Another year done and dusted but that doesn’t mean that there wasn’t plenty to keep us entertained as the year wound down, with everything from awards contender films to a return to South Park heating up our screens. We’ve selected a few of the biggest films and television shows that we weren’t able to review in full to make sure you’re in the know with all the latest releases in the entertainment space.
The Power of the Dog
The first film from renowned director Jane Campion since 2009, The Power of the Dog is a mostly arresting if incredibly unsettling watch featuring several of the best performances of the year. Benedict Cumberpatch gives the big, showy awards performance as Phil – a rancher incensed when his brother George (Jesse Plemons) forgoes his responsibilities to marry Rose (Kirsten Dunst), inviting her and her son Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee) to join them on the ranch – but the supporting players are just as essential to this slow-burn of deception and betrayal. Dunst is harrowing to watch as the slowly wilting Rose, driven mad by Phil’s endless torture and Plemons is perfect as the dimwitted George, who refuses to acknowledge the difficult situation he has created for everyone.
But it is Smit-McPhee who outshines them both as the quiet, calculating Peter; a disturbing performance that should also land him in the running for supporting awards galore. The pacing drags in spots as Campion takes her time setting the pieces on the board, foregoing extravagant confrontation in favour of a number of small instances that slowly fracture the tenuous bonds between all members of this created family, but the payoff to it all is deliciously twisted, if slightly understated.
The French Dispatch
Even if you don’t like his style you can’t deny that Wes Anderson films are a ton of fun. The French Dispatch is no exception, an anthology of stories built around the workings of a fictional magazine and the cast of quirky characters that inhabit its offices. There’s the story of murderer turned prison artist Moses Rosenthaler (Benicia del Toro) and the eclectic career he enjoyed thanks to his relationship with a prison guard (Léa Seydoux). A tale of a student uprising soon turns to national revolution as the young Zeffirelli (Timothée Chalamet) works on his manifesto, aided by a meddling reporter (Frances McDormand). And food journalist Roebuck Wright (Jeffrey Wright) gets more than he bargained for when a dinner with local police commissioner (Matthieu Amalric) turns into a hostage situation, culminating in a grand chase across the streets of Ennui, the fictional village in France that is host to the French Dispatch.
All the usual suspects are gathered for Anderson’s latest – Bill Murray, Owen Wilson and Tilda Swinton to name a few – and while Zeffirelli’s segment drags the pacing out, arguably the weakest entry of the bunch, the result is an endlessly entertaining trip through Anderson’s unique mind. Not an essential addition to his filmography, but The French Dispatch serves as an excellent introduction to those who may be unfamiliar with Anderson’s very specific style of filmmaking.
Saturday Morning All Star Hits!
SNL funnyman Kyle Mooney brings his unique brand of 80’s-centric comedy to Netflix with Saturday Morning All Star Hits!, a curious collection of cartoon capers with a decidedly adult spin wrapped up in an evolving storyline of twin hosts Skip and Treybor dealing with the pitfalls and penalties of achieving fame. Mooney’s specific brand of humour here is incredibly niche; an ode to classic Saturday morning cartoons and what they mean for the people who grew up with them. The Create-A-Crittles serves as a Care Bears spoof, swapping out the kind and the cuddly for a crippling addiction to “glitter”; Randy a journey of self-discovery for a dinosaur who leaves alcoholism and his gang of children behind for a chance at a fresh start at college; and Strongimals apes the action of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with a decidedly not kid-friendly pro-violence message.
The jokes might not be as laugh-out-loud funny as you would like or expect from Mooney but this is clearly a passion project and a subject that holds a lot of meaning to him (his co-written feature Brigsby Bear also dealt with a man’s strange addiction to a children’s morning cartoon). A host of famous voices – Beck Bennett, Paul Rudd, Emma Stone, Fred Armisen – help to give flavour to the unconventional twist on kids cartoons and some heavier moments between Skip and Treybor reveal glimpses of real emotional pain underlying it all but this is largely a light and breezy affair, unfortunately similar to the cartoons it pays tribute to, in that you are likely to forget about Saturday Morning All Star Hits! as soon as it is over.
South Park: Post-Covid: The Return of Covid
South Park’s second Paramount+ special works is at its best when it flashes back to the gang as children, with a refreshingly juvenile, low-stakes storyline revolving around Cartman blackmailing a girl into sitting court-side at a basketball game serving as a double-edged sword of a reminder of the show’s best days and the Tegridy farm-filled future that it now inhabits. With that being said, reintroducing Butters into the fold as an underhanded NFT conman – while the gang travel through time to uncover the origins of Covid – works a treat, with the hilariously effective commentary on NFT’s and their place within society a welcome change from the familiar Covid and Tegridy weed jokes.
Those Tegridy jokes are still as unfunny as they have been for a few seasons now, but are thankfully pushed aside for the most part as the story pushes away from Covid. The fact that South Park might finally be moving away from the admittedly very topical but now tired Covid commentary is perhaps the biggest takeaway here. With another seven seasons and twelve of these specials to come, the future looks bright for the town of South Park, which can hopefully shift its focus to be less of a disheartening look at the current state of things and more of the ridiculous tales of earlier seasons to distract us as the world continues its long slog through the pandemic.
Encanto
Disney once again calls on the current golden child of musicals Lin-Manuel Miranda for its latest animated effort Encanto, the story of a magical house in Colombia and the Madrigal family that inhabit it, all of whom possess extraordinary gifts except for young Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz), who must uncover her own special talent in order to save her family and home from ruin. It’s a tried and tested formula that becomes so much more thanks to the vibrant energy and colour palette on display, the luscious animation and the endless ear-worms Manuel helps create for the film. It’s no exaggeration to say that you’ll be humming future classics like “We Don’t Talk about Bruno” for weeks after watching; the catchy tunes belying the film’s clever, mature discussion on anxiety, doubts and living up to expectations in a way that younger viewers can process and understand.
The Lost Daughter
Olivia Colman returns to give another acting masterclass in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut The Lost Daughter, a slowly gestating rumination on motherhood and the frustrations that arise in navigating it. Colman is absolutely fantastic as Leda, a discomforting woman who is unusually terse with fellow vacationers and seems to harbour more than a few dark secrets. It’s a performance that is always arresting, even if you are constantly second-guessing your assessment of Leda. Is she the mild-mannered woman she seems and simply struggles to communicate, or is there a more sinister edge lying underneath the surface. Recurring flashbacks to Leda’s youth (played here by an equally excellent Jessie Buckley) offer glimpses into the psyche of the woman but often raise more questions than they answer.
If it all seems too slow and methodical in approach, Gyllenhaal is unlikely to win you over with any late game revelations or reveals. This is a film about the journey; learning to accept and live with guilt rather than letting it fester and destroy you. Dakota Johnson and Oliver Jackson-Cohen enhance that journey with a pair of unsettling performances (for different reasons), ramping up the tension and air of dread on an otherwise idyllic seaside vacation that becomes anything but. A strong if meandering at times debut from Maggie Gyllenhaal and a sure sign of even greater things to come.
