Apple TV+ – Film Fanatic

New Perspectives: Blitz – one boy’s journey to be reunited with his family during WWII

Hello Readers,

Steve McQueen’s war drama featuring the quest of nine-year-old George as he escapes from being evacuated and finds his way home to his mother and grandfather. While the story is not true, it contains a lot of stories that have been forgotten including the struggles of the Black community in London at the time as well as how those in poorer areas coped with the Blitz. As mentioned in many interviews, McQueen saw a photo of a young Black boy carrying his suitcase in London during World War II and crafted George’s story around it.

I worked briefly on this project as a previs coordinator on a shot panning over London after a heavy night of bombing. Seeing the final shot in the film was interesting as it looked different to what I had remembered and dressed up with the visual effects. Apart from this shot, I had not much idea of the plot of the film so I don’t feel my involvement gave me any spoilers or clues to the ending.

Warning spoilers ahead!

Blitz (2024) Directed by Steve McQueen

I have been anticipating this film for over a year since working on it and I was pleased that it was available on Apple TV+ so that I could watch it at home. I didn’t watch it at the cinema but I was able to see it on my home projector and this definitely added to the drama of the film.

I think the star of the film really was Elliott Heffernan who plays George as he carried a lot of the emotion and story line. The other main characters featured are Rita, George’s mother played by Saoirse Ronan, Jack, their neighbour and Air Raid warden (Harris Dickinson) and Gerald, Rita’s father played by Paul Weller. The other characters in the film flow in and out as Rita and George encounter new people.

George at the beginning of the film is quite protected and naive to the struggles of other Black people being raised in his White family and in a nice area of London – Stepney Green. He gets the odd comment but is sheltered from most of it by his mother.

When he finds out that he is being evacuated, he tries to resist as he already feels like an outsider but at least Stepney Green is the devil he knows. Going to the countryside with other children feels like the end of the world for him and he knows he will not fit in or be bullied especially as it seems he struggles to make friends.

Almost as soon as he has boarded the train, George forms a plan to escape and find his way home. Along the way he meets a few different characters but the first boys he meets on the cargo train understand his reasons as they too are escaping back to London. He generously shares his sandwich in an attempt to be friendly but after the shock death of the oldest brother, he does not hang around to be caught.

His next encounter is with a friendly Black Air Raid Warden who teaches George more about being Black and vows to help him get back to Stepney Green. Ife is from Nigeria and teaches George about his culture. He unfortunately meets his untimely demise so George goes it alone and is picked up by a criminal gang who recruit him for their looting.

Meanwhile, we see Rita sing at her factory on the BBC radio and learn of George’s disappearance. She recruits Jack to help her and also takes him to a shelter she volunteers at where people don’t have much. The underground stations are not being opened to the public until it is absolutely necessary and we see many people taking refuge there as shelters fill up quickly.

George almost gets caught by the police on one jewellery shop raid but a bombed ballroom gives him the best escape route while his captors are being arrested. He finds his way to London Bridge underground during a bombing but when the tunnels are flooded, he is swept up in the flood but due to his small stature manages to squeeze through the gates and get help. He wakes up in the home of a seemingly nice woman who offers to take him to the police station but he sneaks out of the bedroom and finally returns home to discover his house bombed and his grandfather dead in his bed but the cat and his mother have survived.

I thought the film was well done and while some events were embellished, they created a well thought out story of George’s quest to find his mother and along the way discover his heritage. In flashbacks we see Rita and Marcus, George’s father and the terrible treatment they faced as an interracial couple. After being attacked, Marcus is arrested and deported before George’s birth so he has not grown up having a father figure or Black role model in his life.

The young actor playing George did a great job at leading the film and you could easily empathise with him and his need to be back with the only family he’s ever known. It seems strange in this day and age that it took him many days to get back home when back in London but people did not always travel outside of their areas and even when receiving directions for a way home on the bus, he couldn’t remember them. He had probably never been on the Tube, at least not without his mother so did not know a way on the underground or have the money for it.

Saoirse Ronan’s London accent was very good and I felt more immersed in the film as most of the characters had East End or London accents. There were a lot of little details that were authentic to the time such as Rita and her friends drawing stocking lines on the back of their legs with eye liner as there was a shortage of stockings at the time. I loved all the old signs and buses especially when George is going through Central London or in the tube stations.

To the modern eye, it seems cruel to send your children away to another city/part of the country but the government was making it mandatory and it did save the lives of many children as mostly cities such as London were bombed heavily. Members of my own family were evacuated at the same time as the film is set even though they did not live in London. One did go back home and survived although it was not as long a journey as George had.

I think this time period is a really interesting one to show on film as it is well documented with photos and film but there are few people still alive today who truly remember what society was like. It is certainly the oldest global event in living memory. Previous war films have not really focused on the Black communities in London during the Blitz so it was interesting to have a film from the point of view of a young boy who has been raised in a White community.

Overall, I thought that the film was good, emotional and dramatic. It exceeded my expectations from when I worked on it about 18 months ago and it gave us a war story that has not been repeated ad infinitum. I give the film 4.5/5.

Happy Watching,

Robyn

Disclaimer: Cuarón’s foray into the TV world and why you should watch it

Hello Readers,

I first heard about the show Disclaimer when I heard that it was going to be shown at the Venice Film Festival. This is not common practice for a TV show as far as I have heard but then again not many television shows are written, produced, directed and edited by award winning director, Alfonso Cuarón.

His films in the past have covered a range of topics and genres: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – family friendly teen fantasy; Children of Men – dystopian drama; Gravity – sci-fi one-woman adventure; Great Expectations – R-rated rom-com and Roma – a love letter to his home country of Mexico.

Disclaimer adds another string to his bow as a twisty psychological thriller told over seven episodes in several periods of time. The basic story is that a woman meets a young man on holiday, something transpires between them and he dies saving her young son from the sea. 20 years on, the young man’s father is seeking revenge for the death of his son and the subsequent death of his marriage and wife. He discovers a novel that his late wife wrote about their son and his death and uses this to destroy award-winning documentarian who he believes caused his son’s death.

Disclaimer (2024)

This show has a fairly simple premise once you work out who each character is but the feelings and pain that the characters carry and act on drives the plot forward and makes it a gripping thriller. The cast selected for the roles were very fitting and played their parts well. Before I had even finished watching the show, I knew I wanted to write a review about it as I wanted to dissect just what made it so intense.

One of the main things that made Disclaimer so powerful was the camera work. Alfonso Cuarón is known for his interesting and dynamic shots and these were certainly used to full effect in Disclaimer. Getting up close and personal to the characters showed us their emotions and even changed the feelings of a scene. There were many establishing shots that were not standard or boring but just reminded you in which location or time period you were.

What really came through for me was the emotions of the characters and how their feelings at root, caused the story. Nancy (Lesley Manville) felt so strongly about her son Jonathan’s death that she was driven to write the book to make sense of his early passing. With the photographs retrieved from his film camera, she pieced together what had happened or what she thought had happened.

Catherine Ravenscroft (Cate Blanchett) is shown as a career-first family-second woman but her story goes deeper than this. She has been unable to form a strong bond with her son, Nicholas who is pushed out of the nest to find a job and some independence. His father, Robert (Sacha Baron Cohen) believes that this is not right for Nick (Kodi Smit-McPhee) but goes along with her. He believes in their special father-son bond over football but Nick really doesn’t feel very loved by either of them.

It’s apparent that Nick does not remember anything of his near-death experience in the ocean when he was four years old but something has stuck around as he carries a trauma that is not explained by anything else as he is in a privileged position. Catherine also holds this experience close to her chest but when Nancy’s book comes to light, she has to start facing her past.

Stephen Brigstocke (Kevin Kline) plays a character that you love to dislike but again may just be misunderstood. His quest of terror is done out of his anger at himself for his son’s death and the staleness that existed between himself and Nancy for the next 10 years until her death. He was a normal man with a family and a good job as a teacher at a private school but having his son ripped away from him caused his life to stand still.

I thought Louis Partridge who plays Jonathan was great in the role, especially in the last episode. We see his quiet and unassuming nature when he meets Catherine and Nick in Italy, how we would expect a 19 year old to be but again, his story has many deeper truths.

A large part of the story shows the systematic destruction of Catherine’s career and home life by Stephen who feels a need to make the world aware of how Catherine let his son drown. We see Catherine’s distress and emotions come out but we don’t see an alternative point of view for most of the show. The thrilling nature comes from not knowing what Stephen or other characters will do next to further discredit Catherine or if her retaliation will go a step too far.

This is certainly a show for older viewers with some explicit sex scenes. They were crucial to the plot but I think were also done for shock factor and as many people have said, sex sells. In my opinion, there was nothing too uncomfortable or prolonged that we haven’t seen before but I would say it’s not suitable for younger teenagers.

I don’t want to go too much into the story as a whole but I will say I was hooked until the end and watched most episodes on the day they were released. Overall, I give the show 4/5.

All episodes are now streaming on Apple TV+

Happy Watching,

Robyn

What Should You Be Streaming Right Now?

Hello readers,

With autumn coming in and the heatwaves dwindling, we tend to spend more time indoors away from the rain and the wind with the company of TV programmes. Traditional TV seems to be a thing of the past with the best content out there available on streaming services. Even the original channels BBC, ITV and Channel 4 have upgraded their free catch up services to mirror those we pay money to access. Films will sometimes barely get time to settle in at the cinema before they are whisked away to be viewed from the comfort of the sofa and some never make it at all.

Television, however has always been something to enjoy at home and I am going to recommend programmes from the streaming services that I frequent regularly.

The Following Events are Based on a Pack of Lies (2023) – BBC IPlayer

Alice is living her life in Oxford: she works for a demanding boss at a boutique fashion shop; has a loving partner and child and lives in a cute little bungalow. The ghost of her past comes back to haunt her when she finds out her missing, presumed dead husband is in fact alive and has rebranded himself as a climate scientist working with Oxford University.

Robert Chance meets best-selling author, Cheryl Harker at his climate presentation and begins to wine and dine her. She is a widow living alone in her dragon-themed mansion and is taken in by him. The relationship moves fast and before she knows it, he has moved in and is sitting in on her work meetings.

Alice cannot let go that her former husband is alive and well so follows him and finds well-meaning Cheryl as his latest victim. She knows that Rob will repeat history and run away with Cheryl’s wealth so vows to get him locked up. This turns out to be trickier than she thinks and enlists her father to help track down more of Rob’s victims.

There were many interesting twists to this show and while some reviewers have not understood its tone, I think it straddles the comedy/drama genre well with the light, playful humour cutting through the harsh truths of Robert’s schemes.

The scenery of Oxford adds an authenticity to the tale with the backdrop of the famous sandstone buildings and academic gatherings. I think that Alistair Petrie (Sex Education) played a wonderful role as Rob/Robert and had such a strong demanding presence that made him very hard to counteract. A complete change from Mr Groff as we see him in the latest series of Sex Education.

I enjoyed this show and I disagree with the negative reviews that I have read. This show was very gratifying for women who have every felt overpowered or gaslit by men and the reviews I read were written by male journalists who probably did not understand how it read to women.

I give it 4/5.

Harlan Coben’s Shelter (2023) – Amazon Prime

Previous television adaptions from the mind of Harlan Coben have never disappointed and that streak does not end with Shelter. A story full of twists and mystery that will keep you guessing until the very end.

We find Mickey Bolitar back in the States after having lived abroad with his mother and father. In a tragic car accident, Mickey’s father, Brad passes away and his mother goes to a mental health facility to cope with her returned depression.

Shira, Brad’s sister takes Mickey to her childhood home while his mother recovers nearby. On his first day at Kasselton High, he meets Ashley, a fellow new student with a bubbly personality and aspirations for the cheer team. They agree to meet at the local diner after school for a date but then Ashley never shows.

This is not your normal teenage ghosting though as the next day, Ashley does not come to school and has withdrawn. Hearing the tales of the Bat Lady from Shira, Mickey goes to her for answers as she is rumoured to kidnap children. He learns about Dylan Shakes, his father’s best friend who went missing after a baseball game when they were 11.

At school, Mickey becomes friends with Arthur, who christens himself as Spoon and Ema, the school outcasts. The trio team up to track down Ashley and maybe solve the disappearance of Dylan, almost 30 years before. Spoon has access to a secret lair at school and a network of fellow janitorial offspring with Ema bringing resources that I won’t reveal.

Shira rekindles an old friendship with Hannah, also the mother of Mickey’s nemesis on the basketball court, Troy.

This show was a great mystery that kept me on my toes the whole time. I really love the dynamic between Spoon, Ema and Mickey and the supporting characters fit right in. The stereotypical ideas that you form about them: the jock; his cheerleader girlfriend; the scary neighbourhood foe; the cop’s wife and the make-up influencer all expand and unravel into much more complex human beings.

Most of the actors in this show are newcomers to the industry and they were all amazing in their roles with great comedic timing and even in darker moments, I was able to enjoy the nature of the show.

I give this show 5/5.

Only Murders in the Building – Series 3 (2023) – Disney Plus

For a show in its third series and featuring two old white straight male leads, this show has become one of the most loved on streaming. The dynamic between Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short) and Mabel (Selena Gomez) is something that most writers spend years trying to manifest but these three have such a great chemistry together its as if Selena has been part of the Martin and Short duo the whole time.

The third season is mixing things up a bit with Oliver producing a play and the introduction of some famous faces. The cliffhanger of the last season showed Paul Rudd as Ben Glenroy drop dead on opening night of Oliver’s new play, Death Rattle. We pick up at that moment in Series 3 and while Ben was not dead, he is very soon after crashing through the roof of the lift at the Arconia on top of Charles, Oliver and Mabel.

They immediately get their murder-solving hats on and start looking into potential suspects – the cast and crew of Death Rattle until a stalker is arrested by the police. The crime is seemingly solved but Mabel can’t let it go and starts some investigating of her own, this time without a podcast. Charles tries to focus on his budding relationship with Joy and Oliver reworks his play into a musical to draw attention away from Ben’s murder but the two cannot resist doing a little investigating of their own.

Meryl Streep plays Loretta, an ageing actress who despite being in New York City her whole adult life is finally getting her big break as the nanny in Death Rattle. Ashley Park plays Kimber, a potential suspect and fellow cast member of Ben’s who does a little beauty influencing on the side. Paul Rudd also appears in a number of flashbacks showing that Ben did not really get on with anyone in the show, making finding a suspect harder for Charles, Oliver and Mabel.

Mabel does start to get close to Tobert, a filmmaker that was hired to follow Ben around but has a suspiciously good knack for finding clues. Charles is with Joy and Oliver finds a connection with Loretta, it looks at first like their lives are becoming quieter. This series is filled with more twists than perhaps the first two combined and with the finale airing next week, it’s still all to play for with Who Killed Ben Glenroy?

I think this is a fun show and despite being about murder, it has a lightness to it that is shown by the hilarious and unfortunate scrapes that the trio manage to find themselves in. The Arconia is a beautiful old building and while much of the action is at the theatre this time, we still get to see some great NYC architecture.

Even though the series has not ended yet, I am going to give it 4.5/5.

Sex Education Series 4 (2023) – Netflix

This show has been helping teenagers and adults alike understanding more about sex and their bodies since its premiere in 2019. With two years since the last series, fans have been waiting for new content.

While the iconic Moordale school is now gone, our favourite characters are still muddling their way through sex and relationships. Otis and Maeve finally admitted their feelings but with Maeve off in America, learning how to write from Mr. Molloy (Dan Levy – Schitt’s Creek), herself and Otis have entered a long-distance situationship. Eric is moving on from Adam and quickly finds a new queer crew at new school, Cavendish College. We see two new trans characters, Roman and Abbi, dating and living together along with Aisha, a deaf girl.

Ruby has gone from top dog to underdog as without her posse, finds herself reconnecting with Otis and helping in his battle against O, another sex therapist on campus with maybe more knowledge than him.

Jackson and Viv are still good friends but with a new relationship for Viv and health scares and an identity crisis for Jackson, the two have a lot on their plates.

Aimee is on her healing journey and having switched to take art to help with her trauma, she finds a friend in fellow artist Isaac who finds himself in a war against the school with their poor accessibility infrastructure.

Cal has started taking testosterone and is experiencing the challenges that come with that while not feeling able to talk to their mum or new friend Aisha.

Adam has dropped out of college and starts working with horses at a farm with the patient stable hand, Jem. His relationship with his father is almost non-existent but Michael offers driving lessons to Adam and things begin to heal.

Without Jakob, Jean is struggling with new baby, Joy until her sister Joanna comes to stay although Joanna may be more of a hinderance than a help. Jean also starts a new radio show, run by Celia (Hannah Gadsby) helping the public with their sex and relationship queries.

Cavendish College has all the facilities one could dream of: a tablet for every student, a slide, fully stocked gym, an allotment and a free speech stage. The new age ideas make this final season really fun but with comments on society at large about the passive-aggressive nature that some people use to remind you to recycle or ride a bike instead of driving.

While this series still has its moments, I think the sex scenes are used for plot or humour rather than shock factor or gratuitousness as in previous series. The characters have all become really special fully realised people so we want more than anything to see things work out for them in their relationships. Even the new additions quickly fit into the existing cast.

Of course, not everything has changed: Otis is still being his awkward self and struggling to balance his time between his friends and Maeve; Aimee still has her interesting viewpoint of the world and Eric is still a beacon of glitter and positive energy.

This series deals with some really heavy themes such as depression; loneliness; suicide; rejection from your family/church; struggles with self-acceptance; death; drugs and assault but as these are spread throughout across so many characters, the darker stories feel like part of life rather than clouding the enjoyment of the series.

I am really glad that most of the main cast made it to Series 4 and that we got a good ending to the show. I will miss it and can’t wait to see the actors take off as some have already started to do.

I give this show 5/5.

The Morning Show – Series 3 (2023) – Apple TV+

The Morning Show has won many awards for a reason; it is a brilliant show. The new series is only a few episodes in but we have already had stellar performances from Jennifer Aniston and the other cast members.

The series picks up in 2022, two years after the last series ended. Covid is now a mostly distant memory and head of UBA, Cory is focusing on what he can do to improve the network, granted he gets permission from the board of course. Alex is still on the Morning Show with Yanko and new co-host Chris and Bradley has made a leap towards her own evening show. Her relationship with Laura ended in lockdown but she finally has an apartment in New York and is determined to broadcast meaningful stories.

Jon Hamm enters as billionaire Paul Marks, looking to strike a deal with Cory on the downlow all while promoting his new open to the public rocket ship. The drama does not stop as in just the first few episodes we have had hackers; internal conflict; racial bias; equity allegations and votes of no confidence.

Stella, Cybil and Cory try to keep things on track despite all of these with Stella needing to decide whether she is trying to fix the institution from the inside or if she is part of the institution.

With Mitch in the rear-view mirror, its interesting to see what scandals will bubble up at UBA and whether having women in positions of power both in front of the camera and behind it will be enough for the network to bury their history and forge a new more enlightened space.

If this series is going to be anything like the past two, I give it 5/5.

These are my highlights of what is streaming right now and look forward to seeing what the autumn schedule has to offer.

Happy Watching,

Robyn

2023: New Perspectives: Prehistoric Planet 2

I thought the series overall was fantastic and I am not a big fan of documentaries but I really enjoyed the episodes. I think David Attenborough’s narration really added to the action. There were a few shots that didn’t look quite right but I know from working with the team that this would only be due to running out of time as everyone put in so much hard work for over a year in most cases.

Hello readers,

Today’s post is the second in my New Perspectives series. This week, I will be looking at Prehistoric Planet 2 and share how my perspective changed watching the show after having worked on it. I worked on Series 1 as well but more extensively on Series 2.

This was such a lovely show to work on with a great crew and I am glad that it has been so well received. When I joined the project in 2021, I had no idea really what it was but after hearing the names David Attenborough and Jon Favreau, I knew it would be good.

Each series has 5 episodes with the storylines split into environments. In Series 2 they are: Islands; Badlands; Swamps; Oceans and North America. Each episode contains a few interweaving stories about the creatures that lived in those conditions during the Cretaceous period – 66 million years ago.

Prehistoric Planet 2 (2023)

The first episode Islands included a few sequences that I worked on but not in depth so the story lines were a little more of a surprise. The way we worked on it, we got the vague storyline but not specifics and each sequence was strictly separated so I never saw how they all flowed together until watching the episodes. Seeing the creatures fully comped with look grades on top made them appear very life-like and I could really see the expressions on their faces, particularly with the Zalmoxes on the raft. I remember the Hatzegopteryx sequence where the male tries to woo a female and has to fight off a love rival was one of the first I saw for this episode.

Badlands was overall my favourite episode of Prehistoric Planet 2. I got to work on most of the sequences so I knew it well and I loved the plotlines with the babies having to migrate to safer grounds with the lava and black rocks in the background. I never knew that dinosaurs existed in those areas so it was interesting to learn about. The sequence where they move through the canyon was a tricky one to do and I remember lots of discussions of how to make it look cinematic and interesting but I think all the camera angles and hopping from creature to creature worked well and the end result was visually stunning and interesting.

Swamps again was not an episode I worked on much but I do remember the sequence with the Edmontosaur in the dark fighting the T-Rex being particularly tricky. There was also a fun sequence featuring a Beelzebufo, a returning toad-like creature from Series 1. While Swamps is just one environment, I feel like the episode covered a lot of different sub areas with a lot of different creatures.

The ammonites were a popular creature in Series 1 so they are back in the Oceans episode where we get to see their life cycle and a few varieties – Nostoceras; Baculites and Diplomoceras. We also see the hunting cycles of Hesporornis and the Phosphorosaurus hunting the lanternfish using their bioluminescence against them. The crowd team really pulled off something amazing making the shoals of fish and I think the end result was really great. Making something look realistic in water is an added challenge in VFX but I think the team really pulled it off.

The North America episode was the first one I worked on in Series 2 and I became well versed in the animation process of the Tyrannosaurus and Quetzalcoatlus sequence where they find the carcass of an old Alamosaurus. There were a lot of different beats featuring 4 different creatures and showing them eating was particularly tricky. The Triceratops fight and mating sequence was another interesting one to work on as there were a lot of individuals gathered making a spectacular scene. Triceratops have always been a favourite of mine, I think as they look so unique . I used to think they were gentle creatures but certainly not after this episode.

This project was my first in the industry and was such a joy to work on. it was also my first on-screen credit which was exciting. If you haven’t yet caught the show, both series are on Apple TV+.

Happy Watching,
Robyn