During World War II, the French singer and pianist Fania Fénelon (Vanessa Redgrave) is sent to Auschwitz where she’s hired to perform together with a women’s orchestra. A critically acclaimed TV movie that came on the heels of the miniseries Holocaust (1978), presented like a play by Arthur Miller. Set in filthy, sparsely furnished camp … Continue reading Playing for Time
MEET THE MAN WHO ALTERED THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN. Political strategist Dominic Cummings (Benedict Cumberbatch) is reluctantly drawn into action after two years away from Westminster; now he’s tasked with heading the Leave campaign in the upcoming Brexit vote. Based on thorough research, this TV movie examines the national mood during the run-up to the … Continue reading Brexit: The Uncivil War
NEVER FORGIVE. NEVER FORGET. Shortly after the Civil War, two families in the West Virginia-Kentucky area begin a feud that takes on epic proportions over the following three decades. The story of the most notorious family feud in American history gets an exciting and handsome treatment in the History channel’s first stab at scripted drama. … Continue reading Hatfields & McCoys
In 1961, Liberal MP Jeremy Thorpe (Hugh Grant) has a romantic affair with a troubled young man, Norman (Ben Whishaw); as Thorpe’s political career takes off, Norman gets back in touch… The 1970s sex scandal and conspiracy-to-murder trial that ended the career of the Liberal Party leader at the time gets a very, very enjoyable … Continue reading A Very English Scandal
There were people who hated House of Cards right from the start. Some were political analysts who didn’t find any of the outlandish events on the show credible. Others considered the cynical tone unappealing and sort of unhelpful in a world that was becoming increasingly ugly; did we really need a show where every politician … Continue reading House of Cards: Underwood’s Underworld
Prince Richard (Ben Lamb) of Aldovia is set to marry his bride, Amber (Rose McIver), but the country is rocked by protests against the royal family. This sequel is a slight improvement on the original, partly because we’re familiar with the characters now, but also because the film tries to deal with political intrigue and … Continue reading A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding
Photographer Abby Sutton (Kat Graham) receives an old advent calendar as a gift and begins to believe it has the ability to predict what’s going to happen to her each day in December. Another romantic Christmas tale from Netflix in their continuing struggle to compete with Hallmark, making an unhappy photographer choose between two attractive … Continue reading The Holiday Calendar
After arriving in the kingdom of Belgravia to take part in a pastry competition, Stacy De Novo (Vanessa Hudgens) discovers that the duchess who’s about to marry the prince (Sam Palladio) looks exactly like her… Another one of Netflix’s ridiculous Yuletide productions, set in yet another sugary fairytale country where everyone has a British accent … Continue reading The Princess Switch
HIS REAL LIFE WAS THE BIGGEST FANTASY OF ALL. In 1993, reporter and recovering alcoholic Danny Tate (Jamie Dornan) reluctantly agrees to interview Hervé Villechaize (Peter Dinklage), the hard-partying former star of TV hit Fantasy Island. Sacha Gervasi worked several years on getting this story filmed, based on an interview he had made with Villechaize … Continue reading My Dinner with Hervé
THE WOMAN HE’S ABOUT TO TOUCH IS A DREAM. THE MURDER HE’S ABOUT TO COMMIT IS NOT. A TV movie from those days when Ingmar Bergman was in West Germany as a tax exile. Conceived as sort of a spin-off to Scenes From a Marriage (1973), the story focuses on a constantly quarreling couple, begins … Continue reading From the Life of the Marionettes
WELCOME TO NO MAN’S LAND. The outlaw Roy Goode (Jack O’Connell) is on the run from his boss and adoptive father (Jeff Daniels), arriving in a small town where almost every man was killed in a huge mining accident… Much of what Scott Frank has written before (including the same year’s Logan) echoes Western symbolism, … Continue reading Godless
KNOWLEDGE IS A DANGEROUS THING. In the future, most books have been banned and the main objective of firemen is to find and burn them… but one of the regime’s loyal men (Michael B. Jordan) learns that he’s been lied to. François Truffaut made a watchable adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s classic novel in 1966; this … Continue reading Fahrenheit 451
WELCOME HOME. After the disappearance of two girls in her Missouri hometown, alcoholic reporter Camille Preaker (Amy Adams) reluctantly goes back home, but her overbearing mother (Patricia Clarkson) is not happy to see her… The director of Big Little Lies (2017) made another talked-about ”limited series” event for HBO that featured interesting female characters and … Continue reading Sharp Objects
