Our resident critic Robert Chandler gives us his perspective on the latest entertaintment from the big and small screen.
I found STAR WARS IX: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER, for all its faults, unexpectedly moving at the end.
The through-line of the final STAR WARS trilogy is the wrestling match between Daisy Ridley’s Rey and Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren / Ben. It’s a potentially strong narrative: will they kill each other or fall in love, what is the nature of their bond?
Where to begin? CATS has already boosted some critics’ careers by dropping into their laps at Christmas the weirdest, most demented, going-to-be-the-most-talked-about movie of the year.
Read MoreAmazon Prime is carrying a new series of 30' films, MODERN LOVE, where each film is a New York Relationship Movie. So far, the first two films have featured Bookish People. Which is not to say they are uninteresting because they have been rather good. Their secret weapon is John Carney, the series' principal writer and director.
Read MoreLet it be known that I baled from CHERNOBYL after fifteen minutes of episode 1 because it opened with a cliché (man kills himself, we go back to find out why) and I baled from HIS DARK MATERIALS after twenty minutes of episode 1 because it opened with too much-captioned exposition (I stayed long enough to get my Ruth Wilson fix).
Read MoreWow! I loved Apple+’s original show, DICKINSON, starring the great Hailee Steinfeld as the American poet, Emily Dickinson. It’s audacious! Risky. Like a reworking of Little House On The Prairie as a YA novel. It has the youngsters, including Dickinson, speaking in a young contemporary vernacular while the elders speak in solemn period tones; and it’s scored with contemporary songs and music.
Read MoreZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP delivers what it promises: fun and zombie kills, and a reunion with a great cast, which, when we met them ten years ago in ZOMBIELAND, had become a new family.
Read MoreAD ASTRA follows the journey of a man with a singular intention to fulfil his purpose. Nothing will stand in his way.
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