Reviews

A finely-tuned, sensitive look at the leader, wartime and after, of France enduring its worst hours. The story's been told, and the beautiful scenery captured by others, but this film takes us inside the most impenetrable part of the era - who was De Gaulle, how did one abandoned man find the strength to do what he did, for France, for Europe, & had the Nazis won speaking broadly for the World. De Gaulle as enigma is all that we get usually, in-caricature, as an object of fun, the grandeur. But this film dives insides him, opens up who he was and how he felt. A sympathetic picture, someone at last showing us Le grand Charles as a human being.

Magnificent movie, wonderfully acted - Rebecca Ferguson succeeds at every task she attempts - from motorcycle wheelies for Tom Cruise, to this strange "Silo" work for any audience, a study in many things from working-class angst to love and anger. In just the first 2 episodes the film introduces strange architectures and machines and plots which all take on lives of their own, it will be interesting to follow each as things develop. Ferguson as star makes an unlikely late-entry in Episode 2, be patient. Kudos to anyone who tries to peer at dark underground interiors projected to a tiny iPhone screen, tho, this film is better seen big-screen, tv series format or not, darkness is hard on the eyes.

Really Funny: best laugh-lines are Her & Him in combat, but also Brits v. Yanks, Staff v. Commanders, allusions... what's a birnam... I've seen it thru 3 or 4 times already just watching for the humor, small touches, how to take a lady's hand nowadays and how to let the hand be taken. The politics here does a better job than reading the news: you'll know what's clicking in European realities by the end. Sitting thru the full 8 series sent me back for more & looking forward very much to Series 2. Great acting, masterful directing, all at a rapid clip that keeps you on seat's edge. The 2 leads well-played but supporting & general cast get their chances too: pay attention to all.

Strahovski & Pratt both compelling - _good_ writing for these roles - I thought direction & even cutting were very good, camera shots - exciting, rolled well, special effects really special & effective. See it.

The "Indian Mutiny" is all most of us outside of the place know of its enormous history. The movie, rightfully, turns that upside down. Laxmi bai has become a heroine of the Indian Revolution... Try seeing India from a non-British Empire point of view: it changes everything. Sumptuous sets. Click-in the English subtitles.

Coen's Macbeth is magnificent. The focus the digital brings is a great achievement - yes Shakespeare loved his language, and historians their context, and actors their timing - but it's the ideas, which the digital captures and conveys so well, that we come away from this spare, elegantly-barren drama. Several ideas are firmly intact: that power corrupts, that ambition destroys, that men and women who grasp in fact tear and render themselves, and that absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Denzel Washington is wonderful in his portrayal, his fine acting is well-honed, here, you see all the passions of the beleaguered despot and hopeless man fly across his mobile face, he stretches from each to each flawlessly. Frances McDormand too, tho: she carries the more difficult role of prime-mover at the beginning and shattered-ambition at the end, with a dignity missing from other portrayals of her character - Lady Macbeth in McDormand's hands becomes a real person, not the harping termagant of other productions but someone-like-us, who loves and schemes and sorrows as we all do but doesn't just fade and withdraw, dismissed by the audience just as her husband does with his "hereafter". Coen and Washington build her character in the latter's soliloquy above her collapsed body - this Lady Macbeth is not the weak partner but the equal tragic conspirator when she dies.

Shakespeare may have known, that all these issues of power and ambition and their self-destructiveness would be current in the 2021 times of their production - I don't know how long they worked on this, whether it was a lifetime project for someone or a hurried political comment pieced together for the occasion. But it certainly fits... Hubris is a universal concept, present at all times and in all societies, also the bewildering bitter hatreds Macbeth shows, animus which seems to have no origin - we see all of this, in this movie - and when we look up and go out from it we see it all in our politics today, in many places. All that seems horribly unique now. But here we have 16th c. Ideas, in a 17th c. Production, which seem awfully close to our own 23rd c. Conduct. The drama helps greatly to clarify - it seems once again that history repeats, or better that it "rhymes", and it's useful to be reminded of thst, as our local headlines jolt us daily with our own current events and politicians.

And listen carefully for the music, you'll enjoy it, and if you "remember the '60's" you'll love every note...

I used to live there - late 60s / early 70s - Bermondsey & Southwark & The South Bank & Pibidy Buildings, but they & I knew Hackney - lots cleaner in the movie than it was back then, pretty exteriors, but the insides were like that, old bricks & grotty walls, I've had tea and sandwiches in that Athena Shop, they have all the details right. And fine acting: there is something about The British and The Stage... All the leads are great, and those accents... homesick... The cop just thumped the pusher & the 2 good cops are horrified - played & filmed just-right, fast shock-scene, good direction. Good plot - very real. Stefanie is gorgeous - something ethereal about those eyes and that smile; but she acts wonderfully as well, uses those eyes, makes you and everyone else melt - she'll go far if she stays out of Hollywood... And the dialog: good writing, great delivery from both leads. The "gang" is fun... Anyone can see this film & enjoy it.

I continue to like her - the shark movie showed her, but also her talent - here the talent is foremost, she wisely hides the rest, everything but that bone structure... Lively's range of expression, and her ability to show the edge of pain, are extraordinary. The Gossip Girl is receding... There will be more good roles for this strong, creative woman. The movie itself was well-scripted and well-directed - the villain was perfect, very good balance there. Jude law once again is a credible foil, as in Marvel, but he has to escape his Strong Women and Teacher roles or he risks becoming typecast. I'd see the movie just to be able to watch Blake as she learns, and grows away from her own stereotypes.

Best movie I've seen in a long time... I get tired of canned blockbusters & "vehicles" & James Bond reruns, long for real drama & substance & relevance -- this film offers all 3 of the latter qualities and it is exciting as well, had me on seat's-edge thruout. There are some rough scenes, but you'll want to see those too - no cheap shots tho, everything presented here has its place in the tightly-wound plot. There is much that will feel familiar, but you'll see it all in a new light. Highly recommended to all viewers.

Blake Lively is a fine, sensitive, and powerful actress -- I thought this after Age Of Adeline, and I think it here. Her range of expression, calm and measured delivery even in explosive scenes -- even in scenes where she is exploding -- reach out to you and literally pull you in. Here, as in Adeline and even in her short-scenes in other films, I never felt the fatal distance and detachment developing which are so deadly for a beauty like this -- sure she is nice to look at, at first anyway, but quickly she becomes far more than that, and I think it is her voice and steady expression which are the keys to her success. She has short and powerful lines: obviously writers and directors have seen where this acting-power of hers lies -- Blake is a female Brando, drawing you in with both her looks and her delivery but then holding you there and speaking directly to you. And as to the fish: to some silly comments about shark behaviors I'll just reply that the "animal" here is not a shark but a force-of-nature -- the fears and powers of the victim herself, battling with her and which she must overcome -- no more a fish than Ahab's whale was a whale. This is a really well-done and interesting film, with a fine actress leading it -- recommended to any viewer.

The actors are wonderful, the writing is wonderful, the English countryside is very-green, Tom Hollander -- what a range of talent he has -- and, yes, Julian Fellowes, are wonderful, and new star Stefanie Martini is both very beautiful and very wonderful... You will enjoy this, everyone will, the direction and the overall production have a delicate, light, touch, even through some very dark scenes. I was taught long ago that Trollope was superficial, a 19th c. light-entertainment, but here Fellowes shows us the breadth and depth of understanding in the thought, sensitive critique, and great humor -- so now I'll take Trollope more seriously, also the Victorians with all their silly insecurities and dashing nobility. If you enjoy and value Jane Austen, you will enjoy and value Trollope, now, by discovering him here. So see this: online it is presented as a "Season 1" series of just 4 "episodes" -- 4 "acts", all viewed easily together in a single sitting.

The more-serious makeover suits the series well -- character development -- I loved S.1 but glad we're not seeing just more-of-same. Other series get silly, stretching beyond credibility -- very glad Mme Secretary is staying with its high-seriousness.

One objection tho: Téa's new makeup makes her look like a tired TV news presenter -- pancaked-on, those lines, harpy-ish, a crabby DC hostess instead of a bouncy action hero -- please get rid of all that goup, let us have Téa back.

I have the impression, as well, that the "filming" -- what's the word, now -- is "dark", actually the lighting, also tho the light moments, also the tense ones. The issues dealt with here, tho, are so enormous, & so immediate -- all of us actually are worrying about them too, in real life, along with these actors -- so restore some lightness to the presentation, the lighting, more outdoor shots, tone up the brightness, let the humor moments last a little longer -- dial the tension & anger back a couple of notches to where it was in S.1. We still need that lighter touch for dealing with so many dark issues, or things will begin getting just-depressing.

Fine film, fine acting, I lived there too, saw many of the same things Caine remembers and portrayed well -- housing estates, alienation, boredom, elderly, fears, frustration, desperation. Reviewers & critics here missed those points, often -- the cause was the conditions, not the people, the police not the gangs or the drugs or the rest, even Harry's bravery and training were products of a society which created that South London hell. I am glad about Harry's finale at the very end, but that was a Hollywood-ending and not the movie's -- the Enemy was that ambitious & cynical cop who was manipulating the situation for his own career ends, and the System which had created him and the rest of this.

The two leads have done great work -- I'll go see Caine in anything, again and again. The direction showed real talent -- I'll be looking for his work too, I hope again and again as well. This film unsettles me every time I see it, but that was its point.

An excellent Season 4 stretches the range of this already-fascinating series: with good writing, and some fine acting --

Perabo is great to look at and a very good actor -- I could watch her face for hours, as she works through her emotions, she has a really fine range. 

Itzin too, though: he is by far the greatest entertainment in the show for me, after Perabo. From his initial entry to his latest scenes, Itzin's body carriage, gestures, and most of all the expressions in that fabulous face, then the wonderful voice and mellifluous accent -- villains require pathos, and Itzin's villain definitely provides that, his Richard III would be wonderful. 

Teo Braga and Calder Michaels -- Cardona and Harper, like Itzin, are able to grab center-stage with their personas in every scene they do. Particularly Cardona, up against the spectacular Perabo, his dark furies complement her glamor and personality beautifully, you can feel both the strains and the warmth building between those two, dynamic tension, nothing in drama can be better than that. I hope there's much more done with them: Bring Teo Back!

The casting generally has been done really well, and I really like the acting. Joan and Arthur steady everything -- Braithwaite does a good job of being sinister, I can't wait for him to get the nose-punch he deserves, maybe from Auggie or even Annie? -- Oded Fehr is wonderful, he manages a sparkle which literally brings Annie to life when she and we need it, and I agree with the comment someone else made here that we need Eyal back for some Season 4 comic relief. Tony Curran would be great for that purpose too.

The only disappointment for me has been Dudek: her character and acting both were embarrassing and out-of-place -- I know she has her fans, and her role must too, but that flouncy dress she wore in Stockholm was nauseating, which I guess was the point there -- I'm glad that's over, tho. 

The story is great. I never cared whether the Battlestar Galactica would find Earth, & I don't want to see an ending here, I'm just really enjoying the ride.