Review: ‘Gladiator II’ — entertaining, and a fun romp

DUBAI: If you need someone to create a historical drama based on a real-life notorious crime gang, who better than “Peaky Blinders” showrunner Steven Knight? And if you need someone to play a shady operator vibrating with pent-up menace that threatens to explode into violence at any time, who better than the always-compelling Stephen Graham?

So Disney+’s “A Thousand Blows” has two huge pluses in its favor — great showrunner and great lead (or co-lead, to be fair). But that also means great expectations that can be tough to match.

The show is set in London’s East End in the 1880s and the notorious gang is the Forty Elephants — an all-female crime syndicate led by Mary Carr (played by Erin Doherty) whose main focus was shoplifting. Carr has close ties with Henry “Sugar” Goodson (Graham), self-styled king of the area’s popular-but-illegal bare-knuckle boxing scene, but their alliance is on shaky ground as her schemes threaten to bring unwanted attention from the police to the neighborhood.

Into their orbit comes Hezekiah Moscow (Malachi Kirby), newly arrived from Jamaica and in need of money. Moscow is a phenomenally gifted fighter, and the ageing Sugar quickly comes to see him as a threat to his fearsome reputation. Carr, meanwhile, sees him as both potential love interest and an asset she can exploit in her daring plot for a major heist. All three share a common goal: to rise above the low expectations society has of them.

Graham, impressively beefed up for the role, is customarily excellent as Sugar, a man whose behavior no-one — not the viewer and not even himself — can easily predict. Kirby is equally compelling, balancing confidence and vulnerability in his portrayal of a man sure of his own abilities, but unsure of those around him. And Doherty convinces as Carr — outwardly as tough as Sugar, but it’s clear that the façade of emotionlessness and ruthlessness that has made her such a respected and feared adversary is a hard one to maintain.

The story reels you in quickly. The East End of the late 19th century is brought vividly to life, and there’s plenty of action from the start, but the latter has perhaps come at the cost of character development. The rest of the Elephants, for example, feel one-dimensional (in the four hours we’ve seen so far, anyway), with little backstory to flesh them out. Still, “A Thousand Blows” is hugely enjoyable — though perhaps not for the squeamish; the violence is constant and realistic — and Graham once again shows he’s one of the finest actors of his generation.

JEDDAH: DJ-producer Jamal Sul, aka Moving Still, was raised in Jeddah by a Saudi father and Irish mother, and his music combines both sides of his heritage.  

At 14, he moved to Dublin, a shift that shaped both his identity and musical journey. Now, after a decade in the industry, he’s making waves internationally. 

“For every song that I’ve ever recorded, I always try to embody an emotion—whether it’s unconditional love, fear or excitement,” he tells Arab News. “Most of the time, I never really get a chance to explain the emotion in a song — it just happens through people dancing.” 

The birth of his daughter last year profoundly influenced Sul’s latest EP, “Close to the Shams,” which will be released March 7. On it, he captures the intense emotions of parenthood and the quiet heartbeat of his child, which he used as inspiration. “The first time I got to hold my daughter in my own house, she was just sleeping on me and I had my earphones on. I could sense her heartbeat,” he says. “Weirdly, there’s a lot of studies about how your heart rate can influence your child’s and vice versa. So I feel like I captured that moment in song, and it was really nice.” 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Fidelity (@fidelitydublin)

It was Sul’s mother who first got him into dance music, sparking his deep connection to house and disco beats. “I was very lucky that my mom was very, very into music,” he says. “I remember (her) cassettes, is like ‘Now 41’ or ‘Now 42’ — basically all the (chart toppers) for dance music. A lot of the stuff I make now is nearly resembling this era.” 

He also has a love for rock, inherited from his Irish uncles. “I listened to (Led) Zeppelin, Jimi (Hendrix), Korn, Slipknot, all those type of bands,” he says. “But even though I liked rock music, I still had this feeling towards dance music; it was kind of like a guilty pleasure, the same with pop music — like Backstreet Boys.” 

His father also shaped Sul’s diverse taste, being a fan of Bob Marley and Michael Jackson, as well as Arab artists. But Sul says his father’s relationship with music was complicated.  

“My father was in and out of music; either he loved it or hated it. And I don’t blame him; he had a very tough upbringing. His father was quite religious — he was an imam. So obviously (my father) was very torn between the life of what people would like in the West versus his actual life.” 

That’s not a struggle Sul has faced. Music is a constant in both his personal and professional life. He works in the field of immunology, and while his day job is rooted in science, music remains his own way of healing and expression. 

His sound spans genres, blending house, disco and Arabic influences. “When people ask what kind of music I make, it’s so hard to pinpoint,” he says. “It’s a mix of genres.” 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Moving Still (@moving0still)

His tracks have gained support from respected industry figures like Palms Trax, Hunee and Laurent Garnier, and he has performed at the likes of Boiler Room and Electric Picnic. Mixmag named him among its Ones to Watch for 2025. 

His first EP was “With Oud,” inspired not by the instrument at the heart of classical Arab music, but by the scent of the dark resin of the agar tree. “In order to write the music, I would put oud on my hands, just to experience that full memory of my granny’s house. I couldn’t believe that a smell could ignite that type of memory so quickly,” he says. The EP was a success, and spawned a follow-up, “Ouddy Bangers.” 

In 2024, Sul hosted ‘Sukar,’ an event of contemporary Arabic music. “I wanted to showcase our beautiful culture,” he says. He plans to take the idea further with Klub Sukar this April, inviting international acts to Ireland while providing opportunities for emerging artists — especially young Arabs. 

Sul’s moniker, Moving Still, was inspired by his hometown. “I used to love swimming and snorkeling and I used to see a lot of jellyfish there,” he says. “I remember my wife asking what I wanted to be called and I was, like, ‘Something about jellyfish really resonates with me, because it reminds me of Jeddah.’ I just really love that they’re moving all the time, but they almost look like they’re still. That’s what generated the name. I wanted to have something that was like a love letter to Jeddah.”