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Brawn \u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605
<\/b>Disney+<\/p>\n
When Keanu Reeves makes an entrance in action movie franchises such as The Matrix<\/i> and John Wick<\/i>, he tends to come armed to the teeth. But in this finely engineered Formula One documentary he\u2019s packing notes. Lots of notes. As narrator and interviewer, amateur therapist and sardonic prompter, the Hollywood star is integral to this motor sport saga about an upstart team\u2019s unprecedented season. The cars are fast and Keanu\u2019s cadence is slow, yet \u2013 insert a Neo \u201cwoah\u201d here \u2013 they\u2019re a surprisingly simpatico pairing.<\/p>\n
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Keanu Reeves and Jenson Button in Brawn: Reeves\u2019 presence changes the documentary formula.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Disney+<\/cite><\/p>\n From the starting line it\u2019s a terrific story. In 2009, as the Global Financial Crisis unfolded, Honda decided to close down their fledgling Formula One team. In desperation, the team\u2019s CEO, Nick Fry and team principal Ross Brawn, who\u2019d previously won multiple world championships with Ferrari, brought the team and a year\u2019s bare bones racing budget from Honda for a pound. They saved 700 jobs, but the renamed Brawn GP were meant to make up the numbers. Then they started winning races.<\/p>\n Written by Simon Hammerson and directed by Daryl Goodrich, Brawn<\/i> is ultimately about getting the most out of something \u2013 be it an engine, a budget, the rules, or a person. There\u2019s the odd explanatory aside, but the storytelling goes deep on the mechanics, racing scenarios, and big personalities. You will learn what a double diffuser is, and how it shot Brawn\u2019s drivers, Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello to the front of the grid. The jealousy of rival teams needs no explanation.<\/p>\n Jenson Button celebrates winning the 2009 Australian F1 Grand Prix in Melbourne for Brawn with teammate Rubens Barrichello, who ran second.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>AP Photo\/Oliver Multhaup<\/cite><\/p>\n The scope of the four hour-long episodes is extensive, and Reeves is on camera for approximately 50 separate interviews. Machine shop operator Alex Harte, meet Keanu Reeves. The actor is obviously meant to broaden the appeal of a show pitched at dedicated F1 fans, but his presence also changes the documentary formula. Wary participants give interviews, including the sport\u2019s then Machiavellian controller, Bernie Ecclestone, and as an unconventional interlocutor a smiling Reeves prods them to reveal more.<\/p>\n 2009 would be a tumultuous season. The likes of Ferrari and Red Bull started to reel Brawn in on the track, while off it the teams feuded with Ecclestone over his control of Formula One. Button and Barrichello were both friends and rivals. As ludicrously expensive as this world is, Brawn<\/i> finds a satisfyingly relatable gateway into each of the pressure points it examines. Should every Hollywood star do likewise? Absolutely not. But as excellent adventures go, Keanu Reeves helps puts this series in pole position.<\/p>\n Jason Isaacs as Cary Grant in Archie.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>BritBox<\/cite><\/p>\n Archie \u2605\u2605\u00bd The story of how Archibald \u201cArchie\u201d Leach, a penniless abandoned child with a wretched upbringing, became Cary Grant, one of the greatest leading men in the history of cinema, is ripe with storytelling potential. But I\u2019m not sure about the preferred method of this limited series, which folds together different eras of the actor\u2019s life for psychological contrast but illustrates it with blithe references and sometimes ripe, dated storytelling.<\/p>\n Written by Jeff Pope (Philomena<\/i>), the show has a traumatised young Archie (Dainton Anderson), in pre-World War I British squalor, learning that his mother has died in a mental asylum. \u201cAnd so I was alone,\u201d the ageing Cary (Jason Isaacs) declares in voiceover, \u201cwhich is exactly how I found myself in the summer of 1961.\u201d Cut to a Benedict Canyon mansion in Los Angeles, where Sophia Loren will not take the tanned screen idol\u2019s calls.<\/p>\n Isaacs is the best thing about Archie<\/i>. Playing Cary from middle age fame to elderly self-contemplation, he supplies emotional nuance to the script\u2019s sometimes blatant observations. His marriage \u2013 the fourth and quickly failed \u2013 to the much younger Dyan Cannon (Laura Aikman) is a focus, but too often the narrative makes the least of Grant\u2019s screen history, emphasising negligible co-star cameos or Grant turning down the role of James Bond.<\/p>\n Ben Roberts-Smith: sued for defamation and lost.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Stan<\/cite><\/p>\n Revealed: Ben Roberts-Smith Truth on Trial Both a thorough investigative procedural and a damning portrayal of how myth and malice divided the elite SAS regiment, this feature-length documentary charts the course of the numerous print and television stories about alleged war crimes committed in Afghanistan by Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith. Journalist Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters, who were vindicated when Roberts-Smith sued them for defamation and lost, are determined but never triumphant \u2013 as the grim evidence and unfiltered testimony here shows, what they methodically uncovered and proved was horrifying.<\/p>\n Christina Ricci as Misty and Elijah Wood as Walter in Yellowjackets.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Kailey Schwerman\/Showtime<\/cite><\/p>\n Yellowjackets An early Christmas present for Netflix subscribers: this genre-bending thriller, one of the best new shows of the past few years and previously a Paramount+ exclusive, is being added to the catalogue. Laced with supernatural dread and the mordant humour of survivors, it\u2019s a now and then narrative contrasting a group of teenage girls lost in the 1996 Canadian wilderness and the fortysomething women \u2013 played by Juliette Lewis, Melanie Lynskey, and Christina Ricci, among others \u2013 they are today, forced to reunite and confront their trauma. The otherworldly dread and psychological insight are deeply complementary.<\/p>\n Smothered The romantic comedy gets a sitcom makeover in this new British comedy: good intentions but plenty of raunch, farcical complications but a bedrock of yearning. Sammy (Danielle Vitalis) is an extrovert who thinks relationships are too demanding, while Tom (Jon Pointing) is an introvert more concerned with his responsibilities. When they meet via karaoke and sparks fly, she suggests a three-week fling with no strings, but neither can escape the memories or the ramifications. The leads are good together, particularly in making genuine sense of an opposites attract dynamic open to both friskiness and failure.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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<\/b>BritBox<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/b>Stan<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/b>Netflix<\/p>\n
<\/b>Binge<\/p>\n<\/p>\n