Film & TV Archives – The Writer Muses

My Hero Academia

Colin Parton — Sun, 19 Jul 2026 11:00:56 +0000

My Hero Academia - Kôhei Horikoshi

Season Four

Everything changes for the heroes this season. All Might’s retirement signals a new age for the villains and heroes alike.

The students on their probationary hero licenses now have the responsibility to participate in hero activities. As the students step into their new role, the world is more threatening than it has been for many years.

A new villain emerges for this season – Overhaul – leader of the Yakuza.

The Yakuza form a tenuous alliance with the League of Villains. In another big development, we learn of a power that can remove quirks.

Overhaul has a captive girl who can take a person or object back in time – essentially erasing the development of their quirk. It doesn’t change their age or anything, so not really sure how that works.

The problem is that she cannot control her ability, so Overhaul is using her blood to temporarily remove quirks and also boost quirks as well. Towards the end of the season, we learn that Overhaul has been able to refine a few blood bullets to by ppermenant quirk removal.

This makes the boss fight extra scary. We also get the introduction of the big 3. UA’s top three students, Lemillion, Sun Eater and Wave Motion.

The entire end of this season is the probationary heroes, teachers and the big three, along with some of the pros trying to take down the Yakuza. This is epic in every sense of the word.

One of the pros was All Might’s partner. He can see into a person’s future, and he saw All Might’s death.

This has been an underlying plot point. So, in the end, when we see his vision of Izuka’s death, we are certain this is the end.

But through the girl’s power uniting with his, not only does he evade death, but he rewrites the future. And we get to see All For One at 100% for the first time.

This show keeps getting better, and this is by far the best season yet! I can’t wait for what Season 5 brings!

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Born Yesterday

Colin Parton — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 01:40:32 +0000

Born Yesterday - George Cukor

Such a simple plot and executed so well. This would be 10/10 apart from a few personal issues.

Harry, Broderick Crawford (Highway Patrol & Rawhide), is a bigshot junker who has come to Washington with his girl. He is here to pay off congressmen to get a bill passed to protect his business.

That’s the situation. The problem is that his girl, Billie, Judy Holliday (The Solid Gold Cadillac & Adam’s Rib), is as dumb as a post. This causes lots of problems early on as they meet with senators and their families.

There is a journalist who is onto Harry’s case, and Harry hires him to teach Billie not to be so dumb. The thing is, Billie likes being dumb.

She isn’t really dumb; she just knows what she likes. There is this awesome scene where Harry and she are playing Gin Rummy.

He is giving her a talking to that she had better smarten up, as she silently destroys him at the game. She realises that she had better learn something if she wants her high-flying life to continue.

The journo, Paul, William Holden (The Network & The Bridge Over the River Kwai), returns. She is interested, and they kiss. She is really excited about everything she is learning.

She starts reading Paul’s articles. Her response to one of them is: “I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever read, but I didn’t understand a word of it.”

As she learns things, she learns more about her rights and how bad Harry is, not just to her.

They get into a big fight, which is a beautiful scene. This is because, as they go at it, they have to pause every few lines as a maid crosses back and forth through the room while cleaning.

Harry begins to glimpse what he has created, and there is an awful scene where he beats her.

She gets her own back. She and Paul get the files that prove his wrongdoing. She has begun to understand the paperwork that she has been forced to sign.

It all comes together in a big final scene, which is just fantastic. They win, and the awful Harry is ruined.

The dialogue in this film is just incredible. The script could be from today. My only gripe is that Billie’s voice is just awful, and as the main character, we hear a lot of it.

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Beasts Of No Nation

Colin Parton — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 05:57:15 +0000

Beasts Of No Nation - Cary Joji Fukunaga

Beasts of No Nation has some major structural flaws, but it is still a fantastic film. We follow Agu, Abraham Attah (Spider-Man: Homecoming & Tasmanian Devil), as he is forced from a contented childhood into the life of a child-soldier.

Once he becomes a soldier, his story is intertwined with that of his Commandant, Idris Elba (The Wire & Luther). These dual storylines are what cause the biggest problem for the film.

Agu is our hero, but there is no crisis for his storyline.

While his fate is tied to the Commandant’s, the crisis faced by their leader is not faced by Agu. Agu has no agency at this part of the film. The downbeat in the film is entirely the Commandant’s.

The setup at the start of the film gives you no idea of what is coming. We get to meet all his family and learn a little about their trials and goals.

While all of the opening scenes feel like separate glimpses of life, we learn that they are all interconnected.

The film captures these kids’ childhoods so well at the start. We get to see this again after the first combat action is over. Agu has just been forced to commit atrocities.

But life resumes, they are kids, and they return to playing. They have to hunt for their food.

This juxtaposition of utter mundanity and brutal atrocity is something else to watch.

There is a terrible section where we begin to suspect, but are not sure, that the Commandant is molesting one of the children. Then Agu is selected.

It is a great choice by the filmmakers not to show this scene. We get to see the impact that it has on Agu, which is heartbreaking.

We are also left guessing, but not really – something happened in there that seriously messed him up, and what else could it be after all that he has seen.

Agu has an internal monologue throughout the film, and it is excellent. We gain insight into what he is thinking as terror surrounds him.

One of the most powerful of these is after they take a town and his comrades are raping a lady, he thinks: God, do you see what we are doing?

A close second is after they have surrendered to the UN, and a councillor is trying to get him to talk. The whole internal speech here is on another level – it is one of the best things ever put to film.

At the end of it, he stares blankly into the lady’s face and thinks: I have been to war, and she doesn’t know what war is.

The speed at which the opening develops is great. Agu’s friendship with one of the other kids is touching.

There are some crazy hallucinations where they get him high as they go into battle. The pathetic downfall of Commandant at the end is a stark contrast to the power he had at the beginning. Overall, it’s a great film.

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A Prophet

Colin Parton — Sun, 10 May 2026 10:42:06 +0000

A Prophet - Jacques Audiard

This prison drama follows Malik, Tahar Rahim (Batman Unburied & Bref), after his incarceration. The prison scenes are hauntingly real.

Everything that happens in the jail is just so believable – not that I have any metric to judge the reality of the situation on.

We follow Malik as he tries to learn the ropes. He becomes vital to a powerful group in the prison.

He uses this to his advantage, not becoming one of them but using his position to push for more. He ends up with his fingers in every pie in the jail as a powerful tale of betrayal unfolds.

Malik is forced to kill a man early on, and he follows Malik around throughout the film. Malik is haunted, but the man is also real to him; he talks to him.

The reality of the haunting is so terrifying because of how mundane it is. It really reminded me a lot of the very similar dream Riley has in Midnight Mass of his car crash victim.

Another big draw card for me was how the plot progresses so rapidly. All the ins and outs of what is about to happen are laid out for Malik and for us.

So we know what should happen in the coming scene – or at least what Malik’s goals are. But he might do something completely different, and we get to see why as it happens

This is just great storytelling. I’ve never seen it pulled off so well. It reminds me a lot of Guy Ritchie’s early work, but in those films, you still aren’t in on it in the same way you are here.

The story is really grounded in the reality that they are all in prison, whoever they are. A big win for Malik is getting a CD player and a conjugal visit from a prostitute.

There is a filmic device used to represent either Malik’s poor eyesight or his visions.

The lens telescopes in, and we are left with blurry vision surrounded by darkness. As far as I can remember, this only happens twice during the film.

One of these occurrences is confirmed as a vision as we see it play out, and it is how he gets his nickname.

The other just looks like he has bad eyesight. I found this really confusing, so I’m glad that it was only used twice.

I would recommend this film for anyone who loves being in the know about what is coming next in a film, but is equally happy to have their expectations met unexpectedly.

It’s also worth a watch if you want to see the most real jail life I have seen.

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The Lincoln Lawyer

Colin Parton — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 11:05:32 +0000

The Lincoln Lawyer - Ted Humphrey & David E. Kelley

Season One

I was immediately hooked on this show. The characters are great, and the lead is likable and interesting.

It is an interesting start to a series with our lead, Mickey Haller, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo (Widows & Murder on the Orient Express), being handed the keys to a law firm after the owner is murdered.

This setup allows for a meta-plot: the big murder trial with Trevor. As well as many smaller cases scattered throughout.

The smaller cases allow us to meet the rest of the cast as well as inform the wider plot. It is a great backdrop for a series to work around.

Having his ex-wives as key characters in the series is great, as through them we see different aspects of his personality that we wouldn’t otherwise see.

The main plot line plays with an interesting concept: you hate the accused, but they have set it up to make it look like he is innocent. There is a further big bad beyond that, the head judge of the courts pulling the strings, which is really scary.

The way all the cases weave and intertwine in the story is what makes this series superb. The characters are fun to watch in action. It’s an easy and fun watch.

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Top Gun

Colin Parton — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 10:35:37 +0000

Top Gun - Tony Scott

The film follows recruits of the Top Gun program as they earn their wings. The major premise of the film is the idea that instinct is just as important as following the rules.

We follow Maverick, played by Tom Cruise (The Last Samurai & Minority Report), who represents instinct. Top Gun is the top fighter training school in the U.S.

Maverick wasn’t even supposed to be going, but the best pilot in his assignment pulls out, leaving him and his wingman, Goose, to take the spot.

On the other side of the unity-of-opposites is Iceman, Val Kilmer (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang & Heat). His call sign is because he always follows the playbook and is cool and calm about it.

Unsurprisingly, his hot-headed nature is not just for flying. Maverick hits on our female lead without any hesitation.

She is up for the challenge, and the ensuing conversation is hilarious as she shoots him down. It becomes even funnier the next day when we learn that she is the civilian oversight for their training group.

This doesn’t stop Maverick, and he continues to pursue her. They end up having a great relationship.

While Maverick is a Hot-Head and focuses much more on instinct than on the rules, he is a brilliant pilot. Just amazing in the cockpit.

His relationship with his wingman is fantastic as well. Goose and Maverick can talk seriously about their feelings, and there is great mutual respect.

Then the fateful crash happens. We all knew it was coming; it was just a question of when. Iceman and Maverick are on a training mission together.

Iceman is in the lead, covered by Maverick and they both have the enemy plane in their sights. Iceman just can’t get a lock.

There has been a good lead-up to this, and we know Maverick is going to stay with IceMan. Maverick is frustrated because he clearly would get a lock on if Iceman were not in the way.

Iceman does get out of the way to allow Maverick the shot, but as he does, Maverick and Goose’s plan gets caught in the jet stream, and they crash. Goose dies.

He is beaten up about this and is looking at quitting the program, even though he is absolved of any responsibility.

His past saves him here. He has been torn up about his dad, also a fighter pilot who died in combat, but Maverick has never heard any details about his death.

It turns out that his dad gave his life so that heaps of other pilots could get out of a terrible situation.

The government could never say anything because they were not supposed to be where they were. With the doubt about his father and his own role in Goose’s death gone, he returns to graduate, and he is immediately deployed.

Iceman and Maverick are in the same flight crew, and Iceman is in a bad way. Maverick does some of the best flying we have seen and saves the day.

The reason I like this film so much is that it is nothing like it is portrayed to be: Hot-headed fighter pilots being idiots. This film is nuanced and uses its cast superbly. We see what friendship can be with Goose and Maverick.

We see healthy rivalry between Maverick and Iceman, two pilots at the top of their game. After the awful misogynistic beginning of the relationship between Maverick and Charlie, Kelly McGillis (Witness & The Accused), we see a thoughtful and tender side of Maverick.

Maverick’s doubt in himself and his dad is well done as well.

Then there is the flying, there is a lot of flying. And it is spectacular. Scott really captures what it is like to be in a fighter jet.

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The Cove

Colin Parton — Sun, 08 Feb 2026 06:50:04 +0000

The Cove - Louie Psihoyos

This film is more about its making than the event it is documenting. This in itself is very interesting.

The narrative that they construct about the making of the film isn’t great.

There is no huge crisis moment. They try to make this the moment that the request to film on location is denied. We know it is going to be denied, so this is not a big moment at all.

The film crew, led by Louie, is attempting to document the annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan. We are introduced to the state of play by Richard Barry (Absence of Malice and Flipper).

Where to begin. Every year in Taiji, dolphins are herded into a series of coves to be sold as performing dolphins.

The majority are not chosen. They are herded into a well-protected cove, out of sight of everyone. It is here that they are killed.

The film looks at the background of all of this. Barry was responsible for capturing the dolphins that were used in Flipper. We are presented with information, at length, about how bad captivity is for these social animals.

Barry is so remorseful about helping kick off the industry. He tells us some very harrowing stories.

For example, one of the Flipper dolphins swam into his arms and chose to stop breathing. This was a key moment in Barry’s activism, and he immediately tried to free other dolphins from marine parks.

The sale of dolphins for parks is where the real money is. The rest of the dolphins are killed, and their meat is sold. But dolphin meat is really bad because it has high mercury levels.

Japan knows all of this. It has been through all of this before with another town that used to participate in the trade as well.

There were widespread birth defects. So why would they allow this to happen again?

The movie posits that Japan may actually be very worried about food security.

This is where another part of the film comes in. The International Whaling Commission (IWC).

We get to see some truly farcical scenes as Japan makes its argument for scientific research by killing whales. This doesn’t really hold water for me, as the dolphins are poisonous, and they know.

The IWC does show some crazy stuff that Japan is prepared to do to be able to keep on whaling. Like bribing other governments to vote for it to continue.

The tail end of the film is the most interesting. They have a ‘putting the crew together’ section.

We have maps of the hidden cove and where they plan to station the hidden cameras.

We get to see a dry run to test the underwater equipment. The night vision stuff is excellent and exciting. They don’t let us know if they are successful or not until we see the full footage.

The film is good overall. We get some great background into a hidden industry that we should know is pretty bad now.

The bits that I find hard to understand are why? What does Japan get out of the hunt apart from the performing dolphins being sold?

They did get some interesting vox-pops from Japanese people in other cities about the topic in general, which was interesting but hardly representative. Just sad really.

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Frost/Nixon

Colin Parton — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 04:47:29 +0000

Frost/Nixon - Ron Howard

When drafting this piece, I found it very hard to get started. There is nothing that really jumps out about this film.

It’s not great. It’s not bad. I thought the most interesting feature of this film was some of the period-specific things.

The first of these is the aeroplane that Frost takes to the US. There is a walk-up bar up a spiral staircase.

There is a canapé bar in the middle of the rows. Clearly first class, but this is next level.

The other is all of the sets. The décor and buildings are all so fantastic that I was left looking at all of this rather than what was going on in the film.

Overall, the narrative is good, but it is just a bit same-same.

The opening sets up Nixon’s resignation after Watergate, so we have some idea about where this interview takes place chronologically.

The setup of all the actors as talking heads, like a documentary, is a neat touch.

The whole backstory of how Frost got the interview is really what the film is about. He is a bit of a nobody. His last show in the UK was cancelled, and he moved to Australia.

Nixon’s staff think that Frost is their best option as he is a nobody and is offering more money. We also get to see that Nixon is keen to tell his story, set the record straight.

The money to pay for the whole thing is where the story of the film comes from. The crisis is when none of the US networks will carry it, mainly due to do with the fact that Frost is paying for the interview.

This leaves Frost running around trying to fund the film through advertising rather than focusing on preparation.

The rest of his research team doesn’t realise that Frost funds the entire project, and so these actions make them concerned about how badly this is going to go, as their careers are on the line.

Then the filming begins, and it is a disaster. Nixon runs roughshod over Frost. The research team are furious with how it is handled.

Then the phone call happens. Nixon drunkenly dials Frost one night before the final day of shooting. He comes across as very vulnerable and bitter.

Frost realises that he has to nail him on Watergate, so he spends the rest of the time preparing step-by-step to take him apart.

He does it. He gets Nixon to admit and apologise for his actions. More than that, he uses TV perfectly to capture the emotion as it happens.

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Swingers

Colin Parton — Sun, 04 Jan 2026 02:58:53 +0000

Swingers - Doug Liman

This average film follows Mike, Jon Favreau (Spider-Man: Homecoming, Solo: A Star Wars Story), as he tries to get over a breakup. The entire problem with the film is that we do not see the start of the story. We need to see the breakup.

Without seeing the breakup, this is an ordinary world for Mike. We are just watching his day-to-day. For this to be the meat of the story, we need to see what life was like before and why he is striving to find another Michelle.

The only other option is that deciding to go for a new girlfriend rather than pining over the old one has to be a huge moment and distinct from everything that came before.

This moment never happens. All his friends are trying to get him to move on when he is not ready to.

This leads to the most awkward of moments over and over again. These are supposed to be funny, but the joke is at the expense of Mike.

So if we laugh at the jokes, then we are against him. If we don’t, the comedy isn’t funny.

So the film just doesn’t work on the comedic level either. From the awkward scotch order when they arrive in Vegas with $300 and only $100 to bet.

Betting the $100 immediately because they sit at a table that has a $100 minimum. This isn’t a mistake by the characters.

They are just idiots because they don’t want to look bad.

Mike keeps judging all the women that they meet. They all show him up by being smarter than he thought or whatever it was he was judging them on. He just ends up looking like a jerk.

The jokes are cringeworthy. Not my cup of tea, but if you are into that, this may be the film for you.

There is a recurring joke where five of the friends are going out to parties, and they are all driving bumper to bumper to get there. I don’t get it.

The first girl Mike likes, he leaves heaps of messages one after the other, and then at the seventh message, he breaks up with her. She picks up and says, “Never call again”.

The only upside was the film’s climax, where Mike has Michelle on the phone and receives a call from Lorraine, his new love interest.

This scene is really well done and forces Mike to choose. All in all, there a a lot of not-so-funny scenes as we follow Mike mopping around and just being a bit of a dick until he is forced to choose between the old girlfriend and the new. Skip would be my recommendation.

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Alive

Colin Parton — Sun, 02 Feb 2025 00:50:05 +0000

Alive - Frank Marshall

This is the story of a Uruguayan Rugby team whose plane crashes in the Andes and their ordeal to survive. They spend months in the mountains before 16 of them are rescued.

The film is ok but it would be better if it wasn’t framed on ‘Based on a True Story’. That in itself is generally enough to turn me off but the film opens with John Malkovich, playing one of the people who survived, talking directly to the camera about the ordeal.

The reason this framing is such a bad idea is it means we know that at least some of them survive.

While I cannot remember whether they told us who John was playing, that doesn’t matter. The tension is greatly reduced.

If they had said: ‘Based on a True Story’ the tension would still have been there. So we know they survive.

The central question of the film now is either: ‘How do they survive?’, or ‘Who survives’. The how question is a much easier story to tell because it doesn’t require the audience to become invested in one of the characters over another.

They dabble in both but the story ultimately focuses on how they survive. To start off with there is the normal rationing of food and making sure they get seen by any rescuers.

It becomes clear that this is going to be very hard but they work together to achieve group goals.

I am really glad that they didn’t go with a person or group that was unreasonable. There was one crazy guy but very reasonable given the situation they were in.

A lot of this appears to come from the camaraderie as a team. But when the news comes that the search has been called off new leaders step forward.

They now have to get out themselves. They need to survive long enough for them to be able to do that.

An argument for cannibalism is put forward and accepted by many. They need energy to climb out of the mountains.

It is this step that has made this story famous. But it makes complete sense logically. And it works. Two of them walk out of the mountains and return with help from the others.

The film is good, not great. Surprisingly I found the special effects, especially the plane crash, held up well today.

The story of how far would you go to survive is a little perverse in this light but totally understandable. The things that these people go through are extraordinary.

It is interesting to see the negotiation with themselves and others about the terrible things that they are doing to survive but not much to see beyond that.

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