My Review of The Beauty: "Beautiful Evolution"

 

Written by Ryan Murphy And Matthew Hodgson 

Directed by Crystle Roberson Dorsey

Cooper: "I'll do it but not like this."

Oh fuck. There's two episodes left and while it was always possible that Cooper would eventually have a transformation of his own, I didn't think it would go this way.

I actually thought with the way this episode was going down, we were going to end up with Cooper being dead. Fortunately that didn't happen. Instead he ended up looking like a teenager and will now be played by Hudson Barry. I already miss Evan Peters in the role.

Anyways the black ops team from the last episode came to rescue Cooper, Jordan, the Assassin and Jeremy and it was revealed rather quickly they're both Deacons and working for Dr. Diana Sterling. She wasn't wasting any time this episode.

For a character who made her debut this week, Diana was determined to bring four people together in order to assassinate Byron. Yup, that woman's motives for Byron being dead might be as a result of him shutting her robotics down but she's making a strong impression in this final hurdle of episodes. I'm partially rooting for her.

Now, the reason why Cooper needed the transformation was that he was the only one who could take out Byron but he needed a new look. Cooper opted to sleep with Jordan in order to become a new person. Granted, it also felt like a culmination of their "will they, won't they" dynamic and then that ending happened.

The show definitely has done a lot of ludicrous things but turning Cooper into a teenager might be the strangest one yet. Will he succeed in taking out Byron? Can Diana actually be trusted or are her Deacons another disaster waiting to happen? 

- I did laugh at Jeremy calling Diana "White Mama" because he couldn't remember her name. 

- Cooper was losing both teeth and nails during his much longer transformation scene.

- Standout music: Cinema Orchestra and Patrick Watson's To Build A Home.

- Chronology: From where the previous episode left off and two days until Byron's big launch.

Beautiful Evolution certainly upped the horror with Cooper's transformation. I was shocked by the end results but I liked his scenes with Cooper. Diana's also an interesting conundrum. Right now, she's a beneficial ally but could be a future threat.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

My Review of The Beauty: "Beautiful Brothers"

 

Written by Ryan Murphy And Matthew Hodgson 

Directed by Michael Uppendahl 

Meyer (to Cooper): "Do as you're told."

We're in the final two weeks of the show and it's tine to go into double bills. It feels like the show only just started but here we are. After last week's episode, there's more focus on Byron and a new player added into the mix.

The new player being Dr. Diana Sterling (Ari Graynor). It turned out that prior to The Beauty itself, Byron was very much interested in robotics being the future of preserving humanity. Robotics are now out of fashion and Diana's pretty miffed about being replaced as a direct result.

Keeping with Byron, he opened the episode by waxing lyrical about his upcoming Beautiful Day launch for the Beauty with another big ad campaign. Franny was once again not remotely interested in Byron's lofty ambitions.

There was also the arrival of their sons - Tig (Kevin Cahoon) and Gunther (Eric Peterson). Honestly, I can see why Byron didn't respect them. They're both idiots and clearly Franny had a massive blind spot towards their stupidity. Their idea for a bro themed streaming service sounded absolutely pointless as a pitch.

Saying that, they did serve a purpose when both of them ended up falling victim to another drug overdose and Byron had them transformed into Ray Nicholson and Brandon Gillard respectively. Franny swore revenge but maybe Byron did their idiot children a favour, even if it was a selfishly motivated.

As for Cooper and Jordan, it was funny to see that they ended up in a begrudging alliance with the Assassin and Jeremy. Byron screwed over the latter two and Meyer tried to get Cooper to do what he was told. Then we had some black ops swoop and the episode ended on an abrupt note.

- Byron was 5% Nigerian, which was used to explain why Gunther was now biracial. The costume choices for Tig and Gunther was something else.

- Diana admitted to sacrificing a family in order to continue her work with the Deacons. She's unsurprisingly cold in nature for someone into robotics.

- Jeremy was given a lot more information in between Cooper and Jordan trying to outsmart both him and the Assassin.

- Chronology: From where the previous episode left off.

Beautiful Brothers did live up to its title on the shallow end of the scale. Will bring beautiful suddenly make Tig and Gunther smart? Byron better hope not or they'll usurp. The episode was good but too short and so was the next one.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

My Review of The Hitcher (1986)

 

Written by Eric Red

Directed by Robert Harmon

Jim Halsey: "What do you want?"

John Ryder: "I want you to stop me."

Sometimes there's a lesson to be had. The lesson being that it's probably not a good idea to give a stranger a lift. Especially when it's a rather unhinged looking guy to begin with.

This would be a lesson that Jim Halsey (C. Thomas Howell) learned in the worst way possible. Jim was delivering a car from Chicago to San Diego and in the West Texas desert, he made the big mistake of trying to be a help to a mysterious hitchhiker (Rutger Hauer), also known as John Ryder.

The hitchhiker himself came across as creepy from the moment he stepped into Jim's car and when Jim realised that he was a nutcase, he found a good way of getting rid of Ryder. That should've been a good thing for Jim but his day was going to get much worse.

John Ryder managed to get a lift from an unsuspecting family and still went out of his way to terrorise Jim. The family didn't survive and there was some carnage with a trucker before Jim ended up in a restaurant with bad food and a waitress named Nash (Jennifer Jason Leigh). 

As a character, Nash isn't the greatest but she did try to both be an accomplice to helping Jim with dealing with the overzealous John Ryder when she wasn't being sceptical of Jim's story to begin with. Unfortunately for Nash, she took was a casualty of Ryder's psychotic spree. Her death was gruesome, albeit not graphically depicted. Character wise, she's rather poor.

As for the rest of the movie, Jim had a foil in a series of genuinely incompetent coppers who failed to believe him about Ryder and then failed to keep him behind bars afterwards. There's a great but bittersweet standoff between Jim and Ryder and it's the best part of the whole movie.

- The movie spawned a 2003 sequel titled The Hitcher II: I've Been Waiting and a 2007 remake.

- As gory as the movie was, had it stuck to the original script it would've been a much gorier movie.

- Standout music: Mickey Jones Don't Stop Lovin' Me.

- Chronology: Largely set in West Texas over the course of a day. 

The Hitcher (1986) has earned its right as a classic horror/thriller. Rutger Hauer gave a rather unhinged performance and C. Thomas Howell certainly made for a compelling protagonist. Both men played off each other well.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of Hamnet (2025)

 

Written by Chloé Zhao And Maggie O'Farrell

Directed by Chloé Zhao

Will:"Is it true, you know everything about a person, by touching them here?"

Anne: "Not everything."

With the Oscars due next month, I had to catch up with this movie. Even if it wasn't being nominated for every award under the sun, I'd still want to watch it. I mean, how could I not? Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal are two of the best Irish actors working these days.

In this movie, Buckley took on the role of Anne Shakespeare, formerly Hathaway, the wife of William, played by Mescal himself. Also the mother of his children. Their romance isn't always highlighted in movie adaptations but this movie not only centred on their union but also a very brutal shared tragedy between the couple as well.

The tragedy being the death of their son, Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe). Yes, this particular time in their lives saw both Anne and William struggle with their grief over losing Hamnet while unable to console one another. Anne's grief was more straightforward and relatable to the audience as a collective whole.

William's on the other hand manifested in the writing of one of his most infamous plays, Hamlet. William poured his grief, anger and frustration out into that play and even with some of the actors during its rehearsals. One of those actors happened to be the young man playing Hamlet (Noah Jupe) before a live performance of the play took place.

Anne had to find out in the worst way aka through her stepmother, Joan (Justine Mitchell) that William was putting on a tragedy. She certainly felt a lot of anger as the play started off while her brother Bartholomew (Joe Alwyn) tried to support her. However as Hamlet played out and she saw William's own grief play out on stage, she able to laugh for the first time.

I've seen more than enough movies, TV shows etc on the topic of grief and there's something genuinely gut wrenching in this one. Both Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal absolutely convey the harrowing loss and pain of losing a child and both of them deliver exceptionally heartbreaking performances. Give them all the awards.

- Other strong performances in this movie came from Emily Watson and David Wilmot as William's parents. The actors playing William and Anne's daughters were strong too.

- The movie's based on a book that was written by Maggie O'Farrell. She was the co-writer of the movie.

- Anne was likened to a witch and mentioned being able to see things. She also had a hawk. William was teaching to pay off his father's debts.

- Anne was also referred to as Agnes and the opening scene pointed out that Hamlet and Hamnet were considered the same name.

- Standout music: Max Ritchie's score absolutely elevated the movie along with the use of On The Nature Of Daylight.

- Chronology: Hamlet debuted between 1599 and 1601. The second half of the movie was set in that period. The movie was set in Stratford upon Avon and London, including the Globe Theatre.

Hamnet has now easily become my favourite award contender. What an incredible movie. Absolutely gutting and beautiful to watch, the most compelling performances from both Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal. Chloé Zhao and Maggie O'Farrell also deserve all the acclaim for the writing and directing. Truly exceptional from start to finish.

Rating: 10 out of 10

My Review of Wuthering Heights (2026)

 

Written And Directed by Emerald Fennell

Heathcliff: "I pray one prayer, I repeat it until my tongue stiffens. Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living! You said I killed you, haunt me, then! Be with me always, take any form, drive me mad, only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you. I cannot live without my life... I cannot live without my soul..."

Ah, the first real controversial movie of 2026 or is it? I think Emerald Fennell does have aspirations of being a provocateur but at the same time, I feel she doesn't quite commit to the idea in itself. This movie really drove that point home.

There have been countless adaptations of Emily Brontë's infamous romance novel. Some have been more faithful than others and while this one was sort of faithful to the source material, oftentimes it felt like an an adaptation in name only.

The castings of Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi as Cathy Earnshaw and Heathcliff respectively certainly brought about it's own discourse. They're both simultaneously miscast and incredibly perfect for their respective roles. At the very least, the chemistry between the two was largely on point. That really did help the movie a lot.

Cathy and Heathcliff met each other as children when played by Charlotte Mellington and Owen Cooper. Cathy's father, Mr. Earnshaw (Martin Clunes) adopted Heathcliff and often treated him badly. He wasn't much better to Cathy either. Cathy also had a tendency to treat Heathcliff like a pet. Heathcliff both loved and was rather cruel towards Cathy as well.

Look, Cathy and Heathcliff have never been a literary romance that screamed "couples goals". It's always been toxic, abusive and tragic. In this adaptation, there's also an element of BDSM thrown into the mix but again, it's something that Emerald Fennell never really committed to. I think Fennell's knowledge on the practice isn't that dissimilar to EL James's to be honest.

Anyways Cathy and Heathcliff grew up. Mr. Earnshaw practically drove them into poverty and died and companion, Nelly (Hong Chau/Vy Nguyen) was mostly a foil to the doomed romance between our volatile pairing. In fact, Nelly did as much harm as she thought she was doing good throughout this whole film. 

Then there's Edgar Linton (Shazad Latif) and his ward, Isabella (Alison Oliver). The former ended up in a loveless marriage with Cathy and the latter (who's rather infantalised) ended up in a submissive role upon being married to Heathcliff. Both Edgar and Isabella have their moments as characters and play off well with Cathy and Heathcliff. 

As for the rest of the movie, again this was an adaptation that decided not to go with the second half of the book. There are no future generations to break the toxic cycle. In fact Cathy ended up dying from complications of a miscarriage and Heathcliff was haunted by her death. It's a bleak ending but I actually think it worked rather well for this particular adaptation.

- Cathy seemed a bit turned on by hangings and even stuck her finger rather pointedly into a fish at one point. Isabella picked up on the former bit.

- Various characters like Hindley are excluded here and the role of Joseph went to the much younger Ewan Mitchell.

- If you liked Saltburn, Emerald Fennell had no problem bringing back certain actors for this one.

- Styling the title in quotation marks was an interesting thing to do. 

- Chronology: Charli XCX was the soundtrack for this movie but the standout songs were Everything Is Romantic and Chains Of Love.

- Chronology: It started in 1771 England. Halfway through the movie, Heathcliff left Cathy for five years. Cathy was aged up in nearly being a spinster before marrying Edgar.

Despite some obvious issues, I actually liked Wuthering Heights (2026). Is it the best adaptation? No, probably not. Is it the worst? Definitely not! Could they have gone with more accurate casting? Yes. Are Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi actually good in their roles? Also yes! Will I ever watch this again? Also yes.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms: "The Morrow"

 

Written by Ira Parker And Ti Mikkel

Directed by Sarah Adina Smith 

Ser Dunk (to Maekar): "I think I'm done with princes."

And so endeth our first season. It's been a short six weeks but not boring. If there was a show that truly proved that "less is more" can work as an approach, it's this show.

Time moved on since the events of Baelor's death. In fact we got his funeral and a guilt stricken Duncan attended. This led to some choice words from Prince Valarr. Needless to say that Valarr wasn't happy about Dunk surviving over his own father. 

Dunk in general just wasn't happy at all. The Trial had really knocked his confidence and he bluntly told Maekar that he was done serving princes after the latter wanted Dunk to continue to squire Egg. Was the great TV partnership about to end after only six episodes? Of course not.

Egg wasn't going to give up on being a squire. In fact, not only was he determined to be one but by the end of this episode, he abandoned his own family in order to continue being a squire fot Ser Duncan. Given the state of his family, you can hardly blame him.

Looking at the Targaryens so to speak, Egg's hatred for Aerion intensified to the point where Maekar had to stop Egg from killing his older brother. Daeron's a little bit better but even he knew that Egg would be better with Dunk than remaining with the family. It really did say a lot about the Targaryens as a unit.

Last but not least, there was Raymun. He's been the closest to a friend that Dunk's had in the show and he was genuinely touched upon being given one of Dunk's horses to keep. Raymun's also cut out toxic family members and was about to start a family of his own with Rowan. I hope we see him again.

- Egg pointed out to Ser Duncan that there was nine kingdoms and then the title card changed accordingly.

- More flashbacks had Set Arlan failing to tell Dunk about never being knighted. Dunk revisited the tree from that flashback.

- Egg's hair was growing back before his failed attempt to kill Aerion. Dunk refused Lyonel's offer to go to Storm's End.

- Chronology: By the end of this episode Aerion was heading to the Free Cities and Dunk and Egg were heading to Dorne.

The Morrow made for a short, sweet and satisfying finale. This show had modest expectations that it managed to surpass rather well. I liked this show a lot and I'm looking forward to the second season.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of Saw X (2023)

 

Written by Peter Goldfinger And Josh Stolberg

Directed by Kevin Gruetert 

John: "Hello, everyone. It's time to play a game. You all pretended to cure me. But what I have planned for each of you, is very real."

In nearly two decades, this franchise has veered into being often needlessly gruesome and also presenting a morally complicated anti-villain main character in John Kramer/Jigsaw (Tobin Bell). He's a complex guy, isn't he?

Anyways with the previous benching the character completely, this tenth installment went for the opposite idea. If ever there was a Saw movie where John Kramer was front and centre to proceedings, it was this one. It's also the best movie in the franchise.

Having cancer has been a huge thing with John's character and in this movie, he was given the opportunity to be cured. Naturally he took it and believed that Dr Cecelia Peterson (Synnøve Macody Lund) could help him. He was more than willing to part with his cash and go to Mexico for the cure.

Of course it turned out that Cecelia and various others, including the likes of Diego (Joshua Okamoto), Mateo (Octavio Hinojosa), Valentina (Paulette Hernández) and Gabriela (Renata Vacation) had all scammed him. John wanted his usual bout of revenge and justice and Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith) was more than willing to help. This movie was also Amanda at her most likable. John too for that matter.

In fact, I'd almost go as far as to say that John and Amanda were closer to even being heroic. Especially when you look into how absolutely despicable Cecelia turned out to be as a character. She might be the nastiest character ever introduced into the franchise and her boyfriend Parker Sears (Steven Brand) wasn't any better.

As bad as John and Amanda, even they wouldn't intentionally kill a child. Cecelia was more than willing to harm poor Carlos (Jorge Briseño) when she wasn't willing to betray Parker to try and save herself. There was something immensely satisfying in seeing her comeuppance play out the way it did.

- A mid credit scene had Kramer and Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) putting Henry (Michael Beach) in a device as revenge for his role in scamming John.

- John actually fell victim to one of his own traps in order to save Carlos. I'm surprised it took that long for such a thing to happen.

- Standout music: José Miguel Ortegon's Mascara del Diablo.

- Chronology: Predominantly set in Mexico and within the same timeframe as the first two movies.

I think Saw X might be the best movie in the whole franchise. I thought it was a brilliant use of John, Amanda and even Mark as character and Cecelia was such a vile piece of work as a character. The change of location also helped too.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of Spiral: From The Book Of Saw (2021)

 

Written by Josh Stolberg And Peter Goldfinger

Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman 

William: "John Kramer was right. The spiral: a symbol of change, evolution, progress."

If you ever wanted to know if the Saw franchise could make a movie that didn't feature John Kramer/Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) in any capacity and still work, there's this movie. Aside from a few needed mention, this was a John Kramer free zone.

Even more surprising was the addition of Chris Rock to this franchise. Horror's not something he's done a lot of in his career and I'm surprised he opted for a well known franchise rather than A24 potential critical darling. He's also rather good in this movie.

Chris Rock played a demoted detective named Ezekiel "Zeke" Banks. Zeke's pretty coarse and set in his ways and he's not particularly happy with being paired with the more modern thinking Detective William Schenk (Max Minghella). Nope, he's not happy at all.

This time around though it's not ordinary citizens or even criminals being targeted by a new Jigsaw. It's the police themselves, mostly the corrupt and inept ones. This Jigsaw wanted to clean up police corruption and using John Kramer's method of self inprovement was the way to do it.

This obviously made Zeke determined to catch Jigsaw and even had him accepting William's way of thinking as well. It also meant Zeke confronting his retired police captain father, Marcus (Samuel L. Jackson). Marcus wasn't particularly the most likable of characters but there's a joy to be had in seeing Chris Rock and Samuel L. Jackson share several scenes together.

As for Jigsaw himself, I don't think Schenk was that shocking but the lengths he went to avoid early detection were impressive. The guy even managed to fake having a baby in order to gain Zeke's trust. As a Jigsaw successor, William did seem closer to what Kramer would have wanted but he was also motivated by revenge. He also got away too with Zeke and Marcus being the final casualties of the movie.

- This movie was the lowest grossing in the franchise and fell victim to be released during COVID.

- Various victims included Detective Marv Bozwick (Daniel Petronijevic), Detective Fitch (Richard Zeppieri) and Captain Angie Garza (Marisol Nichols).

- Standout music: Young Nudy's You Ain't Hard.

- Chronology: Present day, July 4th at the beginning of the movie.

I really enjoy this movie. Spiral: From The Book Of Saw effectively was a spin-off movie and it was great. Chris Rock, Max Minghella and Samuel L. Jackson were all on fine form. This would easily be high up in my list of movies for this franchise.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

My Review of Jigsaw (2017)

 

Written by Josh Stolberg And Peter Goldfinger

Directed by The Spierig Brothers

Jigsaw: "The truth will set you free."

With the first seven months having a group of recurring writers and directors and being released between 2004 and 2010, this franchise certainly needed a new coat of paint. To it's credit, Jigsaw tried to do exactly that.

There's no recurring characters like Hoffman anymore. In fact this movie arguably operated as both a prequel to the first one (through some flashbacks) and a standalone sequel of sorts. I should point out that once again, Jigsaw/John Kramer (Tobin Bell) isn't alive in this one.

Saying that, his bloody acts of violence under the pretext of justice were an inspiration for yet another copycat/protégé killer. This time that was Logan Nelson (Mark Passmore). Logan claimed to speak for the dead and he certainly added to the Jigsaw legacy body count.

There were many victims in this movie but most were selected from the criminals that Detective Halloran (Callum Rennie Keith) let slip through his fingers. Needless to say as the movie drew to it's bloody conclusion this would be a decision that Halloran wouldn't live to regret.

Like Hoffman before, there's an attempt to humanise Logan. Logan's anger came from a man named Edgar (Josiah Black) killing his wife. It certainly explained why Logan worked through a list to eventually get to Halloran and frame him for the new Jigsaw crimes. It's sound enough as a motive.

As for the flashbacks, more victims of Kramer themselves were revealed. This included a grieving mother named Anna (Laura Vandervoort). She had lost her baby and had a prior connection to John Kramer. Then there was Mitch (Mandela Van Peebles) who caused the death of John's nephew and Ryan (Paul Braunstein), who also caused a death. Those three had a lot of focus on them and it didn't end well for them.

- Other victims in this movie were Carly (Brittany Allen), fangirl Eleanor (Hannah Emily Anderson) and of course, Edgar himself.

- Logan was responsible for mislabeling John's X-Rays, causing his tumour to be undiagnosed.

- Standout music: Great American Canyon Band's Never Fade Away.

- Chronology: Ten years since the events of the last movie.

Jigsaw felt like a much needed shot in the arm for the franchise. While this franchise will never be able to escape from the ghost of John Kramer, I do think this felt like a fresh chapter for the franchise after the Hoffman heavy series of movies. I really liked this one.

Rating: 7 out of 10