Molly Gordon | Bouquets & Brickbats

10/05/26

Cineworld, Edinburgh

Writer Craig Mazan has had a somewhat checkered career on the big screen. Early projects like Scary Movie 4 and The Hangover 3 came and went without much fuss – and yet, for television, he scripted both the extraordinary Chernobyl and The Last of Us to well-deserved acclaim. What then are we to make of his long-nurtured adaptation of Leonie Swann’s novel, Three Bags Full, which plays like a cross between Babe and Murder Most Foul?

The Sheep Detectives is the story of a shepherd called George (Hugh Jackman, sporting a winning smile and an accent that seems to vary alarmingly from scene to scene). George is the proverbial good shepherd, a man who only farms sheep for their wool and wouldn’t dream of worrying his flock by waving pots of mint sauce at them. He even has a long-established routine of reading them murder mysteries every night to ‘help them sleep.’ As you do.

He’s blissfully unaware that they understand every word he’s saying…

One morning, George’s dead body is discovered in the field and his flock, led by Lily (voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus), decide that the crime deserves a deeper level of investigation than can be expected from the local village’s solitary policeman. He’s the nice but ineffectual Tim (Nicholas Braun, making a better fist of an English accent than Jackman). Lily teams up with loner ram, Sebastian (Bryan Cranston), to look deeper into the long list of suspects. These include George’s estranged daughter, Rebecca (Molly Gordon), local innkeeper, Beth (Hong Chau), and fellow shepherd, Caleb (Tosin Cole), a man who is much happier to exploit the potential of turning sheep into cold cuts. And what about wannabe newspaper reporter, Elliot (Nicholas Galitzine)? Why is he taking such an interest in the case?

Initially, I’m somewhat underwhelmed by the WTF concept and have to confess that I do find some of the story’s more saccharin moments hard to endure. But as the film progresses, I’m increasingly drawn into the story, preposterous though it is. Director Kyle Balda has a background in animation and it must be said that the many sheep characters that populate the story all have their own distinct personalities. At no point am I ever confused by who is ewe (sorry) and that’s no easy matter when there are sometimes scores of the creatures onscreen. It’s also fair to say that the script is occasionally amusing – and sometimes surprising. A sequence where Lily and Mopple (Chris O’Dowd) have an unpleasant encounter with the sheep on Caleb’s farm turns quite dark.

But whether or not you’ll enjoy this hokum really does depend on you buying its central premise – that sheep aren’t as stupid as their reputation suggests. Ultimately, perhaps the biggest mystery here is how so many A list actors signed on the dotted line for the project. Patrick Stewart plays an elderly ram called Sir Richfield – doing an uncanny impersonation of his old pal Ian McKellan into the bargain – and even Emma Thompson shows up in a cameo role as George’s acerbic solicitor, Lydia Harbottle.

Judging by the sizeable crowd at the daytime screening I attend, The Sheep Detectives is likely to make a splash at the box office with flocks of youngsters keen to see it. But several older viewers make for the exit fifteen minutes in muttering, “Baaaa humbug!” and I can fully appreciate their position. This really is that fabled film that’s “not for everyone.”

3. 2 stars

Philip Caveney

31/08/23

Cineworld, Edinburgh

Joan Rubinski (Amy Sedaris) is a bit of a theatrical legend. She has been running her summer theatre camp for young performers for many years. But, when she suffers a debilitating fit (caused by exposure to strobe lights), her outfit is left without a leader. So it falls to her son, Troy (Jimmy Tatro), to step up to the plate and fill her tap shoes, despite having no experience of drama whatsoever. Troy is an ‘influencer’, who thinks he has what it takes to overhaul the business.

Unfortunately, he has to try to deal with a whole horde of regular teachers, who have been doing this for donkeys years and who clearly view him as an unwelcome addition to the ranks. They include drama coach, Amos (Ben Platt), and his soulmate, music tutor Rebecca-Diane (Molly Gordon). The duo actually met at the camp as students and fell in love – but, since Amos came out, their co-dependency can perhaps best be described as ‘complicated’. There’s Rita Cohen (Caroline Aaron), Joan’s no-nonsense right-hand woman, who seems to have a talent for always saying the wrong thing and there’s new recruit, Janet (Eyo Edebiri), who has as much experience in drama as Troy, but is determined to bluff her way through…

This charming and sometimes very funny mockumentary comes from a team of people who clearly know their subject well. Depicted in a series of short, snappy scenes (but for once eschewing the straight-to-camera interviews that are so often utilised in fake docs), we are witness to the three weeks of frantic work it takes to put together a summer show, a tribute to their beloved leader, entitled Joan, Still. We witness the trials and tribulations of creating a musical from not very much by a cohort of bright, eager students, all of whom have their eyes set on their own individual goals. (I particularly enjoy the diminutive boy who has decided he’s born to be… an agent.)

When Troy is romanced by the villainous Caroline (Patti Harrison), who works with a neighbouring, more upwardly-mobile youth theatre group, bankruptcy hovers in the wings and it’s going to take considerable wheeling and dealing on his part if he’s to save his mother’s camp. Can the team forget their various differences and work towards a solution?

Anyone who enjoyed Summer Heights High, back in the day, will get a kick out of Theater Camp, which shares some DNA with the legendary Mr G. It’s sprightly, silly and a lot of fun. Now, if only there were a rousing singalong to finish it all off… oh, wait a minute, turns out they’ve actually written one!

4 stars

Philip Caveney