The Rose Maker (2020), directed by Pierre Pinaud

Crusty rose grower Eve Vernet is determined to maintain her father’s legacy, but her business is slowly going broke. Corporate pwerbroker Lamarzelle has seemingly cornered the rose market and he wants to take over Eve’s business and use her name for credibility. Her trusty offsider Vera has been doing everything possible to keep the business going and she arranges for some cheap rehab trainees to join the company. Fred, Nadege and Samir have no clue about roses, but they each have hidden talents that could help out if only Eve can be flexible enough to recognise them. It is slow going at first, but the film’s pace and charm grow as Eve recognises her shortcomings and learns to live more for the future than the past. Dodgy subtitles were seemingly written for the American market by someone not entirely fluent in English, as there is a strong disconnect between what is written and spoken at times. A bittersweet ending underlines the importance of family and the realisation that you can choose your own.

Bridgerton: The Viscount who Loved Me, by Julia Quinn

It’s interesting how trashy tv can be so much more enjoyable than trashy novels. The novelty of the first Bridgerton novel wears off very quickly in book two, despite its appealing heroine. In a preamble to the second book, Quinn says she wants her readers to fall in love with the hero, but Anthony Bridgerton is not very loveable. In the first book Duke Simon has his faults, but he can be forgiven some because of his terrible childhood. The Viscount has no such excuses for his violence and arrogance. The inconsistencies of behaviour are really annoying - the Viscount previously triggered a duel to defend his sister’s honour, but behaves even worse himself. Incidental character Nigel Berbridge has apparently returned to being a harmless idiot, where he was previously portrayed as a predator ready to ruin a woman to force her into marriage. This loathsome and pathetic man gets more page time than many of the Bridgerton siblings, most of whom only get cameos and some don’t appear at all. The writing is sloppy, with misplaced adjectives and jarring timelines. All in all, book two does not encourage hanging in for the long haul of six more. Hopefully series 2 of the TV adaptation will do better.

Free Guy (2021), directed by Shawn Levy

Guy is a bank teller, a non player role in a video game simulation. He basically lives the same day over and over as background visuals for the real world players. It’s an ultra-violent but humdrum groundhog-day existence. His world changes when he encounters Molotov Girl, the avatar of Millie, who is trying to find evidence for her copyright case against the game developer. Their meeting is literally a game changer for both of them, as Guy becomes a hero rather than a bystander and Millie finds more than she bargained for. Ryan Reynolds and Jodie Comer have great chemistry and it is good to see her get a Hollywood opportunity to do the dual role thing she does so well. She is equally believable as tech nerd and action avatar. Taika Waititi makes a comic book villain, but that seems appropriate for this film. It offers lots of sly and funny visual and musical references to other films and roles and there are several funny cameos from the likes of Channing Tatum and Chris Evans to add to the fun. Reynolds possibly overdoes the self-sendup routine, but it is mostly amusing and entertaining. There is more to life than money; don’t get lost in a fantasy and ignore good things in the real world; freedom is being yourself and making your own choices. The messages are unsubtle but wholesome and not unwelcome given the current state of the world.

Upright (Foxtel)

Tim Minchin stars in this eight-part series about a road trip across outback Australia with a piano. Millie Alcock is startlingly good as the troubled teen Meg, whose world literally collides with that of washed up musician Lucky. Short, sharp episodes are packed with interest and entertainment as the odd pair develops a kind of friendship. Through flashbacks we slowly discover their troubled pasts and where they might be heading. By the fourth episode the plot starts to stretch credulity as the two continually face disaster and find rescue from increasingly unlikely sources. Not to mention the seemingly indestructible piano. Nevertheless you just roll with it as it’s all so much fun. A very strong supporting cast includes Heather Mitchell, as Lucky’s sick mum, Ella Scott Lynch, Daniel Lapaine and a host of fabulous guest characters. The Nullabor and the outback of South and Western Australia are almost characters in their own right. Kate Mulvaney, (Chaser) Chris Taylor and Tim Minchin developed and wrote the show, which switches between dark sorrow and absurdity with ease. It features laugh-out-loud moments and a fabulous soundtrack, as you would expect from the multi-talented Minchin.

The Spiral, by Iain Ryan

Erma Bridges is an overachieving young academic with a ruthless nature. Dragged back from an international conference to face a harassment inquiry, she discovers that her research assistant is her violent enemy. After recovering from a traumatic attack, Erma becomes obsessed with finding out why she was targeted. Meanwhile her dreams take her into a fantasy world where she is a character who battles obstacles and slays enemies, based on the choose your own adventure books she loved as a child. These books are the basis of her academic research, their author an elusive interview subject. Through her investigations Erma stumbles into Brisbane’s dark underbelly, where dark secrets from her past emerge as a link to an ongoing misogynist conspiracy. Erma is a complex character, attractive but unlikeable, who becomes more comprehensible as her past emerges. Ryan pulls together the disparate strands of the story into a logical, if horrifying climax where Erma becomes her own avatar. It’s unfortunate that the consequences are just not believable, especially given Erma’s past. Something of a cliffhanger ending opens the way for a sequel or perhaps just indicates uncertainty about the path Erma will choose next.

Black Powder War, by Naomi Novik

Volume three of the Temeraire chronicles opens where two ended, with the Celestial dragon and his crew preparing to leave China for a long voyage home. A dispatch from England prompts a decision to take the much faster, but treacherous, overland route to collect three eggs from the Ottoman Empire. An adventure ensues via mountains and desert, leading to encounters with tribal raiders and feral dragons. Then there are political troubles to deal with in Istanbul and battles with the old foe Bonaparte in Prussia – will they ever get back home? Novik seamlessly blends her world of dragons with historical detail of the Napoleonic wars. The pace of this journey is a little brisker than the previous one to China, with interest maintained throughout. But it is still light on character development; Captain Laurence and his crew remain, ironically, vehicles for the dragons rather than fully rounded protagonists. Volume four will hopefully focus on the crew’s reintegration into British military life, allowing development of relationships on the home front. Or maybe they will just jump off on another all-action boys own adventure. It’s called Empire of Ivory so probably the latter.