TO SEE OR STREAM: THE ROYAL HOTEL (IN THEATRES)

Director Kitty Green gifts viewers one of the most innovative, surprising films of the year. Two young Canadians “Hannah” (Julia Garner) and “Liv” (Jessica Henwick) find themselves running out of funds while experiencing the sights, seductiveness of the only country in the world that covers an entire continent, Australia; the daunting vastness minimizes its inhabitants especially in the parched outback where these naïve, clueless but quite appealing ladies are hired as barmaids frequented by miners. The only language these characters speak is a peppered, abbreviated version of English, informed by alcohol; they live to imbibe, theirs’s a 24/7 compulsion, lacking an ounce of compunction. Music from a bygone era and lack of internet connection adds to the otherworldly desolation. Anything but “royal” this film stings with baseness, wallows joyfully in moral turpitude and scores astronomically in twists and terrors.

FOUR STARS!!!!

“WHO KILLED JILL DANDO”      (NETFLIX)

Jill Dando (1961-1999) a Princess Di lookalike, was a renown Investigative Reporter shot dead on her doorstep in London. This compelling documentary guarantees to confound.

 FOUR STARS!!!!

“BAD SISTERS”             (APPLE TV)

A thriller so addictive, it can be polished off in two nights. Commencing with the burial of “John Paul” (Claes Bang is magnificently evil as the execrable, malevolent villain); and the five sisters are stunningly complex and geniuses at garnishing our empathy.

FOUR & ½ STARS!!!!

THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT           (AMAZON PRIME) (BRIT BOX)

A four-episode examining the true story of a “murder most foul”; the death of Peter Farquhar (Timothy Spall, absolutely superb) an erstwhile scholar and subsequently Ann More-Martin, a lonely but lovely dowager; the “person of interest” Ben Field is depicted notably by Eanna Hardwick.

FOUR STARS!!!!

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