’What Jennifer Did’

True crime documentary as a 911 call in suburban Ontario with a hysterical Jennifer Pan reporting a home invasion and the shooting of her parents (her father survived) – only for Jennifer herself to become the main suspect.

The story of a quiet, respectable, hardworking family with expectations placed on the only child to do well at college and university. So much so, living at home in her early 20s, Jennifer’s life is seriously controlled. To them, minor drug dealer Daniel Wong is not boyfriend material and connections between him and their daughter are curtailed. Or so they think.

What unwinds in this somewhat staid telling of murder, obsession, stalking and drug abuse is the extraordinary tale of a young woman pushed to the edge. In part desperately trying to be the perfect daughter but equally desperate to be herself, to have a life away from expectation. Daniel is certainly not off the scene and helped Jennifer forge documents stating she was attending university in Toronto.

What Jennifer Did is an extraordinary story but unfortunately not that well told by director Jenny Popplewell. Following the true crime documentary template, the original crime is presented only to be followed, via interviews, documents, archived footage (the crime took place in 2010) by surprises and revelations. But it’s all superficial, surface gloss with no insight or depth of motivational understanding.

Rating: 46%

Director: Jenny Popplewell (American Murder: The Family Next Door, TV’s My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding)

’Rebel Moon – Part 1: A Child of Fire’

On a distant moon, a peaceful agrarian settlement is threatened by the dominant violent rulers of the known universe. A woman not from their village becomes the best hope for survival.

With the ruling forces arriving on the moon under the leadership of the terrifyingly cruel Atticus Noble (Ed Skrein), he demands from the local residents some 80% of their yet-to-harvested crops. Knowing they cannot provide without starving, Kora (Sofia Boutella), a stranger living in their midst, kills the troops left behind. She convinces her adopted family that she must travel and round-up trained fighters to protect them and take on the might of the Mother World.

A visual, imaginative feast from Zack Snyder as Kora and village local, Gunnar (Michiel Huisman), travel the galaxy collecting waifs, strays and insurgents – but all brilliant warriors. Battles are fought but with the band returning ‘home’ the scene is set for the ultimate showdown in part two.

But so derivative is the narrative, so predictable, so uninvolving that who cares what happens in part two. We may have Kora’s backstory but it’s Atticus Noble who is, sadly, the most interesting aspect of Rebel Moon.

Rating: 30%

Director: Zack Snyder (Justice League, 300)

Writer: Zack Snyder (Justice League, Sucker Punch), Kurt Johnstad (Atomic Blonde, 300), Shay Hatten (John Wick 4, Army of Thieves)

Main cast: Sofia Boutella (Argylle, Kingsman: The Secret Service), Ed Skrein (Deadpool, Midway), Michiel Huisman (The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, The Age of Adaline)

‘Lost in Space’ (Seasons 1-3)

Loosely based on the popular 1960s television series, Lost in Space sees the Robinson family stranded on an alien planet with a small number of other colonists on their way to a new life on the distant Alpha Centauri.

With Earth less and less habitable, colonisation in space is a means to survival. Following rigid testing, the Robinson family are selected to travel to the distant planet light years away from their home. No surprise – Maureen Robinson (Molly Parker) is a brilliant scientist and estranged dad John (Toby Stephens) a former US Navy SEAL. Muscle and brains provide the perfect balance for their hyper-intelligent teenage kids Judy (Taylor Russell), Penny (Mina Sundwall) and Will (Maxwell Jenkins). But en-route, an alien robot breaches the mothersip’s hull, forcing a number of passengers and crew to evacuate. Circumstance on the surface of the planet sees the family partnered with the manipulative and self-centred Dr Smith (Parker Posey) and highly skilled engineer (and part time smuggler) Don West (Ignacio Serricchio). One of the alien spacecraft crash lands nearby and, broken, the robot aboard is helped by Will. A bond is formed between the two which sees aggression change to protection.

Three seasons of relatively entertaining but mindless television follows. The survivalist Robinson family and the rest of the colonisers look to get back to the Resolute mothership (season one) without radio contact and little fuel along with the need to survive a dangerous alien environment. Inevitably, everything centres around the family members either singularly or collectively as the trained brawn of John, the scientific mind of Maureen, the medical training of Judy and Will’s protector are all in demand. So much so, family arrogance seeps into the narrative, with their will and decision forced on those around them.

A mix of adventure and family drama as the Robinsons navigate an alien world, the expectations of others, the fathomless behaviour of Smith and the demands of each other is the core of Lost in Space. Most scenarios are contained within a given episode resulting in a fast-paced, somewhat breathless 28 fairly predictable and exhausting episodes.

Rating: 57%

‘Lupin’ (Seasons 1 & 2)

Inspired by the early 20th century stories of the fictional French gentleman thief Arsène Lupin, this 10 part, two season narrative is a delightful romp through modern day Paris as petty thief Assane Diop looks to avenge the framing and resulting death of his father for theft 25 years earlier.

Omar Sy is magnificent as the empathic and warm-hearted Diop who, through his own unreliability, has seen his family unravel. But he and wife Claire (Ludivine Sagnier) remain best of friends with Diop a strong presence in the life of son Raoul (Etan Simon). The two share a love for the stories of Maurice Leblanc and his fictional creation, Arsène Lupin. Intending to go straight, Diop is distracted by news of the forthcoming auction of the very necklace his father was accused of stealing – and by Hubert Pellegrini (Hervé Pierre), the wealthy industrialist and former employer of Babakar Diop (Fargass Assandé).

Like Lupin, Assane Diop is a master of disguises and, with support from best friend since schooldays, Benjamin (Antoine Gouy), inveigles his way into the Louvre and the auction. Disguised as a wealthy bidder, he steals the necklace. And so begins a 10 part narrative of Diop attempting to stay one step ahead of Pellegrini’s henchmen and corrupt police as well as be a reliable father to Raoul. Interspersed are recollections of young teenage memories and his links with the Pellegrini family and daughter Juliette. Diop’s singular objective is to prove his father was framed.

It’s a fun, slightly tongue-in-cheek, old-fashioned ride full of incident but with occasional challenging moments to ensure Lupin avoids asinine superficiality.

Rating: 77%

’Players’

Lightweight rom-com when New York local sports reporter Mack falls for a fling without recognising that the real love of her life has been around her since childhood.

With best friends Adam (Damon Wayans Jnr) and Brannagan (Augustus Prew), Mack (Gina Rodriguez) has spent years devising ‘plays’ in picking up one night stands. But their golden rule of not building a relationship from a play is jeopardised when she falls for British war correspondent Nick (Tom Ellis). To those around her, the arrogant celebrity is overly controlling. But love is blind.

Players as directed by Trish Sie unexpectedly punches above its weight with its likeable characters and amiable if predictable storyline helped by its injection of offbeat comedy (a shout out to Joel Courtney as Brannagan’s younger brother, Little).

Rating: 54%

Director: Trish Sie (Pitch Perfect 3, Sitting in Bars With Cake)

Writer: Whit Anderson (TV’s Allegiance, Daredevil)

Main cast: Gina Rodriguez (Deepwater Horizon, Kajillionaire), Damon Wayans Jnr (Cherry, The Other Guys), Tom Ellis (Isn’t It Romantic, TV’s Lucifer)

‘Lover Stalker Killer’

Online dating results in more than expected as a lonely, recently divorced motor mechanic discovers that ‘casual’ has different interpretations.

Following a divorce, Dave Kroupa moves from his home town to Omaha, Nebraska to be close to his two children. Knowing no-one, he decides to try online dating, initially looking for something casual and laid back. But, having met two or three women, several months later he meets Cari Favar and things evolve into something a little more serious. Only she suddenly disappears. Her only form of contact is via intense and atypical text messaging. And Kroupa is not the only recipient – Favar becomes increasingly abusive to her mother and threatening to Liz Golyar, another of Kroupa’s casual hook-ups. When property is vandalised, Golyar’s house burnt to the ground and Kroupa’s ex-wife and children stalked, the local sheriff’s office begin to take things a little more seriously.

The problem with Sam Hobkinson’s documentary is that it is presented in such a way that the reveal is telegraphed within 15 minutes. There’s little suspense in what appears to be an inept job by the initial detective assigned to the case, a case that went on for several years. Electronic surveillance technology was readily available yet it took three years and a new team of investigators before it was utilised. The result increases interest and pace in the unfolding narrative of the documentary with the outcome surprising Kroupa and the police. But for most documentary viewers this was pretty obvious early on.

Rating: 48%

Director: Sam Hobkinson (Misha and the Wolves, The Kleptocrats)

’Beef’

Award-winning 10 part dark comedy of a miniseries, Beef sees two people consumed by road rage and a continued determination to get one up on each other for months after the event.

An LA car park and a near collision sees the luxury white SUV driven by Amy Lau (Ali Wong) and the ute of Danny Cho (Steven Yeun) involved in a crazy car chase around the suburban streets. Nothing comes of the chase but the two now know each other’s identity and place of work and home. (In the States a payment will provide personal details of the holder of a given car registration).

Cue 10 episodes of dark comedy that palpably build over time as the two go to extraordinary lengths to better the other in order to appease their simmering anger.

Amy is a wealthy business woman on the verge of selling her company for a small fortune. But the buyer, billionaire Jordan (Maria Bello), has been stringing her out for some time, placing obstacles to the sale. A fraught Amy, already liable to bouts of depression, struggles with anger issues that cause problems with her Zen-like husband George Nakai (Joseph Lee) and a mother-in-law she does not like (Patti Yasutake).

Danny Cho is frustrated and angry – a struggling electrician who feels marginalised as a Korean in the US but also has family issues: his parents have returned to Korea following the collapse of their motel business and his live-in younger brother Paul (Young Mazino) prefers video games to work. His recenty paroled wheeler-dealer cousin Isaac (David Choe) contributed to the demise of the family business. How far can Danny trust him and his ideas?

From ‘simple’ vandalism, revenge escalates. Danny befriends an unaware George: Amy has an affair with Paul. Isaac causes all kinds of trouble. The two also try to get on with their own lives – Amy through work and her family, Danny through the Church. Much of it is in the realms of possibility. Until the final episode at least. By the last episode it’s all seemingly too late even if, at different points throughout the 10-part series, each has reached a possible stopping point. But always at the wrong moment. The explosive finale blows all that out the window as the two finally reach a level of self-awareness. But at great cost to themselves and others.

Created by Lee Sung Jin, Beef beautifully plays on the ‘I’m in the right here’ mode as the incident comes when both Amy and Danny were each at moments of uncertainty in their lives. The need for self confirmation is epitomised by their determination to ‘win’ (without knowing what that actually means).

Rating: 69%

’Boy Swallows Universe’

A dark adaptation of the best selling coming-of-age novel by Trent Dalton, Boy Swallows Universe is a 1980s Brisbane tale. Eli and his selectively mute brother navigate life on the margins including the disappearance of their drug-dealing stepfather.

Precocious Eli (Felix Cameron) lives with his brother Gus (Lee Tiger Halley) in a run down suburban home. Well-cared for by mom, former addict Frankie (Phoebe Tonkin), and larrikin drug dealer Lyle (Travis Fimmel), it’s a happy home full of love and adventure. Baby-sitter and mentor to the boys is a convicted murderer (Bryan Brown) and Eli is penpal to a lifer. Life is never dull!

But always looking to skim a little off the top, Lyle disappears. And what’s worse, that same night Frankie is arrested and imprisoned. The boys are forced to live with their alcoholic, agoraphobic father, Robert (Simon Baker) fully aware of the local mob’s role in Lyle’s disappearance. They want to know just where that ‘little off the top’ is – and when Lyle keeps quiet, boss Tytus Broz (Anthony LaPaglia) sends his boys after Eli and Gus.

Poor Eli is confused – he wants to follow his heart and simply be good. And gain justice for Lyle. But the people around him do not make it easy. And as the years pass by, mom is finally released and 17 year-old Eli (Zac Burgess) gets to experience a different world to the opening episodes of a childhood five or so years earlier. But Broz is still in his sights.

Told over seven energetic episodes, Boy Swallows Universe with its dark humour is archetypal ’80s Australian trope. Mullets, thongs, Hawaiian shirts aplenty in this sprawling underworld tale that, in spite of it gritty, serious subject matter, is also full of heart. The final scenes may be gratuitously melodramatic and feel rushed after six and a half episodes of social commentary and childhood magical-realism, but as an adaptation, scriptwriter John Collee (whose credits include Master & Commander, Happy Feet and Hotel Mumbai) has captured the colour, exuberance and sheer joy of its source.

Rating: 73%

’The Greatest Night in Pop’

The single night recording of We Are the World, a charity single for African famine relief, and the collaborating personalities involved was history in the making.

With the UK charity single release in December 1984 of Do They Know It’s Christmas?, the initiative by Bob Geldof and Band Aid, musician and activist Harry Belafonte looked to an American response. With music manager, producer and consultant Ken Kragen, Belafonte approached Lionel Richie – and from there are on in, the idea snowballed. And quickly. Action was needed immediately. The ceremony for the American Music Awards on 28 January 1985 was identified – the industry would be descending on LA. That gave Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson mere weeks to write the song, artists to be contacted and confirmed, practical arrangements made and Quincy Jones to produce.

As The Greatest Night in Pop shows, it was tight. Extended commentary from Richie himself on the whole process along with insights from the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Cyndi Lauper, Dionne Warwick, Huey Lewis, Sheila E., Smokey Robinson as well as technicians and cameramen involved support the gist of Bao Nguyen’s documentary – the footage of the A&M recording session on that one January 1985 night/morning.

With Richie as our tour guide, The Greatest Night in Pop is a blast – the chaos of 40+ artists, their commitment, the vocal control of Michael Jackson, the wizardry of Stevie Wonder, the discomfort of Bob Dylan, the calm of Quincy Jones.

Rating: 74%

Director: Bao Nguyen (Live From New York!, Be Water)

‘Society of the Snow’ (La sociedad de la nieve)

Breathtaking and deeply moving telling of an extraordinary true story, Society of the Snow sees the surviving members of an Uruguayan rugby team stranded in the Andes following a plane crash forced to go to extreme lengths to stay alive.

Invited to play an exhibition match in Santiago, Chile, the Old Christians Club amateur rugby team left Montevideo in October 1972 on a specially chartered plane. On board were 45 people (40 passengers – players, friends and family members – along with five crew members). Turbulent weather and pilot error resulted in the flight crashing onto a remote glacier way off course. Many were killed instantly but the broken plane became home for the survivors for an extraordinary 72 days of near starvation and extreme weather conditions (including being buried by an avalanche).

With the occasional off-screen narration by Numa Turcatti (Enzo Vogrincic, a calming presence at the crash site), a trainee lawyer and friend of one of the players, Society of the Snow is passionate yet respectful. The irony of the raw beauty of location is not lost as despair sets in – one, two, three days becomes twenty, thirty, forty as the skies are scoured, the last of the food eaten. Admittedly overlong from director J.A. Bayona, an underlying deep empathic humanity prevails as Society of the Snow respectfully and viscerally tells its story.

Nominated for 2 Oscars in 2024 (best foreign language film, make up/hairstyling)

Rating: 78%

Director: J.A. Bayona (The Impossible, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom)

Writer: J.A. Bayona, Bernat Vilaplana, Jaime Marques (Thieves, Intruders), Nicolás Casariego (Intruders, Just Run!) – based on the book by Pablo Vierci

Main cast: Enzo Vogrincic (9, A Twelve-Year Night), Agustín Pardella (Bromance, Pinamar), Matías Recalt (Ciegos, TV’s Planners)