THE BREAK WITH MICHELLE WOLF

Michelle Wolf is a US comedian who's worked as a contributor and writer for Late Night with Seth Meyers and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. Most people would remember her from the recent guest speaker at the 2018 White House Correspondents' Dinner - in which she succeeded in offending some of the most offensive people in Washington. She's recently premiered her new Netflix series The Break with Michelle Wolf and it's hilarious. She was recently branded 'unhinged' by the Republican National Committee, something she wears as a badge of honour. Wolf tries to create her own chat show format by mixing it up a little, sometimes the show will be almost totally a monologue/stand-up routine about current events, other times she'll chat with a guest. What makes her a standout is that as a comic, she kills. She's fearless: delivering her jokes with a combination of whimsical silliness and caustic anger.

If you're a fan of barbed political satire of the likes of Stephen Colbert, The Daily Show or Samantha Bee, then you'll enjoy this. It's currently viewable on Netflix.

COMEDIANS IN CARS GETTING COFFEE: FRESHLY BREWED

Jerry Seinfeld's series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee is a bite-sized reworking of a chat show, showcasing a different vintage car every episode which car collector/enthusiast Seinfeld chooses for each guest. Although the show has existed in other forms elsewhere, this new series is produced by Netflix as part of a $100 million deal that Seinfeld signed with them, giving them all the previous seasons as well as two comedy specials that are due to be released later this year. The guest list for this season features: Dave Chapelle, Alec Baldwin, Ellen DeGeneres, Zach Galifinakis, (the late) Jerry Lewis and Kate McKinnon (as well as many others). The ever affable Seinfeld keeps things light and the banter sharp, it's easily one of the most addictive shows available at the moment, as episode seems to effortlessly whizz by and the next begins, given its junk food digestibility, it's easy to watch three or four episodes in a row. 

GLOW: SEASON 2

Anyone who saw the first season of this strangely endearing and engaging comedy/drama about an all-women wrestling show that gained notoriety in the 1980's, would know how eminently appealing it is and how quick it is to binge watch. Featuring a massive female cast, GLOW (Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling) stars Alison Brie (Mad Men, Community) as Ruth Wilder, a struggling actress living in Los Angeles in the '80s. Wilder yearns to be a 'serious' actress but finds her creative outlet in the unexpected arena of women's wrestling. She is thrown in with a motley troop of twelve other women, each developing their own signature wrestling characters out of sweat, tears, glitter, leotards and hairspray. Comedian Marc Maron is rather brilliant as the coke-fuelled Sam Sylvia, a washed-up, low-budget horror movie director tasked with whipping the troop of performers into some kind of credible shape for TV. Also a standout is New York theater actor Betty Gilpin as Debbie Eagan. The show-runners are Carly Mensch and Liz Flahive (who've both written on the new Captain Marvel film) and the executive producer is Orange is the New Black & Weeds creator Jenji Kohan.

JIM JEFFERIES: THIS IS ME NOW

While US-based, Australian comedian Jim Jefferies caustic and biting comedy may not be everyone's cup of tea (he was famously punched on stage early in his career by an angry audience member), he's well-known here and abroad for his US gun control routine that went viral several years back. Off of the left wing kudos he received for that, Jefferies signed with Comedy Central in the US to front his own Daily Show-style comedy program. The Jim Jefferies Show is now in its second season and Friday July 13th also sees Jefferies poised to premiere his third stand-up special, on Netflix. Filmed in London at the Apollo, the special features much of what you've come to expect from Jefferies, whose particular brand of comedy is intended to push buttons and elicit strong reactions, only to then be undermined by his self-deprecating punchlines and knowing jabs at his own foibles. This kind of boundary-pushing comedy may not be palatable to everyone but I find his Australian-flavoured blunt honesty, goofy delivery and sly wit to be pretty damn hilarious. Admittedly his earlier material was peppered with typically Australian misogynistic quips and punchlines, something he seems to have grown out of as he's developed his skills, aged and gained a broader audience. This special sees him talking about the effects of his celebrity on his private life, Trump's America and performing the worst gig he's ever done. There's currently no trailer for the July 13 Netflix special, so in its absence, please enjoy watching Jim Jefferies (below) on Real Time with Bill Maher going toe-to-toe with the bloviating homunculus that is Piers Morgan.

CONDOR

The conspiracy thriller was a mainstay of late 70's cinema - thanks to Alan J Pakula (The Parallax View, All the President's Men) and Sydney Pollack, Director of the 1975 film Three Days of the Condor. The new TV revamp is produced by AT&T (their first foray into scripted TV drama) for their 'Audience network' platform and is based on the novel Six Days of the Condor by James Grady and the aforementioned film adaptation Three Days of the Condor, written by Lorenzo Semple Jr. and David Rayfiel. 

In the '75 film, Robert Redford starred as Joe Turner, a 'reader' working for the C.I.A. His office is a relatively unremarkable building called the 'American Literary Historical Society'. In a very 70's analog way, Turner read and reviewed novels and global newspapers in an effort to uncover hidden operations of rival governments or corporate illegalities that could relate to foreign covert intelligence. Joe ducks out for a quick bite one day and returns to find his co-workers have all been executed. While on the run he meets Faye Dunaway and with her help, uncovers a shadowy cabal in the CIA that's set on gaining control over Middle Eastern oil fields.

In this new revamp of the story, Turner (Max Irons) is an idealistic tech geek who codes for the C.I.A. and goes on the lam when his colleagues are shot dead in a surgical attack on his offices. The conspiracy appears to be much deeper, elaborate and far-reaching than in the original film, with covert technology playing a greater role (much like Will Smith's Enemy of the State) as he's pursued by mysterious operatives, one of whom is played by Brendan Fraser. The production is slick and it's a tense, involving ride that's definitely worth checking out with a cast rounded out by William Hurt, Mira Sorvino and Bob Balaban. It's currently available to watch on Stan.

The original Sicario,  released in 2015, was a taught, dread-laden vision of the murky world of governmental agencies and their black-ops war with Mexican drug Cartel’s under the auspices of the US Government’s ‘War on Drugs’. In that film, Benicio Del Toro’s taciturn assassin Alejandro Gillick existed in a nebulous haze until the final act when his true motivations were made clear. Josh Brolin’s CIA ‘Special Activities’ agent Matt Graver drove the plot through his obfuscation and deliberately opaque guidance of Emily Blunt’s FBI agent Kate Macer. That air of confusion ensured audiences were kept in a perpetual state of wrong-footedness, giving director Denis Villeneuve an opportunity to explore the amoral atmosphere and ratchet up tension to an almost hypnotic degree. 

Sicario screenwriter Taylor Sheridan penned a companion-piece, Soldado though without Villeneuve’s involvement (Villeneuve would going on to direct Blade Runner 2049). Italian filmmaker Stefano Sollima (who’s directed many episodes of the Italian TV Series Gomorrah) came aboard as his replacement. Sheridan’s new story focuses on the new money-spinner for drug cartels whose cocaine trafficking has been hindered by tighter border controls: people smuggling. When Islamic terrorists enter the US, hidden amongst the throngs of illegal immigrants attempting to cross the border, a spate of stateside suicide bombings follow. Prompted by public outrage at the terrorist attacks, the US Secretary of Defense (Matthew Modine) requests that Brolin’s CIA spook Matt Graver go ‘dirty’ in order to find a solution to the problem. The ‘dirty’ option is to unleash Alejandro Gillick (Benicio Del Toro), a former lawyer and family man turned vengeance-fuelled CIA assassin, to kidnap Isabela Reyes (Isabela Moner) the young daughter of a major Cartel boss and to (hopefully) start a war between the Cartels.

The scant character development is fleshed-out through deftly-handled action set pieces, of which there are a good number. There’s plenty of hardware and Call of Duty-style military fetishism on display (Michael Bay would be proud) however Soldado (aka Sicario 2 aka Sicario: Day of the Soldado as it’s called here in Australia) fails to deliver the added dimension that Villeneuve (and Cinematographer Roger Deakins) brought to the original, which is a haunting ethereal beauty amidst the dark, grim machismo. Where Sicario settled on an outsiders view of the horror and its pointlessness, seen from the perspective of Emily Blunt’s moralistic FBI agent, Sicario 2: Day of the Soldado drops us unguided into the violent futility. So despite the engaging story and Brolin and Del Toro’s solid-as-a-rock performances, it’s chopped-off at the knees by a third act conclusion that feels like a second act development and ultimately feels lacking because we haven’t felt anything and seem destined to leave the cinema feeling like Blunt’s character from the first film, overwhelmed by the violence and inhumanity yet ambivalent in the face of it.

When Steven Soderbergh decided to remake Lewis Milestone’s original Oceans 11 in 2001, he had just won the Best Director Oscar for Traffic. Prior to that he had a run of box office successes (Erin Brockovich, Out of Sight) that had followed on from a period of making experimental and outright art-house films such as Kafka, The Underneath, Schizopolis and King of the Hill. He applied the loose, energised handheld style he explored in the bizarre and hilarious Schizopolis to the shooting style in Out of Sight, The Limey, Erin Brockovich & Traffic. What this meant was those films had a kinetic vibrancy to them that had been lacking in his earlier films. When he decided to turn his hand to, what was for him, a studio popcorn picture with Oceans 11, the result was a slick, star-studded comedy that effortlessly wove ‘heist movie’ tropes and movie star cameos into what felt like an indie picture.

Several sequels later, and despite the diminishing returns of Oceans 12 & 13, Soderbergh has taken a back seat as producer and Gary Ross (director of Pleasantville, Seabiscuit and The Hunger Games) helms his take on a female-centric version of an Oceans heist flick.

Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) is fresh out of jail, barely minutes into her new-found freedom, she convinces old friend Lou (Cate Blanchett) to pull another job: to steal a $150 million Cartier diamond necklace. During an extended recruitment drive, Debbie employs the dark and sneaky talents of jeweller Amita (Mindy Kalin), pickpocket extraordinaire Constance (Awkwafina), suburban mum and fencer of stolen goods Tammy (Sarah Paulson), hacker Nineball (Rhianna), overly anxious fashion designer Rose (Helena Bonham Carter) and uptight actress Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway).

The plan to lift the diamonds is interesting enough and executed with aplomb and there’s some small moments of comedy that raise a chuckle but on the whole, this is a missed opportunity. The energy and verve that Soderbergh imbued in his films is entirely lacking in the relatively leaden treatment Gary Ross gives the material. There’s some nice meta moments referring to the dominance of female characters in the story, when Debbie states at one point: “a ‘him’ gets noticed, a ‘her’ is invisible” but given the talents of the cast, it’s the comedy vibe that should’ve been amped up - given that's the key selling point of the other Oceans films. What this ends up devolving into feels like a pale facsimile of the other films with the key leads feeling like they're deliberately aping their male counterparts particularly Blanchett who appears to be doing a variant of Brad Pitt's character, Rusty. None of this is helped by the appearance of James Corden as an insurance investigator, presumably cast in this because a focus group told the studio that Car Pool Karaoke is big with whatever female demographic they're targeting. A shame, because Corden's presence in a film terminally obliterates audience good-will so once his expansive mug looms into view, any semblance of suspension of disbelief evaporates.

Why there wasn't a push to create a more singular heist movie that would be it's own thing is a mystery. Something slightly grittier or more hard-boiled would've distanced this from the original enough to give it room to breath. Instead, it's just adequate, which considering the talents of those involved just isn't good enough. If anyone needed to be reminded of why good screenwriters get paid a lot, I present Exhibit A.

Annie Graham (Toni Collette),her husband Steve (Gabriel Byrne), their teenage son Peter (Alex Wolff), and their 13-year-old daughter Charlie (Milly Shapiro) live in an unnamed north western US town in a large neo-gothic home, surrounded by dark woods. Annie works as an artist and builds scale model recreations of scenes from her life. Annie works from home and until her mother Ellen’s recent death from dementia, had been caring for her until she died. At the funeral, the family appear emotionally blank and shut- off. Clearly there’s been much trauma and animosity within their strained relationships and the mother’s death has come as something of a relief for the family. After some time, Annie joins a grief counselling support group and meets Joanie (Anne Dowd from The Handmaid’s Tale), Joanie sells a sceptical Annie on spiritualism and seances, insisting that Annie explore this dimension of her life and try to get some closure on her grief and bereavement.

Marketing for Hereditary will try to sell the idea that this is a broadly aimed horror film that holds appeal to a wide audience, but I suspect this just isn’t the case. It may appeal to a large audience but given the absolute batshit insane paths this story takes, the film itself will polarise audiences. What you do need to know before seeing it, is that as a horror film it takes no prisoners. So be aware that even for jaded fans of the genre like myself, this film packs a serious wallop. Writer/Director Ari Aster is clearly a fan of the horror films that showcase directorial technique, such as the films of Brian de Palma and David Cronenberg, where long deliberate takes and intricate, slow camerawork lulls (and almost even hypnotises) the audience into a sedate mindset. All the while he underpins the proceedings with a sub-woof drone that lays on a vibe of palpable dread, so when things escalate, it goes for the audience’s jugular. The operatic heights it hits owe a debt to ‘giallo’ cinema and Italian horror filmmakers like Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci and Mario Bava but it also shares something with other films that polarise audiences in a similar way, such as The Killing of a Sacred Deer and Mother!. Collette’s performance alone is reason to see the film, as she runs the gamut of see-sawing, extreme emotional states and edgy paranoia. The film hinges on her emotional authenticity and her acting skill - and that is a sight to behold. If you enjoy horror and are open to left-field storytelling in the genre, avoid trailers and spoilers and just see it.

Nash Edgerton's carved out a decent niche for himself working on a variety of US and Australian films as a stunt coordinator or second unit director, coupled with stints wearing a producer and/or director hat on a variety of projects under his production banner Blue Tongue Films. His upcoming FX series Mr. Inbetween is a spin-off of Scott Ryan's rather brilliant 2005 Australian film The Magician, which Nash also produced. 

His debut feature in 2008 was The Square, a top notch suburban noir with a hapless man under financial duress at the centre of a complex tale of shifting loyalties, betrayal and murder. It violently tipped its hat towards the Coen brothers Blood Simple and displayed Nash's well-honed genre instincts. In this, his follow-up feature, Edgerton once again places a hapless man under financial strain, smack dab in the centre of a dark, violent and at times hilarious, noir fable.

Harold Soyinka (David Oyelowo) works for a pharmaceutical company called Promethium, struggling in the middle management hamster wheel as his bank account is depleted by an unaffordable mortgage and his wife Bonnie’s (Thandie Newton) fledgling design business. The company CEO, Richard (Joel Edgerton) and co-owner Elaine (Charlize Theron) are singularly awful human beings, who are actively working to sell the company and make as much money as they can in the process. Despite their insistence that all is normal, Harold suspects a merger is in the offing. Even so, he’s asked by his employers to travel with them to Mexico on business and during the trip they involve the unwitting Harold in a shady deal with cartel boss Villegas (Carlos Corona) who then believes Harold to be the boss of the pharmaceutical company Promethium. Things become even more strange when a faked kidnapping becomes a real kidnapping and a mercenary named Mitch (District 9’s Sharlto Copley) is dispatched to extract Harold, only to further entangle him in a violent relay that sees him dragged from one life-threatening scenario to the next, like a dark crime noir-inflected The Big Lebowski crossed with Elmore Leonards’ Get Shorty.

Gringo’s darkly comic performances (particularly Joel Edgerton and Charlize Theron’s venal and vicious pharmaceutical shysters) do make for some funny sequences that are at times punctuated (quite effectively) with brisk, muscular action set-pieces. Nash Edgerton’s stunt background has given him a keen eye for impactful violence, turning even routine ‘car-flip’ scenes into head rattling, bone-splitting ordeals. The cast are all in really fine form and David Oyelowo’s decision to portray Harold (originally scripted as a white American) as a guileless and trusting African immigrant, means he’s even more of a fish-out-of-water and his inability to predict just how despicable his employers are, verges on a wide-eyed naivete that’s played for comedy as well as pathos. All up, Nash Edgerton has constructed a wonderfully visceral and razor-sharp farce that twists genre tropes and pays homage to his influences. See it.  

Paul Gauguin is a problematic subject for a modern biopic, his freewheeling and indulgent lifestyle led him to various spots around the globe in search of artistic inspiration and hedonistic satisfaction. So the less you know about his life and personal trials, the more successful this semi-fictional study of the artist is likely to work for you.

In 1890's Paris, celebrated artist Paul Gauguin (Vincent Cassel) languishes in depression over the strictures of his life: his estranged wife Mette (Pernille Bergendorff) and five children, his ailing bank balance, the lack of interest in his artworks and his claustrophobia at being trapped within a society that he believes does not understand him or his art. He looks further afield for inspiration and suggests to his group of artist confidantes that Polynesia be considered as a viable destination, somewhere where his creativity might flow. 

Paul travels to Tahiti, where he lives in a hut, painting and carving constantly. Recovering from a recent heart attack, he travels to a remote village and within the space of a day, meets a family there and is betrothed to their young daughter, Tehura (Tuhei Adams). Travelling back to the coast, Gauguin and Tehura bond over art. Over the coming months, she models for many of his artworks. Local man Jotepha (Pua-Tai Hikutini) is romantically interested in Tehura, and she in him, so it's the spectre of this relationship that looms over Gauguin, as his wife shuns him, as his artistic output fails to find buyers back in France and as his health fails him. 

Beautifully shot by cinematographer Pierre Cottereau in shallow focus, virtually every image is flattened by this technique, creating an effect where the texture of each frame is like an expansive canvas. As the tortured artist in his island residence, Vincent Cassel throws himself headlong into the role and he's (typically) stunning. Cassel's lean, muscular frame is rendered almost skeletal amidst the deprivations of 1890's island life and with his gaunt face framed by an unkempt beard, his Gauguin is the definitive portrait of a starving artist. Cassel's intense demeanor and always-reliable thousand-yard stare lends a molten intensity to the role, overshadowing his Polynesian co-stars who make the best of their rather underwritten characters. Far from verbose, their perspective is largely expressed in long vacant stares and sideways glances, seen through Gauguin's paranoid and distorted gaze. 

Long-time Nick Cave collaborator, Australia's own Warren Ellis, lends his warm and evocative violin to a score that is both lyrical and beautiful. It quite literally transforms the film from a somewhat underwritten, revisionist character study into a quietly beautiful tale of an artist refusing to compromise at all costs. It's this moody and tender orchestral veneer that goes a long way towards covering the underwritten story gaps and creating dark and stirring emotion in a story that, as written, doesn't really attempt to delve too deeply into romanticism but desperately wants you to feel. 

It's kind of bizarre, given the turbulent scenes behind-the-camera on Solo - where original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller (The Lego Movie, 21 & 22 Jump Street) were unceremoniously fired from a film they'd been shooting for six months, only to then be replaced by a gun-for-hire director in Ron Howard - that the result is quite easily the most entertaining and genuinely fun Star Wars retread released since the awful Lucas-directed prequels. There was word from the set during production that Lawrence Kasdan (writer of The Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark) had poured a good amount of effort into the script, along with his son Jonathan Kasdan - and they did not want to see it reduced to a comedic improv-inspired action film. Lord & Miller were reportedly encouraging improvisation and shooting multiple takes of sequences for options in the edit room in order to gain a more spontaneous feel. The Kasdan's apparently wanted the material to be treated with a classicist's eye, in line with the 'intergalactic western' tone of the piece. Soon after, Kathleen Kennedy announced the directing duo were out at Lucasfilm and that another director was being headhunted. That director was Ron Howard, long regarded as a steady and affable hand on a film set and bringing with him, decades of filmmaking experience to the table. Thing is, Howard's strength is in his interpretation of a good script - give him a Frost/Nixon, a Parenthood or an Apollo 13 and you'll have box office gold. Give him The Dark Tower or Angels and Demons and well....

In Solo, our hero Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) is a young tearaway, living on the streets of Corellia and scraping a living through petty crime and theft. He dreams of being a pilot and - along with the object of his affections Qi'ra (Emilia Clarke), plans an escape from the Imperial empire-occupied hellhole. Plans go sideways and a few years later, Han's a soldier in a battleground befriending Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson) and his motley crew, who are pulling a train job for the villainous Dryden Vos (Paul Bettany). Solo decides that he'll work with them to try to earn enough coin so that he can be reunited with Qi'ra and maybe buy himself some happiness. That's the setup.  Yes, there is foreshadowing of famous moments in Star Wars A New Hope and the film could certainly be accused of relying on nostalgia and fan service button-pushing to ring every last drop of goodwill from the audience - but what the hell is wrong with that? The story is so tight you could bounce a coin off it. Alden Ehrenreich is tremendously winning as Solo, so much so that you DO buy him as Han Solo - perhaps not as Harrison Ford  - but certainly as that character, so no mean feat. Clarke, for the first time since Game of Thrones, feels comfortable in a role she is cast perfectly for and Donald 'Childish Gambino -I'm-everywhere-doing-everything' Glover is clearly having fun as Lando Calrissian. Fleabag's Phoebe-Waller Bridge is also brilliant (in a mo-capped performance) as droid L3-37. Kasdan's script really is the star here. Staying very much within the lines, it is epic, crystalline, straightforward and - most importantly - cracks along at a great clip. Rogue One was a fan favourite precisely because it gave the Star Wars audience what they wanted: a fun, straightforward adventure that bathed in the original trilogy's style and tone. When JJ Abrams (The Force Awakens), Rian Johnson (The Last Jedi) & Gareth Edwards (Rogue One) tackled their own versions of Star Wars, they strangely failed to re-capture what seems to have been previously lacking in the Disney-led reboots - a nostalgic sense of fun. Howard's broken the Skywalker-centric plotting open wide enough to make the larger universe feel much more engaging and absurdly entertaining. Despite Han Solo's destination being set and an obvious inevitability to the story, there's enough uncertainty in its plot twists and possibility for adventure within the greater universe on display, to make taking this ride a hell of a lot of fun.

Cargo opens in the aftermath of a viral outbreak, a contagion has swept through Australia and presumably the world, prompting Andy (Martin Freeman) and his wife Kay (Susie Porter) take refuge on a river, in a houseboat with their baby daughter Rosie. A need for food sees them scavenging on board a wrecked yacht in the river and – in a creepy sequence, very reminiscent of Dead Calm – Kay is bitten. Seeking help, Andy takes his ailing wife, who has forty eight hours before she transitions into a crazed zombie, and commandeers a vehicle. During the drive, Andy himself is bitten and it’s really at this point that the rubber hits the road story-wise as Andy must find a guardian for his daughter before he himself ‘turns’.

George A. Romero may not have realised the cinematic impact of what he’d given birth to, back in 1968 when he made Night of the Living Dead but the zombie genre he spawned has become so immense and varied it’s mutated into a variety of sub-genres such as episodic drama/comedy for TV (The Walking Dead, Z Nation, iZombie) or horror fantasy (such as the Resident Evil franchise) and social commentary (Romero’s Day of the dead/Dawn of the dead and Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later/28 Weeks Later. Cargo falls very much into the latter camp, examining race relations in Australia through the prism of a handful of people’s lives amidst the aftermath of a viral outbreak of zombie-ism in Australia.

At points, I was reminded of the game The Last of Us  – though what this reminded me of most is Cormac McCarthy’s book The Road. The film version (which starred Viggo Mortenson and Kodi Smit-McPhee) is very similar in tone to Cargo, though Cargo gives audiences a warmer and more optimistic tone with which to leave the cinema whereas The Road – despite being a lyrical but brutal story – is a very tough watch.

Directors Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke have pulled off a really exceptional genre film, utilising some seriously experienced behind-the-camera talent with Cinematographer Geoffrey Simpson (who shot Vincent Ward’s The Navigator, Shine and Oscar and Lucinda) and Production Designer Josephine Ford (who’s worked on many productions over the last 35 years including the exceptional New Zealand sci-fi film The Quiet Earth). Cargo gives a genre staple some serious emotional heft via some great performances  - particularly with Martin Freeman and the always reliable Anthony Hayes -  and benefits hugely from what is clearly a nuanced filmmaker’s eye.

 A by-product of Deadpool's $800 million worldwide box office, is that US studios are now far more amenable to taking a risk on more adult-skewed comic book properties. Ryan Reynolds second bite of the Deadpool apple, after his appearance as the character in Gavin Wood’s mind-blowingly risible X Men Origins: Wolverine was something of a ‘makegood’. A Deadpool fanboy through and through, Reynolds’ long-held desire to retcon X Men Origins: Wolverine saw him seize the opportunity to realise a more faithful screen version of Rob Liefeld & Fabian Nicieza’s fourth wall breaking, violent and profane anti-hero with both hands. As Deadpool, Reynolds delivered a performance that many believe he was born to play.

In the first film, Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) is a top mercenary who volunteers to undergo experimental therapy to survive terminal cancer. His treatment is compromised when he’s doublecrossed by Ajax (Ed Skrein) and he’s horribly disfigured. Presumed dead by the love of his life, he exiles himself and seeks vengeance on Ajax. Which (spoiler alert) he exacts. It isn’t necessary to have seen the first film, but it’d set the table for the anarchic, bonkers self-aware craziness that’s served to you in this sequel.

Deadpool is set on a path of deranged vengeance before the opening credits even roll and from that point, it’s continuous pot-shots at DC & Marvel, assailing the X Men (particularly Wolverine) and frenetic, bloody and hilarious action sequences. Director David Leitch’s stunt background served him well when he previously helmed Atomic Blonde and co-directed John Wick. Here, he’s off the chain, with set pieces showcasing imaginative and visceral violence which is ultimately as impactful as a wet-sock because the unreality of the exercise is only amplified by Deadpool’s fourth-wall breaking winks at the audience, his references to the ‘lazy’ script writers, his derision of plot twists from other comic book films and their all-too-common, though well-worn, plot devices. As a foil, Josh Brolin’s time-travelling cyber-soldier Cable is grizzled and po-faced, on a mission to prevent future atrocities as if he’s wandered in from a more serious film. He and Deadpool bounce off one another literally and figuratively, as Deadpool subverts him at every opportunity and mine the situation for laughs. As Domino, a mutant whose power is luck, Zazie Beetz (who stars in Donald Glover’s TV show Atlanta) all but walks off with the film. She currently has no less than six feature films all awaiting release - as well as being slated to reprise the Domino character in an X Force film (along with Brolin’s Cable and Reynolds' Deadpool) - so I doubt this is the last we’ll see of her. Following the tense drama of Avengers: Infinity War and the DC misfire Justice League, Deadpool 2 is like a star-raving bonkers palate cleanser

There’s something of a sub-genre of films which feature protagonists escaping into self-created imaginary worlds in order to deal with real-life issues. It’s a style of storytelling given fairly on-the-nose treatment in films such as Bridge to Terabithia and Richard Donner’s Radio Flyer though the recent (and extremely affecting) A Monster Calls and Terry Gilliam’s masterwork The Fisher King are probably better examples of how far the conceit can be successfully pushed. In the case of I Kill Giants, it’s squarely aimed at a teenage audience and doesn’t seemed too concerned with attempting to traverse any high degree of emotional complexity.

The screenplay was written by Joe Kelly (based on his and J.M. Ken Niimura’s graphic novel) and it tells the story of a teenager named Barbara (Madison Wolfe) who lives in a small New England coastal town, in the care of her older sister Karen (Imogen Poots). Barbara lives predominately in her own head and creates elaborate Dungeons & Dragons-inspired mythologies where a variety of giants menace her with threats of impending death and destruction. So she occupies her days laying traps and magical charms in her role as a self-designated ‘giant killer’.

Barbara’s school life is similarly consumed with the mythology-building, in between encounters with school bully Taylor (Rory Jackson) which only serves to make her withdraw further from classmates and from the hand of friendship extended by newly arrived student Sophia (Sydney Wade) who’s similarly an outsider. The school psychologist Mrs Mollè (Zoe Saldana) expresses concern though she finds Barbara’s world-building to be a largely impenetrable bubble. Barbara and Sophie eventually become firm friends though the exact reasons for why Barbara has created (and continually escapes into) this fantasy world is not fully explained until much later in the film. That’s a frustrating script choice because it means that audience patience wears thin with Barbara’s inexplicably withdrawn behaviour, something that prevents the film from shifting into a gear that would reward an older viewer, less interested in the emotional theatrics and searching for meatier metaphors. That said, it’s a sweetly intentioned film, beautifully shot and with a strong lead performance from Madison Wolfe, so it’s certainly recommended for the angsty teenager in all of us.

Joe Purdy’s recorded 14 albums, has had international success as a singer/songwriter. Amber Rubarth is also a successful singer/songwriter and here, both turn their hands to acting. Purdy plays Elliot, a singer songwriter who on September 11th, 2001 shares an adjacent seat on a flight bound for New York, with Joni (Rubarth) only for it to be grounded. In the chaos and uncertainty of Los Angeles airport following the New York attack, Joni offers him a place to crash for the night. This leads to the offer of her mother’s ’72 Chevy van to drive back to New York.

As the pair traverse the lower states, Elliot and Joni meet a variety of people affected by the shock of the 9/11 attack and enjoy gentle, meandering discussions with them on the nature of life. Often, Elliot and Amber sing folk tunes together, other times they are joined by the people they’ve met, either way the softly hypnotic hold of this utter gem of a film never wavers.

Ostensibly it’s a diegetic musical in the same vein as Once but it’s as good as that film and it’s also as pointedly beautiful. The haunting effects of 9/11 have never been so lyrically approached on film and the restraint and subtlety with which Heinz gently guides these characters through the story, creates a warm, emotive experience which spiritedly strides along, cruising through scenes of quiet beauty that wonderfully emphasise the films central concerns: The Power of Music and The Kindness of Strangers, towards a bittersweet and tender conclusion. I was sorry to have it end. Beautiful.

In Mid-Century USA, A Capella gospel groups (Quartets, Quintets etc) were an escalating form of popular entertainment within the African American culture of the US south. Vocal groups would pile their numbers into old ‘yank tanks’ and cruise state-to-state, singing ‘programs’ (concerts) at local churches and community halls. They’d be billeted by local churchgoers and given food and board for the duration of their stay. Groups would stay in town for extended periods and perform nightly for the local congregations.

The extreme competition between these groups (and there were many: The Happy Land Jubilee Singers, The Blind Boys of Alabama, The Dixie Hummingbirds, The Gospelaires and The Holy Wonders with Lou Rawls to name but a few) meant that bands with ‘an edge’ would be more in demand and therefore have a chance to get even more work and perhaps even a recording contract. This ‘edge’ took the form of impassioned theatrics and stagecraft or, an electric guitar. This ended up being a game changer, it was the beginnings of Soul and R&B with acts like Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, Mahalia Jackson, Sister Rosetta Tharp, Rev. Julius Cheeks and the most well-known of the Gospel vocalists deemed by the gospel community to have ‘crossed over’ to the godless world of secular music: Sam Cooke.

The warmth and emotion of Gospel music, the on-stage theatrics (switching leads, emotive vocal performances - of the kind that James Brown would eventually make his signature) combined with reworked lyrical refrains (‘Lord’ changes to ‘baby’) and the addition of drum and bass, would create a new music form and latch itself into popular consciousness. This documentary by filmmaker Robert Clem is a straight-up joy to watch: the music is terrific, it’s well researched and as it’s an aspect of American music that hasn’t really been given its due in documentary film, it greatly rewards the uninitiated. Go see.

There’s been a recent explosion of Australian filmmakers who have made their bones - or are on the way to doing so - via low-budget genre flicks: Shane Abbess (The Osiris Child, Infini), Zak Hilditch (the underrated These Final Hours), Hugh Sullivan (The Infinite Man), John V. Soto (Needle, The Gateway) and Ben C. Lucas (OtherLife). Ambitious, epic fantasy/sci-fi, done independently on a low budget, is not an easy road to traverse. Multiplexes pack their session schedules with unlimited showings of the latest studio-funded cash cow, leaving little room for independently produced offerings to even get decent theatrical distribution. Canberra-based filmmaker Ché Baker toiled for several years to create his maiden fantasy/sci-fi feature film: Blue World Order.

Set a few years from now, it tells the tale of Jake (Jake Ryan) who, after an EMP renders anything electrical into a paperweight, scavenges to survive amidst the chaos of the wastelands and struggles to give medical help to his daughter Molly (Billie Rutherford) who is afflicted by an unknown illness. When Jake stumbles across a fortified camp of survivors, he meets a doctor, named Harris (Jack Thompson) who claims to have a treatment that will cure his child. Jake soon finds that the camp is not a refuge at all, with the inhabitants affected by a mysterious transmission putting them under the control of a sinister technological force.

Aided by an affable escapee named Madcap (Stephen Hunter), Jake takes Molly and heads for refuge elsewhere. Soon after, Jake encounters old martial arts teacher-turned-adversary, Master Crane (Billy Zane) who appears to be involved with the biotech threat, though all is not as it seems.

Cinematographer Robb Shaw-Velden’s camerawork lends the requisite gloss to the production, particularly in the car action sequences and fight choreography. The special and visual effects are well executed, with creature prosthetic's and digital effects lending a decidedly handmade touch to the production. Baker, co-writer/co-director Dallas Bland and co -writer Sarah Mason, eschew the cerebral ‘ideas driven’ minimalist approach that can often be the result of the restrictiveness of low-budget genre films these days and instead, go all out 'balls-to-the-wall', much as Neil Marshall did with his mash-up of 80’s genres, this harks back to 80’s post-apocalyptic wasteland films (such as Mad Max and its creative spawn: Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn, Steel Dawn or Battle Truck) as well as martial arts genre films such as Van Damme’s Cyborg and more recent tech-noir action fare, exemplified by films such as The Matrix.

Shot in and around Canberra, in the ACT, Blue World Order also serves as a treatise on how to wring the utmost production value out of a relatively small region, one that provides a variety of facilities and outdoor locations in which to film. So, aside from the action spectacle, ‘run-and-gun’ blaster battles and martial arts-fight scenes, this is an audacious attempt by Baker and his team to pull together the collective contributions of local Canberran fans, extras and professional practitioners of ‘Film Craft’  - and prove that a local film industry can certainly grow and establish itself at the crossroads of vision and reality.

This US comedy-drama series on Amazon Prime, is created by Amy Sherman-Palladino (of Gilmore Girls fame - and she of His Girl Friday style dialogue, only faster) and stars Rachel Brosnahan (who many people will recognise from the first three seasons of House of Cards) as a housewife who discovers she has a talent for stand-up comedy, which at that time was a distinctly male profession. The series pilot premiered as a part of Amazon Studio's pilot season last year, it’s been green-lit for a second series – which is currently in production. It won two Golden Globe Awards last year, Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy and Best Actress – Musical or Comedy for Rachel Brosnahan, who plays Miriam 'Midge' Maisel, a Jewish housewife living in New York City in 1958. Her husband is a businessman who moonlights as comedian at a beatnik joint but becomes severely disillusioned with her choice of husband, when she discovers that Joel has stolen one of his best routines from Bob Newhart. Her husband also reveals that he’s been having an affair, something that leads to the marriage ending and a well-earned night out on the lash for Midge. She returns to the beatnik bar and pushing for some stage time, does an improvised set about her collapsed marriage – and the audience loves it. Thus unlocking an unthought of career trajectory for Midge.

She teams with the affectionately abusive Susie (played by Alex Borstein, who voices Lois in Family Guy) – a comedy club employee who can see talent when she knows it, offering to be Midge’s manager. Inspired by real-life female 'comediennes' such as Joan Rivers, real-life comedy figures populate the story, such as Lenny Bruce, who Midge bails out of jail after an obscenity arrest.

It luxuriates in its own sense of 'Mad Men' style flashy period detail and there are some seriously self-conscious single -take camera moves - but it all works to the betterment of the show. I really don't want to sell this show short: it's terrific. Tightly scripted, well acted and thoroughly deserving of the Golden Globe attention. If you're a fan of mid-century chic, the early days of US comedy and witty quips by the second - do check it out.

Rajneesh, also known as Osho, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, or simply Bhagwan, was an Indian guru and leader of a spiritual movement in the 70’s and 80’s. In his rise to prominence in India, he was an outspoken critic of Socialism and Mahatma Gandhi, while his movement advocated radical Meditation therapy and permissive sexuality. He fashioned himself into something of a philosopher, a mystic and in the eyes of some of his followers, a semi-deity. In 1974, Rajneesh established a foundation and ashram in Poona, India, to which throngs of westerners flocked, seeking enlightenment. By 1981, the ashram had incurred the ire of Indira Gandhi’s government and in a move instigated by personal secretary Ma Anand Sheela, his personal secretary and - in a huge display of faith, his Power of Attorney -  Rajneesh relocated to the United States, to a remodeled ranch and purpose-built town dubbed Rajneeshpuram in Wasco County, Oregon. The local inhabitants were terrified of a 'cult' moving into their sleepy county (remember, this is only a few short years after Jonestown) and they were understandably afraid and concerned. The locals refused to take the arrival of this transplanted 'instant city' laying down. The animosity and 'othering' was mutual, so the war of words via the news media and via Sheela's bizarrely aggressive press conferences, escalated tensions to a point where neither side wanted to compromise. By this point, the Rajneesh followers as a group were well advanced in their paranoia of outsiders and had embarked on a mission of creating their own law enforcement department and arming themselves for their own 'protection' against the perceived aggression of the Oregon locals. This rapid escalation of paranoia and self-preservation resulted in the first bio-terror attack in US history, the largest immigration fraud in US history and a political assassination attempt.

As an examination of religious fanaticism, this is a fascinating and engrossing lesson in how easily persuaded people really can be, particularly when they’re under the influence of ‘spiritual enlightenment’  - and when ‘sexual freedom’ is included in the mix. Producer's Mark and Jay Duplass have teamed with Director's Maclain & Chapman Way, somehow managing to track down key members of the Rajneesh group around the globe, even Ma Anand Sheela herself. It might have benefited from the perspective of just an average Rajneeshee member rather than just the leaders of the group, nevertheless It’s an engrossing, addictive and highly binge-able six-part documentary.

This anarchic - and flat-out banana's - Netflix comic adaptation is something of a Frankenstein: a crime/noir/fantasy/black-as-pitch comedy based on the four-issue run created by comic's writer extraordinaire Grant Morrison and artist Darick Robertson. Brian Taylor (one of the co-directors of the bonkers Jason Statham film's Crank and Crank 2) serves as Director for five of the eight episodes.

The plot revolves around a decrepit and disgraced top cop, Detective Nick Sax (Christopher Meloni), an actor best known from Law and order SVU, though he's also popped up in True Blood and Netflix's Wet Hot American Summer. Here, he plays a law enforcement pariah, who spends his time drinking heavily and abusing a variety of people and illicit substances, as well as working as a hit-man to earn some walking around money. During a shootout with some mobsters, Nick has a massive coronary event and despite all the odds, survives. When he awakes, he sees a small, blue, winged unicorn named Happy (voiced by Patton Oswalt) which apparently only he can see. Happy explains he is the imaginary friend of a little girl named Hailey, who has recently been kidnapped by a deranged man dressed as Santa Claus. Nick begrudgingly agrees to save Hailey, with the help of Happy, thus forging some sort of demented path to redemption, if it could be called that.

It’s made by SyFy Channel - in a co-production with Netflix. Syfy has renewed the series for a second season. It's rated MA - and there’s a substantial amount of drug use and characters shuffling off this mortal coil. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but if you are in the mood for a darkly comic, bloodily anarchic and insane head-cracker of cartoony proportions, this is your ticket.

Told via a series of police interrogations and flashbacks, ReEvolution is an Anarcho-syndicalist techno thriller where four young Spanish men, whose lives are irrevocably altered by the financial crisis in the EU, feel that the economic system is corrupt, benefitting only the rich and controlled by only a handful of people. Doni (Leo Rivera), Fele (David Requena), Jack (Gorka Otxoa) and Max (Hovik Keuchkarian) have each experienced relationship turmoil, depression and job loss, all related to the crumbling economy. They're galvanised into action by a plan devised by Doni. They take up arms and devise a plan to hijack a TV satellite broadcast facility in order to broadcast their ‘manifesto’ to the world: a plan to replace 90% of government regulatory bodies and institutions with an online management system called ‘Atlas’ (there a good number of Ayn Rand references littered throughout the film) that utilises user votes to democratise the process of government spending, politician’s salaries and large-scale decisions. Shot on a shoestring budget (something that’s stated at the films beginning) the budget amounted to only a few thousand dollars Australian. Shooting a feature for what most short films would consider a small budget is no mean feat, filmmaker David Sousa Moreau uses every asset at his disposal to convey his clearly heartfelt political message, so on that level the film strikes a very meta tone. It’s nicely edited for the most part though the art of concealing your sources eludes the director at times and his affinity for Michael Mann and the tropes of US action thrillers in general, shows its cards early. That said, this is an interesting watch, given the unusual production circumstances and it’s a testament to the sheer willpower of the filmmaker to pull the necessary resources together, particularly given the third act TV news street protest sequences and TV station hijacking. As a call-to-arms for young idealistic filmmakers with a lack of resources, it’s definitely worth checking out, as a polemic on how to change the society in which we live, it’s perhaps not something deeply felt by the Australian public but then again, we haven’t endured the brunt of the financial crisis like those in the EU. 

A Spanish remake of Nicolas Lopez’s Chilean film No Filter (there was also a Mexican version called A Woman without Filter), Director Santiago Segura helms this take on the original which was a smash hit in Spain. It stars Maribel Verdú (Pan’s Labyrinth, Y Tu Mamá También) as Paz, a repressed and dominated woman both in her relationship with feckless, freeloading painter Dante (Rafael Spregelburd) and his live-in wastrel son Toulouse (Daniel Medina) and at work, with cretinous sleazy employer Borja (David Guapo) and doggedly ambitious work colleague, Alicia (Cristina Pedroche). As an alternative to anti-anxiety meds, Paz takes a herbal remedy from pseudo-shaman and healer Amil Narayan (Santiago Segura) which makes her honest, blunt and assertive. To a fault. Though the format was better utilised in Jim Carrey’s Liar, Liar, here it’s played very broadly and with a distinctly traditional Spanish view of sexuality and gender, so the film does have its amusing moments of silly comedy but it’s a little blunt-edged in this age of ‘wokeness’. It’s a little like a US sex comedy from the late nineties in that respect.

Despite the lack of any rudimentary character arcs for any of the parasitic ciphers who populate her life (no one seems to learn anything or indeed change their ways) the moral of the film seems to be ‘brutalise and abuse those who take you for granted or mistreat you, thus earning their respect’, which does seem a bit ‘prison-yard’. Even so, Verdú is appealing as the lead and tired old gender tropes aside, ultimately this bright, colourful and silly film just wants to superficially please and make you giggle despite yourself. Mission accomplished.

In the past ten years, we've grown pretty accustomed to Marvel's cinematic brand and the regular release of their superhero films. Audiences are now aware of what a 'post-credits sting' is and the difference between Marvel and DC  - even so, for an ageing geek like me, it's surprising to me that these stories have been so successfully marketed to a mass audience in the way that they have. It was unthinkable when i was young, that the comics I was reading would be deemed appropriate as blockbuster fodder by mainstream movie studios. They're such huge budgetary risks to take - which is why it wasn't common to see a comic adaptation until Tim Burton's Batman. It was during this fallow comic book film period that Marvel Comics, thinking that cinema was not something it could ever hope to be involved with - licensed many of its most popular comic characters to other studios: Spiderman, Fantastic Four and X Men to name but three. Once the success of Batman showed that there was life in these brands, comics were then quite frequently adapted by filmmakers -  but the results were often mixed -  films such as The Mask, Blade, Barb Wire, The Shadow, Timecop, The Crow, Spawn and Marvel's own Blade. Studios kept trying, but the right formula for success eluded them.

It wasn't too long ago when Jon Favreau was begging the studio to take a chance on Robert Downey Jr, a recovering drug addict and ex-con who, at one stage, couldn't be insured on a film set and had to be vouched for by then A-Lister Mel Gibson so that he could star alongside Gibson in Keith Gordon's film of Dennis Potter's The Singing Detective.

Iron Man was a risk, when it's closing credits featured a 'sting' that alluded to a larger story in which Iron Man would play just one small part, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was just a hope for Marvel Studios. They were making a play that could well have ended before it began. So it's worth contemplating just how tempestuous and fickle the film business really is -  and how many mega-budgeted films flop every year - so we need to understand just how exceptional it is, to make 18 films - in succession, that have all been popular with audiences and where each has built on the back of the film that preceded it. Marvel have built a brand for themselves, something of an expectation - similar to that of Pixar - where audiences expect a certain style of storytelling and a specific tone. So with each successive film, Marvel has added another piece to their cinematic version of the Infinity Gauntlet/Infinity War mythology, the story breadcrumbs being carefully laid out, with the intention of a huge story pay-off. 

Avengers Infinity War is the culmination of Marvel Studio's business strategy, it's also the culmination of a ten year story - a transition to the next phase of Marvel’s storytelling. Marvel is at its zenith right now, they have the keys to the Hollywood kingdom and they seem to never put a foot wrong. Marvel Studio's President Kevin Feige, has managed to maintain a fine balance of character and CG action bombast in their storytelling that, thus far, has worked.

Other studios have tried to build their own cinematic universes, though this never seems to meet with the success that Marvel films have. Universal had a showy press announcement for their 'Dark Universe', set to feature the universal monsters from Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy and The Creature from the Black Lagoon. Though when the Tom Cruise vehicle The Mummy tanked spectacularly, Universal hurriedly abandoned the idea of an extended universe. Warner bros. struggle with their 'Extended Universe' but have abandoned any hope of a connected one. Despite Suicide Squad and Superman v Batman: Dawn of Justice making money, they were not good films. The brand attracts audiences, yes - but there's no stories or characters to keep them there. Thus any attempts to entice audiences to other connected stories would fail. Sony are attempting to build an extended Spiderman universe, with Black Cat & Silver Sable in the offing as well as the Tom Hardy version of Venom. Building a cinematic universe like Marvel has requires patience and vision - something movie executives inherently lack.

Avengers Infinity War sees our heroes separated into smaller teams (Empire Strikes Back style), scattered throughout the galaxy on missions that will help defeat Thanos (a mo-capped Josh Brolin) an intergalactic (and genocidal) warrior-god/philosopher, who, throughout all the previous Marvel films, has sought to accumulate all the Infinity Stones (Space, Mind, Reality, Power, Soul, and Time) which he hopes to house in an enormous gold gauntlet on his left hand. These stones, and their powers, have been demonstrated throughout all the previous Marvel films, and once they're all together, they give the one who wields them the powers of a God.

Despite juggling such an insane amount of characters, directors Joe and Anthony Russo show the remarkable skill they displayed with the Captain America trilogy (my personal favourite being Captain America: Winter Soldier) and ably mix action and character beats – which are all balanced nicely, so every character gets a satisfying turn. There’s some great comic beats with the Guardians of the Galaxy team and between Iron man (Robert Downey Jr) and Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch)  - who do ping off each other in a satisfying way – which is not a shock given Doctor Strange had a virtually identical setup in his own film, as Iron Man did in his: ‘arrogant man of many talents has an epiphany of greater responsibility to the world’ etc.

The CG FX are worth mentioning, not only are they terrific (and probably most of the budget) -there are some brilliantly dynamic (and fun) action sequences, such as the one that opens the film but also particularly with Thanos, Josh Brolin’s performance as 'the purple one' is very much front and centre. Up till this point we’ve seen glimpses of him, a huge purple hulk sitting on his big gold toilet floating in space however in this, he totally sells the character – which is an interesting one because he believes he is righteous in his mission to ‘cleanse’ the galaxy. He’s philosophical, emotional and works really well as an antagonist – particularly against Iron Man/Tony Stark.

Is it good - hell yeah! It's a ton of fun, though as I've said, its reliant on the preamble to the story that's been laid out during 18 previous films - so your enjoyment depends on how deep you've dived. The uninitiated may be a tad confused but it'd still be a fun ride. For the fans, it's a kick ass culmination of the faith we've had in Marvel from the beginning and even though its stuffed to the gills and groans under the weight of its gargantuan cast list, it's still moving, funny and hugely entertaining.

The Netflix docu-series Chef’s Table, has always made the chef more of the subject than the menu. What’s made the show engrossing viewing, is its focus on the personal journey's of the chef's rather than a restaurant or what's on the menu. Ultimately it’s about the philosophy and human side of each Chef —as well as the slow-mo shots, the sweeping music, the widescreen landscapes and crisp cinematography.

David Gelb, who is the creator of Chef’s Table (and director of Jiro Dreams Of Sushi) is back with a four-episode season, examining pastry chefs. The first episode is about Christina Tosi, owner and chef behind Momofuku Milk Bar and how she built that business out from David Chang's Momofuku Restaurant chain. The three remaining pastry chefs live and work outside the United States: Will Goldfarb of Room 4 Dessert in Indonesia; Jordi Roca of Celler De Can Roca in Spain; Corrado Assenza of Caffe Sicilia in Sicily.

Tosi is the only woman subject this season, but as many people online have rightfully pointed out, pastry is the one arena that is dominated by women. Despite that being the case, if you're a foodie, if you love desserts – this is a fascinating and addictive show. Highly recommended.