the m0vie blog

New Podcast! Scheduled Programming – “Succession (Season 3)”

Posted on December 22, 2021 by Darren

Scheduled Programming is a podcast looking at modern television. I was thrilled to be invited to join host Baz Greenland for a discussion of the third season of Succession.

Succession is one of the best shows on television at the moment, and it was fun to get to discuss what makes this show about horrible people doing terrible things so compelling, how wonderfully constructed it is, and how it manages to make wealth and excess seem strangely isolating and lonely.

You can listen to the episode here, or click the link below.

Filed under: Podcasts!, Television | Tagged: baz greenland, brian cox, drama, greed, hbo, money, podcast, power, scheduled programming, Succession, Television, wealth | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! “The King’s Man Gets the Job Done – Review”

Posted on December 21, 2021 by Darren

I’m thrilled to be launching movie reviews on The Escapist. Over the coming weeks and months, I will be joining a set of contributors in adding these reviews to the channel. For the moment, I’m honoured to contribute a three-minute film review of The King’s Man, which is in cinemas now.

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: 3mr, matthew vaughn, ralph fiennes, review, the escapist, the king's man, three minute reviews | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On Willem Dafoe as the Stealth MVP of “Spider-Man: No Way Home”…

Posted on December 20, 2021 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. This weekend marks the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home, so it seemed like a good idea to take a look at the movie. In particular, its best and most interesting performance.

No Way Home marks the return of several classic villains from early franchise iterations. Among them is Willem Dafoe, returning as Norman Osborn from Spider-Man and Spider-Man II. It’s a wonderful reminder of how Dafoe codified a lot of the modern comic book movie supervillain, establishing a template that has rarely been equalled in terms of quality across the ensuing decades. However, it’s to the credit of No Way Home that the film manages to use the character of Norman Osborn in a way that enriches and explores the villain.

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

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: green goblin, in the frame, peter parker, power, responsibility, spider man, spider-man: no way home, the escapist, willem dafoe | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On How Hollywood Learned the Wrong Lessons from “The Force Awakens”…

Posted on December 19, 2021 by Darren

I published a new column at The Escapist this evening. With the recent releases of Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker, Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Spider-Man: No Way Home, it seemed like a good opportunity to reflect on the strange and distorted legacy of Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens.

The Force Awakens was a massively successful and popular film. It broke domestic box office records. It also provided a new model for revitalising existing franchises, bringing together members of the older generation with younger leads to hand the torch from one generation to the next. However, Hollywood took many of the wrong lessons from The Force Awakens, and came to prioritise the resurrection of older characters over the development of these younger generations.

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

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: fandom, ghostbusters: afterlife, memory, nostalgia, spider-man: no way home, star wars, star wars: the force awakens, the force awakens, the rise of skywalker | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On “Spider-Man: No Way Home” As An Unlikely Divorce Movie…

Posted on December 19, 2021 by Darren

I published a new column at The Escapist yesterday. With the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home, it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look at the film.

No Way Home is technically Tom Holland’s sixth film the role of Peter Parker. So it’s interesting that No Way Home effectively puts his version of the character through the standard narrative beats of a Spider-Man origin story. In many ways, No Way Home feels like it’s a movie that is aiming for a clean start and fresh break. It also feels like something of a divorce movie between Sony and Marvel Studios. The movie opens with Aunt May dumping the director of Iron Man, and the film seems eager to announce that it is living its best life. The first thing that it does is to hit up some of its exes.

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

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: comic books, continuity, escapist, marvel, sony, spider man, spider-man: no way home, the escapist | Leave a comment »

265. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (#10)

Posted on December 18, 2021 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, this week joined by special guests Andy Melhuish, Deirdre Molumby and Grace Duffy, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every second Saturday at 6pm GMT, with the occasional bonus episode between them.

This time, to mark the 20th anniversary of its release, Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

“The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it. It began with the forging of the Great Rings.”

At time of recording, it was ranked 10th on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

Continue reading →

Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: adventure, andy melhuish, dee molumby, deirdre molumby, epic, fantasy, grace duffy, high fantasy, ian mckellen, J. R. R. Tolkien, lord of the rings, lotr, peter jackson, podcast, The 250, the lord of the rings | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! “Spider-Man: No Way Home Is the Year’s Best Nostalgia Play – Review”

Posted on December 17, 2021 by Darren

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: escapist, films, Movies, nostalgia, spider man, spider-man: no way home, the escapist | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On the Tangled Ethics of “Spider-Man: No Way Home”…

Posted on December 17, 2021 by Darren

On the surface, No Way Home feels a lot like recent nostalgia plays like Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker and Ghostbusters: Afterlife, in that it’s very much an appeal to the memory of a pop culture object. However, No Way Home has certain advantages over these movies, in that it’s a film that seems to be trying to be about more than just recycled imagery. However, it never seems like No Way Home is entirely sure what exactly it is about and what exactly it is trying to say about that.

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

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: comic books, immigration, in the frame, jon watts, metaphor, no kill, spider man, spider-man: no way home, superheroes, the escapist | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On the Whole “Lord of the Rings” as an Extended Ending…

Posted on December 16, 2021 by Darren

I published a new column at The Escapist today. This week, to mark the twentieth anniversary of the release of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings, we’re taking a look back at the trilogy as a whole. We’ll be publishing three articles looking at the films, one each day. This is the third and final of the pieces.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is typically criticised for having too many endings. However, that is oddly appropriate. The entire trilogy is an extended ending. It’s a story about the end of a magical age, about how nothing lasts forever and how everything eventually fades into history. Frodo and his allies are fighting to save Middle-Earth from Sauron, but the films make it very clear that the world’s days are numbered.

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

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: escapist, lord of the rings, return of the king, the escapist, the lord of the rings, the lord of the rings: the return of the king, the return of the king | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On What Makes “The Two Towers” the Best “Lord of the Rings” Movie…

Posted on December 16, 2021 by Darren

I published a new column at The Escapist yesterday. This week, to mark the twentieth anniversary of the release of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings, we’re taking a look back at the trilogy as a whole. We’ll be publishing three articles looking at the films, one each day. This is the second.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is the most interesting film in the trilogy, in large part because it’s neither beginning nor ending of this epic saga. It is instead the story about what it feels like to exist in the middle of this epic struggle between good and evil, feeling small and powerless as the forces move around. It’s the most human of the films in the trilogy, the most nuanced, the most complicated. It is the only film that really lets shades of grey creep into the mix of its epic black-and-white morality.

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