Film and TV Picks: Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, The Last Dance, Flow

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew

Disney+

American film-maker Jon Watts and screenwriter Christopher Ford seek to inject fresh air into the popular Star Wars saga with this coming-of-age series told through the eyes of four 10-year-olds – Wim (Ravi Cabot-Conyers), Neel (Robert Timothy Smith), Fern (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) and KB (Kyriana Kratter).

Watts is not new to rejuvenating a franchise. After all, he was behind the successful Tom Holland Spider-Man reboots (2017 to 2021). Ford served as writer for Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017).

Skeleton Crew is not heavy on Jedi lore. What the young protagonists know about Jedis are from what they read on their tablets and playing with Jedi action figures.

The story begins when the adventure-seeking Wim mistakes a grounded starship for a lost Jedi temple. The kids then find themselves traversing through space and far from home.

Along the way, they befriend a droid named SM-33 (voiced by Nick Frost) and the swashbuckling adventurer Jod Na Nawood (Jude Law).

Unlike earlier Star Wars spin-off series on Disney+ like The Mandalorian (2019 to present) and Andor (2022), Skeleton Crew is more of a nod to nostalgic kids’ adventure films such as The Goonies (1985) and Jumanji (1995).

The Last Dance (NC16)

126 minutes, now showing
★★★★☆

The pandemic has devastated Hong Konger Dominic’s (Dayo Wong) wedding planning business. He later enters into a partnership with Taoist priest Master Man (Michael Hui), who needs someone to handle the business side of his funeral rites company.

The Last Dance, directed by Hong Kong writer-director Anselm Chan, explores the clash between old Hong Kong – embodied by the gruff Master Man – and the new, represented by Dominic, who hopes to revitalise the traditional business with merchandise, marketing and customer-focused strategies. 

Through a series of concise but affecting character portraits, Chan introduces various funeral-service clients, each offering Dominic an opportunity to prove his worth while providing fascinating glimpses into Hong Kong’s funeral traditions. 

Chan’s camera examines death without flinching – hence the NC16 rating – showing details of cleaning, embalming, dressing and make-up application.

With strong performances from Wong and Hui, this heartfelt exploration of death traditions manages to feel more alive than most films about the living. – John Lui

Flow (G)

85 minutes, now showing at The Projector
★★★★☆

In the wake of a devastating flood, a cat finds refuge with motley stranded animals – an industrious lemur, an injured secretary bird, a capybara and a playful labrador retriever – on a tattered sailboat.

The uncertain journey viewed through the cat’s perspective has lively character humour as well as thrills and spills, literally, what with the feline hero falling overboard often and nearly drowning.

The cross-species voyagers are expressive personalities that look and move as they are and communicate in mews and growls. There is not a single line of dialogue in a soundscape further enriched by the winds and waves.

Created using the open-source computer software Blender by Latvian animator Gints Zilbalodis (Away, 2019), the visually stunning Flow is captivating kids’ entertainment without the childishness of Hollywood animation. At the same time, it invites adults to contemplate the eerie, abandoned architecture in ruins.

The writer-director-editor, who also composed the score, has reimagined the Noah’s Ark narrative for the current climate end-days. He holds out hope that mankind’s extinction in the biblical deluge may bring a new beginning for the co-existence of the surviving creatures.

This animated adventure is Latvia’s submission for the 2025 Best International Feature Film Oscar and a winner of the Jury Award and Audience Award at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. – Whang Yee Ling