Finding Emily – Movie Review

TL;DR – An oddly charming film that transcends some of the potential limitations by grounding the characters in a clear sense of time and place.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene.

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

A poster with "Missing, 

A Digit of Emily's Number!,

you gave me 10/11th's of your number on MONDAY

you were a FAIRY

I was the guy with no bottle opener who'd really like to see you again

Meet ME Where you found me ANY NIGHT 7pm"

Finding Emily Review Introduction

When you have been writing reviews for a while, one of the issues that comes up is that you tend to have seen everything under the sun already. It is like that friend who always knows who the murderer is five minutes into a murder mystery. However, every now and again, a film will catch you off guard, and that is what we are looking at today.   

So, to set the scene, Owen (Spike Fearn) is a caring guy trying to make a life as a sound engineer when one night at a club he is working in, he runs into Emily (Sadie Soverall). They immediately hit it off with an almost electric chemistry. To the point he almost loses his job from having a good time. But late at night, before the clock struck 12, Emily had to run off with her friends to another party, but since they were having such fun, she put her number in Owen’s phone. The next morning, Owen’s brother, Matt (Jack Riddiford) and his partner, Freya (Isabella Laughland), did find a bit of glee when Owen discovered Emily had only given her 10 of the 11 digits of her phone number. But Owen was determined, and Manchester is a university town, so someone must know who she is, right? His first attempt was a failure, but Emily Raine (Angourie Rice) was nice enough to help him on his mission, but her motives might not be all that altruistic.

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Foundation: Creation Myths & Season 2 – TV Review

TL;DR – The crisis climbs to a crescendo as cracks cascade over a crumbling continuum of chance and causality.  

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Apple TV+ service that viewed this episode.

The death of Terminus.

Foundation Review

Well, we have come to the end of the second season, and what a fascinating season it was. Adapting novels to work in a visual medium is no small feat, let alone one of the founding icons of Science Fiction. Taking a selection of interconnected short stories and making them work as a whole and in a framework that will work with a modern audience is a tightrope to pull off, and today, we will see just how well they have managed this task.  

So to set the scene, we open in the moments after Long Ago, Not Far Away ended by discovering just how Hari Seldon (Jared Harris) survived being very dead, so dead that even Salvor (Leah Harvey) believed he had passed. A trick from Gaal (Lou Llobell) so powerful that not even Tellem Bond (Rachel House) sees through the deception. As Terminus lays there as a flaming ruin, with Brother Day’s (Lee Pace) fleet in orbit, the question becomes, how can psychohistory’s plan continue from here? When all we know has been left in ruins. But when a sensor is tripped, Demerzel (Laura Birn) soon discovers that secrets can escape no matter how much you try to control them. Now from here, we will be looking at the season as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.    

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Foundation: The Last Empress – TV Review

TL;DR – The culminating catastrophe coalesces.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Apple TV+ service that viewed this episode.

Many Seldons

Foundation Review

I was captivated back in Season 1 of Foundation. This book was challenging to adapt, and the show did it interestingly. This season has been a bit of a rollercoaster, and I wonder if they have a plan of where it is going. Today’s episode might be the answer, maybe.

So to set the scene, deep in the capital of Trantor, Brother Dusk (Terrence Mann) finds someone in Demerzel’s (Laura Birn) quarters who should not be there. Rue Corintha (Sandra Yi Sencindiver), enjoiner to Queen Sareth (Ella-Rae Smith), is rummaging through all of the android’s personal effects, but is she just an opportunist, or is she a threat? Meanwhile, on Ignis, Gaal (Lou Llobell) is desperate to find out what happened to Salvor (Leah Harvey) and confronts Tellem Bond (Rachel House), only to discover just how powerful Tellem is. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Foundation: A Glimpse of Darkness – TV Review

TL;DR – This week, we continue to see the outworking of NJ Demerath III’s adage that “politics and religion are like a moth to a flame.”

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Apple TV+ service that viewed this episode.

A sun sets over a ring world.

Foundation Review

It is no shock that I love me some Science Fiction. Indeed, I will take it in just about any form I can get it. But deep down, I think my favourite must be a good Space Opera with all its pontifications on show. It is a universe full of pomp and circumstance, and I am here for it.

So to set the scene, things are fraying all across the Empire, and no one is immune to its changes. On a water planet now home to a dead civilization, Hari Seldon (Jared Harris), Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell), and Salvor Hardin (Leah Harvey) confront each other as old wounds are laid bare. As the Empire retreats from the outer rim, the Foundation starts to slip out, coming as magicians and priests to those planets that have lost everything. But not everyone is happy with a potential new master after just getting rid of the last one. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.     

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