8 h. ago Brave the Dark review – delinquent teen drama comes off as if James Dean met Mr Chips

Warmly drawn melodrama based on a true story follows a delinquent teen taken under the wing of his kindly drama teacherHere is a sincere and traditional melodrama that opens with a brief sequence that slightly wrongfoots the audience: a small child running at night through a setting that calls to mind little Danny in the hedge maze in The Shining. But this is no horror movie; there is past trauma and tragedy a-plenty, but for the most part, this is a warm-hearted drama that plays out like a modern Mr Chips story.Based on the real life of the protagonist Nate (Nicholas Hamilton), a delinquent youth in 1980s America, the film’s focus is on his relationship with drama teacher Mr Deen (Jared Harris); Deen is a likable but lonely man whose tendency to generosity reaches its apogee when he takes on Nate as a personal project after a series of bad choices by the troubled teen. Deen reveals at one point that as a youngster he harboured acting ambitions, with James Dean a particular touchsto...

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49 h. ago ‘Captivating’ Netflix teen drama hailed as 'better than Sex Education'

The little-known show has been hailed as the Australian version of Sex Education

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7 d. ago The Summer I Turned Pretty adds major Netflix star for final episodes

Teen drama fans are in for an unexpected crossover

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9 d. ago Why we’ve all fallen for The Summer I Turned Pretty: ‘Endless, wonderful melodrama’

The third season of the Amazon teen drama has become a certified phenomenon, encouraging watch parties and intense fan reactionsIt’s after work on a Wednesday night, and I’m at a sports bar in downtown Manhattan. It looks exactly like what you’d expect of a bar in the Financial District. Men in button-up shirts stand around a tall table with folded arms, ranting about the current season as multiple baseball games are playing on TV screens all around the bar.I feel out of place as I wait for a friend, but I know it’s only a matter of time until things change. A stream of women slowly trickles in, group by group. The mood abruptly changes when the TV screens flicker on to a clip of sparkling water. The bar cranks up the volume, a wistful three notes plays over the speaker, the brief theme song of what has become a show so popular that sports bars in Manhattan are throwing watch parties for women who, like me, are years older than the show’s protagonist. Continue reading...

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9 d. ago 'Insane' Netflix drama returns with second series and tops streaming charts

The second season of a hit teen drama has landed on Netflix, with fans branding it 'enjoyably trashy' and 'completely insane'

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1 week ago ‘The most difficult word to say is “Cut!”’: an audience with Cannes conquerors Jean

They have won the Palme d’Or twice, and their latest offering about teen motherhood scooped the screenwriting prize. The brothers discuss their working methods, who inspires them, and what they disagree aboutEarlier this year, the Cannes film festival saw a triumphant new appearance from European cinema’s kings of social realism and social conscience. The Dardenne brothers, Jean-Pierre and Luc, now 74 and 71, presented a movie that is one of their very best: Jeunes Mères or Young Mothers, a deeply compassionate, intelligent drama about a home for teen mothers or mothers-to-be in the directors’ home town of Liège in Belgium. These young women are faced with the existential question: is it sensible to give their infants up for adoption, or a fundamental loss of moral courage?The Dardennes have become known for intensely naturalist performances and handheld camerawork, radical simplicity and clarity. They have won the Cannes Palme d’Or twice, firstly for their drama Rosetta in 1999, ab...

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