The Kilkenny Observer Friday 15 October 2021
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TV & Streaming
The true story behind Maid NETFLIX viewers enjoy an excellent true story adaptation, and the streamer is happy to oblige. The most recent comes in the form of a Netflix original miniseries entitled Maid, reviewed last week. In this series, Margaret Qualley plays the lead, Alex, and is joined by her real-life mother, Andie MacDowell, who plays Alex’s mother Paula. Alex is a single mother who takes her daughter and leaves an abusive relationship to find it challenging to make ends meet on her wages as a housekeeper. The series is already a massive hit. But is Maid a true story? The series is based on the memoir of Stephanie Land, titled ‘Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, And A Mother’s Will To Survive’. She drew on her own experiences as a housekeeper making a meagre $9 an hour to support herself and her daughter. She had aspirations of attending college and becoming a writer when she became pregnant after dating a guy for a few months. But, that relationship became abusive, and she took her child and went out on her own. Land would eventually attend college and pen her memoir which turned into a 2019 bestseller. She then sold the right to Netflix, and producers John Wells and Margot Robbie worked to fictionalise the story to adapt to the series. After attending and graduating from the creative writing program at the University of Montana, Land would do freelance writing and then a writing fellowship with the Centre for Community Change. We’re still waiting to find out if Maid season 2 will happen. It’s unlikely, but based on the popularity of the Netflix original series, it could happen if all the parties involved were interested in continuing this story.
This fine 2021 British drama excavates a whole lot of buried treasure with a distinguished cast in Carey Mulligan, Ralph Fiennes, Lily James and Johnny Flynn. It’s based on the true events around the 1939 excavation of Sutton Hoo, yielding a priceless trove of Anglo-Saxon artefacts hidden in a burial ship. Romantic, intellectual and moving, The Dig is a full sweep of elegance.
A black-and-white David Fincher tale from last year about the unsung screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz who helped Orson Welles write Citizen Kane. Step back into Old Hollywood, with beautiful cinematography and take in the behind-the-scenes of how studio systems functioned in a different time. Gary Oldman and Amanda Seyfried are among the exceptional cast of this biographical drama filled with the lightness and darkness of its hero’s life.
Falling into the movies that make you cry category, Pieces of a Woman is an emotional well that’ll steep you in melancholy. Martha’s home birth leads to a schism in her marriage as her life falls to pieces. Known for its opening 24-minute childbirth one-shot, this portrait of grief will ultimately take you to poignant places. Plus, see Vanessa Kirby put in her career best performance.
Imitation of a life: Margaret Qualley and screen daughter Maddy, with the real-life Alex, Stephanie Land, and her daughter
Season 2 for Apple’s Foundation APPLE’S highly anticipated show Foundation premiered just two weeks ago, but even so, fans will be thrilled to know that Apple has just renewed it for its second season, according to Variety. Head of Programming for Apple TV+, Matt Cherniss. thanked the global audience who “embrace the captivating, suspenseful and breathtaking
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movies to watch now on Netflix
thrill ride” that is Foundation, which will return for a second season. However, details about when season two will premier are currently unknown. “We know how long fans of these beloved Asimov stories have waited to see his iconic work brought to life as a visually spectacular event series and now we can’t wait to showcase even more of the
richly layered world, compelling storytelling and stunning world-building in season two,” he said. Foundation is a chronicle based on Isaac Asimov’s award-winning sci-fi novels. The series is described as “a complex saga of humans scattered on planets throughout the galaxy all living under the rule of the Galactic Empire”.
The main cast includes Jared Harris, Lee Pace, Lou Llobell, and Leah Harvey — with David S. Goyer as showrunner. Interestingly, only three of the 10 episodes of Foundation‘s first season are so far available on Apple TV+, so Apple seems to be quite confident in the show’s future to confirm another season so far in advance.
A movie about divorce might not sound like the best viewing experience, but Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story from 2019 is a journey you’ll want to take. Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver give two of the best performances of their careers as Nicole and Charlie, a couple who embark on the emotionally and logistically complicated legal processes involved in prying a partnership apart. Painted with an emotional complexity that includes poignantly funny moments along with the painful ones, this is happy-sad at its best.
Also from 2019 and set primarily in Vatican City, this biographical drama follows Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio in the aftermath of the Vatican leaks scandal. It’s as fascinating as it sounds. The Two Popes carves up a slice of real-life drama with a first-class two-hander featuring Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins.
