Westworld
Get your sub-reddit bookmarks and storyline flow charts ready: Season 2 of HBO’s Westworld is finally here. With Game of Thrones staring down its final season, Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan’s sci-fi-Western saga is making its play for the crown of Next Big Cable Mega-Series. The first season delighted in frustrating its viewers with a Russian-nesting-doll story structure, and early reviews suggest Season 2 doubles down on the twists and mysteries. Westworld’s A.I. cowboy “Hosts” now have control of the theme park, but their fight for survival isn’t going to get any less epic as Delos, the company that bankrolled the park’s deceased creator, moves to take back its product by force. Premieres April 22 on HBO; hbo.com.
Godard Mon Amour
Perhaps fearful of the box-office tsunami that will be next weekend’s Avengers, the new offerings in theaters this week are undoubtedly a little slight. However, for die-hard cineastes, there could be one worth checking out: director Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist) returns with another bio-pic, this time profiling a legend, the New Wave enfant terrible Jean Luc Godard. The real-life Godard, cinema’s contrarian auteur par excellence, reportedly called the film “a stupid, stupid idea,” and hard-core Godard acolytes have also predictably dismissed its light tone as frivolous. But a close reading of the reviews indicates Hazanavicius’ film actually seems to get at something of Godard’s essence. Adapted from a pair of memoirs by Godard’s ex-wife, the film is centered on the couple’s relationship leading up to Godard’s infamous break, during the student revolts of 1968, when he seemingly abandons the type of filmmaking that made him an icon. Additionally, although Hazanavicius’ comedic instincts keep the material from digging too deeply into the darkness, Louis Garrel is said to give a performance that channels the master. In theaters April 20; cohenmedia.net.
