Earth Abides, on MGM+

Considered the granddaddy of environmentally-themed end-of-the-world novels, George R. Stewart’s pandemic epic was also inducted into the libertarian Prometheus Hall of Fame. Yet, it was only previously adapted for the radio (starring John Dehner). Seventy-five years-plus after it was originally published, the doomsday disease scenario obviously lands differently. Regardless, life must go on for the few people still left alive, in creator Todd Komarnicki’s six-episode Earth Abides, which premieres tomorrow on MGM+.

Geologist Ish was on a rock-hunting expedition when he was bitten by a rattlesnake. He partially extracts the venom, but for days, he fitfully slips in and out of consciousness. When he finally comes to, he finds civilization has fallen, much like Rick Grimes in The Walking Dead, or Bill Masen in The Day of the Triffids. (By the way, Ish’s mother named him after Christopher Isherwood, not Ish Kabibble.)

Ish’s first encounter with survivors turns out to be quite depressing. Appropriately, it happens in Las Vegas, stirring up memories of The Stand, which Stephen King readily concedes was partly inspired by Stewart’s novel. Frankly, the scene is so bad, he figures he might as well head home, but on the way, he chances across Lucky, a very good dog, who will be his loyal companion for years.

Next, he comes across Emma, who is special. Like the woman he previously encountered, she also lost a child, but she is mentally stronger. She is also quite resourceful, especially when it comes to hunting and gardening. Since they sort of are the last man and woman in the world, they start building their new family and community in Ish’s San Lupo Drive neighborhood.

Despite Ish’s reservations, Emma leaves instructions for how other survivors might find them—and some do. The first few turn out well, but Charlie and his band of wanderers are a different matter. They charm most of the San Lupo residents, but Ish and the audience can tell Charlie is a vicious sociopath.

Clearly, Komarnicki has had a busy month, considering Earth Abides releases less than two weeks after the opening of Bonhoeffer, which both attest to his interesting taste in source material. Frankly, there are many competing takeaways viewers could glean from his adaptation of Stewart, beyond the environmental implications. Some might see Charlie’s invasion and exploitation of survivor communities as an analogy for either illegal immigration or colonization. However, one thing is undeniably in the world of San Lupo: gun ownership is absolutely necessary for survival.

Throughout the series, Komarnicki and directors Bronwen Hughes, Stephen S. Campanelli (Momentum, Grand Isle), and Rachel Leiterman maintain a good deal of tension, while showing the passage of years and even decades. Komarnicki and his writing team tinker with many of the details of Stewart’s original story, but they stay quite faithful to his original conception of Ish’s character.

ADIFF ’24: Joe Bullet

According to hiis theme song: “He’s the man, the man who fights evil. He’s the man, the man who fights crime. He’s the man nobody can tie down.” Maybe the band credited as “Silver Threads” does not go as far as Isaac Hayes did describing John Shaft as a “sex machine” and a “bad mother,” but they clearly went for a similar vibe. Yet, this is not just another blaxploitation movie. It was the first South African-produced film featuring an all-black cast. Suppressed shortly after its 1973 premiere, it has been recently “rediscovered” (hardly forgotten, it spawned a1982 sequel) and freshly restored. Over fifty years later, Louis de Witt’s Joe Bullet returns to the big screen as a selection of the 2024 African Diaspora International Film Festival in New York.

South African must have a rough-and-tumble football tradition. considering ANC-breakaway politician Mosiuoa Lekota is still affectionately nicknamed “Terror” from his time on the pitch. However, the tactics unleashed against the Eagles club are beyond acceptable bounds. Fortunately, the Eagles president knows Joe Bullet, a very Shaft-like detective, because gangsters targeted his two best players, Jerry and Flash, trying to strong-arm them into switching to the Falcons club, right before the rematch of the Cup championship.

Obviously, Bullet must protect them, while lending a hand as a replacement for the trainer killed during the prologue. Of course, Bullet’s alpha-manliness inadvertently complicates matters when Jerry’s sort of girlfriend Beauty, the club president’s daughter, inevitably falls for the detective.

Sure, Joe Bullet is a derivative low-budget exploitation movie, but it is solidly enjoyable on those terms alone. However, it also represents some significant South African cultural history. It is recognized as the first South African film of its kind. Frankly, some reasonable, free-thinking Western viewers might be baffled by the censorship of the film, because it makes absolutely no political statements, explicit or implied. Presumably, the Apartheid government simply considered a black hero of Bullet’s strength, stature, and pride to represent a threat.

Still, lead actor Ken Gampu went on to become a trailblazing South African movie star (despite his weird open-palmed, slightly Gumpish running style). Gampu co-starred in two Golan-Globus Cannon films, King Solomon’s Mines and American Ninja 4: The Annihilation, as well as the breakout art-house hit The Gods Must Be Crazy, all which qualifies him as legendary.

ADIFF ’24: Far from the Nile

The prospect of war between Egypt and Ethiopia is well within the realm of possibility, all because of the Nile and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. The strategic value of water cannot be over-estimated. It is not the new oil. Rather oil was the new water—almost. However, this ensemble of musicians hopes the Nile can connect them rather than divide them. Despite differing cultures and nationalities, their styles are quite compatible. Nevertheless, the usual stress of touring might undermine some of their bridge-building in Sherief Elkatsha’s documentary, Far from the Nile, which screens as a selection of the 2024 African Diaspora International Film Festival in New York.

The Nile Project is a musical nonprofit actively working with musicians in eleven nations based along the Nile. Their big showcase is a multi-national touring ensemble designed to set a musical example for transnational cross-cultural cooperation. In 2017, they embarked on a 100-day American tour, which would be even be grueling for top acts traveling by charter planes and limousines. The Nile Project was booked into Motel 6’s, but they would up meeting some typical Americans that way.

The Nile Project musicians do not play Afrobeat or Highlife, but fans of successful crossover African musicians should still feel at home with their percussive rhythms. Inevitably, set-list inclusion often became a sore point of contention. Ironically, one of the best tunes of the film, a feature spot for Ethiopian vocalist Selamnesh Zemene, was almost cut because the musicians were struggling with communication and the rhythm.

At least twice, emergency group meetings were called. Kenyan percussionist Kasiva Mutua sort calls out some of her colleagues when she suggests some of group (including her) consider the tour a mission, whereas others see it as just another gig.

The Seed of the Sacred Fig, in The Epoch Times

Filmed in secret and edited in exile, dissident-filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof's THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG is a brilliant indictment of the Iranian regime. It is also a visceral family thriller and the best film of the year. EPOCH TIMES exclusive review up here.

Justice League Dark, Coming to Tubi

If there is an asteroid or a kaiju threatening Earth, the Justice League can handle it. Dark magic is a trickier business. Fortunately, Marvel’s Dr. Strange does not have a monopoly on magical superheroing. However, Batman must look outside to League to recruit several specialized “consultants,” including John Constantine, Zatanna, and Deadman, to stop an evil mystical force in Jay Oliva’s Justice League Dark, one of several animated DC films coming to Tubi this Saturday.

Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman have all encountered several otherwise law-abiding citizens committing heinous violent crimes, while claiming to be defending themselves from demonic monsters. Unfortunately, this epidemic is magical in origin, but Batman is skeptical, until Boston Brand, a.k.a. Deadman, sends him an unsubtle message, suggesting he seek out Constantine.

Of course, the comic and animated Constantine is considerably more British than Keanu Reeves. He might even be more difficult to deal with. Fortunately, he quickly enlists Zatanna, the magician with actual magical powers, who helps moderate the supernatural detective’s prickliness. Constantine also helps facilitate communication by casting a spell allowing Batman to see Deadman, the deceased acrobat granted the ability to possess bodies.

Together, they take a wild tour of DC’s occult underbelly, starting with Alec Holland, a.k.a. Swamp Thing, who would obviously be quite an informed source regarding happenings in Gotham and Metropolis. Frankly, it is not always clear how all the dots connect (or if they even do) in JLD, which is somewhat ironic, since it is an original story rather than an attempt to condense a multi-issue story-arc into less than 90 minutes.

However, it is highly entertaining to watch DC’s darker heroes “assemble.” Clearly, JLD must be fun, since it was the first animated DC film to carry an R-rating. Even if the causal relations are murky, it is very cool to watch them plum the occult depths, which Oliva and the animators render with surprising clarity. The fiercely materialistic Batman (voiced with utter dead seriousness by Jason O’Mara) makes a perfect skeptical foil, due to the darkness of his soul.

Indeed, Zatanna’s stock has risen considerably since its release (at least in the LCS world). Fans will also appreciate hearing Constantine’s English snarkiness, the way his creators intended, but those who really dig the film will be happy to hear Jeremy Davies reprising his role as Constantine’s creepy friend Ritchie Simpson.

JLA Adventures: Trapped in Time, Coming Soon to Tubi

Val Armorr was the original “Karate Kid,” predating the 1984 movie by almost twenty years, from the 31^st Century. The member of the futuristic Legion of Superheroes was never a marque DC character. Presumably, that is why they never litigated the title (for which they were thanked in the credits). Unfortunately, Armorr makes a real dog’s breakfast of things in the future, causing trouble for the Justice League in the past at the outset of Giancarlo Volpe’s JLA Adventures: Trapped in Time, another animated DC film coming to Tubi this Saturday.

In the present, for now, the Justice League foils an attempt by the Legion of Doom to counter-intuitively build up the polar ice cap, to profit from the resulting environmental disruption. Unfortunately, Lex Luthor is buried within the ice, where he remains lost until the 31^st Century.

In the future, Karate Kid and Dawnstar, a more responsible prospective member of the Legion of Superheroes gawk at his display in the superhero museum. Unable to control his rash impulses, Armorr accidentally releases Luthor from the ice. The dangers compound when the mastermind steals a cosmic hourglass bound to the mysterious Time Trapper.

Using the Time Trapper’s powers, Luthor first returns to the present, with Karate Kid and Dawnstar secretly following him. He then sends Bizarro, Solomon Grundy, Cheetah, and Toy Master back to the past, so they can send Kal-El back into space. The Flash, Cyborg, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman manage to follow them—but maybe Aquaman isn’t perfectly suited for the Kansas terrain.

Unlike the R-rated Justice League Dark, Trapped in Time tries to deliberately evoke the tone of the 1970’s Justice League/Super Friends Saturday morning cartoons. However, screenwriter Michael Ryan offers some clever time travel twists. In fact, it is much smarter in the way it handles potential time paradoxes than the 2001 Justice League series.

Made in England, on TCM

Two decades before Merchant and Ivory started collaborating, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger were the first great hyphenated filmmaking duo. They wrote, directed, and produced some of the best British films of all time—and then they largely disappeared. However, Martin Scorsese and several of his contemporaries (notably including Francis Ford Coppola) re-popularized their films with cineastes. Of course, Scorsese knows everything about every classic movie ever produced, but he also knew Powell personally. Technically, David Hinton is the director, but Scorsese’s voice dominates as the on-camera presenter-host of Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger, which airs again on TCM this Saturday.

Powell started in the film business working on silent productions helmed by Rex Ingram, whose epic style Scorsese identifies as a formative influence on the director. He honed his skills churning out B-movies, but finally gained prominence when he started collaborating with Pressburger, an exiled German screenwriter.

With 49^th Parallel, they immediately demonstrated their affinity for wartime “propaganda” films. Yet, they spent much of their accumulated good will on the controversially satiric The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp soon thereafter. The output from their partnership followed a yo-yo pattern of ups and downs. However, many of the “downs,” such as The Red Shoes, are now considered classics, while some of the “ups,” like The Battle of the River Plate (a.k.a. Pursuit of the Graf Spee), which were hits upon their initial release, have been overshadowed by their grand spectacles.

Tellingly, Hinton quotes a Puritanical review of from The Daily Worker, dismissing Powell’s late-career solo masterpiece Peeping Tom, huffing: “I was shocked to the core to find a director of his standing befouling the screen with such perverted nonsense.” Evidently, the Communist newspaper’s cinematic judgement holds up just as well as its ill-informed economic analysis.

DC Showcase: The Losers

They are DC’s original Losers. While the Losers depicted in their Vertigo imprint (and the not particularly successful 2010 movie) waged war on the CIA, the real Losers fought America’s enemies during WWII. It was never fun or glamorous—hence their nickname. Their latest mission gets even tougher when they take a detour to the island from DC’s The War that Time Forgot comic in Milo Neuman’s DC Showcase: The Losers, featuring burly Sarge, whose in-world birthday is reportedly on this day (11/26).

Of course, the Losers would have bad weather and unexpected incoming fire for their mission accompanying Chinese Special Agent Fan Long to an undisclosed location in the South Pacific. Captain Johnny Cloud instinctively distrusts her, despite his attraction to her. After enemy forces sink their ship, she assures them there will be a plane for them to commandeer on Dinosaur Island.

Obviously, the natives are more dangerous than the Losers could possibly expect. Yet, Agent Fan is not so surprised. In fact, she is downright merciless dealing with both the humans and dinosaurs they find there—even the big herbivores, which does not sit well with Cloud’s Navajo values. Ming-Na Wen nicely expresses that deadly femme fatale ruthlessness in her voice-over performance.

DC Showcase’s Losers short was a bit of an outlier when it came out (considering how desperately DC and Marvel courted Chinese censors), because it shows the Chinese character as the one with a reckless disregard for life. She also fanatically adheres to her orders, while the American Losers are the ones considering the ethical implications of their actions.

Spellbound, in Cinema Daily US

SPELLBOUND is harmless and features some appealing, kid-friendly critters, but it is not an especially distinctive animated fantasy realm. CINEMA DAILY US review up here.

Devon, on Screambox

If you know smart people, you write about smart people. If you are familiar with the associates of Jenni Farley, a.k.a. “JWoww” on The Jersey Shore, it rather follows that her characters make spectacularly bad decisions. To make matters worse, they appear in a horror movie. The found footage sub-genre finds its weakest premise yet in director-screenwriter-executive producer Farley’s Devon, which premieres tomorrow on Screambox.

First of all, Farley earns some credit for playing it straight. There is no big hair or cringy horniness in Devon. However, the internal logic is a mess. Supposedly, the well-heeled parents of the missing Devon (now 34 years of age, if still alive), contacted five desperate people, asking them to investigate and document (with the video cameras recording the footage to be found at a later date) the abandoned asylum where she was once committed.

Savvy viewers might be wondering what the anonymous parents hope to find in the crumbling, graffiti-tarred building and why didn’t they hire professional investigators in the first place? However, the not-so Fab Five never thought to ask. They just need money, for reasons that will mostly be revealed. As a result, Kat Rose, Jared Stevens, and Carly Carmichael are somewhat better delineated as characters than those in your average ultra-low budget found footage movie.

Allison Roberts, who we see struggling to explain herself during her in media res police interview, is kept mysterious for the sake of third acts surprises. That leaves William Edwards, whose shticky over-the-top diva behavior gets to be a lot.

Herrhausen: The Banker and the Bomb, on MHz Choice

Lenin infamously wrote: “the capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them.” Alfred Herrhausen wanted to loan the Soviets the money to pay for the rope. How very German of him, as Angela Merkel would surely agree. For his efforts, he was assassinated by the Red Army Faction (RAF). The banker’s final two years leading up to the assassination are dramatized in the four-part secular passion play, Herrhausen: The Banker and the Bomb, which premieres Tuesday on MHz Choice.

Herrhausen loved to be the banker people hate bankers loved. He first alarmed American banks by calling for international forgiveness of third world debt. He then alarmed American and British intelligence services with his plan to float billions in loans to the Soviet Union.

The banker saw it as an opportunity to secure a stranglehold on the Soviet market, once Perestroika reforms were successfully enacted. He also saw it as an opportunity to propel Germany into a leadership position in the EU, building it into an economic and diplomatic force that would upset the bipolar world order, at America’s expense.

Apparently, according to series writer Thomas Wendrich, Helmut Kohl shared this vision. Of course, the CIA Officer caricatures (like David Hunt, played by the very British Harry Michell) were losing control of their bladder control functions. Yet, despite his “progressive” concern for the Third World, the RAF still marked him for death, because he was still a capitalist. Despite their grisly history, the RAF found themselves down on their luck in the late 1980s. However, their Palestinian hosts in Syria slowly help hatch a plan to get them back to committing violent atrocities again.

As Herrhausen helps Kohl navigate American and NATO resistance to their Soviet overtures, he battles his Deutsch Bank board to pass a plan giving him greater centralized command over branches. Evidently progressivism was fine everywhere but his boardroom.

Wendrich essentially presents Herrhausen as a prophet, but his record is rather spotty. For one thing, he never anticipated the fall of the USSR. He just assumed Perestroika would work and Gorbachev would be their guy. He also argued the 1989 Stock Market crash would lead to the de-dollarization of the world economy. Perhaps the one thing he got right was his skepticism of unified European currency, arguing the persistent economic dysfunction of countries like Italy would lead to monetary headaches for all member states. He had a point there. Remember Greece and the other PIIGS?

Given the subtitle, Wendrich does not allow series Pia Strietmann much room to build suspense, since we know right from the beginning how it will all end. However, it certainly offers proof of lead actor Olive Masucci’s versatility. In recent years he has convincingly portrayed both Herrhausen and hedonistic filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder in Enfant Terrible, two extremely dissimilar Germans.

Porcelain War: Ukrainian Artists Documenting Their Resistance

Slava Leontyev is an enemy of Putin’s blood-thirsty Z thugs in two ways. He is a soldier defending his Ukrainian homeland against an Imperialistic invasion and an artist preserving Ukrainian art against a cultural genocide. Collaborating with his wife, he has created remarkable porcelain figurines. Working for the first time as a filmmaker, he now documents the atrocities of Putin’s war as they happen in Porcelain War, co-directed by Brendan Bellomo & Leontyev, which is now playing in New York.

The art Leontyev makes with his childhood friend, art school classmate, and life-partner Anya Stasenko combines Ukrainian tradition with their own whimsical sensibilities. Figurines like their dragonlings are ornately decorated, but their shapes and expressions are quite appealing, even cute. Not surprisingly, their figurines have become moral boosting mascots for Leontyev’s “Saigon” Unit, who specialize in dangerous missions in compromised territory.

Porcelain also serves as a rather clever national metaphor for Leontyev and Stasenko. As a material, it easily breaks, but can withstand extreme heat and easily restores if it is buried for centuries. The aptness of the comparison to Ukraine is obvious, especially as we watch the Saigon Unit taking fire, as the fight their way towards wounded infantrymen needing medical assistance.

The third focal artist is Andrey Stefano, the couple’s closest friend. Until Putin’s unprovoked invasion, Stefano worked as a painter, but he shifted his focused to filmmaking to document the horrific events unfolding around him. Almost all the footage was filmed by the primaries, but Stefano has the sole cinematographer credit. Obviously, he too understands art’s role as a method of resistance and bearing witness. Yet, his primary concern is always his two daughters, whom he managed to safely shuttle out of the country.

Whiteout: Russian Occupational Hazards

If you are an American who still works abroad in Russia or China, here is a simple question: are you out of your mind? After seeing how both regimes practice hostage diplomacy, with victims like Paul Whelan, do you really believe it couldn’t happen to you? That is what Henry thought, until gunmen took his entire office hostage. They are probably Russian mob rather than proper government officials, but what’s the difference, really? Woefully out of shape Henry stands a poor chance of survival, so he readily agrees to an escape attempt, but it turns into a case of out-of-the-frying-pan-and-into-the-fire in Derek Barnes’ Whiteout, which releases today on VOD.

Their captors intend to ransom Henry and his co-workers for ransom, but until their relatives pay-up, they labor like slaves in a Siberian factory. When the gang-leader recruits Henry for some office work, it makes him valuable to Kurt and Anthony, two hardened longtime inmates, with an escape plan requiring his help. Despite the risk, his boss Thomas advises him to go for it, because staying there most likely results in death.

Unfortunately, his partners in escape had their geography somewhat mixed-up, which means they have a hard trek ahead of them. Things really get awkward when they are joined by two other Russian fugitives, including the one who tried to give Henry the prison shower-room treatment. However, it turns out he should be more afraid of Kurt and Anthony. Not to be spoilery, but they eventually admit they recruited Henry precisely because he was so overweight.

Whiteout might be a low-budget production, but it is brutally effective. Give credit to Barne and co-star-co-screenwriters James McDougall and Douglas Nyback credit. They never shy away from the grisly implications of their sinister premise. This is a tough little film, whose reputation will likely grow over time.

Flow, in Cinema Daily US

FLOW is a beast fable that takes on almost Biblical dimensions as it follows a rag-tag group of animals drifting on the currents of an apocalyptic flash-flood on their sailboat sanctuary. One of the best animated films of the year, it deserves Academy Award consideration in both the Animated and Internaational categories. CINEMA DAILY US film review up here.

Blitz, on Apple TV+

Most Americans cannot imagine what it was like in London during the Blitz and simply couldn’t handle living under such a constant threat of death. There is one nation that can identify with survivors of the Blitz—Israel, a nation that endured ceaseless suicide bombings well before October 7^th. To a degree, viewers get a taste of the crushing enormity of the National Socialists’ indiscriminate bombardment in director-screenwriter Steve McQueen’s Blitz, which premieres tomorrow on Apple TV+.

After watching the first ten minutes of Blitz, it is easy to understand why Rita Hanway secured a place for her son George aboard one of the last trains evacuating children to the countryside. However, he resents his single mother supposedly unloading him, so his parting words are terrible. Yet, he will probably better understand her reluctant decision after the events he will witness during the film.

Indeed, he feels rather guilty once the train steams away, so he soon hops off, to make his way back to her. Of course, the journey hopping rails hobo-style would be rather unsafe, even under ordinary circumstances. With the Luftwaffe carpet-bombing the East End, it is downright perilous. Even when he makes it back to London, the dangers are not over, especially when Albert’s Dickensian gang of corpse and bombsite looters get their claws into him.

Meanwhile, as Ms. Hanway pines for her son and his Caribbean immigrant father, whose life might have been ironically saved when the authorities deported him, she is drawn to the socialist preachings of the leader of a makeshift alternate bomb-shelter.

There are huge set-pieces in Blitz that are nothing short of brilliant. The opening prologue is truly jaw-dropping and a later sequence, showing Ken “Snakehips” Johnson’s final performance up until and past the point a German bomb falls on the swanky night where he was performing is probably even more devastating.

Weirdly, Blitz probably would have been stronger if McQueen had de-emphasized the narrative and concentrated on the viscerally tactile recreations of the devastation unleashed on London. There are images in this film that are truly unforgettable.

On the other hand, the mother-son melodrama comes across as forced and even rather contrived, in comparison. Plus, McQueen’s attempts at class-conscious social commentary ring with pettiness, given the wider circumstances. Frankly, in both cases, the dialogue sounds rather wooden.

Arguably, Blitz would have been a much better film if it talked less and showed more. Young Elliott Heffernan is very strong throughout the film, but McQueen’s decisions only truly let him shine in a handful of gem-like scenes. One standout example would be his late-night encounter with Ife, a sympathetic air-raid warden of West African descent, played with aching sensitivity by Benjamin Clementine. His relatively small supporting performance is absolutely beautiful and a highlight of Blitz.

DC Showcase: Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth!

His world was conceived as an “homage” to Planet of the Apes when Marvel beat out DC for the license. Yet, his comic book outlasted the competing tie-in series, because Jack Kirby created such an appealing character. Fittingly, many of the story elements that made the original comic book popular are incorporated into Matt Peters’ animated short, DC Showcase: Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth!, which makes suitable way to mark his reported in-world birthday today (11/21).

On this multi-verse Earth, “The Great Disaster” led to the near complete extinction of humanity, leaving the new mutant animal-people to rule the planet. Kamandi survived, because his grandfather safely secured him inside the “Command D” life-support pod (the source of his name), where he taught the young boy the necessary skills to navigate the hostile new world, before his unfortunate demise.

Now on his own, Kamandi forged friendships with some of the animal-hominids, particularly Prince Tuftan of the Tiger Empire, whom he tries to save from the Ape-like people. Shrewdly, screenwriter Paul Giacoppo gives viewers the Planet of the Apes (dig that Statue of Liberty) fix that was the original comic book’s reason for being.

Unfortunately, Kamandi will soon need saving himself. Ben Boxer, the augmented cyborg, who still counts as one of the few humans in Kamandi’s world, tries to get the job done, but all three find themselves forced to participate in the apes’ bizarre ritual.

The Complete and Utter History of Britain, on BritBox

Who wouldn't be thrilled to get a “new” Arthurian-themed Monty Python sketch? In a way, this show sort of has one. Roughly ten months before the premiere of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Michael Palin and Terry Jones collaborated on this silly historical spoof series, very much in the vein of Mel Brooks’ History of the World. For years, only two of the six episodes were thought to survive, in poor condition. However, the tapes of the entire series were recently rediscovered and restored, so The Complete and Utter History of Britain can now premiere today on BritBox.

Compared to Python, the early series was far less consistent. Clearly, the Pythons (when not feuding) brought out the best in each other, sharpening their collective material. As cruel fate would have it, for years, the first episode, one of the two previously available, happened to be the weakest of the lot. The best bit was indeed the Arthurian sketch, in which a Knight of the Roundtable must submit voluminous bureaucratic paperwork, before saving a damsel from a monster. The tribute to the grievously overlooked year of 1065 is also a somewhat clever idea.

Yet, fate also provided, because the second instalment, which was also previously available, is one of the better of the six-episode run. Surprisingly, character actor Wallas Eaton’s posthumous stock should rise with the rediscovery of the series. He earns consistent laughs, such as his portrayal as a royal food-taster. You can surely guess where it is headed, but it is still funny.

This episode features several as-if “TV commercials” from 1189 that are quite funny, but could move the professionally offended to apoplexy. It is important to note, they are satirizing the attitudes of the Dark Ages, rather than endorsing them, but context means little to the woke. The portrayal of Robin Hood as part social worker and part gangster also still has bite and cultural relevance.

Arguably, Eaton again supplies the highlight of episode three, appearing as Richard III, pretending to be the Princes’ new babysitter. Perhaps the most Python-esque sketch comes in episode four, when the bicycle-riding, accordion-playing, baguette-wielding French Army uses their peculiarly French weapons and tactics to defeat the English at 1557 Calais. Seriously, there is no greater Python tradition than mocking the smelly French.

Episode five provides a perfect example of the Python approach to drag that scolds will surely deem “problematic.” In this case, Palin portrays Queen Elizabeth, demonstrating how she successfully scared away her suitors. Of all the drag bits in Complete and Utter, this is probably the best, so now feel free to proceed with your meltdown.

Perhaps the funniest section of this episode is the Chopping Block talk show, in which the latest state executions are analyzed by the guest experts, but younger viewers who probably have not seen the “public affairs” broadcasts it emulates, likely will not fully appreciate it. Yet, for Python fans, Palin’s best scene probably comes in the sixth episode, when he gives an appropriately arrogant monologue in persona of King James I.

Ironically, throughout the series, the biggest laughs come from the disdainful host, Colin Gordon, who makes no secret of his contempt for the show’s incompetence, especially the resident historian, Professor Weaver. Fans of The Prisoner will recognize him as one of the few Number Twos who made a repeat appearance. Number Six got the better of him in “A, B, or C” by taking control of his drug induced dreams, but he had his revenge in “The General,” the super-computer episode. It turns out Gordon was also hilarious, in a bone-dry way.

Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin., from Angel Studios

Dietrich Bonhoeffer is one of the most influential theologians of the 20^th Century. He was also one of the most important leaders of the German resistance to Hitler. This was not an ironic coincidence. His religious studies directly forged the convictions that compelled him to defy the National Socialists. That causal connection is explored in-depth throughout director-screenwriter Todd Komarnicki’s biopic, Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin, from Angel Studios, which opens Friday in theaters.

Komarnicki starts way back when Bonhoeffer was a boy in short-pants, as biopics often do, but in his case, they were lederhosen. However, there is good reason to show the young Bonhoeffer grieving his beloved older brother’s death in WWI. We also see his rigid, upright father Karl starting to question Germany’s militant propaganda. Flashing forward several years, we find Bonhoeffer a bright seminarian, studying abroad in Harlem, where he discovers jazz and the charismatic preaching style of Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Sr. His American friend Frank Fisher also introduces him to both racial injustice and the organized campaign to defeat it.

Altogether, Bonhoeffer receives quite an education that convinces him the staid German Lutheran Church needs something like another Reformation, to reconnect it to the common people. However, when he finally returns home, he discovers his church is even worse than he remembers it. In his absence, the German Lutheran establishment has been thoroughly coopted by the Nazis, whose approved priests literally spew propaganda from the pulpit.

When the prodigal seminarian rises his homecoming sermon, Bonhoeffer gives a fiery condemnation of what he justly describes as militant blasphemy. Obviously, it is a Rubicon-crossing moment for him, but also for his friend, Pastor Martin Niemoller, who will soon top Bonhoeffer’s sermon with his own blistering indictment. Soon thereafter, the Gestapo arrests Niemoller, launching Bonhoeffer’s career as an underground organizer, international consciousness-raiser (or truth-telling propagandist), and Resistance collaborator.

Admittedly, the “Spy” and “Assassin” parts of the subtitle greatly overstate matters, but they are highly marketable buzz-words. “Pastor. Rebel. Martyr” probably would have been more accurate. Regardless, Komarnicki deserves some sort of honor for staging what most the top two most electrifying homilies ever immortalized on film. Ironically, even though this film tells Bonhoeffer’s story, the quote many viewers will recognize will be Niemoller’s “First they came for…” poem.

Fortunately, both Jonas Dassler and August Diehl do the words of Bonhoeffer and Niemoller full justice. Dassler’s slow-building performance aptly suits the film, because his scholarly reserve steadily blossoms into a rather forceful, if still bookish, charisma. Likewise, Diehl nicely portray the guilt-driven zeal of Niemoller.

Moritz Bleibtrau’s unshowy supporting turn as Karl Bonhoeffer might be overlooked by many less-thorough critics, but it is quite poignant in subtly quiet ways. Plus, Clarke Peters adds a lot of old school religious energy as Rev. Powell. However, all the National Socialists are rather undistinguishable and interchangeable. Perhaps Komarnicki did not want to elevate any of Bonhoeffer’s tormentors, but the film would benefit from a stronger antagonistic figure.

Night is not Eternal, in the Epoch Times

The HBO documentary NIGHT IS NOT ETERNAL is flawed, mostly as a result of the filmmaker's own biases, but it is still a timely reminder of the brutality endured by dissident Cuban democracy activists. EPOCH TIMES review up here.

Night Court: The Judge’s Boyfriend’s Dad

This is New York, so the idea of recruiting prosecutors out of prison is not so far-fetched for Alvin Bragg. They say our courts have a revolving door. That has been especially true for the Night Court franchise. Everyone remembers Markie Post from the original series, but they went through two prior public defenders before she took over the role. Losing a prosecutor should be nothing out of the ordinary for the reboot-continuation series. However, curmudgeonly public defender Dan Fielding will be a little freaked out by his new rival. As a possible consolation, he might discover a new son he never knew he had in “The Judge’s Boyfriend’s Dad, Part 1 & 2,” the two-part season premiere of showrunner Dan Rubin’s Night Court, airing tomorrow and next Tuesday on NBC.

A lot has changed since the first season. In addition to the new prosecutor, Judge Abby Stone also has a new clerk and a new boyfriend. In most respects, they are all trade-ups. India de Beaufort got a lot of laughs as Olivia, the self-absorbed, uber-aggressive ADA. However, her replacement is Wendie Malick, who played Fielding’s former stalker-tormentor Julianne Walters. Yes, she was sent to prison in a previous episode. Welcome to New York City.

Nyambi Nyambi also mines more humor from the clerk’s position than his predecessor. Plus, recuring Gary Anthony Williams often feels like a throwback to the old school Night Court (which is a good thing), as Flobert, a former judge who often subs in the various Night Court positions (which have had several vacancies) and just generally like to hang out and kvetch. He is going to have plenty of gossip, because Judge Abby suspects her boyfriend Jake might be Fielding’s secret illegitimate son, for reasons she explains in the eccentric opening prologue to “Part 1.”

True to form, the naïve do-gooding Stone agonizes over how to broach her supposition with both men. On the other hand, Flobert and Gurgs the bailiff offer plenty of suggestions for invasive DNA tests, which Stone will eventually go along with, for her own personal reasons.

Of course, the best scenes of this two-parter focus on Walters’ cat-and-mouse sparring with Fielding. She has the edge this series needs, since it has gone out of its way to tame Fielding. Walters also outmaneuvers Gurgs as well, when they clash over smoking on the fire-escape, which is solidly relatable workplace material.

Hyper-sensitivity will be the death of the sitcom genre, but the new shows like St. Denis Medical and Animal Control are not giving up without a fight. Frankly, it is still unclear whether Rubin and his fellow writers intend to join the battle or surrender, but at least their writing for Malick shows some signs of life.

Ghost Cat Anzu, in Cinema Daily US

GHOST CAT ANZU features an endearingly mischievious Yokai cat who will keep younger viewers laughing. but older animation fans will also appreciate his bizarre fantastical misadventures, which are indeed wonderfullly weird. CINEMA DAILY US review up here.

Gladiator II, Ridley Scott Returns to the Colosseum

The Romans built some astounding aqueducts, but nobody cares. We’re just interested in the bloodsport of the Colosseum and the hedonism of their bacchanals. Viewers should be happy to hear Ridley Scott’s sequel to his Oscar-winning Gladiator is an aqueduct-free zone, but it has plenty of the other stuff. Politically, Rome has gone from bad to worse, but it retains its military might. However, an enslaved warrior like Lucius could prove Rome’s downfall in Scott’s Gladiator II, which opens Friday pretty much everywhere.

Marcus Acacius is a loyal general of Rome, so he conquers the North African kingdom of Numidia as his twin Emperors ordered, even though the carnage sickens him. Of course, the captured Lucius cannot see his inner turmoil, just his commanding presence, so he vows vengeance against Acacius as his proxy for the Roman Empire.

Macrinus happily promises Lucius the opportunity for payback sometime in the future. The former slave turned powerbroker recognizes the value of Lucius’s anger as the star attraction of his stable of gladiators. He also has his own reasons for wishing misfortune on Acacius.

As fate would have it, Acacius is the current lover of Lucilla, the daughter of the late Marcus Aurelius, Rome’s last decent emperor. Her former lover, Maximus Decimus Meridius (a.k.a. Russell Crowe) sacrificed himself to protect her son Lucius Verus from her brother, the tyrannical Emperor Commodus. Of course, as soon as Lucilla sees Macrinus’s Lucius, she knows he is her Lucius.

As bad as Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) was, the mad co-emperors Geta and Caracalla are even worse. Rome would be much better off if Acacius, Lucilla, and distinguished elder statesmen like Senator Gracchus (Derek Jacobi, the only other holdover from the first film) plot a successful revolt, but Macrinus conspires against them for his own perverse reasons, using Lucius as a pawn.

Thanks to Connie Nielsen’s return as Lucilla, Gladiator II should satisfy fans of the original film, by fulfilling the destiny of the child she gave up so much to protect. Ironically, those who have not seen the first film recently, might instead be struck by the similarities to Peacock’s Those About to Die. Both feature social climbers using their control of a gladiator faction to gain the trust of unhinged emperors, but in the streaming series, viewers are expected to root for the roguish Tanax, while Macrinus is flamboyantly but irredeemably villainous. (Coincidently, both productions also flood the Colosseum, forcing the gladiators to face off against sharks in special naval-themed spectacles.)

Frankly, Paul Mescal does a nice job filling Crowe’s sandals, but the real stars of Gladiator II are Nielsen and Denzel Washington as Lady Lucilla and devious Macrinus. She provides the apostolic connection to the first film, while conveying the classically tragic dimensions to her maternal woe, whereas Washington is just fun to watch.

Leonardo da Vinci, on PBS

He was like the Orson Welles of the Renaissance. Everyone knew he was brilliant, but he still had trouble finishing projects. Of course, he left behind enough to judge his genius—like the Mona Lisa. He led an eventful life, which is fortunate since he has already been the protagonist of fictional series from Starz and CW. Now the true Renaissance man becomes Ken Burns’ first non-American subject when the two-part Leonardo da Vinci (co-directed by Sasha Burns and David McMahon) premieres this Monday and Tuesday on PBS.

Yes, Leonardo was illegitimate, but the battery of historians and talking heads do a nice job explaining why that really wasn’t such a big deal at the time. Frankly, the same was true for his presumed sexuality in pre-Savonarola Florence. There is still a good deal of speculation regarding Leonardo’s life, particularly his early years, but the law firm-sounding trio of Burns, Burns, and McMahon do a nice job of covering all the periods of his life, from Vinci to Florence and then onto Milan and eventually France.

Logically, they focus and good deal on his work, particularly his sketches, codices, and scientific journals. Frankly, they make a convincing case Leonardo really was hundreds of years ahead of his time, especially with regards to his deductions regarding the structure and mechanics of the human heart.

Of course, it is also frustrating to hear about all the commissions he left incomplete or had canceled at the last minute. Arguably, they had to give “Vetruvian Man” roughly equal time as the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper, because that is what they had to work with.

The Creep Tapes, on Shudder

You cannot be a serial killer without the serial murders. Unfortunately, the psycho-killer who sometimes refers to himself as “Peachfuzz” has plenty of videotapes in his closet documenting his serial killer credentials. That means he has more than enough tapes to sustain a found-footage streaming series, but, sadly for the victims, they all essentially end the same way in co-creators Patrick Brice & Mark Duplass’s The Creep Tapes, which premieres today on Shudder.

Much like the films Creep and Creep 2, the first four episodes follow a familiar template. Peachfuzz (or whatever name he currently adopts) lures a prospective victim to his mountain home or another isolated location, where he plays mind-games with his prey, before finally moving in for the kill. It always seems very unfair, because they are usually just freelance videographers hustling to make a buck on Craigslist.

Creep 1 was distinguished by Duplass’s manic scenery chewing, while Creep 2 is particularly effective because you really believe his prospective victim might make it, because she is so unpredictable and Peachfuzz’s own neurotic hangups have become so pronounced. The ambiguous ending held the promise of a potentially intriguing Creep 3, but co-star Desiree Akhavan is absent from the series.

Fans will appreciate the show’s consistency with the look and tone of the films, but episodes 1, 3, and 4 (“Mike,” “Jeremy,” and “Brad”) are basically the same thing all over again, as the “Creep” invites someone with a video camera to his home. Seriously, how are there any freelance videographers left alive in his state? “Mike” is probably the most tightly executed and “Jeremy” adds an amusing wrinkle, wherein Duplass’s talky psycho cons a leftwing would-be YouTube muckraker into thinking he is a corrupt Catholic priest. Unfortunately, the formula really looks tired in “Brad,” the series low-point.

The second episode, “Elliot” is largely more of the above, but it is impressively staged. For this killing, PF posts reports of a rare bird sighting to lure the birder to the middle of nowhere. This is probably the best directed episode, all of which were helmed by Brice (and edited by Christopher Donlon, another holdover from the Creep movies).

Submitted By Ukraine: La Palisiada

1996 was a confusing transitional year for Ukraine. President Leonid Kuchma realigned Ukrainian foreign policy back towards Russia (but he has since turned against Putin after the 2022 Russian invasion). However, Ukraine had already agreed to abolish the death penalty, in order to conform to European standards. However, there is still time for one last execution. Nothing about the process will be pretty in director-screenwriter Philip Sotnychenko’s La Palisiada, Ukraine’s official Oscar submission for best international feature, which releases tomorrow on VOD.

There is an unsettling undercurrent of violence that occasionally erupts in La Palisiada, as when the long, confusing prologue culminates in apparently shocking murder. How this relates to Sotnychenko’s primary narrative (which, in itself, is rather ambiguously shaped) is not immediately clear (and it may never be). Eventually, a police detective and a forensic psychiatrist investigate the murder of their colleague. Perhaps not surprisingly, they focus in on a questionable suspect, whose mental and neurological capacities would surely be challenged in an American court.

La Palisiada is a challenging film to watch, in the worst sense of the expression. Sotnychenko’s deliberately obscure approach only grows more frustrating over time. Even the title will annoy viewers, because it is simply mentioned in passing as a “figure of speech,” the meaning of which is never explained. In this regard, Sotnychenko appears inspired by Cormeliu Porumboiu’s Pollice, Adjective (and other Romanian New Wave films), but Porumboiu’s intentions and references are always reasonably transparent.

The Other Side of Tomorrow, Graphic Novel

In 2013, life was hopeless in North Korean. It is even worse now. Starvation and oppression are just as omnipresent, but now draftees are essentially being sold as cannon-fodder for Putin’s imperial dreams. That is not the life Yunho’s mother (or Omma) wants for him. However, to escape, they must risk grave peril in Tina Cho’s graphic novel, The Other Side of Tomorrow, illustrated by Deb JJ Lee, which is now on-sale.

Somehow, Yunho’s mother “escaped” across the border to China, where she secretly works to raise money for her full escape with Yunho. He still lives with his grandmother (halmoni), but Yunho was forced to drop out of school, so he could scavenge for scrap metal fulltime to survive. In contrast, Myunghee lives entirely on her own, having lost all her family to starvation and the regime’s cruelty. Yet, the fates of the two North Korean children soon intertwine.

First, the cool-headed Myunghee saves Yunho from possibly betraying himself when the army sweeps them up amid a large crowd to witness the public execution of his Uncle Samchon. Fatefully. Yunho’s uncle had already arranged his passage across the river to China, where his Omma awaits. Myunghee also paid her way that far, using the last of her food.

Ominously, Myungheesoon finds herself sold into bondage to an elderly farming couple. However, when she makes her next “escape,” she comes face-to-face with Yunho, who reunited with his Omma. As the Korean Evangelical underground railroad plans the next leg of their journey, Omma temporarily “adopts” Myunghee. It will help Yunho to have someone to help care for his mother when she gets sick during the arduous trek. However, he also jealously resents Myunghee trying to share Omma’s affections.

If you saw the extraordinary documentary Beyond Utopia, you will understand the flight from North Korea is not simply one escape, but a series of dangerous escapes: first from the DPRK to the PRC, then from China to Laos, and finally to the reasonably safe Thailand, where the South Korean and American embassies offer asylum.

Cho captures the grueling nature of each leg. She also explicitly establishes the Evangelical Christian character of the rescuer network. Although the freedom seekers deal with a few mercenary traffickers, they are mostly helped by Christian volunteers, who risk their own lives and freedom to save North Korean defectors.

Cho vividly humanizes and personalizes their plight. Myunghee and Yunho are fully realized young characters, with believably messy pre-teen emotions. Adults will understand and forgive them, while the target 8-12 year-old audience will readily identify with them. As a result, Other Side of Tomorrow functions as an excellent introduction to North Korea and the general idea of repressive regimes to younger readers. Hopefully, someone can convince Marco Rubio to give Trump a copy.

Cross, on Prime Video

If the police get defunded, Alex Cross will be out of a job. He is keenly aware of that fact. Yet, he is also hyper-conscious of expectations placed on him, for reasons of identity politics. In fact, resentment of the police often makes his job much harder during this case. The implications could be tragic as the DC detective hunts a serial killer holding a woman captive in creator Ben Watkins’ eight-episode Cross, obviously based on James Patterson’s novels, which premieres tomorrow on Prime Video.

When a defund-the-police activist like Emir Goodspeed turns up dead, it becomes a media nightmare for politically conscious Chief Anderson. She wants Cross to sell the press on her premature verdict of drug overdose. Of course, Cross knows better. He just cannot believe the reformed Muslim addict relapsed with hard drugs, shaved his head, and then feasted on pork chops for a final meal.

Naturally, Goodspeed’s family is more than skeptical, but Cross becomes the focus of their anger and distrust. As a result, they will withhold a key piece of evidence that Cross needs. For him, it is not just about solving Goodspeed’s murder. He also quickly concludes the culprit is a serial killer they dub the “Fanboy,” who just abducted his latest victim. That would be Shannon Witmer, who unfortunately bears a very vague resemblance to one of history’s most notorious serial killers.

Frankly, Cross will key-in on his prime suspect relatively early, but he is no drifter. This time Cross must play a cat-and-mouse game with one of Washington’s most influential power-brokers. The Fanboy probably has sources within the DC police department, so Cross can only trust his closest associates, including his partner and best friend John Sampson (one of the few characters retained from the books, besides Cross’s family) and his FBI contact Kayla Craig. For extra added pressure, someone from Cross’s past has also been terrorizing the Crosses. Given the clues left behind, he reasonably concludes the stalker was involved in the unsolved murder of his wife Maria several years ago.

Unlike the Reacher series, Cross does not correlate to a specific Patterson novel, which must greatly annoy his publisher. There might be a few similarities with the like-titled Cross, but the crimes and perps are entirely different.

Still, Ryan Eggold portrays the Fanboy with such creepy viciousness, he should satisfy fans of early vintage Patterson, especially Kiss the Girls (the book more than the movie). Johnny Ray Gil also adds impressively villainous sleaze, as Bobby Trey, a flamboyant gangster, who is mixed up with the Fanboy. Watkins and the battery of co-writers also take the stalker subplot in an unexpected direction, chillingly played by the relevant cast-members (they telegraph the revelation early in the final episode, but before that, it is rather unexpected).

Bogart: Life Comes in Flashes

Nobody wore trench coats in movies better than Humphrey Bogart. Other actors also portrayed Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe, but they never escaped Bogart’s shadow. Years after his death, his persona still inspired such loyal fandom, there were several films about people trying to be him, like The Man with Bogart’s Face. You never heard about anyone trying to have Clark Gable’s face, even though it was considered more desirable. Filmmaker Kathryn Ferguson chronicles Bogart’s life, using his own words unearthed from unpublished letters and other largely unseen archival material, in Bogart: Life Comes in Flashes, which opens Friday in New York.

Any casual fan knows Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall were the first great Hollywood romance, rivaling Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. Yet, Bogart had three prior marriages, all to women of considerable fame. Ferguson and producer-co-writer Eleanor Emptage will fill in the rest of the story for a lot of fans. For instance, his first wife Helen Menken was a stage actress whose acclaim was on par with Katharine Cornell. Menken was even president of the American Theater Wing—twice.

Mary Philips maybe never quite achieved the fame of the other Ms. Bogarts, but she had a long career (which apparently Bogart believed she prioritized ahead of their marriage), including A Farewell to Arms in 1932. However, none of his marriages held as much drama as his third, to Mayo Methot. At the time, she was a star verging on superstardom, specializing in wild, flapperish roles, until the Hayes Code largely put her out of business. According to Flashes, she shot at Bogart with her revolver on at least twice and stabbed him fairly seriously on one occasion, so it was definitely a dramatic union.

Flashes does not discuss Bogart’s career, film by film. It rather traces the state of his life, particularly with regard to the ups and downs of his marriages. However, there is some colorful archival footage of John Huston discussing Bogart’s career-making casting in The Maltese Falcon. We also hear Bogart’s complaints regarding The Return of Dr. X, which some describe as his “only horror film,” but even at the time, its horror cred was debatable. In contrast, Ferguson (perhaps mercifully) overlooks the other oddball curio of Bogart’s Warner years, his only musical, the corn pone Swing Your Lady.

Throughout the doc, Kerry Shale reads Bogart’s words “in character,” but without attempting a Rich Little-esque impression of the unique Bogart voice (in contrast to Mark Cousins’ My Name is Alfred Hitchcock, which would make a fitting companion film). Ferguson also incorporates extensive interviews with Bacall and their son Stephen Bogart (who also wrote two mystery novels inspired by his famous parents). Fittingly, we also hear a good amount from Huston and Katharine Hepburn, obviously including considerable discussion of The African Queen, for which Bogart won his only Oscar.