Set at the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, Touch opens as Kristofer (played by Icelandic musician Egill Olafsson) discovers his memory is fading and, heeding the advice of his doctor to resolve any unfinished business, sets off for London, despite the imminent threat of a worldwide lockdown.

Through a series of flashbacks, we meet the younger Kristofer (played by the director’s son Palmi Kormakur) in London at the end of the 1960s.

Disillusioned by the contemporary political landscape, he drops out of university and takes a job washing dishes at a Japanese restaurant, where he is taken under the wing of the proprietor, Takahashi (Masahiro Motoki).

He meets Takahashi’s beautiful daughter Miko (model Koki, also known as Mitsuki Kimura, the daughter of Japanese pop icons Takuya Kimura and Shizuka Kudo) at the restaurant, and the pair soon begin a passionate affair.

The structure of Touch sees the events of the past and present converge in a climactic revelation that explains why Kristofer and Miko’s relationship ended.

Suffice to say, Miko and her father fled Hiroshima shortly after the atomic bomb was dropped in August 1945, with the dream of starting a new life in London.

Try as they might, the lingering impact of the event and the stigma of being hibakusha – atomic bomb survivors – would continue to impact their lives for many decades to come.

In Touch, his direction is gentle and unobtrusive, almost to a fault. The film’s perspective aligns with Kristofer, as he, and the audience, is kept in the dark while the film’s Japanese characters wrestle with their trauma off screen.

Rather than attempt to explore the deep emotional scars that burden Miko and her family, the film prioritises the nostalgic reminiscences of Kristofer’s first love.

During these moments, Touch captures moments of genuine warmth and youthful passion. But elsewhere the film proves hollow and reductive.

Miko and her family’s struggles remain largely unexplored, portrayed by Olafur and his director as simply the mystifying enigmas of an exotic people.

With great apprehension, we went to see the remake of The Crow to see how this new adaptation treated the source material.

*note: this review contains minor spoilers for The Crow

It is important to start this review by making it known that I am a huge fan of The Crow starring Brandon Lee. I personally was against anyone remaking The Crow, as I feel that some stories should not be touched again. However, when I saw the cast and the trailers for this new take on The Crow, I was willing to give it a chance. After all, it’s been 30 years, maybe this adaptation could bring something new to the table.

I will give the filmmakers this much credit: they did attempt to bring something new to the table. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite work.

As you might expect with an adaptation of The Crow, the story features the star-crossed love story of Eric Draven and his girlfriend Shelley. When both are cruelly murdered, Eric is brought back by a crow to set this massive wrong right. That, as far as I’m concerned is where the film’s similarities to the source material end.

The Crow

Directed By: Rupert Sanders

Written By: Zach Baylin, William Schneider

Based on: The Crow by James O’Barr

Starring: Bill Skarsgard, FKA Twigs, Danny Huston

Release Date: August 23, 2024

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What really hampers The Crow is that the story takes far too long to get going. The entire film is plagued by pacing issues, especially in the first act. I can understand the desire to properly flesh out Eric and Shelley’s relationship before pulling the metaphorical trigger on the plot, but this was not the way to do it.

And even when Eric is brought back to enact his vengeance, the story still doesn’t take off. It’s a constant back and forth of “start and stop” until the last act of the film. The film’s final act is what partially redeemed the film for me, as that is when I finally felt like I was seeing the film we were promised in the trailers. The action in the opera house is gloriously bloody, but it was also something we should’ve gotten throughout and not just at the end of the film.

Then there’s the film’s antagonist.  I feel like the filmmakers misstepped in creating a new villain for this story. Part of what made the original film work as well as it did is that it drew on the characters that appeared in the comic book. In this film, the only recognizable characters are Eric, Shelley and, of course, the crow. With all these changes, not to mention a potentially interesting villain that we ultimately learn very little about, this feels very unlike a “Crow” film until, as stated before, close to the end. If several sequences featured in the final act had appeared instead in the second act (after Eric is brought back), this would’ve been a much improved film.

The Crow does get some things right. One of its best features is the visual aesthetic of the film. The city is dark, rainy, and there’s a general feel of griminess, which is fitting considering this is the world of The Crow. I especially like the “in between realm” where Eric ends up after dying. This is an aspect that wasn’t really explored in the original film and it felt like an extension of the Crow mythos that didn’t feel forced and worked rather well.

I also, as a musicologist, really appreciated how the film utilized music throughout. In particular, there’s the aforementioned sequence in the opera house that is far and away the best part of the film. Watching Eric fight his way through a number of enemies to the strains of Meyerbeer’s opera Robert le diable is a sight to behold and I genuinely wish the rest of the film lived up to the bar set by this scene.

Ultimately, The Crow is full to the brim with potential. The star power is there, the acting ability is certainly there, but almost none of it is used properly. This could’ve been a proper update of The Crow story, but instead it’s likely to be remembered as the remake that failed to launch. I won’t go so far as to say that the film should be hated and avoided, as the film isn’t all bad. However, it never once reaches its full potential and is very likely to leave the viewer feeling disappointed.

Rejoice, AFC Richmond fans! It looks like “Ted Lasso” might be getting a fourth season after all.

Warner Bros. Television is taking steps to continue the hit Apple TV+ series after the Season 3 finale left the fate of the show uncertain. The Los Angeles Times confirmed on Sunday that the studio picked up the options on three main cast members represented by U.K. performers union Equity: Hannah Waddingham (Rebecca Walton), Jeremy Swift (Leslie Higgins) and Brett Goldstein (Roy Kent).

The Times has reached out to representatives for Warner Bros. Television, Apple TV+ and several cast members for comment. Deadline was first to report the news.

Up next, the studio is expected to approach actors represented by U.S. performers union SAG-AFTRA, including Juno Temple (Keeley Jones), Brendan Hunt (Coach Beard) and Ted Lasso himself, Jason Sudeikis.

Other key players, including Phil Dunster (Jamie Tartt), might not return due to scheduling conflicts, Deadline reported.

A Season 4 writers room is also in the process of being assembled, per Deadline, with production tentatively scheduled to launch in 2025.

“Ted Lasso” stars Sudeikis as a goofy and disarmingly kind American football coach who moves to England to lead a professional soccer team despite knowing next to nothing about the game.

Since premiering in August 2020, the acclaimed sports comedy has won 13 Emmy Awards. The third and once-rumored final season of the show concluded in May of last year.

In June 2023, “Ted Lasso” actor, executive producer and co-creator Hunt revealed to The Times that Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook once visited the set of the show and said, “Thank you for all of your hard work, and I sure hope there’s a Season 4.”

“Everything’s on the table now, including nothing,” Hunt said at the time.

“It’s been an all-in job for us for so long that we’re going to go away for a little bit and take a break, and then we’ll reconvene and figure out if something else is going to happen.”