‘Outrageous' review: You'd learn more about ghastly Mitford sisters from Wikipedia than this superficial drama
If the miniseries Outrageous (U&Drama, Thursday, June 19, 9pm), about the exploits of the Mitford sisters, had been made 20 years ago, it would probably have looked fresh, innovative, daring and, well, outrageous.
The brisk pace. The colourful, screen-filling graphics introducing the characters. The freeze frames. The wry, knowing voiceover. All of these things, in a series set mostly in the 1930s might have marked it out as bracingly original: the fact-based historical drama playfully reimagined using very modern methods.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
5 days ago
- Irish Times
Cillian Murphy stars in Netflix drama Steve as headteacher of a last-chance reform school
Cillian Murphy plays the impassioned headteacher of a last-chance reform school in a trailer for Netflix film Steve. Set in the mid-1990s and directed by Tim Mielants, the movie follows a pivotal day in the life of Steve (Murphy) and his students, who exist in a world that has abandoned them. The drama is a reimagining of Max Porter's Sunday Times bestseller Shy , named after its protagonist, a teenager who boards at the school on a programme for troubled youths. The trailer shows Murphy's character describing himself to a film crew as 'very, very tired' amid clips of violence among pupils. READ MORE In a voiceover, he adds: 'These are extraordinarily complex young people.' Other scenes see Steve speaking to Shy, drinking an unknown substance from a small transparent bottle, and screaming while clenching his fists. I May Destroy You star Jay Lycurgo plays Shy, a troubled teenager who needs to reconcile with his past and control his impulses for self-destruction and violence. The movie shows Shy's interactions with Steve, who in turn is grappling with his mental health as he fights to protect the school from closure. The supporting cast includes Tracey Ullman and Emily Watson , who starred with Murphy in the Irish drama Small Things Like These . Murphy (49), who is a producer for Steve, won a Bafta and Oscar last year for his title role in Christopher Nolan's epic Oppenheimer . He also plays Birmingham gangster Tommy Shelby in the hit TV series Peaky Blinders, which is being turned into a film for Netflix and will also star Saltburn's Barry Keoghan . Steve is in select cinemas from September 19th and on Netflix from October 3rd. - PA
Irish Times
5 days ago
- Irish Times
Night Always Comes review: Vanessa Kirby gives it her all, but this poverty theme park isn't worth the entrance fee
Night Always Comes Director : Benjamin Caron Cert : None Genre : Drama Starring : Vanessa Kirby, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Zack Gottsagen, Stephen James, Randall Park, Julia Fox, Michael Kelly, Eli Roth Running Time : 1 hr 48 mins Vanessa Kirby , who worked far too hard to save the unnecessarily glum Fantastic Four: First Steps , is yet again overexerting herself in an unworthy vehicle. Adapted from Willy Vlautin's novel , Night Always Comes opens with a lazy lesson in the failings of trickle-down economics delivered as incidental radio broadcasts on homelessness, low wages and grocery bills. Sarah Conradt's screenplay starts strongly with a punchy save-the-farm premise. Lynette (Kirby) is desperate to put down a deposit on the family home she shares with her indolent mother ( Jennifer Jason Leigh ) and older brother, Kenny (Zack Gottsagen). The crumbling house is not much, but ownership will keep social services away from Kenny, who has Down syndrome. Mom, alas, has other ideas. She blows the downpayment on a car, leaving her frantic daughter scrambling to raise $25,000 over one eventful – and seedy – night. At first there are welcome parallels between Benjamin Caron's film and Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov's similarly themed 2014 thriller, The Lesson. Unhappily, Night Always Comes quickly abandons its real-world dilemma as it swerves into low-life criminality. Lynette juggles prostitution, bartending and cocaine dealing as she encounters safe-crackers, low-lives and Eli Roth's sleazy, ill-defined kingpin. READ MORE Despite valiant efforts from Stephen James and Michael Kelly – playing an ill-defined hoodlum and a procurer, respectively – Lynette's low-income hinterland feels strained and inauthentic. [ Film-maker Dag Johan Haugerud: From laid-off librarian to Golden Bear-winning director of the Oslo Stories trilogy Opens in new window ] The overture talks about ordinary Americans falling through the cracks due to one outsized bill or missed payment; the world onscreen groans with worn-out crime-movie tropes. The film seems unable to differentiate between penury and cop-show-brand lawlessness. Kirby, who also served as a producer, gives it socks as her embattled heroine gets robbed, swindled, glassed and sexually assaulted. Not even she can make contrived meetings with her former pimp or the theme-park poverty feel authentic. Streaming on Netflix from 8am on Friday, August 15th
Irish Times
07-08-2025
- Irish Times
The Kingdom review: Riveting, quietly devastating crime saga reinvigorates the Mafia movie
The Kingdom Director : Julien Colonna Cert : None Genre : Crime Starring : Ghjuvanna Benedetti, Saveriu Santucci, Anthony Morganti, Andrea Cossu, Frédéric Poggi Running Time : 1 hr 48 mins Lesia, the 15-year-old heroine of Julien Colonna's riveting crime saga, is hoping to go on a date with Fabien, a local shop boy, when she is instead deposited in a safehouse with her dad. 'Nobody tells me anything,' she pouts. The teenager, played with arresting naturalism by the newcomer Ghjuvanna Benedetti, is perennially met with silence or deflection as she slowly realises the extent of her family's lawlessness. Set against the volatile backdrop of 1990s Corsica, this taut, quietly devastating film subverts the swagger of mob patriarchs or muscle-bound enforcers. Colonna, who is also its writer, gives us the adolescent daughter of a reclusive gang leader whose summer holiday takes a dark detour when she's abruptly delivered to her father's hideout. Lesia's journey from a flirtatious, curious adolescent to someone caught in the moral quicksand of her father's world unfolds as a series of violent television news reports, newspaper cuttings and overheard conversations about car bombs. Sneaking around the morgue earns Lesia a horrific glimpse of her late godfather's decimated head. READ MORE Pierre-Paul (Saveriu Santucci), her father, has long been an ambiguous, occasional presence in her life: a fugitive and feared mobster to most, he's a tender idol to his daughter, a tactile, protective dad who teaches her how to make fish soup or criticises her driving skills. [ Bring Her Back director Danny Philippou: 'I love the psycho-biddy genre. It allows actors to really play' Opens in new window ] During a heartfelt daddy-daughter exchange, he laments his failings as a father, shortcomings demanded by the cycle of violence that characterises his life. 'No, I can't be by your side at your mother's deathbed,' he says. Their bond, strained by absence and secrecy, is intensified under siege as a mob war heats up. As tensions and paranoia spiral, so too does Lesia's understanding of what it means to live in the orbit of criminality and retribution. The ominous, sun-drenched Corsican landscape mirrors the uneasiness of every interaction. For all the familial complications on screen, The Kingdom neither mythologises nor tempers the Mafia. Violence is used sparingly, yet it lingers in the margins of everyday mob dinners, boar hunts and bulletproof vests. The tragic cycle is composed of the same beats that defined such superior films as The Godfather and Animal Kingdom . But the tight focus on Lesia, and her realisation that the men she loves are also capable of monstrous things, reinvigorates the familiar form.
