TV Review: ‘Andor’ Season 2

by admin | Apr 21, 2025 | Articles, Moviephone Articles

‘Andor’ Season 2 receives 9 out of 10 stars.

Returning to Disney+ with the first three episodes of Season 2, ‘Star Wars’ series ‘Andor’ once more follows the struggle of the Rebel Alliance as it ramps up its conflict with the Galactic Empire as seen through the lens of rebel agent Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) and an assortment of characters of both sides of the battle.

Season 2 has an interesting release pattern –– the 12 episodes are split across four batches of three, and there is a time jump between batches, covering the four years leading up to the events of ‘Rogue One,’ moving from 4 BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin, as seen in ‘Star Wars’) to the immediate events of the movie.

Related Article: Diego Luna Talks Reprising ‘Rogue One’ Character in Disney+’s ‘Andor’

Will ‘Andor’ Season 2 Spark Your Interest?

(L to R, on bridge): Weapons Spec (Harry McEntire), Executive Officer (Gethin Alderman) and Captain Elk (Roger Barclay) in Lucasfilm’s ‘Andor’, exclusively on Disney+. ©2022 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

With the overwhelmingly positive reaction to the first season of ‘Andor,’ the pressure on Season 2 is naturally huge, the expectation built further by the delay between seasons (the first run of episodes was all the way back in 2022).

But by any real metric, the new season handily maintains the quality level of the first, bringing real stakes, incredibly layered shades of gray and genuine humanity to the galaxy far, far away.

Still a much more mature take on the world of ‘Star Wars’ (which is to take nothing away from the entertainment value of shows such as ‘The Mandalorian’), ‘Andor’ represents top quality television.

Script and Direction

(L to R) Tony Gilroy and Diego Luna on the set of Lucasfilm’s ‘Andor’, exclusively on Disney+. ©2022 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

Tony Gilroy leads a writing team that also includes Beau Willimon and Dan Gilroy, and the assembled staff has crafted a thrilling, politically astute, emotional and superb second season.

While it has to handle various time jumps to accommodate the sheer breadth of its storytelling, the series does so with aplomb, managing to say a lot about the personal cost of rebellion and the banal efficiency of pure evil.

This is very far from a basic battle of good vs. bad, and if the action quotient is lower than other shows, when it does feature set pieces, they’re of similar quality.

On the directorial front, Ariel Kleiman, Janus Metz and Alonso Ruizpalacios bring the same high quality in terms of scope, scale and style to the new episodes. Largely eschewing shooting on a volume stage and bringing many locations to life practically, ‘Andor’s visuals are entirely supportive of its high quality scripts.

Confidently recreating looks and locations we all know and love from the original ‘Star Wars’ while also introducing us to more new worlds, the lived-in feel of the galaxy is entirely present and correct.

Cast and Performances

(L to R) Partisan (Leonardo Taiwo) and Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgard) in Lucasfilm’s ‘Andor’, exclusively on Disney+. ©2022 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

Diego Luna is once more the heart and soul of the show, whether he’s on a mission, fighting for his life or spending time with Adria Arjona’s Bix Caleen, figuring out how to make a relationship work with such pressure upon them both.

Arjona is similarly great, handed an impressive PTSD storyline as Bix, still recovering from her treatment at the hands of Imperial torturers, reckons with her place in the resistance.

Also excellent? Stellan Skarsgård, who can turn any speech into a must-watch moment and remains superb as the morally slippery Luthen Rael. And Genevieve O’Reilly, while largely siloed in her own storyline, walks the line of political glad-handing and rebellious plotting without missing a beat.

(L to R) Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly), Leida Mothma (Bronte Carmichael) and Perrin Fertha (Alastair Mackenzie) in Lucasfilm’s ‘Andor’, exclusively on Disney+. ©2022 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

And we’d be remiss if we didn’t praise the contributions of Alan Tudyk, who once more brings the world’s snarkiest droid to life with a combination of performance capture and the most endlessly frustrated attitude this side of ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide’s Marvin the Paranoid Android.

His buddy comedy chemistry with Luna is as great as ever, and he’s got a great line in putdowns.

Also? Ben Mendelsohn sweeps in and steal scenes as Orson Krennic, the hissable, cape-happy villain of ‘Rogue One,’ here an even more petty bureaucrat dedicated to getting the Death Star finished.

Final Thoughts

(L to R) Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) and Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgard) in Lucasfilm’s ‘Andor’, exclusively on Disney+. ©2022 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

Some sequels feel unearned, but ‘Andor’s new run absolutely matches the sterling quality of the first and, even, in a few places, surpassing it. There might not be anything quite as memorable as the prison storyline from the original season, but it’s all still truly impressive.

Our only other gripe? Not enough of sarcastic reprogrammed Imperial Droid K-2SO, but that’s just a personal bugbear.

“The Rebellion begins.”

What’s the plot of ‘Andor’ Season 2?

The second season takes place as the horizon of war draws near and Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) becomes a key player in the Rebel Alliance.

Everyone will be tested and, as the stakes rise, the betrayals, sacrifices and conflicting agendas will become profound.

‘Andor’ sets the clock back five years from the events of 2016’s ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’ to tell the story of the film’s hero and his transformation from disinterested, cynical nobody into a rebel hero on his way to an epic destiny.

Who stars in ‘Andor’ Season 2?

(L to R) Corv (Noof Ousellam), Lieutenant Keysax (Nick Moss), Supervisor Dedra Meero (Denise Gough) and Captain Vanis Tigo (Wilf Scolding) in Lucasfilm’s ‘Andor’, exclusively on Disney+. ©2022 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

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TV Review: ‘MobLand’

by admin | Apr 20, 2025 | Articles, Moviephone Articles

‘MobLand’ receives 6.5 out of 10 stars.

Arriving on Paramount+ on March 30th with its first episode, ‘MobLand’ is a new limited series set within the spiky world of intergenerational gangster empires in London.

Birthed by prolific filmmaker (and no stranger to British screen criminals) Guy Ritchie alongside Ronan Bennett, the creator of Netflix hit ‘Top Boy’, it’s the latest in a long legacy of violent, talky meditations on family within the gangland dynamic, and bolstered by a starry cast.

Related Article: Pierce Brosnan Talks Director Terry Loane’s Drama ‘The Last Rifleman’

Is ‘‘MobLand’ worth visiting?

(L to R) Helen Mirren as Maeve Harrigan and Pierce Brosnan as Conrad Harrigan in ‘MobLand’. Streaming on Paramount+ 2025. Photo: Jason Bell/Paramount+.

‘MobLand’ has an odd history, since it began life as a spin-off of Showtime’s long-running family/crime drama ‘Ray Donovan’; you know, the one where Liev Schreiber played a “fixer” to celebrities and other powerful types whose one big failing was that he couldn’t mend his own dysfunctional family.

Yet somewhere along the line, for reasons that have yet to be revealed, what was going to be a look at the origins of the Donovan family focused on similar character types working in London has morphed into an original –– though that is stretching the term very broadly, as we’ll discuss –– story of conflicting crime families and the tough-nut type who sorts out issues for one of them.

Script and Direction

(L to R) Paddy Considine as Kevin Harrigan and Tom Hardy as Harry Da Souza in ‘MobLand’. Streaming on Paramount+ 2025. Photo: Luke Varley/Paramount+.

With creator/writer Ronan Bennett here working alongside Jez Butterworth (better known for the likes of ‘Ford v Ferrari,’ and ‘Edge of Tomorrow,’ but who tackled crime themes with 2015’s ‘Black Mass’), there is a lot about ‘MobLand’ that would lead to the description “Generic Gangster Drama #746”.

So much of what is on display here, the deep bones of the series, are tropes and ideas that have been explored many, many times before. You have, for example, the aging patriarch of the crime dynasty who is no longer sure who he can trust, even among his oldest friends. And his calculating wife, forever whispering in his ear about potential issues, proves to be one of the true powers in the family.

The less effective children are also used here, along with the primary focus of the show, the loyal fixer whose job it is the sort out the messes caused, mostly by those annoying younger clan members.

(L to R) Paddy Considine as Kevin Harrigan and Tom Hardy as Harry Da Souza in ‘MobLand’. Streaming on Paramount+ 2025. Photo: Luke Varley/Paramount+.

Between them, Bennett and Butterworth do manage to find some new ideas sprinkled between the established narrative, hewing away from some of the cliches (the fixer’s wife, for one, isn’t a naïve person who has no knowledge of her husband’s job) while leaning into others (the couple are still on the verge of divorce because of the pressures that come with it.)

Yet if you’ve watched particularly Bennett’s past work, it’s hard not to wonder why this is quite so generic at times.

Guy Ritchie, meanwhile, leads the directing team (which also includes Anthony Byrne –– who actually handles the lion’s share of the episodes –– Lawrence Gough and Daniel Syrkin) and tones down the visual zippiness from his other gangster TV series (Netflix’s ‘The Gentlemen’), here choosing a more somber palate and tone.

The series benefits from some impressive UK locations (especially the characters’ homes, which reinforce the idea that crime pays) and is shot well, dark and moody when needed, which is often, but rarely so murky that you can’t tell what is going on.

Cast and Performances

Tom Hardy as Harry Da Souza in ‘MobLand’. Streaming on Paramount+ 2025. Photo: Luke Varley/Paramount+.

Tom Hardy’s Harry De Souza is the focal point here –– he’s our eyes, ears and guide to this world. And the role takes full advantage of Hardy’s gruff strengths. He’s at his best when he’s using his stoic charm to threaten people –– usually more with his words than fists or weapons, but he’s not above that –– and get his way in the service of his bosses.

Harry also gives Hardy the chance to play the more subtle sides of the character, the family man who struggles to do right by his wife and daughter in anything other than providing them a great place to live and the money to do well.

As crime boss Conrad Hannigan, Pierce Brosnan sports an outrageous Irish accent (odd, since he was born in Drogheda, County Louth, Ireland) and generally gives the character a vulnerability under the tough gangster side of things.

Helen Mirren, meanwhile, utilizing her own often impenetrable stab at the accent (similar to how she does in ‘Yellowstone’ prequel series ‘1923’), is the power behind the throne but, so far, at least, mostly resigned to wafting in and out of rooms and offering the occasional snide bit of advice.

(L to R) Emmett J Scanlan as Paul and Helen Mirren as Maeve Harrigan in ‘MobLand’. Streaming on Paramount+ 2025. Photo: Luke Varley/Paramount+.

‘House of the Dragon’ veteran Paddy Considine is good as Kevin Hannigan, Conrad’s son and Harry’s old friend (they met in prison, which is how the latter came to work for the family). Unlike some of his siblings, he comes across as capable, though not always comfortable with the criminal life.

Among the supporting ensemble, Joanne Froggatt shines as Harry’s increasingly frustrated wife, Jan, while Lara Pulver is good as Bella Harrigan, Kevin’s wife and a woman with whom Harry also clearly shares a history.

The likes of Jasmine Jobson and Antonio González Guerrero, both veterans of Bennett’s ‘Top Boy,’ make an impact as Zosia and Kiko, Harry’s top aides.

Final Thoughts

Tom Hardy as Harry Da Souza in ‘MobLand’. Streaming on Paramount+ 2025. Photo: Luke Varley/Paramount+.

It won’t win many points for originality, but ‘MobLand’ has enough going for it that it’s still a worthy entry to the gangster genre.

Solid work on both sides of the camera, and enough wit to stave off blandness are key to what makes it work.

What’s the plot of ‘MobLand’?

Power is up for grabs as two warring crime families clash in a battle that threatens to topple empires. In the crossfire stands Harry Da Souza (Tom Hardy), a street-smart ‘fixer’ who knows too well where loyalties lie when opposing forces collide.

Who stars in ‘MobLand’?

• Tom Hardy as Harry Da Souza
• Pierce Brosnan as Conrad Harrigan
• Helen Mirren as Maeve Harrigan
• Paddy Considine as Kevin Harrigan
• Daniel Betts as Brendan
• Mandeep Dhillon as Seraphina
• Joanne Froggatt as Jan Da Souza
• Lara Pulver as Isabella “Bella” Harrigan
• Anson Boon as Eddie Harrigan
• Jasmine Jobson as Zosia
• Antonio González Guerrero as Kiko

Pierce Brosnan as Conrad Harrigan in ‘MobLand’. Streaming on Paramount+ 2025. Photo: Luke Varley/Paramount+.

List of Pierce Brosnan Movies and TV Shows:

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Movie Review: ‘The Shrouds’

by admin | Apr 19, 2025 | Articles, Moviephone Articles

‘The Shrouds’ receives 7 out of 10 stars.

Opening in theaters April 18th is ‘The Shrouds,’ directed by David Cronenberg and starring Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger, Guy Pearce, Sandrine Holt, Elizabeth Saunders, Jennifer Dale, Eric Weinthal, and Jeff Yung.

Related Article: Movie Review: ‘Crimes of the Future’ 

Initial Thoughts

(L to R) Vincent Cassel and Sandrine Holt in ‘The Shrouds’. Photo: Sideshow and Janus Films 5.

Just as his 1979 horror classic ‘The Brood’ was partially the director’s outpouring of anger and frustration over a bitter divorce and custody battle, David Cronenberg’s latest movie, ‘The Shrouds,’ unleashes a torrent of grief – well, sort of — over the death of Cronenberg’s second wife, Carolyn Zeifman, who died in 2017 after 38 years of marriage. But while ‘The Brood’ embodied Cronenberg’s rage in the form of mutant children borne from a psychologically unstable spouse, ‘The Shrouds’ finds Cronenberg getting more personal than usual as only he can: with a chilly, dry-humored, eerie, and occasionally cringe-inducing meditation on death, loss, and, as one character says, “money, technology, politics, and religion.”

All four of those come into play over the course of Cronenberg’s slow-burn, almost excessively talky, but still provocative new film (his 23rd). While ‘The Shrouds’ offers up a late-career remix of a number of Cronenberg’s greatest hits – body horror, paranoia, the fusion of technology and flesh, and soulless corporate greed – it does so through a more intimate lens than usual. And even if it doesn’t all add up in the end, ‘The Shrouds’ is still an occasionally heady meditation on how we deal with mortality — and how we decide not to deal with it.

Story and Direction

‘The Shrouds’ director David Cronenberg. Photo: Caitlin Cronenberg.

With his spiky white hair, craggy face, and black sunglasses, Vincent Cassel’s Karsh Relikh (continuing a long tradition of Cronenberg protagonists with weird names) is a – pardon the expression – dead ringer for the director himself, making the film’s unsettling blurring of reality and fantasy even more obscured. A producer of “industrial videos” based in Toronto, Karsh is also the founder and owner of GraveTech, a new technology which allows the living to watch the decomposing bodies of their loved ones via a live feed from the radioactive wrapping (the “shroud”) placed around the body in its grave.

One can watch this decidedly morbid display on either the handy phone app or via a screen mounted directly on the deceased’s headstone in Karsh’s special cemetery, which is located directly behind an austere restaurant he also owns. For Karsh, GraveTech is more than a business: he has a feed directly into the grave of his wife Becca (Diane Kruger), watching her skeletal remains four years after her death even as she comes into him in dreams, pieces of her body missing from the cancer that ravaged her body.

Things begin to go off the rails for Karsh when the GraveTech cemetery is vandalized – including the grave of his wife – just as he is formulating plans to expand the franchise with an enigmatic European investor and his equally mysterious but alluring wife (Sandrine Holt). At the same time, Karsh engages in a dangerous sexual relationship with his wife’s twin sister, Terry (also Kruger), even as Terry’s ex-husband, the nerdy, unstable Maury (Guy Pearce) tries to help him figure out who’s hacking into GraveTech and who attacked the cemetery.

‘The Shrouds’. Photo: Sideshow and Janus Films 5.

Set in a slightly surreal world that’s just a few minutes in the future from ours (with self-driving cars and A.I. assistants a prominent but accepted part of everyday life), ‘The Shrouds’ follows a very Cronenbergian template of presenting the viewer with several puzzling questions that are not necessarily answered by the end of the film. This – and the movie’s somewhat emotionally removed, cerebral, dialogue-heavy script – can be off-putting to novice viewers but are familiar aspects to longtime fans of this one-of-a-kind filmmaker.

Yet Cronenberg possibly takes it a step further this time: as his mental state seems to crumble and the lines of reality blur, the movie itself almost seems to decompose along with the bodies of the dead that Karsh’s GraveTech allows us to view. The structure of the film decays just like a corpse, leaving Karsh on a voyage to destinations unknown by the time the film ends.

All this is done with Cronenberg’s typical precision and flair, with not a shot or composition wasted and the stark world of the movie painted in lustrous black, gray, and chocolate tones. Although minimal compared to much of his early work, the traces of body horror here are as always uncomfortable and unsettling. If we had to quibble with anything, it’s a little disappointing that the images delivered via GraveTech seem more digital in nature than realistic – the corpses look more like AI-generated images than actual bodies.

Cast and Performances

(L to R) Vincent Cassel and Diane Kruger in ‘The Shrouds’. Photo: Sideshow and Janus Films 5.

Vincent Cassel has always been more of a character actor than a leading man, but he acquits himself well here as Karsh, a man with the financial and technological means to assuage his grief but not the emotional or psychological tools. His reserved demeanor makes Karsh difficult to access at first, but Cassel eventually and subtly expresses his anguish even if his methods of expressing it – like having sex with his dead wife’s sister – aren’t exactly empathetic.

Equally knotty is Guy Pearce as the sister’s ex-wife, Maury, who lives inside his own head when he’s not buried in a laptop screen. Maury is hopelessly awkward, socially inept, and both smart enough to connect certain dots yet naïve enough to allow himself to be played.

But the MVP of the film is without a doubt Diane Kruger, in not one, two, but three roles: she plays Becca, Karsh’s late wife, who’s glimpsed in flashbacks and dreams as cancer and surgery ravage and take apart her body; she’s also Terry, Becca’s more neurotic sister, who gets enmeshed in a strange, powerful attraction with Karsh that turns physical and blurs the lines of identity; and finally she is the voice of Hunny, Karsh’s initially helpful A.I. assistant who slowly turns more controlling and malevolent as Karsh’s paranoia becomes more entrenched. Kruger has been rather underrated throughout her career, but here she plays three distinct personalities in three very different forms of existence, yet somehow manages to make a psychological throughline for all three.

Final Thoughts

Vincent Cassel in ‘The Shrouds’. Photo: Sideshow and Janus Films 5.

Despite its morbid subject matter, ‘The Shrouds’ is not a return to the all-out horror assault of early Cronenberg classics like ‘Shivers,’ ‘Scanners,’ or ‘The Fly.’ But it shares many themes that manifest through all of the director’s work, and in many ways should be catnip to his most devout fans. The limitations of the flesh, the creeping grip of technology over our lives and even souls, the hint of vast conspiracies happening just beyond our range of vision – they’re all here, filtered through a more personal lens than usual, yet suffused with Cronenberg’s trademark sense of mounting unease and seasoned with his deadpan humor, dry as the dust inside a coffin.

It doesn’t always make sense, and it may not end up in a place that feels completely satisfying, but ‘The Shrouds’ is still a thoughtful if sometimes ponderous examination of grief and paranoia in which you’re never quite sure what’s about to happen next…which sounds a lot like life itself.

“How dark are you willing to go?”

Showtimes & Tickets

Inconsolable since the death of his wife, Karsh, a prominent businessman, invents a revolutionary and controversial technology that enables the living to monitor… Read the Plot

What is the plot of ‘The Shrouds’?

Following the death of his wife, a tech entrepreneur named Karsh (Vincent Cassel) develops a technology that allows people to view the bodies of their departed loved ones as they decay in their graves. But Karsh’s plans for expansion are challenged by personal demons, vandalism, and a possible conspiracy.

Who is in the cast of ‘The Shrouds’?

• Vincent Cassel as Karsh Relikh
• Diane Kruger as Becca / Terry / Hunny
• Guy Pearce as Maury
• Sandrine Holt as Soo-Min Szabo
• Elizabeth Saunders as Gray Foner
• Jennifer Dale as Myrna Slotnik
• Eric Weinthal as Dr. Hofstra
• Jeff Yung as Dr. Rory Zhao

‘The Shrouds’ opens in theaters on April 18th. Photo: Sideshow and Janus Films 5.

List of David Cronenberg Movies:

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Movie Review: ‘Sinners’

by admin | Apr 16, 2025 | Articles, Moviephone Articles

‘Sinners’ receives 8.5 out of 10 stars.

Opening in theaters April 18 is ‘Sinners,’ directed by Ryan Coogler and starring Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Jack O’Connell, Wunmi Mosaku, Miles Caton, Jayme Lawson, Omar Benson Miller, Li Jun Li, and Delroy Lindo.

Initial Thoughts

Michael B. Jordan as Smoke and Stack in Warner Bros. Pictures’ ‘Sinners,’ a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures. Copyright: © 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Director Ryan Coogler and his muse/partner Michael B. Jordan are now five for five. Following ‘Fruitvale Station,’ ‘Creed,’ and the two ‘Black Panther’ entries (yes, we’ll stand up for ‘Wakanda Forever’ despite anti-MCU sentiment in the critical community), ‘Sinners’ is another outright winner for the filmmaker and star, and even better, it’s a wholly original piece of material that’s also ambitious, audacious, and at times even transcendent – not to mention a wildly smart genre hybrid.

Once again, Coogler and company have taken populist entertainment – this time mixing the horror genre with the historical drama – and infused it with social commentary, spiritual themes, action beats, and an almost poetic tribute to the time-bending power of music. The film has its flaws, but so much of it works so well, from the cast to the music to the incredible production design to the overall atmosphere – that you’ll walk out of ‘Sinners’ feeling like you’ve seen one of the most unique movies of the year.

Related Article: Director Michael B. Jordan and Jonathan Majors Talk Sequel ‘Creed III’

Story and Direction

(L to R) Delroy Lindo, Michael B. Jordan and director Ryan Coogler in Warner Bros. Pictures’ Sinners’ a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures. Copyright: © 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

As ‘Sinners’ begins, an opening narration tells us that some people have such a powerful gift of making music that it can “pierce the veil” between the worlds of the living and the dead. With that, we see a bloodied and beaten young man, who we will come to know as Preacher Boy Sam (Miles Caton), appear at the door of the church where his father is pastor. He’s carrying the broken neck of a guitar, and his father admonishes him to “leave those sinning ways.”

The movie then flashes back to “one day earlier” in the town of Clarksdale, Mississippi. The year is 1932. Returning on this day to the area’s Black community are brothers “Smoke” and “Stack” Moore – the “SmokeStack Twins” – both played by Michael B. Jordan. With their expensive suits and car, as well as the wads of cash in their pockets, they immediately stand out from the impoverished community of laborers and sharecroppers around them. Smoke, who’s tougher and more business-minded, and Stack, who is more jovial and reckless, are back in town after spending years away, first fighting in World War I and then finding their way to Chicago, where they allegedly made their fortune working for Al Capone.

Their first action upon returning to Clarksdale is to purchase an abandoned mill outside town from a man who may or may not be a KKK leader (“The Klan doesn’t exist anymore,” he unconvincingly tells them). They aim to turn the mill into a juke joint and open it that night, with entertainment to be provided by old blues musician Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo) and the twins’ cousin, Preacher Boy Sam, for whom the word “soulful” doesn’t begin to describe his ability to sing and play the blues.

‘Sinners’ unpacks its story and characters – which include Smoke’s former flame, Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), who knows magic and who shares a tragic past with Smoke, as well as Stack’s old girlfriend, Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), who is part Black but looks white enough that their relationship might well have caused a scandal – in leisurely, novelistic fashion. But it’s never anything but fascinating to watch, thanks to the sharply drawn characters and pungent dialogue in Coogler’s screenplay, his fluid direction, Autumn Durald Arkapaw’s stunning cinematography, and the textured, incredibly detailed production design by Hannah Beachler. Then there’s the music – a combination of Ludwig Göransson’s original score and old blues standards that is as haunting as it is evocative.

Miles Caton as Sammie Moore in Warner Bros. Pictures’ ‘Sinners,’ a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures. Copyright: © 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

It’s that music – particularly the music performed by Preacher Boy Sam – that attracts not just a boisterous crowd to Smoke and Stack’s juke joint that night but fuels one of the most incredible sequences you’ll see in a movie this or any other year. Music, we’re told, will bring together the spirits of both the past and the future – which it does in a breathtaking sequence that ricochets through both the history of music and the Black experience in one gloriously kaleidoscopic dance of images that is almost transcendent in its power.

But the music attracts other forces from the realm of the dead as well…and since the trailers already give it away, it’s okay to say here that the juke joint soon finds itself under siege by a trio of vampires, led by Remmick (Jack O’Connell), who quickly go about turning the customers and the Moores’ dwindling band of friends and family into creatures of the night. “It’s better this way,” says one character who has been transformed late in the film, suggesting that Remmick is creating a new species for which boundaries of race, color, and gender have no meaning.

That’s just one of the intriguing ideas that Coogler springs on us during the course of ‘Sinners,’ and if anything this densely packed film has almost too many of them. Questions of race, identity, history, violence against Black bodies, and the power of art flow liberally through the film, which is by turns exhilarating, frightening, erotic, distressing, and poignant. The introduction of a supernatural terror halfway through a historical drama is a bit abrupt, and the third act feels both rushed and drawn out as the climactic confrontation with the vampires leads to a fistful of additional endings and mid-credits sequences (a bit of an MCU hangover for Coogler, perhaps). But even when it wobbles slightly down the stretch, ‘Sinners’ doesn’t feel like any other movie you’re likely to see anytime soon.

Cast and Performances

(L to R) Michael B. Jordan as Smoke, Wunami Mosaku as Annie, Hailee Steinfeld as Mary, Michael B. Jordan as Stack, Miles Caton as Sammie and Omar Benson Miller as Cornbread in Warner Bros. Pictures’ ‘Sinners,’ a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures. Copyright: © 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

In a career already full of sparking performances, ‘Sinners’ may contain Michael B. Jordan’s best work yet. Assisted by seamless visual effects, he delivers two fully-rounded performances as Smoke and Stack, differentiating the two brothers with subtle changes in tone, speech, and body language, while firmly delineating the deep bond between the two.

Smoke has been hardened by the world, doesn’t believe much in magic or the spiritual, and has no time for fun; he thinks that accumulating power (mostly in the form of cash) will give him freedom. Stack is much more hedonistic, given to flamboyance in his clothing, spending, and behavior, and much more in tune with earthly pleasures. Both men’s beliefs are tested and both are deeply changed by the end of the film, and it’s a tribute to Jordan’s incredible skills that you always feel you are watching two separate personalities on their own journeys.

Hailee Stenfield as Mary in Warner Bros. Pictures’ ‘Sinners,’ a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures. Copyright: © 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

While ‘Sinners’ showcases Jordan’s accomplishment, the rest of the cast is just as powerful. 19-year-old Miles Caton is a real find, providing not just a complex performance as Sam but a singing voice that is nothing short of awesome, providing a credible basis for the film’s mystical view of music. Delroy Lindo is nothing short of great (as usual) as Delta Slim, the blues player at the other end of his career who has seen it all. And while the vampires are not given as much ground to develop as characters, Jack O’Connell’s Remmick is a deft combination of malice, charisma, and temptation, with the story showing how these monsters can still be stirred by music as well (especially in one eerie sequence involving an Irish folk song).

Importantly, every woman in ‘Sinners’ also gets her due, from Wunmi Mosaku’s no-nonsense Annie to Hailee Steinfeld’s Mary, both of whom are courageous, confident, sexually liberated, and capable of moving on from deep tragedies in their lives. Mosaku’s performance is full of texture, compassion, and depth, while Steinfeld succeeds in nailing the role of a woman who is trapped between two worlds but knows which one she feels more at home with. Also notable is Li Jun Li (‘Babylon’) as Grace Chow, who runs grocery stores in town with her husband Bo (Yao) and is as deft in handling her business with both Blacks and whites as she is in fighting vampires.

Final Thoughts

Michael B. Jordan as Smoke in Warner Bros. Pictures’ ‘Sinners’ a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Eli Adé. Copyright: © 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

‘Sinners’ is a luscious, genuinely cinematic experience that deserves every inch of the IMAX screen you should see it on. Even if we wish the horror elements were introduced a little more organically, and even if the film’s closing sequences don’t work as effectively as they could, one can still feel Coogler’s earnest, heartfelt search for truth throughout: What makes anyone truly free? Love? Power? Money? Talent? What does it mean to be free if you know that freedom is merely a façade?

These are the questions ‘Sinners’ raises and leaves one pondering as the credits roll. This thoughtfully conceived, masterfully executed epic doesn’t provide all the answers, but instead brings the viewer on a journey that is haunting, terrifying, emotionally resonant, and powerful in its exploration of community, shared experience, and how the incursion of evil can threaten to rip those apart.

“Dance with the devil.”

Showtimes & Tickets

Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome… Read the Plot

What is the plot of ‘Sinners’?

Two brothers (Michael B. Jordan) return to Clarksdale, Mississippi, in 1932, now wealthy and intent on opening a juke joint in their hometown. But as they open the doors of their new establishment, sinister forces begin to converge upon them and their community.

Who is in the cast of ‘Sinners’?

• Michael B. Jordan as Smoke and Stack Moore
• Hailee Steinfeld as Mary
• Miles Caton as Sam Moore
• Jack O’Connell as Remmick
• Wunmi Mosaku as Annie
• Jayme Lawson as Pearline
• Omar Benson Miller as Cornbread
• Li Jun Li as Grace Chow
• Delroy Lindo as Delta Slim

Warner Bros. Pictures’ ‘Sinners,’ a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures. Copyright: © 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Ryan Coogler Movies:

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TV Review: ‘Black Mirror’ Season 7

by admin | Apr 13, 2025 | Articles, Moviephone Articles

‘Black Mirror’ Season 7 receives 8 out of 10 stars.

Returning to Netflix on April 10th for a seventh season of anthology tales blending techno-terror with emotion, ‘Black Mirror’ proves it still has what it counts as the modern-day equivalent of ‘The Outer Limits’ or ‘The Twilight Zone.’

And this time, with six episodes in play, there is a greater scope for stories to be told compared to some of the more compacted recent seasons. It’s also reassuring that, after some slightly less effective entries, the seventh season finds the show handily back on form.

Related Article: Paul Giamatti Talks ‘The Holdovers’ and Reuniting with Alexander Payne

Does ‘Black Mirror’ Season 7 reflect well on the series?

Paul Giamatti in ‘Black Mirror’ season 7. Photo: Nick Wall/Netflix.

‘Black Mirror’ has always been about more than simply darkly shaded warnings about the use (and mis-use of technology); it’s about humans and how we interact, also. Season 7 definitely lives up to that aim, offering some persuasive tales of those whose lives are impacted by innovations in medical science or tech in general.

It’s also welcome to see the series following up on a couple of popular episodes –– while the sequel to ‘USS Callister’ doesn’t have the sting of the original, for example, it expands it in interesting ways and deepens one of the characters in the process.

Script and Direction

Will Poulter in ‘Black Mirror’ season 7. Photo: Nick Wall/Netflix.

Charlie Brooker, the show’s co-creator, once again leads the writing team here, working alongside the likes of Bisha K. Ali, Ella Road, William Bridges, and Bekka Bowling to put out more gripping tales. A highlight of the writing this time in the first entry, ‘Common People,’ with its spin on ever-changing subscription services this time applied to live-saving medical treatment. It’s emotional and thorough, and heartbreaking when needed.

On a more darkly funny level is ‘Bête Noire,’ with its vengeful story of old resentments curdled into fresh vengeance. We won’t reveal exactly what is going on, but the answer is a fun one.

Directing wise, it’s reassuring to see such filmmakers as David Slade and Toby Hynes brought back to handle the two episodes –– ‘Plaything’ and ‘USS Callister: Into Infinity’ that call back to their previous work.

All in all, though, the direction is superb –– stylish when required, subtle at other times.

Cast and Performances

(L to R) Chris O’Dowd and Rashida Jones in ‘Black Mirror’ season 7. Photo: Nick Wall/Netflix.

As has become commonplace for ‘Black Mirror,’ Season 7 boasts a quality ensemble for its various stories.

Chris O’Dowd and Rashida Jones are at the heart of ‘Common People’ and put in turns that are funny, real and packed full of feeling, but not forgetting Tracee Ellis Ross as their company rep, who keeps pushing new updates with a smile, even when the couple struggle to keep up financially.

‘Hotel Reverie’ blends classic Hollywood with high-tech and features lovely work from Emma Corrin and Issa Rae, with fine support from Awkwafina and Harriet Walter.

Peter Capaldi in ‘Black Mirror’ season 7. Photo: Nick Wall/Netflix.

‘Plaything’ hinges on the intense energy of Peter Capaldi, who really sells the focus of a man on a mission, but kudos also to Lewis Gribben, who plays the same character 40 years earlier.

‘Eulogy’ boasts excellent work from Paul Giamatti as a man haunted by grief and memory (literally in this case) and grapples with tough truths about his past.

And ‘USS Callister: Into Infinity’ of course re-introduces us to the brave, digi-DNA copies of the crew (and their human counterparts), with Cristin Milioti, Jimmi Simpson and Jesse Plemons all fantastic returning to their roles.

Final Thoughts

Issa Rae in ‘Black Mirror’ season 7. Photo: Nick Wall/Netflix.

While it has the usual highs and lows as in any ‘Black Mirror’ season, the highs far outweigh the lows, and for every episode that doesn’t shine as brightly (‘Bête Noire’ is a fun concept but doesn’t totally deliver), there is a wonderful show waiting to be injected into your eyes.

Oh, and fans of the series will want to be on the lookout for a recurring motif; let’s just say it starts with the letter “J”…

“The future is bright.”

What’s the story of ‘Black Mirror’ Season 7?

The six-episode season of ‘Black Mirror’ features the following stories…

‘Common People’: When a medical emergency leaves schoolteacher Amanda fighting for her life, her desperate husband Mike signs her up for Rivermind, a high-tech system that will keep her alive –– but at a cost…

‘Bête Noire’: Confectionary whizz kid Maria is unnerved when her former schoolmate Verity joins the company she works at — because there’s something altogether odd about Verity, something only Maria seems to notice…

‘Hotel Reverie’: A high-tech, unusually immersive remake of a vintage British film sends Hollywood A-list star Brandy Friday into another dimension, where she must stick to the script if she ever wants to make it home.

‘Plaything’: In a near-future London, an eccentric murder suspect is linked to an unusual video game from the 1990s — a game populated by cute, evolving artificial lifeforms.

‘Eulogy’: An isolated man is introduced to a groundbreaking system that allows its users to literally step inside old photographs — stirring powerful emotions in the process.

‘USS Callister: Into Infinity’: Robert Daly is dead, but now the crew of the USS Callister –– led by Captain Nanette Cole –– are stranded in an infinite virtual universe, fighting for survival against 30 million players.

Who stars in ‘Black Mirror’ Season 7?

Awkwafina in ‘Black Mirror’ season 7. Photo: Nick Wall/Netflix.

List of other anthology TV Shows:

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TV Review: ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2

by admin | Apr 12, 2025 | Articles, Moviephone Articles

‘The Last of Us’ Season 2 receives 8.5 out of 10 stars.

Back on Max for its second season and debut the first episode on April 13th, ‘The Last of Us’ plunges us back into the chaotic, carefully-crafted world adapted from the Naughty Dog game originally created by Neil Druckmann and his team.

Now Druckmann, working again with co-showrunner Craig Mazin, is starting the even more perplexing process of adapting ‘The Last of Us Part II,’ which deepened the story of the game and its hard-bitten survivors.

Related Article: 10 Things We Learned at the ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2 Press Conference

Is ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2 worth battling mushroom zombies to see?

(L to R) Bella Ramsey and Gabriel Luna in ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2. Photograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO.

Perhaps the biggest question, and indeed challenge facing the new season of the show is whether it can live up to the praise and success of the first. It’s a situation that co-creator Neil Druckmann has faced before in this universe, and it should give fans of the show who never played the game hope that by all regards, ‘The Last of Us Part II’ is seen as superior to the original, much-loved game.

Of course, season 2 of a TV series, even one with a pedigree such as this, is a different beast. Yet Druckmann and Mazin have shown remarkable patience and care with their work, bring what works about the game to the screen by making the changes necessary to ensure it functions in a different, less interactive medium.

And it’s reassuring to report that, on the basis of the first episode of the new season, ‘Future Days,’ their efforts continue to pay off.

Script and Direction

(L to R) Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann on the set of ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2. Photograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO.

While Mazin and Druckmann do the lion’s share of the writing on the show, the first episode features a script by Halley Wegryn Gross that has a lot of work to do.

Though there is a brief moment set right at the end of Season 1, the majority of the episode takes place five years later. With the survivors’ base in Jackson, Wyoming (a former ski resort repurposed as a fortress against the fungi-ravaged zombie-like mutants that prowl the lands between encampments) up and running as a functioning community.

That means we not only have to be re-introduced to Pedro Pascal’s tough-but-heartfelt Joel and Bella Ramsey’s headstrong Ellie (now even more so as a 19-year-old brawler itching to take on more responsibility), but fill us in on all the other characters.

Bella Ramsey in ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2. Photograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO.

The script for ‘Future Days’ is busy but finds time for everyone –– even deviating from the game in introducing and immediately identifying Kaitlyn Dever’s Abby Anders as someone who is looking to enact vengeance on Joel for his actions in the final episode of the previous season.

Another challenge for the script is to start building towards what game players already know is coming either in this season or the next (both are drawn from ‘The Last of Us Part II’ game) –– no spoilers, but things don’t end well.

Mazin doesn’t have that many directing credits to his name despite years in the feature business, and even with his involvement in the series, this is the first time he has called the shots on an episode. But he shows a steady hand and a clear eye for what makes the show work, and if the time jump is a jolt, the style is not.

Cast and Performances

(L to R) Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey in ‘The Last of Us’ season 1. Photo: Liane Hentscher/HBO.

Anchored by Pascal and Ramsey, the episode doesn’t forget to give other performers some solid work.

Pascal is, of course, still great as the haunted, soulful Joel, the man who never expected to find a surrogate daughter after losing his own in the early days of the pandemic that rocked the world. Here, we find him in problem-solving mode, and Pascal brings out all the tones, including his sly sense of humor.

(Left) Kaitlyn Dever in ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2. Photograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO. (Right) Catherine O’Hara in ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2. Photograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO.

Ramsey has even more to prove with the more grown version of Ellie, but they handle the job fluidly, this tougher, less childish version of the character finding new connections while still dealing with old issues.

Among the newcomers we meet, Dever makes and impact with relatively little screen time as Abby, Isabel Merced is a shiny delight as Dina and Catherine O’Hara gets to go to some deeper places as Gail, who is tending to Joel’s mental health.

Final Thoughts

Pedro Pascal in ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2. Photograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO.

Though it remains to be seen how the rest of the season and beyond plays out, the first episode of ‘The Last of Us’ new season is a welcomer reminder of why this is one of the best shows on TV.

There is so much solid character work going on from both sides of the camera, and the look of the show, including some truly scary mushroom mutants, is still superb.

“Every path has a price.”

What is the plot of ‘The Last of Us’ season 2?

Five years after the events of the first season, Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) are drawn into conflict with each other and a world even more dangerous and unpredictable than the one they left behind.

Who is in the cast of ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2?

Bella Ramsey in ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2. Photograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO.

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