Wayne’s 4 X 2: Quality of Life, Slow Horses and MORE!
Do you want something to watch but aren’t sure where to start? 2SER’s entertainment wizard, Wayne Massingham is back and he’s got you covered with his reviews of the latest and greatest in film and music and television.
It’s Wayne’s 4 by 2! 4 Reviews, 2 minutes each. Here’s what he had for us this morning:
Film: American Fiction
Based on the novel Erasure by Percival Everett, this comedy drama stars Jeffery Wright as Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, an African American author and professor living in Los Angeles. While is literary achievements are hailed by academics, they fail to reach best seller status. After his recent draft is rejected by publishers for not being “Black enough”, he writes a cliched novel dealing with stereotypical “Black issues”, with an small hope it would sell enough to help with his family’s medical issues. To his surprise it is a hit and he now must contend with the press circuit and fame of a book he doesn’t really like.
American Fiction is out now on Amazon Prime. Check out the trailer here.
Television: Slow Horses
Based on the spy novels written by Mick Herron, this series follows retired British spies and their dull working lives on the Slough Horse Ranch, a place for forcefully retired members of the secret service who botched a job. Repetitive and nonsense paper work and abuse of their boss Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) is meant to ensure these agents retire, and yet a small team start to uncover genuine threats to British security and become instrumental in protecting national security.
Slow Horses is out now on AppleTV+. Watch the trailer here.
Television: Utopia
Working Dog Productions comedy series continues to delight in its satirical and scathing commentary on the nature of government bureaucracy and the ambitious of sate building. The series follows the employees of the newly created “Nation Building Authority”, a government organisation to get things done. Led by veteran Australian actor Rob Sitch and starring Celia Pacquola and Anthony Lehmann, the jokes hit hard in this too close to home comedy that blurs the lines between reality and satire.
Utopia is out now on ABC iView. Watch the latest season trailer here.
Album: Quality of Life, Quality Used Cars
The five piece from Melbourne continues to grow it’s quintessential Australian sound. The warbling vocals of Francis Tait coat this second album in cinematic storytelling, with local tales about pubs and spinning yarns with friends being sonically blown up in 80’s-90’s garage pop guitar twang. Like the title, Quality of Life is a polished piece of Melbourne electric folk rock you won’t be disappointed with.
Quality of Life is out now on Bandcamp and Spotify.
