Lets just rename the new Kathryn Bigelow film A House of Dynamite as 117 Minutes of White knuckle Tension: The Movie.
I really wish I had taken the opportunity to see this in the cinema over the past two weekends, because this film is tense as hell and would only have benefitted from me sitting bolt-upright in the cinema for nearly two hours.
It isn’t that A House of Dynamite doesn’t play well on the TV at home - I was very much in on this movie from its opening (that Kathryn Bigelow sure knows how to stage a scene), but the big screen and bigger sound would have been welcome additions experientially.
Dynamite’s premise has the army in Alaska seeing a nuclear missile on the radar en route to mainland America. No enemy has taken credit for it and nobody is entirely prepared. It is 117 minutes of viewing the potential disaster from multiple points of view: the soldiers who first discover the missile, those working in the White House, a FEMA official who has been chosen to head to a secure bunker, the Secretary of Defence who is trying to contact his daughter, and, of course, eventually the President.
Most of the film plays out over a 20-ish minute period with its cast of characters working from their various positions - a commonality for many of them is that while there are systems and processes in place to handle a situation like this, nobody is quite prepared to put them into action.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film is sitting at a 79% critical rating, with a 76% audience rating. That feels right to me in regards to how people will broadly feel about the movie. There’s a sense of ambiguity and hopelessness that runs throughout the film, right up to its closing moments and the high anxiety tension of it all won’t be for everyone.
Beyond that… this week we saw the return of Netflix romcom Nobody Wants This for a second season.
UK viewers might want to check out the latest The Forsyte Saga adaptation, now just titled The Forsytes. It will debut on PBS in the US next year - I don’t know of a local Australian release for it.
In the US there was the CBS launch of Blue Bloods spin-off Boston Blue and Fire Country spin-off Sheriff Country. Neither have been released on Paramount+ in Australia, which is a bit frustrating. I’d like to sample both.
Filipino horror The Elixir is reportedly a good watch if you’re into such things. I’ll press play late tonight on that one.
Returning TV
Tracker (s03), Nobody Wants This (s02), Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake (s02), Fire Country (s04)
New TV
The Monster of Florence — Netflix
Top cast: Francesca Olia, Liliana Bottone, Giacomo Fadda, Marco Bullitta
What it’s about: On the outskirts of Florence, Italy, a monster hunts, murders, and mutilates young couples seemingly without a pattern, stumping police at every turn. Nicknamed Il Mostro by the press, the most ruthless serial killer to have ever terrorized Italy claimed 16 victims between 1968 and 1985.
Harlen Coben’s Lazarus — Prime Video
Top cast: Sam Claflin, Bill Nighy, Eloise Little, Ewan Horrocks
What it’s about: A forensic psychologist investigates cold-case murders after returning to his family home following the death of his father.
The Forsytes — Channel 5
Top cast: Eleanor Tomlinson, Jack Davenport, Stephen Moyer, Tuppence Middleton, Francesca Annis, Jamie Flatters, and Susan Hampshire
What it’s about: Epic tale of sex, money and power across three generations of an upper class family.
Boston Blue — CBS
Top cast: Donnie Wahlberg, Sonequa Martin-Green, Ernie Hudson
What it’s about: Danny Reagan joins Boston PD from NYPD and partners with Detective Lena Peters, the oldest daughter of a notable Boston law enforcement family.
Sheriff Country — CBS
Top cast: Morena Baccarin, W. Earl Brown, Matt Lauria, and Christopher Gorham
What it’s about: Mickey Fox, a straight-shooting sheriff in the small rural town of Edgewater, Calif., and stepsister of Cal Fire’s division chief Sharon Leone, must balance the demands of law enforcement with the complexities of motherhood, community politics and a past that won’t stay buried.
New Movies
A House of Dynamite — Netflix
Top cast: Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Gabriel Basso, Jared Harris, Tracy Letts, Anthony Ramos, Moses Ingram
What it’s about: Radars at Fort Greely, Alaska, detect a nuclear missile. The president and his entourage must use the limited time they have to try to shoot down the missile before it reaches Chicago.
The Hand That Rocks The Cradle — Hulu
Top cast: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Maika Monroe
What it’s about: A suspenseful and seductive psychological thriller that reimagines the film and unravels the illusion of domestic bliss with chilling precision. In the psychological thriller from director Michelle Garza Cervera, an upscale suburban mom brings a new nanny into her home, only to discover she is not the person she claims to be.
The Elixir — Netflix
Top cast: Mikha Tambayong, Eva Celia Latjuba, Donny Damara, Marthino Lio
What it’s about: An elixir unleashes the undead in a village. A family at odds with one another must unite and fight to survive as their hometown collapses.
That’s the TV listings newsletter for this week.
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