FILMS
LOVE SARAH (Cert 12, 98 mins, Parkland Entertainment, Drama/Romance, available from September 7 on Amazon Prime Video/BT TV Store/iTunes/Sky Store/TalkTalk TV Store and other download and streaming services, also available from September 7 on DVD £19.99)
CHEF Sarah Curachi (Candice Brown) and best friend Isabella (Shelley Conn) are poised to open their first bakery in London’s fashionable Notting Hill.
Alas, Sarah is killed in a cycling accident en route to collecting the keys for the shop and a heartbroken Isabella discovers she cannot legally terminate the commercial lease.
Sarah’s daughter, 19-year-old aspiring dancer Clarissa (Shannon Tarbet), turns her back on ballet to realise her mother’s dream with financial backing from her estranged grandmother, one-time circus star Mimi (Celia Imrie).
United in grief, the women create a warm and inviting eaterie, serving mouth-watering confections created by Sarah’s Michelin-starred ex-boyfriend Mathew (Rupert Penry-Jones).
Loyalties are tested as the new business competes against nearby bakeries for custom and Mimi takes temporary leave from the till to fan flames of romance with eccentric inventor Felix (Bill Paterson).
Shot on location in London, Love Sarah is a heartfelt drama about grief and female empowerment, made to a well-thumbed recipe in scriptwriter Jake Brunger’s cookbook.
He doesn’t introduce unusual ingredients as three generations of women seek solidarity over platters of sticky Baklava, preferring a light, fluffy concoction that is methodically constructed like one of the Matcha mille crepe cakes made to order by the titular bakery.
We eagerly devour lingering close-ups of mouth-watering bakes from around the world but a subplot involving Mathew’s past is more difficult to digest.
Great British Bake Off champion Brown makes fleeting appearances as the chef, whose off-screen death is the raising agent in director Eliza Schroeder’s visually appealing creation.
MULAN (Cert 12, 114 mins, Walt Disney Studios, Action/Drama/Fantasy/Romance, available from September 4 exclusively on Disney+ with Premier Access £19.99). Starring: Liu Yifei, Donnie Yen, Jason Scott Lee, Yoson An, Gong Li, Jet Li, Tzi Ma
FILMED in China and New Zealand, director Niki Caro’s big budget rendering of the Ballad Of Mulan was poised for release in March until the Covid pandemic put those plans on hold.
More than five months later as cinemas reopen across Ireland and Britain, the lavish action adventure will stream exclusively on Disney+ for an additional one-off fee of £19.99 for existing subscribers.
Invaders led by Bori Khan (Jason Scott Lee) threaten China’s borders and the Emperor (Jet Li) issues an urgent decree. One man from every family must enrol in the Imperial Army to proudly serve the nation.
Hua Zhou (Tzi Ma) is too frail to venture back on to the battlefield so his courageous daughter Mulan (Liu Yifei) disguises herself as a young man called Hua Jun to take his place.
She begins physically and mentally gruelling training under the formidable Commander Tung (Donnie Yen), painfully aware that if her deception is exposed, she could pay with her life.
Thankfully, Hua Jun makes a loyal friend in fellow recruit Honghui (Yoson An) and they support each other in testing times.
They will need all of their strength to vanquish Bori Khan’s army, which is strengthened by the dark magic of shape-shifting witch Xianniang (Gong Li).
I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS (Cert 15, 134 mins, streaming from September 4 exclusively on Netflix, Thriller/Romance)
INSPIRED by Iain Reid’s bestselling novel, I’m Thinking Of Ending Things is an unsettling thriller from the mind of Oscar-winning writer-director Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind) which exists in a blurred hinterland between fantasy and reality.
Lucy (Jessie Buckley) is having second thoughts about her relationship with new boyfriend Jake (Jesse Plemons) but she still agrees to accompany him on a road trip to meet his parents.
The drive to the family farm is awkward and there is the chilling prospect of a snowstorm that could trap the couple in their car.
When Lucy and Jake finally arrive, they are greeted by his mother (Toni Collette) and father (David Thewlis), whose behaviour causes Lucy to question the nature of the world.
AVA (Cert 12, 103 mins, Verve Pictures, available from September 7 on Amazon Prime Video/BT TV Store/iTunes/Sky Store/TalkTalk TV Store and other download and streaming services, Drama)
WRITER-director Sadaf Foroughi’s debut feature draws inspiration from her own experiences to paint a vivid portrait of adolescence in a strict, traditional household in Tehran.
Bright, enthusiastic teenager Ava (Mahour Jabbari) embraces the opportunities afforded to her, prioritising academic success and her relationship with best friend Melody (Shayesteh Sajadi).
Ava’s overprotective mother (Bahar Noohian) is deeply unhappy about her daughter’s relationship with a male classmate and takes the drastic measure of forcing the teenager to visit a gynaecologist to affirm her virginity.
This public display of distrust ignites a fire of rebellion within Ava and the enraged teenager fiercely resists the constraints placed upon her by her parents and society.
BOX SETS
AWAY (10 episodes, streaming from September 4 exclusively on Netflix, Sci-Fi/Drama/Romance)
FORMER Navy pilot Emma Green (Hilary Swank) is chosen to command the first Nasa mission to Mars. Highly driven and fiercely intelligent, Emma will leave behind her husband Matt Logan (Josh Charles), a chief engineer at Nasa, and their 15-year-old daughter Lex (Talitha Bateman).
The international crew includes Indian Air Force fighter pilot Ram Arya (Ray Panthaki), Russian cosmonaut Misha Popov (Mark Ivanir), Chinese chemist Lu Wang (Vivian Wu) and world-renowned botanist Dr Kwesi Weisberg-Abban (Ato Essandoh).
As the mission blasts off into space, the emotional toll of being away from loved ones for three years becomes painfully clear.
Back on Earth, Lex contends with growing pains without her mother’s guidance and Matt turns increasingly to crew support astronaut Melissa Ramirez (Monique Curnen) to help raise his daughter.
THE BOYS – SEASON 2 (8 episodes, starts streaming from September 4 exclusively on Amazon Prime Video, Fantasy/Comedy/Action/Adventure)
JUSTICE dresses in spandex in the second series of the darkly satirical comedy adapted from Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s comic books, which returns to Amazon Prime Video this week.
The team of renegades known as The Boys comprising Billy Butcher (Karl Urban), Female (Karen Fukuhara), Frenchie (Tomer Capon), Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid) and Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso) is on the run from the law.
The fugitives are hunted by a super-powered team called The Seven, whose members include A-Train (Jessie Usher), Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell), The Deep (Chace Crawford), The Homelander (Antony Starr), Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) and Starlight (Erin Moriarty).
The addition of social media-savvy Stormfront (Aya Cash) to the ranks of The Seven creates a shifting power dynamic that could allow The Homelander to stage a coup.
Meanwhile, the evil Vought conglomerate led by Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito) ruthlessly exploits global paranoia.
The first three episodes are available on September 4, followed by weekly instalments until October 9.
