TV Review: Sex Education (Netflix) – Season Two

Created by Laurie Nunn and with the new series having premiered on Netflix in January 2020, season two of Sex Education sees the return of Otis Milburn (Asa Butterfield) who, now in a relationship with Ola (Patricia Allison), must master his newly discovered sexual urges. Meanwhile, Moordale Secondary is in the throes of a Chlamydia outbreak, highlighting the need for better sex education at the school. With Otis’ sex therapist mother, Dr Jean F. Milburn (Gillian Anderson), enlisted to help, he must now try to avoid her finding out about his own makeshift sex clinic with Maeve (Emma Mackey), as his best friend Eric (Ncuti Gatwa) has his own issues to deal with.

TV Review: Sex Education (Netflix) – Season One

Created by Laurie Nunn and premiered on Netflix in January 2019, Sex Education follows a socially awkward high school virgin, Otis Milburn (Asa Butterfield), who lives with his sex therapist mother, Dr Jean F. Milburn (Gillian Anderson). Otis and his best friend Eric (Ncuti Gatwa) aren’t the kind of people who get invited to the best parties. But when Otis’ home life is revealed at school, Otis realizes that he can use his specialist knowledge to gain status. So, he teams up with social outcast Maeve (Emma Mackey) to set up a clinic to deal with their fellow students’ weird and wonderful problems. Through his analysis of teenage sexuality, Otis realises he may need some therapy of his own.

Film Review: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

Based on Ransom Riggs‘s debut book and directed by Tim Burton, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children follows teenager Jacob (Asa Butterfield), who sets off to a mysterious Welsh island, using clues from his grandpa’s old photographs, to find out who his grandpa really was after his unexplained death. Led to a large, abandoned orphanage, run by the mystical Miss Peregrine (Eva Green), Jacob begins an adventure that spans different worlds and times. But the mystery and danger deepen as he gets to know the residents and about their special powers, as well as the powers of their enemies. Chosen to protect the Peculiar Children, Jacob must discover his own power to save his new friends from the nightmarish Hollows and Wights, who are led by the mysterious Mr Barron (Samuel L Jackson).

Book v Film: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

“I used to dream about escaping my ordinary life, but my life was never ordinary. I had simply failed to notice how extraordinary it was.”

Based on Ransom Riggs‘s debut book and directed by Tim Burton, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children follows teenager Jacob (Asa Butterfield), who sets off to a mysterious Welsh island, using clues from his grandpa’s old photographs, to find out who his grandpa really was after his unexplained death. Led to a large, abandoned orphanage, run by the mystical Miss Peregrine (Eva Green), Jacob begins an adventure that spans different worlds and times. But the mystery and danger deepen as he gets to know the residents and about their special powers, as well as the powers of their enemies. Chosen to protect the Peculiar Children, Jacob must discover his own power to save his new friends from the nightmarish Hollows and Wights, who are led by the mysterious Mr Barron (Samuel L Jackson).

You Should Be Reading: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

“I used to dream about escaping my ordinary life, but my life was never ordinary. I had simply failed to notice how extraordinary it was.”

The debut novel by Ransom Riggs, originally published in 2011, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is a young adult book that combines a collection of vintage photographs with a narrative led by Jacob, a teenage boy who follows clues from his grandfather’s old photographs. Led to a large, abandoned orphanage on a Welsh island, Jacob begins an adventure that spans different worlds and times. But the mystery and danger deepen as he gets to know the residents and about their special powers, as well as the powers of their enemies. Chosen to protect the Peculiar Children, Jacob must discover his own power to save his new friends from the nightmarish Hollows and Wights, who are led by the mysterious Mr Barron.

Set to be released on 30th September, the film adaptation is directed by Tim Burton and stars Asa Butterfield as Jacob, Eva Green as Miss Peregrine, and Samuel L. Jackson as Mr Barron.

New ‘Ender’s Game’ Image: Meet Hailee Steinfeld as Petra Arkanian

(Written for Lost In The Multiplex)

A new image has been released for Gavin Hood‘s Ender’s Game this week, an adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s novel of the same name.

From a script Hood has adapted himself, the film is set in the near future and follows a young strategist, Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), who is drafted by the International Fleet to hone his military skills and hopefully save the human race from an impending alien invasion by a race known as the Formics.

First Look At The Ender’s Game’s Protagonist, Or Part Of Him

(Written for Lost In The Multiplex)

The first image has been released from Gavin Hood’s Ender’s Game on the film’s Tumblr page this week but, more of a tease, all we have been treated to is the image of a boys neck that has a some form of implant attached.

For those who have read Orson Scott Card’s best-selling novel of the same name that the film is adapted from, you may know what this means. For the rest of us, the science-fiction implication means that we can look forward to a different take on an imperilled society in a tech-heavy future.

The Grey’s Nonso Anozie Is The Latest To Play The ‘Ender’s Game’

(Written for Lost In The Multiplex)

Nonso Anozie (The Grey) is the latest to join the cast for the film adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s best-selling science-fiction novel, Ender’s Game.

The futuristic adventure, which is being directed by Gavin Hood (Academy Award winner Totsi) from a script he adapted, begins production in New Orleans this month, and follows a young strategist, Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), who is drafted by the International Fleet to save the human race.

Film Review: Hugo

(Published in Issue 5 of my publication In Retrospect)

Directed by Martin Scorsese, Hugo is a 3D family adventure based on Brian Selznick‘s award-winning best-seller, The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

Set in 1930s Paris, a young orphan boy, Hugo (Asa Butterfield), lives a secret life in the walls of a train station where he has to reset the clocks every day. His late father (Jude Law) has left him with the mystery of an automaton, a clockwork mannequin, still in need of repair. One day, whilst running away from the station inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen) so that he won’t be sent to an orphanage, Hugo bumps into a young girl, Isabelle (Chloë Grace Moretz), and gets on the wrong side of her godfather Georges Méliès (Ben Kingsley). But the key around Isabelle’s neck may be what Hugo was looking for in order to reveal the automaton’s secret, which in return will open up a new world for everybody involved, and maybe even a place that Hugo will be able to call home.

Rating:

Brits At The Box Office: Michael Fassbender, Daniel Craig, Jude Law, Kate Winslet & More!

(Weekly feature written for BritScene)

This week has seen the overall box office suffer its worst weekend since 2008, but one British movie has enjoyed robust numbers whilst another two are continuing their successful theatrical runs. There’s also some great new films set to be released over the next week that feature a number of Brits in their cast, including the Sherlock Holmes sequel, Roman Polanski’s Carnage, Mission Impossible 4 and David Fincher’s English adaptation of The Girl With A Dragon Tattoo.

New Trailer for Martin Scorsese’s ‘Hugo’

(Written for Lost In The Mutiplex)

A new trailer for Martin Scorsese‘s first 3D film Hugo has been released by Paramount Pictures this week.

Based on Brian Selznick‘s award-winning best-seller, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Hugo is a young orphan boy, living a secret life in the walls of a Paris train station in the 1930s. The story follows him on a magical adventure involving his late father and an automaton to unlock a secret that will transform his life and reveal a place he can call home.

Hugo stars Asa Butterfield, Chloe Moretz, Sacha Baron Cohen, Ben Kingsley, and Jude Law, and is set to be released on 2nd December.

Book v Film: The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas

“The thing about exploring is that you have to know whether the thing you’ve found is worth finding. Some things are just sitting there, minding their own business, waiting to be discovered.”

Directed by Mark Herman and based on the historical Holocaust novel written by John Boyne, The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas is set during World War II and is told from the perspective of eight-year-old Bruno (Asa Butterfield), the son of a high-ranking Nazi commandant, whose family is forced to move to Auschwitz when Bruno’s father (David Thewlis) is promoted. Away from his friends and growing increasingly bored, Bruno ventures outside of his backyard, defying his mother’s (Vera Farmiga) rules, in search of something to do. Here, Bruno meets Shmuel (Jack Scanlon), a young Jewish boy who, unbeknownst to Bruno, is an inmate in a concentration camp, which Bruno believes to be a farm. Their friendship grows with Bruno’s frequent visits, but their innocent secret quickly sets into motion a tragic and devastating sequence of events.

Film Review: The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas

Directed by Mark Herman and based on the historical Holocaust novel written by John Boyne, The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas is set during World War II and is told from the perspective of eight-year-old Bruno (Asa Butterfield), the son of a high-ranking Nazi commandant, whose family is forced to move to Auschwitz when Bruno’s father (David Thewlis) is promoted. Away from his friends and growing increasingly bored, Bruno ventures outside of his backyard, defying his mother’s (Vera Farmiga) rules, in search for something to do. Here, Bruno meets Shmuel (Jack Scanlon), a young Jewish boy who, unbeknownst to Bruno, is an inmate in a concentration camp, which Bruno believes to be a farm. Their friendship grows with Bruno’s frequent visits, but their innocent secret quickly sets into motion a tragic and devastating sequence of events.