Daphne Macklin

Seriously good fun of the rom-com suspense sort. Introducing the young, as in Young Adult fiction reader population, to the finer points of the British mystery novel/film genre must be done with careful planning. It is important to engage the subject of your efforts, but not bore them. You also need to not be overly obvious in the expositions of plot, character, mis en scene, costume, motivation and the usual essential and the occasionally esoteric concerns. Let me be frank. In the late 1980's, no less a talent than Steven Spielberg took a shot at a fancilful failure with the title Young Sherlock Holmes. I will be brief. Spielberg and company tried too hard, took the Conan-Doyle oevre a bit too seriously and over produced not so much of a dud as an overwrought, overthought anachronism with clumsy special effects that were most likely out-of-date when they were pitched as the next big thing to the production and design teams. Enola Holmes 2 has several things going for it. First, clearly someone on the production team knows the Spielberg film and is committed to not making the same mistakes. Second, this production team is in for the long haul. They got a lot of the kinks out in the first film, given their roots in the house that Warner Brothers built for Harry Potter, the long view is the only one that matters. And, as the Brits have taught us repeatedly, long term production planning is a high art. Best to make the sophmore effort something to be anticipated and written home about. This one lacks for nothing. So there is everything we think we know and should expect about a Sherlock Holmes knock off, except one of the main haracters is the great detective's formidable kid sister. Yes, there is the feminist thing going on along with the multi-cultural thing and if that's not your cuppa, tough. Now if you are operating on the old school principle of entertain the audience well, you have come to the right place - adventure, romance, mystery, intrigue, a plucky young woman , a loyal brother, derring do and all sorts of villainy. The Americans and the Brits (and the French, the Italians, the Chinese, the Spanish, hell even the Germans and the Norwegians) have been making delectable bits of entertainment telling the same versions of the same stories since the 1890s. Glass Onions anyone? I think Enola has about three more features although I would throw in a 5 or 6 episode limited series maybe as a finale to flesh out a few things. I had a lot of fun with this and will now track down the 7 Per Cent Solution which along with Agatha and Gosford Park are three films that took the literary who done it adapted for film to wonderful places.

How did I miss this not exactly fractured fairy tale about how one of the most honored and influential American films of the second half of the 20th century got made? Oh, now I remember, like any sane person I was coping with the consequences of the last 6 years of American and global politics. But seriously, The Offer considers the lives and times of the (ambitious) creative team responsible for Paramount Pictures most successful gangster movie. You may have heard of it, The Godfather? Nothing about this film was supposed to work: the best-selling novel it was based on was an unfilmable pot-boiler. The producer assigned by Paramount's man of the moment Bob Evans, used to work for the Rand Corporation (they were big in the 60's), had pitched Hogan's Heroes on a dare and then left when the thing was making CBS millions. What sort of a guy does that? Try an ambitious guy, a driven guy, the kind of man who will do the task set for him to get what he wants, which is not money, but maybe artistic integrity? Ok. That could work. That it does is part of the fun, the agony and the ecstasy so to speak as old Hollywood and a few other mid-century relics start a death spiral and the new Hollywood reinvents itself along with the rest of what we know or knew as America. Compelling good fun and I suspect worthy of a regular series spot. "The Producer" anyone?

A relentlessly compelling investigation story that does not tie off all the loose ends in favor of getting to the heart of what happened to a woman known as 'Tonya' and by many other names, over her short horror filled life. Much of the piled on pathos that is so much of the true crime film genre is jettisoned in favor of a more direct narrative. Of course there is a very human villain, but the institutitions and attitudes that consistently failed 'Tonya' and others in this truly criminal tale do not escape notice if not actual scrutiny. Not an easy film to watch, but one that may inspire you to do something productive with the emotions it provokes.