wellthatswhatithinkanyway
Joined Nov 2000
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STAR RATING: ***** Brilliant **** Very Good *** Okay ** Poor * Awful
Corby was a former steel making town, but by the early 1990's it was a shadow of its former self. Susan McIntyre (Jodie Whittaker), a local woman, is shattered when her son is born with a deformity on his hand, only to discover a series of other mothers in a similar situation, leading to a determined legal battle, with the help of solicitor Des Collins (Rory Kinnear), and insider Sam Hagan (Robert Carlyle), when it's discovered harmful chemicals from transportations to the local mineral mine may have played a part.
This true life series was the next on my watchlist, until the massively lauded Adolescence came along, and it got pushed down a little. With a similarly all star cast, and a tantalising true life script to work from, there's tonnes of potential to be gleaned from this four part examination of a case that was resolved in 2010, setting an historic precedent. And while it is very effective in many ways, it's sadly not quite the sum of its parts.
There's no attempt to sugar-coat its lead characters, and so these rough, working class folk are shown in all their 'warts and all' glory, leaving you to judge them on your own beliefs and convictions. This, at the very least, gives it a welcome air of realism, before moving on to dealing with them on a human level, as poor and powerless people left to suffer at the whim of the rich and powerful. There's reliably strong, realistic performances from the cast to carry it along, but the script doesn't quite deliver the strong emotional impact it really could have.
It's pleasingly succinct, and was a true life tale that certainly deserved to be told. It just doesn't quite deliver the emotional payoff it could have. ***
Corby was a former steel making town, but by the early 1990's it was a shadow of its former self. Susan McIntyre (Jodie Whittaker), a local woman, is shattered when her son is born with a deformity on his hand, only to discover a series of other mothers in a similar situation, leading to a determined legal battle, with the help of solicitor Des Collins (Rory Kinnear), and insider Sam Hagan (Robert Carlyle), when it's discovered harmful chemicals from transportations to the local mineral mine may have played a part.
This true life series was the next on my watchlist, until the massively lauded Adolescence came along, and it got pushed down a little. With a similarly all star cast, and a tantalising true life script to work from, there's tonnes of potential to be gleaned from this four part examination of a case that was resolved in 2010, setting an historic precedent. And while it is very effective in many ways, it's sadly not quite the sum of its parts.
There's no attempt to sugar-coat its lead characters, and so these rough, working class folk are shown in all their 'warts and all' glory, leaving you to judge them on your own beliefs and convictions. This, at the very least, gives it a welcome air of realism, before moving on to dealing with them on a human level, as poor and powerless people left to suffer at the whim of the rich and powerful. There's reliably strong, realistic performances from the cast to carry it along, but the script doesn't quite deliver the strong emotional impact it really could have.
It's pleasingly succinct, and was a true life tale that certainly deserved to be told. It just doesn't quite deliver the emotional payoff it could have. ***
STAR RATING: ***** Brilliant **** Very Good *** Okay ** Poor * Awful
D. I. Luke Bascombe (Ashley Walters) and DS Misha Frank (Faye Marsay) mount an early morning dawn raid on a residential property, to serve an arrest warrant on Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper), a thirteen year old boy suspected of killing a fellow pupil. Jamie is taken to a police station to be processed, where his dad Eddie (Stephen Graham), acts as his appropriate adult. With the evidence proving fairly insurmountable, everyone involved finds themselves plunged into a spiral of despair and regression, where the nature of masculinity comes to the forefront.
Phillip Barantini's four part production has already become easily the biggest word of mouth success for Netflix in quite a while, becoming the biggest talking point on creative content channels and on talk show segments. Plunging into the world of 'the manosphere', and the 'red pill' community, where things like the '80/20 rule' come up, it's a truly horrific examination of a generational divide, where the world of social media and online content can dominate a young person's life, with an older generation looking on at odds with it all.,
The 'one shot' take, employed in all four parts, succeeds in adding an unnerving realism to the dynamic drama unfolding on the screen, aided by a disconnected, step by step guide to an arrival at the police station and how to survive the interview. It's in this first part that Walters is the first performer to make an impression, delivering a mature, seasoned performance in a role where he steps out of his comfort zone. Graham has already begun to convey the intense, gritty delivery he is known for, but it is complete newcomer Cooper who is the biggest revelation, scared and vulnerable in the first part, but conversely cocky and intimidating when he returns in the third part, squaring off with Erin Doherty's pre sentence report writer, creating some deeply uncomfortable chemistry. He makes me think back to when I was thirteen, and my emerging attitudes to sex and women, and but for the grace of God how I might have turned out if I'd lived in the age of social media and online influences. But it's a real world influence, in the shape of Graham as his father, that may have shaped his mind the most, and when he returns in the final part, his powerful presence reaches its zenith, where a seemingly innocuous car bound discussion involving a childhood memory involving A-Ha's Take On Me that has a simmering undercurrent brewing beneath it that's just waiting to erupt into something darker.
It's depressing how quickly right-leaning outlets have been quick to miss the point and try and make it a race matter, regarding the young actor and how it would have been more 'realistic' to have a minority actor in the role, completely overshadowing the exploration of toxic masculinity and the influence of the likes of Andrew Tate that it's aiming at, and does so in such an inspiring and effective way. I'm probably not saying much that others already haven't, but this truly is worth the hype, and if you somehow haven't seen it already, do. *****
D. I. Luke Bascombe (Ashley Walters) and DS Misha Frank (Faye Marsay) mount an early morning dawn raid on a residential property, to serve an arrest warrant on Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper), a thirteen year old boy suspected of killing a fellow pupil. Jamie is taken to a police station to be processed, where his dad Eddie (Stephen Graham), acts as his appropriate adult. With the evidence proving fairly insurmountable, everyone involved finds themselves plunged into a spiral of despair and regression, where the nature of masculinity comes to the forefront.
Phillip Barantini's four part production has already become easily the biggest word of mouth success for Netflix in quite a while, becoming the biggest talking point on creative content channels and on talk show segments. Plunging into the world of 'the manosphere', and the 'red pill' community, where things like the '80/20 rule' come up, it's a truly horrific examination of a generational divide, where the world of social media and online content can dominate a young person's life, with an older generation looking on at odds with it all.,
The 'one shot' take, employed in all four parts, succeeds in adding an unnerving realism to the dynamic drama unfolding on the screen, aided by a disconnected, step by step guide to an arrival at the police station and how to survive the interview. It's in this first part that Walters is the first performer to make an impression, delivering a mature, seasoned performance in a role where he steps out of his comfort zone. Graham has already begun to convey the intense, gritty delivery he is known for, but it is complete newcomer Cooper who is the biggest revelation, scared and vulnerable in the first part, but conversely cocky and intimidating when he returns in the third part, squaring off with Erin Doherty's pre sentence report writer, creating some deeply uncomfortable chemistry. He makes me think back to when I was thirteen, and my emerging attitudes to sex and women, and but for the grace of God how I might have turned out if I'd lived in the age of social media and online influences. But it's a real world influence, in the shape of Graham as his father, that may have shaped his mind the most, and when he returns in the final part, his powerful presence reaches its zenith, where a seemingly innocuous car bound discussion involving a childhood memory involving A-Ha's Take On Me that has a simmering undercurrent brewing beneath it that's just waiting to erupt into something darker.
It's depressing how quickly right-leaning outlets have been quick to miss the point and try and make it a race matter, regarding the young actor and how it would have been more 'realistic' to have a minority actor in the role, completely overshadowing the exploration of toxic masculinity and the influence of the likes of Andrew Tate that it's aiming at, and does so in such an inspiring and effective way. I'm probably not saying much that others already haven't, but this truly is worth the hype, and if you somehow haven't seen it already, do. *****
STAR RATING: ***** Brilliant **** Very Good *** Okay ** Poor * Awful
Marley Wells (Kat Graham) is a high flying attorney, with a loving husband, Tony (Tyler Perry, also starring?!!) and her best friend, Fela (Meagan Tandy.) However, when Fela's partner, Kevin (RonReaco Lee) is slain in a police stop, by new recruit Officer Caleb (Jimi Stanton), under the supervision of family friend Shannon (Shannon LaNier), Wells's life is thrown into a whirlwind of disarray, with a devastating truth where everything may not be as it seems.
For the fourth time in the space of a year (including his two and a half hour unseen farrago Divorce in the Black), writer/director Tyler Perry has another passion project on the go that he can't wait for us all to see. Featuring a no name cast, including, it seems, the man himself, here he has a stab at a suspense thriller with a social justice slant thrown in ('cos that's still an in thing), but if at first he didn't succeed, trying, trying and trying again really hasn't worked for him.
The theme of black men being shot dead in police stops still holds a great deal of passion for many, and so it's still a fairly inspired premise on which to base a new film, but here it's delivered in such a ham fisted, heavy handed manner that it has no effect. There is the slightest hint of genuine suspense and mystery to the story, but it's quickly drowned out by descending into a preposterous, drawn out ending that pollutes the rest of the project.
Missieur Perry would do well to consider the likes of Uwe Boll, and even the 'legendary' Ed Wood, and consider his present trajectory in their direction before he gets carried away again. **
Marley Wells (Kat Graham) is a high flying attorney, with a loving husband, Tony (Tyler Perry, also starring?!!) and her best friend, Fela (Meagan Tandy.) However, when Fela's partner, Kevin (RonReaco Lee) is slain in a police stop, by new recruit Officer Caleb (Jimi Stanton), under the supervision of family friend Shannon (Shannon LaNier), Wells's life is thrown into a whirlwind of disarray, with a devastating truth where everything may not be as it seems.
For the fourth time in the space of a year (including his two and a half hour unseen farrago Divorce in the Black), writer/director Tyler Perry has another passion project on the go that he can't wait for us all to see. Featuring a no name cast, including, it seems, the man himself, here he has a stab at a suspense thriller with a social justice slant thrown in ('cos that's still an in thing), but if at first he didn't succeed, trying, trying and trying again really hasn't worked for him.
The theme of black men being shot dead in police stops still holds a great deal of passion for many, and so it's still a fairly inspired premise on which to base a new film, but here it's delivered in such a ham fisted, heavy handed manner that it has no effect. There is the slightest hint of genuine suspense and mystery to the story, but it's quickly drowned out by descending into a preposterous, drawn out ending that pollutes the rest of the project.
Missieur Perry would do well to consider the likes of Uwe Boll, and even the 'legendary' Ed Wood, and consider his present trajectory in their direction before he gets carried away again. **