Hi all,
Were you excited by the return of Stranger Things? After a three-and-a-half-year hiatus, Netflix's Eighties-set juggernaut – that hugely successful hybrid of comic coming-of-age story and labyrinthine supernatural thriller – rolled back into town on Thursday with four new episodes. Long ones, too, ranging from 57 minutes to 86 minutes. "Delayed gratification is how writers build a compulsive narrative, but Stranger Things could do with a little more gratification, a little less delay," wrote our chief TV critic Nick Hilton in his three-star review. I'm with him on that. It's all getting a little bit... protracted. Obviously, if the Duffer brothers stick the landing – the final ever episode drops on New Year's Day – all these longueurs will have been worth it, right?
Speaking of sprawling mystery franchises: a new Knives Out was released this week, with another all-star cast joining Daniel Craig, now back to his best as the Southern sleuth Benoit Blanc, after a slight wobble in 2022's Glass Onion. This third instalment, Wake Up Dead Man, is the most fun of the lot: gripping, Gothic and satisfyingly convoluted without being smug about it. Clarisse Loughrey, our esteemed film critic, loved it. One of the film's stars, Josh Brolin, spoke to me about it for this week's Saturday Interview. He also told me not to drink the Kool-Aid as he talked about his wild past – fights, addiction, and friendship with Donald Trump – plus his relationship with fame. (A fun aside: halfway through the interview, Glenn Close burst into the room, her dog Pip in tow.)
Elsewhere this week saw the release of Pillion, an acclaimed sub-dom romance as sexually transgressive as it is heart-warming. Adam White spoke to its two leading men, Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling, and their director Harry Lighton about raunch, love scenes and prosthetic appendages.
I also urge you to read this brilliantly written interview with Ben Foster, who chatted to Louis Chilton about working with Sydney Sweeney on new boxing biopic Christy, finding humanity in a monstrous man, and his one foray into superhero blockbusters.
Robert McCrum, meanwhile, wrote about The Winter Warriors, a brilliant new book that offers a vital history lesson about Russian aggression on Europe's borders.
Finally, if you're based in London, I recommend going to the Tate for the must-see Turner & Constable exhibition – "an epic confrontation between the ultimate British artists", writes our art critic Mark Hudson in a five-star review.
More below, including State of the Arts, in which Fiona Sturges reflects on how Rosalia's experimental, religious new album has found an unlikely fan in the Vatican.
Until next Saturday...
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