Latest news with #darkcomedy
Washington Post
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Can't stop talking about Netflix's bonkers ‘Sirens'? Join us.
Hey, hey: If you've perused Netflix at all in the past week, chances are you've encountered the new dark comedy 'Sirens,' starring Julianne Moore, Meghann Fahy and Milly Alcock as a trio of women locked in a battle of power and status on the fictional New England island of Port Haven. The streaming platform reported that the five-episode series debuted at No. 1 over Memorial Day weekend, which would explain all the buzz and fan theories floating around the internet. The other reason is a plot salad whose ingredients include: photographic blackmail, suspected cult activity, gruesome bird death and people falling off cliffs (both in real life and in their dreams). And more! Moore stars as Michaela Kell, an ambitious lawyer turned socialite who hires 25-year-old Simone DeWitt (Alcock) as a live-in personal assistant on the island estate she shares with Peter (Kevin Bacon), her husband of 13 years. Fahy plays Simone's older sister, Devon, who still lives in their hometown of Buffalo and tends to their father, Bruce (Bill Camp), who has early-onset dementia. Eventually, Devon shows up at the Kells' property looking for Simone. The DeWitt sisters had a rough upbringing, especially after their mom died, so Devon is stunned to discover her sister's new life of luxury. Audiences might be just as surprised by the show as a whole. Because while 'Sirens' has all the trappings of a prestige TV hit, it is also — how best to put this? — completely insane. Creator Molly Smith Metzler (Netflix's 'Maid') based the series on her 2011 play 'Elemeno Pea' and takes advantage of the expanded runtime. She leans into soap opera dramatics, all of which build to a jolting crescendo. This is the sort of show you'll want to discuss as soon as its bonkers finale fades to black, so we — Washington Post senior video journalist Allie Caren and Style reporter Sonia Rao — thought we'd get the conversation started. There are plenty of spoilers ahead, obviously, so don't say you haven't been warned. Allie Caren: I'm a sucker for so many things in this show: ultra-wealth; sweeping, pristinely manicured oceanfront real estate; complicated family dynamics; and 'summering' in a coastal town. What's not to like? Sonia Rao: 'Sirens' certainly belongs in the thriving genre of rich people doing silly rich people things, similar to HBO's 'The White Lotus' and 'Big Little Lies.' At times, it can feel like a counterpart to Hulu's 'Nine Perfect Strangers,' especially when Devon starts to believe — deep breath — that Michaela a.k.a. Kiki somehow killed Peter's ex-wife and is now the leader of a spiritual cult that ends each meeting with a strange phrase: 'Hey, hey.' Rich people, cults, luscious aesthetics — it sort of comes off as an SEO dump of what makes for a popular TV show these days. Not to say it doesn't have its merits, but … didn't Nicole Kidman already make this? AC: There are definite similarities between 'Nine Perfect Strangers' and 'Sirens,' down to the significance of something as small as a smoothie. In the former series, Masha (Kidman), the director of a remote healing resort, micro-dosed her guests' smoothies. Kiki, on the other hand, is much too preoccupied to take a single sip of the daily blends her personal chef, Patrice (Lauren Weedman), whips up. She waves it off in one scene like it wouldn't cost 20-something dollars at Erewhon. Hey, Patrice, I'll take it! SR: Julianne Moore was the main reason I decided to watch 'Sirens.' She so carefully navigated her performance in Todd Haynes's 'May December' as a Mary Kay Letourneau analogue married to a much younger man, and Kiki seemed similarly stubborn about sugarcoating her rather transactional marriage to Peter. We do learn as the show goes on, though, that Kiki is far more in touch with reality than she lets on. AC: Moore pulled me in, too. There are so many personas wrapped into her character: first, an emotionally unpredictable boss you're scared to cross but determined to please; second, a mysterious, witchy conservationist who finds purpose in using her wealth to help nature; and finally, your best friend, stand-in mom, confidante, running buddy and sometimes snuggle partner who comforts and consoles and protects you. Kiki has range. What did you make of Simone and Devon's relationship? SR: That was probably the most intriguing part of the storytelling for me, as one of two sisters with a similar five-year age gap who (thankfully!) grew up in a much happier household than theirs. Simone and Devon's mom died when they were young, numbing their father, Bruce, and forcing Devon to become Simone's primary caretaker. Bruce continues to emotionally abuse and neglect Simone once Devon goes to college, and child protective services eventually places Simone in foster care until Devon decides to abandon her studies and return home to Buffalo. It's brutal on both sisters, given that Simone suffers post-traumatic stress disorder and Devon feels like she never got to lead a life of her own. Simone's behavior early in the series makes sense to me — she yearns for a stable maternal figure and latches onto Kiki, who shows her kindness — but Devon is an enigma. I get that she coped by developing a sex addiction, which is only worsened by her attempts to abstain from alcohol, but I just cannot move past her licking a complete stranger's neck when he was trying to give her a platonic hug. And why is he so chill about her doing that? Devon is exceptionally weird and rude to everyone on the island, even people who never mistreated her in the first place. Fahy is innocent in all this. She and Alcock are really believable as sisters with resentments simmering just below the surface. I wish they'd received a stronger set of scripts. AC: Simone's PTSD dramatically affects her relationship with Devon, too. In fact, if you rewatch the series, you'll realize it's present before the viewer even learns about its cause: Their mother tried to kill herself and Simone by piping in fumes to their parked car. (Devon found Simone in time to get her help, but their mom died.) The sprints Simone makes on the stretch of beach between the Kell property and the home of her boyfriend, Ethan (Glenn Howerton), makes for good symbolism: Simone is constantly running from her past (and eventually, her present). She runs, more than once, on the sand along the water's edge between these two spots; rushing out of Ethan's home, racing across the sand, flying up four flights of stairs (plus landings! She must be a StairMaster queen!) before dashing across the Kells' expansive back lawn to reach the back door. (In fact, there isn't much of a 'runner's high' in this show at all: running is almost always associated here with negativity and racing — physically or figuratively — from someone, something or oneself.) SR: We should probably talk about the water, too. While Devon and Simone use the code word 'sirens' with each other as an SOS, it doubles as an allusion to the seductive female creatures in Greek mythology, whose voices lure sailors to their doom. Sirens are often thought of as mermaids, but they're sometimes depicted with the lower body of a bird — making Kiki's obsession with the animal all the more meaningful. Devon, Simone and Kiki are all alluring women who are, at different points, accused of leading men to their demise. AC: And Kiki has a mermaidlike appeal to her, doesn't she? With her porcelain skin, auburn hair, and flowy gowns and ensembles? Even the colors of her matching running sets fit the fin — er — bill. A majority of the other costume and wardrobe decisions are far less subtle. The only place I'd expect to find a larger collection of Lilly Pulitzer is a brick-and-mortar store or the Kentucky Derby. (Hope the brand got a kickback.) Costume designer Caroline Duncan shied away from quiet luxury and instead leaned in fully to the oversaturated, bright, preppy palettes so often associated with coastal towns. SR: Part of it might be my personal distaste for the Lilly Pulitzer aesthetic, but I found this show really hard to look at. Beyond the color palette, many of Kiki's scenes were blindingly bright — which, paired with a slight blur effect, is clearly referencing the mythological Sirens' hypnotic quality. But the Vaseline lens aesthetic is deployed inconsistently and kept making me feel like I needed to wipe some gunk off my glasses. Not to mention the fact that Devon is shot in some of the harshest lighting I've seen on TV since the last season of 'The Bear.' Again, I understand the symbolism, but the back-and-forth ended up distracting me more than anything. I'd love to hear your perspective, though. What did you think? AC: I was captivated by the over-lit, mesmerizing, dreamy effect of the close-ups especially. They force the viewer to be a bit uncomfortable — and I think that was the point. I also deeply appreciate a well-spent drone budget. Bravo to the bird's-eye look at Simone running on the beach (again and again and again) and to the closing shot of Simone reigning over her new domain in a silky, icy blue dress at the miniseries' end. The incredibly deliberate cinematography captures the beauty and excitement of late summer so well. It makes me want to book a trip to Bar Harbor, like, yesterday. SR: I'm absolutely with you there. The show takes place over Labor Day weekend, but it feels like such a blessing that it's coming out at the very start of the season for us. I'm not suggesting I'd want a long weekend resembling theirs, though. My jaw dropped at the finale, in which Simone — after breaking up with Ethan — decides to shack up with Peter, who sends Kiki packing the very same day. The seeds were planted for this crazy development: Kiki compares her marriage to a business transaction in an earlier conversation with Simone, who gets fired after Kiki discovers she kissed Peter earlier that weekend. Simone is a survivor who will clearly do whatever it takes to get out ahead, but I still don't find it believable that she would go after the husband of a woman she absolutely adored. She is supposed to have an undergraduate degree from Yale — can't she get a different well-paying job? Also, what's the deal with Peter's kids from his first marriage? There is an entire subplot where Kiki thinks Peter is cheating on her when, instead, he's spending time in secret with his estranged children, who apparently dislike Kiki. He announces they're coming to the estate mere moments before dumping Kiki and getting together with Simone — whom the kids would dislike even more, surely? I wish we got to see his two adult children meet his latest girlfriend. AC: The whole seeing-my-kids-and-new-grandson-in-secret thing was a forced subplot for me. You could have removed the cheating allegations, the chocolates 'from Tokyo' and the lying and instead filled it with the interactions you suggest. I would have even been happy to see the kids interact with Kiki before her demise. I honestly had no idea Kiki would end up the victim ('victim') in the end. I thought she'd begin the villain and remain so — maybe that's what they wanted me to think; maybe I just fell for it. SR: Yeah, I think that's the intention. Sirens are a mythical manifestation of men fearing women with power, and by the end of the show it's clear that Peter's nice-guy shtick is all a ruse. He can't stand the idea of Kiki holding anything over him and gets rid of her as soon as he senses her influence growing. I'm a little confused what the show wants us to think of Simone. She seems to be the ultimate villain in the finale, manipulating her way to the top, but Kiki ends up telling Devon on the boat leaving the island that neither she nor Simone are monsters. Is Simone truly a victim of circumstance? Surely there were other, more moral ways out of her situation. One of my friends told me from the very start of us watching this show that she was on Team Kiki. Maybe I should listen to that friend more.
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Mountainhead, review: Jesse Armstrong's takedown of tech bros is even more cynical than Succession
A Succession spin-off film? Well, not quite, but Jesse Armstrong 's feature-length satire of the extremely rich and increasingly powerful, Mountainhead (Sky Atlantic), doesn't stray too far from the Roy family formula, and features the behind-the-scenes involvement of a whole host of his Succession team, including composer Nicholas Britell. However, instead of tarring and feathering Murdoch-esque media empires, Armstrong (who writes and directs) has set his sights on the new money – the billionaire tech bros and their grandiose plans to 'disrupt' the world. It is, somehow, even more cynical than Succession. This exquisitely performed dark comedy is a claustrophobic chamber piece that takes place in a Utah mega-lodge up in the snow-capped mountains, where four old pals – 'Mount Techmore' – meet for a poker weekend while the rest of the world seemingly falls apart. It is, in essence, a high-falutin' episode of Inside No 9. The reason for the global unrest is the world's richest man, Venis (Cory Michael Smith), a tweaked-out sociopath whose latest updates to his social media platform Traam have unleashed havoc, thanks to an explosion of fake news and generative AI. The markets are in free-fall, sectarian violence is erupting everywhere, politicians are being assassinated. The world order is ending. While on the outside, Venis is thrilled by it all, he desperately needs the help of his frenemy Jeff (Ramy Youssef), whose sophisticated AI-filtering system could restore Traam's credibility and the world's sanity. Joining them for a weekend of tension and glorious one-liners are Steve Carell 's 'dark-money Gandalf' Randall, the elder statesman of tech bros, and host Hugo (Jason Schwartzman), a financial pygmy (he's worth a paltry half billion) who desperately needs the others to invest in his meditation app. He's called his tasteless pile 'Mountainhead' and, yes, that name is tackled early on by Jeff: 'What, like Fountainhead? Who was your interior designer – Ayn Bland?' Needless to say, Armstrong's script is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to the zingers, and you could spend an enjoyable evening in the pub debating your favourite gags, but it would all amount to nothing without Mountainhead's unsparing psychological insight. Venis is a terrific monster, a ripped frat boy who thinks he can solve the Israel-Palestine conflict with 'bananas' online content and is obsessed with turning the world population 'transhuman'. The quartet bandy their callousness and casualness towards human suffering with grotesque machismo, and sprinkle their jargon-heavy, ultra-online conversations with half-arsed references to Hegel, Plato and Kant. When they get wind of the worldwide upheaval, the bros – apart from the minutely less terrible Jeff – smell an opportunity, triggering some serious God-complex one-upmanship. This leads to a nail-biting denouement that manages to be extremely funny yet without the sophistication of what came before it. As with Succession, Mountainhead is a caustic, defiant and righteously furious diatribe against the maniacal egos of those with all of the money and all of the power, but no vanishingly little moral fibre – and all wrapped up by the best jokes in the business.
ABC News
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- ABC News
What to watch, from Jessica Biel in The Better Sister, Girls-like comedy Adults and ABC documentary The Kimberley
Turns out it's a huge month for shows about estranged sisters living in vastly different worlds. It was just last week that Netflix came out with Sirens, a dark comedy drama about one downtrodden woman's desperate attempt to free her younger sibling from the clutches of a culty socialite and a life of luxury. Prime Video's considerably darker offering is The Better Sister, a tropey murder mystery starring Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks as long-lost sisters who are reunited after the husband they both shared is brutally murdered. It's just as ridiculous — and compelling — as it sounds. The Better Sister isn't the only new show out now and worth watching, though. Somehow, it's been eight years since Lena Dunham's Girls ended, so Gen Z was probably due their own version of the millennial classic. The new ensemble comedy-drama Adults almost gets there. There's also the highly anticipated Benito Skinner comedy, Overcompensating; the moreish Scottish cold-case thriller Dept. Q; and, closer to home, a stunning exploration of The Kimberley in a new three-part docuseries led by Nyikina musician, actor and storyteller Mark Coles Smith. "My husband has been murdered. My sister is here. And though I am feeling anxiety about this, I release it," a picture-perfect Chloe Taylor (Biel) declares near the beginning of this thriller series while tapping her face, locking eyes with her reflection in the mirror, deep-breathing… and absolutely not releasing any of that anxiety. How could she? Chloe is a controlling girlboss editor-in-chief of a New York magazine who lives to work and sports a c***y little bob to rival that of The White Lotus's Leslie Bibb; letting things go is not her strong suit. Let alone dispelling with the stress surrounding the brutal murder of her lawyer husband, Adam (Corey Stoll), days after she started receiving death threats over an interview about their privileged life. Adam's death prompts Chloe's estranged sister, Nicky (Elizabeth Banks), to visit, purportedly to help support their teenage son, Ethan (Maxwell Acee Donovan). But the significantly less-well-off Nicky is out of control and has grievances to air: before Adam was married to Chloe, he was Nicky's husband. And Nicky is Ethan's birth mother. Unfortunately for Chloe, the key to discovering what happened to Adam lies in unpacking her messy family history. So yes, you could say letting go of any of this is easier said than done for our type A queen. Based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Alafair Burke, The Better Sister is the kind of show that The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window was made to parody. But while it's not the most original, it executes those murder mystery tropes flawlessly. Not only that — Biel is entirely compelling as the furious, broken and ashamed high-powered media executive. And who has the willpower to resist a twisty whodunnit that involves rich people's lives being torn apart, anyway? For fans of: The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window, Gone Girl, Big Little Lies, Sirens In many ways, this coming-of-age ensemble comedy feels like an updated amalgamation of Girls, Friends and Broad City. The six-part series, executive produced by Nick Kroll, follows a group of card-carrying zillennials trying to make it in New York while living rent-free in a dilapidated Queens share house and struggling to make sense of the big questions in life. Namely, how do you pay a tradesman who only takes cheques? But Adults doesn't shy away from acknowledging the shows that inspired it — at one point, lead Billie (played by Australian Lucy Freyer) Googles, "how to become the v of your g" (voice of your generation), in a nod to the iconic quote from Girls' Hannah Horvath. Aside from that, Adults offers a Julia Fox cameo, diverse representation the likes of Girls and Friends could only dream of, and some good acting. Friend slut Anton (Owen Thiele) is by far the stand-out, and the self-obsessed Issa (Amita Rao) may just grow on you. But there's also a sense the theatre kids were left to their own devices a little too long in the making of this series, which feels like an extended improv show at some points. And 20-something creators Rebecca Shaw and Ben Kronengold don't appear to have anywhere near as many meaningful things to say about coming of age as Lena Dunham did, controversial though she may be. This show will likely be overshadowed by Rachel Sennott's upcoming and highly anticipated, as-yet untitled comedy about a co-dependent friend group. But, in the meantime, Adults will bring you somewhat close to the feelings you had when you first watched Girls or Broad City. "Somewhat" being the key word there. For fans of: Girls, Heartbreak High, Broad City, Friends Cantankerous British detective Carl Morck (Matthew Goode) has finally returned to the police force after his poor management style resulted in the death of a young officer who'd only been on the job for three months and saw Morck and his best friend get shot. Despite the near-death experience, he still treats everyone in his adopted home of Edinburgh like crap. And they still hate working with him. So when the higher-ups are in search of someone to lead a department (of one) tasked with solving cold cases from all over Scotland, Morck is the clear choice. Dept. Q is wildly underfunded, understaffed and its basement office still doubles as a storage space for junk, so Morck is obviously overjoyed at the prospect. At the same time, disgraced prosecutor Merritt (Chloe Pirrie) is dealing with the fallout from a case gone wrong. Not only is she getting regular death threats due to her work, she's also struggling with her role as her brother's carer at home. It's not until the end of episode one that Morck and Merrit's storylines converge. To say why would be to spoil the twist, but rest assured: it's satisfying. While the world-building is a bit of a slog to get through at the start, it's entirely worth it as Dept. Q transforms into an utterly transfixing procedural mystery that's simultaneously dark and comedic. For fans of: Bodkin, Bodyguard, The Day of the Jackal You may remember US comedian and actor Benito Skinner from his online alter-ego Benny Drama, whose claim to fame is celebrity impersonations. But Overcompensating, Skinner's latest offering, is decidedly more earnest than his viral Kris Jenner impressions. The comedian and actor created, wrote, executive produced and stars in the eight-part sitcom as a closeted version of his younger self — again named Benny — arriving for his freshman year of college. At orientation, Benny quickly launches into pretending his favourite pastime is "f***ing some vagina" and that he loves his business major. But in reality, he's desperate to leave his high school jock persona behind, switch to film studies and find out more about Miles (Rish Shah), the mysterious heart-throb from England. Meanwhile, his new straight best friend, Carmen (Wally Baram), is terrified of being labelled a sad lonely freak for the rest of college. Together, the pair set off to find out who they really are. But before they can do that, they must overcompensate in a doomed attempt to fit in. It's a messy journey filled with awkward hook-ups, fake IDs… and a slate of guest stars including Kyle MacLachlan, Kaia Gerber and Owen Thiele (one of the Adults leads mentioned earlier). Plus, a delightfully condescending cameo by Charli xcx, whose music takes up a significant amount of space on the Overcompensating soundtrack. This series won't necessarily tell you anything new about the US queer coming-of-age university experience, but it's still an honest, funny and relatable watch, as well as an incredibly easy universe to fall into — in part because the college-set ensemble comedy is such a familiar world. For fans of: Adults, Heartbreak High, The Sex Lives of College Girls Nyikina musician, actor and storyteller Mark Coles Smith guides us through the 400,000 square kilometres of the Kimberley's savanna, desert and coast, telling us some of the ancient land's breathtaking stories in this stunning documentary. The three-part series is structured around the six distinct seasons the Nyikina people in the Kimberley have observed over thousands of years on Country, and the way each season affects the region's largest river system, the Martuwarra (also known as the Fitzroy River). It all begins with the hot and dry Lalin season, which is followed by Jirrbal, the build-up to the wet. Then there's Wilakarra, which brings joyous rain, the breezy Koolawa season, the cool dry of Barrkana and, finally, the slow return of the heat with Willbooroo. Each comes with different challenges and opportunities for the diverse wildlife that call this remote region home, from frilled-neck lizards to humpback whales. This is a hopeful and inclusive series that invites all viewers to consider the ongoing threats the Kimberley faces and how we might help preserve this precious Country. If you haven't yet touched grass today, this show is also a great way to do so vicariously. For fans of: Ningaloo Nyinggulu, Australia's Wild Odyssey, The Platypus Guardian
Geek Tyrant
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Geek Tyrant
Review: FRIENDSHIP is a Cringe-Fueled Comedy Fever Dream That Was Hilarious — GeekTyrant
I went into Friendship knowing it was going to be awkward. Like, deeply awkward and strange. But I was still not prepared for just how intensely cringe-inducing it would get. There were moments so uncomfortable I literally had to look away. I couldn't watch! And yet, through all the squirming, I was laughing my ass off. Somehow, this dark comedy manages to weaponize discomfort in the funniest way possible. It's one of the rare movies that had me laughing harder than anything I've seen in a long time. Paul Rudd and Tim Robinson are a match made in unhinged comedy heaven. Rudd plays it cool and enigmatic as Austin, a charming new neighbor, while Robinson turns in a beautifully unfiltered performance as Craig, a man whose social desperation bleeds through every word and movement. The thing about Robinson is that he doesn't come off like he's trying to be funny, he just is. He commits so hard to his weird, volatile character that you're not sure whether to laugh, cry, or both. Even though the film is written and directed by Andrew DeYoung, you can absolutely feel Robinson's fingerprints all over it. The tone, the rhythm, the way scenes spiral into total chaos, it's all very in line with the kind of comedy he's become known for. That anxious, almost manic energy gives the movie its pulse. It never lets you settle. You're either tensed up, waiting for the next social misfire, or doubled over from how far it pushes a bit. At its core, Friendship is a wild, laugh-until-you-cry nightmare about male bonding gone very, very wrong. What starts as a quirky bromance fueled by late-night adventures, garage punk, and an oddly specific passion for paleolithic relics turns into something way more deranged. One minute you're smiling at a sweet moment of connection; the next, you're watching Craig spiral so far out of control, you're genuinely concerned for everyone involved. The movie plays like a suburban noir filtered through a blender of midlife dread and existential comedy. It's sharp, it's weird, and it's not afraid to be aggressively uncomfortable. But there's also something deeply relatable buried under the absurdity. That gnawing feeling of loneliness, the desperate urge to connect with someone—anyone—and the way people can completely unravel when that connection slips through their fingers. It's all there, wrapped in layers of insanity. Friendship isn't going to work for everyone. If you don't have a taste for humor that lives and dies on social disaster and secondhand embarrassment, you might spend the whole film squirming without the payoff. But for those of us who enjoy our comedy weird, raw, and painfully human, this is a blast. It's a total trainwreck in the best way—and I couldn't look away. Except when I absolutely had to.
CNET
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CNET
How to Watch Bong Joon Ho's 'Mickey 17' at Home
A new Bong Joon Ho movie is streaming and that's a big deal. After all, he's the director of critically acclaimed flicks such as Memories of Murder, Snowpiercer and the Oscar best picture winner Parasite. In Bong's new dark comedy Mickey 17, which is now available on Max, Robert Pattinson's main character applies to be an "expendable." As the official trailer reveals, the unconventional occupation involves missions that often result in death, with Pattinson's body reprinted every time he croaks. The sci-fi -- Bong's eighth feature film -- also stars Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette and Mark Ruffalo. Mickey 17 is based on Edward Ashton's 2022 novel Mickey7. Other noteworthy Max premieres this month include The Brutalist (already streaming), season 3 of And Just Like That... (streaming May 29) and the new movie Mountainhead (streaming May 31). Max will soon take on the title HBO Max again, but for now, it's still using the one-word moniker. When to watch Mickey 17 on Max Mickey 17 hit Max on May 23 and is available to stream now. If you want a Max subscription, you can choose from a $10 per month Basic with Ads, $17 per month ad-free Standard or $21 per month ad-free Premium. Max also carries one of Bong's other movies, the 2006 monster flick The Host. You don't have to get Max to watch Mickey 17 at home -- your other option is to rent it at Amazon or Fandango at Home. That will cost you $6.
