Julianne Moore has a killer role as a minor noble with major ambitions in this witty and revisionist British drama set inside the court of King James I.
With a scything tongue and a sharp eye for power’s cruel imperatives, this British historical drama is a revisionist joy. A risen-from-the-ranks story set in the early 17th century court of Britain’s King James I that has a killer turn from Julianne Moore as a minor noble with major ambitions, it remakes the corsets and cravat genre as explicitly queer, venomously witty, and knowingly cruel. Imagine ifJulianne Moore and Nicholas Galitzine in Mary & George.
The production design has a mucky, tactile feel, and the view of court eschews textbook cliché. The bisexual King James, having married and issued heirs, prefers men in his bed, so palace life openly accommodates it. Mary’s collaborators aren’t particularly bothered by the king’s sexuality, they just want his favourite to be English and not a Scot, like the capricious incumbent, Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset .
If nothing else Guy Ritchie is conscientious. In loosely reframing his 2019 London crime caper into a Netflix series, the British filmmaker has written and directed multiple episodes that set a familiar tone and even allow for the odd surprise. Even if you haven’t seen the original drug empire romp, which starred Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam and a verminous Hugh Grant, this eight-episode addition doesn’t feel essential. But it’s competent.
Most of the pleasures are on the fringe, such Giancarlo Esposito basically bringing back his legendarycharacter Gus Fring under a different name. The extra hours are filled up with all sorts of business, but the best addition is Kaye Scodelario’s Susie Glass. A criminal fixer advising Eddie, she is modelled on Michelle Dockery’s character from the movie, but here the coolly composed directives come with a backstory and added motivation. Unsurprisingly, that helps.
In the vast and lucrative world of video games, Hideo Kojima is considered an auteur – a Japanese designer whose work verges on the visionary through franchises such as. Glen Milner’s hour-long documentary opens at that level of praise and never really moves on: famous friends such as filmmaker Guillermo del Toro offer their blessings and the camera reverently follows Kojima around his studio as he supervises production.