The Kilkenny Observer Friday 29 July 2022
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Why you need to watch this Amazon sci-fi film Stop scrolling on whatever streaming service you’ve been staring at, pop onto Prime Video and watch 2013’s low- budget sci-fi flick Coherence ASAP. The initial premise of Coherence is fairly simple. A few friends meet up for a dinner party the same night a mysterious comet is scheduled to fly overhead. It begins as many indie movies do, with a troubled love story, tension between exes and witty banter. Then the power goes out. It gets weird. Act two. Inexplicable events ensue while the ensemble of characters scramble to restore the power. Nothing is as it had seemed. Some start to doubt where they are, others are more concerned with who they are. This isn’t a movie
about longtime pals’ small talk. It’s a tale about them coming face- to-face with the terrifying truth of their reality. There are shocking revelations uncovered during the film. I can assure you, though, that the onscreen confusion is potent enough to force you to question your own sanity. The next hour or so overflows with plot twists that could rival those of 2010’s Shutter Island. The film also expertly alludes to scientific — and rather philosophical — concepts that have probably crossed the mind of the late Stephen Hawking. Coherence ties together the social, personal and existential consequences that would arise from a complex theory of space and
time with a heart-thumping mystery. Speckled with red herrings, easter eggs and a few ambiguities, Coherence is arguably one of the most mind-bending sci-fi films to date. Coherence, which occasionally verges on horror, was made with a scarce budget of just $50,000 and shot over a mere five days. For context, Alfonso Cuarón’s 2013 film, Gravity, was made with $100 million. Coherence elegantly tells the story of a group of friends grappling with actuality, navigating the frightening turns that reality can take — without the help of CGI, from only one location and with just the sounds of the actors’ voices. Director James Ward Byrkit even decided to forgo a script
for the quietly experimental film. “Each day, instead of getting a script, the actors would get a page of notes for their individual character, whether it was a backstory or information about their motivations,” he told IndieWire. Because the actors were left in the dark about how the story unfolds, any stress and perplexity in their performances is authentic. The film’s chaotic disarray was actually happening during the movie’s filming. Coherence will keep you guessing along with the actors, elicit audible gasps and make you feel a bit like a sci-fi spy. Hours after the credits roll, you might well experience chills as previously overlooked clues and nuances slowly wash over you.
The Crown, and Diana on Panorama Princess Diana’s infamous Panorama interview with Martin Bashir will never appear on the BBC again, but it will be explored in the Netflix show, The Crown. The Crown Season 5, coming in the autumn, will cover Princess Diana’s 1995 interview with Bashir. A source told Press Association (PA): “Season five of The Crown will dramatise events surrounding the Panorama interview, given the pivotal part it played during the time period the new series covers.”] The source added that this series will also include the up-to-date information that has since emerged. “It will reflect what we now know
about how the interview was obtained and how Diana was treated.” This includes the recent inquiry revelations that the Princess was coerced into doing the interview with forged documents and false allegations about ex-nannyTiggy Legge-Bourke’s affair with Prince Charles. This news has coincided with the announcement from the BBC that they will never again broadcast the infamous interview. Director-General of the BBC Tim Davie said: “Now we know about the shocking way that the interview was obtained, I have decided that the BBC will never show the programme
again, nor will we license it in whole or part to other broadcasters.” “It does of course remain part of the historical record and there may be occasions in the future when it will be justified for the BBC to use short extracts for journalistic purposes, but these will be few and far between and will need to be agreed at executive committee level and set in the full context of what we now know about the way the interview was obtained. I would urge others to exercise similar restraint,” concluded the Director general. This pledge was made following the inquiry by Lord Dyson which found that
the deceitful circumstances used to acquire the interview with the Princess, ‘fell short of high standards of integrity and transparency’ and were a ‘serious breach’ of guidelines. It has been repeated on many occasions that the Princess of Wales had regrets about this interview. Princess Diana’s ex-butler reveals her one main regret from Martin Bashir interview which was previously unshared by the Princess who died two years after this bombshell interview. The Royal Family has yet to comment on the inquiry or the decision from the BBC to no longer air the interview.
Once you’ve watched all bajillion hours of Stranger Things 4 and realise it’s not enough, take a look at this heir apparent to the Netflix megahit. Based on the Brian K. Vaughn comic series, Paper Girls on Apple TV follows four teen girls in 1988 who get caught up in a war between rival time-traveling factions from the future, who are at odds about whether to use time travel to change the past.
Netflix has released its highly-anticipated action-thriller The Gray Man, which stars Ryan Gosling as a CIA contractor on the run from Chris Evans, who has been sent to kill him because Gosling learned some incriminating secrets about the Agency. It’s the most expensive movie, based on the graphic novels of the same name.
Set primarily in Vatican City, this biographical drama from 2019 and on Netflix 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 firstclass two-hander featuring Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins.
This elegant Spanish film from 2018 will steep you in its rich imagery and phenomenally good performances from its two leads. Susi Sánchez and Bárbara Lennie star as Anabel and Chiara respectively, an estranged mother and daughter who reunite for reasons that aren’t as clear as they first seem. The precision of the filmmaking here is worthy of soaking up for those who are partial to deliberately paced meditations on pain, love and loss. Masterful. On Netflix.
Mudbound (2017) gives you a historical look at class struggle through the lens of a Black veteran and a white veteran who both still have one foot stuck in World War II. Dealing with PTSD and racism in the Mississippi Delta, with a cast that includes Garrett Hedlund and Jason Mitchell, Mudbound’s tempest will rivet you to the spot. Streaming on Netflix.
