as a reluctant Steven Knight expert (jk), I feel qualified to say this has all the trappings of the weaker seasons of Peaky Blinders, which is to say both overstuffed and restrained, clunky dialogue, ghosts, ghouls, creaky staircases and cold fields. I like that show a lot though, even when it is terrible, which means I ought to be predisposed to enjoy this but I was more bored than not.

Spencer soars in its technicals, Timothy Spall ate, and Stewart is, idk, all right: at best, a genuine doppelgänger; at worst, giving "good Emma Watson." the Greenwood score, j'adore, especially when it's all plasticky beads and chintzy jazz, and Claire Mathon shot the hell out of this. this is a very rich year for movies that do not look like shit - count this among them! at the end of the movie, some people were standing outside the theater asking each other if this all “really happened or what,” all of which is to say: I can see how the ending might have rubbed some the wrong way, but it's the only time the movie felt truly bonkers to me as well as convinced me that the titular Peaky Blinders are probably going to kill Hitler in the final season of that show.