Mare of Easttown is showing on Sky Atlantic and streaming on Now TV.
In prestige TV thrillerland, regional richness brings rewards. Not just the depth and texture that a rooted story lends, but, you know, Emmys. So thereâs no place like home for writer and Pennsylvania native Brad Ingelsby, whose bleak, absorbing and sharply detailed thriller about a beleaguered small-town cop is packed with the Rust Belt realism he brought to Scott Cooperâs 2013 feature Out of the Furnace.
In a refreshing change from the time-hopping second-hand Southern gothic of True Detective (2014-19), or the blackly comic Midwest crime families in Fargo (2014-), his immersive series, sensitively directed by Craig Zobel (Compliance, 2012; Z for Zachariah, 2015), focuses on present-day problems.
A Change of Sex will be available on BBC iPlayer from 3Â June.
Among the many storylines that intersect in Adam Curtisâs recent epic documentary series Canât Get You out of My Head, one in particular may have caught your attention.
In the fourth chapter, But What If the People Are Stupid?, we are introduced to Julia Grant, a trans woman navigating the medical and bureaucratic hurdles of 1980s Britain. Curtis introduces Grant as a symbol of the rise of individualism, an argument he illustrates through scenes depicting Grant sitting opposite her psychiatrist, an unseen paternalistic force.
âMaybe you identify with certain stereotypes⦠but that doesnât make you a woman,â the doctor insists, withholding the surgery that Grant desperately wants. âItâs a medical matter, it isnât a personal choice.â
La Commune (Paris, 1871) is streaming from 28 to 30 May via ALT/KINO.
While anarchism is notoriously difficult to define, it is, broadly speaking, a leftist orientation that rejects the hierarchical impulses of both capitalism and Soviet-style communism in favour of a decentralised form of direct action and mutual aid.
Many viewers no doubt associate âanarchist cinemaâ with well-meaning if stodgy biopics of anarchist heroes and martyrs (such as Giuliano Montaldoâs Sacco & Vanzetti, 1971); but itâs arguable that the aesthetically audacious films of non-anarchist directors such as Luis Buñuel and Elio Petri are actually more effective tributes to anarchismâs rebellious spirit.
Ira Sachs’s latest swaps buzzing New York for the beautiful resort town of Sintra, where its all-star cast struggles for energy in spite of the family drama’s high emotional stakes.
Set among fur-trappers in the Pacific Northwest in the 1820s, Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow captures the origins of modern American entrepreneurial culture. She talks about how seeing, not showing, has been her motto.