Literate and sensitive romance: Falling Into Place reviewed
Falling Into Place is a love story written by Aylin Tezel, directed by Aylin Tezel, and starring Aylin Tezel. That's a lot of Aylin Tezel so I was nervous going in. What if it's too much Aylin Tezel? What if Aylin Tezel and I don't get along? Who even is Aylin Tezel? But I knew within the first few minutes we were in safe hands and I was set to like this Aylin Tezel. In Falling Into Place she's created a literate and sensitive romance that is allowed to unfold gently. If it's 'high-octane action' you're after, then your better bet this week is Ballerina, the John Wick spin-off. This is strictly for the low-octane crowd. Do not expect octane.
The film opens on a wintry Isle of Skye where Kira (Tezel, who is famous as an actress in her native Germany, I now know) has decamped for the weekend. So, too, has Ian (Chris Fulton). He's come to visit his troubled family. Kira had booked into a B&B with her boyfriend but he's just dumped her and now she's here alone. There's a spark from the moment they first lock eyes across a crowded pub bar. They spend the night together but it's one of those Before Sunrise nights. That is, a night of connection rather than consummation even though the sexual attraction is strong.
They lark about in the dark streets, their conversation sometimes daft, sometimes existential. Tezel writes, directs, stars and looks adorable in a little woolly hat – is there no end to her talent? – which, thankfully, she never pairs with a pastel-coloured cardie as would have to happen if this were a romcom.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
2 days ago
- Telegraph
Squid Game is back to being dark, bloody and brilliant
As it at last wriggles across the finish line, Squid Game (Netflix) finds itself in a sticky spot. The tricky task confronting the final series of Netflix's ultra-violent thriller about a group of desperate, destitute citizens competing in a series of bloody contests is to recapture the zany, almost comedic energy of its sensational first season from 2021 – a challenge it never quite accomplishes, though not for lack of effort. Action-heavy, packed with twists – and the occasional sprinkling of Hollywood stardust – it's a well-intentioned and on-the-whole successful conclusion to a brutal South Korean blockbuster that has captured the world's imagination. Fans will be generally satisfied, even allowing for several well-signposted 'shocks' yanked like a reluctant rabbit from a blood-drenched hat. Squid Game has also, of course, added a reported $900 million to Netflix's bottom line. Which is presumably why executives went to such lengths to coax the show's initially reluctant creator, Hwang Dong-hyuk, into turning what was supposed to be a one-off drama into a franchise. He said yes, but there was always a sense of an auteur shackled to a production line. These six concluding episodes are an improvement on last Christmas's dour second season, which replaced the satirical edge of the original with an onslaught of gunplay seemingly aimed at fans of Keanu Reeves's John Wick. Taking care not to waste viewers' time, Hwang sensibly gets straight into the fray. As we catch up with seemingly unkillable Contestant 456 (Lee Jung-jae), his short-lived uprising against the evil billionaires behind the show's brutal survival puzzles has been suppressed, his friends shot dead in front of him. Rather than send 456 to meet his maker, the game's masked 'Front Man' In-ho (Lee Byung-hun) has decided the upstart (real name, Seong Gi-hun) must continue to participate in the trials, alongside fellow competitors such as pregnant Kim Jun-hee and the mother-son duo of Geum-ja (Kang Ae-shim) and Yong-sik (Yang Dong-geun). Awaiting them is another sequence of brutally absurdist contests. These have the now-familiar sinister, childlike names, such as 'Jump Rope' – and a first prize of around £25 million. There is no second prize. Unless a gory death counts. With the games continuing, renegade guard 011/Kang No-eul (Park Gyu-young) pushes on with her plot against Front Man and his wealthy backers, motivated by her trauma over her separation from her daughter in the outside world. Back on the mainland, Front Man's brother Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon) proceeds with his frantic search for the hidden island hosting the games. Amid the bloodshed and gunsmoke, it is often forgotten that the original Squid Game had a tongue-in-cheek energy that, at times, veered towards a sort of violent camp. Much of the fun stemmed from the borderline infantile quality of the specific games. Red light / green light (move on red, bullet to the head) and a Korean version of tag took on a surreal quality when juxtaposed with wanton death and mayhem. That magic was lost in year two as the games were elaborate and a bit too try-hard. Third time out, the challenges hark back to the cartoonish cruelty of series one. Hwang Dong-hyuk also fulfils his promise that the tone would be 'more dark and bleak'. Nothing will recapture the sheer 'what the hell am I watching?' quality of a first season that came out of nowhere. But this is a satisfying sign-off – tied up winningly with a blood-stained bow.
Metro
3 days ago
- Metro
Tron: Catalyst review - I'm sorry I haven't a CLU
As a new movie prepares for launch, the latest attempt to adapt Tron into video game form comes with a very interesting and purposeful glitch. Tron has always seemed like a franchise on the edge of greatness. The original 1982 movie was a hugely important milestone in the evolution of computer-generated imagery, but it wasn't really that great a film. Likewise, Tron: Legacy is most fondly remembered for its amazing soundtrack, rather than anything that actually happened in it. Naturally, there's been many video game adaptations over the year, with two separate waves around the time of the two movies and an unconnected 2003 first person shooter from the now sadly deceased Monolith Productions. The most recent tie-in was low-key visual novel Tron: Identity in 2023, from Thomas Was Alone developer Bithell Games. Despite being a small indie studio, the team was also responsible for the only John Wick game so far – which we loved but nobody else seemed to. Tron: Catalyst takes an equally daring approach to its subject matter, but this time the gamble hasn't paid off. The unavoidable problem for all the modern Tron games is that Legacy was a much less visually interesting movie than the original, with an almost monochrome colour scheme and less fantastical costumes and designs. New film Ares, to which this is only nominally connected, is set in the real world and yet still everything looks bleak and dark, which really doesn't seem appropriate for a concept as inherently silly as Tron. Nevertheless, designer Mike Bithell, who we had a good chat to about the game last year, does what he can, with an original story based on a different grid (aka server) than the one seen in the films. The idea is that the grid has been left alone for so long that most programs no longer really believe in humans and those that do have turned the concept into a kind of religion. You play as a courier named Exo, who becomes involved in a plot to reset the server, caught between a dystopian police force and a growing band of resistance fighters. It's a perfectly reasonable set-up and does involve some interesting sci-fi ideas – like the super-evolved programs that have lost all connection with humanity – but the wider plot could be transposed to any other fantasy setting with very few changes needed. Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. The game is played from a very distant top-down view, which doesn't help with the sense of immersion or your connection to the character, and only makes the drab art design look even more uninteresting. What makes Exo unique is that she has a bug, literally called a glitch, that lets her reset the server whenever she wants. This means starting the current chapter of the story again, while retaining any abilities you unlocked or information you didn't previously have. So, for example, if your need a code for a locked door you can go off and find it, even if that ends up altering all the guards, and then come back later and use it. It's a very neat idea and there's always a shortcut, literally or figuratively, involved that means you don't have to repeat everything a second time. However, it never really feels like the game is making full use of the ability, as there's generally no reason to use it except when the game tells you too and nothing that surprises you with its cleverness. The combat involves melee fighting and using the (relatively) iconic identity disc, which is basically a Frisbee. This works fine in theory but there's very little sense of feedback for your attacks and as you face down armies of respawning enemies it gets old worryingly quickly; especially as the skill tree and the ability to steal enemies' moves make little practical difference. The top-down view really doesn't help either, given how much it distances you from the action. Combat soon becomes a chore, with too many bullet sponge opponents, while minor enemies are easily confused by level furniture. Ironically, the AI is quite glitchy and often you end up taking advantage of its brokenness to get the action over with more quickly. More Trending The other main action element is driving a light cycle, which is fun because of how fast they are, even if there's often little room to manoeuvre. Given the original Tron included a version of what would today be recognised as the game Snake (but actually started out as a coin-op called Blockade in 1976) none of the modern Tron games have done the concept justice and while Catalyst is perhaps the best of the bunch it still feels fiddly and random. Catalyst is quite cheap but it's also very short, at around five hours, and with no real reason to ever play it again. Annoyingly, the ending is filled with hints at a third game (since this is technically a sequel to Identity) and yet there's been no announcement so far that one is happening. The end result is a disappointingly joyless gaming experience, whose story and characters are surprisingly uninteresting, given Bithell's talents. The gameplay doesn't take any particular advantage of the Tron setting and the whole thing is just so ugly and bland to look at. John Wick Hex was much the same, but we easily forgave that because of the fun and original gameplay, but unfortunately Tron: Catalyst doesn't have that same advantage. In Short: A disappointingly drab Tron tie-in that wastes some interesting ideas on dull and repetitive combat and an unequally unengaging story. Pros: The glitch concept has lots of potential, even if it's not fully realised here. For better or worse, it looks like Tron: Legacy. Cons: The storytelling is mostly uninteresting and there's barely any resolution. Combat is dull and repetitive. Glitch gimmick is never used in any particularly clever ways. Bleak and unengaging visuals. Score: 5/10 Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, and PCPrice: £19.99Publisher: Big FanDeveloper: Bithell GamesRelease Date: 17th June 2025 Age Rating: 7 Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 is 15% off if you pre-order now MORE: PS Plus games for July includes one of the best dungeon crawlers ever MORE: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 climbs chart after 'unusual' sales boost
Daily Mail
6 days ago
- Daily Mail
Keanu Reeves and his partner Alexandra Grant spend time at MotoGP in Italy amid claims they secretly wed
Keanu Reeves and Alexandra Grant spent time at the MotoGP World Championship in Italy on Sunday following rumors the couple have secretly married. The actor, 60, was seen at the event alongside his artist partner Alexandra, 52, where they appeared in good spirits. Keanu kept a low profile at the race in a cap, while Alexandra smiled as they watched from the sidelines at the Mugello circuit. The actor looked smart in a gray blazer and white T-shirt, with Alexandra wearing a purple blazer and sunglasses It comes after Alexandra was seen wearing a diamond ring on her wedding finger at the London premiere of his film Ballerina earlier this month, fueling rumors the couple have tied the knot. In April, Alexandra was also seen wearing the same diamond ring with a gold band during her and Keanu's trip to London
