Kaos
Netflix
Jeff Goldblum never fails to impress when playing flamboyant, eccentric characters. He was the scene-stealer as the Grandmaster in Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and his mathematician Ian Malcolm remains one of the highlights of the Jurassic Park films (1993 to 2022).
Playing the all-powerful Zeus in Kaos is right up Goldblum’s alley, and he brings a different spin on the king of gods in Greek mythology.
The eight-episode dark comedy by British writer Charlie Covell sees Goldblum as an insecure, neurotic god on the verge of a breakdown after discovering a new wrinkle.
Seeing the additional facial crease as a sign of his impending doom, Zeus soon learns his paranoia is spot on.
There is a plot to take him down and the suspects include his cruise-loving, party animal brother Poisedon (Cliff Curtis); his wife Hera (Janet McTeer), who is the queen of gods; and his rebellious son Dionysus (Nabhaan Rizwan). Several intrepid mortals also come into play, each seemingly destined to cause the gods’ downfall.
British actor Hugh Grant was initially cast as Zeus, but scheduling conflicts saw Goldblum stepping in to helm his first TV show since the docuseries The World According To Jeff Goldblum (2019 to 2022).
The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power 2
Prime Video
Set hundreds of years before the events of the epic The Lord Of The Rings trilogy (2001 to 2003) and based on the appendices J.R.R. Tolkien wrote in the books, Season 2 of the fantasy series sees the forging of the three rings of power for dwarves and men.
At the end of the first season, elven warrior Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) learns that her travel buddy is none other than Sauron (Charlie Vickers), the dark lord she was out to destroy.
Season 2 will see Sauron rebuilding his strength after fleeing to Mordor. He desperately wants to fashion the magical rings that will allow him to control the races of Middle Earth. Lacking the skills, he uses his cunning to worm his way into elven smith Celebrimbor’s (Charles Edwards) circle of trust.
Fans of the series can look forward to the long-awaited Siege of Eregion, a definitive battle in Tolkien’s history of the Second Age of Middle-earth. Spoiler alert – not everyone makes it out alive.
Kinds Of Kindness (R21)
164 minutes, now showing at The Projector
★★★★☆
Greek film-maker Yorgos Lanthimos’ three-film anthology Kinds Of Kindness – starring Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau and Joe Alwyn – takes potshots at everything.
The three stories revolve around the illusion of free will (The Death Of R.M.F.), the circular arguments that underpin religion (R.M.F. Eats A Sandwich) and the shallow, selfish way humans define the people they love (R.M.F. Is Flying).
Or they could be none of those things because Lanthimos makes sure that every scene trips lightly into the next, so no puzzle-solving is required to enjoy the stories. Once the ground rules are understood, the story developments flow suspensefully.
On the surface, the goings-on might feel like nonsense, but the emotional beats under them are easily identifiable and make sense.
This arthouse work has little of the buzzing comic energy, extravagant set design and sparkling dialogue of Lanthimos films adapted from the work of other writers, such as the Oscar-winning The Favourite (2018) or Poor Things (2023), both also starring Stone.
Kinds Of Kindness is the placid sibling of those films and, in its clinical but no less gory and explicit explorations of sex, love and family, is as much a Lanthimos work as they are.
