4/5 & 4/5
7 Episodes/322 Pages. Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Moses Ingram, Marielle Heller, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Harry Melling, Marcin Dorociński, Isla Johnston & Bill Camp. Director: Scott Frank. Writer: Walter Tevis.
Late to the game, straight hungover out the bath like I was partying in Paris with a model (I wish), it's time to punch the clock. Last fall 'The Queens Gambit' miniseries on Netflix starring 'Morgan', 'Split'/'Glass' and 'The New Mutants' Best Actress Anya Taylor-Joy was a Golden Globe capturing monster. Rising faster than this orphaned prodigy above the ranks. Becoming the streaming services most watched series in a month. Making chess cool again. Because it was always as sexy as it was stimulating...think not? Forget blitz chess. Try playing 'Strip Chess'...trust me. With decadent, debonair direction from the Best Adapted Screenplay twice-over Oscar nominated Scott Frank (the Lopez and Clooney cool 'Out Of Sight' and Hugh Jackman's Wolverine's last stand in the neo Western of 'Logan'), this period piece looked as hallmark haunting to the time as Taylor-Joy's 'Peaky Blinders' to the brimstone of old Birmingham. And what a joy she really was as she played a blinder. But like the chicken and the egg, how about what laid the foundation to all of this? Walter Tevis' terrific book that was doing the Amazon rounds on Black Friday during the shows initial stellar streaming run across the board. So much so after subscribing and purchasing, when we had got round to this book in our pile and show in our continue watching section we decided to watch and read at the same time in this age of binge. 14 for 7. Chapter for episode. No stranger to games over the decades Tevis wrote the book on Paul Newman's young to seasoned Hollywood gambling career. From the pool shark beginnings of 'The Hustler', to back on the green felt for 'The Color Of Money' with another young LA upstart looking to take your money and make change in some kid called Tom Cruise decade's later. Walter also wowed the world with two science fiction epic novel masterpieces that even forefather Philip K. Dick (who gave Cruise's best of the 90's career a fresh, future forward jolt into the new millennium with 'Minority Report') would be proud of ('The Man Who Fell To Earth' and 'Mockingbird'). But which is better? Novel or adaptation? Well for your modern chess openings how about we file how these two would fare battling it out in black and white? Let's play.
White Queens pawn moves forward two spaces.
Tevis to his testament knows how to set a scene like a table for dinner or board for game and what he does in this chess stories opening is no different playing his own gambit like Channing Tatum hopefully wants to do one day for the 'X-Men', as Anya already has in the long-delayed 'New Mutants' which came out to little fanfare in last years cinematic quarantine. Definitely in response to this show which has locked down everything else like forcing your hand to make a sacrifice and topple your King. The planets pandemic took to this 'Gambit' like a card dealt poker face. Last year's real marvel in the endgame of movies. The show starts the same. Honouring Tevis' rule book to the letter sportingly like the city and time typography across the screen in all its colour. Killing it like eve.
Black Queens pawn moves forward two spaces.
Pills and bottles on the books board instead of knights and rooks, the Queen of this Gambit Beth Harmon was addicted to the adrenaline of more than winning. That's the substance to this stylised story. Scott explores this frankly, but also funnily. One spoonful of sugar scene in the medicine cabinet were a young Harmon (played inspiringly by Isla Johnston) is just as hands in the air holding nothing hilarious as it is when it floors you in the book. You'll fall for it again and again. But it's the stirring scenes with classic character actor Bill Camp (who is always great, but something else entirely here), whose janitor Mr. Shaibel teachers her about this game with chain clicked light bulb and steel table closeted resignation and sportsmanship. Setting the tone for the rest of the series like his character does by the book. It's a beautiful arc in one episode and chapter that in each verse results in earned emotion by the end. So much so you'll feel it dropping in all its water on the pages or your popcorn as you binge the same.
Queens side bishop pawn moves forward two squares.
Moses Ingram's influential Jolene will take your heart in this queen of one's like the one Dolly Parton sang about. Whilst 'A Beautiful Day In The Neighbourhood' adopted mother Marielle Heller will move you to the core with her heartbreaking bruised soul. 'Love Actually' and 'Game Of Thrones' famous face Thomas Brodie-Sangster really comes of age and his own pirated, leather and fedora cool like he did in fellow Netflix miniseries 'Godless' (a godsend to the Western genre like his pistol spinning kid). And even Harry Melling (who was also hauntingly good at being bad in last years Tom Holland Netflix ensemble 'The Devil All The Time') comes out from under the typecast stairs of 'Harry Potter' to work wizardy wonders on a different platform. But it's 'Hurricane' actor Marcin Dorociński who like a quiet storm strikes fear into the hearts of this mental maddening game of cerebral wits all the way to your cerebellum as Borgov. Even his name makes him sound like a Bond villain. Just like the big boss you just can't defeat at the end of a games level. Cold and calculated and sharp as cutting down all your defences, King to Queen. When he strikes your clock it almost sounds like the swish of a switchblade as he looks at you with daggers. To you it's a nightmarish shock. To him a shrug of nonchalance. You can see page to screen, all the actors breathe new life into their characters. But no more than Joy who chin to resting palms stares straight at you. Right through to the soul with a fourth wall break, before she does the ceiling of all the pieces coming to visionary power together. You see the shadow above her crown. It's her throne now.
Now let the real games begin.
And with three moves that's 'The Queen's Gambit', but who wins? Call it a draw or an adjournment to a possible season two, but the Netflix show and the Tevis book it was based on mirror each other like the pieces on the board in black and white. But read all about this, when it comes to everything else playing right now...checkmate. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Further Playing: 'Innocent Moves', 'The Hustler', 'The Color Of Money'.
