Review of Anna+

 Slow and not entirely interesting Dutch film about a young lesbian whose partner moves to Montreal, and she's supposed to follow in a few months, only they both agree to be open and polyamorous and it doesn't work out well as they both find new people to have sex with. 

Lots of sex in the film, none of which seemed erotic. The young woman identifies as queer but both her and her girlfriend (the word they use in the subtitles) seem very vanilla and un-queer, though there's a bit of drag dressing up with her bunch of lovely lesbian and gay friends.

Watched on Netflix. I'm glad it was there - positive role models for young LGBTQ people and all that - but it was a bit boring for me.

Review of "Another Country" by James Baldwin

I know I am a bit late to the party, but James Baldwin is an amazing writer. This one is set (mainly) in New York and follows the lives of several characters, white and Black, male and female, gay and straight. Close third person narrative, so it feels very immediate but the reader doesn't have a guarantee that it's going to turn out OK, as first person narrator tends to imply. Lots of pain and suffering, as much from gender and orientation as from race - Baldwin is really good at getting inside the heads of different kinds of people. 

Review of "Harlem Shuffle" by Colston Whitehead

This followed on from If Beale Street Could Talk...another book set mainly in Harlem, with a protagonist who has raised himself out of the criminal underclass and into the petit-bourgeois shop trading class (he's a dealer in furniture), but the temptation to re-engage with criminality as a fence continues to loom. It's a very compelling read with strong characters and plot, and another look at what it was like to be a Black person in a "less" racist northern US city.

Review of 3000 Years of Longing

Enjoyable fantasy romp with a bit of an Orientalist slant - sultans, harems, that sort of thing - but it's based on a short story by A S Byatt, and it stars Tilda Swinton, who is pretty much never in anything bad. Surprisingly Ruth enjoyed it too, even though she doesn't really do fantasy much - I think the plot was good enough, and it had a bit of emotional depth.