My Lady Jane (2024) & A Quiet Place: Day One (2024)
My Lady Jane is an enjoyable ‘what if’ comedy series, that gives new life to the historical figure of England’s Lady Jane Grey, who ascended to the throne for nine days but whose life was then tragically (and quite literally) cut short.
Emily Bader stars as Jane, who never wanted to be Queen of England, but was promoted to the highest job due to shenanigans at the Royal Court, after the death of legendary Henry VIII. Yes, the one with the six wives, some of who lost their head, just as Jane did in real life.
We are talking sixteenth century England here, a brutal place where human life wasn’t worth very much, which you know if you’ve seen series like The Tudors or movies like Elizabeth.
After the death of Henry VIII the monarchy was in a state of flux which led to a couple of teenagers taking the throne, like Edward VI (Jordan Peters), who usually didn’t last very long. Jane herself was forced to marry Lord Guildford (Edward Bluemel), who is portrayed as a bit of a rogue her, which begs the question whether or not Jane might actually fall in love with him.
My Lady Jane (created by Gemma Burgess based on the book by Cynthia Hand) takes the basic facts from history, but then tells its own story, breathing new life into historic characters and adding some unexpected twists, such as the inclusion of Edians, anamorphic creatures who can change from humans to animal and back.
Yes, you read that right and I didn’t see that coming either. But it adds a great sense of fun to proceedings, as well as the feeling that this is the Fantastic Beasts series we should all be watching.
Lady Jane is, of course, a feminist avant- la lettre, but even though the cast is much more diverse than England was in that time, the series is much more concerned with being raunchy and having fun than falling in the trap of being woke for woke’s sake.
Based on the first couple of episodes (the series is directed by Jamie Babbit and Stefan Schwartz) I would say this is a lighthearted and great looking trip through some of the lesser known pages of history. Blessed with a great kick ass modern day soundtrack to boot, it offers up 2 percent historical correctness and 98 percent unbridled fun.
Go check it out!
My Lady Jane is now on Prime Video
A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE
There are a couple of things you should know about A Quiet Place: Day One.
First of all, and I guess most obviously, it’s a prequel to the two very successful A Quiet Place horror movies. This one shows us how it all started with the Alien Invasion, and how the world went quiet after it became clear that the Death Angels had perfect hearing and immediately responded to sound.
Second of all, the movie tells the story of Samira (Lupita Nyong’o), who is on a day trip to New York with her service cat Frodo (played by the delightful duo of Nico and Schnitzel), when the shit hits the fan. Will Samira survive and also will she get the pizza slice she so desperately craves? She gets able support from Djimon Hounsou, Alex Wolff and most of all Joseph Quinn as Eric, the perfect stranger she meets along the way.
The movie is written and directed by Michael Sarnoski, who made a name for himself with the independent movie Pig, which starred Nicolas Cage. Sarnoski based the script on a story he wrote with creator John Krasinski, and of course its also based on the original characters by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods.
I don’t want to spoil too much, so let’s just say that Day One offers up a mix of spectacular action scenes and heartfelt character work, and looks like it will become one of this summer’s bigger hits.
I guess it’s open for debate whether the movie adds enough to the Quiet Place universe to justify its existence, but as long as it’s entertaining I don’t really mind so much.
The good thing about it is that it takes place in a new location: New York City! which totally sets it apart from the first two movies. Besides that: who doesn’t like to see the Big Apple in total disarray? At least in a fictional story. It’s a bit like seeing the White House blown up in the first Independence Day, people where cheering on the cinema I attended because it looked very cool (and the real White House was still there the next morning, just like NYC is, probably…)
And not to go off on a tangent, but any movie that offers up a substantial role for a cat is basically kitty litter by my book and if this outing lead to more work for Nico and Schnitzel it’s worth all the effort for me.
I’m not sure my own cats would be as quiet as Frodo in the movie, but who knows what kind of abilities you need to have these days to become a proper service cat?
(Funny story: Lupita didn’t care for cats, like at all, before making this movie, but she fell in love with Nico and Schnitzel all the same).
On a slightly more serious note: I guess the first Quiet Place was really scary, and in some ways thought provoking, the second one was more of the same, but in a good way, while Day One basically serves up popcorn entertainment, of the apocalyptic kind. (And yes, the movie rocks!)
Lupita is excellent throughout, and she has great chemistry with Quinn in their scenes together, while Sarnoski directs the intimate scenes very well and manages to find the small moments even in a big movie like Day One.
As with other prequels the overall story arc may feel a little predictable, but this is still a really solid three stars movie.
And as Day One looks set to open with about 50 million dollar domestic, there’s only one thing left to say: bring on A Quiet Place III ASAP, I’m already looking forward to it!