"Star Trek: Starfleet Academy," Year One

Let's get right to the point.  "Starfleet Academy" is a weird "Star Trek" show.  Since the main characters are the equivalent of college students, it's pitched at a YA audience, with a lot of modern humor and stylistic choices that are very out of the norm for "Star Trek."  At the same time, the show was clearly created by people who love the '90s era "Star Trek" shows, and there are tributes and Easter Eggs to the older series in every single episode.  They also bring back Robert Picardo's hologram doctor character from "Star Trek: Voyager" as one of the instructors at the Academy, along with Jet Reno (Tig Notaro) from "Star Trek: Discovery."  So ultimately, I'm not sure which audience is going to respond best to this.  

"Starfleet Academy" is set in a distant future era, at a point in the "Star Trek" timeline where the Federation is slowly rebuilding after a major cataclysm called The Burn.  Starfleet Academy, the storied institution that trains Starfleet officers, is being recommissioned, with a new Chancellor, Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter), and an eclectic incoming class.  These include a pacifist Klingon, Jay-Den (Karim Diané), an overconfident Khionian, Darem (George Hawkins), the daughter of an admiral, Genesis (Bella Shepard), and the first sentient photonic cadet, Series Acclimation Mil, or Sam (Kerrice Brooks).  However, the main protagonist is Caleb Mir (Sandro Rosta), a criminal and fugitive, who has personal history with Nala Ake.  His options are either prison or school under her supervision, so he picks school.  

Because this is a show about the cadets in an academic setting, a lot of the episodes revolve around teachable moments, school activities, and teen drama.  Caleb quickly falls for a lovely Betazed named Tarima (Zoë Steiner), who attends a rival school called the War College (yes, really).  And you can probably guess some of the hijinks that follow from there.  There's also a recurring villain, the terrorist Nus Braka, who is played by Paul Giamatti in scenery-chewing mode.  He's half-Klingon, half-Tellarite, and all ham.  In keeping with "Star Trek" tradition, the tone is also frequently super-earnest and brimming over with optimism to the point where it can be overbearing.  The more irreverent humor doesn't gel well at first, possibly trying to take inspiration from the animated "Lower Decks" more often than it should.  There's a character who vomits glitter if he eats too much potassium, for instance.

However, over the course of the first season, things steadily improve.  It helps that the characters are all very well-constructed, even if some of the actors are a little green.  Veterans like Holly Hunter and Tig Notaro do a lot to pick up the slack.  It also helps that the show is trying to push ahead and show us new aspects of the "Star Trek" universe, even as it indulges in a lot of nostalgia.  Nala's first officer is a brusque but loveable half-Jem Hadar, half-Klingon officer, Lura Thok (Gina Yashere).  Jay-Den was raised in the Klingon culture, but is considered an oddity for being more interested in medicine than warfare.  Sam is probably my favorite of the youngsters, a recently created being who has been programmed to act like a teenager, and act as a bridge between her non-corporeal species and the Federation.  

Also, once you get past the first few episodes, "Starfleet Academy" turns out to be very much a "Star Trek" series.  Most of the problems are solved through diplomacy and science, though flashy pyrotechnics are also pretty common.  It's a much talkier show than it appears at first glance, as interested in building its characters and their relationships as it is with throwing common "Star Trek" challenges their way.  I found the more touchy-feely approach was often a hindrance on a show like "Discovery," but it fits "Starfleet Academy" better, because all the learning and growing is a major part of the  premise.  The first season definitely has its ups and downs, but it grew on me, and I expect it'll keep on improving in future seasons. 

Established "Star Trek" fans should take note that this is definitely for an older crowd than "Prodigy," with as much casual cursing in it as any of the other Paramount+ "Star Trek" shows, and significantly more onscreen sexuality.  Honestly, it's all very tame, but this is "Star Trek," so I feel some of my fellow nerds might need some warning.  

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"Margo's Got Money Troubles" and More

"Margo's Got Money Troubles," based on the book by Rufi Thorpe, is an admirable attempt to try and navigate some of the murky attitudes around sex work, drug addiction, and non-traditional family structures.  It's also a prime opportunity for some talented older actors to play some colorful, interesting characters that we haven't seen them play before.  The adaptation is spearheaded by David E. Kelley, who really outdid himself casting this one.

Margo (Elle Fanning) is a 20-year old with a bright head on her shoulders, who gets involved with her literature professor Mark (Michael Angarano), which results in a cutie pie baby boy named Bodhi, and Margo dropping out of school to support him.   Her mother Shyanne (Michelle Pfeiffer), a former Hooter's waitress, is wooing the local pastor Kenny (Greg Kinnear), and can only offer limited help.  Her father Jinx (Nick Offerman), a former wrestler, eventually shows up fresh from rehab and in need of a place to stay.  Margo and her roommate Susie (Thaddea Graham) let him move in, where he becomes Bodhi's regular babysitter.  Unfortunately, Margo finds that the only way she can reliably make money is with an OnlyFans account, where she posts risque stories and photos under the persona of the Hungry Ghost, a sexy space alien. 

"Margo's Got Money Troubles" is absolutely bursting with talented actors.  Marcia Gay Harden and Nicole Kidman show up later in the series in roles that I will not spoil.  In addition, familiar faces like Kerri Kenney, Paul McCrane, and Laura San Giacomo keep showing up in bit parts.  And it's clear why.  "Margo's Got Money Troubles" is largely a family dramedy full of complicated, entertaining characters struggling to connect with each other.  It's offbeat, but heartwarming and an easy watch.  Nick Offerman and Michelle Pfeiffer strike me as the clear standouts, two people who had a wild youth together and now have to deal with the consequences as best they can.  Offerman as a burly, hard-living ex-wrestler who effortlessly slides into the role of doting grandfather, is a joy to watch.  Pfeiffer as the more reluctant, status-obsessed grandmother trying to maintain the fiction of a wholesome family life, takes longer to warm up to, but I found her deeply relatable in the end.

And of course there's Elle Fanning, taking on one of her most challenging roles yet as an overwhelmed young mother whose life gets complicated very quickly.  The show's creators make it clear that motherhood is tough, spending a good amount of screen time on the hell of newborn care.  Most of the nudity in the show involves Margo nursing, or in other non-sexual contexts.  And for all the talk of demystifying and destigmatizing sex work, Margo quickly discovers that making money with OnlyFans has its own challenges.  She has to be a smart self-promoter, find a niche,  and eventually partner up with other creators.  My biggest criticism of the show is that it's a little too cutesy about portraying OnlyFans as a platform where Margo is able to find a creative outlet, and focuses on the cosplay and the kitsch while avoiding the sleaze.  There are negative social consequences that Margo has to face for her OnlyFans work, but the depiction of work itself feels too sanitized, and probably paints a misleading picture of how much effort is actually required.

Then again, "Margo's Got Money Troubles" isn't really about the sex work.  It's about Margo making choices about her life that society deems unacceptable and having to deal  with the fallout.  And it's about the people closest to her also reckoning with their choices, and eventually reconnecting and becoming close enough to try and help one another when things get tough.  I was constantly being surprised by the show, whether it was Shyanne repeatedly misjudging Kenny, or Jinx and Susie unexpectedly bonding.  I don't expect that "Margo's Got Money Troubles" will be around for the long term considering the caliber of the cast, but it's so nice to see talented actors in roles where they actually get to use that talent.  Nicole Kidman in a slightly kooky supporting role is great - she could totally transition to being a character actress if she wanted.  Michelle Pfeiffer doesn't get enough good roles, and I'm so grateful she got to do this.

And with an eight episode season, "Margo" doesn't outstay her welcome.  I know another season is in the works, but the first feels like a complete show, and one I will happily recommend.

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"Strange New Worlds" Year Three

I went back and forth over whether I wanted to write a full post for this season of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds," because there are no major changes to the status quo and there are no major deviations in quality or production to discuss.  There aren't any interesting new characters introduced, except Ortegas's brother Beto (Mynor Luken) and Chapel's new love interest Dr. Korby (Cillian O'Sullivan) in recurring roles, and hardly even any guest stars of note.

However, as "Star Trek" is moving into another transitional phase, I think it's worth taking stock of how the best regarded "Trek" show of the streaming era is doing.  This is definitely a less experimental, less risk-taking year.  Despite some of the grumblings I've heard, only three of the ten episodes are comedic ones.  A few others break the show's standard format, but for the most part "Star Trek" is focused on pretty straightforward adventuring this season.  Captain Pike's love interest, Captain Marie Batel, is onboard the Enterprise for most of this year and is at the center of several of the ongoing plot arcs.  Unfortunately, these arcs are pretty badly handled, ultimately culminating in an incoherent finale that's resolved with the worst kind of random science-fiction gobbledegook.  

The individual stand-alone episodes, fortunately, are much better.  The plots are familiar stuff to "Star Trek" watchers, but the execution is very strong.  There's a holodeck mystery episode, a funny wedding episode, an "Enemy Mine" scenario, a documentary expose episode, and one where multiple regulars get turned into Vulcan versions of themselves.  However, the highlight of the season is "The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail," where James T. Kirk gets an early test of his leadership skills when the Enterprise is attacked by unknown enemies.  It's classic old school science fiction of the best kind, and still has room for action beats and a little of Pelia's kookiness.  The versatility of "Strange New Worlds" is what I appreciate the most about it, because all of these stories are able to exist very comfortably together in the same season.         

On the relationship front, Spock and Chapel are firmly no longer a thing, with both of them seeing other people.  The breakup takes a while to process, but I'm just glad these two aren't paired together anymore, because the relationship always struck me as awfully juvenile and a little out of character for "Star Trek."  The show's romances remain largely on the back burner, playing out as a secondary concern to whatever the adventure of the week is, but I do appreciate that the writers take the care to develop them fairly realistically, using them to explore parts of the characters that we wouldn't see otherwise.

There are a lot of callbacks to the original '60s "Star Trek," and every time the future Captain Kirk shows up, there's a lot of pointed foreshadowing of the crew's future adventures together.  However, as someone with only a cursory knowledge of the first "Star Trek" series, this never got in the way of my enjoyment of "Strange New Worlds."  I completely forgot that certain characters were part of the old show at times, because I've become attached to the current incarnations.  In fact, I'm getting worried about the fates of the ones who aren't, particularly La'an and M'Benga.

I have a few minor nitpicks about things like how often certain characters are featured (or not featured), and the finale really was an awful flop, but overall this was a good season and gave me nearly everything I want out of a "Star Trek" show.  We've got sixteen episodes over two seasons left to go, with Paramount+ shifting its attention over to the new "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" series.  It's a shame, because I think that "Strange New Worlds" has the potential to go for several more seasons in this vein.  However, I'm also glad that the show isn't outstaying its welcome.      

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My Top 25 of the Last 25 - Movie Trailers

I've thoroughly enjoyed all the "Best of" lists celebrating the superlatives of the first quarter of the twenty-first century. And I'm going to be fashionably late to the party and make some of my own lists this year, looking at media from 2001 to 2025.  However, I'm not going to make "Best Movie" or "Best Show" lists.  No, I'm going to do the fun stuff.  This month, I'm spotlighting my favorite movie trailers.

Each list will get 25 entries, but only the top ten will get write-ups. 

Comedian (2002) - Let's start with the meta.  The "Comedian" trailer is listed on IMDB as a short, because though it's supposed to be a trailer for a Jerry Seinfeld documentary about comedians, it also functions as a funny stand-alone sketch making fun of movie trailers and their tropes, especially the deep-voiced narrator, performed here by the legendary Hal Douglas.  "In a world…" style trailers have largely gone out of style, and I like to think this trailer had something to do with it.

Kill Bill (2004) - Music choices have a massive impact on how well a trailer works.  Tomoyasu Hotel's "Battle Without Honor or Humanity" instrumental plays a big part in setting the tone here, for our first look at "The 4th Film By Quentin Tarantino."  It becomes clear that the movie is going to take no prisoners, as the action and the characters keep getting wilder and more over-the top as it goes.  The instrumental got a lot of play after this, becoming cultural shorthand for incoming badassery

Sin City (2005) - A prime example of a trailer that's better than the movie it's promoting.  The big selling point of "Sin City" was translating comic book visuals to the screen in a novel way.  This novelty wears off quickly over the length of a whole movie, particularly one that's not very well written or well put together.  However, a two-minute trailer is the perfect length to show off some of the creative applications of this very specific aesthetic, based on Frank Miller's grimly beautiful artwork.  

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) - Then you have the trailers that are selling you on a premise, and it was a tall order to sell "Benjamin Button," the tale of a man who ages in reverse.  The trick here is that you think you see the whole movie, but it's only giving you the broadest outlines - the love story and the peculiar circumstances of the title character.  Crucially, it also provides confirmation that Fincher and crew nailed the special effects wizardry to do all the aging effects right.

A Serious Man (2009) - I love this movie, and this is the perfect trailer for it - a trailer that asks a lot of questions and throws a lot of balls in the air, and offers absolutely no answers or guarantees, except that the characters will be Coen brothers characters.  It establishes a very specific tone and type of humor, full of anxiety and middle-aged neurosis, and does it perfectly.  I also like to think that the rhythmic thwacking of Michael Stuhlbarg's head against the wall is a tribute to the "Point Blank" trailer.

Where the Wild Things Are (2009) - Some trailers are vital for setting expectations.  You'd think that an adaptation of Maurice Sendak's Where The Wild Things Are would be a typical children's adventure picture.  Instead, the trailer immediately shows us that we're in for something much more thoughtful, poignant, melancholy, and strange.  It's absolutely a children's film, but one that is likely to hit the adults much harder.  I still tear up watching this sometimes, and I can never quite say why.  

Godzilla (2014) and Godzilla: King of Monsters (2019) - Here's my token representation of the big blockbusters.  What I like about these trailers for movies from the "Godzilla" franchise is that they're so good at conveying a sense of scale.  You've got the immersive halo jump from the first "Godzilla" trailer, and then all the reveals of the new kaiju designs in "King of Monsters," presented in the most epic way possible.  It's an absolute delight to see these familiar monsters fill our screens once more.    

Barbie (2023) - I can't resist a "2001: A Space Odyssey" reference.

28 Years Later (2025) - This is the first trailer in ages that I've seen that feels like it's willing to experiment with the format.  In this case, the long-anticipated horror movie set its images of a dystopia and zombie carnage to an evocative reading of a Rudyard Kipling poem about WWI, written more than a century ago.  It's a piece that's absolutely lousy with historical significance, sounding a dire warning against the worst sins of man - which are of course the really scary parts of "28 Years Later."   

The Next Fifteen:

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)

Shining (parody trailer) (2005)

The Fountain (2006)

Little Children (2006)

Be Kind Rewind (2008) (sweded version)

Cloverfield (2008)

The Social Network (2010)

Inception (2010)

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

Hail, Caesar! (2016)

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

One Battle After Another (2025)

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"Slow Horses," Years Four and Five

I like that I never know what I'm going to get with each season of "Slow Horses."  Season four is the first one that really digs into the background of any of the major characters, with an assassination attempt on River's grandfather leading to all sorts of juicy family secrets being spilled.  The major villain is a cult leader, Frank Harkness (Hugo Weaving), and River spends a good deal of the season rambling around France on a solo mission.  Season five is lighter and funnier, with Roddy Ho's disastrous dating life being a major plot point, and the biggest villain of the year is probably the new "First Desk" of MI5, Claude Whelan (James Callis), who is awful at his job.

There are a couple of new faces in the cast - JK Coe (Tom Brooke) joins Slough House as an introverted weirdo who mostly keeps to himself, and Emma Flyte (Ruth Bradley), a former cop, is now the head of the "Dogs" tactical unit, under Taverner.  These change the existing character dynamics a bit.  I also want to spotlight Molly Doran (Naomi Wirthner) as the MI5 archivist with a difficult personality, who becomes a recurring minor player.  The other major characters continue to progress from season to season, with a few taking leaves from Slough House, and others noticeably getting better at their jobs.  River's competence continues to be wildly variable, which is part of the fun.  Jefferson Lamb is still the best character in the show's roster.  His contemptuous facade is cracking a bit as we get to know him more, and his relationships with the other characters gain more mileage.  We still don't know that much about him, which makes him all the more intriguing.

Usually when shows are this far into their runs, they start to repeat themselves and maybe fall back on old dramatic tropes to keep the momentum going.  Maybe it's because the show has such short and self-contained seasons, or because it's adapting books that work off of a different storytelling model completely, but "Slow Horses" has none of these problems.  I think it helps that the story progression concerning anything more character-centric is ongoing, but taking its time.  For instance, the possibility of a romantic relationship between two members of the Slough House team becomes a serious possibility in the fifth season, but it's such a minor development that has nothing to do with the larger plot, it gets completely tabled early on.  We'll have to wait and see if the romantic tensions actually go anywhere in season six or seven.   There are hints of more tragic territory to explore that we've barely scratched the surface of, but I won't feel too disappointed if we never get there.

"Slow Horses" remains primarily a fast-past delivery system for action and thrills.  In season four, we've got a really solid mystery involving doppelgangers and screwed up families. In season five, the plot involves a lot of crowds and gunplay, as several of the setpieces deal with foiling political assassinations.  Slough House itself also comes under literal fire multiple times in these two seasons, which is usually resolved by one of the regulars doing something cool at a critical moment.  I think it's important to note that this is the exception to the rule, though.  The show works because the members of Slough House keep proving that they deserve to be there, and continue to be a passel of hopeless idiots most of the time.  Fortunately, their screwups are just as entertaining as their successes.

In short, "Slow Horses" remains easily the best spy series that is currently running.  I wish that I'd gotten acquainted with it sooner, but this also means that I don't have as long of a wait for the sixth series, which is due in fall of 2026.  The preview promises more shenanigans, and I can't wait.

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A Trip "Down Cemetery Road"

Several members of the "Slow Horses" creative team have adapted another Mick Herron novel, about the detective Zoë Boehm.  Emma Thompson plays Zoë, and Ruth Wilson portrays the book's other heroine, Sarah Tifford, in the "Down Cemetery Road" miniseries.  And since these are two of my favorite currently working UK actors, there was no way that I was going to miss this.

A fiery explosion in a suburban neighborhood interrupts the dinner party that Sarah and her husband Mark (Tom Riley) are having a few streets away.  Sarah becomes suspicious when one of the victims, a little girl, appears to disappear from media coverage and is refused all visitors at the hospital.  She tries to investigate herself, eventually recruiting a private detective named Joe Silverman (Adam Godley), who is married to the much more skeptical investigator, Zoë Boehm (Thompson).  Meanwhile, we learn that the explosion was an unauthorized action by people working for the Ministry of Defense.  We follow a verbally abusive official known only as "C" (Darren Boyd), and his hapless underling Hamza (Adeel Akhtar), as they try to cover up what happened.  There are various other figures in play, including dangerous men played by Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Pip Torrens, and Fehinti Balogun, whose motives are unknown.

The bumbling mismanagement of the Ministry of Defense characters are what are the most reminiscent of "Slow Horses," and they provide a nice counterpoint to the fairly typical mystery and conspiracy plots being unravelled by Sarah, and later Zoë.  Ruth Wilson is in the fairly thankless role of an ordinary person whose obsession puts her into an extraordinary situation, and a lot hinges on her retaining the audience's sympathies while making foolhardy decisions left and right.  Wilson's fine, but it often feels like a questionable use of her talents.  Emma Thompson as Zoë is more fun, because she gets to rock a leather jacket and a cool haircut, and drop a few antisocial one-liners here and there.  The show is at its most successful when the characters are the most in the dark, and the situation seems to be out of everyone's control.  The best twists are the ones that are deployed the earliest, and Zoë gets a paltry amount of screen time despite easily being the most interesting character.  Okay, the second-most interesting character after one of the villains, but that's a spoiler.

Once we actually get a better picture of what's going on, the story gets bogged down in near-misses and chance encounters, with the characters travelling to a Scottish island for a big, final confrontation.  At eight episodes, the series doesn't feel too long, exactly, but the pacing could be improved.  There are a wealth of promising minor characters who all needed a little more screentime, and the ending is very abrupt.  I'm sure I'm not the only one who could have used another episode just to tie up loose ends and confirm that Zoë's hacker friend Wayne (Joshua James) is all right.  Both of the heroines are going to have a rough time picking up the pieces of their lives that have been disrupted by the investigation, and there are a lot of the more personal questions that are left unaddressed.  These are not the answers I'd be demanding of your usual mystery series, but they're ones that the show posed and that I was left waiting for.  Since there are three other Zoë Boehm novels, this could be covered in a sequel series, but that's never a guarantee these days. 

If this is your genre, "Down Cemetery Road" is worth watching, but it's not a series that I'd prioritize over the new "Department Q," or "The Lowdown," or any of the better mystery series that have come out recently.  I wouldn't mind seeing Emma Thompson in another one of these though, but I hope she's actually the main character next time.                

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My Favorite Julie Taymor Film

This is an interesting entry to write, because Julie Taymor is better known for her achievements as a theater director than as a feature film director, and she's only qualifying for this writeup because I'm counting recorded stage productions as  part of her filmography.  Still, there's nobody who makes movies like Julie Taymor, with her particular blend of mixed media, stagecraft influences, elaborate production design, and experimental elements.  Her film directing debut was a TV movie, "Fool's Fire," possibly the best puppet film ever made.  However, the first of her features that I saw was "Titus," a very bloody  adaptation of William Shakespeare's "Titus Andronicus."  A few decades later, I'm still processing it.

There was a resurgence of Shakespearean cinema in the late 1990s, mostly spurred by Baz Luhrmann's "Romeo+Juliet" and the Kenneth Branagh adaptations.  "Titus" is part of this trend, a star-studded, wildly over-the-top piece of phantasmagoria that added surreal "penny dreadful" fantasy sequences, a framing device from a child's POV, and glaring anachronisms to the lurid revenge story.  The setting is now a combination of Ancient Rome and the Fascist Italy of the 1930s, with gorgeous sets straight out of a Fellini film - and that's no surprise, given that "Titus" was shot at Cinecitta Studios with some of Fellini's old collaborators involved.  Despite this, "Titus" sticks very close to the original text, and retains the Shakespeare's dialogue.  Anthony Hopkins also grounds the film, giving a striking performance as Titus Andronicus with all the gravity and weight you'd expect of any tragic Shakespearean figure.  Well, until the last act, where he goes mad and gives into the camp at just the right moment.

"Titus Andronicus" has long been one of the less popular and least well-regarded Shakespeare plays because of its gruesome nature, featuring multiple deaths, maimings, sexual violence, and even cannibalism.  "Titus" leans into the morbid and prurient content, stylizing the worst acts into Grand Guignol spectacle.  The metaphorical is made literal, and the literal is often abstracted into the psychedelic.  What initially drew me to the film were the wild costuming choices, with Jessica Lange in a literal crown of kitchen knives as the spirit of Revenge, Alan Cumming in Mussolini dress uniforms and leopard prints as the smug Emperor, and Laura Fraser's brutalized Lavinia sporting tree branches in the place of severed limbs.  Anthony Hopkins appears in a chef's outfit for the cannibalism scenes, naturally.  Not all of this works, with the lengthy closing shot of a character walking off into the distance pinging as especially indulgent and pretentious, but it's a thrill to see someone engage with the play with this amount of earnest passion and rigor.  "Titus" remains the definitive screen adaptation of "Titus Andronicus," because nobody has been brave enough to try anything remotely as ambitious with it since.  I also suspect it went a long way toward popularizing and rehabilitating "Titus Andronicus" with modern audiences.

Taymor originally staged "Titus Andronicus" in 1994 as an Off-Broadway show, in the middle of an impressive run of theater projects that included the operas "Oedipus Rex" and "Salome," and the musical adaptation of "The Lion King."   The acclaim from "The Lion King" is almost certainly why Taymor got to direct "Titus," and was able to assemble such a high calibre cast and crew for it.  Nearly all of the film's defining artistic choices and imagery came from the stage production - the costuming, the video projections of nightmare imagery, and plenty of graphic violence.  Taymor has claimed that she was drawn to the play because she found it so relevant to the modern era.  Some of the characters certainly stand out as ahead of their time, especially the Moor, Aaron, played by Harry Lennix as a notably complex villain.  She also expands the role of Young Lucius, a minor character, in order to highlight the cycles of violence, generational trauma, and revenge begetting revenge.  

I've enjoyed Julie Taymor's subsequent films, especially "Frida," but none of them have resonated with me like "Titus."  I suspect it's because underneath all the extremity and the flashy visuals, there's a very solid Shakespearean tragedy here, with compelling characters and strong performances.  And deep down, I've always been a sucker for Shakespearean tragedies, and the few screen adaptations that really do them justice.   

What I've Seen - Julie Taymor

Fool's Fire (1992)

Oedipus Rex (1993)

Salome (1995)

The Lion King (1997)

Titus (1999)

Frida (2002)

Across the Universe (2007)

The Tempest (2010)

A Midsummer Night's Dream (2014)

The Glorias (2020)

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