Contains spoilers for episode 1 of The Idol. The Idol, created by Sam Levinson, Abel Tesfaye aka The Weeknd, and Reza Rahim, follows aspiring pop star Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp) after a mental breakdown derailed her last tour, likely due to the death of her mother. She is determined to reclaim her title as the sexiest…
Reviews
Review: A Tale of Two Bunnies
Set in 1960s Chicago, inseparable best friends Ruby (Julia Condra) and Holly (Marina Black) both work as seamstresses but dream of fame and fortune. Both women are absolutely gorgeous in their own right but their personalities differ. Ruby is exuberant, carrying more confidence and determination. She wants to be a fashion designer and start her…
Review: Beautiful Disaster
Freshman Abby Abernathy (Virginia Gardner) is a poker prodigy, known as Lucky 13, who was taught by her father, Mick (Brian Austin Green), and spent her childhood bailing him out while living in Las Vegas. Wanting a fresh start, Abby heads off to college in hopes of having a normal life. When she arrives, her…
Review: Dreamland
After her theatre debut in 2:22: A Ghost Story, for which she received an Olivier nomination, Lily Allen makes her television debut as Mel O’Sullivan in Dreamland. The series opens with Mel travelling via bus to Margate, her seaside hometown on the Kent coast, where her close-knit family still live, featuring some great class commentary on the…
Review: A Little White Lie
“They all wanna be writers but none of them like to read.” In order to prevent Acheron University’s annual literary festival being cut from the budget, English Professor Simone Cleary (Kate Hudson) knows she needs to secure a big author. In desperation, she reaches out to a famous yet reclusive writer named C. R. Shriver,…
Review: Ghosted
“We only have one life and you are too afraid to live it.” Directed by Dexter Fletcher (Bohemian Rhapsody, Rocketman) and written by Deadpool writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, and Tom Holland-era Spider-Man writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, Ghosted is more action-packed than romantic-comedy, but it takes its shot at both anyway. Needy farmer Cole Turner (Chris Evans) and…
Review: ‘Umma’ Has Compelling Ideas but Falls Short Due to a Restrained and Disjointed Script
Korean immigrant Amanda (Sandra Oh) and her homeschooled daughter Chrissy (Atypical’s Fivel Stewart) live a quiet life on a rural farm beekeeping and selling honey. They live without modern technology as Amanda claims to be “allergic” to electricity, and therefore rely on local shop owner and friend Danny (Dermot Mulroney) to sell their honey. Amanda is…
Review: ‘Night’s End’ is Saved by An Entertaining Final Act
Night’s End, the latest from Jennifer Reeder (Knives and Skin), written by American playwright Brett Neveu, follows Ken Barber (Geno Walker), a divorced dad suffering from anxiety and agoraphobia, who finds himself in a haunted apartment. The first act builds a picture of Ken’s life, including his daily routine: he wakes up counting backwards from 10…
Review: ‘The Requin’ Loses Human Story of Survival Message to Laughably Bad CG Sharks
I’m not a fan of Shark films. There’s nothing particularly wrong with them — they’re just not for me. I find them quite boring and predictable, the sort of qualities I much prefer to be in my beloved slasher flicks. I watched The Requin (which means “shark” in French) purely because of Alicia Silverstone, but she delivered what…
Review: ‘The Fallout’ is an Intimate Character Study of Life After Trauma
The opening of Megan Park’s feature-length directorial debut, The Fallout, which follows the aftermath of a school shooting, felt reminiscent of 2018’s Vox Lux, in that abrupt gunfire suddenly destroys what began as a normal day. Unlike Vox Lux, however, we don’t see anything, we just hear it. It’s an inciting incident that won’t sit well with everyone,…