Seek out 'Westworld's' scene-stealing guest star in his charming lead role
The second season of HBO's "Westworld" reaches the halfway point this weekend with a narrative that is somehow clearer than Season 1's sneaky double timeline and far more complex - I count at least four timelines after the first four episodes.
Last week's game-changing installment, "The Riddle of the Sphinx," featured a performance on par with the show's finest turns from regulars Evan Rachel Wood, Thandie Newton and Jeffrey Wright. As James Delos, the man whose namesake company owns the theme park of the show's title, Peter Mullan brought an unexpectedly human wrinkle to a character that first seemed to be another cold, calculating, monstrous businessman.
He just had to become a robot.
The Delos we meet in Episode 4 isn't one of the park's "hosts," the A.I. automatons created to fulfill guests' fantasies. He is a cyborg created so that Delos' mind (and soul?) can go on after an unnamed disease claims the tycoon's natural life. And he isn't working properly.
In scenes that recall the iconic opening interrogation from "Blade Runner" and Sam Neill's descent into madness from "Event Horizon," this cybernetic Delos is tested over a number of years by his business partner William (Jimmi Simpson, then later Ed Harris) and fails, again and again, as his mind rejects his newfound reality. Mullan plays a man whose very existence is bursting at the seams, and does it without going over the top, or without the benefit of visual effects - Mullan's face contorts, his voice stammers and breaks. It's horrifying and depressing, but never maudlin or exaggerated. Mullan is perfect, even when secret host Bernard (Wright) and his former human captive, Elsie (Shannon Woodward, making her first appearance since the midpoint of Season 1), find an abandoned Delos driven completely mad by his faulty programming, harming himself and spouting grim philosophical mumbo-jumbo. Mullan's performance is as good as anything you're likely to see on TV this year, and will almost certainly be nominated for the guest-actor Emmy.
See Mullan take the lead
You've probably seen Mullan before as Death Eater Corban Yaxley in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," or as the first owner of the "War Horse" from Steven Spielberg's 2011 epic, or as the guy who gets clobbered by a car battery in "Children of Men."
You probably haven't seen his lead turn in 2005's "On a Clear Day," a charming tale of a grief-stricken Glaswegian who, after getting laid off from his job at the shipyard, finds purpose in swimming - swimming across the English Channel, that is. Mullan's nuanced performance is supported by a trio of familiar faces: two-time Oscar nominee Brenda Blethyn; the heroic Pippin from "Lord of the Rings," Billy Boyd; and "Doctor Strange's" right-hand man, Benedict Wong. It's a hidden gem worth discovering as a digital rental and purchase across most platforms, or on DVD. (No Blu-ray just yet.)
'Leaning Into the Wind'
This month's offering from the After Hours Film Society is a new documentary about Andy Goldsworthy, a British artist and sculptor whose work often utilizes nature and his own body. Directed by Thomas Riedelsheimer, "Leaning Into the Wind" was shot around the world from 2013 to 2016 and shows the artist at work as he interacts with trees, flowers, rock formations and urban landscapes to make his unique installations. The trailer at leaningintothewind.com promises beautiful big-screen imagery, which you can see at 7:30 p.m. at the Tivoli Theatre, 5021 Highland Avenue, Downers Grove. Admission is $6 for After Hours members, $10 for nonmembers.
• Sean Stangland is a Daily Herald multiplatform editor. Follow him on Twitter at @SeanStanglandDH.