knee deep in static

2024 films and stuff

2025-01-04T20:11:07Z

Once again, time for my round up of last year. In December, I had been thinking that I hadn’t seen many new films but now looking back at 2023’s list – I didn’t see that many new films then either in comparison to the years before (lol and I even mentioned that in my 2023 round up). Maybe films that I might have been interested in that were due to be released in 2023 and 2024 were affected by Covid and got delayed or cancelled. I guess we’ll see what 2025 shapes up like over the next year.

Films

As usual, in reverse order of how much I liked them:

Return of the King: The Fall and Rise of Elvis Presley – I basically watched this because I was starting to thinking I wouldn’t hit 10 new films for the year. It was fine.
Apollo 13: Survival – I’ve seen the film with Tom Hanks and read the book by Jim Lovell that that film was based on, so I don’t think I really learned anything new seeing this.
Gladiator II – Went to see this because my Mum wanted to see it even though she didn’t remember going to see the first Gladiator film, which she would have actually have taken me to see in the cinema. It was also fine, but ehh maybe I am too familiar with the real people some of the characters are named after for it to really work for me.
Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band – I don’t think I discovered anything new about Bruce himself from this film but it was good to hear more from the band members and what the process of touring is like for them.
A Real Pain – I don’t often enjoy films where I just don’t think I would want to spend time with any of the characters in real life but this was good. There’s stuff that’s occurred to me now about the marketing of this film in the context of some of the stuff that I do for my job but lol, not getting into that on the internet.
The Extraordinary Miss Flower – This was a good choice for my last film of LFF as it’s music video kind of a film and by that point of the festival, I need something different.
Endurance – I enjoyed this because I do love a documentary but really this would have been better as a 3 episode mini series.
Seeking Mavis Beacon – This was more about the journey and what happens when the destination is something that you’re explicitly never going to reach and where you can go from there, along with some interesting thoughts on identity, representation and yeah, why are all the helpful voices in our devices female?
Pauline Black: A 2-Tone Story – In contrast to Seeking Mavis Beacon where the protagonists tell us about looking for someone, in this film Pauline Black tells us how she found herself, in her own words and that it’s in her own words is the most important draw.
The Cats of Gokogu Shrine – Look. This is an observational film about cats. I’m not even a cat person and yet here it is, third on my list.
Deadpool & Wolverine – I feel like this is a good film to end the Deadpool films on but I also feel like there will probably be more films with Deadpool as the main character. The Easter Eggs are extremely entertaining to spot, but are a nice extra rather than having to do the heavy lifting.
Conclave – I was always going to enjoy a film that was “what if Agatha Christie wrote about cardinals being bitchy to each other” because I am fairly Catholic in an easy-going way (which I guess has to be a thing) but it’s not only that. The dishonesty of some of these men about their past actions and the thinking that they cannot be accountable for those choices because of their position is exactly what then disqualifies them from being elected. This, along with the lobbying and scheming for votes, is a big part of a film which at its heart is about honesty, faith and trying to do the right thing even at personal cost. It’s also a 2 hour long film but moves quickly and it felt like no time passed at all as it’s so engaging.

Music

I don’t remember any new albums I listened to last year. I know Dave Hause put out some mostly vinyl only stuff that I did buy and enjoy – but I remember it mostly because it was a record you had to go in person to a gig and buy.
Speaking of which, I did go to 7 gigs in the end.

Dave Hause (where I picked up a copy of that album)
The Gaslight Anthem (who I kind of went off of right around when they went on hiatus (possibly even for the reason that I think they went on hiatus))
Alkaline Trio (who I really haven’t listened to much in recent years, but this gig was really enjoyable)
Ásgeir
Bedouin Soundclash (still thinking about how their support act doesn’t have any CDs or sell music on Bandcamp)
Sleep Token (awesome)
Electric Six (who I only really knew those three songs they put out 20 years ago and it turns out they have like 15 albums and a dedicated fanbase since they are very entertaining)

Electric Six was also one of those gigs where the queue for the ladies was non-existent and in an entertaining turn of events it was the other toilets with a queue. Plus the support act, Enjoyable Listens was really good and was kind of like if Gabriel Bruce was English and kind of eccentric.

Other stuff

I suppose if I wrote more about this stuff at the time it was happening I would remember more of it, but I guess I do ok. I went to Valencia because I needed to use a travel voucher and picked it because that’s where Formula E goes to do their testing (although after the huge flooding, 2024 testing had to be moved to Madrid). I saw the penultimate FE race of the season in London. I went to Margate so I could visit the Crab Museum and ended up also visiting other cool places like the Shell Grotto and Walmer Castle. Went on a short cruise visiting France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Went to Norfolk and stopped off at the Oliver Cromwell museum on the way.

More gigs already planned for 2025, along with one small trip so far and another London e-prix.

Isosceles

2024-11-09T16:45:31Z

I read a lot of email newsletters and of course, I have a backlog of unread newsletters but once again it’s like stepping back into a better time, where the world felt better (though of course, these newsletters are all written during a time AFTER the last time I retreated into the past they offered that I can’t even remember what that event that sent me there was).

I asked someone what their favourite shape was recently and now I’m gently spiralling around the sound of I-S O-S CE-LES

2023 Films and Stuff

2023-12-31T20:08:23Z

While February 2023 feels like it was only a few weeks ago and I’m sort of wondering what I could have done all year, I also know that I did do some stuff.

I spent Eurovision week in Norfolk and another couple of weeks in Malaysia. I saw Loveless (twice), Asgeir, Dave Hause, Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox, Hozier, ThxSoMch and Sleep Token play live (and have already bought tickets for a few gigs next year). I went to the penultimate e-prix of the season in London and saw FE cars whizz about making their souped-up milk float noises (affectionate).

I did not really see that many new films – last year there were 25 and this year there are only 13. Partly, I feel like there just wasn’t a lot I felt like seeing at the London Film Festival but also, I did have kind of a general meh feeling about going to my local cinema. Was there even anything I might have seen in another year? I can only think of “The Marvels” and maybe there wasn’t anything else or I just didn’t hear about other films to make me go and see them.

Anyway, those 13 films in reverse order of how much I liked them, as is customary for such things:

The Monkey King – I get that Monkey is kind of annoying, but I’d thought other interpretations had a kind of loveable scamp quality to him on occasion that this one just didn’t have. It was kind of limp.
Unknown: Cosmic Time Machine – This was just an hour long documentary about the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, which did its job and told me about that but you can see how The Monkey King had to be poor to be less liked than a film that was merely efficient and functional.
Behind the Mountains – There’s some weird pacing choices and the main character just kind of gets angry sometimes and doesn’t really seem to talk to anyone about why he does the stuff he does.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny – Kept things going at a reasonable pace but might have benefitted from reusing stuff from previous films a bit less.
Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre – I saw this on the flight back from Malaysia, so I expect I must have seen an edited version but this is the same airline that edited out the word “Jew” from Sandman but not the word beginning with C meaning vulva. I don’t think any edits would have made too much difference in all honesty since this film delivers everything you’d expect from a Jason Statham film directed by Guy Ritchie.
The Pigeon Tunnel – John Le Carré does have a very interesting life story, and is an excellent storyteller as you might expect from someone who has written so many popular books. I’m not sure I’m entirely sold on Errol Morris’ interview technique generally, but the contrast between them was entertaining at least.
One Life – I already knew about the Kindertransport and Sir Nicholas Winton before I saw this film and I’ve seen the relevant clips on youtube a few times – so nothing happens in this film that I did not expect but it was still worth seeing how some man just slogging away at paperwork managed to impact so many lives.
The Book of Clarence – Since this one is related to Jesus, I took my Mum to see it at LFF and she had a great time, particularly since the director was there to talk about the film. I liked the choice to make it in that 50s/60s biblical epic style.
Fingernails – This was good, but like I’ve said elsewhere, I never want to see it again. I also feel like not everyone in the screening I saw was expecting a science fiction kind-of-dystopia setting.
Barbie – I mean…she’s everything.
John Wick: Chapter 4 – For a lot of the year, this film was at the top of my 2023 list and it’s only because I saw two outstanding films in October that it’s in third place. Like the previous films, this is full of deeply satisfying action, beautifully shot and exists in a universe where you don’t need to question how John Wick gets to the places around the world that he shows up in, he just does.
COPA 71 – FIFA are literally the worst and these footballers are absolute legends. The amount of archival footage was fantastic, especially since the entire event basically got deleted from football history.
The Taste of Things – I could live in this film. Ok, not literally in that time period because I do enjoy having a microwave, but just put me at those dinner tables. A film about love, that feels like the smoothest, most velvety chocolate ganache and I would absolutely devour it, if you could make the experience of a film tangible.

Definitely see that last one.

2022 films and stuff

2022-12-31T21:20:41Z

As I noted in November, I didn’t post my 2021 films for some reason and I still don’t remember why but here they are. Shang-Chi was pretty great.

Did I do anything this year? Did I go anywhere? I feel like I did visit Walsingham but don’t remember anything about it – oh, I remember now. I actually went on holiday to Ipswich and then drove to visit Walsingham on one of the days I was there and that’s why I don’t remember staying in Walsingham.

I also attended one of the London e-prix and had the great idea of staying the night before in a hotel nearby because lol I am not waking up early to get there. That was also about the time I fell on my car and smacked my shin so hard on the doorframe that it got infected and I had the exciting opportunity to “enjoy” two different rounds of antibiotics. It’s still not the right colour, but that’ll get better in time.

I saw Daði Freyr at the Roundhouse, an event that I bought the ticket for over a year in advance thinking “the whole pandemic stuff will be gone by then” and it’s not really but it turns out that I’m one of those people for whom wearing a mask tight against my face for hours isn’t a hardship (even though I wear glasses and now that I’ve got a pair with the arms that curl round my ears rather than being straight, I’m less likely to have them just fall off my face). Sort of related – I’m pondering going to see Måneskin next year but am extremely ambivalent about the O2 Arena AND it’ll be when I have a week off and maybe I will want to go somewhere that week. We’ll see. Maybe if there are tickets still on sale closer to the time, I’ll decide then.

Anyway, onto the new films I saw in 2022, from least favourite to most favourite as is customary:

The Middle Ages -I saw two films set during the pandemic lockdown season and this was the worst. It seemed like an interesting idea at the time I put it on my “to watch” list but it just wasn’t fun.
Our Lady of the Chinese Shop – I am, obviously, a big fan of Catholic-adjacent tat and this film is named for that. Felt like it wasn’t finished.
Blind Yellow Sunshine – Knowing something about the Rime of the Ancient Mariner improves this, but since I knew nothing while I was watching – at least it was short.
Roary – it says something that 6 minutes of the MGM lion just… roaring was better than the first 3 films on this list.
The Estate – Unfunny. Which is a shame because the cast were doing their best.
Crows Are White – The director/main character’s wife is a literal saint and must super love him to put up with his shenanigans.
Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power – Interesting documentary, but weird that the director’s films are irreproachable masterpieces and all other female filmmakers’ work is infected by the male gaze.
Inside the Mind of a Cat – I’m not a cat person, but it was interesting to see all the cat people and was a frothy light hour or so of viewing when that was what I needed.
Geographies of Solitude – Turns out documentaries about scientists doing research in remote places is a thing I enjoy. The sporadic bits of film processed on the island with bits of the island added a good contrast of texture.
The Blue Rose of Forgetfulness – I liked some of the individual works more than others but thinking about them now I don’t know that I can remember any but Alcestis.
God Said Give ‘Em Drum Machines – I didn’t know anything about the history of techno music so this was educational. I can recognise the nerding out about synthesizers in musicians I know now.
See How They Run – I think maybe this film was trying to capture that Knives Out vibe but just doesn’t manage it because they were reading from the “how to Wes Anderson” instruction manual.
Unicorn Wars – Did I see this just because it was teddy bears going to war? Yes.
My Robot Brother – I feel like I’m getting closer to the top 10 because I’m starting to get to films that was actually “good” rather than just “I watched them.” Has kind of the feel of those educational TV series we used to watch at school like “Through The Dragon’s Eye” if that had been turned into a film solely for entertainment.
Staging Death – 8 minutes of Udo Kier’s death scenes cut together. The highlight is recognising all the ones you’ve already seen.
After Sherman – This was another film telling a part of the director’s personal experience and this one has the extreme benefit of not having a deeply frustrating director that sabotages his own life.
Jill, Uncredited – Anthony Ing manages to weave a story out of a selection of clips of the thousands of Jill Goldston’s appearances as an extra in film and TV which really illustrates just how many productions she was a part of to make that possible (and there were many appearances that just didn’t make the cut on top of these). Jill was at the screening I saw and it was a delight to hear just how much she loved being part of these films and had the best experiences doing them.
The Wonder – Not sure about the framing device, but this was a good watch.
Corsage – I discovered that a whole bunch of films was made recently about Empress Elisabeth of Austria and I want to check them out. It works better if you know a bit more about the real Elisabeth.
Thor: Love and Thunder – I did think when I saw this film that it would be higher up the list and yes, it is good and enjoyable (even when you’re familiar with the comics so there’s less surprise). I think it’s a combo of “this film could have been better” and “I saw a number of satisfying films this year.”
Living – This was great. I saw Aimee Lou Wood in Uncle Vanya and she was a delight in that and she’s great here too.
Into The Ice – This is the other scientists doing research in remote places film I saw and seeing all of the giant holes in the ice was just wild and mindblowing.
Meet Me in the Bathroom – Documentary about the New York music scene in the early 2000s and yes I was only there for Interpol, whose first album is the only CD I ever wore out, but it was fascinating to hear about the other bands too. Was weirdly like someone did a time-travel to shoot the early 00s footage, but obviously they just recorded video at the time and it’s wild to think that in 10-20 years there could be something like this built out of band’s insta/tiktok videos.
Hidden Letters – I knew some stuff about Nushu already so hearing from some of the women who have kept this language alive was interesting and touching. “Loved” that moment where some man asked how they could make Nushu, a language that had survived in secret for hundreds and hundreds of years, continue to survive without commercialising it in the cheapest possible way and only saw that as an option.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery – I am so glad that loads of people have now seen this because I have been waiting for months, MONTHS, to hear about people’s enjoyment of this film. This takes the thing I love about Columbo and Sherlock Holmes and Miss Marple and Poirot (i.e. helping the little guy obtain justice and sticking it to the man) and just SLAPS IT RIGHT DOWN ON SILLY OLD MILES BRON’S FACE. The thing I took away from seeing this in a cinema was that I was surrounded by people who did not know who Yo-Yo Ma is and that was in my top 3 cameos in the film. Re-watching it now that it’s out on Netflix has only improved it because I can spot the things I didn’t spot on the first viewing AND I have the benefit of seeing things that other people who know stuff have picked up on. Knives Out was my 2nd favourite film of 2019 and it’s deeply satisfying that this one was so enjoyable.

Inactivity

2022-11-06T15:58:24Z

I realised about half-way through this year that I didn’t post my films of 2021 but I don’t remember why I didn’t get to it.

Anyway. I’m a sporadic blogger, but I am here.

2020 films and stuff

2021-01-03T03:31:45Z

A lot of things happened in 2020, but mostly they happened to other people because I didn’t leave the house for most of the year.

And like, I don’t really have anything to say here about those things.

Anyway, on to the customary look back at the new films I saw in 2020 from least liked to most liked. I didn’t step foot in a cinema all year¹, so I’m not entirely sure how I ended up seeing a good 10-15 more new films than usual – especially since I had a hard time sitting down and watching anything much over an hour long – and somehow I ended up watching like 100 films in total which seems… excessive. In previous years, I’ve said something about each film – that’s not happening today lol.

Genus Pan – This and the next film were just SO boring. This is the kind of thing I end up seeing when there’s a global pandemic and the film festival I normally go to moves online removing the logistic obstacles that needing to get a train across town to another cinema puts in my way.
Striding Into The Wind
Carmen Sandiego: To Steal or Not to Steal – Turns out I don’t enjoy interactive films
The Yalta Conference Online – In some ways, doing the Yalta Conference as a Zoom meeting was a good idea. In other ways, it was not.
Motorcycle Drive By
David Byrne’s American Utopia – Maybe this was overhyped? Maybe I’m just not that into David Byrne’s music?
The Light Side
Summer Shade
180 Degree Rule
I Am Patrick: The Patron Saint of Ireland
Possessor – Everything I heard about this one beforehand was like “oooh scary horror, oooh body horror” (I guess because Brandon Cronenberg did it) but like… it’s just a science fiction film. It’s not scary horror.
Delia Derbyshire: The Myths And Legendary Tapes
Shadow Country
Sound for the Future
Identifying Features
The Real Right Stuff
Mulan – I still don’t get why so many of the animated Disney films get remade as live action (well, I mean, I DO, it’s for the money BUT STILL). This was… same old, same old I guess.
Secrets of the Saqqara Tomb
My Octopus Teacher
The Disciple – This was really good. I feel like a lot of good films seem to be way down the list but it’s just that I saw a lot of new films this year.
Wildfire
The Old Guard
Cicada
African Apocalypse
Ari EldjÃ¡rn: Pardon My Icelandic – Does an hour-long Netflix comedy special count as a film? Well, I guess. It’s in the films section after all.
Jude – This is a film about someone I know and tbh I don’t know whether I can really categorise it in with all the others very well because it’s valuable to me AS a film about this person and it’s not there to be entertainment.
One Man and His Shoes
The Lego Star Wars Holiday Special
Herself
The Reason I Jump
Time
John Was Trying to Contact Aliens
Soul – I wanted to go and see Soul as part of LFF but it was one of the in-person-at-the-cinema-only ones, which obviously was ridiculous because of the global pandemic, but then it eventually came to Disney Plus so here we are.
Undine – I kind of knew the folklore so I figured I knew what would happen, and then stuff happened and it didn’t seem like that but then you get to the end of the film and you realise that exactly what was supposed to happen did happen.
Mogul Mowgli – This was a big m o o d from start to finish.

“They ever ask you, “Where you from?” Like, “Where you really from?” The question seems simple, butâ€…theâ€…answer’s kinda long”
Stray – I don’t know what I expected when I got a ticket to see a film about stray dogs in Turkey – certainly not a film that’s told at dog-height, but it works and it was great.
Wolfwalkers – We all know that the villain has always been Oliver Cromwell. The art in this was fantastic,
Enola Holmes – I am here for a whole franchise of this. CHURN THEM OUT. I will watch them. Forever lol at Henry Cavill as Sherlock Holmes.
The Painter and the Thief – This kind of reminds me of the film Dancer, which was about Sergei Polunin, in that clearly they start making the film and don’t really have any idea of where the story will end up and then it ends up being amazing.
Never Gonna Snow Again – Funny but also kind of sad.
Another Round – Yes, the last like 5-10 minutes are fantastic, but I think they’re only so good because you’ve just watched the whole film before that part and you need to, to kind of get that release.
Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga – I LOVE Eurovision and this was great and the best part is how we never actually find out who won that context because that is not the point – much in the same way that with real Eurovision, it’s not really winning that’s the point for me.
Rising Phoenix – This was a really good look at a few Paralympic athletes from various backgrounds. I really hope that the Games can go ahead this year if there is a safe-as-possible way to do so, but at the same time WILL it be possible?
Uncle Vanya – Ok, yes, this is the filmed version of a play that I did actually go to see in person, in the theatre, about a week before my workplace sent us all to work from home and maybe 10 days before the entire country did her first lockdown. I’m not convinced that all of the changes they made (mostly way the monologues played out, but how would I have it differently???) were all good choices, but when I watched this on TV, I still felt exactly as I had when I’d finished watching in the theatre. Would this play leave me as emotionally wrung out at the end in any other year? Maybe not, but maybe so. The set was even more beautiful in person, and I’m not sure that the film really captures that. Incredible 2020 vibes.

While I didn’t get to go to the cinema last year, I did manage to go to two gigs back in February – Dave Hause at the Union Chapel which was FANTASTIC and Asgeir at Shepherd’s Bush Empire, which was also delightful. Bedouin Soundclash was supposed to happen in May, but got pushed back to February 2021 and of course, it’s now been cancelled. I’m not sure that they’ll tour again so I’m glad I saw them when I could. The Star Wars concert that I was supposed to attend in March, was also cancelled, but I guess someone is always going to put on a Star Wars concert at the Royal Albert Hall, so that one will come around again one day.

1.I was going to say “weirdly,” but look, we all know what’s going on this year so it’s not weird at all.

In the plague tiems

2020-12-29T21:32:37Z

Considering the number of places my blog posts syndicate out to, you’d think I’d update a little more than I do. Such is life.

I’ve been catching up on a bunch of unread email newsletters in ye olde inbox and it’s like time-travel in a really nice way. The world when those missives were sent was still not that great a place but at least less of us were suffering and dying thanks to some pandemic and the failures of government.

The Home Screen newsletter (actually a recent edition, rather than one from some time last year) talked about how Adobe doesn’t like Photoshop to be used as a verb and I could only think that they probably wouldn’t be too fond of how I and a few other people say “potato-chopped” instead.

Read an article about people not remembering the 1918 Flu Pandemic and realising I had no idea that people don’t know about it? I guess a lot of people don’t study that period of history, and if they do learn about the First World War, they don’t learn about how there was this big double whammy of awful at the time. Plus, I guess, people who were alive then and are still alive now would have been tiny babies and there really aren’t that many of them left. And who hangs out with the elderly?

I mean, ok. I do and yeah, I knew a lady whose Dad survived WWI only to get it from flu when he came home – her mum used to drag her along to his grave on birthdays and Christmas and she hated it.

And I was thinking about it the other day, in the sense of “well how did we survive that?” but the thing is – millions and millions of us just didn’t. It’s that the way death works is that when you’re dead you’re not going to come back and chat about how you were sick and it was awful.

2019 Films and stuff

2020-01-02T01:23:14Z

As usual, a rundown of the new films I saw this year – from least liked to most liked.

Ghost Dance – this was a short that I saw alongsideÂ The Deathless Woman and like… I just don’t get it. It’s not something I would have chosen to watch (I was there to see the main film) so I guess that’s why it’s at the least liked spot on the list.
Color Out of Space – I guess I was expecting something more horror? I’m not that keen on horror but I thought I’d give weird-horror a try and like this wasn’t even that weird.
Little Joe -Â This was ok and did the “a bit unsettling” thing well but also it was a bit boring.
Guest of Honour – This was ok also.
Faustina: Love and Mercy – My Mum wanted to see this so I got tickets for us both. It’s kind of billed as a docudrama and I guess I was expecting more of a narrative of the life of St Faustina. It’s more maybe a quarter about St Faustina, a third about Blessed Fr Michael Sopocko trying to get the cause of Divine Mercy really going and then the rest is about Divine Mercy and works that current sisters do.
The Deathless WomanÂ – So the director of this film was talking about it when I saw it and she mentioned how it’s kind of like how you might present a documentary as a theatrical production, which was an interesting approach. I was aware that there is had been a lot of persecution of the Roma during the Second World War and that now there is a lot of anti-Roma (and Traveller) sentiment and action, but I hadn’t really realised that the violence they experience was at this level.
The KingÂ – I mean, I don’t know that this needed to be made? It’s a fairly standard King of England goes to war with France kind of thing. The funniest part was how one of the filmmakers at the screening I saw talked about how they’d really boosted the parts for women and haha they really have not.
To Live To Sing – So Chinese opera is not everyone’s cup of tea but I like that sort of thing and this was a really touching story about the head of an opera troop’s struggle to keep the group together and their art alive.
AbominableÂ – I am saw this and really wanted to eat buns but I had to dash off to see another film and didn’t have time.
Tell Me Who I AmÂ – I didn’t know anything about this going in other than one brother had totally lost his memory and his twin brother knew everything and I think if you are going to see it, maybe find out what happened to the two brothers in advance.
Judy & PunchÂ – All of the things that happen in a Punch & Judy show are in like the first half and there is a thing that happens and everyone laughed and then realised, wait, these are not puppets.
Mr JonesÂ – I guess we know Stalin was terrible, but the news hadn’t quite gotten out in 1933.
Western Stars – This is just Springsteen playing the music from his album and then doing some talky-musing bits in between. It was ok and the msuic was nice.
Jojo Rabbit – As much as imaginary friend Hitler was amusing for a while, I don’t know that he was necessary for the whole film but I guess he was in the book?
Le Mans ’66 – Everywhere else (everywhere North American maybe) this film is called Ford Vs Ferrari like no one knows anything about what happens at Le Mans or…who knows really. I guess this is better for people who aren’t big racing fans, but I did enjoy it.
Synchronic – This was my 10th most liked film of the year which I wasn’t expecting. I feel like perhaps a lot of people may have found this to be better than they thought it was going to be. It handles the time travel in a new, interesting way and Anthony Mackie is really great in this.
The Red Sea Diving Resort – I knew a little about the stuff that happens in this film, but not really the extent of what went on. It’s also nice to see Chris Evans in a not-Captain-America role.
The Two Popes – I saw this at LFF where I sat between a priest and an old dude who shushed the priest for eating crisps towards the beginning of the film.Â IsÂ The Two PopesÂ entirely factual? No. Does it give an accurate portrayal of the personalities of Popes Benedict and Francis? Hard to say. Is it enjoyable anyway? Yes. The main thing is that it really reminds us that these two men are human, like the rest of us.
Spider-Man: Far from Home – What even happened in this film? Oh yeah, Peter Parker travelled around Europe and stuff. There have been a lot of Spider-Man films over the years. This was fun.
Avengers: Endgame – Pretty much 6th most liked film on the list because of my extreme fondness for Captain America and the Winter Soldier. Not sure that it really ended this era of Marvel films in a way that totally made sense (although yeah, it did cement my opinion that Tony Stark is terrible – which considering that everyone who makes these films seems to adore him, probably says something). Interested to see where things go next. Kind of not into having to get Disney plus to do so. Maybe if I wait long enough it’ll all just be on regular freeview tv.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – JJ Abrams did an extremely JJ Abrams thing in this film and that was kind of rubbish. I still think that he used Star Trek as a stepping stone to get to Star Wars, which ok, fair enough if you’re a big fan of Star Wars. At the same time, I think he’s stuck on his nostalgia for the original trilogy and maybe that leads to some weird decisions (plus, while I get that Carrie Fisher passing away did make plotting this tricky, it’s not well written). Despite all of this, I still love Star Wars and the performances from all the actors. Would have liked MORE droid stuff.
Pokemon Detective Pikachu – For a really long time, I didn’t think this was a real film and then it showed up at the cinema and it was great. Really great.
John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum – So I don’t think that I’ve ever seen a Keanu Reeves film that I did not enjoy. Sure there are a few that I’m not going to see because of the premise of the films, but I’ve watched nearly everything else probably and there is not a single dud. John Wick is great. The universe that has been created is fascinating and I’m excited to see the next film to see what happens next.
Knives Out – There are more films with Chris Evans than I was expecting tbh. This was everything I love about watching Miss Marple and Poirot over and over and over but new and hilarious.
Captain Marvel – I think where maybe Endgame and Infinity War falter is that they are straight up superhero films. They’re not like, a particular type of film that happens to have superheroes in. Captain Marvel is one of those late 80s/early 90s action movie films where Tom Cruise or Harrison Ford might have played the hero and won the day, except way better because it has Carol Danvers and is in SPACE and like I saw this waaaay back in the first quarter of 2019 and it’s still at the top of my list. This is the film that, having considered and compared all the other new films I saw in 2019, still came out in front.

Anyway my ratings etc are all over here on Letterboxd and starting my yearly rating list at the beginning of the year and just adding to it throughout, rearranging as I go, continues to be one of the best ideas I have ever had.

I know this is titled 2019 Films and stuff but it’s 2020 now and I don’t remember what the “and stuff” was going to be, so I’ll just leave it at that.

Happy New Year!

Saturday the 14th

2019-12-14T21:23:46Z

It’s not quite time for my end of year film list (since I have at least one new film left to watch this year) but there have been things I’ve been thinking about writing down for probably a month now and just haven’t so here are some of those things.

I read an article about morning routine stories and how the right kind of morning routine is supposed to be able to make you more productive and how recently they’ve kind of morphed into a kind of self-care space and then went on to talk other ideas developing on from that. My weekday morning routine is to wake at 7am, visit the bathroom, fill my water bottle, put out my cereal bar and make a cup of tea that I then take upstairs and put on the bedside table. Then I get right on back into bed and go to sleep until the radio turns on at 7.30am and I find that past-me has kindly made now-me a cup of tea.
And then like, get ready for work, leave the house, blah blah blah.
Still haven’t gotten the crib down from on top of the wardrobe to set it up downstairs for Christmas. Feels like it will be a lot of effort, although it will be the same amount of effort that it is every year and it’s just me that changes. The last couple of months have been kind of vague-feeling and I’ve been studiously ignoring it and buying tickets for things to look forward to instead. One week left until the days start getting longer again, maybe that will help too.
The election. Ugh. That’s not helped. I don’t get how people can throw the poor, sick, vulnerable, marginalised etc under the bus and for what? The people I know who’ve voted Conservative are certainly not going to profit from it and just, ugh. So many things. Briefly looked into whether emigrating to Germany or the Netherlands was possible. Considered moving to Scotland. Thought about the religious life again (although that’s a thing I think about on and off and just haven’t ruled out). And being right about what the new government will do doesn’t even have the satisfaction of being able to say “I told you so” because it will be a tragedy. I suppose a Conservative vote is a selfish vote but how does being selfish uplift society? If we don’t help everyone up, even a little bit, then how can we progress and make great new discoveries? I guess I watch too much Star Trek.
I basically need a TV channel that is Agatha Christie all the time. All the Marples. David Suchet’s Poirot. Tommy and Tuppence. Just that and nothing else.
I’d probably take a bird table livestream too.
If the psychiatric hospitals hadn’t been shut downÂ 20-odd years ago, would the mental health of the nation be better now? I don’t know the answer to that, but the resource would be there at least.
Of course, I can’t remember most of the things I was thinking about writing down for the last month.

Sleeves

2019-07-21T15:01:54Z

Today I’m wearing a dress that my Mum made for me a few years ago. She made two dresses at the time but it’s only occurred to me now, that that’s when she really understood the trouble I have with getting shirts and dresses that fit properly across my shoulders and allow me to still move my arms.

The dresses don’t have sleeves because she had such trouble having to alter them away from their original patterns to make them fit that she decided to cut her losses. LOL.