Peaky Blinders (Season 3) (2016)

Creator: Steven Knight
Cast:      Cillian Murphy, Paul Anderson, Helen McCrory

The second season of Peaky Blinders ended with Tommy Shelby's (Cillian Murphy) being spared on orders from Winston Churchill because he has a job for him. The third season is about that job and it involves Russian aristocrats who were exiled from their country after the Bolshevik revolution. 

The stakes are getting higher and higher after each season and the series manages to stay cool the whole way through. You get what you expect from Peaky Blinders: slow build-ups, great soundtrack, stylish cinematography, mysterious plot and cool set-pieces. Tom Hardy returns as Alfie for the last two episodes with a typical enjoyable screen-chewy performance,There is a David Bowie song used in the the fifth episode to good effect and couple of Radiohead songs including a glorious usage of 'You and whose army'. You also get the BBC going the HBO route through a full-on orgy sequence with the explanation that the Russian are really mad. The new face for the season is the baddie priest played by Paddy Considine. Got to say that the twist at the end didn't make much sense regarding where the money originated from. 

Unlike the second season, I think one can watch the third season without having seen the previous seasons as it is quite self-contained. BBC have renewed it for two more seasons and Steven Knight indicated that the last sequence for the show that he has on his mind would be the start of the second world war and Birmingham getting air-raided.  

Rating: 4/5

Peaky Blinders (TV Series) (Series- 1&2 )

Creator: Steven Knight
Cast:      Cillian Murphy, Helen McCrory, Paul Anderson, Sam Neill, Tom Hardy, Annabelle Wallis

A gangster family epic set in 1919 Birmingham, England and centered on a gang who sew razor blades in the peaks of their caps, and their fierce boss Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy), who means to move up the world. At the face of it, it is an age old story that has been done to death in numerous mob films but I guess the setting of post World War One England and the stylized way it is shot (brutal with some great soundtrack) makes it quite unique. I haven't seen Boardwalk Empire, save for the first episode, and that would be the one with which it is going to get compared. For me, am quite sick of American mob stories and this British one makes for a very welcome change.

The Peaky Blinders are a bunch of Brummie brothers who are all suffering from PTSD after WW1. We are reminded so many times in the series that they were in fucking France in case you forgot. The times are interesting in Britain with the kingdom declaring war on  many enemies within itself-the communists, the Irish who are looking for independence and normal garden variety gangster kind. The gangster activity they are mainly running is illegal gambling activities along with their protection business. The series one involves them getting foothold in Birmingham and the second one have them entering London. First series was built up with bit more subtlety compared to second. But it was a lot more sure about its identity in the second series as I sat there smiling enjoying the sometimes cartoonish but always stylistic portrayal. The use of contemporary soundtrack like the ones from Arctic Monkeys can be quite risky in a period drama like this, but I enjoyed it. We have seen that recently in 'Django Unchained' and 'The Great Gatsby' and I don't mind the anachronism. If you are indeed going for stylishness, then why not? 

They managed to get Tom Hardy play a Jewish mobster/baker in the second series and he is great. He had starred recently in Steven Knight's feature film 'Locke' which was also excellent. The scene in last episode of  the series where Tom Hardy and Cillian Murphy are doing an unconventional negotiation was particularly great. Another highlight of the season was:'Read Daily Mail, it will broaden your mind'. Even I got that joke, probably because of me being obsessed with LFC. Peaky Blinders was produced by BBC and in US it was distributed through Netflix. Series 3 has been commissioned and I think the British TV practice of having just 6 episodes every year is just about right since it is better to be left wanting more. The name Peaky Blinders is derived from a historic subculture that was there during those times and not necessarily from a single gangster group. The opening credits song Nick Cave's 'Red Right Hand' is also excellent giving a True Detective vibe to it.

Rating: 4/5

Locke (2013)

Director: Steven Knight
Writer:    Steven Knight
Cast:       Tom Hardy

Ivan Locke, a dedicated family man and a successful construction manager, receives a phone call on the eve of the biggest challenge of his career that sets in motion a series of events that threaten his careful cultivated existence. He drives of to handle the event which is his baby getting born to an ex-assitant of his and at the same time he is breaking the story to his wife and also managing the big fucking concrete pour that he was supposed to be in charge of the next day. As he says, at the beginning of his ride he had a wife, a home and a job and by the end he may lose all three.

If you go by the poster, it might give the impression that its a very intense film with all of it happening inside a car and no other actor apart from Tom Hardy is shown to us. It is certainly intense due to the situation he is in but it is also extremely funny. I sat through the whole thing with a smile on my face as an exasperated Ivan Locke (Tom Hardy) deals with clusterfuck of a situation he has got himself into. He was supposed to be at home watching a football game with his family and going by the timing it must be a champions league encounter though player names that they discuss are fictional and so we cannot pin down the team they are rooting for. Locke, who grew up with his mother after their father abandoned them, want to do right to his baby even though he doesn't have any feelings towards its mother. He is also sincere to his wife and that is why he is informing her which he was anyways planning to do eventually but baby is coming out kind of two months early. He also wants the concrete job to go smoothly because of his love for the building and the fucking concrete which according to him is like blood. He just wants to be the complete opposite of his father who abandoned them and in between the phone calls he is ranting to his father whom he imagines to be in the back seat.

Steven Knight is known for writing David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises. The filming was done inside the car which was driven around in an open top truck. It was done almost in real time and the only breaks that they took was for changing the camera's memory cards. The lights from traffic reflecting on the car makes it visually stunning and the soundtrack is also excellent. I even sat through the entire closing credits. IM global which is part owned by Reliance Entertainment was involved with this film.

Rating: 4.5/5