Latest news with #DavidSconce
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Apocalypse in the Tropics to Clipse: the week in rave reviews
Channel 4; all episodes available Summed up in a sentence A painstaking account of a journalist's investigation into the deaths of users of a suicide forum, and the identity of the person selling them lethal poison. What our reviewer said 'If you can get through this two-part documentary without sliding down on to the floor in despair – well, you're a better viewer than I.' Lucy Mangan Read the full review BBC iPlayer; all episodes available Summed up in a sentence A staggering reality TV hate-watch about the entitled guests staying at luxury rental properties – and the histrionic staff looking after them. What our reviewer said 'Imagine that The White Lotus's characters were real, but worse, and that none of them – increasingly unbelievably – ended up murdered.' Lucy Mangan Read the full review Now TV; all episodes available Summed up in a sentence The unbelievably dark tale of a US crematorium owner who began jamming multiple bodies into his incinerator to make more money. What our reviewer said 'Joshua Rofé's three-part documentary about California cremator David Sconce is a feat of construction, patiently doling out larger and larger transgressions until the whole thing becomes swamped in unimaginable horror. It's the kind of documentary where, when the credits roll, you realise that you haven't drawn breath for several minutes.' Stuart Heritage Read the full review In cinemas now Summed up in a sentence Documentary outlining how Brazilian politics succumbed to rightwing fundamentalism as screeching evangelical Christian leaders have become kingmakers to all politicians. What our reviewer said 'The tone is set by televangelists like the always angry Pastor Silas Malafaia, interviewed at some length here; he is a man clearly thrilled and energised by his own national celebrity and wealth, though irritated by questioning about his private plane.' Peter Bradshaw Read the full review Further reading 'God chose you, Jair Bolsonaro!' Is Brazil now in the grip of evangelicals? In cinemas now Summed up in a sentence Witty uncoupling comedy from Spain finds Alex and Ale marking their separation with a party – but not everyone thinks it's a good idea. What our reviewer said 'Right at the beginning, the pair lie in bed, mulling over the party idea. Ale isn't convinced. 'It's a good idea for a film, but in real life …?' And here The Other Way Around gets meta; Ale is busy editing her new film, which turns out to be the film we're watching.' Cath Clarke Read the full review In cinemas now Summed up in a sentence Brilliant grifter classic from Argentina from the late Fabian Bielinsky, whose questions about greed, cynicism and the human condition remain evergreen. What our reviewer said 'It is confidence trickery perpetrated on the victim in parallel to narrative trickery perpetrated on the audience, who are invited to assume that however hard the fictional characters on screen are falling, the rug under their own feet is perfectly secure.' Peter Bradshaw Read the full review In cinemas now Summed up in a sentence A talking tree leads a study of European exploitation of the Congo's natural resources in Sammy Baloji's experimental film. What our reviewer said 'Though perhaps leaning a little heavily into an academic visual experiment, The Tree of Authenticity offers a fascinating look at how extraction can take many forms.' Phuong Le Read the full review Mubi; available now Summed up in a sentence Beautifully acted film in which a man returns to the Japanese seaside town where he met and fell in love with his wife, in a glowing reverse love story with echoes of Before Sunrise. What our reviewer said 'Nairu Yamamoto gives the performance of the film as aspiring photographer Nagi: funny, scatty and earnest. She plays it so naturally, so true to life, that Nagi feels like someone you might have actually met.' Cath Clarke Read the full review Reviewed by Chris Power Summed up in a sentence A short-story collection set in Northern Ireland from a brilliant new voice. What our reviewer said 'Ní Chuinn's stories almost entirely lack the resolution provided by that familiar trait, the epiphany. Rather than accounts of revelation, these are reports from the knotty midst of things.' Read the full review Reviewed by Alexis Petridis Summed up in a sentence A warts-and-all memoir from the Dexys Midnight Runners frontman. What our reviewer said 'It makes for a picaresque story, albeit one that you occasionally read in a state of dread – oh God, what's he going to do next? – and Rowland tells it with an impressive lack of self-pity' Read the full review Further reading Kevin Rowland looks back: 'Trying to calm myself down never even occurred to me' Reviewed by John Simpson Summed up in a sentence An impeccably sourced look behind the scenes at the CIA. What our reviewer said 'No one has opened up the CIA to us like Weiner has, and The Mission deserves to win Weiner a second Pulitzer.' Read the full review Reviewed by Christobel Kent Summed up in a sentence Hi-jinks and hysteria in a crumbling boarding school gripped by Cold War paranoia and a mysterious illness. What our reviewer said 'Waits mines the rich seam of girls' school fiction to delirious and rewarding effect. There are welcome echoes of St Trinian's, but beneath the comedy lies a distinctly unsettling undertone.' Read the full review Reviewed by Ellen Peirson-Hagger Summed up in a sentence Captivating fairytale debut about a mother and daughter isolated from the world. What our reviewer said 'With the book open, you feel utterly transported; once you close it, you see how cunningly it holds a mirror up to reality.' Read the full review Reviewed by Gaby Hinsliff Summed up in a sentence The former New Zealand PM takes us behind the scenes of her years in office. What our reviewer said 'Ardern is a disarmingly likable, warm and funny narrator, as gloriously informal on the page as she seems in person.' Read the full review Further reading 'Empathy is a kind of strength': Jacinda Ardern on kind leadership, public rage and life in Trump's America Out now Summed up in a sentence Fifteen years after Malice quit, he rejoins younger brother Pusha T for as strong a restatement of Clipse's skills and power. What our reviewer said 'Let God Sort Em Out offers far more than nostalgia: familiar but fresh, it's one of the albums of the year.' Alexis Petridis Read the full review Out now Summed up in a sentence Having survived the heights of their much-hyped debut, the Isle of Wight duo return as a fully-fledged band – swapping sardonic comments on parochial indie culture for big fat lurve songs. What our reviewer said 'Moisturizer does not seem much like the work of a band nervous about following up an unexpectedly huge debut. It's a very confident record indeed, from the leering grin Teasdale sports on its cover, to the big, knowingly dumb garage rock riffs that gust through Catch These Fists and Pillow Talk, to the dramatic shift in its lyrics.' Alexis Petridis Read the full review Further reading 'This weird dream just keeps going!' Wet Leg on overnight success, sexual epiphanies and facing fears Out now Summed up in a sentence The US singer's seventh album takes his meta-theatrical style almost into showtune territory as he confronts being abused by a camp counsellor as a child. What our reviewer said 'Christinzio's inventive, infuriating writing often packs three extra songs into every single track – but this time for good reason. When the chatter falls away on instrumental closer Leaving Camp Four Oaks, he achieves a hard-won, sun-lit sense of peace.' Katie Hawthorne Read the full review Out now Summed up in a sentence Wonky techno DJ Gwenan Spearing pursues generative electronics and real-time responses on an ambient EP that blurs the lines between electronic and acoustic. What our reviewer said 'It's a lovely, drifting listen with just the right amount of curiosity and texture to keep you locked in.' Safi Bugel Read the full review Principality Stadium, Cardiff; touring to 23 July Summed up in a sentence The two US superstars and friends lead the biggest co-headline tour in history. What our reviewer said 'For Lamar, this tour is about narrative … SZA is here to fight for Glasgow's hearts and minds. It feels like a genuinely historic celebration of their individual achievements and the elevating power of their friendship.' Katie Hawthorne Read the full review
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Apocalypse in the Tropics to Clipse: the week in rave reviews
Channel 4; all episodes available Summed up in a sentence A painstaking account of a journalist's investigation into the deaths of users of a suicide forum, and the identity of the person selling them lethal poison. What our reviewer said 'If you can get through this two-part documentary without sliding down on to the floor in despair – well, you're a better viewer than I.' Lucy Mangan Read the full review BBC iPlayer; all episodes available Summed up in a sentence A staggering reality TV hate-watch about the entitled guests staying at luxury rental properties – and the histrionic staff looking after them. What our reviewer said 'Imagine that The White Lotus's characters were real, but worse, and that none of them – increasingly unbelievably – ended up murdered.' Lucy Mangan Read the full review Now TV; all episodes available Summed up in a sentence The unbelievably dark tale of a US crematorium owner who began jamming multiple bodies into his incinerator to make more money. What our reviewer said 'Joshua Rofé's three-part documentary about California cremator David Sconce is a feat of construction, patiently doling out larger and larger transgressions until the whole thing becomes swamped in unimaginable horror. It's the kind of documentary where, when the credits roll, you realise that you haven't drawn breath for several minutes.' Stuart Heritage Read the full review In cinemas now Summed up in a sentence Documentary outlining how Brazilian politics succumbed to rightwing fundamentalism as screeching evangelical Christian leaders have become kingmakers to all politicians. What our reviewer said 'The tone is set by televangelists like the always angry Pastor Silas Malafaia, interviewed at some length here; he is a man clearly thrilled and energised by his own national celebrity and wealth, though irritated by questioning about his private plane.' Peter Bradshaw Read the full review Further reading 'God chose you, Jair Bolsonaro!' Is Brazil now in the grip of evangelicals? In cinemas now Summed up in a sentence Witty uncoupling comedy from Spain finds Alex and Ale marking their separation with a party – but not everyone thinks it's a good idea. What our reviewer said 'Right at the beginning, the pair lie in bed, mulling over the party idea. Ale isn't convinced. 'It's a good idea for a film, but in real life …?' And here The Other Way Around gets meta; Ale is busy editing her new film, which turns out to be the film we're watching.' Cath Clarke Read the full review In cinemas now Summed up in a sentence Brilliant grifter classic from Argentina from the late Fabian Bielinsky, whose questions about greed, cynicism and the human condition remain evergreen. What our reviewer said 'It is confidence trickery perpetrated on the victim in parallel to narrative trickery perpetrated on the audience, who are invited to assume that however hard the fictional characters on screen are falling, the rug under their own feet is perfectly secure.' Peter Bradshaw Read the full review In cinemas now Summed up in a sentence A talking tree leads a study of European exploitation of the Congo's natural resources in Sammy Baloji's experimental film. What our reviewer said 'Though perhaps leaning a little heavily into an academic visual experiment, The Tree of Authenticity offers a fascinating look at how extraction can take many forms.' Phuong Le Read the full review Mubi; available now Summed up in a sentence Beautifully acted film in which a man returns to the Japanese seaside town where he met and fell in love with his wife, in a glowing reverse love story with echoes of Before Sunrise. What our reviewer said 'Nairu Yamamoto gives the performance of the film as aspiring photographer Nagi: funny, scatty and earnest. She plays it so naturally, so true to life, that Nagi feels like someone you might have actually met.' Cath Clarke Read the full review Reviewed by Chris Power Summed up in a sentence A short-story collection set in Northern Ireland from a brilliant new voice. What our reviewer said 'Ní Chuinn's stories almost entirely lack the resolution provided by that familiar trait, the epiphany. Rather than accounts of revelation, these are reports from the knotty midst of things.' Read the full review Reviewed by Alexis Petridis Summed up in a sentence A warts-and-all memoir from the Dexys Midnight Runners frontman. What our reviewer said 'It makes for a picaresque story, albeit one that you occasionally read in a state of dread – oh God, what's he going to do next? – and Rowland tells it with an impressive lack of self-pity' Read the full review Further reading Kevin Rowland looks back: 'Trying to calm myself down never even occurred to me' Reviewed by John Simpson Summed up in a sentence An impeccably sourced look behind the scenes at the CIA. What our reviewer said 'No one has opened up the CIA to us like Weiner has, and The Mission deserves to win Weiner a second Pulitzer.' Read the full review Reviewed by Christobel Kent Summed up in a sentence Hi-jinks and hysteria in a crumbling boarding school gripped by Cold War paranoia and a mysterious illness. What our reviewer said 'Waits mines the rich seam of girls' school fiction to delirious and rewarding effect. There are welcome echoes of St Trinian's, but beneath the comedy lies a distinctly unsettling undertone.' Read the full review Reviewed by Ellen Peirson-Hagger Summed up in a sentence Captivating fairytale debut about a mother and daughter isolated from the world. What our reviewer said 'With the book open, you feel utterly transported; once you close it, you see how cunningly it holds a mirror up to reality.' Read the full review Reviewed by Gaby Hinsliff Summed up in a sentence The former New Zealand PM takes us behind the scenes of her years in office. What our reviewer said 'Ardern is a disarmingly likable, warm and funny narrator, as gloriously informal on the page as she seems in person.' Read the full review Further reading 'Empathy is a kind of strength': Jacinda Ardern on kind leadership, public rage and life in Trump's America Out now Summed up in a sentence Fifteen years after Malice quit, he rejoins younger brother Pusha T for as strong a restatement of Clipse's skills and power. What our reviewer said 'Let God Sort Em Out offers far more than nostalgia: familiar but fresh, it's one of the albums of the year.' Alexis Petridis Read the full review Out now Summed up in a sentence Having survived the heights of their much-hyped debut, the Isle of Wight duo return as a fully-fledged band – swapping sardonic comments on parochial indie culture for big fat lurve songs. What our reviewer said 'Moisturizer does not seem much like the work of a band nervous about following up an unexpectedly huge debut. It's a very confident record indeed, from the leering grin Teasdale sports on its cover, to the big, knowingly dumb garage rock riffs that gust through Catch These Fists and Pillow Talk, to the dramatic shift in its lyrics.' Alexis Petridis Read the full review Further reading 'This weird dream just keeps going!' Wet Leg on overnight success, sexual epiphanies and facing fears Out now Summed up in a sentence The US singer's seventh album takes his meta-theatrical style almost into showtune territory as he confronts being abused by a camp counsellor as a child. What our reviewer said 'Christinzio's inventive, infuriating writing often packs three extra songs into every single track – but this time for good reason. When the chatter falls away on instrumental closer Leaving Camp Four Oaks, he achieves a hard-won, sun-lit sense of peace.' Katie Hawthorne Read the full review Out now Summed up in a sentence Wonky techno DJ Gwenan Spearing pursues generative electronics and real-time responses on an ambient EP that blurs the lines between electronic and acoustic. What our reviewer said 'It's a lovely, drifting listen with just the right amount of curiosity and texture to keep you locked in.' Safi Bugel Read the full review Principality Stadium, Cardiff; touring to 23 July Summed up in a sentence The two US superstars and friends lead the biggest co-headline tour in history. What our reviewer said 'For Lamar, this tour is about narrative … SZA is here to fight for Glasgow's hearts and minds. It feels like a genuinely historic celebration of their individual achievements and the elevating power of their friendship.' Katie Hawthorne Read the full review
Indian Express
21-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
The Mortician review: HBO true crime series ends with a scandalous confession designed to shock and awe
Depending on where you live in the world, the first episode of HBO's new true crime series, The Mortician, will either be scandalous or sloppy. In the 1980s, a man named David Sconce took over his family's respectable funeral home business, and took it in an altogether macabre direction, all in the name of aggressive expansion. But the sort of shenanigans that he got up to would hardly draw a second glance in India. A lot of what he was convicted of doing would be brushed off as 'jugaad' here. In the United States, however — especially the wealthy Pasadena neighbourhood where Sconce conducted his activities — a scandal erupted. It was discovered that Sconce was mass-cremating bodies and essentially scooping out ashes from large barrels, and presenting them to the families of the deceased. They had no idea that the urn being given to them contained the remains of several dead people mixed together, and not just their loved one. Sconce said that this was a common practice in funeral homes, and that most businesses would be lying if they pretend that it wasn't. You could imagine white people getting all hot and bothered about something like this, but in India, where the cost of human life is negligible, it would be more surprising if there was no skullduggery going on. Also read – Last Stop Larrimah movie review: The best true crime documentary of the year so far; stranger-than-fiction storytelling at its finest Although the first episode of The Mortician ends on this rather underwhelming note, things only get more shocking from there. It is revealed that Sconce's own parents — they were pillars of the community — had warned his would-be wife about him, and that, too, on the day of their marriage. It's enough to hook you in. The three-part series also features interviews with the ex-cons that Sconce hired to do the dirty work for him. But it's one thing to hear stories of how these men squeezed dead bodies into incinerators without a care for who's who. It's another thing to hear them admit that they were stealing all the jewellery and gold off these bodies for Sconce to sell off. In total, he is said to have cremated over 20,000 people. He presumably stole the jewellery off most of them. He is also said to have sold off their kidneys, livers, and brains to the highest bidder. Things get murkier when Sconce's business rivals begin dropping dead, shortly after having threatened to tell on him. Not only does the show bring back several of Sconce's old associates, it also features news reporters, members of the community who were conned by him, and other assorted characters who had run-ins with him over the years. Not a single one of them has a nice thing to say about Sconce. He's described as the kind of guy who'd always have a gun on his person, and was routinely finding ways to scam the system. At one point in the '80s, his business was booming to such a degree that he set up a new facility a few miles out of town. He got caught because a Holocaust survivor living in the area was triggered by the smell of burning flesh in the air. He told the authorities that it reminded him of the concentration camps; he was sure of it. Sconce's arrest proved one thing: he might've been a good businessman, but he was a lousy criminal. For one thing, he wouldn't stop threatening to kill people; for another, he was always risking what he had by attracting more and more attention to himself. In an unexpected coup, the filmmakers are able to get Sconce himself to sit down for an extended interview. While he admits to having conducted mass cremations and robbed the bodies off all their valuables, he absolutely denies having anything to do with his dead rivals. Read more – Fred and Rose West – A British Horror Story review: Netflix delivers a true crime tale of Nithari-level nastiness; a deeply upsetting peek at pure evil Unlike the many true crime series on Netflix, The Mortician is a far classier affair. The tone isn't lurid; it doesn't come across as exploitative. Most notably, it doesn't have the look and feel of something that was shot over an afternoon. The filmmakers have taken great care to give Sconce's many victims a chance to speak about the trauma he inflicted upon them by desecrating the bodies of their family members. Others reflect on how tragic the case proved to be for the largely peaceful Pasadena community. Nothing, however, can prepare you for the show's climax. It would be improper to reveal what happens. But a direct comparison could be made to the conclusion of another HBO true crime documentary; certainly, The Mortician isn't interested in leaving things open to interpretation. It has a firm idea about Sconce, and it does everything that a non-fiction series can do — editing, music, framing — in order to make this stance crystal clear. The Mortician isn't top-tier true crime, but it sure comes close. The Mortician Director – Joshua Rofé Rating – 4/5 Rohan Naahar is an assistant editor at Indian Express online. He covers pop-culture across formats and mediums. He is a 'Rotten Tomatoes-approved' critic and a member of the Film Critics Guild of India. He previously worked with the Hindustan Times, where he wrote hundreds of film and television reviews, produced videos, and interviewed the biggest names in Indian and international cinema. At the Express, he writes a column titled Post Credits Scene, and has hosted a podcast called Movie Police. You can find him on X at @RohanNaahar, and write to him at He is also on LinkedIn and Instagram. ... Read More
The Guardian
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The Mortician review – so queasy it will stay with you for ever
The smart thing about comparing something to The Jinx is that you're essentially daring viewers to stick with you until the very end. After all, as good as The Jinx was, it didn't reach legendary status until its final few moments, when notorious murder suspect Robert Durst paused an interview with his microphone still on, and muttered a confession while using the toilet. The Mortician, it has to be said, is pound for pound more staggering than The Jinx. Joshua Rofé's three-part documentary about California cremator David Sconce is a feat of construction, patiently doling out larger and larger transgressions until the whole thing becomes swamped in unimaginable horror. It's the kind of documentary where, when the credits roll, you realise that you haven't drawn breath for several minutes. As with most true crime documentaries, Sconce's case is a known one. Perhaps you watched it unfold at the time, or perhaps you like to spend your time trawling the darker corners of Wikipedia. This is the downfall of many products of this ilk; they're flashy retellings that add very little of value. The Mortician is not that. The Lamb Funeral Home scandal made enough of a splash to have inspired more than one novel, and yet The Mortician deserves to go down as the definitive version. On some level, it's the story of a very efficient businessman. As the figure in charge of Pasadena crematorium Lamb Funeral Home, David Sconce was determined to undercut his rivals. He would perform long round-trips around mortuaries in his rundown van, collecting bodies, burning them and returning them for the low, low price of $55. But cremations are slow. It takes from two to three hours to burn a body and let the remains cool enough to safely gather them. So Sconce started burning a few at a time. And then more and more, breaking bones to cram as many as he could into his incinerator. In barely any time at all the business went from performing 194 cremations a year to 8,173, handing bereaved relatives urns scooped from bins brimming with the mixed ashes of countless different people. Incredibly, it only gets worse from there. To reveal too much would be to spoil the cascade of monstrosities that follow, but it makes for extremely queasy viewing. The thefts, the desecration, the complete detachment between the human life that ended and the wholesale scavenging that followed. It is unbelievably dark. At the centre of it all is Sconce himself. Met by the documentary crew outside jail, where he had just finished serving a 10-year sentence, Sconce is a weirdly charismatic presence. Described by one talking head as 'Richie Cunningham' from Happy Days, he has a big, open, all-American face, and golly-gees his way through much of his interviews despite the atrocities laid at his feet. At best, he defends his actions with a cold logic – 'People have got to be more in control of their emotions,' he says at one point of the appalled bereaved; 'That's not your loved one any more' – but at worst there's a showboating bravado, as if he can't get enough of his own performance. And this is ultimately what gets him. The Mortician has received so many comparisons to The Jinx because of how it ends. During an unguarded moment when he believes the camera is no longer running, Sconce appears to admit to something awful. It's left vague, since there's nothing as concrete as Durst muttering that he 'killed them all', but it's still enough for Rofé to publicly encourage renewed investigation. However, while the climax will grab all the headlines, the journey is just as important. The Mortician isn't only about one grim individual who did horrendous things to thousands of corpses; it's about the dehumanising effects of unfettered capitalism and our own relationship to death. In the cold light of day, how should we treat the people we love once they are gone? Is the dignity we afford their bodies purely ceremonial? Do they simply become matter to be disposed of by whatever means necessary? It is a harrowing journey to get to the end of the programme – the faint of heart should be warned that the series includes talk of concentration camps, infants, organ harvesting and something nefariously referred to as 'popping chops' – but it's worth it. The Mortician is so much more than a gussied-up Wikipedia page. It's something that is unlikely to ever leave you. The Mortician is on Sky and Now in the UK. In the US, it airs on HBO and Max. In Australia, it airs on Max
Yahoo
16-06-2025
- Yahoo
The Mortician: What Happened to David Sconce & Lamb Funeral Home?
Curious about the shocking true story behind The Mortician? With mass cremations, illegal organ harvesting, and a trusted family business at the center of it all, HBO's latest docuseries unpacks one of California's most disturbing criminal scandals. As new interviews, court records, and eyewitness accounts surface, the dark truth behind David Sconce and the Lamb Funeral Home comes into full view. Here's what to know about David Sconce's current whereabouts and what happened to Lamb Funeral Home. Authorities released David Sconce on parole in 2023 after he served part of a 25-year-to-life sentence imposed in 2013. The court issued that sentence after he violated a lifetime probation order stemming from his 1989 conviction. In that case, prosecutors charged him with mutilating corpses, conducting mass cremations, and hiring men to assault rival morticians. He had served a couple of years in prison before violating probation, which led to a harsher sentence. In HBO's The Mortician, Sconce, now 68, appears on camera and states, 'I don't put any value in anybody after they're gone and dead.' His actions and perspective form the core of the three-part documentary (via People.) A Pasadena police detective quoted in the Los Angeles Times reported that Sconce denied knowing one of his alleged victims, saying, 'I never met Tim Waters, I never spoke to Tim Waters… He was not an account of mine.' Former employee Danny Galambos testified that Sconce had hired him and two others to attack Waters and other competitors, for which Galambos received five years' probation. Lamb Funeral Home, previously operated by the Sconce family in Pasadena, California, no longer exists. The business lost its license and ceased operations following the scandal. According to The Mortician and archived Los Angeles Times coverage, regulatory agencies shut down the funeral home after investigations uncovered illegal cremations and desecration of bodies. A fire destroyed the Pasadena Crematory in 1986 after an employee reportedly left the ovens running while getting high. Authorities later found bodies being cremated in bulk at Oscar Ceramics, a pottery facility using kilns designed for ceramics instead of human remains. The discovery triggered the final collapse of the Lamb family's funeral business. The post The Mortician: What Happened to David Sconce & Lamb Funeral Home? appeared first on - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.
