Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu

Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu
Director ~  Jon Favreau
Writers ~ Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Noah Kloor
2026, US
Stars ~ Pedro Pascal, Brendan Wayne, Lateef Crowder

Okay… (deep breath): first two seasons of ‘The Mandalorian’ were hugely enjoyable for undemanding pulp sci-fi. Aside from ‘Andor’, many of the endless Disney ‘Star Wars’ spin-off series that I have tried have inspired me to abandon them at various stages because of, oh I don’t know, that the franchise is plagued with negible writing and characterisation, for example. It seemed that ‘The Mandalorian’ was what we sort of expected Boba Fett to be, and maybe only the Sandpeople episodes of the ‘Boba Fett’ series seemed to hit expectations, although there was sporadic fun to be had. ‘Boba Fett’ even turned into ‘The Mandalorian’ for a chunk, explaining why the latter’s third season was quite messy. I was won over by Grogu, even though that kind of cutesy thing was expected to be why I wouldn’t be convinced (ref. Ewoks, and Ja-Ja Binks). That Grogu is a puppet and doesn’t do the CGI thing so much is the key ingrediant to his success.

Which is kept for the film ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’ where the fun is in the buddy chemistry between the former’s bounty hunter seriousness and Grogu’s muppety goodness: the former’s daddy disapproval and the latter’s todler behaviour. The general consensus and criticism is that it feels like a TV series dressed as a film, but I am wondering if that is just a side-effect of the fact that TV is looking more cinematic than ever. ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’ frequently offers some gorgeous visuals – TIE fighters in the sunset, spaceships in warp drive, Frank Frazetta inspiration, for example – and never lacks for that even if it is mostly Mando punching CGI for a lot of the time (physics optional). It is one long sequence of action CGI set-pieces and only slows down to let Grogu step down from his shoulder-parrot position to take centre stage. What is clear is this is very much leaning into the children’s entertainment angle of ‘Star Wars’, and for that it is far more successful than the series’ pretentions to adulthood (I’m not including ‘Rogue One’ or ‘Andor’, which are legitamately mature). In fact, I will argue that it is the most successful of the outright kid-friendly element of ‘Star Wars’, perhaps even a better crossover than ‘Skeleton Crew’ (which I lost interest in; and ‘Ashoka’ was ultimately just embarassing). The stoic father-figure anti-hero of Mando is offset by the unapologetic cuteness of the Grogu puppet.

An undemanding romp with simple narrative that gets Din Djarin the Mandolorian from one fight to another, Martin Scorsese and Sigourney Weaver cameos for the film nerds, a little politics of some double-crossing, some nice spaceship porn, some daft extraterrestials which have always been a staple of ‘Star Wars’ even since the cantina, some pleasing synth score by Ludwig Göransson rather than the Williams orchestral approach, and … buff slug aliens? No matter how much Rotta the Hutt (voiced by Jeremy Allen White) is meant to be the tragic figure of this adventure with the most story-arc, there’s no getting away from how funny the buff Hutt look is, although the rolling maneauvre when fighting is a nice, logical touch. 

‘Star Wars’ has always been a mess and a platform for disagreements, so for obsessive fans that take it very seriously, ‘The Mandolorian and Grogu’ is likely to outrage because it uses the universe just as a playpen, or it will be embraced just for being in that world. It’s very much the ‘PEW-PEW-PEW!’ end of pulpy scifi made with a huge budget: just enjoy the sets and the ambience – one city has a little ‘Blade Runner’ overcrowded neon vibe. No, it is nowhere near the heights of ‘Rogue One’, which jettison’s the juvenilia, but it lies at the other end of the ‘Star Wars’ spectrum and is nowhere near the nedirs of other sequels. It is long enough for you to note the weaknesses in full and there’s no real substance, so if you’re looking for more, you won’t get it. But Jon Favreau knows what he is doing and delivers, embracing the silliness in a non-condescending way that makes this a very family friendly crossover. 

Passenger

PASSENGER
Director ~ André Øvredal
Writers ~ Zachary Donohue, T.W. Burgess
2026, US
Stars ~ Jacob Scipio, Lou Llobell, Melissa Leo

André Øvredal has submitted fun and agreeable horrors before (‘Troll Hunter’, ‘The Autopsy of Jane Joe’, ‘Scary Stories to tell in the Dark’ and ‘The last Voyage of the Demeter’, although I understand I saw an edit of the latter that was much better than what you’ll currently find)  but ‘Passenger’ is mostly dull and rote with an underwhelming characters, a meagre malevolent entity and laughable St. Christopher hocus pocus. It contains one vivid “outdoor cinema in the woods” sequence where Øvredal gets to show what he can really do and almost making this worth the pitstop, but it is tired folk horror stuff with a cruel rule of “Just don’t stop to help” and resolved by simply conforming.

Exit 8

 EXIT 8
8-BAN DEGUCHI
Director  ~ Genki Kawamura
Writers ~ Kotake Create, Kentaro Hirase, Genki Kawamura
2025, Japan
Stars ~ Kazunari Ninomiya, Yamato Kochi, Naru Asanuma

Our hapless protagonist The Lost Man is caught in a time loop inspired by a 2023 video game by Kotake Create. He must figure out the surrounding anomalies in order to find the way out: sometimes they are not so obvious, sometimes a flood. 

It is a limited scenario which involves most of the action repeatedly going around corners of a subway tunnel. The anxiety of being trapped in a time loop or paradox (see ‘The Rose of Nevada’ for another contemporary variation) creates the tension. Defined by perpetual uneasiness, puncutated by moments of creepiness, and inevitably tied in with the Lost Man’s emotional concerns, just to keep things tidy as his reality glitches. But also the potential horror of a repetative everyday worklife, a life undercooked and pressured into an overcrowded train daily. You have to spare some sympathy for the mild type, regularly targeted by the supernatural and other forces that put them through the wringer in a bid to make them learn to be more confrontational. And how many genre reality breaks happen because of pending parenthood?

It is Yamato Kôchi as The Walking Man that will leave the most impression as much as the tiles of the subway walls: he is panicky where The Lost Man is muted and offers the uncanny smile since the ‘Smile’ franchise. Although it may suffer from its intentional repetitiveness, Kawamura expands from the simplicty and limitations of the source to convincing feature-length. It could be seen as unfairly finger-wagging at introverts and mild people and simply to look up from your phone, although there is no sense of meanness here, just the horror of being trapped both externally and internally. If anything, the film is a note to pay attention to your surroundings, to note the nuances and differences. It is a example of how to successfully adapt a non-fighty game and a decent, off-the-wall entry into indie reality-breaks genre, even if it feels like watching someone else playing at times.

"House of Unforgiven Ghosts" - Buck Theorem album

 

So my new album for 2026 is "House of Unforgiven Ghosts", one on the introverted, melancholic side. Electronic ambient, big sweeping synths and odd vocal fx, etc. Features a cover of a 10cc classic that I have performed several times on stage. Most of this dates over the last couple of years, except "A Tale of Sand and Water" made on a 4Track I used to own in the 2000s. Starts with a strange yeah and ends with a weird no.

Made for headphones. 

 Enjoy! 

No Country for Old Men

 

No Country for Old Men

Writers & Directors ~    Ethan Coen & Joel Coen

Novel ~ Cormac McCarthy

2007,USA

Stars ~ Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Kelly MacDonald

There is nearly always a sense of an in-joke with the Coen brothers’ most heartfelt output, something to be decoded, which turns out to be totally alligned with Cormac McCarthy’s approach. Adapting McCarthy’s novel, the Coen’s capture the mood with great success, forgoing their usual verbose style but continuing the precision of aesthetic and delight in chaos that are familiar from ‘Blood Simple’ through to ‘Fargo’, but perhaps less dark humour. ‘No Country for Old Men’ philosophises where you would expect a showdown and preserves the riddle-like nature of the novel. The film often stops for the ruminations by and angst of the characters, rolling on the meaning of life and nostalgia in Southern mumbles. Not to say it doesn’t have the thriller joys of walking around the aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong or a shoot out, but it also comes on like an Ingmar Bergman Western Noir.

A rugged hunter type (Brolin) finds the cash at the aftermath and sets off a chain of slaughter. Seasoned Sheriff Tommy Lee Jones aches for a rose-tinted cowboy past that really never was, lamenting that the modern world has gone to hell; meanwhile the men he’s chasing are embroiled in a search-and-destroy that seemingly proves him right. Josh Brolin proves a fair quarry for the man relentlesly hunting him down, committed to his role of acquiring all the blood money for the future of he and his wife. As Anton Chigurh, Javier Bardem is an ultimate badman, seeing himself as a force of fate, and angel of death, killing on the spin of a coin. He’s scary with bad hair (apparently inspired by an old brothal picture that Jones’ possessed), terrifying with his skill and mind games, believing himself working to some personal cosmic code. In 2013,  psychologist Dr. Samuel Leistedt’s team, analysing 126 film characters, concluding that Anton Chigurh to be cinema’s most realistic portrayal of a psychopath. Indeed, his penchant for philosophical debate doesn’t get in the way of his killing, isn’t an excuse for scenery chewing and narrative device for delaying the inevitable.

When the present and modern experience punctures a favoured view of the past, the inclination may be to object with misty-eyed and mistaken nostalgia. "This is the world as it has always been, not how we like to remember it," the Sheriff is told by his cousin. But then there is another colleague that has the opposite opinion. No one gets what they want and it ends in accidents, haggling and reciting dreams of grief and death. Always just catching up, Sheriff Bell is just left bemused. Seemingly warning against too much projecting meaning, Chigurh may insist that the coin has traveled decades to decide a man’s fate on a toss, but he also notes that ultimately it’s just a coin. It is a tale that dismantles the tidy narratives of thrillers and commits to its chaos theory.

‘No Country for old Men’ translates McCarthy’s stripped-down yet eloquent prose with stark landscapes (the same desert location as ‘There Will be Blood’) and Roger Deakins’ excellent cinematography, with Carter Burwell’s score reduced to a barely perceptable Buddhinst singing bowl ambience. It is an excellent thriller that offers smart characters pitted against eachother, the suspense coming from silence, immersive editing and flashes of smart dialogue taken from the novel for colour. Like ‘A History of Violence’, or even ‘Henry: portrait of a serial killer’, it dissects cinematic violence and tropes whilst also delivering the goods.There is less humour at the expense of the folksy characters, as if the Coens have decided to forgo their genre pleasure and take an even deeper look at the real consequences of their thriller world. Never have they laid bare the hurt and fallout from the chaos they enjoy investigating and playing with. It chills by forgoing the Coens’ penchant for farce and indeed would be in the hat when choosing their best.

What’s coming gets us all in the end.