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Photo courtesy Paramount + Canada

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Photo courtesy Warner Bros/HBO Films

Our City Tonight

By Jim Gordon and Leeta Liepins

Published 12:39 PDT, Fri August 1, 2025

Last Updated: 12:41 PDT, Fri August 1, 2025

Spotlight on more great summer views

THE VIEW #1 – MobLand

From Britain comes this powerful, hard-hitting, and at times, tough to watch, crime drama called MobLand. It centres around the Harrigans, an Irish crime family based in London who are in the middle of an escalating battle with another crime family called the Stevensons. In the middle of this violent mess is Harry Da Souza (Tom Hardy), a street-smart, “fixer” who works for the Harrigan family, led by Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren. It’s Harry’s job to try and calm the growing war and, at times, intimidate and threaten those working against the family. But this is not easy, as he spends most of his waking hours driving all over London (and to the Harrigan country estate), meeting with his own group, many of the opposing members of the Stevensons, and any other “hangers-on” caught in the middle. Harry conducts a different kind of diplomacy. Guy Ritchie, who’s made excellent films in this genre, is one of the directors involved in this ten-episode series, which has been so popular that a season two has already been confirmed. Look for a solid supporting cast including Paddy Considine and Joanne Froggatt, who won a Golden Globe Award a few years ago for her work as Anna, the strong, supportive servant on Downton Abby. MobLand is available for home viewing at Paramount + Canada. paramountplus.com

THE VIEW #2 – Long Bright River

We were late in getting to this series, which debuted this past winter in Canada. But better late then never as Long Bright River is a crime drama worth your viewing time. Based on the #1 New York Times bestseller, this suspense thriller centres around a police officer named Mickey Fitzpatrick (Academy Award nominee and Emmy award winner Amanda Seyfried, who also acts as executive producer), who patrols the Philadelphia neighbour she grew up in, a neighbourhood hard-hit by the opioid crisis. While dealing with the daily grind and stress of her job, Mickey is raising a young son and looking for her younger sister who has been living on those same Philly streets but has now gone missing. That stress increases even more when a series of murders take place in the neighborhood, all involving women of the streets. Going beyond her official duties and investigating on her own and later with her ex-partner, Mickey starts to wonder who she can trust, and whether her own department really cares to find out who’s murdering these young women. This limited series is told through six one-hour episodes, and superbly blends the investigative story (including some great unexpected twists) with the Mickey Fitzpatrick’s past. Is it all connected? Long Bright River also stars Nicholas Pinnock, Ashleigh Cummings, Callum Vinson, and John Doman. Look for this series for home viewing on Crave TV. crave.ca

THE CLASSIC – Citizen Kane

It is, simply put, the best movie ever made in America. That movie is Citizen Kane, and its backstory is almost as famous as its influence on modern cinema, both here and wherever films were and are made. The backstory begins with a brilliant 23-year- old, writer/producer/director who rockets to fame when his Mercury Theatre troupe performs a radio adaptation of H.G. Well’s War of the Worlds in 1938 and scares half the radio listeners in America who thought Martians were actually invading. From there, it was off to Hollywood where he would co-write, produce, direct and star in Citizen Kane, the story of the rise and fall of a character named Charles Foster Kane. It’s not an exaggeration to state that cinema can be measured by “pre-Kane” and “post-Kane”. Welles (with the help of many talented artists it needs to be said), created a distinctive style not seen before—deep focus shots, low angle shots, nonlinear narratives, connective sound editing, long takes, as well as lighting for dramatic purposes. No American film has had more influence than this film, and that influence would include many of the great French New Wave directors, who would follow two decades later. Citizen Kane, to this day, is still a marvel to watch, and remains one of the few films to seriously examine power. And for Orson Welles, he would spend the rest of his life trying to equal the heights he climbed at such a young age. This film is available for home viewing on most of the streaming services.