empire of Light has good intentions, strong performances from the leads and handsome cinematography. But, ultimately, more is needed to save this unimaginative and thematically disjointed venture.

EMPIRE OF LIGHT
armageddon time
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ARMAGEDDON TIME (2022)
RENT OR BUY

The place is Queens, and the year is 1980. Paul (Banks Repeta) is the youngest son of Irving (Jeremy Strong) and Esther (Anne Hathaway). Paul is at that age where the idea of rebellion appeals, and in a city where cultural change is coming thick and fast, Paul longs to escape his middle-class Jewish life for an artistic adventure. The only person who seems to understand him is his grandfather (Anthony Hopkins), who encourages his love of art and sense of ambition and rebellion. At school, he bonds with Johnny (Jaylin Webb), a Black kid who, like him, believes there must be more to life than school and endless rules. But while both Johnny and Paul may share the characteristics of a minority group, the nature and experience of persecution in New York for a Black and Jewish kid are very different. James Grey’s engaging and atmospheric coming-of-age drama, embraces a New York alive with risk and change. Paul is desperate to embrace social change but has yet to discover what that change should be. However, he knows that with his friend, Johnny, in tow, change is possible and inevitable. But Paul is about to learn that childhood dreams and desires rarely survive a night of adult realities.

armageddon time
FIVE DAYS AT MEMORIAL
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FIVE DAYS AT MEMORIAL (2022)
WATCH ON APPLE TV+

Sometimes, real life is far more horrific than anything a fiction writer can conjure. John Ridley’s and Carlton Cuse’s adaptation of Sheri Fink’s detailed and harrowing book, Five Days at Memorial, places us in the middle of an event so gut-wrenchingly awful that it is hard to believe we are in one of the wealthiest countries in the world in 2005. Starring Vera Farmiga, Cherry Jones, Cornelius Smith Jr. and Robert Pine, this is the story of the New Orleans Memorial Medical Center and Hurricane Katrina. But this tale is less about the hurricane and more about government failure, the collapse of civil structures and the unbearable decision-making that doctors and nurses were forced to make as they sat alone in a hospital surrounded by flood waters. It’s the story of 45 patients who died over five days and a fragmented healthcare system that allowed a hospital to be isolated in its time of need. Five Days at Memorial is a tough, gritty and urgent drama that offers no tidy conclusions as it attempts to unpick themes of accountability and a lingering sense of injustice.

FIVE DAYS AT MEMORIAL
STRANGE NEW WORLDS
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STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS SEASON ONE (2022)
WATCH ON PARAMOUNT+

“Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: To explore strange new worlds.”… I am sure you know the rest. These famous words opened Star Trek in 1966 and have remained core to the TV and cinema journey ever since. However, one character never got the credit he deserved as the Star Trek universe grew: Christopher Pike. Christopher Pike was synonymous with the NBC pilot episode The Cage. Pike was the original Captain of the Enterprise, but as we met him, he was full of guilt as he considered resigning his position before being hideously scarred on saving his crew. Then Pike vanished into history, with Kirk taking charge. By taking us back to the very origins of Star Trek in 1966, Pike’s Enterprise embraces the classic episodic elements that built the Star Trek universe. Strange New Worlds is a glorious, colourful and magical return to a bygone TV format that was last seen in The Next Generation. Some may say it’s retro, others may say it’s slow, but Pike’s Enterprise reflects the word’s meaning: a project or undertaking, especially a bold or complex one. It’s a show about the roots of Starfleet and its mission of discovery and adventure in the unknown depths of space, and it’s all the better for it.

STRANGE NEW WORLDS
THE US AND THE HOLOCAUST
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THE U.S. AND THE HOLOCAUST (2022)
WATCH ON NETFLIX

Epic documentaries are rare nowadays, especially those that dare to stretch over three two-hour episodes. But anyone familiar with documentary maker Ken Burns and his long-time collaborators Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein will know that epic and detailed are bylines for Burns’ work. Here Burns unpicks and then stitches together a complicated tapestry of US history in relation to immigration, War in Europe, antisemitism and race from the early 1930s to the post-War period. No stone is left unturned as Burns explores two sides of the same coin, one rooted in segregation and a belief in America first and the other in compassion, bravery and a need to protect. Meanwhile, the dark history of Eugenics and psychological discrimination and oppression sees the UK and the US shoulder at least some of the responsibility for the horrors of Nazism. The US and the Holocaust is documentary filmmaking at its most powerful and urgent.

THE US AND THE HOLOCAUST
AFTERSUN
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AFTERSUN (2022)
WATCH ON MUBI

For eleven-year-old Sophie (Frankie Corio), a beach holiday in Turkey with her dad, Calum (Paul Mescal), marks the final summer of childhood innocence. Meanwhile, for her dad, the holiday coincides with his 31st birthday, a birthday he never thought he would reach. Charlotte Wells’ adventurous, understated and artistically bold film is a stunning photographic essay of love, loss, joy and disappointment, a mosaic of memories forever burnt into celluloid. Aftersun is filmmaking at its most profound, beguiling and beautiful.

AFTERSUN
THE MENU
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THE MENU (2022)
WATCH ON DISNEY+

On a secluded island, a spikey house manager and a reclusive and famous chef greet a small group of wealthy individuals. They have all come to experience a world-class menu that is more theatre than food. But as the night progresses, the menu becomes a deliciously dark game of no escape. Mark Mylod’s wicked satire takes no time in taking a huge bite out of the world of haute cuisine as we watch Ralph Fiennes’ cold and deranged chef Julian Slowik turn from MasterChef into a malevolent and merciless maitre d’. The Menu is a banquet of tension, a feast of nastiness and a huge slice of deliciously moreish theatrical terror.

the menu
WILDCAT
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WILDCAT (2021)
WATCH ON PRIME VIDEO

It would be easy to label Melissa Lesh and Trevor Frost’s beautiful and tender documentary as a classic healing journey, but Wildcat is much more. This is the story of a young veteran who fought in Afghanistan, and two lost and lonely ocelots. Both the wildcats and the damaged man who has ventured across the world to protect them are lost in a world that is often unforgiving and harsh, but can hope be found in the deep jungles of Peru? Wildcat is a tender, intimate and beautiful exploration of life, loss, love and rebirth that never attempts to sugar-coat the journey of Harry, Samantha and their endangered wildcats Khan and Keanu.

WILDCAT
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AHSOKA, REMNANTS, TRANSYLVANIE, WHAM!, STILL: A MICHEAL J. FOX MOVIE, GOD’S PETTING YOU, PICARD SEASON THREE, PEARL, DAISY JONES & THE SIX, EMPIRE OF LIGHT, ARMAGEDDON TIME, FIVE DAYS AT MEMORIAL, STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS SEASON ONE, THE U.S. AND THE HOLOCAUST, AFTERSUN, WILDCAT, THE MENU

FILM AND TV

FILM AND TV

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LIE WITH ME
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LIE WITH ME
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A BUNCH OF AMATEURS
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A BUNCH OF AMATEURS
A BUNCH OF AMATEURS
TWO HEADS CREEK
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TWO HEADS CREEK
TWO HEADS CREEK
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