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Life Happens Reviews

For a movie that hopes to tickle, it actually finds surer footing expressing deep emotions, pinpointing the terror and grief that comes when pleasurably distracting routines are abandoned.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Feb 21, 2013

in the end it still feels like it's written by someone who doesn't actually have kids or hasn't come to the realization of sacrifice yet

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Sep 20, 2012

It's more like watching an extended sitcom than a movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 26, 2012

Conveniently coinciding with the buzz for Krysten Ritter's sitcom Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23, this fitfully amusing comedy could serve as the pilot for her next TV gig, or some other quirky Zooey Deschanel clone.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Apr 25, 2012

It's a sitcom pilot waiting for re-write.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Apr 17, 2012

Cliched premise rescued by some sharp one-liners and an endearing cast.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 13, 2012

Set in Los Angeles, this unfunny comedy succeeds only in perpetuating the worst stereotypes about that city.

Full Review | Apr 13, 2012

The ensemble cast tries its best with generic material that offers little insight into contemporary relationships.

Mature parenting/dating comedy lacks substance, laughs.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 13, 2012

A girls-night-out comedy that strives to be the next Bridesmaids or Sex and the City -- but that never quite captures the spark of either.

Who needs the Republicans to wage war on women when filmmakers like Coiro make supposedly hip movies that promote the same sexist attitudes?

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Apr 13, 2012

A likable concept that deflates into conventionality...

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 13, 2012

Coiro ... mixes an off-beat premise and smart, spiky dialogue with the tired old rhythms of a standard romantic comedy.

First-time feature director Kat Coiro gives an oft-tread story a snappy new spin in the hip and enjoyable comedy "Life Happens."

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 12, 2012

Most appealing is Kate Bosworth, whose sharp humor as Deena has a bite that dares you to dismiss her. Even if you might dismiss her film.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Apr 12, 2012

Not particularly good...but some may find it acceptable as an impoverished Los Angeles-set analogue to 'Sex and the City.'

Full Review | Original Score: D+ | Apr 12, 2012

Co-writers Coiro and Ritter fill in the schematic script with some juicy lines and amusing situations but never lock on to a consistent tone or thematic throughline.

Full Review | Apr 12, 2012

A cliche-laden chick flick that seems conceived solely to capitalize on the success of the far more original (and generous to female friendship) "Bridesmaids."

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 12, 2012

[Bosworth] brings some intriguing shadows to a movie that looks, upon first glance, to be a two-dimensional, post-"Sex and the City" romantic comedy.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 12, 2012

L!fe Happens wants us to believe its message is one of female independence and empowerment.

Full Review | Original Score: .5/4 | Apr 12, 2012

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Life happens: film review.

Director Kat Coiro and co-writer/star Krysten Ritter are definitely onto something special about relationships between women of a certain pre-middle age in this indie comedy

By Justin Lowe

Justin Lowe

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With a cutesy-catchy title (creatively rendered “L!fe Happens” in its festival release), a breezily tweaked spin on a contempo romantic comedy template and three attractive, recognizable lead actresses, the calculus behind director Kat Coiro ’s Life Happens is fairly transparent.

There’s certainly an audience for this sort of slick, self-absorbed comedy and the appealing casting augurs well for a brief theatrical run. But the film will most likely find its real home on the small screen, with attentive viewers curled up on the couch with a dish of ice cream.

Thirtyish hip chicks Kim ( Krysten Ritter ), best friend Deena ( Kate Bosworth ) and third wheel Laura ( Rachel Bilson ) share a spotless, impossibly affordable rental in LA’s trendy Silver Lake district. During a decisive evening of dueling hook ups, Deena ends up with the last remaining condom in the house, leaving Kim unprepared in every way. Flash-forward a year and Kim is now the single mom of a baby boy (several months older than the age suggested by the narrative’s timeline), who ends up with full-time custody after the kid’s Australian pro surfer dad takes off on tour.

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Her dog-walking responsibilities for a boss from hell ( Kristen Johnson ) pose endless scheduling challenges for Kat, but her girlfriends are always there to help with childcare, except when they flake their babysitting commitments. After all, Deena has her rapidly emerging career as a snarky romance advice writer to pursue, not to mention the random guys frequently crossing her path. And wanna-be reality TV star and token virgin Laura always seems to have some humiliating gig as a naked human sushi platter or scantily clad parking attendant on her schedule.

Things get even more complicated when Kat decides to get back into the dating scene, rapidly meeting hunky, almost-divorced Nicholas ( Geoff Stults ) and inadvertently letting slip that Deena is her son’s mom. Now she has to juggle a kid and a guy while trying to figure a way out of the mess she’s created for herself.

Co-writers Coiro and Ritter fill in the schematic script with some juicy lines and amusing situations but never lock on to a consistent tone or thematic throughline. Although the character arcs are fairly predictable, there’s some nice interplay between the actors, particularly Ritter and Bosworth as the thoroughly bonded but frequently conflicted BFFs. Overall however, the script prompts the actors to overplay their roles so broadly it’s practically squirm-worthy.

The filmmakers are definitely onto something special about relationships between women of a certain pre-middle age — the sex-positive girl-power vibe is refreshing, but the execution dissipates most of the film’s potential. These are smart, attractive independent women, who still look to men to validate their self-worth.

Coiro demonstrates an accessible, studio-style flair for directing that suits the material but rarely surprises. Doug Chamberlain’s cinematography and Kathrin Eder’s production design burnish the film’s appearance to a glossy sheen that doesn’t quite fit the women’s reduced circumstances.

Venue: Los Angeles Film Festival Production companies: Dot Dot Dot Productions presents a Stardust Pictures production Cast: Krysten Ritter, Kate Bosworth, Rachel Bilson, Geoff Stults, Justin Kirk, Kristen Johnston, Rhys Coiro, Jason Biggs Director: Kat Coiro Screenwriters: Kat Coiro, Krysten Ritter Producer: Justin L. Levine Director of photography: Doug Chamberlain Music: Mateo Messina Production designer: Kathrin Eder Editors: Adam Catino, Eli Nilsen No rating, 101 minutes

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• FILM REVIEWS

Delightful ‘Life Happens’ Proves Truth is Funny

• Don’t Trust the B---- in Apartment 23
• Geoff Stults
• HollywoodChicago.com Content
• Jason Biggs
• Justin Kirk
• Kate Bosworth
• Kristen Johnson
• Krysten Ritter
• L!fe Happens
• Movie Review
• Patrick McDonald
• PMK*BNC Films
• Rachel Bilson
• Seymour Cassel

CHICAGO – Is it possible to be addled in encroaching middle age? Because “Life Happens,” a film about an ex-party girl turned single mother, starring “it” girl Krysten Ritter, actually is quite funny, and gets those laughs simply by applying some simple truths to a unique situation. Kate Bosworth, Rachel Bilson, Justin Kirk and Kirsten Johnston co-star.

Ritter, who just opened this week as the title character in the awkwardly titled sitcom “Don’t Trust the B—— in Apartment 23,” carries this comedy on her shoulders, which she also co-wrote. She is an impressive scene stealer, but also allows the very strong supporting cast to get their moments. The script relies on some time honored stereotypes – twentysomething virgin, chirpy Mom, horny social misfit, dismissive boss – and turns them on their ear by leading them into unexpected directions. All of the actions of the films evolve from well-established background circumstances, and by the end the laughs come just from the preconceived missteps of the well-developed characters.

Kim (Krysten Ritter), Deena (Kate Bosworth) and Laura (Rachel Bilson) are young adult roommates in a Los Angeles bungalow. The film frantically starts out with Kim and Deena fighting over the last condom in the house, as they both have potential mates in their bedrooms (Laura doesn’t participate, she has promised herself to remain a virgin until marriage). Deena wins the rubber competition, and one year later it is discovered that Kim has a newborn boy resulting from that night. The father, an Australian surfer, decides he’s not ready to be a Dad, and leaves Kim to raise their son.

This throws the household into a tizzy, as three young women aren’t exactly equipped to deal with child rearing. Kim misses her old life, Deena is a struggling writer and Laura continues to grab any odd job the City of Angels offers. This allows Kim no social life beyond caring for her boss Francesca (Kristen Johnston), but things are about to change when she meets Nicholas (Geoff Stults) at a work event. She convinces Deena to double date with Nicholas’s friend Henri (Justin Kirk), and the balance of the roommates’ friendship is about to shift as a result.

There are some blips in setting up the story, but at least it’s not conventional. The scenario goes from the condom fight to the panel card “one year later,” and the baby is discovered in the back seat during a car-to-car flirting session. That’s pretty good shorthand, and starts the story buzzing. Kim and Deena have terrific friendship chemistry and Kate Bosworth has a good time sinking her teeth into the writer’s role. Rachel Bilson is fairly consistent comic relief as the only virgin over twenty in Los Angeles, and the payoff is worth the set-up.

Actually all of the characters act like persons on the singles scene, albeit actor pretty. Geoff Stults (now on TV ’s “The Finder”) plays his handsome guy as a vulnerable divorcee, and Justin Kirk of “Weeds” hits his Henri character out of the park, adding a bad mustache to a clueless social soul. Hooking up is tough, even for the beautiful, and the cast has a good time playing out those often uncomfortable transitions. The hook-ups are also shown from a female perspective, and reflects the changing roles in society bluntly.

Movies are about conflict resolution and the dramatic arcs along the way to the resolution, and “Life Happens” garner the laughs from those arcs. Krysten Ritter obviously paced the rhythms of the story through writing the script (with director Kat Coiro) and made sure that all the situations, while glammed up a bit, still rang with a honesty that felt natural. She also has an ear for glib dialogue, as the characters say the strangest things at the oddest moments, which again offers a nice platform for laughs.

Geez, analyzing a “chick flick” (not a fan of that term) movie that intently is like wrestling with air, but the romantic comedy is in such a moribund state that having a burst of refreshment like “Life Happens” – stupid title by the way – is a breath of fresh air. Director Kat Coiro has another film slated for 2012, “While We Were Here” (better title), and that will also star Kate Bosworth.

Getting back to the addled nature of middle age, it’s probably just symptomatic of the addled nature of film criticism. There has to be many treks through the romantic comedy desert until an oasis comes along, and that’s when “Life Happens.”

“Life Happens” continues its limited release on April 13th, including Chicago. See local listings for show times and theaters. Featuring Krysten Ritter, Kate Bosworth, Rachel Bilson, Justin Kirk, Geoff Stults, Kristen Johnson, Jason Biggs and Seymour Cassel. Written by Krysten Ritter and Kat Coiro. Directed by Kat Coiro. Rated “R”

By PATRICK McDONALD Senior Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com [email protected]

© 2012 Patrick McDonald, HollywoodChicago.com

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Life Happens deals with the topic of abortion in a unique, personal and ultimately uplifting way. Director Ash Greyson, who was nearly aborted just months before the Roe vs Wade decision, se... Read all Life Happens deals with the topic of abortion in a unique, personal and ultimately uplifting way. Director Ash Greyson, who was nearly aborted just months before the Roe vs Wade decision, sets out on a journey to find others like him. In the process he uncovers the divisive issue... Read all Life Happens deals with the topic of abortion in a unique, personal and ultimately uplifting way. Director Ash Greyson, who was nearly aborted just months before the Roe vs Wade decision, sets out on a journey to find others like him. In the process he uncovers the divisive issues, eventually finds some common ground, and seals it all up with compelling first person s... Read all

• Ashley Greyson
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• Mar 11, 2013
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• Runtime 1 hour 44 minutes

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Krysten Ritter (Kim) Kate Bosworth (Deena) Rachel Bilson (Laura) Geoff Stults (Nicholas) Justin Kirk (Henri) Fallon Goodson (Jayde) Andrea Savage (Patti) Kristen Johnston (Francesca) Rhys Coiro (Marc) Jason Biggs (Sergei)

BFFs Kim and Deena fight to maintain normalcy in their lives after Kim gets pregnant and has a baby.

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Lfe happens, common sense media reviewers.

Mature parenting/dating comedy lacks substance, laughs.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Positive messages about friendship and learning to

Kim is struggling to juggle the demands of single

A boss verbally berates her employee. Some yelling

Many sexual references, some quite graphic, and a

Frequent swearing, including "f--k," &qu

Apple products are shown (a laptop, for instance)

Several scenes take place at bars and parties wher

Parents need to know that L!fe Happens is a very uneven indie comedy about a young single mom who's trying to establish a career and meet a decent guy while taking care of her baby. She and her best friends (all roommates) are navigating the Los Angeles singles scene, which leads to plenty of sex talk and…

Positive Messages

Positive messages about friendship and learning to be responsible are diluted by characters' iffy attitudes and behavior (lying, not being there for friends, etc.). L!fe Happens attempts to be frank about the challenges of parenting, particularly as a single mom -- and it does make it clear that taking care of a baby is tough for anyone (though, if anything, parenting is even harder than it appears here).

Positive Role Models

Kim is struggling to juggle the demands of single parenthood while trying to establish a career, date, and maintain her friendships, and the film shows how tough this can be. She's a good mom despite the hurdles, and it's clear she's on a difficult path. That said, she also tells a potential love interest a really big lie, and she doesn't always put her son first. Her friends also have flaws, but everyone ultimately means well.

Violence & Scariness

A boss verbally berates her employee. Some yelling and bickering.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Many sexual references, some quite graphic, and a few sex scenes that, although they involve loud noises and people on top of each other, imply more than they show. One woman prefers anonymous encounters and actively resists men who seek relationships. In an early scene, two roommates scurry around their apartment looking for a condom as their lovers await. Some skimpy attire and discussion of one character's virginity.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Frequent swearing, including "f--k," "bitch," "ass," "s--t," "p---y," and much more.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Drinking, drugs & smoking.

Several scenes take place at bars and parties where everybody is drinking.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that L!fe Happens is a very uneven indie comedy about a young single mom who's trying to establish a career and meet a decent guy while taking care of her baby. She and her best friends (all roommates) are navigating the Los Angeles singles scene, which leads to plenty of sex talk and a few passionate encounters (expect some loud noises and partially clad characters groping, though no actual nudity). Characters also drink and swear ("f--k," "s--t," etc.) frequently, and they don't always make smart choices when it comes to parenting, friendship, or relationships. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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What's the Story?

Kim ( Krysten Ritter ), Deena ( Kate Bosworth ), and Laura ( Rachel Bilson ) live together in Los Angeles as they attempt to carve out their careers. Active in the dating and hook-up scene, their lives change when Kim gets pregnant after ceding the last condom in the house to Deena one fateful night. A year later, Kim is a mom to a chubby cheeked cutie. With baby Max's father nowhere in sight but her friends by her side, Kim tries to juggle motherhood and work -- she's the assistant to a celebrity dogwalker -- and, when time allows, dating. Meanwhile, Deena and Laura take turns babysitting and living their own freer, less responsible lives. But when Kim meets an appealing guy ( Geoff Stults ) at a bar, she finally takes a breath to acknowledge the impossibility of it all.

Is It Any Good?

L!FE HAPPENS is a downer, not because it's depressing -- single motherhood is, in fact, presented here like a zany, wacky adventure -- but because it lets viewers down in so many ways. Take the actors, who are trying their best in the face of material that labors too hard. It's a pity even Bosworth isn't enough to rescue this vehicle.

The plot has the potential to be interesting, but the execution is woefully tin-eared. The setups with Kim ostensibly being "charmingly" candid about what a killjoy having a baby can be for a single woman looking for love aren't charming at all, or even edgy for that matter. They're just annoying. And the ending? You can spot it mountains away.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Kim's responsibilities. How does she juggle parenting, dating, and work? Do you think she's doing a good job? How does she compare to other young, single moms you've seen in movies or on TV shows?

What's important when you're looking for a potential partner? What mistakes do the characters in L!fe Happens make? Are they realistic?

How does the movie depict sex ? Parents, talk to your teens about your own values regarding sex and relationships.

Movie Details

• In theaters : April 13, 2012
• On DVD or streaming : August 28, 2012
• Cast : Kate Bosworth , Krysten Ritter , Rachel Bilson
• Director : Kat Coiro
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Dot Dot Dot Productions
• Genre : Comedy
• Topics : Friendship
• Run time : 100 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : sexual content including references
• Last updated : August 1, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

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They May Have Been Gone, But They’re Still Classic

By isa barnett.

• Apr 10, 2012

Life Happens (A PopEntertainment.com Movie Review)

Updated: Apr 7, 2023

Life Happens

LIFE HAPPENS (2012)

Starring Krysten Ritter, Kate Bosworth, Rachel Bilson, Geoff Stults, Justin Kirk, Kristen Johnson, Fallon Goodson, Andrea Savage, Connor Ross, Zachary Ross, Rhys Coiro, Jason Biggs, Seymour Cassel and Lauren Conrad.

Screenplay by Krysten Ritter and Kat Coiro.

Directed by Kat Coiro.

Distributed by PMK*BNC Films. 100 minutes. Rated R.

Life Happens  would never have happened if not for  Bridesmaids.

A girlie buddy film, like a Y-chromosome Judd Apatow offshoot,  Life Happens  does share its predecessor’s savvy mix of girls-gone-wild raunchiness and traditional chick-flick growing. (In fact, the movie goes a tiny bit heavy on the baby love to expect a big crossover guy audience – but then again, the same could have been said about  Bridesmaids’  wedding fever.)

And while this movie is not nearly as good as  Bridesmaids , this charming starring debut by actress/co-writer Krysten Ritter does have some very good moments mixed in.

Showing off some of the comic attitude that is turning Ritter into a star with her new buzz sitcom  Don’t Trust the B—- in Apt. 23 , her movie is not as well-written as that show, but still has some terrific moments.

The film starts off in a prologue that kind of gives you an idea what you are in for. Kim (Ritter) and her gorgeous and hip writer bestie Deana (Kate Bosworth) are in the middle of a night of meaningless pickups when it turns out there is only one condom left in the household stash. Deana grabs the rubber and nine months later, Kim pays the price of poor contraceptive inventory.

Which puts her in a bit of a quandary, can she find career satisfaction, true love and the coolest LA parties as a single mom?

It is a bit of a sitcomish situation – in fact it’s a bit of a sitcomish script – but it has enough funny moments to make things enjoyable. And Ritter’s star quality shines through, even when the material isn’t as good as she deserves.

Needless to say, a little baby around a female party house (a third roomie, played by former  Dawson’s Creek  hottie Rachel Bilson, is under-sketched and under-utilized) leads to loads of complications. The ladies deal with crazy bosses and oddball (but oh-so-cute) men who eventually appreciate the girls for their quirks, not despite them.

Life Happens  will not become the cultural touchstone that  Bridesmaids  did, but as a harmless female-centric trifle, with the added bonus of seeing a star on the rise who appears like she may go supernova in her follow-up role as a certain  B—-.

Jay S. Jacobs

Copyright ©2012 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: April 10, 2012.

#babies #GeoffStults #lifehappens #KristenJohnson #donttrustthebinapt23 #LfeHappens #bridesmaids #ConnorRoss #JaySJacobs #katcoiro #RhysCoiro #PopEntertainmentcom #AndreaSavage #SeymourCassel #FallonGoodson #katebosworth #ZacharyRoss #KrystenRitter #LaurenConrad #moviereview #JustinKirk #pregnancy #JasonBiggs #rachelbilson

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Life Happens (2010) Stream and Watch Online

Need to watch ' Life Happens ' on your TV or mobile device at home? Tracking down a streaming service to buy, rent, download, or watch the -directed movie via subscription can be challenging, so we here at Moviefone want to do the heavy lifting. Read on for a listing of streaming and cable services - including rental, purchase, and subscription choices - along with the availability of 'Life Happens' on each platform when they are available. Now, before we get into the fundamentals of how you can watch 'Life Happens' right now, here are some particulars about the BrightBulb Entertainment ACLJ Films comedy flick. Released November 1st, 2010, 'Life Happens' stars Gary Graham , Scott Hamilton , Alveda King , Jim Palmer The movie has a runtime of about 1 hr 40 min, and received a user score of 52 (out of 100) on TMDb, which put together reviews from 5 well-known users. Curious to know what the movie's about? Here's the plot: "Life Happens deals with the topic of abortion in a unique personal and ultimately uplifting way Director Ash Greyson who was nearly aborted just months before the Roe vs Wade decision sets out on a journey to find others like him In the process he uncovers the divisive issues eventually finds some common ground and seals it all up with compelling first person stories from mothers and children who narrowly escaped abortion While pulling no punches he skillfully replaces rhetoric and religion with hope and heart in what may be the most approachable film ever created on the topic" .

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• "Coiro and Ritter fill in the schematic script with some juicy lines and amusing situations but never lock on to a consistent tone or thematic throughline"  Justin Lowe : The Hollywood Reporter
• "[Bosworth] brings some intriguing shadows to a movie that looks, upon first glance, to be a two-dimensional, post-'Sex and the City' romantic comedy (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of five)"  Elizabeth Weitzman : New York Daily News
• "A well-acted if mild and silly comedy (...) Most appealing is Kate Bosworth, whose sharp humor as Deena has a bite that dares you to dismiss her. Even if you might dismiss her film."  David DeWitt : The New York Times
• "It all sounds dreadful, like the pilot for another brainless comedy series on network TV, but it grows on you."  Rex Reed : The New York Observer
• "It emerges as an amusing kaleidoscope of contemporary urban angst and romantic aspirations."  Gary Goldstein : Los Angeles Times

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LIFE Happens (2022) short film review

November 18, 2023 By Carl Burgess Leave a Comment

A man wakes up in a bedroom that features a walk-in wardrobe containing just four outfits. The four outfits each tell a story from his past in the short film LIFE Happens.

As we have stated many times before, we do love an independent film, albeit short or feature, that makes the viewer think. Of course, it’s great if said film is polished with excellent visuals, performance, and sound, but story is king. If a film manages to tick all the aforementioned boxes, then you’re on to a real winner. Here, with LIFE Happens, James Dubbeldam makes us think with a very well-made seven-minute short film.

A man called Martin (Jeffrey Hurst) wakes up in a large bed. The bedroom is mostly devoid of any home comforts though; no bedside lamp, no books or television sets. Just a bed, a set of drawers, one chair, and the walls painted with grey tones. There is a walk-in wardrobe, but the shelves are all empty, and a rail holds just four outfits, all hanging in a neat row.

Martin doesn’t seem confused or scared though, he seems to know where he is and what he has to do. After taking the first outfit, Martin is transported to the day of his wedding to Cynthia (Bita Paige) as seen via grainy home videos. He removes the outfit and takes a second one down. Once on, he then sees the birth of his daughter and how he wasn’t much help when it came to parental duties, leaving it to his tired and stressed wife. A third outfit takes him back to a time when his daughter (Nathalie Soto Cuzin) is a little older. She is talking to her father when his phone rings and he walks out of the room, whilst she is still mid-sentence.

It is assumed that Martin is in purgatory, and the suits represent important stages of his life, sort of like the Ghost of Christmas Past in A Christmas Carol, only there is no chance to make things better and atone for any wrongdoings here. This is the end.

This is now the third film we have managed to review by James Dubbeldam, and like the previous two, we can’t help but be in awe of his creativity, and his ability to “think outside the box” and make such thought-provoking pieces. LIFE Happens is an intelligent short film with a muted-yet-strong performance by Jeffrey Hurst. Credit also has to go to Robert Ballmaier for his rather haunting score. It kind of reminded us of the score used by Spike Jonze in his masterpiece HER by Arcade Fire, and if that is not a compliment, then I’m not sure what is.

With a few awards to its name already, we wouldn’t be surprised if LIFE Happens goes on to win many more should it feature in future festivals. Recommended.

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After the relatively warm-and-fuzzy space odysseys of “ Arrival ” and “ Passengers ” it’s salutary to see a relatively big studio sci-fi picture in which the final frontier is once again relegated to the status of Ultimate Menace. Genre thrill-seekers disgusted/disappointed by “ Prometheus ” but still salivating like Pavlov’s Dog at the prospect of “Alien: Covenant” might find “Life,” directed by Daniel Espinosa , a satisfactory stopgap measure, a cinematic Epipen of outer-space mayhem to steady the nerves until the ostensible Main Event. As for myself, I’ve been gorging on such fare since before “ Alien ” itself—“It! The Terror from Beyond Space” and “Planet of the Vampires” were among my various cinematic bread and butters as a young maladjusted cinephile.

As such, “Life” struck me as several cuts above “meh” but never made me jump out of my seat. The picture takes place almost entirely on a claustrophobic, labyrinthine space station; director Espinosa and cinematographer Seamus McGarvey have a lot of fun in the early scene “floating” the camera along with the space station crew. Ryan Reynold’s cocky Roy is the cowboy of the bunch; he goes on a spacewalk to catch an off-course capsule full of research materials straight from Mars. Cautious medical officer David, played by an often bug-eyed Jake Gyllenhaal , is initially the fella who says things like “We weren’t trained for this .” Rebecca Ferguson ’s Miranda plays den mother to him and others. Science dude Hugh ( Ariyon Bakare ), paralyzed from the waist down, loves zero gravity conditions, and initially loves the single-cell organism (named “Calvin” by a group of contest-winning schoolchildren down on home sweet Earth) he’s wrested from a sample of Martian soil. Two other crew members are played by Olga Dihovichnaya and Hiroyuki Sanada , the latter back in space for the first time since Danny Boyle ’s 2007 “Sunshine.” 

You may remember the nickname “Dead Meat” from “Hot Shots,” or the phrase “Bantha Fodder” from one of the “ Star Wars ” movies. However. One of the bigger-name crew members does get to play (spoiler alert, sort of) a reprise of the Steven Seagal role in “ Executive Decision .” That’s because little Calvin suddenly starts growing awful fast. At first it’s kind of like a living version of those icky sticky wall-tumbling toys. Which is bad enough. Eventually it grows into a tentacled cross between a mutant lotus and an irritated cobra. It’s pretty gnarly. But early on I thought, let’s face it, it ain’t Giger. Or Giger-league. And without that you’re always going to suffer by comparison. The other effects and settings are solid but unextraordinary, although the hiccupped blood bubbles that float around after escaping from Calvin’s victims are a nice ghoulish touch.

There’s also the constant, insistent score by Jon Ekstrand , bearing down right from the opening and not doing much for the cause. There are some disquieting bits—the early scene in which the maturing Calvin grabs on to Hugh’s gloved hand and simply will not let go is a nice burner, for sure. But the movie’s story “beats” are inescapably commonplace. (There’s even a bit derived from “The Thing From Another World” in which one ill-advised character contemplates Calvin’s scientific awesomeness.) Either screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick haven’t got the goods, or there really are only so many things you can do with a homicidal space creature and a manned ship.

It doesn’t help that just as the movie should be hurtling toward its climax, it pauses for some character development. A children’s book that makes a Chekhovian appearance in the “first act” holds the key to survival in the final one, and I didn’t buy it. What the filmmakers don’t understand is that when you try to add overtly cerebral notes to ruthless B-picture scenarios, you actually wind up making your final product dumber than the movies you think you’re transcending. “Life” bounces back a bit with a commitedly sour punchline, and then blows that by punching up a ‘70s hit you’ve heard a million times before in a million better cinematic contexts. And that’s “Life.” 

Glenn Kenny

Glenn Kenny was the chief film critic of Premiere magazine for almost half of its existence. He has written for a host of other publications and resides in Brooklyn. Read his answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Life (2017)

Rated R for language throughout, some sci-fi violence and terror.

103 minutes

Jake Gyllenhaal as Dr. David Jordan

Rebecca Ferguson as Miranda North

Ryan Reynolds as Roy Adams

Hiroyuki Sanada as Sho Kendo

Ariyon Bakare as Hugh Derry

Olga Dihovichnaya as Katerina Golovkin

Camiel Warren-Taylor as Dominique

Naoko Mori as Kazumi

• Daniel Espinosa
• Rhett Reese
• Paul Wernick

Cinematographer

• Seamus McGarvey
• Mary Jo Markey
• Frances Parker
• Jon Ekstrand

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• The True Story Behind the Surprise Netflix Hit <em>Baby Reindeer</em>

The True Story Behind the Surprise Netflix Hit Baby Reindeer

Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Netflix series Baby Reindeer .

In his one-man play-turned-hit Netflix series Baby Reindeer , Scottish comedian Richard Gadd recounts the harrowing true story of how his experience with being stalked forced him to confront a buried trauma.

Playing a fictionalized version of himself named Donny Dunn, Gadd unpacks the years-long stalking and harassment campaign he endured at the hands of a middle-aged woman he refers to by the pseudonym Martha (played with a chilling intensity by Jessica Gunning) while struggling to make it as a stand-up and writer in London. As is depicted in the show, the stalking began in the wake of Gadd being groomed, repeatedly sexually assaulted, and raped by an older male TV industry mentor (named Darrien in the show and played by Tom Goodman-Hill)—an ordeal that left him reeling emotionally, questioning his sexuality, and wrestling with extreme self-loathing. Still, Gadd doesn't shy away from his own complicity in what transpired with Martha, frequently painting himself in a negative light as the story unfolds over the course of seven episodes.

“It would be unfair to say she was an awful person and I was a victim. That didn’t feel true,” he told The Guardian in 2019 following the sold-out inaugural run of the Baby Reindeer play. "I did loads of things wrong and made the situation worse. I wasn’t a perfect person [back then], so there’s no point saying I was."

When Gadd debuted his one-man show at the 2019 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, it had been two years since he had seen or heard from Martha. Three years earlier, while the stalking was still in full swing, he had won the festival's top prize for his comedy show Monkey See, Monkey Do , which explored his experience as a survivor of sexual violence. The Baby Reindeer Netflix series, which is currently at number two on the streamer's most-watched charts following its release last week, is an amalgam of the two stage shows.

"It felt like a risky thing—to do a 'warts and all' version of the story where I held my hands up to the mistakes I had made with Martha," Gadd wrote in a piece that accompanied the show's debut . "The foolish flirting. The cowardly excuses as to why we could not be together. Not to mention the themes of internalized prejudice and sexual shame that underpinned it all. The graphic details of the drugging and grooming and sexual violence I had experienced only a few years before...But equally I could not shy away from the truth of what had happened to me. This was a messy, complicated situation. But one that needed to be told, regardless."

Here's what to know about the true story behind Baby Reindeer .

What happened with Martha?

Similar to how the show begins, Gadd has said that the stalking started after he gave Martha a free cup of tea when she came into the London pub where he was working in 2015. “At first everyone at the pub thought it was funny that I had an admirer,” he told The Times . "Then she started to invade my life, following me, turning up at my gigs, waiting outside my house, sending thousands of voicemails and emails."

Over the next four and a half years, Gadd recounts that Martha sent him 41,071 emails, 350 hours' worth of voicemails, 744 tweets, 46 Facebook messages, 106 pages of letters, and a variety of strange gifts. Every email that appears in the Netflix series is a message that Gaad received in real life. She also harassed a number of people who were close to Gaad, including his parents and a trans woman (named Teri in the show and played by Nava Mau) whom he had begun dating shortly before the stalking began.

When Gadd tried to go to the police, he discovered that the laws surrounding harassment and abuse are, in his own words, "so stupid." Despite the fact that the show presents Martha as having been previously convicted on similar charges, Gadd was told he needed concrete evidence of direct threats for authorities to take any action.

"They look for black and white, good and evil, and that’s not how it works," he told The Independent . "You can really affect someone’s life within the parameters of legality, and that is sort of mad."

How do things stand today?

In the show, Martha ultimately receives a nine-month prison sentence and five-year restraining order for stalking Donny. In real life, Gaad has never disclosed the details of how the situation was resolved beyond the fact that he had "mixed feelings" about it.

"I can’t emphasize enough how much of a victim she is in all this," he told The Independent . "Stalking and harassment is a form of mental illness. It would have been wrong to paint her as a monster, because she’s unwell, and the system’s failed her."

As for how Gaad's sexual assault has continued to impact his life, the finale culminates in a closing sequence in which Donny shows up at Darrien's home to confront him only to accept an offer to work on his new show instead. A distressed Donny then finds himself at a bar where he is offered a drink on the house in a moment that flips his first interaction with Martha on its head.

"I think that was almost the most truthful scene of the entire show. What abuse does is it creates psychological damage as well as physical damage," Gadd told GQ . "There’s a pattern where a lot of people who have been abused feel like they need their abusers. I don’t think it was a cynical ending, it was showing an element of abuse that hadn’t been seen on television before, which is, unfortunately, the deeply entrenched, negative, psychological effects of attachment you can sometimes have with your abuser."

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‘Humane’ Review: An Ethical Crisis and a Dinner Party

Caitlin Cronenberg’s debut feature is set in a dystopian world that’s alarmingly believable.

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By Alissa Wilkinson

“Humane” is a thought experiment sprung to bloody life, a cross between the trolley problem and dystopian extinction nightmares. Set in the very near future, it tries to tackle a cascade of ethical questions. Who counts as valuable? What does it mean to be good? If humans wreck the earth, what will we do to survive? Do we even deserve it?

Those are gargantuan questions, enough to power several graduate-level philosophy courses. But “Humane” wraps them in admirably small-scale trappings: a family drama with immensely high stakes. Just after widespread ecological collapse, every country on earth has shut its borders and has committed to reducing its population within one year.

In Canada, the target reduction is 20 percent, and to coax people into joining the effort, the government’s Department of Citizen Strategy has come up with language as euphemistic as its name. People who agree to be euthanized are “enlisting” in the “war.” Posters declare that “Enlistment = Opportunity,” because the families of those who enlist receive a substantial payout, enabling higher education or homeownership.

The volunteers tend to be older people, but they’re not the only ones being euthanized. It doesn’t take much to realize who else might be willing: prison inmates facing long sentences, terminally ill people, financially disadvantaged parents, undocumented immigrants whose families are promised a fast track to citizenship. But people haven’t been enlisting fast enough to reach the threshold. On TV news, some are beginning to discuss “conscription.”

“Humane,” directed by Caitlin Cronenberg (a daughter of the celebrated horror auteur David Cronenberg) in her feature debut, builds this world at a satisfyingly rapid speed, raising stakes so quickly that you’re left breathless as the implications sink in. (That also means some of the logical leaps — like how you’d get the whole world to agree to these measures — fade into the background, and that’s fine.)

The screenplay, by Michael Sparaga, sets up a society that hasn’t imploded yet but is about to, and is recognizably littered with the detritus of a discourse-obsessed culture very like our own. People talk about conspiracies, about the lies of mainstream media, about calling the crisis the “Asian collapse.”

Then the film shifts to more insular environs: a well-off family with a lot at stake. There’s a former war correspondent, Charles (Peter Gallagher), his celebrity chef wife, Dawn (Uni Park), and his four children — an anthropologist and conscription supporter, Jared (Jay Baruchel); a disgraced pharmaceutical chief executive, Rachel (Emily Hampshire); a piano prodigy and sober addict, Noah (Sebastian Chacon); and an aspiring actress, Ashley (Alanna Bale). Charles has called the family together for a dinner party. They arrive, unwillingly, because they all kind of hate each other. And of course, they soon find out that this gathering is not what they expected.

Unfortunately, the first twenty minutes or so of “Humane” are the most powerful. At some point, the pileup of hypotheticals starts to tax the imagination, while cutting into the kind of character development that might aid the audience in actually caring what happens to the family members. (Most of them are pretty reprehensible, too, which doesn’t help much.) A few twists and turns might have helped, but the story eventually starts to feel like it’s making up new rules every 10 minutes to throw us off, and not in a way that is satisfying. Chacon, playing the most three-dimensional character, is hypnotically watchable. But the rest of the family is hard to latch onto, and they feel oddly underdeveloped in contrast to the world they’re living in.

That said, it’s a strangely sticky story, one that lingered after the movie was over. Most of the scenarios “Humane” presents feel only a few clicks away from possibility, and the ethical questions it raises, while only shallowly explored, are disconcerting.

The most terrifying part of “Humane” is not the family drama as much as the societal one, and knowing that euphemistic language has often been used by modern authoritarians to control populations makes it all the more frightening. This isn’t a movie with much to say, but it’s the sort of thought experiment that will keep you up at night.

Humane Rated R for a whole lot of blood and violence and language. Running time: 1 hour 33 minutes. In theaters.

Alissa Wilkinson is a Times movie critic. She’s been writing about movies since 2005. More about Alissa Wilkinson

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Shōgun ’s Creators on That Ambiguous, Audacious Ending

The series’ final moment looks far beyond the horizon..

Shōgun , FX’s runaway hit of a historical epic set in feudal Japan, aired its final episode Tuesday. By the end of the saga—a fictionalized tale loosely based on the birth of the Tokugawa shogunate, adapted from James Clavell’s 1975 novel —the Englishman John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) has not found the deliverance he seeks. Instead, our plucky rogue is permanently marooned on the shores of Japan, in peonage to the panoptic dominion of Lord Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada). Everything goes wrong for him in the final hour: His flagship, pillaged, rests at the bottom of the ocean; his crew has disappeared into the streets of Edo; and Lady Mariko (Anna Sawai)—his lover and confidante—has sacrificed herself to scuttle the plans of the perpetually scheming Yabushige (Tadanobu Asano). Blackthorne is left without much to live for, and yet, Shōgun boldly spins his destitution as a triumph. Maybe now, after the captain has been sufficiently broken, he can finally start living.

At least that was my takeaway from Shōgun ’s closing moments, in which Blackthorne and Toranaga share a glance of begrudging admiration at the water’s edge. These final minutes are destined to be among the most scrutinized scenes in a series that has already blessed us with so many riddles to parse. Thankfully, Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo—the husband-and-wife co-creators, co-writers, and executive producers behind Shōgun —were willing to speak to Slate about the finale and the show’s knotty philosophy. We talked about the meaning imbued in that quiet closing sequence, those queasy visions of Blackthorne’s imagined European homecoming interlaced throughout the episode, and the difficulty of expressing the virtues of servility to a culturally individualistic audience. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Slate: I think the biggest question people are going to have about the finale surrounds those strange scenes focusing on an old man, on his deathbed in a decidedly English environment, who appears to be John Blackthorne. You could understand these shots in a variety of different ways. Is it a flash-forward? A dream sequence? An alternative timeline? How should those sequences be interpreted, from your perspective?

Justin Marks: There’s a little ambiguity that we’d like to stay there. But definitively, after the shock of Mariko’s death, we initially frame the story as if it were the recollection of an old man looking back on his life with regret in some way, only to find that what we were really seeing was the dream of a young man looking forward with regret to the life that he could possibly have. We really wanted Blackthorne’s choice at the end of this show, from the very beginning, to be about a denial of this path. To turn towards a new identity, a new life. There’s a very famous portion of the book where Blackthorne proposes seppuku , and that’s a moment that carries a lot of weight. But it occurs earlier in the book, and we didn’t feel like it was earned, so we kicked it down the line to where it carried more weight. That began to be the Rosetta stone that allowed us to open up Blackthorne throughout the season.

Rachel Kondo: I do think, though, that we were always very hesitant about his proposed seppuku because it was a concept that I think all of us in the writers room were obviously aware of the cultural weight of. I don’t think we were always comfortable with knowing how to express it, how to frame it, and when to present it, if at all. We didn’t know where it would land. We had to learn our characters better, learn their journeys better, and ultimately wait for the moment to present itself.

Marks: We felt there was a little bit of, I don’t know, almost a cosmic humor, almost at Blackthorne’s expense in the long tradition of many, many decades of Hollywood doing the white savior archetype. Under different circumstances, this might be a classic white savior moment: “Please accept my life in protest of what you’re doing to this village,” except for the fact that we reveal that the whole setup with the village is false. It’s a scam. It’s just meant to get him to that point. So we really liked that because it was about bringing Blackthorne to a certain brink, but also an entirely constructed and fictional scheme that Toranaga has created for himself.

In those sequences, we see the man fondle a rosary, which to the viewer appears to be the one that belonged to Mariko. However, later in the finale, we see Blackthorne drop that rosary into the ocean.

Marks: That was the rejection of his future self. It was what confirmed, once and for all, that that future would never be possible: to say goodbye to her now, and not to bring her rosary home as some souvenir from a colonial exploit or something.

I found myself surprisingly wrapped up in the show’s romance subplot, which is not what I was expecting walking into what is, on its face, a swashbuckling adventure with a ton of flashy violence. Were you surprised at all, in the writers room, at just how central Blackthorne and Mariko’s love affair became?

Kondo: I’m a huge fan of any costume dramas, and romance is often at the center of it all. I think we always did know that it would be a part of it. I think we didn’t understand how it would manifest. I think that obviously it had to come through the connection between our actors and how they found their way together. What I think was surprising about their connection was that it went so much deeper than just romance. There was a profound intimacy between the two of them. At any given time in the show, they’re the only two people who can actually speak to each other and can connect on any level, and there’s a real loneliness that each of them addresses within the other. It became a more profound kind of attachment, and one really embedded in experience rather than just physical.

Marks: I don’t want to call it a course correction because I think what James Clavell did in the novel worked for the novel, but—how do I put this? There was a lot of sex in the novel. A lot.

Kondo: Hundreds of pages.

Marks: Is there maybe an Outlander version of Shōgun that could exist? I mean that in a great, sex-positive kind of way. Sure, of course, but I don’t think that that was within the scope and scale of what we were trying to achieve. The reference that was always there in the writers room for this show was In the Mood for Love . It’s one of the greatest films ever made, full stop. The fact that it’s not already sitting at the top of Sight and Sound is just a crime. This isn’t the story of the working woman who turns away from it to finally fall in love or something. She does fulfill her dream and her purpose. Yes, it requires sacrifice at the end for her, and that is a tragedy, but it also was a victory for her because she finally lived for an expression of how she wanted to shape the world. That is a triumph, and it’s a triumph that is denied almost every other character on this show—and a lot of the women on this show—and so, really, we mark that as a victory. And Blackthorne was there to pay witness to it and to understand it in the end, I hope.

I haven’t read Shōgun , but throughout the show, I got the sense that this adaptation was pretty faithful to the novel. So, for all the people like me who haven’t read the book, what deviations did you make?

Marks: There was a large chunk of a section that we really deviated from—it’ll be interesting to see what the reactions are. I think you’ll never know if you didn’t read the book: The theater sequence in Episode 6 is a total invention. And the deaths in Episode 8, both Nagakado and Hiromatsu’s—in the book, both of those characters just quietly exited stage left. We felt that that would be unbecoming of them as characters. We wanted to land them in the right way, and there was this wonderful scene in the book, one of my favorite scenes in the book, where these three generals come in and commit seppuku in front of Toranaga in protest of what he’s doing and Toranaga doesn’t yield, even though what he’s doing is a ploy and he needs them to commit seppuku. We felt that it lacked the emotional resonance that Hiromatsu’s death could carry, especially if Hiromatsu—I don’t know if Rachel disagrees—in the end knew what he was doing.

Kondo: Oh, for the record, I think Hiromatsu knew what he was doing. Throughout the entire season, Hiromatsu is the first to admit, “I’m not as smart as you, my Lord, I don’t get what your calculations are, I don’t know what the plan is.” I think it’s the only instance in the entire season in which he actually one-ups Toranaga, when it came to the plan. I don’t think Toranaga expected him to take it that far.

Let’s talk about Toranaga’s Keyser Söze moment, where he fully reveals his ambition and all of his puppet strings. It’s a scene where you realize that Toranaga is, in fact, subject to the typical human faults of greed and power—that he isn’t levitating above it all. And suddenly, as a viewer, I liked him less. Is that how Toranaga is ultimately left in the book? Or did you feel the need to amp up his villainy at all?

Marks: It’s identical to how he’s portrayed in the book. That’s so amazing to me. It’s a pretty bold ending, after 1,200 pages, to come down to that moment. The only difference is that Toranaga reveals that secret heart to the reader and the reader alone. In our story, we wanted it to be with Yabushige as he beckons his death because we knew we were sending Yabushige into oblivion. So it was the perfect well to whisper into, to use In the Mood for Love terminology.

Tokugawa Ieyasu, the real-life model for Toranaga, is a revered figure in world history and Japanese history. He’s someone who impacted 260 years of peace after a century of civil war, and he constructed Edo, which would later become Tokyo. That’s no small feat. We want to give a great man his due, if you will. Having said that—and maybe it’s a modern thing—I always feel in the back of my mind this concern when it comes to how we tell stories and craft the mythology of great men. It was part of the reason we reminded the audience of Fuji’s baby, who had to die so Tokyo could someday live.

Kondo: I think it was important to Hiroyuki Sanada, who played Lord Toranaga, to never shy away from the realities of this character and even the real historical figure. But what I think was important to him, and what I’ve been hearing him discuss, is what sets him apart from the other almost maniacal characters who did end up constructing and shaping history for us. What separates Toranaga is that he had a plan and a vision that far exceeded his lifetime. Again, I think that a more modern great man, if you will, is more concerned with how he will be propped up in this lifetime, or maybe even the generation just after.

Now I have another question about Blackthorne. We slowly watch as he becomes more comfortable with Japanese over the course of the series. How fluent do you think he is by the end?

Marks: I think he’s gotten to the point where he could scoot through the Tokyo subways without asking for directions. In his prepared speech to Toranaga, the idea was that, together with Fuji, he was able to construct something the night before to make sure he’s understood in the way that he needs to be to get what he’s trying to achieve. In the final episode, we wanted him to finally be able to read emotional truths with the people he’s speaking to, whether that was Fuji or Toranaga. To a certain extent, it’s also what he witnesses in Yabushige when Yabushige does confess to betrayal. I think, to see that and feel that in the look, even though he probably doesn’t understand most of the specifics, was what Cosmo was playing on that day.

One consistent thing I’ve heard over the course of the show’s run is just how legible people find it. Even though you’re distilling all of this history, and different languages and traditions—to say nothing of the multiple layers of deceit—the audience hasn’t had difficulty following the action. I’m curious to know if that was a priority for you.

Kondo: I think, personally, that’s one of the highest compliments that anyone can pay us, simply because so much effort went into discussing, in the writers room, the elements and the components to the story that needed to be there. It’s very, very difficult to curate and to conflate and to make those million decisions. But I think our advantage was that neither of us had come to the property with a deep familiarity of the book.

Marks: In any given episode, I take the opinion that there has to be just one thing going on. I have trouble with the tradition of A, B, and C storytelling, because if Plot A is about the whole kingdom is about to collapse, and then Plot B is about two characters trying to save their marriage, they don’t line up in terms of stakes. I think everything has to be subordinate to that one through line, and in Shōgun we were able to do that because, frankly, that’s what the book does.

Let’s get to the main event, which is the concluding scene. We have Blackthorne and Toranaga exchanging this strange glance, and a half-scoffing chuckle. It’s pretty audacious to end the series on such a quiet moment. What feeling were you trying to convey there?

Marks: It’s so nice sometimes when you’re writing to a visual ending. In the writers room, we had that ending from the very first week: this look between two men that would be somewhat ambiguous, and we’d let it breathe. Cosmo and I talked a lot about this wonderful shot of Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest that just lingers on his face for several minutes towards the end of the film, and you see the whole gamut of human emotion running across his face. In this case, I think you’re looking at, in Blackthorne, a man who’s been restored to purpose, so he feels alive again, as many men like Blackthorne need purpose to feel alive, but he’s been successfully broken to Toranaga’s fist, finally. He is no longer the author of his own destiny in the way that he thought he was in the beginning, and he’s finally free because of it, because he finally can let go and subordinate himself to—as the Japanese would call it—the pattern of events, this fact of life that you can’t ever control.

We originally thought the final scene would just be Blackthorne leaving the frame, and ending on the empty frame. We found this other moment where Hiro-san turned towards the water, and we really loved that shot. It went all the way back to the last shot of Blackthorne on the Erasmus in the opening episode, looking towards the empty indefinite horizon that he was obsessed with, like an addict to a drug, this horizon that Blackthorne lived for. In this case, Toranaga was looking towards a horizon that was mountainous, that was the future—it was right there in front of him, and that’s what Toranaga could see. In some ways, it’s like those mountains weren’t really there; only Toranaga and the audience could see them. I really love that feeling.

The idea that you can find liberation by accepting your fate, or submitting yourself to some sort of destiny, is such a hard ideal to convey to a hyperindividualistic Western audience. Did you find that difficult to express at all?

Kondo: There’s a line where Mariko says that all Blackthorne is chasing is his free will but he’ll never be free of himself. I remember feeling my brain trying to work better, and be sharper, to understand that, because you’re right. As Westerners, the impulse is always about drive. It’s about getting there. It’s about me. It’s about how I will be furthered in every way. That’s a mission. That’s why we’re up to stuff and we’re busy. But it’s a kind of enslavement, I think.

Marks: Emily Yoshida, in the writers room, came to that line. I remember all of us being in the room, after weeks of discussing the central core argument between Blackthorne and Mariko; we were at this position, as Westerners, of “How is Blackthorne anything other than completely right about this? How does this make sense from Mariko’s point of view?” We were just scratching at it and scratching at it, and it was really that idea of being bound by your own compulsion to control this path of destiny. It started to open us on a different journey, and even then, I’d say, we resisted it.

For me, personally, over the course of making this show, I learned a whole new discipline about how I want to make shows because of this exact question that I realized this notion. In television, we talk a lot about authorship; just like in film, everyone’s obsessed with authorship in film—that it must be the “director’s film.” I won’t express my opinion on that, but I will say that there’s all this talk in television about how it’s the writers’ medium. After Shōgun , and only after Shōgun —after the process of working with our Japanese producers, our Japanese advisers, our Japanese partners on this project, our actors, and our crew, and just our process of working with weather and locations and COVID—I don’t believe anymore that the writer is ever truly the author of anything. At least anything that’s very good. After Shōgun , and after Toranaga’s message, I think that the writer is the author of a process in television—and the process is what authors a story.

That’s what it was like looking at Toranaga. It’s like, “OK, well, he controls everything. He controls the wind,” but he doesn’t. He, throughout this story, relinquishes control all the time. When nothing is working for him, he just waits for it to work out in the end in some way. That philosophy is an acknowledgment of your powerlessness, and yet just because you’re powerless doesn’t mean that you don’t have dignity and control over who you are and what your happiness is.

Screen Rant

Shogun finale ending explained: does toranaga become shogun.

Shōgun’s finale masterfully concluded the series with an episode that subverted expectations and revealed Lord Yoshii Toranaga’s true goal.

WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for Shōgun episode 10.

• Toranaga's goal was to overthrow the Regents and essentially become shōgun to lead a new age of peace in Japan.
• Ochiba-no-kata's support led Toranaga to victory over Ishido.
• Blackthorne's ship was burned by Toranaga to keep him in Japan, as well as to prevent the Portuguese from killing him.

Shōgun episode 10 masterfully concluded the show and wrapped up the stories of all main characters, raising the question of whether Yoshii Toranaga became shōgun following his victory against Ishido. The critically acclaimed FX series was based on James Clavell’s Shōgun novel, which itself was inspired by the true story of Tokugawa Ieyasu . The major changes Japan went through at the end of the 16th century set the narrative for Shōgun , whose finale confirmed Toranaga’s goal was indeed to overthrow the Regents and lead Japan into a new era.

Yabushige, who committed seppuku for helping Ishido kill Mariko, was the only Shōgun character to hear from Toranaga himself the full extent of his plan. While the battle between the forces of Toranaga and Ishido wasn’t shown, Shōgun ’s finale made it clear that Toranaga was going to win the war. John Blackthorne, whose story was based on William Addams , dreamt of returning home and growing old thinking of Mariko, but his ship was destroyed. Therefore, Blackthorne might never return to England . Shōgun ’s bittersweet finale highlighted how complex of a character Yoshii Toranaga was.

Does Lord Toranaga Become Shōgun?

Toranaga sought to become shōgun the whole time.

Lord Toranaga secretly sought to become shōgun the whole time, as revealed by his conversation with Yabushige toward the end of episode 10. Toranaga envisioned a period of peace for Japan in which there would be no wars over the control of the country, with him serving as the absolute military leader as the first true shōgun in years. None of Toranaga’s closest allies were aware of the true extent of his plan, which included defeating Ishido before the war even started. Toranaga’s plan will succeed, and he will eventually become shōgun.

Considering James Clavell’s Shōgun novel is based on the origins of Tokugawa Ieyasu's shōgunate, it can be assumed that Lord Toranaga’s story concludes similarly to that of his real-life counterpart.

Lord Toranaga’s character is based on Tokugawa Ieyasu, who, after the Battle of Sekigahara against Ishida Mitsunari, replaced the Council of Elders as the true ruler of Japan. Ieyasu originally had the support of the Taikō’s heir and his mother, Yodo-no-kata, but their influence on his rule was minimal. However, a few years after establishing his power as shōgun, Ieyasu made a move against the heir, Toyotomi Hideyori. This attack ended with the heir committing seppuku and his mother becoming a nun. Yodo-no-kata was the inspiration for Shōgun ’s Ochiba-no-kata , whereas Ishido was based on Ishida Mitsunari.

Considering James Clavell’s Shōgun novel is based on the origins of Tokugawa Ieyasu's shōgunate, it can be assumed that Lord Toranaga’s story concludes similarly to that of his real-life counterpart. With the support of Ochiba-no-kata, who represents the heir until he comes of age, it became easy for Toranaga to gather allies that were once supporting Ishido. Without the heir under his banner, Ishido had no chance of winning the war. This is why Shōgun did not show the Battle of Sekigahara in full – Toranaga’s plan had already succeeded before he even met Ishido on the battlefield.

How Toranaga Won The War Against Ishido In Shōgun’s Finale

Ochiba-no-kata’s support won toranaga the war.

Lady Mariko’s death in Shōgun episode 9 helped Lord Toranaga in many ways. Firstly, it brought instability into the Osaka Castle and disrupted Ishido’s power now that the daimyos realized he was keeping hostages. Without the support of some of the most powerful lords in the region, plus the inner conflicts within the Council of Regents, Ishido became much weaker after Mariko’s sacrifice. Additionally, the death of Lady Mariko took a toll on Ochiba-no-kata. Mariko and Ochiba essentially grew up as sisters , and the former’s demise led the latter to rethink her stance on the war.

The scene in which Ochiba-no-kata read Mariko’s poetry to her son demonstrated how much of an impact Mariko’s death had on the heir’s mother. Ochiba likely realized that it was not worth it to risk her son’s life in a war against Toranaga, especially because the chances of Ishido winning were now much lower. Before she died, Mariko tried to convince Ochiba to support Toranaga , which ended up happening after all. With the heir on his side, it became easy for Toranaga to consolidate his power. Ishido arrived at the Battle of Sekigahara having already lost the war.

In the Shōgun novel, Toranaga captures Ishido after the Battle of Sekigahara and buries him up to his neck, with Ishido dying three days later.

Who Burned John Blackthorne’s Ship In Shōgun’s Finale

Blackthorne survived but did not return home.

Lord Toranaga had John Blackthorne’s ship burned at the end of Shōgun . While Toranaga made it seem like a traitor in Ajiro was responsible for it, the Lord of Kanto secretly acted so that Blackthorne would never leave Japan. The destruction of Blacthorne’s ship was also part of a deal Mariko worked with the Portuguese in exchange for the Anjin’s life. Blackthorne’s life would be spared, but he would never leave Japan. The Portuguese made sure the English Protestant would never bring his allies to Japan, whereas Toranaga got to keep his unusual ally close.

Shogun Season 2 Can't Happen, But There Are 4 Sequel TV Shows That Could

According to Toranaga, he liked having Blackthorne around because the Anjin made him laugh. Additionally, Blackthorne helped create distractions for Toranaga. The Anjin created a lot of trouble as soon as he arrived in Japan, giving Yoshii more freedom to act while his enemies were focused on the barbarian and his ship. Both the Council of Regents and the Portuguese merchants were too busy worrying about Blackthorne to realize the Lord of Kanto was about to take over the country. Blackthorne believed he was using Toranaga, yet it was actually the opposite that was happening.

Why Toranaga Smiles During Yabushige’s Seppuku

Yabushige learned about toranaga’s true plan before dying.

Yabushige was one of the most interesting characters in Shōgun . Loyal to no one but himself and fascinated with death, Yabushi was Shōgun ’s wild card and met his end in episode 10. After being exposed for conspiring with Ishido to orchestrate the attack on the Osaka Castle , Yabushige was sentenced to commit seppuku. Toranaga served as his second, leading to arguably the most important scene in the whole show. Yabushige wanted to know the truth about Toranaga’s plan , and since he was about to die, he got to hear everything from Toranaga himself.

After the seppuku ritual was concluded, a subtle smile could be seen on Lord Toranaga’s face.

Lord Toranaga explained his plan and vision for the future of Japan down to the minimum details for Yabushige. This is when Shōgun ’s finale included a montage sequence depicting Toranaga’s victory against Ishido. However, once Yabushige asked Toranaga if his plan was always to become shōgun, the Lord of Kanto did not give a direct answer. After the seppuku ritual was concluded, a subtle smile could be seen on Lord Toranaga’s face. This implied that Yabushige was right – Toranaga did plan to become shōgun the whole time. With Yabushige dead, no one will ever know the truth.

John Blackthorne’s Visions Of The Future Explained

Blackthorne’s “dream of a dream” will not come true.

Shōgun episode 10 opened with an elder John Blackthorne lying down on his bed as his grandchildren talked about the sword he has up on his wall. The children talked about their grandfather’s feat against “savages” in a major battle in what appeared to be a flashforward set decades after the events of Shōgun . Blackthorne had Lady Mariko’s cross on his hands, and the scene initially suggested that he eventually returned to England. However, given that Blackthorne let go of the cross in the sea, it is safe to say the episode’s opening sequence was a dream.

What Happens To John Blackthorne After Shōgun

The anjin’s fate is to remain in japan forever.

According to Lord Toranaga, it is the Anjin’s fate to remain in Japan. Toranaga will only tell the truth about what happened to Blackthorne’s ship once the Anjin has built a new one. Even then, Toranaga will “probably burn it too.” It is implied in James Clavell’s Shōgun novel that John Blackthorne never returned to England and lived the rest of his life in Japan. The Anjin’s fate was in Toranaga’s hands since the beginning, which Blackthorne failed to realize. The dream sequence from the start of the Shōgun finale will never come true because Blackthorne will never leave Japan.

What The Ending Of Shōgun Really Means

Shōgun told the story of how toranaga’s rule came to be.

Shōgun episode 10 may not have been the action-packed finale some were expecting, but it was still a great conclusion to the series. The episode honored the source material and followed the end of the Shōgun novel quite closely. Shōgun was about the intertwined stories of Lord Toranaga, John Blackthorne, and Lady Mariko, all of whom played a role in shaping the next two centuries of Japan’s history according to their real-life counterparts. Both Blackthorne and Mariko ended up being pawns in the long game played by Toranaga, whose rule as shōgun will begin in Edo.

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Shogun is an FX original mini-series set in 17th Century Japan. Shogun follows John Blackthorne, who becomes a samurai warrior but is unknowingly a pawn in Yoshii Toranaga's plan to become Shogun. The series stars Cosmo Jarvis as John Blackthorne and Hiroyuki Sanada as Yoshii Toranaga, along with Anna Sawai, Tadanobu Asano, and Yûki Kedôin.