the m0vie blog

New Escapist Column! On “Star Trek: Picard” and Storytelling Fundamentals…

Posted on May 5, 2022 by Darren

I published a new piece at The Escapist this evening. We’re doing a series of recaps and reviews of Star Trek: Picard, which is streaming weekly on Paramount+. The final episode of the second season released this week, and it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look at the series.

On paper, the second season finale of Picard cycles through a series of checkboxes regarding the show’s long-form arcs, dutifully ticking off each of its obligations in a manner that could theoretically be satisfying. However, this just demonstrates how clumsy Picard is when it comes to storytelling fundamentals. There are interesting and big ideas at play in the second season of Picard, but the show frequently fails at finding ways to develop these ideas organically or cohesively.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Star Trek | Tagged: farewell, long-form, Narrative, picard, plotting, star trek: picard, storytelling, structure, the escapist, theme | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On “Moon Knight” and the Lack of Surprises…

Posted on May 4, 2022 by Darren

I published a new piece at The Escapist this evening. We’re doing a series of recaps and reviews of Moon Knight, which is streaming weekly on Disney+. The final episode of the show released this week, and it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look at the series.

As Moon Knight wraps up, the most surprising thing about the latest Disney+ streaming series is how completely lacking in surprise it was. The show didn’t pull any sharp last-minute twists or surprise cameos from the extended universe. Instead, it delivered exactly what it promised viewers. The result is interesting, a show that is more consistent than most of its streaming compatriots, but which ends up feeling particularly anonymous.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Television | Tagged: escapist, moon knight, Oscar Isaac, the escapist | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On the “Doctor Strange” as a Film About Time and Death…

Posted on May 2, 2022 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With the upcoming release of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look back at Scott Derrickson’s somewhat underrated contribution to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Doctor Strange felt like an oddity when it was released, sandwiched between Captain America: Civil War and Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2. It was a very conventional origin story, stripped of the legacy character attributes of Ant Man, the crossover baggage of Black Panther or the period piece nostalgia and narrative trickery of Captain Marvel. It was perhaps the most straightforward superhero origin story since the earliest days of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, specifically recalling both Iron Man and Thor.

However, underneath the surface, there was something more interesting happening. Doctor Strange is a rare superhero movie that is about both the passage of time and inevitability of death, where the ultimate act of villainy is to pervert either flow. It’s a movie about accepting that change happens, and that sometimes a moment doesn’t last forever. It’s a theme that felt particularly relevant to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, given that it was going to lose two of its three lead characters in the very near future.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: death, doctor strange, escapist, in the frame, marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, mcu, the escapist, time | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On the Tragedy of Nacho Varga and What It Says About “Better Call Saul”…

Posted on April 29, 2022 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With the sixth and final season of Better Call Saul in full swing, it seemed like an opportunity to take a look at one of the show’s more under-appreciated central figures.

Nacho Varga was introduced in the first season as a potential foil for Jimmy McGill, intended to serve as the antagonist of the show’s premiere year. However, when the writers stumbled upon the idea of Jimmy’s brother Chuck as the main character’s nemesis, Nacho was left somewhat listless. However, much like the character of Kim Wexler, this initial lack of a clear arc allowed the production team to figure out a compelling approach to Nacho, who has become one of the most tragic figures in the entire show, and a character whose attempts to assert agency tie into the show’s core themes as a prequel to Breaking Bad.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Television | Tagged: better call saul, Breaking Bad, in the frame, michael mando, nacho, the escapist | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On How “Star Trek: Picard” Squanders the Borg…

Posted on April 28, 2022 by Darren

I published a new piece at The Escapist this evening. We’re doing a series of recaps and reviews of Star Trek: Picard, which is streaming weekly on Paramount+. The ninth episode of the second season released this week, and it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look at the series.

The second season of Picard has been a stew of nostalgia for nineties Star Trek, drawing particularly heavily from Star Trek: First Contact. This has inevitably seen the return of the Borg as a major threat. However, the second season of Picard falls into many of the familiar traps of the larger Star Trek franchise when it comes to handling probably the most iconic antagonists from the last thirty or forty years of the franchise. Picard knows the Borg are iconic and important, but has no idea what to do with them.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Star Trek | Tagged: borg, star trek, star trek: picard, villain decay | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On “Moon Knight” and the Limits of the Marvel Cinematic Universe…

Posted on April 27, 2022 by Darren

I published a new piece at The Escapist this evening. We’re doing a series of recaps and reviews of Moon Knight, which is streaming weekly on Disney+. The penultimate episode of the show released this week, and it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look at the series.

As Moon Knight enters its end game, the show demonstrates the limits of the ambition and experimentation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, boiling an interesting and compelling premise down to a fairly simplistic and straightforward illustration of cause and effect. There’s something rather depressing in the show’s commitment to easy answers to its central character, and it is all the more frustrating because this is a major release from a company that holds such an important and influential place in the popular consciousness. There’s no excuse for this lack of ambition.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Television | Tagged: asylum, escapist, Marvel Cinematic Universe, mcu, moon knight, recap, the escapist | Leave a comment »

283. The Hangover – Andrew’s Stag 2022 (#—)

Posted on April 26, 2022 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, The 250 is a weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released Saturdays at 6pm GMT.

So this week, to mark Andrew’s wedding, Todd Phillips’ The Hangover.

A bachelors’ party in Las Vegas goes horribly awry when the three groomsmen wake up in their lavish suite only discover that they have misplaced the groom. With only hours to go until the wedding, the trio find themselves racing against time to remember one unforgettable night. However, the more that they discover, the higher the stakes become.

At time of recording, it was not ranked on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

Continue reading →

Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: the hangover, bradley cooper, Zach Galifianakis, las vegas, funny, commentary, comedy, Todd Phillips, podcast, The 250, live, wedding, stag, hungover | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On a Grand, Unified Theory of Chris Chibnall’s “Doctor Who”…

Posted on April 26, 2022 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist on Friday. With the broadcast of Legend of the Sea Devils last weekend, marking the second-to-last episode of the Chris Chibnall era of Doctor Who, it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look back over Chibnall’s tenure.

Chibnall’s tenure on Doctor Who is interesting, in large part because it feels so aesthetically and philosophically distinct from the thirty years before it. It marks a clear departure from the version of the show overseen by script editor Andrew Cartmel and by showrunners Russell T. Davies and Steven Moffat. Central to this is a very strong belief in the status quo, in the idea that things are simply the way that they are, and that change is largely impossible and not worth the effort. It’s a startlingly cynical worldview, but it’s one that permeates Chibnall’s Doctor Who.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Chris Chibnall, Conservative, doctor who, jodie whittaker, Police officer, production, status quo | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! On the Visual Storytelling of “Better Call Saul”…

Posted on April 25, 2022 by Darren

We’re thrilled to be launching a fortnightly video companion piece to In the Frame at The Escapist. The video will typically launch every second Monday, and be released on the magazine’s YouTube channel. And the video will be completely separate from the written content. This is kinda cool, because we’re helping relaunch the magazine’s film content – so if you can throw a subscription our way, it would mean a lot.

With the broadcast of the new season of Better Call Saul, it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look at the show’s visual storytelling – the way in which it uses images to communicate plot, character and theme.

Filed under: Television | Tagged: better call saul, Breaking Bad, in the frame, omar ahmed, Television, the escapist, vince gilligan | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! Make It So – Season 2, Episode 8 (“Mercy”)

Posted on April 25, 2022 by Darren

I am recapping Star Trek: Picard for The Escapist, and so was thrilled to join the wonderful Kurt North on Make It So: A Star Trek Universe Podcast to discuss the eighth episode of the second season, Mercy.

I have somewhat complicated feelings about Picard. There are parts of it that I love, and parts of it that I am a bit more skeptical about. One of the joys of coming into the podcast to discuss the episode was getting the chance to talk about the season as a whole, given how its various arcs were set up and how they paid off. It seems particularly opportune, given that Mercy is a somewhat stronger episode than those surrounding it.

Anyway, it was a huge honour to be invited on, and I hope you enjoy. You can listen to the episode here, or click the link below.