Nine Perfect Strangers
- TV Mini Series
- 2021
- TV-MA
- Created by: John-Henry Butterworth
- Directed by: Jonathan Levine
- Based on the book by: Liane Moriarty
- Executive Producer/Showrunner: David E. Kelley
Starring:
Nicole Kidman, Bobby Cannavale, Regina Hall, Asher Keddie, Melissa McCarthy, Michael Shannon, Luke Evans, Tiffany Boone, Grace Van Patten, Samara Weaving, Manny Jacinto, and Melvin Gregg.
Nicole Kidman stars as Masha Dmitricher, owner and operator of a luxurious spa.
Could ten days at a health resort really change you forever? These nine perfect strangers are about to find out… Nine people gather at a remote health resort. Some are here to lose weight, some are here to get a reboot on life, some are here for reasons they can’t even admit to themselves. Amidst all of the luxury and pampering, the mindfulness and meditation, they know these ten days might involve some real work. But none of them could imagine just how challenging the next ten days are going to be. Can you stand to be in a room with nine people you don’t know?—augustdnl
Produced by Hulu, set in the USA but filmed in the hinterland of northern NSW in Australia and available as an 8-week series on Amazon Prime, the natural beauty of this Australian countryside is beautifully displayed.
There is a lot going on with these strangers as their past lives come alive over the series to show how each of them is in some way just a bit damaged, and in the same way, so is the staff headed by Masha. Her methods are unusual but the guests are quick to realise the tricks she uses and as her own past is revealed the drama intensifies.
I have enjoyed watching the first five episodes and look forward to the final three. The acting is very good and not overly ‘hammed up’ but Nicole’s fake Russian accent is a bit much. Intrigue, humour, drama…. It’s like a discovery voyage into the lives of the 9 strangers and the staff. Layers being peeled each time.
The Newsreader
The Newsreader provides an insight into the smoky Australian newsrooms of the 1980s and the people who brought us our nightly news.
This drama series premiered on Australian free-to-air channel, ABC on 15th August 2021. The series was created by Michael Lucas and stars Anna Torv, Sam Reid and Chai Hansen. It has six episodes and is set in 1986 in Melbourne.
The series blends together major news stories of the era with the lives and struggles, ambitions and careers and emotions and relationships of the cast.
Anna Torv play Helen Norville, the female co-anchor and newsreader of the Six O’Clock News. She is an emotional wreck, relying on prescription pain-killers and sleeping pills but once the camera starts she is the perfect newsreader. Her senior co-anchor/host is the ageing, heart-attack candidate (smoking and drinking) Geoff Walters, played by Robert Taylor, a seasoned journo who made his name in the field of wars (Vietnam) and conflict (The Dingo Took My Baby). The inference is that “glamour” and Helen’s brand of more “emotional” news coverage is replacing a more staid kind of impartial journalism.
The young, ambitious field reporter, Dale Jennings, played by Sam Reid, finds himself in a relationship with Helen Norville when she has a breakdown and takes an overdose. Jennings has his eyes set on being a news host bumbling his way through until a lucky chance places him near the terrorist bomb blast in Melbourne in 1986 and he is able to show his raw talent.
But not all is going his way when he has an encounter with his gay cameraman, Tim Ahern (Chai Hansen) and doubts his own sexuality. He says he choses Helen because he cares for her but in reality he is most likely denying his true self in an era when being gay was not only illegal but also career ending.
Stephen Peacocke plays a stereotypical sports reporter, Rob Rickards and also stereotypical is the blustering news boss Lindsay Cunningham played to excess by WillIam McInnes. The newsroom is more racially diverse than any newsroom of the time with Michelle Lim Davidso playing Noelene and Chum Ehelepola as Dennis.
Great cast, script, direction, cinematography, editing etc. Plus the bonus of major world news events from 1986. The newsroom is a ruthless arena and only the strongest gladiators will survive.
It’s showing the changing of the guard from the old style of news reading to today’s double header desks with sports and updates, of heavily repeated footage and the drama.
Available to watch Sunday nights live and streaming on iView. Well worth it!
Three Films I Enjoyed (1)
I have watched three different films over the past week that I not only found to be excellent but were also very thought provoking. They dealt with three very different people who were coming to terms with who they were and/or others around them.
Reinventing Marvin (Marvin o la bella educación)
Is a 2017 French drama film directed by Anne Fontaine. It screened in the Horizons section of the 74th Venice International Film Festival on 2 September 2017 and won the “Queer Lion”. The film premiered in English-language territories under the title Reinventing Marvin.
The film stars Finnegan Oldfield as Marvin, a gay actor in Paris who is struggling to write and perform a one-man theatrical show about his childhood.
Unable to fit in at school, Marvin’s life is changed forever when he discovers his passion for the theatre. With no support from his family, Marvin runs away from home to chase his dreams of becoming an actor.
His family is quite disfunctional even though he is clearly loved by them but is often put down as weak and a faggot. As school he is also bullied by a latent homosexual student but Marvin is able to escape into drama class where he excels.
He has a relationship with a girl in his class but they are more best friends than boyfriend and girlfriend. A new Principal to the school takes an interest in him and helps him apply for a scholarship to a drama school in Paris. His approval letter arrives but his father hides the letter and it is not until the end of summer when he principal tells of his success. He demands the letter from his father and makes plans to leave.
His father chooses to drive him to the station and tries to express his love for his son but Marvin seems unmoved. As the train moves away from the station we see the emotion on his father’s face.
In Paris, he develops a monologue of his life playing all the roles of the people who have passed through his life. At the same time he is aware of his homosexuality and attends gay bars. At one bar he meets a rich man who takes him under his wing and gives him gifts including a full dental treatment to straighten his teeth.
His monologue is widely accepted and the media publish his story putting his family in a poor light. He is reconciled with them but they do not like the fact that he has changed his name from Marvin Bijou to Martin and taken on the Principal’s surname, Clement.
This film is not the usual “coming out” story but rather one where Marvin takes his life and achieves his dreams by reinventing himself, accepting who and what he is but and is confident in his new life.
I found the story at times quite moving as Marvin bears the sarcasm of his family, the bullying at school, the transient gay encounters and the “sugar-daddy” environment. The monologue extracts we see are very powerful and expose his life and those within it.