Film: Meet John Doe

The Autumn tv schedules certainly look promising (thank goodness!), but they haven't started yet. And that was much in evidence this evening, when the decent programmes fizzled out. So I said hey, let me turn to my film list. And the most interesting at the joint highest rating of available films was Meet John Doe, a Frank Capra film in which Barbara Stanwyck plays a reporter, made redundant, who saves her job by coming up with a story about some guy willing to kill himself to make a political protest. When the story grows legs, Gary Cooper steps in as the character in question - with Walter Brennan as his sidekick. Edward Arnold owns the newspaper, and James Gleason is the editor. Sounded interesting.

And it is! See, the whole premise is that this fictional guy believes strongly that civilisation has gone to pot. In fact, most of the common folk seem to agree - and before you know it, a mass movement has started, whose main purpose seems to be nicer to each other. But beware when you found a movement so powerful - power not only breeds corruption, it attracts it, and sincerity can be hard to maintain in the face of powerful forces..

Now, this was made at around the time that the US joined the Second World War, so you can see where the message about solidarity with your neighbours was coming from. And the only thing I'll say against the film is that it does labour the point somewhat. Not that I don't agree with them - they just keep telling us over and over.. and it takes so long.. I mean, when I keep wandering off to do other things while the film is playing, methinks they could do with trimming it. Gary Cooper's generally taciturn demeanour doesn't help with that, either - he spends most of the film looking solemnly statuesque, and frankly, it looks weird when he tries to be funny. Barbara Stanwyck, on the other hand, is brilliant, and unfailingly watchable.

The quality was unexpectedly bad - just a bad print, full of flecks and scratches. But I did enjoy it - throughout, there's something undeniably sweet about it, and my grievances are minor. Apart from the fact that, as I say, I kept being distracted because well, they were harping on the same tune again. Recommended - but beware, you might like to do a crossword or something at various points!

For tomorrow, I'm thinking film again. Next most interesting on my list, at the same rating, is Black Book - the story of a Jewish singer who infiltrates the Gestapo during WWII. Now, I've already seen something along these lines - but having watched the trailer for this, it isn't familiar, so I'm willing to give it a shot. However, I do have an alternative, suddenly - Experience London Events, Concerts & Parties has just advertised the World Cinema Film Festival, which is online this year, streaming for free over the next two days. Tickets from Eventbrite. I can't get many details of the programme, but it starts at 1pm tomorrow, and consists of talks and short films, I believe. Might give it a look - I do have my ticket.

And on Sunday, London Social Detours is hosting a "virtual visit to the Galapagos", complete with a chat about Charles Darwin. So, off I go again with them. Includes a quiz, apparently, for which the prize is one of the millions of books the organiser says her house is full of. Hmm..

Film: I, Tonya

Another midweek film I'd never got around to seeing - this week, it was I, Tonya, where Margot Robbie plays disgraced skater Tonya Harding, who was implicated in an attack on a competitor, Nancy Kerrigan. Allison Janney plays Tonya's mother.

Well, I'm very glad to have seen it! I think it's supposed to be quite an accurate depiction of Tonya's life - but for all the sad story it tells, it's fast-paced, and peppered with plenty of humour. Even the violent bits. And the soundtrack is excellent. The implication of the film - and of some academic studies of the story - is that Tonya was somewhat picked on because of her lower-class background; judges like female skaters to conform to some idealised vision of womanhood. And so she always found it hard to get ahead - she finally blew everyone away, however, with her sheer talent. And yes, there's some beautiful skating in it - doubles were used, of course.

Both Margot Robbie and Allison Janney are compelling, and really carry the film. Margot is excellent as the little girl who just wants to skate, her tough demeanour melting at the end as she realises that she's been banned from competitive skating - and for something she honestly had no part in! (It was her ex-husband's idea to attack Nancy Kerrigan.) Meantime, Allison Janney is frightful as the pushy, pushy, pushy mother who strips Tonya's life of everything but skating. I felt so sorry for Tonya at the end of this - she was fighting an uphill battle all along. Highly recommended. (Oh, and thank goodness it finished when it did - the tv signal dropped shortly afterwards, and hasn't yet returned! I've reported it.)

With nothing online on Meetup for Saturday - apart from something on the BBC iPlayer, which I can't access here - I'm thinking film again. Next most interesting at the same rating is Meet John Doe, a Frank Capra film in which Barbara Stanwyck plays a reporter, about to be fired, who comes up with a story about some guy willing to kill himself to make a political protest. When the story grows legs, Gary Cooper steps in as the character in question. Does sound interesting.

And on Sunday, London Social Detours is hosting a "virtual visit to the Galapagos", complete with a chat about Charles Darwin. So, off I go again with them. Includes a quiz, apparently, for which the prize is one of the millions of books the organiser says her house is full of. Hmm..

Film: Repulsion

Yep, you guessed it - another dearth of decent programmes. Well, I turned to my film list again. With several at the same IMDB rating, what stood out to me on the list was Repulsion, the Roman Polanski film starring Catherine Deneuve as a young woman, seriously disturbed by sexual fantasies..

I think I did see this before actually - a couple of scenes stood out. But I remembered little enough of it to make it all right. So, Catherine (Carol) is a young Belgian immigrant in London, sharing a ridiculously large apartment with her sister. Well, large in my experience - but then, it does seem to be in West London, it is the 60s, and with both working (presumably, although we never see her sister doing so), I suppose they could manage it. Me, I can dream..

Anyway. She's gorgeous, of course, with no shortage of male admirers - unfortunately, she quite literally finds their attentions repulsive. She's starved of female company, though - her sister is seeing someone, and she seems incapable of organising her own social life. It's quite pathetic to see her workmate trying to cheer her up by suggesting she go to see a film she just saw herself - she laughs uproariously at the description, but you just know she won't go on her own. Nope, she sits in. And you know how that can wreck your head..

It's described as a horror, but it didn't work on that level for me. However, it is a seriously disturbing, close-up look at the mind of someone whose grip on reality is growing ever weaker. She keeps seeing cracks develop in the walls, which you just know is a metaphor for the cracks in her mind. Coasting along with her sister to look after her, she's thrown into chaos when the sister departs on holiday abroad - and by the time her sister returns, well, let's just say that there's a helluva mess to clean up. Literally. So, truly disturbing - the motto being, beware the quiet ones!

With nothing online on Meetup for Saturday - apart from something on the BBC iPlayer, which I can't access here - I'm thinking film again. Next most interesting at the same rating is Meet John Doe, a Frank Capra film starring Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. Does sound interesting.

And on Sunday, London Social Detours is hosting a "virtual visit to the Galapagos", complete with a chat about Charles Darwin. So, off I go again with them. Includes a quiz, apparently, for which the prize is one of the millions of books the organiser says her house is full of. Hmm..

Film: The Legend of the Ugly King

Television started out well tonight, but the decent programs fizzled out, and I turned to Amazon Prime. Where, I'd already established, my film list was throwing up The Legend of the Ugly King, a documentary about a groundbreaking Turkish film director. So I decided to watch that.

Unlike other documentaries I've seen, this mainly takes the form of anecdotes from people who knew the guy, or met him briefly. We get some nice shots from Cannes, where he won the Palme d'Or, and there's interesting talk of him shooting inside a prison. We hear a lot from his daughter, who tells us how, when they were kids, they had to pretend to be Colombian. And we learn that he was Kurdish, and heavily involved in politics.

The anecdotes are interesting, but not meaty enough to sustain an entire film - I kept waiting for a structure that never arrives. When we finally get to see clips from his films - gee, they look like B-movies to me! Not good ones, either. I just couldn't get what everyone was so excited about. Now, Storm Francis is passing over - torrential rain, again - and that might be what disturbed the internet connection: but when the film paused briefly because of lack of signal, I took it as a sign, and gave up on what had turned out to be a disappointing film.

With nothing online on Meetup for Saturday - apart from something on the BBC iPlayer, which I can't access here - I'm thinking film again. With several at the same IMDB rating, what stands out to me on the list is Repulsion, the Roman Polanski film starring Catherine Deneuve as a young woman, seriously disturbed by sexual fantasies..

And on Sunday, London Social Detours is hosting a "virtual visit to the Galapagos", complete with a chat about Charles Darwin. So, off I go again with them. Includes a quiz, apparently, for which the prize is one of the millions of books the organiser says her house is full of. Hmm..

Talk on Catherine of Aragón

Today, London Social Detours had a talk, by someone from the National Gallery, about Catherine of Aragón! I was the first to sign up - nice to be kept busy again. Pity they're the only group running online events I can make, though - at least someone else gave today's lecture, rather than our breathy organiser.

I've attended at least one other talk by this presenter - and apart from a few small gaffes, she did extremely well. The only tech glitch - would you believe - arose when someone else accidentally started to share their screen, clashing with the slideshow! Anyway, I do like to hear about periods of history that are less well-discussed - such as Henry VIII's and his first wife's youth. And kudos - she highlighted things I didn't know, or had forgotten: such as Catherine's poverty after her first husband's death, with both her father and father-in-law thinking the other should look after her. I also loved the paintings - and sculpture - of them that I hadn't seen; these really help to get a feeling for the period, and the characters.

Afterwards, the chat was - for me - more interesting than yesterday's. They started with what was, for me, a very interesting discussion of the history of the time, then moved to non-historical topics. And while, again, the discussion got sidetracked - this time, the topic was of much greater interest to me, as our American attendee gave her thoughts (well, she had been asked) about the upcoming presidential election. Obviously something she feels passionately about, this took up most of the talk - which, nonetheless, was a lot shorter than yesterday's. Still, would you believe, she later apologised to the group for monopolising the discussion! Nonsense, as I told her, it's unusual to hear an American perspective on it - apart from the odd news report, where they manage to grab a rabid Trump supporter for a soundbite. (I can think of others that could apologise for one-track discussions, of course, but I held my tongue.)

With nothing online on Meetup for Saturday - apart from something on the BBC iPlayer, which I can't access here - I'm thinking film again. And now, my film list is throwing up The Legend of the Ugly King, a documentary about a groundbreaking Turkish film director. Available, as usual, on Amazon Prime.

And next Sunday, today's group is hosting a "virtual visit to the Galapagos", complete with a chat about Charles Darwin. So, off I go again. Includes a quiz, apparently, for which the prize is one of the millions of books the organiser says her house is full of. Hmm..

Talk on Ancient Rome & Films: Mother's Day & Campus Caller

This weekend is all about London Social Detours. Today, they did another "time-travel" - Ancient Rome this time, complete with a short film again.

The usual technological difficulties surfaced - but she's learning, everything displayed in due course. The short films were ok - the first purely informative, the second a more "jokey" one she'd chosen to lighten things up. Good idea, but a weird video - the presenter broke off in the course of it to quiz us on what the biggest stadium in the world is! And a couple of us found the background music intrusive - still, it was passable. The slideshow in between was, I'm afraid, a bit dry.. each accompanied by a spiel from the organiser, who also insisted on checking whether there were curator's notes for that slide, and reading them to us verbatim if there were! Yawn. The usual breathy delivery - combined with her atrocious pronunciation of both Latin and French words and phrases - made for slightly irritating listening. Ah well.

The chat afterwards was a long one.. she has this habit, which surfaced today, of getting stuck on a particular topic and beating it to death. This time, it was books - no particular book, mind, but just that she has a surplus of books around the house, and with so many charity shops closed, needs somewhere to dispose of them! So, someone mentioned she has a book club.. and then another foreign attendee said she'd be interested.. and on and on it went, and me bored to tears and wanting to leave, but couldn't get an opening where I wouldn't have looked rude. 90 minutes, it was - 45 solid minutes of which was taken up with this single subject. Oy ve. Reminds me why I didn't attend more of her live events!

Lots of films on telly for the weekend - tonight I watched two back to back. The first, I'd heard of - Mother's Day is a family-oriented comedy, with Julia Roberts as the career woman who's forsaken family life, Jennifer Aniston as the divorcée with two little boys, Kate Hudson as the young woman who doesn't get on with her mother, and Jennifer Garner as the ex-wife of  a dishy divorcé - he's the one bringing up their two little girls, so you can tell he's going to be the one the film focuses on.

Quite enjoyable, if completely predictable - I dropped out for nearly an hour, to watch Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? on another channel. Turned out to be the repeat of an episode I'd seen before (always a problem, when you watch so much telly, and it repeats so often) and so I left it before the end and returned to the film - where I'd obviously missed some events, but as I say, it is so predictable that I could just drop straight back in and enjoy the rest! Kudos to the gentle prod at racial profiling - with a group of characters in trouble with the police, it's the dark-skinned one who's ordered to lie on the ground! Happily, one of the cops recognises him as her doctor, so he doesn't get shot.

Right afterwards came Campus Caller, where a detective investigates her college student daughter's disappearance. Girl power! All the major players in this - apart from the bad guy - are female. Kudos to them for a completely unpredictable motive for the disappearance - we find out quite quickly there's been foul play, but it takes ages before we get told the full details! The film also includes some interesting tech details, when the (female) hacker manages to get into the missing girl's devices - not to mention accessing her deleted social media profiles! Decent little film, nobody famous in it.

And tomorrow, that group has a talk, by someone from the National Gallery, about Catherine of Aragon! I was the first to sign up - nice to be kept busy again. Pity they're the only group running online events I can make, though - at least someone else is giving tomorrow's lecture.

Film: Darkest Hour

They don't always have something decent for the midweek movie on telly - but tonight, it was Darkest Hour. Set in 1940, and for which Gary Oldman won an Oscar for his portrayal of Winston Churchill, in the early days of WWII. (Also got an Oscar for hair and makeup, and was nominated for some more, including Best Picture.) And I'd never seen it. So of course I was going to watch it!

Also has Kristin Scott-Thomas as his wife, Clem: Ben Mendelsohn as the King: and Ronald Pickup as Chamberlain, the PM with the unpopular policy of appeasement with Hitler, and who is replaced by Churchill. Directed by Joe Wright. And I was lucky to get to watch it at all, what with the storm rattling over the country - I can hear it shaking the house as I write. But we've had worse.

It just covers a portion of 1940, from Chamberlain's fall from grace, through the stresses of Dunkirk, and ends with Churchill's rousing speech about "fighting on the beaches". And in between, it focuses primarily on Churchill, on his state of mind, and the decisions he has to make - the appeasement faction hasn't gone away, and there remains a cohort that would happily see Churchill gone. Indeed, those in power always have enemies, and soon after the war's end, he was deposed. But that's another day's story.

It's beautifully shot, perfect detail from the period. And Oldman plays a blinder - I didn't know Churchill, he was before my time, but this looks authentic to me. Constantly drinking and smoking cigars, holding meetings in the bathroom or his bedroom.. clever enough to cadge lunch out of the King, he proceeds to feed a corgi scraps under the table. (The King barely has a role in this - just as in real life, he's on the sidelines, providing moral assistance when required. With a slight speech impediment.) Churchill is always one for a soundbite - well, that's true to life, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature!

Now, there's plenty of tension in the film - but we don't get to see the Blitz, which started later that year: nor do we get to see much of the rescue from Dunkirk. (But then, there's another, excellent, film about that.) Nope, this very much centres on Churchill's quirks and personal battles. And it's generally impossible not to like him - despite the fact that he did support the sending of the Black and Tans to Ireland (outside of the scope of this film). But hey, he was coming from a different perspective, and nobody's perfect.. Certainly, he was the man that was needed in this, the "darkest hour" for both Britain and himself. And this makes for stirring viewing - especially when you think of what they still had to go through. Recommended.

This weekend is all about London Social Detours. On Saturday, they're doing another "time-travel" - Ancient Rome this time, complete with a short film again.

And on Sunday, they have a talk, by someone from the National Gallery, about Catherine of Aragon! I was the first to sign up - nice to be kept busy again.

Talk about Islington

Today - why, London Social Detours had something on again at a time I could make! Specifically, a slideshow about the history of Islington - where I used to live, and which is still just up the road from me (in London). Cool - I signed up.

I signed on to Zoom at the appointed time - she's gradually come around to the idea that people can arrive late, and now checks regularly until everyone has arrived - which is a relief. And so we launched into a well-researched slideshow - starting with Islington's rural history, a couple of hundred years ago, when they used to stable cattle there to fatten them up again, after the long walk from wherever they were bred. The advent of trains gave farmers a way to transport them without using up all their fat, and the area gradually lost this rural connection, and was absorbed by the expanding city. As she mentioned, it's ironic that this is now the London borough with the least green space!

A personal highlight of the talk was the bit about the Hope and Anchor, a longtime music venue - she even had an old photo of U2 performing there! I had to grit my teeth when she mispronounced "Bono", mind.. The other main highlight of the talk was how George Orwell used to live there, and we had some shots of the block of flats where he lived, and a nice one of him and his son. She made an interesting point about how it's hard to judge how long a walk will take when you're doing it online! On the plus side, there isn't any gap between information pieces, to allow people to walk between the locations. I still hate her breathy delivery, which could also be described as twee.. She's not someone whose walks I make a habit of going on. 

The talk afterwards, with a variety of topics, centred on travel (we wish..), on politics, and finally on Covid, predictably. Oh, and we taught her how to maximise her slides on screen - she can use that in future. It was good to have some practice chatting live to someone other than my mother..

On Saturday, they're doing another "time-travel" - Ancient Rome this time, complete with a short film again.

And next Sunday, they have a talk, by someone from the National Gallery, about Catherine of Aragon! I was the first to sign up - nice to be kept busy again.

Film: Escaping Dad

One of tonight's tv film offerings didn't sound terrible, so with nothing on the other channels, I thought I'd give Amber Alert a try. Actually, as sometimes happens, it turned out to be something completely different - a film called Escaping Dad, in which the abused wife of a cop goes on the run with the kids, and he puts out an "amber alert" for them, which is issued when there's a danger of violence. This, of course, is a complete fabrication - he pretends she's stolen his gun as well as the cash and passports, and that she has ongoing mental health issues and is a danger to the kids.

The only issue I have with this - which was the first thing I noticed about the film - is how young she seems. But actually, checking their relative ages - the mother, Sunny Maybrey, is just old enough to have been a young mother to her daughter (played by Grace van Dien). And I missed the very beginning, but I think this daughter is supposed to have been born before her marriage to this cop (Jason Wiles). Otherwise, this is a pretty no-nonsense thriller, which sticks mostly with her story, and effectively conveys the suspense and stresses of being on the run. Very little violence, refreshingly, and mostly realistic - although it's handy how she has a friend with a yacht they can stay on! Nicely photogenic.. Give it a look if you see it, it's much better than the average made-for-tv movie.

Tomorrow - why, London Social Detours has something on again at a time I can make! Specifically, a slideshow about the history of Islington - where I used to live, and which is still just up the road from me. Cool - I've signed up.

Next Saturday, they're doing another "time-travel" - Ancient Rome this time, complete with a short film again.

And on the 23rd, they just announced a talk, by someone from the National Gallery, about Catherine of Aragon! I was the first to sign up - nice to be kept busy again..

Film: The Gunfighter (short)

Today, for some reason, no-one is doing online Meetups again. Again, I decided on film -  never fear, there's always another. Well, there's a halfway infinite list! As a friend of mine once asked - is it my aim to see them all one day? Certainly looks like it's happening - slowly.. last night, looking through Amazon Prime, I came across a highly rated short, The Gunfighter, set in a classic Western saloon, which a gunslinger enters. The narrator sets the scene for us - but.. the characters in the saloon can hear the narrator..! So I watched that.

Ah, perfect - if you have Amazon Prime Video, you should really check this out! It's under 10 minutes long, keenly observed, and hilarious. I can't really say any more, and you don't need to know - just go search for it. I guess I can now use the rest of the day catching up on practicalities..

Tomorrow - why, London Social Detours has something on again at a time I can make! Specifically, a slideshow about the history of Islington - where I used to live, and which is still just up the road from me. Cool - I've signed up.

Next Saturday, they're doing another "time-travel" - Ancient Rome this time, complete with a short film again.

And on the 23rd, they just announced a talk, by someone from the National Gallery, about Catherine of Aragon! I was the first to sign up - nice to be kept busy again..

Film: Almost Famous

Last night - a real aberration, there was enough on telly to keep me going! Tonight, we were back to normal, and I was back to my film list. Next up was Almost Famous - directed and written by Cameron Crowe, it is semi-autobiographical. A young lad aspires to be a rock journalist, and gets a break with Rolling Stone, for goodness' sake! Frances McDormand is his disapproving mother, Zooey Deschanel his more sympathetic sister. Philip Seymour Hoffman is the journalist that acts as his mentor. Billy Crudup is lead guitarist of the band he's covering. Jimmy Fallon is the new manager, appointed by the record company, halfway through the tour. Also stars Kate Hudson, Noah Taylor, and Anna Paquin. Set in the 70s, it looked like a glorious free-for-all, in the days of rock n roll excess..

And yes, it's a ball! Full of crazy doings, observed by a fresh-faced teenager who's hunted around the country by his overprotective mother, who keeps phoning up and giving out to him. Nearly a parody, with several hilarious scenes, it's also really sweet, as we learn the different relationships among the characters, and - prompted by our young journalist - they get to work out some of their life issues. Perhaps the best part, though, is the reprise of the 70s look, and some fabulous 70s music - see how many you recognise!

Tomorrow, for some reason, no-one is doing online Meetups again. At the moment, I'm thinking film -  never fear, there's always another. Well, there's a halfway infinite list! As a friend of mine once asked - is it my aim to see them all one day? Certainly looks like it's happening - slowly.. I've just come across a highly rated short, The Gunfighter, set in a classic Western saloon, which a gunslinger enters. The narrator sets the scene for us - but.. the characters in the saloon can hear the narrator..! That'll occupy a little of my day.

On Sunday - why, London Social Detours has something on again at a time I can make! Specifically, a slideshow about the history of Islington - where I used to live, and which is still just up the road from me. Cool - I've signed up.

On the 22nd, they're doing another "time-travel" - Ancient Rome this time, complete with a short film again.

And on the 23rd, they just announced a talk, by someone from the National Gallery, about Catherine of Aragon! I was the first to sign up - nice to be kept busy again..

Play: Last Train to Nibroc

Third night in a row that the decent programmes expired early. The difference tonight was that Meetup finally had something other than film to offer! Up in the Cheap Seats was watching a play on YouTube, entitled Last Train to Nibroc. And Jo was organising - and I tend to like her choices. So glad to be able to see one of them again, even if I couldn't make the actual Meetup!

Well, she hasn't lost her touch. This is absolutely charming! A WWII romantic drama - with plenty of sparky comedy - it has a young pair, both from Kentucky, meet in three separate scenes. Like so many great romances, it begins on a train - and when they discover they're from not far from each other, the rest of the play happens close to home. The chemistry between them is fantastic, the dialog quick-fire, and the romantic tension is brilliantly played out to the very end. About 90 minutes straight through, and very highly recommended - we should all have such a romance in our lives..

On Saturday, for some reason, no-one is doing online Meetups again. At the moment, I'm thinking film -  never fear, there's always another. Well, there's a halfway infinite list! As a friend of mine once asked - is it my aim to see them all one day? Certainly looks like it's happening - slowly.. Next up is Almost Famous - directed and written by Cameron Crowe, it is semi-autobiographical. A young lad aspires to be a rock journalist, and gets a break with Rolling Stone, for goodness' sake! Frances McDormand is his disapproving mother, Zooey Deschanel his more sympathetic sister. Philip Seymour Hoffman is the journalist that acts as his mentor. Billy Crudup is lead guitarist of the band he's covering. Also stars Kate Hudson, Jimmy Fallon, Noah Taylor, and Anna Paquin. Set in the 70s, it looks like a glorious free-for-all, in the days of rock n roll excess..

On Sunday - why, London Social Detours has something on again at a time I can make! Specifically, a slideshow about the history of Islington - where I used to live, and which is still just up the road from me. Cool - I've signed up.

On the 22nd, they're doing another "time-travel" - Ancient Rome this time, complete with a short film again.

And on the 23rd, they just announced a talk, by someone from the National Gallery, about Catherine of Aragon! I was the first to sign up - nice to be kept busy again..

Film: Moon

:-) It happened again.. one decent programme after the main evening news, just like last night, and then nothing. So again, I turned to my film list - where the next one up was Moon - one I don't remember hearing about, and I'm wondering why! Sam Rockwell has been stationed on the moon for a three-year contract - something to do with a mining operation. He's spent the entire time alone, with just a robot for company. Voiced by Kevin Spacey, this is kind of the next generation-HAL, with a range of sympathetic emojis to display. Unfortunately, just as our lone human is on the verge of going home, something unsettling happens. Anyway, I was happy with that option.. Amazon Prime is working well for me!

Tricky to know how much to say about this without giving away the essential plot - but I think I'm ok with saying that Sam starts to hallucinate. I also think I'm ok in saying that he ends up meeting himself - you can guess as much by reading the cast list! (I do wonder whether the guy playing his clone kept swapping outfits, as Sam himself played whichever incarnation of himself was having a closeup. Perhaps they played two versions of each scene they had together, with the roles reversed..) Stay with it though, you haven't heard the half of it yet! All is eventually revealed, and it's quite poignant. I do recommend reading the plot synopsis (afterwards) - if only to explain what you're hearing, right at the end. Oh, and as for the sympathetic computer - Kevin Spacey has a nice, soothing voice, seems a bit less threatening than HAL.. and just like HAL, knows a lot more than he's saying! That emoji-face is a bit naff, though. Hurry if you want to see this - turns out it's being discontinued on the 23rd.

On Saturday, for some reason, no-one is doing online Meetups again. At the moment, I'm thinking film -  never fear, there's always another. Well, there's a halfway infinite list! As a friend of mine once asked - is it my aim to see them all one day? Certainly looks like it's happening - slowly.. Next up is Almost Famous - directed and written by Cameron Crowe, it is semi-autobiographical. A young lad aspires to be a rock journalist, and gets a break with Rolling Stone, for goodness' sake! Frances McDormand is his disapproving mother, Zooey Deschanel his more sympathetic sister. Philip Seymour Hoffman is the journalist that acts as his mentor. Billy Crudup is lead guitarist of the band he's covering. Also stars Kate Hudson, Jimmy Fallon, Noah Taylor, and Anna Paquin. Set in the 70s, it looks like a glorious free-for-all, in the days of rock n roll excess..

On Sunday - why, London Social Detours has something on again at a time I can make! Specifically, a slideshow about the history of Islington - where I used to live, and which is still just up the road from me. Cool - I've signed up.

And on the 22nd, they're doing another "time-travel" - Ancient Rome this time, complete with a short film again. They're getting busy, these days..

Film: A Good Day to Die

Well, tonight's tv listings reached a new low of boredom. So I decided to hit my film list again - and as I said before, highest on my film list (on Amazon Prime) was A Good Day to Die, a documentary about the American Indian Movement. Looked compelling.

It's a shocking story, the treatment of the Native Americans - I guess we shouldn't be surprised, given what we know about the Black Civil Rights movement, but it's just that we never heard as much about the Native Americans. Forced removal of children to boarding schools, banning their native languages, focussing on vocational education so that they were only fit for blue-collar work. Then when they grew up, there are stories of the police provoking violence, and truly amazing statistics for the numbers of Native Americans in prison (including Dennis Banks, the subject of this film). Also talk of a deliberate policy to do away with the reservations.

The film ultimately gets to the political agitation of the movement in 1973. And honestly, this is where I started to have problems with it. See, I grant you that they had a righteous grievance - I just don't think that barging in with guns and setting fire to buildings is the best way to bring the other side around to your way of thinking. And then it all started to blur together for me, and I hardly knew whether they were talking about police brutality, or agitators within the movement, or the massacre of Wounded Knee, back in 1890. And the fact that it was all told in the same dispassionate tone didn't help. Nobody seemed to acknowledge that there was anything wrong with this violence on the part of the Native Americans. And dropped in the middle, we get an incongruous interview with his daughter, who looks like she comes from another planet, she is so removed from it all! Phew.. too much going on, and I didn't feel as though I could get behind the sentiment expressed. Which is a pity.

On Saturday, for some reason, no-one is doing online Meetups again. At the moment, I'm thinking film -  and now that I've seen that one, I had to choose another. Well, there's a halfway infinite list! As a friend of mine once asked - is it my aim to see them all one day? Well, looks like it's happening - slowly.. Next up looks interesting. Moon is one I don't remember hearing about, and I'm wondering why! Sam Rockwell has been stationed on the moon for a three-year contract - something to do with a mining operation. He's spent the entire time alone, with just a robot for company. Voiced by Kevin Spacey, this is kind of the next generation-HAL, with a range of sympathetic emojis to display. Unfortunately, just as our lone human is on the verge of going home, something unsettling happens.. one of those where we're supposed to question his sanity, I think. Anyway, I'm happy with that option.. Amazon Prime is working well for me!

On Sunday - why, London Social Detours has something on again at a time I can make! Specifically, a slideshow about the history of Islington - where I used to live, and which is still just up the road from me. Cool - I've signed up.

And on the 22nd, they're doing another "time-travel" - Ancient Rome this time, complete with a short film again. They're getting busy, these days..

Classical Music

Today had no online Meetups that I could see. However, the London Chamber Music group was attending a classical concert, live in Highbury. I couldn't go, of course - and it was sold out anyway. But as they published the programme - I could recreate it for myself. A popular set, including Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven - just the thing for whenever there was a black hole in the tv listings! I couldn't have the setting - but it couldn't be helped.

The listings weren't actually terrible today - but there did come a point where I decided I'd rather be listening to some good music, so I turned off the tv and set to it. And I must say, it was blissful - positioned right in front of the fan, to cope with the sweltering heat (I have it on most of my waking hours, now). The first two pieces were absolutely perfect for a relaxed, sunny, Sunday afternoon. Funnily enough, I wasn't enamoured of the Beethoven - he's my favourite classical composer, but I just thought it didn't quite fit with the others! The more dramatic tone jarred slightly - perhaps it would have fitted better, live. Anyway, I included the YouTube links on the composers' names, above, so you can try the combo for yourselves..

Speaking of links, London Social Detours (LSD) finally published the links to the Elizabethan videos included with yesterday's event:

Elizabethan London
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKIvtriwyEk

Life at Court of Elizabeth l
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc6exSlx5jA


What was life like for the poor in the towns of Elizabethan England?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gWiGuQvPsY


What was life like for the rural poor in Elizabethan England? | History - Elizabethan England
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3dQR2UfC2g&t=22s


Who were the rich in Elizabethan England?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDh-i6hdA2g&list=PLcvEcrsF_9zLTTFTWEPC-St2l7TedKwG6&index=4

To what extent was life changing in Elizabethan England?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXiQBef7X4E&list=PLcvEcrsF_9zLTTFTWEPC-St2l7TedKwG6&index=5

As I said, the ones I saw so far were most innovative and entertaining, and I'd be happy to check out the rest!

On Saturday, for some reason, no-one is doing online Meetups again. At the moment, I'm thinking film - highest on my film list (on Amazon Prime) is A Good Day to Die, a documentary about the American Indian Movement. Looks compelling. Incidentally, Mubi is no longer an option - my free period expired, and I cancelled my subscription. Now, the last time I did that, they gave me an extra free month - this time, they offered a year at half price! I still decided it wasn't worth paying for.. (I actually left it slightly late to cancel, so it's a good thing that the payment card I'd specified has since been cancelled, or I'd have been charged!)

Next Sunday - why, LSD has something on again at a time I can make! Specifically, a slideshow about the history of Islington - where I used to live, and which is still just up the road from me. Cool - I've signed up.

And on the 22nd, they're doing another "time-travel" - Ancient Rome this time, complete with a short film again. They're getting busy, these days..

Talk about Elizabethan Times & Film: A Mighty Wind

 I was very excited about today - the Old Vic has taken to streaming shows live in camera (so, played to an empty theatre). And coming up next is Three Kings - a one-man show with Andrew Scott! Showing from Wednesday to Saturday, it replicates a live theatre show, in that you have to attend at the scheduled time - so the only show I can make is the Saturday matinée. For which I snatched a ticket asap! Caveat - despite the different ticket prices, the view is the same for everyone - it's just a question of how much of a donation you feel like making. They're supposed to send me a Zoom link, shortly beforehand - oh, and these are non-transferable, you can only use the link on one device. But boy, do I love Andrew Scott.. 

Sadly, he had to go to hospital (neither serious nor Covid-related, we're assured!). So it was rescheduled to this week - but they then informed us that it's now postponed to an unspecified date, as he's still not feeling well. Watch this space.. blast. At least it freed me up for Meetups - so I booked my first meeting in months with London Social Detours. This one was a chat about Elizabethan times, along with a short film. A small charge, but what the hey.

I decided to use my work computer, to ensure a smoother performance - I could have used my phone, but the whole event was supposed to last two hours, which is a bit too long to hold it! Happily, my work computer worked just fine. I logged in about five minutes early, as instructed - and was the first there. But within a couple of minutes of the scheduled start time, most people had arrived - sadly, one forgot all about it until it was nearly over, as she messaged us after.

It's become rather amusing to see the host's continuing struggles with technology - today, it ranged from not being able to broadcast sound with the video she was showing, to not being able to share her screen at all. Never mind - she tends to get there in the end. She actually showed two short films, both available on YouTube - and despite everything I've seen on this period, these were well worth a look, with a new, engaging narrative, and some clever visuals to recreate the Elizabethan town over the modern-day facade. Now, she was supposed to share with us at least the links to the other videos in that playlist - nothing at all yet, though.

In between, she had prepared a slideshow of interesting things to look at from the period, each complete with accompanying narrative. And I really do have to commend her thoroughness - even though I still don't like her breathy, gasping reading style. And even I learned new stuff - we spoke about how rats have been somewhat let off the hook for spreading the plague, and the second video had a very interesting sequence about the development of the ruff. The chat afterwards was a relief - I don't get to chat to enough people from the outside world these days. Even if, as the host bemoaned, just like every talk, it did work its way around to Covid!

After a slew of films on telly that I'd already seen, late tonight finally threw up one I hadn't. A Mighty Wind is a mockumentary about the reunion of a (massive) folk group, in memory of a recently deceased concert promoter. Written and directed by, and starring, Christopher Guest as one of the musicians, it stars Eugene Levy as another, who turns in a wonderful, half-crazy performance as someone that seems to have just left a home for the bewildered. All in all, this is a lovely, daft, ensemble piece with a sustained, wry humour. Recommended.

Now, tomorrow has no online Meetups that I can see. However, the London Chamber Music group is attending a classical concert, live in Highbury. I can't go, of course - and it's sold out anyway. But as they've published the programme - I can recreate it for myself. A popular set, including Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven - just the thing for whenever there's a black hole in the tv listings! I can't have the setting - but it can't be helped.

Ballet: Jekyll & Hyde

Even less on telly these days, with Virgin Media's Festival of Football - the halfway decent programmes finished so early that I determined to see what Meetup was up to. And so I discovered that Up in the Cheap Seats was watching Jekyll & Hyde, yesterday. Screened free on YouTube by the Old Vic, when I checked the details, I discovered that it's showing until Wednesday. Excellent - this seemed a much better option than the telly!

Now, nowhere in the description did it mention that it was a ballet - which came as a complete surprise to me. Mind you, if they can do a ballet version of Frankenstein.. Anyway, in this version, Dr. Jekyll is a mild-mannered botanist who runs a flower shop, and whose life is made a misery by the local tough guy. One evening, of course, Dr. Jekyll makes a surprise discovery when he's messing around with a growth potion in the lab.. and enter Mr. Hyde, and a complete change in Dr. Jekyll's fortunes!

I thought it started out very Little Shop of Horrors, with the nerdy florist and the 50s costumes. And to be honest, I wasn't at all sure I was in the mood. But I was to be very glad I persisted - the sequences with Mr. Hyde have a sexiness and an edge to them that's completely lacking from Dr. Jekyll's. And by the end, I found I really cared about the characters. Highly recommended - you will not believe the transformation, once the man takes his potion..! (Contains some nudity, and plenty of suggestive scenes..)

I was very excited about tomorrow - the Old Vic has taken to streaming shows live in camera (so, played to an empty theatre). And coming up next is Three Kings - a one-man show with Andrew Scott! Showing from Wednesday to Saturday, it replicates a live theatre show, in that you have to attend at the scheduled time - so the only show I can make is the Saturday matinée. For which I snatched a ticket asap! Caveat - despite the different ticket prices, the view is the same for everyone - it's just a question of how much of a donation you feel like making. They're supposed to send me a Zoom link, shortly beforehand - oh, and these are non-transferable, you can only use the link on one device. But boy, do I love Andrew Scott.. 

Sadly, it was supposed to take place last week, but he's been in hospital (neither serious nor Covid-related, we're assured!). So it was rescheduled to this week - but they then informed us that it's now postponed to an unspecified date, as he's still not feeling well. Watch this space.. blast. At least it frees me up for Meetups - so I've booked my first meeting in months with London Social Detours. This one is a chat about Elizabethan times, along with a short film.

Film: Lady Bird

Well, this week's midweek movie was Lady Bird! Excellent.. despite the hype, and the Oscar nomination for Saoirse Ronan, I never had seen it.

So, this is a coming-of-age story. She attends a Catholic high school in Sacramento - Lois Smith is the kindly principal. Her love interests (wow! most kids in my school would have killed to have one, never mind two) are Lucas Hedges and - on a darker note - Timothée Chalamet. And we follow her through the final year of school, the trials and tribulations of burgeoning adulthood, romantic relationships, friendships, schoolwork, and a fractious relationship with her mother. And to top it all, she's navigating college applications..

Happy to report that it's excellent. Pacy and brilliantly written, it's consistently entertaining. I don't know whether they mentioned when it was set - but Hand in My Pocket is on the soundtrack. (Goodee, it's too long since I heard that!) And given that Timothée Chalamet is taking a (nominal) stand against mobile phones, I have to think it's set a few years back. Anyway, that song is perfect for the sparky tone.

It's funny - it's also touching, and feels true. Saoirse's character changes direction as frequently as any teenager, and you really care for her and the people she loves. Highly recommended, if you come across it - nothing terribly dramatic happens, except in the sense that everything she experiences is dramatic and exciting to her. As it is in all our lives.

I was very excited about Saturday - The Old Vic has taken to streaming shows live in camera (so, played to an empty theatre). And coming up next is Three Kings - a one-man show with Andrew Scott! Showing from Wednesday to Saturday, it replicates a live theatre show, in that you have to attend at the scheduled time - so the only show I can make is the Saturday matinée. For which I snatched a ticket asap! Caveat - despite the different ticket prices, the view is the same for everyone - it's just a question of how much of a donation you feel like making. They're supposed to send me a Zoom link, shortly beforehand - oh, and these are non-transferable, you can only use the link on one device. But boy, do I love Andrew Scott.. 

Sadly, it was supposed to take place last week, but he's been in hospital (neither serious nor Covid-related, we're assured!). So it was rescheduled to this week - but they just informed us that it's now postponed to an unspecified date, as he's still not feeling well. Watch this space.. blast. At least it frees me up for Meetups - so I've booked my first meeting in months with London Social Detours. This one is a chat about Elizabethan times, along with a short film.

Film: My Man Godfrey

Well gee, another night with nothing on telly. Or rather, I should say, several things on different channels, but all with roughly the same theme (someone gets killed). Different titles, different countries, same old same-o. So, I decided to check out my film list instead.

Had to do some trawling to find something actually showing on Amazon Prime in Ireland (they have higher-rated stuff than Mubi), but I eventually came up with My Man Godfrey. Made in 1936, nominated for four Oscars - this has Carole Lombard as a dizzy heiress who picks up Godfrey at the city dump. She's on a scavenger hunt, you see, and one of the things she has to look for is a "forgotten man". Remember that this was the era of the Great Depression, so there were many such men living among the trash.

Anyway, this chap turns out to be more erudite than one might expect - and upon being presented as her "find", shows some contempt for the daftness around him, describing them (with some justification) as"empty-headed nitwits". She realises that he's been rather insulted, and in recompense, offers him a job as the family butler! As he braves the madcap antics of the craziest family imaginable, she quickly falls for him.. but there's more to Godfrey than meets the eye.

Hey, it might be more than 80 years old, but I still found it really funny! He plays a terrific straight man, always a step ahead - they're consistently daft, but mercifully they don't depend on slapstick. And as mentioned in reviews, it's a film with a pointed conscience about the way that society treats its less fortunate. So yes, well worth a look - the less said, the better, I think, about its attitudes to women. Patronising would be the word, I guess.. but we're used to that, aren't we?

I'm very excited about Saturday - The Old Vic has taken to streaming shows live in camera (so, played to an empty theatre). And coming up next is Three Kings - a one-man show with Andrew Scott! Showing from Wednesday to Saturday, it replicates a live theatre show, in that you have to attend at the scheduled time - so the only show I can make is the Saturday matinée. For which I snatched a ticket asap! Caveat - despite the different ticket prices, the view is the same for everyone - it's just a question of how much of a donation you feel like making. They're supposed to send me a Zoom link, shortly beforehand - oh, and these are non-transferable, you can only use the link on one device. But boy, do I love Andrew Scott.. Postponed from last week, as he's been in hospital (neither serious nor Covid-related, we're assured!).

Film: Until When..

Today, back to finding my own film. I've now finished both Fleabag and The Fall - Fleabag was excellent, The Fall equally - but very, very dark. The very last episode, in fact, was shocking enough that it could be the subject of a horror story. And so, the highest rated on my film list now was one called Until When..  This is a documentary about four Palestinian families living in a refugee camp, and again, is available on Reel Palestine.

Canadian-made, this is a series of in-depth interviews with camp residents of various ages - we hear from the elderly, who remember the history of how they came to be here, and what things used to be like. We hear from younger adults, trying to make a life for themselves and their children in a world of roadblocks, detours, and shelling. And we hear from militarised children, growing up in a world where soldiers and tanks are both normal, and something to be hated and fought against.

It really does give a vivid account of what life is like there, and you'd have to wonder how such a situation has been allowed to persist for so long. How can there be peace without justice? They were forced to leave their homes, forced into cramped conditions where they're dependent on their oppressors for such necessities as electricity. If you have to pass a checkpoint on the way to work, then - as a Palestinian - whether you get to work on time (or at all) depends on the whim of the soldiers there. I've seen many such documentaries before, but it's something that continues to need to be highlighted. Wouldn't be tolerated in Europe or North America.. I can recommend this documentary, not least for the appealing characters that you meet in it.

I'm very excited about Saturday - The Old Vic has taken to streaming shows live in camera (so, played to an empty theatre). And coming up next is Three Kings - a one-man show with Andrew Scott! Showing from Wednesday to Saturday, it replicates a live theatre show, in that you have to attend at the scheduled time - so the only show I can make is the Saturday matinée. For which I snatched a ticket asap! Caveat - despite the different ticket prices, the view is the same for everyone - it's just a question of how much of a donation you feel like making. They're supposed to send me a Zoom link, shortly beforehand - oh, and these are non-transferable, you can only use the link on one device. But boy, do I love Andrew Scott.. Postponed from this week, as he's been in hospital (neither serious nor Covid-related, we're assured!).

Films: The White Crow & The Boy Next Door

I was very excited about today - The Old Vic has taken to streaming shows live in camera (so, played to an empty theatre). And coming up next is Three Kings - a one-man show with Andrew Scott! Showing from Wednesday to Saturday, it replicates a live theatre show, in that you have to attend at the scheduled time - so the only show I can make is the Saturday matinée. For which I snatched a ticket asap! Caveat - despite the different ticket prices, the view is the same for everyone - it's just a question of how much of a donation you feel like making. They're supposed to send me a Zoom link, shortly beforehand - oh, and these are non-transferable, you can only use the link on one device. But boy, do I love Andrew Scott..

And then he went to hospital., Apparently, it's neither life-threatening nor covid-related, but it's enough for him to have to postpone the show. Well, it could be worse. Meantime, that gave me time to join Up in the Cheap Seats today - they were watching The White Crow, on Amazon. It's the story of Nureyev's defection to the West, directed by and starring Ralph Fiennes, who plays his mentor. And with buffering issues, I decided to start watching a bit earlier, to be able to join the Zoom call afterwards..

So I did - and naturally, then had fewer buffering issues! Anyway, as people remarked afterwards, it's a subdued offering.. we don't get a rosy picture of Cold War Russia. And, BTW, I didn't realise that Ralph Fiennes spoke Russian.. he certainly does in this film, which is mostly in that language. Anyway, a very charismatic young Russian man plays Nureyev, who - as is explained to us - was born on a train, and seems to have developed the travel bug from there. Punctuated with flashbacks to his childhood and early experiences as a dance student, for context, the main story gives the story of his trip with the dance company to Paris - his first time abroad. And boy, did he enjoy himself - so much that his minders got worried, and when the company was due to fly on to London, he was told he'd be heading back home. Which was when things got interesting..

The film is excellent! Again, one for ballet lovers.. I'm sensing a theme in the films picked by this member of the group. ;-) Not that we really get full ballet sequences - just snippets, rehearsals and such. But it still makes for an interesting watch. And as for the defection sequence, in the airport - crikey, it's a while since I saw any Cold War stuff, and I'd forgotten how, well, compelling it is! (as one member said afterwards). The tension of that scene is played brilliantly, as they make a desperate last-ditch attempt to stop him being bundled onto a plane. All in all, definitely worth a watch.

The chat afterwards was very welcome - as I mentioned, my first Meetup chat in seven weeks. And funnily enough, much of the conversation, inspired by the film, centred on travel. But at any rate, it was just great to chat to people outside the house.. rare for me, these days. Roll on the next..

On telly, later, the best choice for an hour or so, unfortunately, was The Boy Next Door. So I watched an hour or so of it. This has Jennifer Lopez as a recently separated woman who falls for a new friend of her son's, who's just moved in next door. They spend a night together - which she immediately regrets. Too bad that he turns out to be an obsessive, violent sociopath, reluctant to let her go.. I guess it's ok, except that I cannot stand JLo. So, as soon as something better came on another channel, I switched over. (Turned out to be yet another repeat, but hey.)

Tomorrow, back to finding my own film, I guess. I've now finished both Fleabag and The Fall - Fleabag was excellent, The Fall equally - but very, very dark. The very last episode, in fact, was shocking enough that it could be the subject of a horror story. And so, the highest rated on my film list now is one called Until When..  This is a documentary about four Palestinian families living in a refugee camp, and again, is available on Reel Palestine.

And next Saturday, I have that rescheduled showing of Three Kings..