Seen in July

Just two nice kids but only one is a horse, in My Lady Jane

Sometimes I realize that I subscribe to too many services, but occasionally there is a month when I actually do use every one of those services, which is sad when you find that there is no one service that gives you what you want. I can only hope you don't have this problem.

My Lady Jane
Prime
Sometimes history sucks, especially for women in the 16th century. Lady Jane Grey should never have died. It just wasn't fair. She was executed for high treason at the age of 17 for accepting the crown she never wanted. Yet what if it didn't have to be that way? What if magic existed and you could use great pop and rock music in a show set 500 years ago? Also, this fictional period comedy is a lot of fun and you should watch it.



Michael Fassbender in The Killer

The Killer
Netflix
David Fincher explores a weirdly common theme here. An assassin (Michael Fassbender) slips up, which brings consequences to his home life, and initiates a revenge plot similar to John Wick et al. My only criticism of this plot is that the killer is introduced as precise, patient and calculating, yet makes a dumb mistake, and then launches into a well-planned and executed escape route. When he realizes that someone has come and invaded his super secret hideaway (apparently not so super secret), he puts in motion a series of acts of revenge to ensure it doesn't happen again. If he was as clever as we're told, how did it happen in the first place? Never mind the details of the minimal plot. It is as Hitchcock said a "MacGuffin", a detail necessary for the story to move forward but irrelevant to the story. For some, they may find the patient pace of this stylish film too slow, but for me, it reinforced exactly what our protagonist tells us at the beginning, "If you are unable to endure boredom, this work is not for you.", likewise, this may not be the film for you. In the end, this film owes more to Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samouraï and Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai than to John Wick or A History of Violence (though it does share that the story originated as a comic book). Also notable is the use of the music of The Smiths as the primary music of the film (I'm assuming Fincher is a Smiths fan).



The charming Time Bandits

Time Bandits
Criterion Channel
Best described by a reviewer, as having a "creaky charm". It's now a series on Apple TV+, this 1981 film from Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam is one of my favourites though rewatching it was hard to say why. Funny lines? Yes. Funny performances? Definitely. Yet, maybe it is the "creaky charm" of the simple effects and uneven story plus the appearances of Sean Connery and Ralph Richardson as the besuited "Supreme Being" that stick in my memory.

The Bear S03
Disney+
The third season of this definitely-not-a-comedy drama set in the kitchen of a new restaurant does not disappoint. I'm not sure how a show is so revered and seemingly disliked at the same time but ignore the haters, this show maintains its pace, drama (definitely not a comedy), and passion as in previous seasons. The intense kitchen scenes, stylish filming and sharp editing allow the dialogue to penetrate and the actors to have space to breathe.

The Acolyte
Disney+
I was so curious to see Wookie Jedis and Carrie Moss but this series, like most of the Star Wars stories, disappoints. I mean, I like the Force, I like laser swords and mystical space knights but there's just too little story here to fill the voids left in between. It's like cotton candy. Looks pretty. Tastes sweet, then dissolves before anything much can happen.

Bob and Don: a Love Story
The New Yorker, YouTube
A short film by Judd Apatow examines the seemingly unlikely friendship of Bob Newhart and Don Rickles and their families.



Banal and evil, a family summer garden party against a backdrop of death.

The Zone of Interest
Prime
A recurring theme when examining the Third Reich and its attempt to exterminate European Jews was the bureaucratic nature of the genocide. Nazis were cold, calculating and businesslike in their approach to dealing with the "Jewish problem". This Oscar award-winning film from Jonathan Glazer brings to mind Hannah Ardent's phrase, "the banality of evil" as it depicts Commandant Rudolph Höss as a sort of company man, moving up the ranks of the German high command through his excellent work at making Auschwitz-Birkenau one of the most efficient death camps ever conceived. The sound design is remarkable. At any given moment you may hear dragonflies or the trickle of a river backed by a furnace roar, distant cries and shouting, and gunfire. It is remarkable and haunting.

Inside Man
Clive Owens and Denzil Washington clash as a bank robber and a hostage negotiator in Spike Lee's heist film extraordinaire. We see that there is deception at work, distraction and sleight of hand, but until the end you never really know how it will go. Watch for short but commanding performances by Jodie Foster and Christopher Plummer too.



Timothèe Chalamet as Paul Atreides

Dune: Part Two
Crave
Denis Villeneuve has successfully transformed the unassailable Dune into a rollicking, passionate desert epic that suggests MacBeth and Lawrence of Arabia. The combination of production design and performances gives the film a timeless feeling that I think, would make it just as enjoyable to watch in 20 years as it is today. I wouldn't normally remark on such stuff, but the chemistry between Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya is palpable and I feel like Tom Holland, Zendaya's real-life paramour, might have squirmed in his seat a little bit while watching this. I'm glad to know there will be a part three.