2 days ago
Sydney Sweeney stars as ‘heroin addict' in new drama Echo Valley opposite Julianne Moore
Fresh from her head-turning red carpet appearances, Sydney Sweeney takes centre stage as a heroin addict as she stars opposite Julianne Moore in a harrowing new drama.
ECHO VALLEY
***1/2
Streaming on Apple TV+ from Friday.
This harrowing drama about the enduring bond between a mother and daughter is a tough, tough watch from start to finish.
The great Julianne Moore plays Kate, a divorced mother eking out a solitary existence as the proprietor of a failing farm.
The occasional visit from her only child Claire (Sydney Sweeney) is invariably more a cause for concern than celebration. Claire is a heroin addict that has been bouncing between states of recovery and relapse for a number of years.
The constant mistrust passing between the pair multiplies when Claire becomes a target for retribution from a drug dealer to which she is indebted.
Jackie (a convincingly unhinged Domhnall Gleeson) is not the kind of guy you want taking an interest in your whereabouts. Claire's junkie boyfriend is already dead, and the odds are she will be next. Unless Kate can do something.
Something that might not come easily to a caring, cautiously supportive mother of a drug addict. If the whole ordeal stops short of overwhelming the viewer – and there will be some for whom it is all too much – then it is all down to the intense commitment displayed by the two leads.
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (PG)
Director: Dean DeBlois (Lilo & Stitch)
Starring: Mason Thames, Gerard Butler, Nico Parker, Nick Frost.
Rating: ***1/2
Making a soar point in fine style
Released between 2010 and 2019, the original trio of How to Train Your Dragon movies form one of the most popular animated franchises of the 21st century.
With worldwide box-office grosses of just under three billion dollars and consistently strong viewing figures on streaming platforms, it was inevitable that producers would return to the well once more.
Taking a leaf out of the contemporary Disney playbook, the move made here has been to journey back to where it all began. Only this time, the origin story first drawn from the best-selling book by Cressida Cowell is told in a live-action setting.
With a similar reimagining of Lilo & Stitch already one of the runaway successes of the year, a real-world re-tooling of How to Train Your Dragon could not have been timed any better.
The good news , however, is that the whole exercise could not have been executed any better.
While steadfastly resisting any temptation to stray from its very familiar roots as a fantasy adventure, the new How to Train Your Dragon is just as engrossing, exciting and entertaining as its animated predecessor.
Young newcomer Mason Thames makes a great match for the lead role of Hiccup, the teenage Viking misfit who finds his true calling by taming and educating the most enigmatic of all dragon species.
A Night Fury dragon such as Hiccup's trusty charge Toothless is regarded as a deadly threat to all Viking hordes, who live in perpetual fear of fiery attacks from above.
The most vocal of the anti-dragon cohort is Hiccup's father Stoick (Gerard Butler), which means his son's unprecedented achievements in befriending a Night Fury must be conducted in strict secrecy.
There is no real need to delve into the finer plot points, as the pleasing simplicity of this admirable underdog yarn remains wholly intact.
All that really matters about the new How to Train Your Dragon – especially to those who truly loved the original movies – is how convincing the all-important aerial sequences turn out to be.
There is no cause for worry on this crucial front. From the moment Hiccup and Toothless take off on their maiden flight, a genuine sense of exhilaration keeps kicking in whenever the movie hits the skies.
Overall, a quality family-friendly offering which signals it can only be onwards and upwards for further instalments.
How to Train Your Dragon is now showing in general release.
TITAN: THE OCEANGATE DISASTER (M)
****
Now streaming on Netflix.
In the wake of the Titan submersible tragedy in 2023, there has been a wide array of hot-button, clickbait-ish takes on the sorry subject.
This fascinating new documentary from an impeccably credentialled filmmaking team marks the first exploration of the debacle that is worthy of proper consideration.
For those arriving late to the story, the Titan was a small, dome-shaped sub constructed along radically experimental lines for a deep-sea vessel.
The most controversial aspect of the Titan design was a shell made from carbon fibre, a substance which flexed (and sometimes partially cracked) in ways that high-grade metals such as titanium did not. The decision to stay the distance with carbon fibre – even when early testing indicated it was suspect beyond depths of 1,000 metres – rested with maverick inventor and aspiring entrepreneur Stockton Rush.
He went on to be on the five people that perished during an ill-fated, impromptu mission for the Titan in the North Atlantic.
Just as the doco shows proper respect for those who perished, it also gives voice to those who pushed back against Rush's fatal folly (and were attacked mercilessly by this mercurial man for doing so).
Best of all, the doco is able to back up its sobering findings with on-the-spot footage (including earlier fraught journeys aboard the Titan) that often beggars all belief.
