Walking: a wee'un then to the shop!

 

Cinema list 24

Poor Things:  magnificent in every way... go & see it! Go & see it... at least twice.

I cried... & meant it!  Will see it again, on the big screen... the least I can do!

48 hours later, I went to see this one again... it is still fkn magnificent! More tears!

One Life:  a simple tale simply told, it says much of British decency & compassion.

Nick Winton's actions would be neither supported nor allowed in Britain today!

American Fiction:  great movie... well observed. Well written. Well acted!

Jeffrey Wright is outstanding, his frustration, ire, & sense of inhabiting the periphery, palpable. The satire is sharp. The comedy often laugh-out-loud.

All of us strangers:  the film sings of grief & trauma, alienation & loneliness, love & rescue. Emotionally powerful, it enters the highs & lows of Adam's confined life (& self!) Brilliant central performances from Scott & Mescal anchor the sensitivity & sincerity, managing to skirt any sense of mawkishness. There was no having to work at digesting magical realism... the oddness flowed, unexplained & engagingly.    

The Zone of Interest:  weird in its banality & relative stillness... nowt much happens, but much is said of the passivity, dissociation, & complicity that enabled those who enacted the Holocaust. Sandra Huller & Christian Friedel centre the movie, as a 'normal' aspiring, middle class couple... building a comfortable family life for their five healthy happy children, on the back of the terrors of Auschwitz. 

They share their garden wall with the death camp - but Mum has planted vines to clothe those walls. It's brutal. You neither see nor escape the horror, the sounds of the camp beyond that wall never quieten! The mundane dread never releases!

The Holdovers:  loved it! Pretty much a triple-hander (altho Danny was great!) Covers much of life, loss, & living... but sharp & bitey with it!

Giamatti & Randolph are truthfully magnificent. Young Dominic Sessa a revelation. The gobbiness is often weary, but always wickedly good; disappointed; poignant. There is an 'optimism' here... but fkn life, eh? Make sure you see this movie.     

Wicked Little Letters:  love a sweary lass (or two, or more!) There's much of the adult panto about this'un, & I'm guessing many folk will pan the shite out of it...

but the slapstick, larger-than-life performances are fucking great.

A magnificent female cohort bounce the twat along, but Buckley & Colman dominate the dialogue, the (in)action &, ultimately, the frame. No-marks become tragedians; I mean, there are even three witches (Eileen Atkins great as ever!) Yeah, there's a shitload of anachronism & woke bollocks (rather be woke than an absolute cunt!)... but this movie do say much of the bullshit women STILL have to put up with.

Monkey Man:  relentless, & mental, & exhilarating. Patel wrote ve feme toon, sings ve feme toon... the lad done well! No-one in the screening moved an inch! Grand!

Civil War:  strangely unemotional - dispassionate is better - with great set pieces; some very good performances (Dunst & Wagner Moura stand out); visceral & disturbing in its immersive cinematography! I liked it, I like photojournalism.

I understand why folk might fine it unsatisfying - it stays away from the politics of declining western capitalism & the drift towards populist nationalism, sectarianism, & extremism. Intellectual rather than emotional, pragmatic not hopeful... it feeds one's adrenaline to the exclusion of one's soul. Couldn't't take my eyes from it!

Deadpool & Wolverine:  meh! Too super-heroey for me really... perhaps I just don't like comic-books enough. My 3rd favourite Deadpool movie.

Alien: Romulus:  not terrible. Basically a replay of Alien... with kids & chases! 

More than owt, an homage to the original... & it ain't Prometheus or the last'un!

The Critic:  woulda been as good on tv... but,

 this wee Brit movie unearths a lot of the nasty stuff that continues to encapsulate little Britain... McKellen is great & the whole thing looks pretty fkn fantastic!

The Substance:  What's black & white & squeamish? I enjoyed it... 

I shouldn't have, but I did. Horror ain't my thing, body-horror even less so...

but this ludicrous excrescence demanded attention as it tore along. 

Lascivious to the point of embarrassment. Gory beyond the point ridiculous. 

Demi Moore has gone up a good few notches in my estimation. 

Alien:  on a big screen this is the tits! As an old guy I ain't too sure of the vernacular... but this mofo holds up so well... coulda been made last year!

It was great to sit in the dark together, & simply watch a great movie...

a movie released & seen 45 years ago, before we ever became we!

Blade Runner (the Final Cut):  big screen again. The brilliantly restored final cut highlights this as a remarkable movie - even 40+ years after initial release!

Out goes the voice-over of the original. The quality of the scrubbed up analogue effects means CGI doesn't get a look in, & the sound quality is great.

Poignant & sympathetic, Scott's final version is stuffed full of humanity...

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate.

All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die"

Conclave:  simply magnificent! 

     

Walking: locally... in January

 Another year... another photo...

Then I got home, & went for a stroll.

It rained...

then it rained some more...