Wilson Fisk's reign as New York mayor continues, but Daredevil is determined to expose his criminal connections and bring him down, with the help of allies including Karen Page and Jessica Jones. With Daredevil on the run and Fisk protected by mechanisms both legal and illicit, the odds are stacked against the Devil of Hell's Kitchen as never (well, rarely) before.After Daredevil's original four-season run (including his turn on Defenders) came to an end and Disney+ took over control of Marvel…

So, Glen Hansard died last week. Yes, ONCE was a good movie. Yes, “Falling Slowly” is a good song. But Hansard was at BEST problematic. His partner in Swell Season (and ONCE) was Marketa Irglova, whom he met when he was 32 and she was THIRTEEN. Their romantic relationship didn’t begin, it’s claimed, until six years later. Some said “ah, well, fair play” at the time, but today, we call that “grooming.” And now Neko Case has a story to tell as well. You should read it.

In a video titled "Breaking My Silence on Project Runway (I Might Get Sued)," which you can watch below, Plane Jane details her experience on the wreck that is Freeform's Project Runway 22.

Legislation has barred people with special powers from working in Hollywood, a rule enforced by the Department of Damage Control. When they suspect that up-and-coming actor Simon Williams has secret powers, they recruit ex-Mandarin actor Trevor Slattery to befriend him and learn the truth. Slattery is at first keen to help in return for money and his freedom, but as he gets to know Williams and sees things in him that remind him of his own career at a younger age, Slattery starts to have second…

Angels and Insects (1995) is such a fascinating, visually striking movie, featuring excellent actors, and I’m

Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys On Sunday, Beatrix will walk out of the arena at Circus Juventas for the last time, and that thought has me up early this morning. It’s not like I did not know it before, but it’s hitting especially hard. Same.

Back in 2008, I was kicking around Manchester and my best mate Emily introduced me to MaxNormal.TV – the precursor to what would later be known as South Africa’s international superstars and rap rave outfit Die Antwoord, fronted by Waddy Jones (aka Max Normal, aka Ninja) and Yo-Landi Visser. Christmas was ...

In honour of Stockholm Pride, I want to share some good shows on the subject. Watching LGBTQ+ characters on the screen has given me courage to live more openly. I hope these gems can inspire you as much as they've inspired me. Or, at the very least, start a meaningful discussion with friends and family. Happy Pride and enjoy watching! Pride momentsSoap operas and teen dramas paved the way for LGBTQ+ representation in the mainstream media. First, there was the Dawson's Creek gay kiss in 2000,…

In His Words, Bread & Roses Theatre What would you do if you were cast in a play only to discover that it was written by your ex and about your relationship? That’s the central premise of In His Words, and Esther (Heather Woodhouse) decides she’s going to stick it out and see how he ends the play. Meanwhile, her girlfriend Isabella (Megan Goldsman) has got a job looking after an old lady with Alzheimer’s who is obsessed with a particular cave. There is a lot of nature in this play with…

Duplex (2003)

Letterboxd has an ingenious concept baked into its rating system. You can rate a film on a scale of zero to four stars, and you can also adorn a film with a heart. These two things are completely separate systems. The films you love and the films you thought were great are by default a decoupled set. This is one of many decisions that makes Letterboxd a fascinating and well-designed piece of software, because I have no idea how to rate MacGruber, which strains the conceit of a single numerical…

‘Please Use AI’. Via Daring Fireball. This was worth the read and a beautiful reminder of our humanity

Everyone wanted Vangelis the year after Chariots of Fire, and the two movies who landed him were Blade Runner and this downbeat drama. It’s a dialogue-heavy movie, light on the music, but whenever those classy synths kick in, you float for a little while. Missing Charles aka TV’s Lex Luthor, talks with his pet duck: Gavras was by now typecast as the guy who makes depressing movies about leftists getting destroyed by oppressive military governments, so the coup in Chile was right up his alley.…

Boasting a blatantly contrived high-concept premise, One Night Only is better than it ought to be. At the same time, the movie — which rides on agreeable performances from Monica Barbaro and Collum Tower — isn’t the winning charmer it might have been. The contrivance: One Night Only, directed by Will Gluck and written by Travis Baum, creates a world in which unmarried people are subject to an oppressive government mandate: They’re allowed to have sex on only one night a year. Don't expect a…

I was already a sucker for this movie, another “song can save your life” narrative from Carney with winning actors and actually good songs and a cute Glen Hansard tribute, then Glen died suddenly, and now I’m ready to declare this the most important film of the year. The Odyssey wasn’t any better! Wedding band frontman Paul Rudd has a good relationship with his wife(!) and daughter(!) until he gets depressed and obsessed after his one-night bromance with a Jonas brother ends with Nick stealing…

Series of Bad Decisions in the lead-up to Zendaya-Pattinson wedding. Maid of honor Alana Haim does not forgive Z for claiming to have plotted mass murder in her bullied teen years. Alana’s man Mamoudou Athie (Kinds of Kindness) fails to make peace, and Rob starts to spiral, as the accusations (and vomit) fly and people say more things they can’t take back, either stupidly or drunkenly. Pretty decent writing and performances, for every scene where an actor is impressive there’s another where…

Eli Roth has directed notable horror movies, among them Cabin Fever (2002) and Hostel (2005). He's also produced such helpings of horror as Clown (2014) and Haunt (2019). Now, Roth arrives with Ice Cream Man, a horror movie that tries to cut the heart out of idyllic, small-town life when a smiling ice cream man (Ari Millen) turns the town's kids into killers. Ice Cream Man tries to walk the line between sadistically funny and sickeningly gory. Roth knows how to do that, but once you see a sweet…

StarringNicolas Cage, Lamorne Morris, Li Jun Li, Karen Rodriguez, and Abraham PopoolaOverviewWith no power comes no responsibility.Ben Reilly, an aging and down on his luck private investigator in 1930s New York, is forced to grapple with his past life as the city's one and only superhero.Review Spider-Noir I’ll preface this by saying that I like telling alternative stories in set universes, and I’m also a big fan of gritty noir. But this? This just wasn’t interesting. I liked the b&w look, but…

Manny Patel made the first version of this over thirty years ago when he was a high school student. Now he has returned to his Star Trek Bohemian Rhapsody media mix as a celebration of the show’s 60th anniversary (and Queen’s song is 50, so a double celebration). The footage has been upscaled to 4K, giving the original mashup a makeover. It is certainly a labor of love – each two or three second clip exactly matches a line in the song. I’ve been a bit cheeky and put the lyrics in the picture…

•There's been a lot of talk about superhero fatigue, and that Marvel Cinematic Universe having become less and less of a selling point in and of itself (and I agree the cross-movie mega-story has been completely unmoored and ponderous compared to the early days; the producers never bothered to replace the original hook of building The Avengers team and then building towards the Thanos conflict with the Infinity gems/stones, so there hasn't really been any narrative momentum since Endgame).…

So, finally watched HEAT. I tend to have issues with Michael Mann films but, despite reservations about this one, I did not experience my usual issue of finding that his bold stylistic choices are totally wrong for the film he’s making. Mostly. I also didn’t feel that about THIEF, so maybe I’m warming to him, […]

Welcome to The Film Noir Files, the noir series here at Shadows and Satin and over at Speakeasy, the blog authored by my pal Kristina, where each month we recommend a film noir feature for you to watch on TCM. We never know what the other has selected until we post, and part of the fun is trying to never pick the same movie! There are lots of great noirs airing in August – including Laura (1944), Scarlet Street (1945), and Night and the City (1950) – but my pick of the month (like my Pre-Code…

I went to see a film today. To the actual cinema, with actual popcorn and drinks and iMax and…well, The Odyssey. I’ve written book reviews before but I know books. Like really know books. Whereas I think this is the first film I’ve seen in the cinema since…maybe Snail and the Whale and Zog with the children a couple of years ago. Before that, it was probably Mamma Mia 2 in Stockholm, with a live singer and my wife, 3 days pregnant (or at least, that’s when she’d taken the test) with our first…

The sun is dying, being feasted on by tiny lifeforms based on Venus. The phenomenon, the "astrophage," is not unique: every star within dozens of light-years of Sol is suffering the same malaise...except one: Tau Ceti. With Earth's habitability in danger in a matter of decades, the countries of the world unite to send a near-lightspeed ship, powered by the same tiny lifeforms, to Tau Ceti to investigate. Only one crewmember, Ryland Grace, survives the trip, finding himself alone almost a dozen…

Kevin Powell tries out Prop For That, makin it look so slick and easy 🫶 Watch on YouTube

I am appalled that it’s taken us this long to feature the incredible Melanie Lynskey

Last year, I began a journey of watching Kung Fu, the 70's television show starring David Carradine. I'm not a huge fan of binge watching, especially a show like this that is so slow, but I'm working my way towards the end of the series and it's left me wanting more. Naturally, I began digging into what else is out there. I found a copy of two books that were highly regarded, a TV movie/sequel co-starring Brandon Lee that is not so highly regarded, and then of course, Kung Fu: The Legend…

A meticulous jewel thief risks his flawless record against an equally obsessive detective and a volatile rival, while an underestimated insurance broker turns accomplice after decades of professional disrespect Good crime thriller directed by Bart Layton (American Animals) starring Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo and Halle Berry, but what really impressed me was the short but intense performance of Barry Keoghan as an unhinged robber. While pretty predictable, the movie does entertain and keeps…

You say you want to be a doctor. Have you ever been a doctor? No, you haven’t. So you don’t want to be a doctor. You think you want to be a doctor. Detach. Don’t go through medical school as if it’s your one and only possibility. You may discover that you do, in fact, want to be a doctor. You may discover that you want to be anything but a doctor. And that’s OK. Infekta