Uncertain Age

Welcome to Uncertain Age! This week, AR (Anna) Nicholas and Dale Basye saddle up to watch the Apple TV+ show Slow Horses, the spy thriller following a group of disgraced MI5 agents led by their cynical and sharp-tongued boss, Jackson Lamb (played by Gary Oldman). Does the show gallop through the spy genre with dark humor and gritty drama, or is it a tired steed destined for the TV glue factory? Find out on Uncertain A...

Welcome to Uncertain Age! This week, AR (Anna) Nicholas and Dale Basye stock up on antidepressants and watch Everything Went Fine, a 2021 French drama where an 85-year-old father asks his daughter to help him end his life through assisted suicide after suffering a debilitating stroke. Is the film a deeply human and unsentimental meditation on love, mortality, and agency, or a depressing slog led by an unsympathetic pr...

Welcome to Uncertain Age! This week, AR (Anna) Nicholas and Dale Basye put on their reading glasses to peruse the 2020 murder mystery The Thursday Murder Club, a novel by British television presenter Richard Osman where a group of pensioners in an idyllic retirement village use their wits to crack open a murder case. Is the book a cozy page-turner with clever twists or a snoozy rehash of murder mystery tropes only wit...

Welcome to Uncertain Age! This week, AR (Anna) Nicholas and Dale Basye put on their comfortable walking shoes to go on The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry: the 2023 drama starring Jim Broadbent as the restless title character who goes on a—wait for it—unlikely pilgrimage that he believes will keep an old friend alive. Is Harold’s story an affecting portrait of a man hoping to make amends with his past, or a well-wor...

Welcome to Uncertain Age! This week, AR (Anna) Nicholas and Dale Basye revisit 1997’s “bee” movie Ulee’s Gold, a quietly powerful film that also explores themes of aging, redemption, and family. Directed by Victor Nunez and starring Peter Fonda in one of his most nuanced performances, Ulee’s Gold follows Ulee Jackson, a widowed beekeeper who struggles to hold his fractured family together while tending to his hives and dealing with...

Welcome to Uncertain Age! This week, AR (Anna) Nicholas and Dale Basye take a ride with Clint Eastwood’s 2018 film The Mule. Inspired by a true story, The Mule follows Earl Stone, an elderly horticulturist who inadvertently becomes a drug courier for a Mexican cartel. As he navigates a dangerous underworld, Earl is forced to confront his past mistakes, estranged family, and the unexpected consequences of his choices. With Eastwood ...

Welcome to Uncertain Age! This week, AR (Anna) Nicholas and Dale Basye gaze lovingly at Paolo Sorrentino’s 2013 cinematic masterpiece, The Great Beauty. Starring Toni Servillo as the charismatic yet world-weary Jep Gambardella, the film explores the lavish decadence of Rome’s high society while contemplating art, memory, and the search for meaning in a fleeting world. With its breathtaking cinematography and melancholic humor, The ...

Welcome to Uncertain Age! This week, AR (Anna) Nicholas and Dale Basye dissect the 2023 film Poor Things. Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and starring Academy Award-winning Emma Stone, Poor Things is a surreal and visually stunning tale of transformation, liberation, and self-discovery. Stone plays Bella Baxter, a young woman resurrected by an unorthodox scientist, who embarks on an adventure of enlightenment and exploration, challeng...

Welcome to Uncertain Age! This week, AR (Anna) Nicholas sharpen their critical shears for the 2022 film Master Gardener, while Dale Basye accidentally reviewed the 2005 film The Constant Gardener. This stuff happens sometimes. Is Master Gardener a compelling and meditative character study, or does it struggle to cultivate a meaningful narrative? Is The Constant Gardener a gripping political thriller that remains relevant today, or ...

Welcome to Uncertain Age! This week, AR (Anna) Nicholas and Dale Basye take on the 2011 film Beginners. Starring Ewan McGregor and Christopher Plummer, Beginners is a heartfelt drama that delves into themes of love, identity, and late-life reinvention. Plummer delivers an Oscar-winning performance as Hal, a man who comes out as gay in his seventies after the passing of his wife, while his son, played by McGregor, struggles to navig...

Welcome to Uncertain Age! This week, AR (Anna) Nicholas and Dale Basye explore a selection of Alzheimer's-themed movies, analyzing how film portrays the struggles, realities, and emotional depths of living with the disease. From heart-wrenching dramas to thought-provoking narratives, we examine how cinema captures the complexities of memory loss, identity, and caregiving. Learn more on Uncertain Age! And if there’s a movie, show, o...

Welcome to Uncertain Age! This week, AR (Anna) Nicholas, Dale Basye and special guest writer/director/sculptor Howard Goldberg visit The Old Man: the television series starring Jeff Bridges as Dan Chase, a former CIA operative who has been living off the grid for decades. When his past catches up to him, Chase is forced to go on the run, evading both the FBI and powerful enemies who want him dead. Is the two-season sh...

Welcome to Uncertain Age! This week, AR (Anna) Nicholas and Dale Basye pull up a chair to spend some time with the 2018 David Lowery film, The Old Man and the Gun, where Robert Redford plays a real-life convict who escaped San Quentin to perpetrate a string of heists. Is the film—Redford’s last— a fitting farewell for the legend, or a half-baked feel-good thriller that nobody asked for? Find out on Uncertain Age! And ...

Welcome to Uncertain Age! This week, AR (Anna) Nicholas and Dale Basye are DTW (Down To Watch) the 2001 crime classic Sexy Beast, where Ben Kingsley plays pretty much the exact opposite of his Oscar-winning portrayal as Gandhi. Does the film holdup as a gripping thriller of ruthless gangsters reluctantly reuniting for one last heist, or is it a Cockney mess of violence and humor? Find out on Uncertain Age! And if ther...

Welcome to Uncertain Age! This week, AR (Anna) Nicholas and Dale Basye embrace a “cantor-do” attitude and watch the 2024 Nathan Silver film, Between the Temples, where Jason Schwartzman plays a grieving cantor who finds solace and unexpected joy in an unlikely friendship with his childhood music teacher, Carol Kane. Is the film a poignant portrait of grief, loss, and the search for meaning after the death of a loved o...

Welcome to Uncertain Age! This week, AR (Anna) Nicholas and Dale Basye mourn the tragic loss of cinema visionary David Lynch by digging deep into what could be his strangest film (at least for him): 1999’s The Straight Story. The movie follows the real-life journey of 73-year-old Alvin Straight (Richard Farnsworth in his final role) who, with failing health and no driver's license, travels hundreds of miles on his law...

Welcome to Uncertain Age! This week, AR (Anna) Nicholas and Dale Basye see if there’s life after Death and Other Details, the 2024 mystery drama Hulu show starring Violett Beane and Mandy Patinkin. Is the show a clever whodunit that keeps you guessing until the end or a tired rehash of genre tropes that will have you praying for a merciful release? Find out on Uncertain Age! And if there’s a movie, show, or podcast yo...

Welcome to Uncertain Age! This week, AR (Anna) Nicholas and Dale Basye put up their dukes for Feud, the anthology series created by American Horror Story’s Ryan Murphy that explores the lives and rivalries of famous figures in Hollywood. So is Feud a stylish and campy glimpse into iconic celebrity relationships or is it full of sound and fury, signifying nothing? Find out on Uncertain Age! And if there’s a movie, show...

Welcome to Uncertain Age! This week, AR (Anna) Nicholas and Dale Basye stay in for the holidays and watch The Holdovers, director Alexander Payne’s 2023 comedy-drama where a disgraced English teacher (Paul Giamatti) is forced to spend Christmas break at his elite boarding school with a group of students who have nowhere else to go. Is the film a clever feast of unexpected connection and unlikely bonds, or two hours of...