Emma (2020), directed by Autumn de Wilde

Yet another ‘did we really need another remake?’ film, Emma is visually stunning. The costumes, architecture, décor and scenery are sumptuous and the camera lingers lovingly over them all. The adaptation is faithful to the Jane Austen novel, set in Regency England where young women must marry to secure their futures. The casting of the leads is slightly off. Anya Taylor-Joy does a nice job of meddling matchmaker Emma, but the camera’s intense focus on her very wide-set eyes is distracting. Johnny Flynn is as adorable as ever in his portrayal of the exasperated Knightly, giving him a softer edge than is often seen. A nude scene early in the piece is a treat, but his hair is all over the place in a manner completely out of sync with the period. The supporting casting is more successful - Bill Nighy, Miranda Hart, Rupert Graves and Gemma Whelan all suit their roles and Mia Goth is very good as Emma’s protégé Harriet. The overall tone is light and frothy, but there are some strange, dark notes. Several scenes of a gaggle of schoolgirls marching along dressed in red capes is reminiscent of the Handmaid’s Tale, creating a jarring note that seems unnecessary. Austen’s tale is a love story with an edge, lightly poking fun at English society’s obsession with class along the way. The film strikes all the right notes, but somehow the whole is slightly less than the sum of its parts.

Across the Void, by SK Vaughan

Astronaut May Knox wakes in the intensive care unit of her ship, her mind foggy and her memory patchy. With no idea what has happened to her crew or how her ship went off course, May has to keep herself alive and her ship functional while she tries to figure it out. The year is 2067 and the ship is returning from a mission to Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons. She has the help of the ship’s AI, which she names Eve, but with no means of communicating with NASA she is essentially on her own. There is an awful lot of exposition in the early chapters, which gets a little eye-glazing at times. There are also temporal anomalies; it’s 2067, but we’re still driving petrol cars, smoking cigarettes; and changing surnames at marriage. The action moves back and forth in time, filling in the details of May’s past and her whirlwind relationship with her husband Stephen. In between flashbacks we see May’s resourceful determination to survive. This is tense and interesting until around half way through the book, when the plot starts to get really silly. It moves from decent SF mystery/thriller to full-blown conspiracy theory soap opera with enormous plot holes and inexplicable character motivation. It was a relief to finally be done with this deeply stupid book.

Maggie’s going Nowhere, by Rose Hartley

Maggie Cotton embodies every cliché of the entitled millennial. At 29, she is in the 10th year of her three-year degree and she sponges off her long-suffering mother and inadequate boyfriend. She thinks she’s smarter, cooler and knows better than everyone else. Her saving grace is her best friend Jen, who is about to marry a total creep despite Maggie’s best efforts. Her mother cuts her off, her boyfriend dumps her and her Uni kicks her out, so resourceful Maggie moves into a caravan and starts volunteering for a charity to claim Centrelink benefits. What could possibly go wrong? Well, plenty of course and finding out just how low Maggie can go and how she lifts herself back up again is an entertaining read. Despite her awful behaviour to family and friends Maggie does have a good heart and talents beyond blow jobs, when she puts her mind to it. You can’t help liking her, event though you she needs a kick up the arse. Hartley paints a realistic and colourful picture of true friendship, family dysfunction and the minefield of modern relationships in a way that is smart and funny. Quality chick lit.

Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears (2019), directed by Tony Tilse

Phryne Fisher is in Jerusalem, searching for missing Bedouin girl Shirin. The British Palestine authorities have jailed her for trying to raise questions about what happened to her tribe 10 years earlier. Several costume changes later, the action transfers to England, where the ‘guardian angel’ who saved Shirin from the desert massacre holds the key to the crypt of tears and a curse that must be broken. The rapid action largely charges past the many plot improbabilities, paused only to continue the unnecessary and uncharacteristic romance that the TV series annoyingly departs from the Kerry Greenwood books. The costumes are gorgeous and Essie Davis is impeccable as the supremely competent Miss Fisher. The supporting cast includes a slightly creepy turn from John Waters as one of Phryne’s many exes and John Stanton as the dodgy butler. Nicole Chamoun is mesmerising in a small non-speaking part. It’s pretty silly stuff, but all good fun.

The Scholar, by Dervla McTiernan

This sequel takes place immediately after the events of The Ruin, with Detective Cormac Reilly still trying to find his place in the Galway Garda. His partner Emma finds a hit and run victim outside the University lab where she works and calls Cormac to the scene. Station politics hamper the complicated murder investigation and blocking tactics by the wealthy family that funds the lab don’t help. A second murder brings Emma under suspicion and compromises Cormac. Can they clear her name and even if they do, will their relationship survive? McTiernan’s tight prose zips the story along, making it hard to put down. Her characters are fully rounded, complex and interesting and that goes for the victims and witnesses, as well as the police investigating the murders. This is the best kind of crime writing, so it’s good to know a third Cormac Reilly novel is on the way.

Seberg (2019), directed by Benedict Andrews

The story of actress Jean Seberg is interesting and worthy of a film, unfortunately not this film. From the start there is confusion about whose story this is. Too much time and effort is spent on a fictional ‘decent’ FBI agent, who becomes obsessed with Seberg and questions the tactics against her, rather than on Seberg herself. We are told she is an activist, but don’t see any evidence of it apart from dishing out cheques and hosting parties. There is only the flimsiest treatment of her long career in the French and US film industries. The final scene between the rogue FBI agent and Seberg in Paris is unbelievably stupid. End titles disclose Seberg’s mysterious death eight years later, implying the FBI harassment broke her and was why she never worked in Hollywood again - but again no evidence. Kristen Stewart is really good as Seberg; it’s a pity her performance is lost in a mediocre film.

Kill the Queen, by Jennifer Estep

Lady Everleigh is the poor relation of the Royal family of Bellona, treated badly because of her seemingly low level magic. Her hidden skills enable her to escape a palace coup and she hides her identity to join a band of gladiators. Epic fantasy needs a few ingredients to successfully carry the reader away from prosaic reality. Strong, relatable characters; a setting that fires the imagination; a plot with enough mystery and intrigue to keep you guessing, but not so obscure as to be impenetrable; and language that binds the whole together and soars to a satisfying conclusion. Estep is an experienced fantasy writer and provides most of the essential ingredients but what lets her down is the terribly pedestrian writing. Evie is an appealing heroine, with a strong back story and an interesting future. But the plot is telegraphed from the start, the villain is pantomime and the over exposition is painful. On the first page we are told the royal family will be massacred, ok spoilers, but it then takes 100 pages for this event to take place, as every element of the royal family and Evie’s place in it is told in tedious detail. The action picks up as she becomes an improbably successful gladiator, but the thwarted romance with a stereotypical bad boy ticks all the cliché boxes. Ultimately this is a yawn rather than a yarn and the inevitable sequels can stay on the shelf.