The Darker Mirror

Black Mirror – the aptly named mirror to our conscience as we stumble along the path of an increasingly uncertain digital future – is in Season 7 – and this season does not disappoint. While Eulogy and The Reverie both have romantic resurrection overtones, with Reverie being particularly a standout on account of meshing what we would colloquially call deepfake with deep emotional quotient, Bete Noire lifts workplace rivalry to a whole new multidimensional level. Common People I found merely depressing – yet another story of the consequences of unaffordability. Plaything is about empathy – perhaps a bit too much of – with digital creatures, and the USS Callister sequel lifts gameplay to a mindbending, creative-destructive saga. A far better season than the somewhat forgettable Season 6. I love how the series evolves with contemporary scientific progress and keeps our deepest fears, well, contemporary

17.5/20

Save the Forest

A dismissive Katherine (Amanda Seyfried) comes to visit her father Professor Bomba (Jason Sudeikis), who is apparently obsessed with the war between the Leaf-Men – led by Ronin (Colin Farrell) – protectors of the forest – and the Boggans – destroyers of the forest – led by Mandrake (Christoph Waltz) – all of which Katherine considers figments of her father’s imagination. The Boggans go one up on the Leaf-men by taking out the Queen of the forest (Beyonce Knowles), and it is up to a (much-diminished) Amanda and her father to bring in some timely intervention and save the trees and those that, well, protect them. Based on William Joyce’s The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs, Epic is the children’s movie for the ongoing summer holidays – not breathtaking or deep, just pretty well made

13.5/20