Murder at the End of the World: Emma Corrin gives Poirot a Gen-Z twist
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A Murder at the End of the World ★★★★
Disney+
Rife with intimations of dread and bursts of risky business, this is a thankfully contemporary take on the murder mystery where the detective is a twenty-something amateur – Darby Hart (The Crown’s Emma Corrin) – lacking in authority and sometimes good judgment. It’s Murder on the Orient Express for Gen Z: a think tank in remote Iceland, surveillance culture, apocalyptic menace, and death by hacking. But it has the mood of a coming-of-age tale, vivid and given to rollercoaster mood shifts so that grief, defiance, and hope overlap.
Emma Corrin in A Murder at the End of the World.Credit: Disney+
It’s actually a measured outlook from the creators of the limited series, Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij, who previously went brain-bending with dimension travel and a telepathic octopus in Netflix’s The OA. The pair, who also alternate directing duties, have folded in the tenderness and yearning of youth; their Poirot has passion, not poise. Science-fiction and spiritual allusions have often been interchangeable in their vision, but as rich as the ideas and the tech mogul host are here, there’s a thoughtful perseverance at work.
A 24-year-old internet detective turned author of an acclaimed true crime memoir, Darby doesn’t understand why she’s joining the likes of a celebrated astronaut, Sian (Alice Braga), and Chinese billionaire, Lu Mei (Joan Chen) at the Icelandic retreat organised by market-shifting mogul Andy Ronson (Clive Owen) and his wife, Lee, (Marling). It gets weird when she realises her former lover, now acclaimed artist Bill Farrah (Harris Dickinson), has also been invited after six years without them communicating. It gets weirder when a guest dies.
Emma Corrin and Harris Dickinson in A Murder at the End of the World (2023)Credit: Disney+
The narrative cuts between the pooled lighting and climate apocalypse prep of Andy’s redoubt, and a tumultuous road-trip Darby and Bill took six years prior, when their search for a serial killer’s victims is overtaken by romance and obsession. In both strands, the show respects the plotting of a murder procedural, even with Reddit forums replacing police searches and Darby’s Icelandic Dr Watson being an AI assistant named Ray. As played with raw impetuosity by Corrin, Darby’s many queries extend to her own identity.
It’s that youthful framing that consistently makes the machination of A Murder at the End of the World resonate. The title alone references both the 1 per cent isolation of Andy’s base and the collapse of the natural world the guests are pondering. Part of Darby’s struggle is trying to understand why with so much at stake globally, some of the entitled guests are seemingly more focused on killing one another. Of all the mysteries Darby is trying to solve, the flawed, failing world her generation must inherit is the most inexplicable.
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off. Credit: Netflix
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off ★★½
Netflix
Edgar Wright may be too generous a soul. Having delivered 2010’s Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, a deliriously inventive Hollywood adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novel series about a Toronto slacker’s extremely complicated romance, the English filmmaker executive-produced this new animated Scott Pilgrim series co-created by O’Malley and persuaded the movie’s high-profile cast to return for voice work. The result is a labour of love that’s nonetheless lacking.
With animation from the Japanese studio Science Saru, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off looks different but sounds the same. Scott (Michael Cera) remains a blithe indie-rock man-child whose pursuit of Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is complicated by the cabal of her ex-boyfriends, who Scott must defeat in single combat scenarios equal parts video game and comic book. The likes of Chris Evans, Aubrey Plaza and Kieran Culkin staff the supporting cast – the latter once again steals his every scene.
The show repeats a great deal of the movie, without the giddy shock of the new, and when it does make use of its four-hour running time the additions are uninspiring: focusing on the League of Evil Exes quickly stretches an amusing concept too far. The series feels orderly, leaving you with the time-warp effect of the famous forty-somethings voicing characters half their age and the suspicion that this time around Scott Pilgrim is a very sketchy dude.
Brian Cox in 007 – Road to a MillionCredit: Amazon Prime Video
007: Road to a Million
Amazon Prime
“If you put ordinary people into a James Bond adventure, would they crumble, fold like a pack of cards, or would some rise to the challenge?” Delivered in the unmistakeable tones of Succession star Brian Cox, that’s the proposition underpinning this officially branded 007 reality show. Lavishly produced and using locations and props from the franchise’s history, it’s an upmarket reality competition where nine pairs circle the globe for physical challenges and reward-laden questions. It’s a bit of silliness for Bond obsessives, but it moves slowly and lacks for competition.
Jay Ryan as Father Byron Swift in Scrublands.Credit: Stan
Scrublands
Stan
A sturdy crime mystery that, at four episodes, opts for brevity over contemplation, this adaptation of Chris Hammer’s 2018 novel about a struggling journalist, Martin Scarsden (Luke Arnold), who upends a country town when he arrives to write a one-year anniversary article of a mass shooting by the local Catholic priest, has a comfortable momentum. There’s a welcome degree of nuance in the performances of Bella Heathcote and Adam Zwar, as a suspicious local and the town cop respectively, but this outback noir perhaps needed a jolt of the unexpected alongside the clues, motive, and near-misses.
Nam June Paik: Moon is the Oldest TV by Amanda KimCredit: Sundance Institute
Nam June Paik: Moon is the Oldest TV
DocPlay
The South Korean artist Nam June Paik’s fingerprints – or more specifically images and edits – echo across multiple arms of our digital age, from video art installations in museums to the meme culture percolating on smartphones. A pioneer who had to struggle mightily to validate his philosophy and practice, Paik’s life and work is the subject of Amanda Kim’s documentary, which is terrifically informative while capturing the sometimes-contrary moods of Paik’s creative breakthroughs and the logistical stresses he had to endure along the way. Reverence is not a suitable posthumous fate for this visionary.
Lawmen: Bass Reeves
Paramount+
Lawmen Bass Reeves.
Since his breakthrough performance as Martin Luther King jnr in Selma, David Oyelowo’s best turns have illuminated the private struggle in public certainty. It’s a vital quality in this western biopic, where he plays Bass Reeves, who was born into slavery in the 19th century American south but after obtaining his freedom (in harrowing circumstances) eventually became a renowned US Marshal in the wild west. As a man who works as part of a flawed system, Reeves gives the six-gun action moral weight. As an ornery associate, Dennis Quaid adds enjoyable texture.
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