TV

Doctor Who
37x04 Arachnids in the UK
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Inside No. 9
5x00 Dead Line [live Halloween special]
Never watched Inside No. 9 before, but always meant to catch up. As this episode was going out live, though, it seemed a good idea to watch it when it was on... and, for all the tomfoolery and playing with form, I think it was. Nonetheless, you can still:
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Strictly Come Dancing
16x12 Week 6 Results (aka Halloween)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

this week on 100 Films

4 brand-new reviews were published to 100 Films in a Year this week, and they were...


Batman Ninja (2018)

“This is madness,” exclaims Batman at one point relatively early on in this anime interpretation of the DC superhero. He could be speaking on behalf of us viewers... although, at that point, he — and we — don’t even know the half of it…

Read more here.


Hitchcock (2012)

I’ve no idea how true it is, but the setup — the acclaimed Master of Suspense who’s so established that people are judging him over the hill, determined to do a striking new project no one else believes in to prove he’s still got it — is a good’un. It’s especially effective precisely because it’s about Hitchcock and Psycho: it’s the film that defines him for many people now; so, yes, we know the ending, but that lends dramatic irony — how do we get from that starting point to the acclaimed classic we all know?

Read more here.


Phantom Thread (2017)

if there’s one thing writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson’s film is not, it’s histrionic. It’s plot may be that of a Gothic melodrama, and if it were a novel perhaps we’d class it as one, but Anderson hasn’t taken on the skin of a Tim Burton or Guillermo del Toro here — in the quiet but forceful and precise way it plays out, Phantom Thread is as stringently produced as one of Reynolds’ gowns.

Read more here.


The Purge (2013)

When this first came out, I ignored it because its premise was inherently daft. Then they made some sequels, which I ignored because the premise was still inherently daft. Then two things happened: one, some people who I think are worth listening to said some decent things about it; and two, Trump came to power, and suddenly that daft premise doesn’t feel so far outside the confines of what’s possible.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.