Rogue One

Not the next episode of the franchise but instead listed as a Star Wars story, Rogue One tells the story of how the rebel alliance stole the plans to destroy the first Death Star featured in Star Wars: A New Hope.

Directed by British filmmaker Gareth Edwards whose movies have slowly got bigger in terms of budget and scale from Monsters to Godzilla to now the biggest film franchise in history. Edwards is a solid filmmaker big on visual stimulus combined with the small minutiae of characterisation.

Rogue One is a film full of characters ranging from the young girl who grows up vengeful of her mother's murder and father's disappearance; a lack of loyalty is juxtaposed with the need to belong to a group. Felicity Jones plays Jyn Erso, with the correct blend of feistiness you expect from a rebel but is very on trend at moment with strong independent female roles leading mega-blockbusters.

Jones who is in a hot streak at moment is ably supported by an eclectic and culturally diverse group of rebels from Diego Luna's Cassian Andor the leader of rebellion crew who break Jyn out of jail. On their travel across the galaxy they stop on Juhha, where they encounter Chirrut (Donnie Yen) and Baze (Wen Jiang) as they combine to escape the clutches of the Empire.

The film is a major spectacle and Star Wars fans will not be disappointed by this first story out of the order of the still ongoing franchise.  Edwards has acquited himself well and made a film that is both entertaining and is overtly political, it is not afraid to state the case that all war is futile and costly. This is the cruelest of war films as the people you have fought with and seen fighting for what they believe in all suffer unwelcome ends.

As a film it is not without its flaws, the first twenty minutes are a bit of a grind with the constant jumping from star system to alternative star system is a bit confusing and annoying, coupled with the silly story thread of Forrest Whittaker's role as Saw Gerrera who is a bombastic Caribbean rebel who is old and not that wise, the scenes he appears in are slow and grating especially when his pet space slug attempts to extract information from Riz Ahmed's turncoat pilot.

This is a seriously awful moment that nevertheless does not jump the shark thanks in part to the later scenes with Chirrut and Baze; however, it felt like the filmmakers wanting you to remember this may be a war/spy film but within a science fiction universe.

Ben Mendelsohn a solid performer in Bloodline, gives a good performance as the Director and creator of the Death Star who is feeling shunned by the higher powers and must fight for recognition; in what is essentially limited screen time but sufficient enough for us to boo and hiss him, he conveys enough of a villain with his mere presence alone.

At times it is as if the film wants to be a film that borrows the Star Wars mystique and oeuvre ('I am one with the Force', Darth Vader, Jimmy Smits!) without ever saying we are a Star Wars film.

This reviewer might be nit picking but I was pleased with how the film neatly brought it up to the beginning of A New Hope, especially on the day that Carrie Fisher died. The image of Princess Leia stating hope was both a touching tribute to the legacy her role has been to the cultural landscape and made me want to go home straight away and put on A New Hope.

Personally, I would appreciate more stories such as this rather than the incoming swath of origin movies we will have coming our way in the next five years ranging from Han Solo to Lando to Boba Fett.

Follow me @NextToTheAisle on Twitter.

Why Rent is still on the money

Going to the theatre is a great experience, going to see something for the first time is a better one. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of its original Broadway production, Rent is doing a limited run at the St. James' Theatre.

Rent is the Pulitzer Prize winning musical by Jonathan Larson, who sadly passed away mere days before the first show in Broadway. Yet his legacy and drive for success has always been apparent in the collaborative unity of the show; a group of rag tag individuals from differing social, cultural and racial backgrounds come together to make life long friendships.

Set upon the text of Puccini's La Boheme, the musical is the calling card of young Americans fighting off the disillusionment and alienating effect of living in America (at the end of the Millennium).

For that reason, Rent still remains a significant and unique piece of theatre that is both timeless and prescient. Watching the piece now in an age when America has elected a celebrity as their President still there is this divide between the expected normality of sexual relations, heightened tensions between communities of differing races. However, there is still the music of the soul and heart of performance.

Rent unabashedly gives high praise to the creative souls who endeavour to make good work in whichever chosen media as a means of expression (Mark) or protest (Maureen).

This production is directed by Bruce Guthrie was one of immense talent and conviction; the performers sang with such ferocity and fierce pride in their work that the emotion was washing over the audience in abundance.  The spirit of collaboration was there when the small cast came to sing 'Seasons of Love' at the start of Act II, when the big verses where sung by the periphery/background actors giving them a platform to raise the roof and showing they are a match for the principles.

Standout performances come from Layton Williams as Angel, full of physical dexterity and electrical vocal range and Ryan O'Gorman as Tom Collins, using his velvety rich baritone to engender real feeling into his solo songs 'Santa Fe' and 'I'll Cover You'; and it is fitting that Williams and O'Gorman have a great chemistry in their ensuing loving relationship on stage.

The musical Rent is on at the St. James' Theatre until 28th January. I suggest you go and treat yourself to see a brilliant production of a timeless piece of musical theatre that will stand the test of time; one that like the greatest of musicals (Oklahoma, West Side Story) that continues to resonate due to its universal themes of love, friendship and community.  These themes still ring true to us all.

525,600 minutes. How do you measure a year? How about love?

The Young Pope

Paolo Sorrentino, noted Italian auteur of such critically acclaimed fare as This Must Be The Place and last year's Youth, like many film directors has turned to the television medium to tell a greater story where he can tell it over 10 hours instead of the pre-requisite two hours you have in film.

Sorrentino, such a stylish and visual director from his earlier films to the more deliberate methodical dramas such as The Great Beauty, certainly lands on his feet in Rome.

It tells the story of a young (by Pope age) American Cardinal, called Lenny Belardo played by intense broodiness by Jude Law who has been recently appointed the new Pope Pious XIII. When we first meet Lenny he is giving his first public homily to St. Peter's Square - in which quickly becomes a satirical swipe at Catholicism and its blindness to the world with its ever changing notions of acceptable decorum and relationships.

Lenny then wakes up from his dream, and we are equally flummoxed; are these the actual beliefs of a young Catholic in modern day society, is Sorrentino speaking on behalf of all Catholics or embracing the laissez-faire mentality of current real Pope Francis, who did not question same-sex marriages for instance.

Lenny is introduced to his new cabinet most notably Cardinal Voiello (Silvio Orlando), an Italian whose true love is Napoli FC, who was overlooked for the top job and is eager to rock the boat. Whilst Voiello wants to control Lenny, our new pope is certainly not forthcoming ignoring his suggestions of cabinet positions and inserting as his special advisor, Sister Mary (Diane Keaton) the woman who took him into the orphanage at a very young age and has mentored him to this moment.

Other questionable characters such as fellow American Cardinal Dussolier (Scott Shepherd), who is alluded to like young flesh by foreign speaking Cardinals and Sofia (Cecile de France), the young head of marketing who embraces Lenny's ideal that his image should not adorn any merchandise and he remain invisible to his public. 'Only Jesus is present, I am nothing' as he states.

The difference between this being a run of the mill, behind the scenes drama of a world usually closed off to the public is that Sorrentino has tweaked the role of Lenny somewhat into that as a archetypal figurehead of that other Italian institution, the Mafiosa.

Law plays Lenny as a newly appointed head honcho of a criminal organisation; his way or the highway, he smokes openly, flaunting the line between confessional confidentiality by asking a priest to be his mole by telling him what people think of him in passing prompting a changing of positions in his cabinet swiftly and without remorse. You can sense Law had immense fun playing Lenny; with the ability to spin words to his will and a presence to match his movie matinee idol looks.

The cleverness of the premise is that this Pope, as played by Law, can run and run if Sorrentino maintains a hold of this vessel. Law is certainly an individual you want to keep watching and the neat twist on him being in question about his faith and the layers he hides despite apparently being without sin demands our attention.

The Young Pope has enjoyed some decent reviews since launching on Sky Atlantic, but in the newly released box-set on DVD and Blu-ray it warrants a rewatch.

The Young Pope is available on DVD and Blu-ray now from Aim Publicity 

Getting Started

Baby baby, am I the one you been searching for
If I am, I can give you so much more.
And I'm only getting started
Just only getting started.
To show you what you mean to me.

Baby baby, I'm so glad you came into my life
If I could I wouldn't change my mind
Cos we're only getting started
Only getting started
To show each other how we feel

Times can get hard, but we've got to keep a lid on
Don't let our emotions come to the boil
Cos we are a team
Yes we are a team
And we need each other to get through

You are so pretty, you are beautiful
My eyes are beholden to you and you are alone
Yes I like your face
You're pretty beautiful face
And I want to look at it the rest of my days

Tell me tell me what is on your mind
I've got this feeling I want you for all my life
And I'm only getting started
We're just getting started
To show you what you mean to me

This Is Us

The new NBC show which is appearing on Channel 4 is one of those shows that comes along once in a while, and it is the sort of feelgood show that a nation in crisis needs.  Offering escapism from the trying nature of day to day life, the series offers a heartwarming glimpse of a life full of homespun notions of goodness and wellbeing.

Starting out with a silly Wikipedia reference, stating that any person shares their birthday with 18 million other people on the planet, we witness four people sharing their birthday. They are all 36, and it seems this is the mid-point crisis level for all three people.

Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) is with his pregnant wife Rebecca (Mandy Moore) who is expecting triplets on his birthday.  When her water breaks they rush to the hospital.  We then switch to Kate (Chrissy Metz), an obese woman who is keen to lose her weight this time in spite of self-help post it notes adorning her fridge, she has a twin brother Kevin (Justin Hartley), an actor at a fork in the road of his career, between being taken seriously as an actor in spite of appearing in lowest common denominator comedy where he frequently takes his top off to show his washboard abdominals.

The fourth person is black man Randall (Sterling K. Brown - who was excellent in The People vs OJ Simpson), a modern day successful professional who has found his biological father by way of a private investigator. Randall is reluctant to make contact with him, as he left him outside a fire station on the day he was born.

Having seen shows of this sunny disposition before (Thirtysomething, Ally McBeal) falling into the trap of having a good cast without the necessity of a solid script, This Is Us has the admirable quality of having a well written script that helps bring the best out of this well assembled ensemble and vice versa.

The script is clever as well such as when Randall describes his interaction with his father to his wife, as if it is some lame sitcom like 'The Man-ny' which Kevin is appearing in within the show; this willingness to refer to the intertextuality of lives and how similar people may watch the same shows in spite of racial differences is indicative of this unified world the show wants to picture.

The moments Randall confronts his estranged father and Kevin's breakdown on the set of his sitcom are neither histrionic striking the right balance between being heard and making sure they are said in the right way. Even the pediatrician who delivers Jack and Rebecca's triplets gives Jack a pep talk in the hall after the birth; it could be construed as too sweet for a serious moment, but the balance between the light and the delivery by Gerald McRaney is expertly handled.

While moments of saccharine may grate on bah humbugs in this seasonal time of year, those moments are necessary to the plot such as the birth of children or reunions of lost family members. The show does not ask too much of its audience, nevertheless, it leaves you smiling and beaming.

The reveal at the end of the pilot episode of the connection between the four thirty somethings is a real eureka moment of plotting by creator Dan Fogelman, ably assisted by co-directors John Requa and Glenn Ficarra. The twist allows for a more expansive exploration of the characters which will certainly get this viewer returning for more of this show's positivity.

This Is Us screens at 10pm on Channel Four weekly.

College Basketball: Early Observations

The College Basketball is in full swing and with most teams close to playing their 10th regular season game after the early season tournaments now ended, conferences are in to the strength of their non-conference schedule.

Fort Wayne triumphed over Indiana

In this instance, many teams can either decide to fill their card with cup cake victories whilst playing a top 25 side to look good in the eyes of the committee come Selection Sunday. The need for these games is to fulfill a season rota but also learn how your team is playing before the conference schedule comes into full swing.

Some games are built on rivalry in-state, such as the Big 12 West Virginia travelling to the ACC Virginia; both teams will be in the NCAA tournament but a win for either promised a big RPI victory. In this case, it was Bob Huggins' Western Mountaineers who left with the bragging rights and a road win to the resume.

West Virginia in their starting back court formation

Others can find a defeat can be liberating. Indiana Hoosiers, so often a perennial underachiever with Tom Crean at the helm defeated Kansas Jayhawks on the opening night; then followed a loss on the road at Fort Wayne, Indiana. A crippling loss for the Hoosiers, but should Fort Wayne win the Horizon League or even finish a close 2nd with 25 wins they can be considered for the tournament. And not all defeats are bad, the Hoosiers themselves welcomed North Carolina, who at the time were undefeated and handed them their first loss of the season.

It is this merry-go-round or carousel of chaos that makes the College Basketball season so unpredictable at times. Due to the one and done rule, teams are frequently looking for new schemes and integrating personnel into those schemes  You will not see a team like Florida who won back to back titles under Billy Donovan and had a returning title side of four starters; Kentucky with their frequent revolving door of talent attempt it but even they can end up in the NIT.

Teams that look good thus far are sometime familiar, Kansas Jayhawks (7-1), North Carolina (8-1), title holders Villanova (8-0) proving it was not a fluke and that Jay Wright deserves more props than he receives and UCLA (9-0) who went into the Rupp Arena, Kentucky (7-1) and served up the Wildcats first defeat of the season.

The Bruins 97-92 victory was nothing to do with the Wildcats having an off day, but more to do with the collective talent of UCLA combining in spite of an off day for Lonzo Ball, their heralded guard who himself had an off day.

Lonzo Ball silenced the Rupp Arena on Saturday

This victory which elevated the Bruins to #2 in the rankings behind Villanova, is indicative of a trend currently returning to College Basketball. Guard play and balanced scoring - up and down the divisions you can see good guard play making a comeback. From Kansas playing a small rotation with Devonte Graham and Frank Mason, Ball at UCLA to Al Freeman and Manu Lecomte at Baylor (8-0).

The idea of balanced scoring and not being over-reliant on a big forward in the paint means a team is harder to prepare for in opposition, utilises confident shot makers from behind the arc or in mid-range yet it asks for consistency at both ends of the court. Guards by definition are defenders, who hassle attackers forcing turnovers and steals then quickly scoring on the break.

Teams are scoring a lot, the Bruins scored 97 at Kentucky, a team who have scored over 100 points three times already this year. This is due to teams wanting to score more in possession and the growth of the three point shot, a trickle down effect from the success Steph Curry had in college up to the NBA.

There will still be good defending sides who make it difficult for teams to score and eat up their shot clock possession such as Louisville (7-1) and West Virgina (6-1), whose constant press will be hard to face for a full 40 minutes, and Villanova while they may not have the dynamic playmakers that set the NBA draft on fire, the diligence of the system will win them more games than they lose.

Markelle Fultz 22.7-6.7-6.6 on a 4-3 team

Games to watch for this week:
Markelle Fultz's Washington on the road at Gonzaga; Fultz is a top NBA prospect averaging 22.7 ppg, 6.7rpg and 6.6apg yet the team is 4-3 facing a tough road trip at undefeated Gonzaga (8-0) - Wednesday night.
Saturday - Battle of 2 undefeated teams - Villanova travel to Notre Dame (8-0) ranked #23
and a barn burner as Cincinnati (7-1) travel to Butler (8-0)

Keep watching this space for more CBB observation next to the aisle.