Thumbnails Apr 21

by Tony Medley

The Courier (9/10): 105 minutes. PG-13. I remember Oleg Penkovsky (a scintillating Merab Nididze) very well. He was a highly placed Soviet official who fed secrets to the West before and during the Cuban Missile crisis. This film purports to tell the whole harrowing story. The courier was Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch in an Oscar®-deserving performance), a British businessman who was recruited to receive and deliver the secrets to British and American intelligence. Directed by Dominic Cooke from a script by Tom O’Connor, this is a story that has begged to be told for more than a half century. I don’t know how accurate the details are, but the basic facts are true except that the relationship between Wynne and his wife, Sheila (Jessie Buckley, who was such a hit in 2019’s Wild Rose) was totally made up because little to nothing is known about her. Even though you know the outcome (well, I did), it’s tense and dramatic the whole way through, a terrific film. My main objection is that they should have added graphics to the end telling what happened to Wynne after. If you are telling a true story, finish it.

City on a Hill (8/10): 10-part series.TV-MA. The performances of Kevin Bacon and Aldis Hodge highlight this gripping crime series set in Boston. Bacon plays a corrupt FBI agent and Hodge is an ambitious Assistant District Attorney taking on a case that challenges the city’s criminal justice system. It’s as much about the characters’ personal relationships as it is about the case. The supporting cast sparkles. I hated to see it end. Prime & SHO.

 Although Netflix has beaucoup films to watch, they devastate their foreign films by inserting voice-overs, dubbing the dialogue with English speaking actors which destroys the enjoyment of the film. It’s disconcerting for many reasons. First, the lips are not synchronized, which is bad enough. But worse is that the actors are generally second rate. You know that all the dialogue is being read by someone in front of a screen watching the actors emote, which loses any hope of verisimilitude. Every time I try to watch a foreign film on Netflix I feel as if I’m watching Woody Allen’s brutal satire of dubbed films, What’s Up, Tiger Lily? (1966). If you want to watch foreign films, you should try MHz Choice, which shows only foreign films and they do not dub the dialogue. Further, the subtitles are first-rate. When Hollywood does subtitles, they are generally awful if not amateurish, often white on white, blending in with the background.

Here is a sampling on MHz Choice:

Agent Hamilton (8/10): 10-part series. TV-14. This is a Jason Bourne-type adventure with seemingly everyone in the world after secret agent Carl Hamilton (Jakob Oftebro) after a series of bombings and cyberattacks in Stockholm. Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? Can we trust anyone, even Hamilton? Oftebro is an attractive protagonist/antagonist (who knows?). And his girlfriend, Sonja (Katia Winter), is drop dead gorgeous. It is deviously convoluted as twists keep occurring. MHz Choice. Swedish, English and Russian.

Spiral (8/10): 8 seasons of 8 episodes each, starting in 2005, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2017, 2019, 2021. TV-PG. This is a French crime drama that looks at each situation from various points of view, showing immense corruption on all sides. Vaguely similar to Law and Order, it’s different from American crime dramas because of the French way that judges, magistrates, and officials work together with detectives. The only drawback is a tendency towards showing long detailed scenes of burned and mutilated bodies which is unnecessary, often disgusting, and detracts from the overall excellence of the show. I finally started fast-forwarding through those scenes. Caroline Proust shines as the main protagonist detective showing the challenges and sensitivities facing an attractive woman in a violent man’s world. The supporting cast includes many fascinating characters. Won the 2015 International Emmy® for best Drama Series (Season 5). MHz Choice & Prime. French.

Murder in… (7/10) 7 seasons of 9 episodes each. A gorgeous collection of murder mysteries, each one set in a different, picturesque region of France. The stories are good and the cinematography and locations visually charming. MHz Choice. French.

What is MHz? MHz Networks offers viewers access to a library of the best foreign television mysteries, dramas, comedies and documentaries subtitled in English through its subscription streaming service, MHz Choice. For more information, go to mhzchoice.com.