Saturday 31 December 2022

A Year in Shadows: Vol 38


There was a full set of 52 covers for 2022, featuring the following films in order: Licorice Pizza, Scream, Nightmare Alley, Parallel Mothers, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Death on the Nile, Uncharted, The Duke, Ali & Ava, The Batman, Deep Water, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, The Lost City, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. Downton Abbey: A New Era, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Benediction, Top Gun: Maverick, Men, Jurassic World: Dominion, Lightyear, Elvis, Minions: The Rise of Gru, Thor: Love and Thunder, The Railway Children Return, Where the Crawdads Sing, DC League of Super-Pets, Bullet Train, Nope, The Feast, Beast, Tar, Don't Worry Darling, Blonde, Ticket to Paradise, The Woman King, Lyle Lyle Crocodile, The Banshees of Inisherin, Triangle of Sadness, Living, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, The Menu, Bones and All, Glass Onion, Empire of Light, Avatar: The Way of Water, Babylon and Corsage. The Oscar cover was the only one not tied to a specific film.

Trivia alert!

Most crowded: 14 for The Menu, and 13 each for Death on the Nile and Licorice Pizza

On the most covers: Cate Blanchett (one solo, one shared); Ana de Armas (one solo, one shared); Letitia Wright (two shared); Bradley Cooper (two shared, one drawn); and Keke Palmer (two shared, one as an animated character).

Getting one cover all their own: Jessie Buckley, Austin Butler, Nicolas Cage, Diego Calva, Jessica Chastain, Olivia Colman, Tom Cruise, Benedict Cumberbatch, Annes Elwy, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Holland, Vicky Krieps, Jack Lowdon, Bill Nighy, Brad Pitt and Chris Pratt.

Sharing one cover with one or more other people: Paul Adelstein, Ben Affleck, Jenny Agutter, Adeel Akhtar, Sheila Atim, Angela Bassett, Tom Bateman, Dave Bautista, Vanessa Bayer, Javier Bardem, Annette Bening, Vicki Berlin, Reed Birney, Kenneth Branagh, Russell Brand, Jim Broadbent, Tachel Brosnahan, Sandra Bullock, Zlatko Buric, Warren Burke, Neve Campbell, Aimee Carrero, Jim Carrey, Arturo Castro, Timothee Chalamet, Hong Chau, Jemaine Clement, Madelyn Cline, George Clooney, Michaela Coel, Courteney Cox, Daniel Craig, Penelope Cruz, Jamie Lee Curtis, Willem Dafoe, Hugh Dancy, Viola Davis, Dolly De Leon, Charlbi Dean, Harris Dickinson, Daveed Diggs, Michelle Dockery, Winston Duke, John Early, Idris Elba, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Colin Farrell, Ali Fazal, Winslow Fegley, Ralph Fiennes, Dan Fogler, Dawn FrenchGal Gadot, Brendan Gleeson, Danai Gurira, Kathryn Hahn, Alana Haim, Iyana Halley, Armie Hammer, Woody Harrelson, Kevin Hart, Jessica Henwick, Cooper Hoffman, Nicholas Hoult, Stephanie Hsu, Kate Hudson, Tenoch Huerta, Robert James-Collier, Jameela Jamil, Leah Jeffries, Dwayne Johnson, Daniel Kaluuya, John Krasinski, Zoe Kravitz,  Jude Law, John Leguizamo, Rose Leslie, Judith Light, Phyllis Logan, Diego Luna, Natasha Lyonne,  Emma Mackey, Thuso Mbedu, Scoot McNairy, Janet McTeer, Helen Mirren, Janelle Monae, Edward Norton, Lupita Nyong'o, Leslie Odom Jr, Sophie Okonedo, Robert Pattinson, Sean Penn, Brandon Perea, Dascha Polanco, Florence Pugh, Ke Huy Quan, Eddie Redmayne, Keanu Reeves, Julia Roberts, Claire Rushbrook, Taylor Russell, Zoe Saldana, Jennifer Saunders, Milena Smit, Maggie Smith, Sheridan Smith, Taylor John Smith, Mark St Cyr, Harry Styles, Channing Tatum, Anya Taylor-Joy, Callum Turner, Tom Waits, Christoph Waltz,  Jessica Williams, Penelope Wilton, Sam Worthington, Constance Wu, Rob Yang and Michelle Yeoh (note that a few names from crowded covers are missing).

As an animated character they voiced: Steve Carell, Chris Evans, Shawn Mendes, Colleen O'Shaughnessey,  Ben Schwartz, Peter Sohn, Dale Soules and Taika Waititi.

And there were four drafts of covers that weren't used, bumped out by shifting tides of release dates and press screenings. Here they are: The 355 (Jan), Confess Fletch (Sep), Athena (Sep) and Aisha (Nov).






















The Best of 2022: 42nd Shadows Awards

After the first few months of trailing pandemic chaos, 2022 felt much more normal for film critics, as we saw most major releases on the big screen. Oddly, the same can't be said for audiences, who seem happy to watch movies at home now, reserving cinemas for event blockbusters only. The ripple effects on the industry are already beginning to be felt, and it's scary to think that fewer and fewer truly inventive films will be able to be seen in theatres. No home cinema will ever replicate the feeling of watching something with a crowd immersed together in projection and sound.

So here are my favourites from 2022, a mixed bunch that I saw in cinemas, at home, at festivals and even on airplanes. Much more extensive lists are ON THE WEBSITE >

BEST FILM:

  1. Everything Everywhere All at Once 
  2. No Bears
  3. The Quiet Girl 
  4. The Inspection 
  5. The Banshees of Inisherin 
  6. Living
  7. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
  8. Decision to Leave 
  9. She Said 
  10. Elvis 

DIRECTOR:

  1. Park Chan-wook - Decision to Leave
  2. Romain Gavras - Athena
  3. Charlotte Wells - Aftersun
  4. Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert - Everything Everywhere All at Once
  5. Sarah Polley - Women Talking
  6. Iryna Tsilyk - Rock. Paper. Grenade.
  7. Baz Luhrmann - Elvis
  8. Georgia Oakley - Blue Jean
  9. Maryna Er Gorbach - Klondike
  10. Lila Neugebauer - Causeway

SCREENWRITER:

  1. Kazuo Ishiguro - Living
  2. Martin McDonagh - The Banshees of Inisherin
  3. Jafar Panahi - No Bears
  4. Marie Kreutzer - Corsage
  5. Sarah Polley - Women Talking
  6. Elegance Bratton - The Inspection
  7. Rian Johnson - Glass Onion
  8. Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert - Everything Everywhere All at Once
  9. Dimitrij Schaad, Alex Schaad - Skin Deep
  10. Lena Dunham - Sharp Stick, Catherine Called Birdy

ACTRESS:

  1. Michelle Yeoh - Everything Everywhere All at Once
  2. Letitia Wright - Aisha, The Silent Twins, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
  3. Ana de Armas - Blonde, Deep Water, ​​The Gray Man
  4. Catherine Clinch - The Quiet Girl
  5. Penelope Cruz - Official Competition, Immensity, On the Fringe, The 355
  6. Cate Blanchett - Tár
  7. Danielle Deadwyler - Till
  8. Florence Pugh - The Wonder, Don't Worry Darling
  9. Zar Amir Ebrahimi - Holy Spider
  10. Jessie Buckley - Men, Women Talking

ACTOR:

  1. Colin Farrell - The Banshees of Inisherin, After Yang, The Batman
  2. Bill Nighy - Living
  3. Jeremy Pope - The Inspection
  4. Paul Mescal - Aftersun
  5. Mehdi Bajestani - Holy Spider
  6. Brian Tyree Henry - Causeway, Bullet Train
  7. Park Hae-il - Decision to Leave
  8. Oleksandr Yatsentyuk - Pamfir
  9. Brendan Fraser - The Whale
  10. Austin Butler - Elvis

SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

  1. Hong Chau - The Whale, The Menu
  2. Samantha Morton - The Whale, She Said
  3. Nina Hoss - Tár
  4. Dolly De Leon - Triangle of Sadness
  5. Frankie Corio - Aftersun
  6. Gabrielle Union - The Inspection
  7. Judy Davis - Nitram
  8. Kiyohiko Shibukawa - Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
  9. Lashana Lynch - The Woman King, Matilda the Musical
  10. Jamie Lee Curtis - Everything Everywhere All at Once, Halloween Ends

SUPPORTING ACTOR:

  1. Diego Calva - Babylon
  2. Barry Keoghan - The Banshees of Inisherin
  3. Ke Huy Quan - Everything Everywhere All at Once
  4. Ben Whishaw - Women Talking
  5. Andrew Bennett - The Quiet Girl
  6. John Boyega - The Woman King
  7. Anthony Bajon - Athena
  8. Brendan Gleeson - The Banshees of Inisherin
  9. Russell Harvard - Causeway
  10. Thomas Wodianka - Skin Deep
WORST FILM:

  1. Samaritan
  2. Sonic the Hedgehog 2
  3. Padre Pio
  4. Dear Zoe
  5. Where the Crawdads Sing 
  6. The 355 
  7. The Bubble
  8. Moonfall
  9. Mr Malcolm's List
  10. Death on the Nile 


N O N - F I L M   D I V I S I O N

TV SERIES:

  1. This Is Going to Hurt (BBC)
  2. Heartstopper (Netflix)
  3. The White Lotus (HBO)
  4. Derry Girls (C4)
  5. Hacks (HBO)
  6. Welcome to Chippendales (Hulu)
  7. Acapulco (Apple)
  8. Ozark (Netflix)
  9. His Dark Materials (BBC)
  10. The Great (Hulu)

SINGLE:

  1. Break My Soul - Beyoncé
  2. Firebabe - Stormzy
  3. Boyfriend - Dove Cameron
  4. About Damn Time - Lizzo
  5. Child of God - Chance the Rapper
  6. Lift Me Up - Rihanna
  7. Overthinking - Mabel & 24kGoldn
  8. Oh My God - Adele
  9. Bam Bam - Camila Cabello & Ed Sheeran
  10. Psycho - Anne-Marie & Aitch


Thursday 29 December 2022

Critical Week: When the night falls

It's been a very quiet week, so I've spent some time catching up on movies and television shows (I am still far behind on the small screen!). One film I saw in a cinema was I Wanna Dance With Somebody, the Whitney Houston biopic that's rather straightforward but livened up by a terrific performance by Naomi Ackie. Lena Dunham's Catherine Called Birdy is a delightful modern-minded comedy set in medieval England, starring the wonderful Bella Ramsey. And Toni Collette lends some badly needed earthiness to the goofy black comedy The Estate, about cousins circling around their dying wealthy aunt (an up-for-it Kathleen Turner). 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Wildcat • Corsage
Peter Von Kant
ALL REVIEWS >
A bit further afield, All Quiet on the Western Front is a staggeringly well-made German drama about World War I. It may have the usual war-is-horrific message, but its perspective and first-rate production values make it worth a look. From Japan, Inu-oh is an extremely offbeat historical drama that's worth a look for its originality and dazzling animation, even if the storytelling is messy. And there were three docs: the absolutely gorgeous Moonage Daydream recounts the life and work of David Bowie using a swirling collection of archival footage; the deeply engaging Wildcat follows a damaged young man to the Peruvian Amazon to find a sense of purpose; and the chilling Navalny exposes the Russian government's ruthless attempt to murder an opposition politician.

This coming week I still have quite a few awards-worthy films to catch up with at home, plus some things I've been putting off like the sequel Disenchanted and the Disney animation Strange World. Actual press screenings won't be back until 9th January. I'm also still way behind on my television viewing - I've only just begun this last season of The Crown, and I haven't yet started the last season of A Handmaid's Tale or indeed House of the Dragon.


Thursday 22 December 2022

Critical Week: Driving home for Christmas

I seen many films this week, largely due to work required prior to the announcement of the London Critics' Circle Film Awards nominations yesterday. This involved compiling my own ballot, then counting all the others that came in, tabulating the results, giving nominees a heads-up, working on a press release and preparing the announcement event, which was hosted by young actors Ellie Bamber (Willow) and Fionn O'Shea (Handsome Devil) at the May Fair Hotel as a low-key Christmas party. The nominations are listed HERE if you're interested in comparing them with all the other awards spiralling around at the moment.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
Living • Corsage • Women Talking
ALL REVIEWS >
Now things are calming down for the holidays. Whew! Of the films I saw this past week, the most ambitious was Noah Baumbach's White Noise, a busy and somewhat unfocussed comedy-drama about a family dealing with a range of big issues. The cast is excellent, led by Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig, and it ends with a fabulous burst of choreography. Will Smith plays a real-life historical icon in Emancipation, set at the end of the Civil War as an escaped slave faces brutal trackers and ends up fighting on the battlefield. It's ambitious and admirable, but the themes get a bit lost. Christian Bale leads the cast of Scott Cooper's moody period mystery The Pale Blue Eye, playing a detective who works alongside a young Edgar Allan Poe (a superbly wide-eyed Harry Melling) to investigate a murder at West Point in 1830. It's mesmerising but ultimately a bit thin. And the animated adventure The Amazing Maurice, based on the Terry Pratchett novel, has some wonderful thematic depth beneath the usual slapstick wackiness and slick digital imagery.

This coming week I will continue to catch up with movies before writing up my year-end lists. There's quite a pile-up of these, and I have a list of about 10 priority titles, plus eight more if-time ones. A couple of them are forthcoming releases, such as Kore-eda's film Broker and the documentary Wildcat.


Tuesday 20 December 2022

Screen: December TV Roundup

Festivals and awards season have taken a toll on my schedule, but I keep watching episodes of TV series as punctuation between the movies. It's amazing how much you can get through just watching an episode or two here or there. Some of the series below started back in the summer, and others dropped in binge-worthy bundles just in time for a free weekend. But there were several shows I simply didn't have time to watch, such as House of the Dragon, The Rings of Power and The English, to name three...

O H   T H E   D R A M A

The White Lotus: series 2 
Shifting to Italy with only the awesome Jennifer Coolidge's Tanya as a returning character, writer-director Mike White gets even more ambitious this time around. Enormous themes, ideas and even plot points are hidden in between the dialog and situations, offering constant moments of discovery for the audience. And just enough remains ambiguous to keep our brains spinning. It's still a story about haves and have-nots, but this time the lines are even more fiendishly blurred. And the first-rate cast includes Aubrey Plaza, F Murray Abraham, Theo James, Tom Hollander, Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Imperioli and Will Sharpe. Provocative, unmissable television. (HBO)

The Crown: series 5
It's all change once again for this series, which follows the British royal family into the 1990s with Imelda Staunton now playing Queen Elizabeth. Appropriately, she's a bit more aloof than before, although this makes the show far less engaging. This also leaves her in the background as episodes centre more on Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) and Charles (Dominic West), plus a very odd episode that spirals away to tell the story of Mohamed Al-Fayed (Salim Daw). But the show is still immaculately produced and beautifully acted across the board. And it finds intriguing angles on things like press intrusion and the collapse of the Soviet Union. (Netflix)

The Handmaid's Tale: series 5 
Diving even further into darkly disturbing thriller territory, this show is unafraid to send its characters into some properly horrific corners, although it perhaps seems a bit odd that almost all of them are still alive considering the hideous violence all around them. Elisabeth Moss continues to shine as June, and she directed a few belting episodes as well. She's now in exile in Canada with her husband (O-T Fagbenle), but still intricately involved in the goings-on in Gilead, especially with Serena (Yvonne Strahovski) and the now-more-sinister Joseph (Bradley Whitford). In its penultimate season, the stakes are getting higher, and characters continue to get more complicated. So bring it on. (Hulu)

The Sandman
Ambitiously adapting Neil Gaiman's darkly complex comic book, this series is visually stunning, with an excellent ensemble cast circling around a skilfully nuanced Tom Sturridge as Lord Morpheus, the ruler of the Dreaming. The show's structure, which sees Morpheus trying to restore order after he's released from a century of captivity, involves frequent shifts in settings and tone, veering from wacky comedy to grim horror to wrenching drama. This makes it feel uneven at times, but each scene is dazzling. And when you have ace costars like Gwendoline Christie, David Thewlis, Charles Dance, Joely Richardson and John Cameron Mitchell on hand, it's impossible to look away. (Netflix)

Andor 
Oddly dry and dull, this Star Wars series is a prequel to the 2016 film Rogue One, shifting between bickering officials in the Empire and the bickering rebels who are trying to undermine them. While it's enjoyably layered and intriguing, the narrative is scattered over a wide range of characters, each of whom has something interesting to do. But even with a terrific cast, no one emerges as a person who is terribly engaging. Even Diego Luna, in the pivotal role, feels like a side character. While expertly staged the action sequences seem oddly random, and the plot's spiralling political machinations remain rather clinical. So let's hope for a more personal approach in the second season. (Disney) 

The Resort
I was intrigued because this show was created by Andy Siara (Palm Springs) and has a cool cast that includes William Jackson Harper, Cristin Milioti, Skyler Gisondo and the always fabulous Nick Offerman. A sometimes remarkably dark mix of comedy and fantasy, the story centres around a holiday resort in the Yucatan and two young people who went missing 15 years earlier. Then tantalising clues hint that there's time travel involved. The gradually unfolding mystery is engaging, but it's the edgy humour and continuous stream of quirky characters that keeps us entertained. So there's a slightly bittersweet tone as things begin to come together, because we know this will mean that the gang will break up. Then the conclusion suggests that there's more to come. (Peacock)

Elite: series 6
This guilty-pleasure drama from Spain continues to get darker, nastier and more convoluted. And also repetitive. After killing off another central character, the teens continue to indulge in drugs and partying while occasionally attending school. This time they're grappling with horrific violence in the form of a vicious public outing, attempted hit-and-run murder, drug-fuelled gang rape and homophobic murder, among other things. Yes, what these kids are dealing with is extremely grim, and the fact that they're all wildly wealthy doesn't help them at all. It leaves us hoping there's a glimmer of hope in the next season. (Netflix)



J U S T   F O R   L A U G H S

Only Murders in the Building: series 2 
After setting up a new mystery at the end of the first season, this show slides effortlessly into back into its groove, with a confident storytelling approach that's even more engaging. The writing crackles with wit, including continuous references to the difficulty of ramping things up for a second season of the eponymous podcast. All three leads (Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez) add amusing wrinkles to their characters as they interact with a collection of properly ridiculous people. In addition, the central mystery is genuinely knotted and intriguing, offering lots of twists, turns and scene-stealing moments for the fabulously hammy cast. (Hulu)

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law 
Marvel stays in sitcom mode (see also Ms Marvel) for this refreshingly silly series starring Tatiana Maslany as the cousin of Mark Ruffalo's Hulk, who is inadvertently infected with his blood and develops her own distinct giant green alter-ego. Hilariously, she hates the name "She-Hulk", as she should, and the show centres on her efforts to live a normal life as a lawyer, as if she could. Some of her antics are a bit gimmicky, such as trying to date as either Jennifer or She-Hulk, but the show is grounded by her relationships with friends, family and of course her various super-powered clients (including Tim Roth and Megan Thee Stallion). Maslany has a wonderful offhanded charm in the role, although She-Hulk's digital design is somewhat iffy. (Disney) 

The Bear
An unusually edgy tone makes this comedy-drama remarkably riveting, as it charges through a situation that never quite feels under control. Set in Chicago, it's anchored by another powerful performance by Jeremy Allen White (see also Shameless) as a disgraced world-class chef who returns home to run his family's sandwich shop. Clashes abound with relatives (including the fearlessly abrasive Ebon Moss-Bacharach) and employees, and everywhere else for that matter. Ayo Edebiri shines as a young genius who joins the team. But then the entire cast is strikingly realistic, as is the claustrophobic mayhem in the kitchen. (FX)

What We Do in the Shadows: series 4
After ramping things up in the previous season, it's been fun to watch the heightened craziness boil over in various directions in these episodes. The writers continue to gleefully lampoon a range of societal issues, with added nuttiness as Nandor (Kayvan Novak) is granted a series of wishes by a slippery djinn (Anoop Desai), Guillermo (Harvey Guillen) starts taking a stand for himself, and Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) is reborn as a bratty kid. These episodes progress at a remarkably brisk pace, throwing all kinds of nuttiness into the mix, with Nandor remarrying his favourite wife (Parisa Fakhri) and Nadja (Nastasia Demetriou) opening a nightclub, both with predictably messy results. (FX)

Acapulco: series 2
This brightly inventive comedy further develops its now-and-then plot strands by sending Eugenio Derbez's Maximo to Mexico with his nephew (Raphael Alejandro) while reminiscing about his adventures as a young man (Enrique Arrizon). Much of the story centres around romantic complications this time, including a big Valentine's Day episode that makes particularly good use of the show's candy-hued nostalgic colour palette. A bit of intrigue emerges this season as well. But what sets this show apart is its terrific depth for such comical characters, strongly complex relationships and some deeper themes in subplots involving diversity and gossip. (Apple)

Reboot 
There's a lot to like about this gimmicky comedy, with sees Hannah (Rachel Bloom) set out to revive the vintage sitcom her father (Paul Reiser) turned into a hit a couple of decades ago. As the reuniting original cast members, Keegan-Michael Key, Johnny Knoxville, Judy Greer and Calum Worthy have a lot of fun with their seriously messy characters. The interaction between them is gleefully soapy, making pointed jokes about the television and film industries and the nature of being an actor. And while it leans heavily toward both goofy and sentimental moments, there's enough knowing realism to make it genuinely hilarious. (Hulu)

Smiley
The title may refer to the emoticon, but it's also indicative of the tone of this Spanish comedy, which keeps the audience happy with its sometimes simplistic romcom tale about two men who seem completely wrong for each other and yet still click. Carlos Cuevas and Miki Esparbé are terrific in the roles, as a sexy bartender and a slightly nerdy architect who know that having a relationship won't work, but of course they can't resist each other. Their circle of friends is unusually sparky for a series like this, taking the show in some refreshingly offbeat directions. And the complexity of the situation gives the comedy an unusually unpredictable tone. (Netflix)

Inside Amy Schumer: series 5
For the fifth season, this sketch show comes back with five episodes that are tightly written and performed to take on specific themes. While poking fun at everyday life, the media and politics, the scenes dig more deeply into the way we react to these things. So everything strikes a nerve, and it's expertly played by Schumer and her terrific ensemble of costars, including Tim Meadows and Cara Delevingne, plus witty music from Ron Weiner. Most impressive is the momentum these episodes build as they go along, almost creating an overall narrative that touches on topics we all grapple with. And Schumer's unapologetic approach is engaging and refreshing. (MTV)


T H A T ' S   A L L   F O L K S

Kevin Can F**k Himself: series 2 
Annie Murphy is back for a second and final season of this offbeat hybrid sitcom/thriller, which feels much darker this time around. Even the studio-audience sequences have a bleak edge to them, as Murphy's Allison continues to try to escape her hellish marriage to the goofball Kevin (Eric Petersen), this time plotting with her pal Patty (Mary Hollis Inboden) to fake her own death. The mix between the bleak comedy and pitch-black drama feels a little forced now, but the point the show is making about male and female perspectives is provocative and important. And where the story goes is genuinely involving, and chilling too. (AMC)

Dead to Me: series 3
Lively and more than a little absurd, this comedy thriller series concludes with a snaky series of episodes in which our heroines (Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini) desperately scramble to avoid trouble with the police, even as they become increasingly entangled with them for a variety of random reasons. We also get the return of James Marsden, as the twin brother of the late Steve. And the show's dance with death continues through a cancer diagnosis. But at its heart, this is the story of an unexpected friendship, and Applegate and Cardellini make it hugely enjoyable even when the plot begins to get very silly indeed. (Netflix)

I   G I V E   U P

Quantum Leap 
From 1989 to 1993, this zippy time-travel series was a guilty pleasure, so it's almost surprising that it took three decades to reboot it. Alas, the writing this time is abysmal, including the feeble attempt to create an ensemble cast and the painfully undercooked adventures as Ben (Raymond Lee) leaps from period to period. Scripts aren't rooted in even the most cursory logic or detail, leaving it impossible to connect with, so I stopped trying. (NBC)

NOW WATCHING: Welcome to Chippendales, Marie-Antoinette, Abbott Elementary (2), His Dark Materials (3), Young Rock (3), The Conners (5).

COMING SOON: That 90s Show, Shrinking, Extrapolations, Ted Lasso (3), Star Trek: Picard (3), The Mandalorian (3).

Previous roundup: AUGUST 2022 >

Monday 19 December 2022

Stage: Turn of the century

I time-travelled back to the beginning of the 20th century twice over the weekend - first for the atmospheric thriller Wickies at the Park Theatre and then for the lavish on-stage extravaganza Circus 1903 at the Apollo Hammersmith. Very different experiences, set only a couple of years apart...

Wickies: The Vanishing Men of Eilean Mor
by Paul Morrissey
dir Shilpa T-Hyland
with Graeme Dalling, Jamie Quinn, Ewan Stewart
music Niall Bailey
set/costumes Zoe Hurwitz
lighting Bethany Gupwell
illusions John Bulleid
Park Theatre, Finsbury Park, London • 30.Nov-31.Dec.22

Based on a true mystery that has never been solved, this wonderfully creepy dramatic thriller is set at the isolated Flannan Isles lighthouse far off the coast of Scotland in 1900. The script is a wonderful mix of island lore and interpersonal clashes, as three very different men have their own reactions to being cut off from the world in a foggy limbo that's haunted by myths and a possible curse. It's beautifully directed and designed to evoke a feeling of separation from the rest of society, and to embrace the things that can never quite be understood.

A weteran wickie, aka lighthouse keeper, James (Stewart) was involved in building this particular lighthouse on Eilean Mor a year earlier. Far from his family, has now chosen to be stationed here alongside hot-tempered Donald (Dalling), who ignores the no-alcohol rule. They are joined by rookie Thomas (Quinn), whose wide-eyed curiosity raises memories of past events the other men are trying to forget. From the fuzzy ancient history of the island's abandoned chapel to a series of unexplained deaths in recent years, these men have no idea that they're headed toward their own inexplicable fate. 

Along the way, the actors occasionally shift roles to play investigators looking in to the disappearance of these three men during a season in which the fog was so thick that the lighthouse couldn't be seen by passing ships. These kinds of details combine wonderfully with the tactile staging, visceral underscore and superbly subtle special effects work. So there are continual moments of emotional intensity and chilling nastiness.

All of which elevates the even more intriguing ideas about belief, notably expressed in the contrasting layers of masculinity between these men, which is impeccably underplayed by the actors. And since it's so involving, we don't worry about the fact that nobody knows what happened to these men. The various possible explanations are far less engaging than letting our minds embrace something that can't be answered. So the show feels like the bracing slap of an ice-cold wave.
For information, visit PARK THEATRE > 
photos by Pamela Raith • 17.Dec.22

Circus 1903
dir Neil Dorward
creative producer Simon Painter
with David Williamson, Sabrina Aganier, Noel Aguilar, Keniel Rodríguez Mesa, Mikiale Gebrekidan, Temesegene Geberetnsaa, Senayet Asefa Amare, Tymofii Chemko, David Schnabel, Yani Stoyanov, Valeri Tsvetkov
set Todd Edward Invins
costumes Angela Aaron
lighting Paul Smith
Hammersmith Apollo, London • 25.Dec.22-1.Jan.23

Mimicking the look and feel of a vintage travelling circus, while peppering the show with modern-day wit, this production centres mainly around astonishing physicality. This makes it feel more grounded than flashier circus shows, especially with so many genuinely jaw-dropping displays of sheer skill. In between these, there's plenty of goofy humour and audience participation, which strains the attention spans of the kids in the audience. And the involvement of two full-size puppet elephants adds a hint of spectacle.

The show is hosted by Ringmaster Willy Whipsnade (Williamson), a slightly smarmy prankster who spins stories and pokes fun at himself while introducing the acts. Occasionally getting children from the audience involved, he also fills the role of the clown who annoyingly pads out time between the performances. Thankfully, each act is properly impressive. The show opens with a lively teeterboard routine featuring four beefy high-flying men who look like they're having a lot of fun.

Highlights along the way include snappy juggler Aguilar, who throws a ridiculous number of spinning objects into the air and catches most of them adeptly. He's so engaging and ambitious that no one minds when something falls. Stunning balancing act Rodriguez (and his assistant Roxy) piles so many rolling elements on top of each other that it's a bit worrying. And aerial artist Aganier bends herself impossibly as she dangles from a ring far above the stage.

The company encircles each of the acts, cheering on their fellow artists to offer a terrific sense of community. And there's some surprising pathos in the appearance of the elephants, a towering mother and her cheeky son, brought to uncanny life by a crew of puppeteers. Oddly, the show never builds to a crescendo, remaining grounded and earthy right to the final performance of two acrobats (Gebrekidan and Geberetnsaa) who offer an amazing display of power and balance. It's goosebump-inducing, but not quite the grand finale we expect.

Along the way, the international makeup of the cast offers additional textures, with performers coming from across North and South America, Africa and Europe. All of them are the very best at what they do, and it's wonderful to see them live on-stage as part of such a superbly varied ensemble. And with its mix of sophistication and silliness, it will keep the entire family entertained.

For information, visit CIRCUS 1903 >
17.Dec.22

Saturday 17 December 2022

Stage: Rewrite the stars

Derren Brown: Showman
by Derren Brown, Andy Nyman, Andrew O'Connor
dir Andrew O'Connor, Andy Nyman
sets & costumes Simon Higlett
lighting Charlie Morgan Jones
Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Ave, London • 9.Dec.22-19.Mar.23

Following a 155-date national tour, Derren Brown's latest show lands in the West End for an extended run. As with all of his stage productions, this one is about far more than mentalism and magic, both of which are of course outrageously entertaining. "The heart of the show is about remembering what's important," Brown says. "Particularly how the very things that we find most isolating in life - our fears and difficulties - actually connect us, in that they're the very things we share. Framed, of course, with some extraordinary demonstrations of my particular voodoo."

Brown's approach, even when he echoes other shows we may have seen, feels unusually fresh. He mixes dazzling trickery, audience participation and deep emotions into this performance using a striking mix of sound, lighting, projection, dialog and movement. The combination is often mesmerising, as indeed Brown repeatedly hypnotises random audience members who are brought onto the stage, injecting witty humour while neither making fun of anyone nor pushing people out of their comfort zones. He also of course plays with the brains of those who remain in their seats, including the heart-stopping theft of about 10 seconds.

Whether this is illusion or mind-control, and while it clearly has to be much more carefully planned out than it seems to be, the result is often staggering in the way it involves our feelings, tapping into our personal memories to explore the things that are most important to us, while also reminding us of the things that should be most important. So each seemingly impossible reveal manages to show us something about ourselves.

In his trademark style, Brown keeps the bigger themes running with echoing words, lights and images, subliminal suggestions and comments that feel unusually intimate. So while we're continually stunned by his seemingly supernatural ability to observe the tiniest detail, we're repeatedly reminded not to be sidetracked by things that aren't important, to refuse to live by other people's expectations and, most importantly, to be kind.



For information, visit DERREN BROWN >

photos by Mark Douet • 15.Dec.22