Holy Crap. Dick is dead. Died last night after band practice, and his bandmates, Zeke & Earl(Michael Abbott, Jr. & Andre Hyland), don’t want anybody finding out how. That’s too bad though, ‘cause news travels fast in small-town Alabama, and these guys suck at covering their tracks. The authorities haven’t ID’d the body just yet, but Zeke’s wife (Virginia Newcomb) and his daughter are suspicious already. From a screenplay by Billy Chew, director Daniel Scheinert (one half of the Swiss Army Manduo known as Daniels) expertly balances the hilarity and heartache of what happens when dark secrets are dragged kicking and screaming into the light. Featuring an eclectic ensemble of Southerners (Jess Weixler, Sarah Baker, Roy Wood Jr., and Sunita Mani), plus a soundtrack with songs by Staind, Creed, Nickelback, and an original score by Andy Hull and Robert McDowell of Manchester Orchestra.
7The film is scheduled to be released in theaters by A24 September 27th.

Streaming
Come sail away. #PercyJackson and the Olympians Season 2 is coming to #DisneyPlus December 10.

Season two of “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” is based on “The Sea of Monsters” – the second installment of Disney Hyperion’s best-selling book series by award-winning author Rick Riordan. Percy Jackson returns to Camp Half-Blood one year later to find his world turned upside down. His friendship with Annabeth is changing, he learns he has a cyclops for a brother, Grover has gone missing, and camp is under siege from the forces of Kronos. Percy’s journey to set things right will take him off the map and into the deadly Sea of Monsters, where a secret fate awaits the son of Poseidon.
Movie
Avatar: Fire and Ash | Official Trailer

From Director James Cameron, watch the trailer for Avatar: Fire and Ash. Experience the film only in theaters December 19. With “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” James Cameron takes audiences back to Pandora in an immersive new adventure with Marine turned Na’vi leader Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), Na’vi warrior Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), and the Sully family. The film, which has a screenplay by James Cameron & Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver, and a story by James Cameron & Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver & Josh Friedman & Shane Salerno, also stars Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Oona Chaplin, Cliff Curtis, Britain Dalton, Trinity Bliss, Jack Champion, Bailey Bass and Kate Winslet.
Streaming
Is ‘Too Much’ Not Enough?

I spent the week watching Lena Dunham’s new show, Too Much. I am a big fan of HBO’s GIRLS (created by Lena Dunham), but not so much of Dunham herself. I feel like if I ever met her on the street, I’d have to (metaphorically) grab her and yell, “I want to like you! But you make it quite difficult!”. I’m not going to discuss Dunham’s political views or anything she has said not regarding this show.
Too Much stars Megan Stalter (Hacks), who is essentially Dunham’s avatar in the new series. Much like GIRLS, Too Much is semi-autobiographical for Dunham. Unlike GIRLS, Dunham does not star as this iteration of herself. Dunham told The New Yorker, “physically, I was just not up for having my body dissected again.” (Syme, 2024) GIRLS was both lauded and lambasted for its unfiltered portrayal of women’s bodies and lifestyles. At the risk of sounding patronising, I really do applaud Dunham for showing a regular woman’s body in graphic detail. Yes, she was heavily criticised for being ‘gross’, but I find GIRLS liberating, particularly in today’s world of perfectly curated Instagram feeds and beige minimalism. I don’t want to be made to feel like a monster just because I eat in bed!
Anyways, back to Too Much. Stalter plays Jess, a thirty-something New Yorker who moves to London for work and to escape her ex and his new influencer girlfriend (Emily Ratajkowski). It’s hard not to compare Too Much to GIRLS, especially as the opening credits are exactly the same and the first episode is chock full of GIRLS alumni (Dunham herself, Andrew Rannells, and Rita Wilson). The high rising intonations of the sarcastic banter among Jess’s family feels comfortingly familiar. Also, Rhea Perlman as the grandmother is fantastic, and she looks so incredible that I had to Google her age (77).
Jess is a self-confessed anglophile, and her fantasies about Britain come from period dramas and 90’s romcoms. My fellow Brits can imagine Jess’s disappointment when she is dropped into modern-day London. Where an estate is not a massive stately home surrounded by green fields but a pebble-dashed flat surrounded by neighbours shouting the word ‘c**t!’. Welcome to Britain: we don’t have ‘proper’ pain medication, as Jess unfortunately finds out, but we do have socialised healthcare, so enjoy your paracetamol.
Jess meets her paramour, Felix (Will Sharpe, The White Lotus), at a local pub, and they begin their tumultuous but somewhat sweet love affair, punctuated with HBO’s patented realistic sex scenes.
Wait a minute: a plus-sized, unconventionally beautiful heroin falls for a mysterious, grotesquely magnetic, dark-haired man, haven’t we seen this before? Well yes, but it’s still a fun watch!
The ten episodes are certainly binge-worthy, but read very much like an American trying to write British comedy. Which it very much is, despite Dunham’s real-life husband, British born musician, Luis Felber, being credited as a co-creator. Too Much badly wants to align itself with the iconic Fleabag, but it lacks Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s saucy delivery. Too Much even includes Fleabag’s Andrew Scott, who plays a forlorn film director who bemoans, “armchair critics, you know, it’s gonna be the death of fucking cinema.” Well, I feel attacked.
Too Much does boast an incredible cast list; Richard E Grant, Naomi Watts, Stephen Fry, and Jennifer Saunders, to name but a few. I personally believe that Dunham told the cast to act as the worst versions of themselves. Much like GIRLS, the characters are selfish, chaotic, yet strangely charismatic. It’s a beautiful car crash of transatlantic eccentricity!
Dunham’s writing may not have the whimsical subversiveness of classic British comedy (not for lack of trying), but she does know how to write flawed people trying to fit into each other’s imperfect lives. Like Dunham’s other work, Too Much will have you questioning your preconceived notions about yourself, women, and in this case, your culture. Too Much epitomises how different people wear their trauma. Whether they carry it on their bodies, swallow it, or snort it, trauma takes many forms. Jess and her cohorts wear their trauma proudly, and whatever you want to say about Lena Dunham, she lives her emotional truth, for better or worse.
Too Much is available to stream on Netflix.
Three stars.