Review of "The Year of Living Danishly" by Helen Russell

I thought this would be fluffier than it was, but actually there's quite a lot of serious stuff in there about how Denmark functions as a society, and about what might be behind its status as "the world's happiest country". Lots of it is about equality - it's a high-tax society with a high level of state provision in terms of welfare, education and healthcare. Some of it might be about perceived ethnic homogeneity too - it's easy to support levelling when you feel that the beneficiaries are "people like me", though of course the political culture of the place helps to define where those boundaries are.

It's nice that it's not completely soppy about everything Danish. Denmark seems to tolerate a high level of interpersonal violence, and drunkenness. Women have it better there than in other OECD countries, but it's far from perfect. There's lots in the book about hetero swingers, but I have no idea what it's like to be LGBT in Denmark. 

Still, this is a nice book, worth the time spent reading it.

Review of 'Dune'

Sort of had to watch this, though I wasn't a huge fan of the books...not sure I even finished the second one, though I quite liked the first one.  Overall impression was that it was a sort of "thinking person's Star Wars", with similarly wooden acting and stilted dialogue, great sets and locations, and lots of big action and battle scenes. I'd have happily watched a twenty-minute "art director's cut" (why oh why doesn't anyone do these?) because it looked great - I loved the details on the machines, including the analog interiors of the ornithoper things they fly around in. Nearly three hours felt much, much too long. 

I note in passing that it's obvious how the 'fremen' are based on beduin, but is House Harkonnen based on Finns? The word looks Finnish, doesn't it? And they do seem to live in gloom and not talk much. 

I also note how ten thousand years into the future there seems to have been very little social evolution. Fighting men, women like nuns but with magical powers, the universe ruled by an empire and noble houses...can't anyone imagine a future with different social arrangements? 

Well, Iain Banks could (The Culture series) but I see that the planned TV adaptation of that by Amazon has been cancelled. Can't think why...

Watched in the Middle Floor at Springhill via the USB-enabled DVD player, the film having been obtained (thankfully) by informal distribution.

Review of 'No Time to Die'

Not sure why people continue to watch James Bond films. Despite the constant bangs and crashes on the screen, and the constant level of tension and excitement that this is intended to create, I nearly dozed off a few times. The plot is more or less incomprehensible, the characters flat and uninteresting...though I almost make an except for Daniel Craig, who somehow manages to put a bit of emotional depth into the Bond character.

I suspect anti-vaxxers would rather enjoy the film...the evil super-villain, who is actually called "Lyutsifer Safin", has a secret super-factory where he is making a DNA specific bioweapon to kill off huge numbers of the world's population, and he makes an evil speech about his motivation that basically says people want to be controlled...and the bioweapon originated in a UK project run by Bond's boss M (who unaccountably sets it in a glass skyscraper in central London rather than say Porton Down)

They might not like so much that the baddies appear to be Russian (accents, the language that the evil genius base guards speak to each other, and the fact that the base has obviously Soviet-era murals on the walls, including a hammer-and-sickle logo), though they are not The Russians, not the Russian government of Putin, who after all pours money and resources into medical disinformation in the west. We know this because at one point near the end M is having to allay the concerns of the Russian goverment, who wonder why the British navy is launching a powerful nuclear missile strike on an island that the Russians claim is their territory.

The implication of the location is that this is the Kuril Islands.  Not the Spratly Islands, though that reminded me that there are absolutely no Chinese villains or mention of China in the whole narrative...it's like it doesn't exist. There is a section set in Cuba, which looks rather nice.

Watched in the Middle Floor at Springhill, via Amazon Prime.

Review of 'The Lost Daughter'

Surprisingly creepy film about a middle-aged academic woman (played by Olivia Coleman) having a holiday by the beach on a Greek island. It's hard to write much about it without spoiling it, even though aren't really plot twists as such...more a constant feeling of unease, and some weird behaviour by Coleman's character. Watching this made me realise how much difference the acting makes to this sort of film...the ambiguity and ambivalence is absolutely crucial to the effect. The woman playing the younger version of her (lots of flashbacks) who I didn't know is great too. A long film but worth the effort, though it is an effort.

Watched on Netflix.

Review of 'My Normal'

Better-than-the-reviews suggested film about BDSM. Smart New York young lesbian works at a BDSM parlour while hoping to break into the film business, hangs out with her workmates, goes to lesbian clubs, has a loveable drug dealer friend. This differs from most other BDSM films in that she's not at all unhappy about her work; she and her workmates are obviously having fun and getting a kick out of the pain and humiliation that they heap on their male clients, all in the name of customer service. 

There are a few scenes, though nothing at all heavy. The plot comes from her finding a 'normal' lesbian girlfriend who isn't at all happy about the work, and for a while we see it through her eyes...but then they break up, and that isn't so dramatic, and then the thread about her making it into film-making takes over. A low-end film boss tries to persuade her to give him sex in return for a career break, she ties him up and threatens him instead, and he finds that he likes it, so she gets her break.

Watched via informal distribution.

Review of 'Bewilderment' by Richard Powers

Another remarkable book by Richard Powers, centred on the relationship between an astrobiologist dad and his autistic/aspergers son after the death of the mum. Lots of clever, thoughtful stuff about SETI, brain training, American politics, and environmental catastrophe. I loved The Overstory, but this feels better, partly because there are fewer characters and a bit less plot, so I didn't have to keep checking back to work out what was going on. It's set in a fictional version of the Trump presidency, but one in which The Donald succeeds in having the election result nullified and goes on to win a second term in a re-run election...so dreadful though the events depicted are, at least that didn't happen.

Review of 'My Mistress'

A coming of age BDSM movie, in which Australian teenager Charlie is dealing with the death-by-suicide of his much-loved dad (Charlie is the one that finds him hanging in the garage, but seems to get little counselling or support) and finds that a beautiful young French woman in his neighborhood makes her living as a dominatrix. Charlie is smitten and insinuates himself into her life, and then into a sort of half-sexual relationship. Of course she's dealing with her own stuff too, like trying to get back the child that's been taken into care because of her addiction and neglect.

It's very slow, and not at all erotic, but sometimes poignant and touching, and like any serious reflection on the subject, addresses the ironies of the BDSM service relationship.

Watched via informal distribution.

Review of Rocketman

Sometimes surreal and hagiographic biopic of Elton John, which actually provides a lot of information that I didn't know -  well, I'm not a huge fan, though the film did remind how good some of the songs are. I didn't know he had a long term lyrics partner...almost the only person he doesn't seem to have fallen out with. If we are to believe the film he was an absolute musical genius from an early age, but I don't know if we are to believe it or not. 

Sort of unusual in that there's almost nothing of the years of struggle to make it, which all look really easy...only the going off the rails with drink and drugs after he's made it. 

Watched on All4

Review of Mystere

Nice-ish French film about a bereaved little girl and father living in mid-France who adopts a wolf cub, that grows up to be a full grown wolf but still loves her like a pet. It's described as 'based on a true story', but parts of it seem quite implausible. Beautiful scenery, some nice music. Partly it's about rewilding, but it doesn't really cover the issues - the farmers don't like it and want to shoot the wolves, the remote government thinks it's a good idea...

Watched on Netflix.

Review of 'Lotharingia; a personal history of France, Germany, and the countries in between' by Simon Winder

Another enjoyable popular history book from Simon Winder, again with lots that I didn't know, despite having covered some of the periods in History 'A' Level. I'd never heard of the Cautionary Towns, for example, and neither had a well-informed Dutch friend that I asked about it.

Once again I think he gets less good as he approaches the modern period, and I think his account of the Nazi period and the campaigns through this area in 1940 and in 1944-5 are a bit idiosyncratic. 

But these are quibbles, and it's not as if he offers a full-blown revisionist history of WW2 or anything like that. It's really worth reading, and like I said, enjoyable. Again it makes me want to visit the places and look at the works of art he describes.

Review of 'Wild Nights with Emily'

Biopic with jumbled timeline about poet Emily Dickenson...some good knockabout comedy lesbian and straight sex scenes (no actual sex, just a lot of fooling with crinolines), and nicely filmed, but a bit boring if you don't really care about Dickenson or the mid-C19th American literary scene. Few actual wild nights.

Watched on All4.

Review of 'Minari'

Somewhat shapeless and occasionally boring film about Korean immigrants trying to make a life as farmers (and chicken sexers) in rural Arkansas.

It mainly avoids the usual cliches about immigrant life, but doesn't have much to put it their place. It just sort of meanders on, until the moment of redemption when the family comes together at the end.

Recommended by someone as one of the best films of the year, can't see why. Watched via informal distribution, laptop, VLC and Chromecast.

Review of "Don't Look Up"

Everyone is reviewing this and taking positions on it - does it help the climate change movement or not?

Well, it's clever and funny, though often too painful to watch. The Trumpesque White House, the Bezos-like billionaire with his insane plan to mine the comet for resources (and escape ship for when this fails), the trivial talk shows where the scientists try to reach the public...it's all much too true to be enjoyable. It also satirizes pop-star climate activists...Ariana Grande is really great in that role, and perhaps the movement as a whole. And scientists who find it hard to communicate, and liberal media who will speak truth to power if it works for their click-throughs...

I didn't need a happy ending, but I didn't find anything to take from it except despair. I wasn't comforted by the stoical and even religious way that the main characters end up facing the impending destruction of the planet. I'm also a bit miffed that whenever Hollywod tries to dramatize climate change, it has to dramatize it...making the disaster into a sudden catastrophic event where we all go together when we go, rather that a boiling-the-frog process that will eventually kill everyone, but will kill poor and brown people first. It's much harder to represent the latter, and the fact that Hollywood doesn't try makes it harder to get that across.

Watched on Netflix.

Review of 'The Spy Who Dumped Me'

Much more fun that I was expecting! Some of the reviews complain that the film tries to cross too many genres...spy movie, thriller, romcom, buddy movie...but actually it makes a good job of this. The action scenes are better than the ones in James Bond films, the plot is a bit shaky but no worse than other spy/terrorist-baddies films. I was reminded of 'Salting the Battlefield', only this is way better and makes more sense. And unlike other Americans-go-to-Europe films, it has chosen some good locations and filmed them well. I especially liked the opening scenes in a junk market in Lithuania, and it really made me want to go there.

Watched on All4.

Review of 'Carousel'

Rogers and Hammerstein's second musical together, and I don't remember any of the songs from this, except 'June is Bustin Out All Over' and 'You'll Never Walk Alone' - the latter is sung twice, near the end and then right at the end. It's a 'dead person allowed to come back to Earth for one day' sort of story, with most of the time spent on the backstory of the dead man - note that the frame for this is a sort of heaven, but without any religious trappings...the deceased spend their time polishing stars, and the whole place is presided over by a bureaucrat called The Starkeeper.

There are some tremendous dance numbers with better dancing than I remember from lots of Hollywood musicals. I looked up the background on Wikipedia, and it turns out that it's lifted from a Hungarian original set in Budapest, which is interesting in itself. It's set in Maine - perhaps if I was American I'd recognise the accents, which seemed a bit odd.

Rather spoiled by the last five minutes of the final return-to-Earth sequence, in which the male lead lashes out in anger at his now 15-year-old daughter. Later she tells her mother (the dead man's sweetheart and wife) that she felt the hit but that it didn't hurt, and the mother says dreamily that if someone who you love hits you it doesn't hurt. From early we know that he beat his wife - whenever anyone accuses him of beating her he belittles it and says 'hit', with the implication that it only happened once. If that isn't a justification and romanticisation of male violence and abuse against women, then I don't know what it is.

Chatting afterwards I realised how many carousel scenes there are in films!

Watched on BBC iPlayer.

Review of 'The Unforgiveable'

Really good emotional film about children separated from their birth sibling by adoption, and coming out of prison, and also being working class in America. Sandra Bullock is really good as a woman who comes out of prison and tries to reunite with her baby sister, to whom she has written for years but never received any reply. Lots about trauma, that rings true from my reading about this subject at the moment.

Resisting spoilers, but it's a long but good film.

Set in a grim looking Seattle - I think I remember some of the grimmer places from my work trip there, when I spent a lot of time walking around, and realised that it's a very small place. Didn't notice then that the street signs were in English and Chinese - perhaps they weren't then.

Watched on Netflix.

Review of 'Desperately Seeking Susan'

The 1980s film where Rosanna Arquette plays a bored suburban housewife (yes, that's what she calls herself, and how the blurb describes her) who follows the rendezvous of wild-at-heart urban coolster Madonna and her punk musician boyfriend Jim, who stay in touch with each other via personal ads in the New York Mirror.

The film seems to be from a world not unlike our own, but sits on the other side of the pre-internet chasm. There is no internet, no mobile phones (just great big chunky corded ones, and payphones, and answering machines)...and personal columns in local newspapers, in which people place ads in person, by filling in paper forms and handing over cash.

I note in passing that Rosanna Arquette won the award for 'best supporting actress' for this, even though she is the central character...it's her story, and she's on screen much more than Madonna, who barely acts. But hey ho, Hollywood. Just remember that if you are tempted to take any interest in the awards. I note also that Rosanna Arquette doesn't really act very well, and that she was never in much else.

Watched on BBC iPlayer via Chromecast and smartphone app.

Review of 'Trance'

Creepy and quite violent thriller, but well plotted and filmed - well, Danny Boyle, it's going to be good, isn't it? Hypnosis, false and unreliable memories, and so on. Set in London, but few recognisable establishing shots...I think I caught a glimpse of a familiar building once. Lots and lots of interiors with very shiny surfaces and moody lighting, and shots through narrow gaps. 

Watched on All4, which recommended this to us...I think the first time it's done that.

Review of 'Black Orpheus'

I set out to watch this mainly because it's the source of 'Manha Da Carnival', which I sometimes play on the trumpet. The song barely features at all in the film - the Orpheus character sings it once to a couple of small boys who think that his playing makes the sun rise. 

That said, it's a mainly interesting film with a lot about the life of a favela in Rio, and a carnival crew. It includes some reflections on the role of carnival in working-class Brazilian life (as a sort of bread-and-circuses distraction), and on the modernity and otherwise of Brazil...lots of the scenes where modern buildings are presented or used as backdrops are sinister, especially the hospital and morgue to which Orpheus goes to try to rescue Eurydice. 

There's also a powerful depiction of a candomble ceremony.

Watched via informal distribution, laptop and VGA cable - the Chromecast didn't want to play this one and its audio track and subtitles at the same time.

Review of 'The French Dispatch'

Some of Wes Anderson's films are great, and some aren't. This is one of the latter. It's beautiful, and that makes its failure as a film all the more depressing. It's like some beautifully wrapped present with nothing inside the box. It's a collection of stories, tied together through the theme of a fictionalised American magazine and its writers in an imaginary French town. And none of the stories have enough of a plot, or enough engagement with the characters, despite the beautiful cinematography and the good but stylized acting. I'm sure there are lots of clever allusions and homages to the greats of French cinema, but I didn't get them and it wasn't enough for me.

Watched via informal distribution, laptop and Chromecast - VLC quite happy to play this one.