Check back with Village Life every Friday for Jordan Parker's comprehensive insights on the week's most buzz-worthy programs from top streaming services like Netflix, Crave, Amazon Prime, and beyond.
On Prime Video -- Swarm
Written and co-created by Donald Glover, this is one of the most interesting, unique and absolutely bonkers shows I’ve seen in a long time.
Dre is a shy, unassuming young girl who has a tendency to let people walk all over her. But when her sister dies, she begins to lose grip. Central is her obsession with a pop star named Ni’Jah, who she begins to seek out relentlessly.
This leads to dire, unexpected consequences for Dre and everyone in her life. Glover – who created FX show Atlanta – and Janine Nabers make a delightfully strange, unbelievable show.
Dominique Fishback is best known for her role in Judas & The Black Messiah, but she is unhinged here in a performance worthy of an Emmy nod.
She’s joined by plenty of character actors in large roles and small, including Chloe Bailey, Birine S. Brown, Kiersey Clemons, musician Billie Eilish, and Kieran Culkin,
It’s consistently surprising, and love it or hate it, the team behind it takes mammoth swings.
On Crave – The Black Phone
It’s one of the weirder entries into the horror genre in the last few years, but in a great way...
The Black Phone is both terrifying and exciting at the same time, and it tells a conventional tale in a supremely unconventional way.
When a young boy is abducted by a child killer, he’s locked in a basement from which there’s no escape. But soon he starts to get calls from the dead wall-phone in the room, and they turn out to be previous victims trying to help him escape from the grave.
Director Scott Derrickson fleshes out Joe Hill’s short story and fleshes it out into a captivating feature film.
Mason Thomas is great in the lead, but it’s a supporting turn from the villainous Ethan Hawke that really caught my attention. He has a commanding presence, and it’s also worth nothing how good James Ransome is as well.
This is a thriller that proves there’s plenty of room in the genre to shock, and Derrickson’s movie is a great little gem.
On Netflix – Jurassic Park
There’s no greater working filmmaker right now than Steven Spielberg – I think that’s been well-established.
Jurassic Park is one of the most imaginative, inventive movies I’ve ever seen, and has held a place in my Top 10 of all-time for years.
This film has spawned five sequels and won three Oscars, and follows a number of scientists who go to a theme park with live dinosaurs, and when they escape, all carnage breaks loose.
The performances from Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and Richard Attenborough spawned characters that have endured for 30 years.
With supporting turns from BD Wong, Samuel L. Jackson and Wayne Night, everyone has a great time. The special effects are also out-of-this-world.
One of my favourite films to ever be made, it’s an adventure movie that is absolutely perfect in every way.
On Paramount+ --Top Gun: Maverick
I was originally leery about a sequel to a film about 40 years old, and yet, Top Gun: Maverick not only improves on the original, but handily surpasses it.
Maverick – an aviator and daredevil – continues to draw the ire of his superiors years later with his hotshot antics. He ends up training recruits from the Top Gun program for a do-or-die national security mission, and in turn, he must confront demons from his past.
Tom Cruise was nominated for an Oscar for reprising his role as Maverick, and Jennifer Connelly and Miles Teller are both fantastic. In a bit of nostalgia, Val Kilmer has a great turn, and Jon Hamm, Glenn Powell and Manny Jacinto are all fabulous also.
Director Joseph Kosinski creates a dynamic action movie that has the heart to match. It’s a truly unbelievable, high-flying effort I thoroughly enjoyed.
On Netflix – The Night Agent
I'm not normally a huge fan of spy thrillers, but this one hearkens back to the 1980s shows everyone knows and loves.
It's a taut, interesting little show that's brisk, well-plotted, and consistently finds new ways to keep its audience engaged.
FBI agent Peter Sutherland works an unfulfilling detail, tasked with sitting in a windowless room in the basement of the White House, watching a phone that never rings.
But on the night it does, he's thrown into a conspiracy that leads all the way up to the highest levels of government.
Gabriel Basso – who made a splash in Hillbilly Elegy a few years back – finally gets the chance to show his talents, and he's joined by Lucianne Buchanan, Fola Evans-Akingbola, Eve Harlow, D.B. Woodside, Hong Chau and more.
This is a show that, while conventional, will keep you on the edge of your seat and keep you talking.
