Slow Horses — Apple TV +
Spy thriller writer Mick Herron has often been dubbed his generation’s John le Carré. But, while Le Carré’s legendary creation George Smiley helped to guide readers through the murky world of international espionage with his stoic dedication and implacable stiff upper lip, Herron’s ringmaster Jackson Lamb is a very different kettle of fish — inebriated, chain-smoking, rude, irascible, but in his own way equally brilliant.
A pleasant in-joke then that Gary Oldman, who earned rave reviews for his performance as George Smiley in the 2011 Le Carré adaptation Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, now takes the role of Jackson Lamb in this adaptation of Herron’s introductory Lamb novel Slow Horses in which we’re introduced to our upstart anti-hero and his band of eccentric, troubled intelligence service outcasts who roam the grimy corridors of their dumping ground at Slough House.
Drive My Car — Mubi.com
Winner of this year’s Oscar for best international feature, Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s adaptation of a short story by Haruki Murakami is a slowly unravelling but emotionally engaging exploration of grief, love and the power of art.
It explores the relationship between a stage actor who is trying to overcome his grief over the loss of his wife by focusing his efforts on the rehearsals for a performance of Chekov’s Uncle Vanya and the mournful looking woman who is tasked with driving him in his red Saab to and from rehearsals.
Simple and minimalist, but beautifully executed and complexly layered in its wide-ranging examination of themes that in these post-isolation times seem ever more pressing, it’s not without demand on the attention of its audience. But it’s rewarding once you commit to its languid pace, meandering contemplations and sly moments of recognition.
The Sparks Brothers — Showmax
Edgar Wright makes the jump from flashy genre-mashing blockbusters to documentary in this exhaustive and deserved examination of the prolific genre-jumping career and influence of California creative mavericks, Ron and Russ Mael, better known to generations of fans and musical acolytes as the drivers of the band Sparks.
Featuring extensive archive, interviews with the elusive Maels and gushing tributes made by everybody from Beck to Sonic Youth, New Order and other big music names who claim Sparks as seminal influences, it’s a humorous, energetic and engaging journey through the mad life and times of two of pop music’s most influential if unsung recent heroes.
Johnny Hallyday: Beyond Rock — Netflix
In France he was a national hero, the man credited with shaking up the quaint world of French music and culture with the introduction of rock ‘n’ roll to the rebellious post-war generation.
In the rest of the world, in spite of releasing 79 albums and selling 110-million records over the course of his 57-year career, the man they called Johnny Hallyday was “the biggest rock star you’ve never heard of”.
Here, in his own words and those of his close friends and colleagues, is the remarkable story of the man who helped to bring his nation’s stale, old-world high culture down to earth with a little bit of help from his mop top hair, swinging hips and plenty of old fashioned rock ‘n’ roll.
Bel-Air — Showmax
There is a joke going around this week that, after his antics at the Oscars on Sunday, Will Smith’s mom is packing him off to live with his aunt and uncle in Bel-Air.
That’s a reference to the famous rap theme that opened the 90s sitcom that made Smith a household name. This drama series update of the Fresh Prince, produced by Smith, is an attempt to imagine what that journey from the rough and tough streets of west Philadelphia to the opulent mansions of LA might look like in a modern era where race, class and inequality still play themselves out in ways that just aren’t funny any more.
It may take itself a little too seriously for many fans of the original, but its ambitions are admirable enough, if sometimes uneven in its execution.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.