Reviews

I'm a big tennis fan, and mostly women's tennis. For anyone who follows the sport, there is nothing that revealing but it is still good to see behind the scenes a bit. I can't stand Nick Kyrgios so the way he was pushed as the mercurial, misunderstood genius was irritating. Let's hope they include him being charged in a domestic abuse case in the next part!

Obviously only certain players signed up, so there are many, many people who had a significant role in tennis in the early months of 2022 that were not covered. Ash Barty won the singles title at the 2022 Australian Open - a much bigger deal than Kyrgios and the doubles - was far and away the world number one, yet she walked away from tennis in February. Not covered at all! Still, I do hope non-tennis fans are drawn in to a terrific sport.

This season has been such a mess but quite entertaining. However this episode sees them topple over the edge of ridiculous into offensive irresponsibility. The powerful white guys who have been pulled up for years of bad behaviour lately - as represented by Steve Carell's Mitch - were obviously the group most in need of sympathy and understanding.... Not! S2 of this show has had Mitch swanning around Italy living in a huge mansion, sunning himself, meeting fascinating women. Are our hearts supposed to bleed for him?

This episode is ALL about Mitch and Jennifer Anniston's Alex. That Alex would be sad her long term on screen partner is gone is understandable but even she says he targeted black women yet still ends up embracing him. The bit where Mitch whines about 'I want to be good, teach me' was absolutely cringe worthy. If it was a comment on his awfulness, that would be something but it is clear that we are supposed to sympathise and ask ourselves what Mitch can do and don't we all deserve a second chance and the possibility of redemption.

Yes, The Morning Show deals with the MeToo movement by telling the man's story. It is ALL about the abuser. If your response to Weinstein and all the abuse of power stories was 'but what about the poor guy whose career is in tatters?' if you are worried about Weinstein, Spacey, Les Moonves, Andrew Kreisberg, Matt Lauer etc maybe you loved this. For me it was downright offensive!

I fancied a bit of assassin action and love Jessica Chastain so gave this a go despite sniffy reviews. The film begins well and the action is pretty well done throughout without being that spectacular, however assassin being betrayed and ultimately put on the run by her employers is nothing new and it is not done as well here as in say, Atomic Blonde, Haywire, Nikita etc. Where I think the film flops is in the family drama. Common is badly miscast and is utterly charmless as Chastain's Ex. Hard to see either her or her sister falling for him. Geena Davis has little to do and doesn't add much in a listless performance. Jess Wexler can be appealing but it just a drag here. Malkovic and Farrell are 2 of the more singular actors around and they come out ok but this film could and should have been so much better. Poor plotting and cliched dialogue. They totally waste Joan Chen for gods sake! However, it's mindless entertainment when stuck at home I guess.

Working from home over COVID in 2020, I was determined to give myself a lunch break and one day sat with my cup of tea and sandwich I saw this on my Netflix main screen. Thought it might be a diverting. 20mins before returning to my home-office, I ended up watching the entire first ep (no one to nag me to get back to work!) and eager to log off a few hours later to find out more about Beth's journey to Chess Champion! This is a fantastic series. I especially loved the relationship between Beth (a brilliant Anya Taylor-Joy, whose slightly odd but striking looks fit the genius Beth perfectly) and her adoptive mother Alma, played by the acclaimed director Marielle Heller. The show constantly surprises you as you think you know where it's going. The orphanage is bound to be the source of unspeakable cruelty... well no, just the incredibly dodgy sedating of the girls. Crusty janitor is going to exploit her! Erm, no, he's an uncompromising teacher. The couple that adopt her, he's going to abuse her and she'll be a cruel drunk. Nope. The men she beats will be bitter and misogynistic.. no. And the lack of using these cliched antagonists, instead focusing on Beth's journey up the chess ranks is just really refreshing and well done. Kudos to the gorgeous (and meaningful) costumes and wonderful production design. 7 perfect episodes (no unnecessary second series please) and the nicest surprise of a crappy year.

This popped up on my Amazon video time line and a damp Saturday afternoon in December seemed like a good time for a fun Christmas film. However don't be fooled, this is much more like Ricky Gervais show After Life. It is more about how a father and daughter struggle in the aftermath of the death of the mother. There are some funny moments but this is really a quite painful look at grief. However, York is pretty and the leads are good. Less convincing from the supporting cast at times - Joely Richardson's accent is distracting and the daughter's best friend and other school pals are not great actors. Not very warm and fuzzy but an ok film

The original HG Wells story saw the titular character, Griffin, become obsessed by revenge and murder and in this version, the title character is similarly nasty, but is very much a peripheral character as we follow Elisabeth Moss Cecile who escapes from her controlling partner in a brilliantly tense opening. Her fear of Griffin tells us a lot about the power dynamic of the relationship and also serves as a metaphor for a certain type of toxic male. However, we soon are into the thriller aspect - Cecile believes Griffin has developed the ability to become invisible and is stalking her. Is she crazy? For me this film worked incredibly well. Such a tense and anxiety inducing film, with a few shock scares and a thoughtful ending. Really engrossing and enjoyable. Moss is predictably excellent. She has done a lot of on screen suffering but has an inner steel you totally buy. Although because of that, I do wonder why she didn't leave that awful man earlier!

What is really chilling is reading some of the responses here!

The way this episode deals with the actions of Mitch is fascinating and probably an accurate reflection of some men in powerful positions in Hollywood. Mitch isn't Weinstein, he's not violent, but we see in this episode the way he uses his position to push out women he's done with - the producer who takes on Reese Witherspoon. It's the storyline with the always terrific Gugu Mbatha Raw as new up and coming producer, Hannah, that is the complex and unnerving one. Mitch is charismatic and friendly, but the way he pushes her promotion using his power at the network, then coerces her into an encounter was so creepy. He's not forcing her, and with some guy she met in a bar, Hannah would have shoved his away. But this is the big star of the show, some one with influence and power. There is no joy or pleasure on her face, she looks like a deer in the headlights as Mitch moves in on her like the predator he is. This less criminal but insidious coercion was truly terrifying! The fact Hannah ended up taking the 'pay off' of a swift promotion from the studio head, clearly wanting to appease her isn't a great look, but the way many people live. Do I make an issue or keep quiet and at least get something out of it? 'So this is how it works?' She asks.

Huge credit to the writers and brilliant director Michelle McLaren. I did think when I saw Mbatha Raw cast that there had to be something juicy coming up for her. You don't cast an actress of her talent and have them do nothing (she's been very much in the background for. It's of the previous episodes) As I said at the start, it's chilling that a number of commenters here see this episode and think 'what was wrong with that? They both got something out of it.' While by no means as obvious a villain as Weinstein, the Matt Lauer parallels are obvious. Also interesting to contrast it with the Nestor Carbonell and Belle Powley characters who while in a similar power imbalance, are shown to have a very consensual relationship. The Morning Show did a great job of telling a complicated story and showing how insidious abuse of power is.

First off, this is NOT A 10/10 movie but the blatantly biased reviews had me rooting for it. The film isn't bad, it's ok, but I was disappointed with a few elements. Firstly the casting was not quite right. Kristen Stewart looked impossibly glamorous throughout and was quirky and fun. Maybe they spent the budget persuading her to do a dumb action film as the other two angels were not at her level of charisma and recognisable star power. Best of the others is Naomi Scott, who is quite appealing as the scientist the angels end up helping. She's a bit eccentric but, of course, super pretty! For me the charisma vacuum was Ella Balinska. She was clearly cast for her height and looks and is fine I think the action scenes but her acting was wooden and generally cringey! Charlie's Angels needs a balanced team and someone like Gugu Mbatha Raw, Zendaya would have given the trio a better balance. You need someone up to Stewart's level of talent but a strong action woman who takes the lead. The other gap is some real wit and verve. Elizabeth Banks is talented but a script polish to put some life into the dialogue would have been helpful. Still, it was an enjoyable romp. Loved the end scenes of Elena training with a bunch of awesome ladies in little cameos. More of that would have been good.

There was a lot to tie up with this film and there were lots of fan service-y bits. No surprise they managed to defeat Thanos and get back al, the characters killed off in the snap, and no surprise there were a few deaths - but slightly surprised by poor Natasha's demise. Personally, I'd have preferred the terminally dull Hawkeye went off that cliff!

It was sort of obvious Brie Larson films this before her solo Captain Marvel film as she hadn't quite got the character sorted - plus to be honest, has very little to do - apart from a butch haircut! A whole stack of underused female characters reappeared - Jane! Peggy! Tilda! Thor's mum! But really this was one for the boys with the core cast of the original movies getting the most screen time - chiefly Thor, Cap and Tony who are the heart of the early MCU but lots of Hulk too.

I found it pretty satisfying on the whole but that ending scene at the lake has absolutely appalling cgi - I didn't believe many of those actors were really there. Cumberbatch in particular looked very odd. In a movie this big, it stood out like a sore thumb for me.

I'd heard good things about this film and am a fan of both Theron and Davis. Add in the Diablo Cody/Jason Reitman double act whose Juno and Young Adult are a couple of my favourites. The film starts as a straightforward but well-observed portrait of a stressed out mum played by Charlize Theron, who has embraced this less than glamorous role by piling on the pounds - as she did for Monster. With 2 demanding little kids, a new baby arrives to expand the family and we wonder whether this addition will push Marlo over the edge. However evetually Marlo agrees to employ a night baby nurse and Tully (Mackenzie Davis) arrives.

SPOILERS

NOW

The first things that occurred to me as soon as Davis appears is how similar she looked to Theron - similar height, colouring etc. As it turns out, no accident, of course! The way the relationship is built between the two made me wonder if there was going to be a romance between them. There is an immediate intimacy and connection. Indeed, the scene when Tully dresses up in a waitress uniform and appears to seduce Marlo's pretty useless husband Ron Livingtone - apparently with Marlo's participation - seemed odd until you realise the twist of who Tully really is. The misdirect, that this might turn into a gay romance, continues as Marlo and Tully both refer to female flat mates who are clearly more than just a friend, but I must admit, I didn't guess that Tully was a representation of Marlo's younger self until the accident on the way back from a boozy night out. Tully is somehow a mermaid, Marlo is hospitalised and we learn her maiden name, yes, TULLY. Now it all makes sense - why Davis was cast for her similar physicality to Theron, why no one else ever saw Tully, that waitress seduction. We didn't really need the quick recap showing the highlights of the film but with Marlo alone where previously we had seen Tully. I spent the last few minutes rewinding it in my head and re-examining the events. Huge kudos to Charlize Theron, who fully embraces the role and puts her flab proudly on display. But her performance is more than the weight gain. Frazzled stressed out mothers have been seen on screen in everything from Bad Moms to Ladybird, but Theron sells it completely.

However, there are plenty of unanswered questions about this film. Is it a portrayal of post-partum depression? Is the twist too much of a cheat? Does the film pull another con by making the husband quite so oblivious? For me, this was a surprising but fascinating film. That twist totally kicked the legs out from under me and I was really taken in. I was also super impressed by Theron's range - shaven headed action hero in Mad Max Fury Road, she shows again that she will do anything for a good role. I love her lack of vanity and commitment to characters with depth. Not a big box office hit, I'm glad to see Theron in the awards conversation for this film. Diablo Cody and Jason Reitman are turning into one of my favourite combinations too.