TV Shows You Should Be Watching Right Now

Big Little Lies

After a phenomenal first season Big Little Lies (which was technically only supposed to be a mini-series) is back! After the shock finale, season 2 follows the Monterey 5 dealing with the aftermath of their rather massive lie. And if you weren’t already excited about the shows return, the fact that Meryl Streep has joined the cast for this new season should secure your attention.

Watch on HBO or Now TV

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I am really enjoying this drama at the moment as it feels rather fresh and original. Women working in the tech industry is never really explored and I love how each female character in this drama has strengths and weaknesses, they are just so real and relatable. Also, when watching a Korean Drama you can’t not talk about the Male lead, and Chang Ki-young as Park Mo-gun is killing it with the charm!

Watch on viki.com

One Spring Night

As soon as I heard that Ahn Pan-seok was making a drama this year I was eagerly awaiting its arrival as I loved Something in the Rain and Love Affair. Jung Ha-in returns after charming everyone in SITR and damn he is so likeable as a single father in this drama too! One of the main reasons I love Ahn Pan-seok’s work is just how real it feels, its as if he is making 16 hour long independent films, he is a genius and I can’t wait to add One Spring Night to the list of my favourite Korean Dramas

Watch on Netflix

Dark

Dark is a German language Sci-fi and its criminally underrated and wrongly compared to Stranger Things. The TV Show follows a small town dealing with the disappearance of a young boy and it swiftly turns into a freaky mystery involving time travel! What more could you want? So buckle up and get ready to watch season 2 on Friday!!!

Watch on Netflix

Years and Years

Russell T Davies has created a rather amazing show. Years and Years is so compelling because it is set in the very near future and it feels like everything that happens in the show could plausibly happen in real life! The cast is amazing and the storylines of each episode are riveting.

Watch on BBC iPlayer or HBO (from June 24th)

Killing Eve

Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer as Eve Polastri and Villanelle respectively are some of the most fascinating women on screen at the moment. Ever since the season one finale I’ve been hungry for more episodes to devour and lets just say that I have already binged the entire season and I’m probably going to watch it all over again ASAP.

Watch on BBC iPlayer

Directors I Admire Part I

It’s no secret that I love films. I think everyone I have ever encountered in my life knows this, I love watching them and I love talking about them. I would even love to be a director myself one day. So who are the filmmakers that fuel my fervent desire to consume movie after movie? I’ll break it down for you…

Stanley Kubrick

It all started with 2001: A Space Odyssey, I watched it one night, many nights ago on my 13 inch laptop screen (not ideal conditions, but it was either that or an equally tiny HD ready tv) and I was blown away. I love Science Fiction, but Kubrick made this film more than just a genre piece, its an epic tale of human ambition that highlights our desperate need for knowledge to affirm our place in the universe.

Since then I have watched many more of Kubrick’s films and I have to attest that he may just be the greatest filmmaker of all time. What do you think?

Park Chan Wook

Everyone has heard of Oldboy (I think? If not, are you even alive?) it is probably the most famous Korean movie due to its ultra violence and oedipal twist (sorry for the spoiler, you should have watched it already!). But I actually started my Park Chan Wook journey with Stoker (his first and only (to this date) English language film) and then I’m a Cyborg But That’s OK , a quirky comedy set in a mental institution. Since those two movies I have watched the rest of his films (that have been released here in England anyway) and I am utterly obsessed with his style. I think he is a master of cinematography, just look at The Handmaiden for example, I mean even the trailer for the film made me gush at how beautiful it looks!

Denis Villeneuve

Villeneuve is a wizard and one of the only directors making solid smart sci-fi films in Hollywood right now! I first came across his work with his film Enemy starring Jake Gyllenhaal as a man who discovers he has a Doppelgänger, what transpires is a Kafkaesque psychological thriller. It’s a very intriguing watch.

But for me Arrival and Blade Runner 2049 have cemented his status as one of the most formidable directors of the moment and I’m sure his re-imaging of the cult classic film and book Dune is only going to confirm that status.

Wes Anderson

Quirky indie director Anderson may have the most iconic film aesthetics in the industry, you can spot his films in an instant due to the colour palettes, symmetrical framing, attention to detail and many other things that this video does a great job of pinpointing. I discovered Rushmore on TV one afternoon many many years ago and lets just say I have never looked back. In terms of his entire filmography I would have to say that my favourites have to be The Royal Tenenbaums and The Grand Budapest Hotel.

Lars Von Trier

Von Trier has to be one of the most notorious filmmakers in the world, his films are shocking and often polarise audiences. I discovered Von Trier through Melancholia, a gem of a film that I feel not enough people have watched. It’s rather depressing seeing as it concerns the end of the world but the execution is simply wonderful and Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg are phenomenal in the film. It’s a must see, as is the highly controversial Nymphomanic Part I & II, which once again stars Gainsbourg who plays a self-diagnosed Nymphomanic who retells her sexual odyssey to a random stranger after he finds her beaten up on a street one night. It’s weird, it hilarious, a little (ok very) graphic but ultimately its an intriguing portrait of human sexuality at its extreme.

Sofia Coppola

Natural light, muted colour palettes, lost melancholic characters, complex female stories - this is what makes Coppola’s work so distinctive and compelling. Lost in Translation was one of the first movies I remember watching and obsessing over, before that I was just your casual movie watcher aged 10, afterwards I emerged enlightened in the art of cinematography and subtle storytelling.

Another one of Coppola’s films that I adore is Marie Antoinette, it was progressive, post punk music in a period piece? Converses in the Palais de Versailles? The film is ultimately a Candy coloured aesthetic dream and I am all for it. But behind the seemingly sugar sweet and vapid visuals lies a story about a young girl coming to terms with womanhood and the responsibility that comes with it. A universal theme that unites all women together. And that’s where the power of the film lies, that and its unapologetic stance on the seeking of beauty for beauty’s sake (as a Libra this speaks to my soul).

Spike Jonze

Full disclosure I have only ever watched one of Spike Jonze’s films and that film would be, Her. But I feel like I still have enough reasons to include him as one of the many directors that I admire. I just find everything about this film inspiring, the visuals, the story, the music, the acting. I't’s perfect. I feel like it is one of my favourite movies of all time and it will continue to be for a very very long time. Her feels like such a timely film as it deals with dating and isolation in a technology focused society. Although to be honest I wouldn’t mind inhabiting this soft pastel coloured world where the world is seemingly not sinister.

Jean-Luc Godard

Godard and his films will always go down in History as some of the most influential pieces of Cinema. Breathless is a masterpiece, but my favourite Godard movie has to be Une Femme est Une Femme. Anna Karina as Angela is iconic: the makeup, the fashion, the hair. The scene where they insult each other using book titles is genius and I just love the quirkiness of the direction.

Terrence Malick

Malick is a poetic filmmaker, the visuals are never not sumptuous and beautiful and its particularly (but not limited to) his work with cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki that I am in awe of. I feel so inspired watching his movies, they make me want to make art and understand human nature on an even deeper level. I can’t wait to check out his newest film A Hidden Life which debuted and won two prizes at Cannes this year!

Hong Sang Soo

Hong Sang Soo is a master of realism. His films bring you into the everyday lives of his complex and philosophical characters in such a way that you feel what they feel. You feel the hope, the heartbreak and the aimlessness. He has been heralded as the Korean Woody Allen, which I tend to agree and disagree with. Nonetheless I fell in love with his movies recently thanks to a Selectrospective of his work on MUBI.

Quentin Tarantino

Tarantino is the patron saint of ultra violent cinema. His films are hilarious and stylish and he has made quite a number of iconic female characters. The dialogue and how he shoots it in his films is always fascinating to me, one example that I am still fascinated by is the opening scene of Inglorious Basterds and the dialogue between Christoph Waltz’s Hans Landa and the dairy farmer who is harbouring jews. The way Tarantino builds tension is masterful.

Bong Joon Ho

Another South Korean director raising the bar for western filmmakers is Bong Joon Ho. He has quite the eclectic filmography with movies like Okja, Memories of Murder, Snowpiercer, The Host and many more including his new Palme D’Or Winning film Parasite. Snowpiercer like many other film watchers blew me away with its study on social classes and of course any film that has Song Kang Ho in it is going to be phenomenal.

Let me know in the comments section what Director’s work inspires you and also let me know if you like these film posts and want more reviews and recommendations!

Urban Outfitters Summer Wish List

Urban Outfitters is one of my favourite fashion stores, and I often find myself browsing on the website or around a physical shop for far too long amassing a colossal wish list that would make me literally bankrupt (oh the woes of a student who works in retail, and has a blog thats not popular enough to bankroll my fashion obsession)

So let’s get wishing…

Tops

Click on the pictures to see the items on the UO Website

Dresses

Bottoms

Shoes

Accessories

Home

Disclaimer: These are affiliate links so if you choose to make a purchase I get a small percentage.

Music I’m Loving Right Now Vol VI – Summer '19

Summer is here…well at least it is supposed to be. Let’s just face it that British summers are erratic to say the least, one day its positively boiling the next the skies are grey and threatening to rain.

This seasons playlist is mix of indie whimsy, chilled R&B, chic french classics and a little Killing Eve soundtrack magic. So grab a glass of wine, a book and get some rays or go on a balmy summers evening drive…

French Cinema - Un homme idéal (A Perfect Man)

A thrilling almost Faustian tale of success, deceit and murder.

Mathieu Vasseur (Pierre Niney) has always wanted to become a famous writer, the only issue is that he can’t seem to get his work published, there is something he lacks. Talent. So when he happens across the journal of a recently deceased veteran while clearing out a house at his removal company job, he hazards his bets and steals the work.

What follows is a film that doesn’t stop pilling on the twists, and as Mathieu struggles to keep up with the facade he has built for himself his world comes crumbling down around him. It’s the age old saying: be careful what you wish for. A beautiful girlfriend and a lavish lifestyle come at a rather hefty price for Mathieu and throughout the film he tries desperately to hold onto those things, no matter what it takes. Even murder.

Un homme idéal, is a study in the fragility of the masculine identity. Mathieu has built himself up to be a seemingly perfect man (as the title of the film suggests), he is: handsome, intelligent and successful. But, he fears that his Girlfriend will leave him if she finds out he is a fraud. Everything he has done to establish himself has been in the pursuit of this one woman, and this insecurity that stems from the idea that he isn’t enough for her if he peels away all the fakery is what triggers his downfall. It’s brilliant psychological and sociological story telling that questions the unfair expectations put on men to be a certain archetype.