Sisu: Road to Revenge (theatre) – The exceptionally rewatchable Sisu is a John Wick/Quentin Tarantino/Sergio Leone mash-up about a mythically resilient and vengeful Finnish soldier who, as WWII is ending, discovers a huge pile of gold that is subsequently stolen by some Nazis. In his quest to retrieve his property, he’s tortured and hanged before ultimately dispatching all the bad guys with over-the-top, ultra-gory aplomb. The just-released sequel, which is ostensibly about its main character’s attempt to relocate his old home from now-Russian-occupied territory, cranks up the gore and mayhem to astounding levels. In addition to the above-mentioned references, writer/director Jalmari Helander adds Sam Raimi, George Miller, and Looney Tunes to his list of obvious inspirations.

Train Dreams (Netflix) – This beautifully shot, Terrence Malick homage (it swaps the philosophical inner monologues for a voice-over narration) is about the hard-scrabble existence of an early 20^th century logger. I can understand why some have found the movie’s low-key, episodic nature uncompelling, and I, too, was waiting for a more substantial, overarching narrative drive to emerge (it never does), but while few of what appear to be set-ups ever pay-off, it delivers a finale that is ultimately satisfying, and surprisingly emotional.

All Her Fault (Showcase/Peacock) – The creators of this crime thriller know that their audience has watched countless crime thrillers previously, so instead of slow-rolling the plot, as a lot of these shows do, they burn through it a commendable rate. I, for one, was hooked by the first scene, which sees a mother (played by Succession’s Sarah Snook) knock on a front door in order to, supposedly, pick up her five-year-old son from a playdate, only to find out that not only is her son not at the house on whose door she knocked, but he never had a playdate to begin with. Dun dun dun … I’m four episodes in, and absolutely loving all the twists and turns.

The Material (Camille Bordas) – With wit, insightfulness, wonderful prose, and impressively detailed and fully realized characterization, Bordas follows a group of instructors and students of a stand-up comedy MFA program over the course of a single day and night.