Tag Archives: Historical

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale

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TL;DR – An odd finale full of charm from start to finish, but also a great deal of awkwardness.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There are mid-credit scenes.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Downton Abbey.

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale Review Introduction –

It looks like we have reached the end of the grand experiment that was the Downton Abbey cinematic experience. After the original Downton Abbey film in 2019, and the follow-up Downton Abbey: A New Era back in 2022, I had wondered if there would be any more, especially after the passing of Maggie Smith’s character, who was such an anchor for the series. Well, today we get to see if they will land this series in a triumph or worse with an uninteresting thud.

So, to set the scene, it is now the 1930s, and grand changes are looming on the horizon of both England and the world. In Downton Abbey, this is marked by Robert Crawley, 7th Earl of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville), hoping that Lady Mary Crawley (Michelle Dockery) will be ready to take over running the entire household. This was meant to be a great handing over from one generation to the next. However, a scandal erupts throughout higher society when it is announced rather publicly in the press that Lady Mary is getting a divorce, an unmitigated scandal for those prim and proper people in polite society. Now the entire household has been shunned, and the question remains if this will be enough to shut down Downton Abbey for good.  

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A Complete Unknown – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A wild exploration of one of the most prominent musical writers of an age or two, but also of a time and movement in American music that I don’t think we’ll see again.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a screening of this film.

Bob arrives in New York.

A Complete Unknown Review –

There are a lot of musical biopics out there in the world, some more earned than others. But there is an understandable power behind them, given music’s ability to move your soul. But when you think back to which songwriters have had the most impact on music in the modern era, few names are in the same ballpark as Bob Dylan, and it makes sense to explore his life and the effect it did have and well is still having to this day.   

So, to set the scene, one cold New York night, a young Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) arrives at the hospital bed of his idol Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy) after hearing he was unwell. Bob is an expert in Folk Music, having picked up sounds from across America. Luckily for Bob, who was also visiting Woody at that time, was famed folk musician Pete Seeger (Edward Norton), who brought the young man under his wings. Soon, Bob will be captivating the New York Folk Music scene, but being a singular talent comes with as many downsides as successes.  

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The Brutalist – Movie Review

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TL;DR – Elegant, stunning, and powerful, it is a film that will stay with me for a long time even though I don’t think I will ever watch it again.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

An upside-down Statue of Liberty.
An upside-down Statue of Liberty.

The Brutalist Review –

Today, we look at a film that absolutely captivated me from start to finish, and given that it is three and a half hours long, that is a lot of runtime to have to keep you engaged. However, I think you might see how each and every step captivates, even when the film can be deeply uncomfortable.  

So, to set the scene, László Tóth (Adrien Brody) is a Hungarian Jew who was separated from everyone he loves during World War Two. Escaping Europe by himself, he manages to make it to America and go live with and work for his cousin Attila (Alessandro Nivola) in Philadelphia. Things are tense in the closed environment. However, a chance encounter with Harry Lee Van Buren (Joe Alwyn) puts him into the orbit of the powerful, industrious Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce), someone who might just let László create his brutalist masterpiece.

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Nautilus Season 1 – TV Review

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TL;DR – When this series comes together, it is a delight to watch. Unfortunately, a lot of the episodes are a bit hit or miss.  

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Stan service that viewed this series.

The crew does a slow walk.

Nautilus  Review –

In today’s re-make/re-boot culture, there are stories that you hear over and over again because they are in the public domain. Sure, it is great to see another take on Peter Pan, but there is a treasure trove of works in the public domain that are interesting and ready for interpretation through a modern lens. Today, we are looking at just such a property that has not been delved into since 2003’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

So, to set the scene, it is 1897, and the British India Company has stretched its influence across the globe through colonisation and imperialism. One of those ships, in its vast navies, was on its way to Bombay when something rumbled the ship from below. They could have let it go, but Captain Youngblood (Jacob Collins-Levy) had to hunt it down. The only problem is that what they saw was not a beast but a craft unknown to science at the time and one that just ripped their hull out from underneath them. For this is a machine, a machine made of metal, that can travel under the water and is led by the magnificent Captain Nemo (Shazad Latif). We will be looking at the season as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

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Gladiator II – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It has a strong cast, all the bombast you need, and a solid narrative. It is just frustrating that it has these creative choices throughout that just rip you out of the film.  

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film

The Battle of Numidia.

Gladiator II Review –

Well, 2024 has been the year of the legacy sequel, with Alien: Romulus, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F,  Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and Twisters all trying their hands on it to a mixed success. The next cab off the rank might have the most significant legacy of them all, or at least the most attempts in the past to make a sequel because there have been many. But it has been 24 years since our last outing of Gladiator, and we have to ask, was this the film we needed, or should it have stayed contained in the past?

So, to set the scene, it has been 20 years since the death of Marcus Aurelius, and Maximus Decimus Meridius’s slaying of Commodus did not bring about the grand return of the Republic. Instead, it drove it deeper into tyranny. Rome is now ruled by the Twin Emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger), who care more for blood and entertainment than the people’s health and happiness. Looking to secure their reign, they lashed out at any place defying the Empire using their dutiful general Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal). The last free city on the Mediterranean was in Numidia, where a young man (Paul Mescal) and his wife, Arishat (Yuval Gonen), live. It is a pitched battle, but the Romans win, and the young man who is versed in Roman poetry is carted off to die in the games after watching his wife fall to an arrow. But he stubbornly refuses to die in the arena, which brings the attention of Macrinus (Denzel Washington), who has the want to change his position, and now he has the means.

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Gladiator (2000) Review – Exploring the Past

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TL;DR –. When the bombast hits, you still feel what made it a special film all those years ago.  

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ service that viewed this film.

A hand in the wheat fields.

Gladiator Review –

In this day and age, companies are trying to find a way to get people back into the cinemas, and the current plan has a lot to do with bringing back classic films with sequels decades later. That means this week we get a new Gladiator film, which I am honestly looking forward to. But as I was sitting there, I realised it had been a decade since I had watched the first film, and that is something that I had to fix, and there is no better time than the present.

So, to set the scene, it is at the height of the Roman Empire, and the Romans controlled everything from Britain to the Deserts of Africa and Arabia. In the north, Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) was fighting a campaign against the tribes of Germania, led by his one trusted general, Maximus Decimus Meridius (Russell Crowe). But when Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), the son of the emperor, discovers that his father wants to restore the Republic, he kills him. He has Maximus arrested when he won’t declare loyalty to the new emperor. Maximus escapes, but before he can get home, his family is murdered, and slave traders capture him. Now, he has but one choice: die in the arena or win and get revenge for his fallen.

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Kid Snow – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While it is an interesting scenario, and the cast is giving their all, you just can’t quite shake the feeling that the movie never finds its feet.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

Warning – contains scenes that include multiple flashing lights.

Kid Snow and Lizard run up a hill.

Kid Snow Review –

There are a lot of factors that go into making a good film: the cast, the story, the idea, the production, or even the budget. While you don’t have to get all of them right, it does help because just one of these factors can hold a film back from its full potential. Today, we look at a movie that excels in many of these points, but the one that holds it back is like an anchor dragging along the ocean shore.

So, to set the scene, it is 1971, and in the small towns across the deep Outback of Australia, there is a rolling fair that comes to town, including a boxing ring. Run by Rory (Tom Bateman) and headlined by his brother Kid Snow (Billy Howle), along with a motley of other performers, they charge money to get the locals to fight them. If they win, there are riches, but let’s be honest: no one ever wins. This was going well, okay, at least they were surviving, but when Hammer (Tristan Gorey), a ghost from Kid Snow’s past and current Australian champion, returns to challenge him to a boxing match for real money, there is a chance of him reclaiming his past. But it might be the arrival of Sunny (Phoebe Tonkin) into their lives on the same night that will have more of an impact on their futures.     

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Touch (Snerting) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – This is a stunningly beautiful portrait of a man’s life that feels both deeply personal and universal in what drives him. It is profoundly moving and full of narrative grace that could have been all melancholy but is instead full of heart and joy.   

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a screening of this film.

Kristófer looks out over a city scape.

Touch Review –

I know this is only August, and there are many films I will see this month, let alone by the end of the year, but today, can I say that we are looking at one of my films of the year. If not, the film of the year. This is such a stunning work that it has sat with me the whole time since I first watched it. I mean, Touch is such a beautiful film that I am getting emotional from writing about it now.

So, to set the scene, Kristófer (Egill Ólafsson) is going through the motions of his life in Iceland at the start of the COVID pandemic. He is a famous restaurateur on the island, but he has now closed his restaurant and is spending time at a local choir and trying to invoke his past diaries. But as the world starts to close up, Kristófer sets on a mission to answer one of the great questions of his past when he (Palmi Kormakur) was a young student in London and one day, he walked into a Japanese restaurant and met Miko (Kōki).

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The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare – Movie Review

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TL;DR – Big personalities and a lot of action, but not a lot more than that.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Amazon Prime service that viewed this film.

Anders Lassen looks through a porthole covered in blood.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare Review –

If there is one film that people have asked me for, it is what happened to The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare? It looked like it was everywhere, and then it disappeared, but that cast and director should have cut through. Well, today, we have a chance to answer that question and give it a look as it finally got a release here in Australia.   

So, to set the scene, it is the height of WW2, and things are not going well for the Allies. In the middle of the Atlantic, patrolled by German U-Boats, a sailboat is being inspected by Nazis. The Nazi Commander does not like the laughing Swedes, even less when those Swedes mow down all his men. It is here that we discover just what is going on. The UK is the last significant power in Europe, not occupied by Axis Powers, and they are being cut off from the air and sea. Hitler is not playing by the rules, storing the rearming operations for the U-Boats in neutral territory. Well, then, it is time for the UK to retaliate with a group of soldiers who do not play by the rules. Led by Gus March-Phillipps (Henry Cavill), Operation Postmaster, all they have to do is sink an Italian Ship in neutral territory before the Nazis move it. To do this, they need a team: Henry Hayes (Hero Fiennes Tiffin), the navigator; Freddy Alvarez (Henry Golding), the explosives expert; Anders Lassen (Alan Ritchson), who is good with wet work, and Geoffrey Appleyard (Alex Pettyfer) intelligence. With Heron (Babs Olusanmokun) and Marjorie Stewart (Eiza González) embedded on the island of Fernando Po, it should all go fine … right …?   

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Shōgun: Season 1 – TV Review

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TL;DR – This is a polarising show in that it will either suck you into its world or create barriers that make it hard to be connected. I was the first, but I could understand why you could be the latter.  

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed this series.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

Samurai salute.

Shōgun Review –

When you hear that an American studio is going to take on a Japanese story, that raises some alarm bells, but then it is a story about Japan written by an Australian in the 1970s. Well, you take a moment to have a grave concern. However, the more I heard about the series and the role of Japanese creatives like lead Hiroyuki Sanada, the more I had to check out, and I am glad that I did.  

So, to set the scene, it is the year 1600, and only Portugal has been able to make inroads into the closed society of Japan. But there is a change in the air, with the reigning Taikō dying and not clear succession. This is an opportunity for both those within and those without to change up the status quo. But in all times of change comes chances for great riches and terrible defeats. One such entrant into this Dutch merchant led by Englishman navigator John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis), whose convoy was hit with storms, starvation, dehydration, and despair when it crashed into the Japanese coastline, with only one ship of five remaining. But Blackthorne arrived in the Japans at an exciting time. For there is a power vacuum, and many people are trying to fill it, one of which is Lord Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada), the local bushō and lord over Kantō. Blackthorne cannot speak a word of Japanese, but he is fluent in Portuguese. This is good because Lord Toranaga has a Portuguese speaker in his entourage, Lady Toda Mariko (Anna Sawai). The bad news is that the Portuguese are Blackthorne’s enemies. In religion, in regional competition, and can control if Blackthorne lives or dies. Now, from here, we will be looking at the season as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.        

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