Season 2 of GLOW ended with the Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling taking up a permanent gig in a Las Vegas casino. This means that they’re doing the same show, over and over, every single night. Everyone feels like they’re stagnating, and for this reason, the writers of the show have decided to almost completely ignore the wrestling element altogether.

We don’t even see any proper wrestling until episode five. Instead, this season is determined to focus on some characters who’ve never been under the microscope. Gayle Rankin gets to finally flex her acting muscles as Sheila. Previously one-note (the woman who thinks she’s a wolf), this is the first time I feel like I understand who she is. It’s a similar story with Melanie (Jackie Tohn) and Jenny (Ellen Wong), who get possibly the most affecting scene of the entire season, as the writers examine the people behind the gimmicks. Carmen (Britney Young) and Arthie’s (Sunita Mani) relationship gets put through the wringer as well.

In some ways, it’s more of the same for our lead trio of Ruth (Alison Brie), Debbie (Betty Gilpin) and Sam (Marc Maron). Since their falling out is arguably the crux of Glow, we know that Ruth and Debbie can never become true friends until the final episode (or maybe never), so the dramatic gymnastics here are no surprise. And similarly with Sam – it’ll always be one step forward, one step back for the guy, because otherwise we’ll lose that which makes him so entrancing.

In fact, there are only really two characters left who haven’t had their time in the spotlight, and that’s Dawn (Rebekka Johnson) and Stacey (Kimmy Gatewood) – the two women who have been unfortunate enough to also be stuck with the least interesting gimmick. Oh, and Reggie (Marianna Palka), who continues to get so little to do that I didn’t even remember her name.

But in case you hadn’t realised by now, GLOW’s secret weapon is Bash Howard. Chris Lowell, always destined to be runner-up in the ‘Veronica Mars‘ boyfriend game, is shockingly good in the role. Bash has more money than sense, yet his struggles with his domineering mother and his closeted sexuality mean that his childish naïveté is matched only by the tragedy that is his life. Poor little rich boy or not, the guy has issues.

And so, like Dear White People Season 3, we have a show that’s moved away from its own premise. If you’ve only been watching because of the wrestling element, then you’re going to be disappointed. If, however, you’ve formed an attachment to the characters like I have, then you’ll be happy to continue watching a show that’s now more about being an actor/woman/gay person/ethnic minority in 80s America than it is about wrestling.

As I understand it, GLOW used up the vast majority of the true story elements back in Season 1, perhaps because the creators didn’t believe it was going to run for this long. As one of the few well-publicised shows out there to feature a majority female cast, however, there are enough unique stories here to hold my attention.

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Unsurprisingly, Warner Brothers pushed this film back by 18 months or so, and it’s only now crept straight to Netflix. And I can see why they changed the release date, because this is very similar to Disney’s film. Or at least, the first 15 minutes are. At that point, I was prepared to switch off, so pervasive was my sense of déjà vu. But I’m glad I didn’t, because Mowgli quickly becomes an intriguing, if flawed, feature.

The first thing those familiar with the recent Disney version will notice is that Serkis et al went for a different visual style. The CGI animals are less photo-real and more caricatured. It means that they’re more expressive, to be sure, but it didn’t quite work for me. They all have a tendency to look a bit…off. If anything, it’s definitely more artistic than Favreau’s film, but it may bother some people.

The acting is uniformly excellent – particularly Christian Bale as Bagheera – and it must be said that Serkis is a great director. There are a dozen outstanding scenes here, even if it doesn’t hang together in toto. I’m not sure if they stuck to the script or went through reshoots and/or a particularly aggressive edit, but the narrative lurches forward more than once.

Most significant is the tone. It seems Serkis was determined to deliver a film that was less black and white and all shades of grey. Nobody is out-and-out evil. The humans encroaching on the jungle aren’t malevolent, nor are the members of the pack who bully Mowgli. Aside from Shere Khan, they’re all doing what they think is for the greater good. And even big, bad Khan is portrayed as aged and lame, his breath coming in ragged gasps.

All this is mature and well-written, but the film simply left me feeling bereft. When the credits rolled, it was a case of “everything was shit, but now it’s slightly less shit. Maybe.” And I’m not sure that’s what audiences were expecting. (Word to the wise – it gets very dark at one point. Almost Artax-level dark. Show this your kids judiciously.)

This does have something to offer those who’ve already seen Favreau’s attempt. Mowgli is a strange film, with some stunning VFX and powerful scenes. The tone misses the mark, however, and the pacing is slipshod.

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David Suchet completed his 24-year run in the BBC Poirot adaptations four years ago, and now it seems Branagh’s ready to take the reins. His interpretation of the sleuth is distinct yet clearly honours Agatha Christie’s creation, whilst he heavily hints where he wants to take his detective for the sequel.

The only real problem with Murder on the Orient Express is that, well…if you’ve read the book or seen a different adaptation before, then you know how it ends. And it’s not the type of solution that you easily forget. In fact, out of all the Christie books I’ve read, this is one of probably only two or three where I can’t shake the reveal from my mind. This was always going to temper my enjoyment of the film.

So for those of us who’ve seen it all before, what is there to appreciate? Well, obviously we have the star-studded cast. Daisy Ridley, Johnny Depp, Willem Dafoe, Judie Dench, Josh Gad and Penelope Cruz all feature, all immaculately coifed and costumed. Thankfully it appears that all were able to be present on set at the same time too, unless it’s simply a case of visual effects coming a long way since The Expendables 2.

Speaking of VFX, the film is chock full of them. Whilst the train is stuck for most of the runtime, Branagh ensures that the backdrop is nothing short of breathtaking. The effects are mostly great, except for a couple of stumbles. More importantly, Branagh and his cinematographer, Haris Zambarloukos, know how to shoot a movie on a train. There are dozens of immaculately conceived shots, and whilst we get scene after scene set in train compartments, no one shot is the same. Despite being disappointed by Zambarloukos’ work in the single-setting film, Locke, a few years ago, here he can really let loose. Seriously, if you want to know how to shoot a scene in a confined space, this is the feature to study.

I did have trouble with some of the accents, and that might be because so many actors were mumbling their way through verbal patinas that were clearly not their own. The film does a good job of providing flashbacks or cutaways at just the right moment, so we are never confused (a problem in some murder mysteries when they talk frequently about events that have occurred off screen.)

Murder on the Orient Express is an enjoyable murder mystery, and Branagh’s interpretation of the character can sit comfortably next to Suchet’s. Recommended.

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Charlize Theron plays Lorraine Broughton, an MI6 agent working in Berlin on the eve of the collapse of the wall. Regularly hopping from one side of Berlin to the other, she’s embroiled in a particularly complicated state of affairs. David Percival (James McAvoy) is another agent in deep cover, and together the two of them have to recover a piece of information that threatens to blow the actions of multiple foreign powers in the city wide open.

This was basically advertised as the female John Wick, and that sounded great. Charlize already stunned us with her action prowess in Mad Max: Fury Road (and years back, in Aeon Flux) so we knew she would be capable. Unfortunately this is one of her most underwhelming performances. She handles the action fine, but the rest of the time she’s saddled with delivering boring dialogue in a shonky English accent.

And it’s really boring. Every time we weren’t watching Lorraine beating people up, I struggled to pay attention. We’re never given a glimpse into her mind, so we don’t really know what she’s fighting for. Any narrative momentum is completely absent, so we’re left with a movie that looks really good, but does very little.

However, the action is incredible. Atomic Blonde makes up for the bizarrely bland action scenes we saw in John Wick 2, and whilst it doesn’t have as many minutes of arse-kicking, every single beat is a masterpiece of choreography, stunt work, tricksy editing and visual effects. There’s a 15-minute sequence where this film comes alive, only to have things grind to a halt immediately afterwards.

The soundtrack is on point too. There are a tonne of era-appropriate needle drops, but Tyler Bates’ score gets the job done too. As a frequent collaborator of Marilyn Manson’s, it’s unsurprising to see good ol’ Brian turn up here with a cover of Ministry’s “Stigmata”. The film oozes style – and Theron looks great smoking cigarettes under neon light – but style counts for nothing when you care not a jot for your protagonists, or when their story is so palpably dull. Atomic Blonde deserves to be added to a list of films that didn’t deliver on their potential.

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For someone who knew next to nothing about Dunkirk the event, Christopher Nolan’s film is certainly educational. To a certain extent. For all the chaos going on, there’s very little in the way of exposition. This is possibly a deliberate storytelling technique, to put us in the boots of the soldiers who knew very little aside from a sense of urgency in their efforts to escape impending death.

As such, this is a war movie that’s quite distinct from your usual war movie. At best, it avoids those awkward moments where the viewer wonders if the film they’re watching is glorifying war. After all, this is about thousands of men trying their best not to die. At worst, it means that the film will be a confusing cinematic experience for some, what with the multiple concurrent timelines.

In a move reminiscent of his breakthrough, Memento, Nolan plays around with beginning, middle and ending, having three separate stories happening simultaneously, even if they begin days or hours or minutes apart. The three separate stories are linear, and like Memento, the film seems more complicated than it actually is. That being said, considering everyone is wearing uniforms and boast few distinguishing features, it does get confusing. There are already multiple articles online explaining the potentially confusing timeline, though I won’t link them here for fear of spoilers.

The cast are great, completely inhabiting their roles. Nolan mainstays Cillian Murphy and Tom Hardy are present (even Michael Caine appears in a voice-over!) but the film expertly obfuscates their star presence, and each become just another weary and terrified face amongst all the other men facing death.

As with Interstellar, the use of visual effects here is phenomenal. It never looks anything less than photo-real, even when I’m sure I must be looking at CGI. That it was done with a relatively scant budget of only $100 million is shocking. But then again, Nolan really is an anomaly – a director that gets to work within the studio system, making blockbusters that still feel like the products of an auteur. Here, the pace never lets up, so it’s just as well the film is only 106 minutes. When there’s a tendency for successful directors to become more and more self-indulgent, this is another reason to be impressed by Nolan’s achievement.

I can’t really say that Dunkirk is a fun film, hence the low Hoopla Factor. It is an incredible big screen experience, however, and really drives home the significance of the event without reaching for any cheap platitudes.

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A remake of the 1971 Clint Eastwood feature, the story concerns a wounded Union soldier stumbling onto a Confederate school during the American Civil War. The school is run by Miss Martha (Nicole Kidman) with the assistance of Edwina (Kirsten Dunst, always willing to put in an appearance in a Sofia Coppola film). The presence of Corporal McBurney (Colin Farrell) sets the girls at the school into chaos, as vows are broken and alliances reconfigured. Farrell is particularly good in a tough role, sympathetic yet very flawed.

The Beguiled features an incredible cast of women, and it’s exciting to see so many onscreen at once. Joining Kidman and Dunst are Elle Fanning, Angourie Rice, Oona Lawrence, Addison Riecke and Emma Howard. All the faux Southern accents are terrible, but I was able to overlook this. Strangely enough, though I suppose unsurprising, is the fact that the film most definitely does not pass the Bechdel test, considering just about every single scene concerns the presence of McBurney in their midst. That being said, the characters are afforded depth, strength of character and agency – all good things.

The cinematography is great. Clearly, with such a tiny budget, they couldn’t move the camera much. As a consequence, DOP Philippe Le Sourd does the most he can with shadows and mist, which perfectly suits the isolated setting.

Unsurprisingly, the trailer makes The Beguiled look more sinister than it actually is. This is a subtle film – eerie, surprising, funny – even if its ambitions are less than lofty. The drama is suffused with ambiguity, but in a good way (Lost in Translation), not a bad way (The Virgin Suicides.) I’d like to state it’s the second-best Sofia Coppola film out there, but I haven’t seen Lost in Translation in a long time, and I’m concerned that it won’t have aged well. Suffice to say that The Beguiled is a nifty little tale that isn’t quite a thriller, isn’t quite a wartime drama and isn’t quite an historical romance. It’s something in between, and that hard-to-pin-down story is the kind of thing at which Coppola excels.

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Ever since Warner Brothers passed on Joss Whedon’s take on the third part of DC’s trinity, we’ve been denied this movie. After dazzling us in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Gal Gadot has her own film, and it’s brilliant.

Gadot is radiant as the hero of the piece – kick-arse, compassionate, naïve, determined – and they’ve paired her with a fantastic script that results in the best superhero movie we’ve seen in years. Beginning with her upbringing on Themyscira, we get see her meet Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) and travel to the world of men, which is currently in the grip of the Great War. I really can’t stress enough how good Gadot is in the role. Every single movement she makes, every small expression conveys a complex yet powerful hero.

This is probably my favourite Chris Pine performance too. I sympathised with him a lot more than his lead roles (Star Trek, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit) which have a tendency to be a little bland. Robin Wright and Connie Nielsen play kick-arse Amazons Antiope and Hippolyta, whilst Saïd Taghmaoui, Ewen Bremner and Eugene Brave Rock shine as a motley crew of soldiers-for-hire.

The script arguably contains elements of both Captain America (the World War setting) and Thor (the fish-out-of-water comedy), but it’s better than both of those films. Each of the soldiers-for-hire, for instance, have depth, and it’s worth reiterating just how unique a hero Wonder Woman is. There are elements of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, but she was always a reluctant hero. Diana relishes her task, despite the odds. Patty Jenkins’ direction is spot-on, and whether it’s the big action set-pieces or the quieter moments, both the narrative drive and the passion of the characters really hits home. The stunt work is fantastic – Diana’s fighting style exudes power and is incredibly cinematic. Every single comedic beat lands too.

The only disappointing aspect of the film would be the visual effects. The first ten minutes feature some woeful moments of digital trickery (that were perhaps last-minute additions), but thankfully they soon reach the standard you’d expect in a $149 million film. Rupert Gregson-Williams’ score works well, yet only truly came alive for me when Hans Zimmer’s main theme appeared.

It’s absurd not only that we haven’t had a female-led superhero film since 2005’s Elektra, but also the fact that Marvel are 15 movies in and still haven’t made one. Whilst we had to wait way too long for this film, the good news is that Wonder Woman is awesome. If you only see one superhero movie this year, make it this one.

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This film is the very definition of big, dumb fun. Set in 1973, it sees a bunch of scientists and soldiers out to explore a hitherto uncharted island. For those who don’t know, this is technically a prequel to the aforementioned Godzilla film, and there are references to that one dotted through the picture, most notably the presence of the sinister agency known as Monarch. (Stick around for the post-credit scene if you’re the type to enjoy universe-building in your blockbusters.)

Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, John C. Reilly and John Goodman head up what is an impressive cast. The supporting players are somewhat interchangeable, mostly because they’re all designed to be monster fodder, but as an ensemble piece, it mostly works. It’s exciting to see Larson in an action role (and one where she doesn’t get damselled, instead spending her time doing useful things) particularly because of her upcoming performance in Captain Marvel, a film that can’t come soon enough.

Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts really knows how to stage an action scene. Thanks to this interview, I know that he’s a big-time gamer and anime fan, and it shows. The climactic battle in particular feels right out of Evangelion, and is truly incredible to watch. The visual effects are more than up to the task, too. There might be the occasional dodgy shot (some weird sky replacement scenes are a bit off) but most of the work here is top notch. Most importantly, all of the action is easy to follow. It’s epic and certainly feels chaotic, but you can always see what’s going on, something that didn’t happen in the Transformers movies, or even Pacific Rim. As far as I’m concerned, these effects take giant monster movies to the next level – easily as impressive as the T-Rex fight was in Peter Jackson’s 2005 effort. Cinematographer Larry Fong knows his stuff, having worked on 300, Watchmen and Sucker Punch, and the fact that he’s working on the new Predator movie excites me no end…

The film suffers from an overabundance of characters, meaning that it’s hard to keep track of who’s still alive. More than once I found myself surprised as so-and-so walked into frame, because I hadn’t seen them for the past 20 minutes. The soundtrack choices were disappointing also, featuring the most obvious music of the era you could think of. The score, however, was great.

If you’re the type to shake your head in dismay when people try to tell you that the Pirates of the Caribbean or Transformers sequels are just mindless fun, then give Kong: Skull Island a try. I’d even go so far as to say this is a better Jurassic Park sequel than the mystifyingly popular Jurassic World.

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Within the first ten minutes, I could see why the book turned out to be so popular. An incredible opening couple of scenes have you hooked from the get-go. If you want an example of how to capture your audience’s attention within moments, then you couldn’t find much better than this. Aside from a single instance of gratuitous narration that never returns, director Rachel Perkins’ film oozes confidence. The cinematography is brilliant, the score is strong if ever-so-slightly over the top, whilst the performances impress.

The film relies heavily on nostalgia, and feels 5000% Australian. Racism and sexism lurk around the edges of the interpersonal drama, though there isn’t anything particularly nuanced about the depiction. It’s enough to spark dialogue amongst Year 7 students, however.

Toni Collette, Hugo Weaving, Dan Wyllie and Matt Nable round out the adult cast, whilst Miller is great as the central protagonist. Rice, of course, acts the pants off everyone around her, including the adults…but after These Final Hours and The Nice Guys, we already knew this. Kevin Long is another stand-out as Jeffrey Lu (though his name is mysteriously missing from the cast list on IMDb). McGrath is good enough as Jasper, though the script doesn’t afford him the same opportunities it does Charlie and Eliza.

And herein lies my central issue with the film. The eponymous character barely features. It’s one thing to include an Aboriginal supporting character, but it’s another to name the story after him, despite the startling lack of depth afforded to his story. Jasper Jones may be the title of the film, but we’re almost in (500) Days of Summer territory here – he’s there to set Charlie on his path. His continued absence through much of the running time didn’t feel right at all.

Despite this, Jasper Jones is a beautifully made film. The mystery at its heart is compelling, the production values are wonderful and the pacing is perfect. Unless someone can tell me that this differs drastically from the source material, my only complaints presumably stem from the novel itself.

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Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monáe play a trio of geniuses (genii?) who work at NASA during the height of the Space Race. So not only do our trio have to deal with being women in a male-dominated workplace, they also have to deal with being black in a country that still features racial segregation. Then add to this the fact that the nation has whipped itself into a frenzy regarding the Communist threat from USSR, what you’re left with is a film that skilfully deals with a variety of complex topics head-on.

Henson and Spencer are excellent in their respective roles. I must admit, I was apprehensive with Monáe’s casting – she can sing and dance up a storm, but could she act? I’m happy to announce that she is indeed a triple threat. She has the most fun in her role, but also deftly handles the dramatic moments.

The packaging may be rather generic – this is a period drama about social justice, with all the dramatic beats you’d expect – but the writing is wonderfully nuanced. Like Zootopia before it, Hidden Figures looks at different kinds of prejudice. So whilst the film features outspoken racists, there are also subtler forms of discrimination on display, even by “well-meaning” characters. This kind of depth is exactly what a film like Hidden Figures needs.

The film isn’t without a couple of flaws. The opening scene, featuring one of our characters as a child, seems redundant (and possibly tacked-on at the last minute), though this doesn’t take away from the rest of the film. Also, for some reason the version I saw in the cinema was shockingly low-res. I’m not sure if this was an anomaly, but the image was lacking definition (I even saw pixels around the letters in the opening titles), almost as if someone had projected a DVD onto the cinema screen.

Hidden Figures is a solid outing to the cinema at 127 minutes, and I do wonder if it could have been streamlined further. No doubt the writers had already taken liberties with historical fact, but as mentioned earlier, the opening scene in particular is a waste of time, especially considering how perfect the second scene is.

To say that the film is a blend of Apollo 13, Mona Lisa Smile and The Imitation Game wouldn’t be too far from the truth, but would also be unfairly reductive. Hidden Figures is an entertaining, effortlessly thought-provoking and powerful film.

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