From IMDB:
An architect is diagnosed with a rare eye disease, entering him into a surreal reality in which he sees people’s true motives. As the visions become intolerable, he falls for a mysterious woman and confronts the truth about his own identity.
From Amazon Prime you can stream this 1 hour 48 minute complete film. Characters and acting are well done. However, at times it may not be completely clear what is happening.
If you watch this film, let me know your take on the ending.
From Amazon Prime:
When Natalie Varga stands accused of murdering her husband in cold blood, disgraced investigative journalist James Alden finds himself captivated by the case. The mystery of whether she committed the
crime broadens into a darker, stranger narrative as our London setting shifts to Hungarian high society.
From Amazon Prime Brit Box you can stream the 4 episodes of this “what is really going on?” soap-opera. Each episode lasts about 43 minutes.
James Alden is obsessively driven to the final startling conclusion. At that point ask yourself “should the plot end this way?”
Expect no happiness. Some reviewers hated the film. At the end I just sat in shock.
From IMDB:
In the 1930s, three friends witness a murder, are framed for it, and uncover one of the most outrageous plots in American history.
On the plane back from London I watched this 2 hour 14 minute complete film.
Based on true facts, the film can still be called a comedy because it is full of almost outrageous antics by the three dedicated friends Burt, Valerie, and Harold. In time you will figure out who the bad guys (i.e. traitors to the U.S.) are and how they related to the trio of friends.
To clinch the patriotism theme, Robert de Niro does a somewhat corny but effective job as General Gil Dillenbeck.
Look for several cameo appearances.
Good enough for a plane trip!
From Sundance Now:
Joseph O’Loughlin has the perfect life: a beautiful wife, a loving daughter, and a successful career as a clinical psychologist. But it all begins to unravel when the police seek his professional opinion about the murder of a young woman. Caught in an increasingly complex web of deceit, Joseph risks everything as he embarks upon a search for a killer.
From Sundance Now (through Amazon Prime) you can stream the 5 episodes of this clever suspense series. Each episode lasts about 47 minutes.
Thanks to my neighbor Terry for introducing me to Sundance Now which currently through Amazon Prime is $6.99 per month after a short free trial.
Someone is killing a series of people. Although DI Vince Ruiz almost obsessively zeroes in on the psychologist Joe O’Loughlin, you will probably spend all 5 episodes bouncing your suspicions from one character to the next. After many character twists the conclusion is a knock out.
Joining Sundance Now just to watch “The Suspect” is worth the price. Besides, you can cancel at any time.
DO NOT MISS!
From IMDB:
Adam Lawrence was trained and groomed by MI6; his career seems set. When the past catches up with him in the form of Kara, a Russian spy with whom he shares a complicated past, he is forced to question everything and everyone in his life.
From Netflix you can stream the 5 episodes of this British political intrigue series. Each episode lasts roughly 40 minutes.
Potentially complicated, this series is actually fairly easy to follow. As usual the theme is “you can’t trust anyone.” Your task is to figure out who is the Russian spy in the British government. Is Adam Lawrence the traitor? Who killed the 5 men in Baku?
Be ready for unexpected twists and turns in this binge-worthy British thriller.
From IMDB:
The extraordinary and chilling story of career conman Robert Freegard who masqueraded as an MI5 agent and fooled people into going into hiding, and the woman who fell for him, and then brought him down.
From Netflix you can stream this 1 hour 55 minute complete film based on the true story of Robert Freegard starring James Norton as the conman.
George Santos (Republican 2022 representative from New York) has nothing on Robert Freegard, alias Robert Hanson. There is, as far as I can tell, a big difference. Santos, I would guess, is probably completely delusional and may even believe his lies. Robert Freegard, on the other hand, was a clever, willful, devious, lying bastard from the start whose lies hurt many people.
If you are following the acting career of James Norton, then begin with his portrayal of the truly malicious Tommy Lee Royce in “Happy Valley”. Follow that with his role as the imperfectly saintly Rev. Sidney Chambers in “Grantchester”. End here with his pitch-perfect personification of Robert Freegard.
Granted that James Norton is the center of the movie, but Gemma Arterton deserves credit as the deceived and then grimly determined woman who hunted Freegard down.
Do not miss the ending explanation of what happened to Robert Freegard.
DO NOT MISS!
From IMDB:
A world-weary detective is hired to investigate the murder of a West Point cadet. Stymied by the cadets’ code of silence, he enlists one of their own to help unravel the case – a young man the world would come to know as Edgar Allan Poe.
From Netflix you can stream this 2 hour 10 minute complete film.
If only for the 1830 period clothing , surroundings and speech patterns, watching this film can be worthwhile. But the story is clever, the acting is fine, and the plot twist toward the very end is quite unexpected.
Several of the actors are familiar to me:
Harry Melling is a very unusual looking but up-and-coming actor who plays Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849). His physical appearance, especially his face, is so striking that I could only stare. He played Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter movies. Will he always be cast in eccentric roles?
Well worth the watch!
From Amazon Prime:
In Season 3 of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, Jack races against time and across Europe to stop a rogue faction within the Russian government from restoring the Soviet Empire and starting World War III.
From Amazon Prime you can stream season 3 of the Jack Ryan series. Season 3 consists of 8 episodes. Each episode runs between 45 minutes and an hour.
Continuing in the view of the first two seasons, this series treats us to one action event after the other. Along the way the cast of characters and their loyalties keep changing in possibly confusing rapidity. Flashbacks are vital in explaining the motives of the various actors in the plot.
Among the many good performance I would award a prize to James Cosmo for his portrayal of Luka Gocharov.
Expect 8 hours of constant excitement and possible confusion.
From Netflix:
World-famous detective Benoit Blanc heads to Greece to peel
back the layers of a mystery surrounding a tech billionaire and his
eclectic crew of friends.
From Netflix you can stream the second installment of the “Knives Out” series. “Glass Onion” runs for 2 hours and 19 minutes.
Should Daniel Craig have stuck to playing James Bond (despite the fact that Bond dies in the last of that series) ? As the movie starts I thought “Oh, no! Has-beens on parade!” After awhile the story picks up, so you have to persist. Even Edward Norton’s long-winded boring speeches make a bit of sense.
Be on the lookout for cameo appearances by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Grant.
After two hours the story literally comes to a smashing end. Give the production a B+.
From Netflix:
Unhappily married aristocrat Lady Chatterley begins a torrid affair
— and falls deeply in love — with the gamekeeper on her husband’s country estate.
From Netflix you can stream this 2 hour 7 minute film adaptation of D.H. Lawrence’s (in)famous novel.
In addition to the French 2006 version which we reviewed recently, IMDB lists no less than 4 other versions (which includes this 2022 version). In a twist of irony Joely Richardson played Lady Chatterley in the 1993 version and now plays the elderly housekeeper Mrs. Bolton in this 2022 version.
Emma Corrin, who plays Lady Chatterley, played the younger Marion in “My Policeman” as well as Princess Diana Spencer in 8 episodes of “The Crown”.
Now I feel compelled to read the original unexpurgated version (99 cents on Kindle) just to see how faithful the screen adaptations were.
Actually the French version was more erotic than this 2022 version directed by the French actress Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre. Rest assured, however, that both versions offer an abundance of explicit sexual activity.
More than offering mere titillation, this version continues the tradition of including a social conscience.