Series: Upload (Season 1, Episodes 4 & 5)

I got another advertising email from Amazon Prime yesterday. And they had some interesting options. So I had a peek at Upload, a comedy sci-fi series about a world, not too far in the future, where people's memories, personalities etc. can be uploaded to a program they subscribe to, so that they can have - essentially - the afterlife of their choice, which they can experience as themselves, in simulated bodies.

To recap, we follow the story of a young man (Robbie Amell, doing a good impression of a young Tom Cruise), whose life is cut tragically short in a freak accident. However, he doesn't die straight away - and his high-maintenance, upper-crust girlfriend has a pretty high-class subscription to the upload service, where all her family plan to spend the afterlife. So she badgers him into being uploaded, on her subscription, so they can (eventually) spend the afterlife together, in genteel luxury.

Well, in Episodes 4 & 5, more questions are posed about his untimely death, as they tease us with snippets of information. And the plot thickens. But they're drip-feeding us that slowly - in the meantime, we have a burgeoning relationship between our hero and his "care angel" - one of the humans that are there to help uploads, 24-7. And plenty more geeky jokes. Like when a few uploads nip outside the resort briefly (into the Dark Web), and one comes back with a purchase that isn't quite what he expected..! Also a scene to watch out for is the one where our hero's girlfriend finally opts for a "sex suit" so they can be intimate again, in VR..

On Saturday - Meetup, for once! The first in over a month.. I'm finally joining 45+ Not Grumpy Old Londoners, for a Swinging 60s Experience - a Live Online Interactive Tour in a Psychedelic Minibus! Also running with their sister group, Carpe Diem. Their last event that I attended was terrifically organised, and I'm sure this one will be, too - it's great to see a group running something during the daytime at the weekend, again!

Series: Upload (Season 1, Episodes 1-3)

What was coming up next on my film list was Nanook of the North, with Sands Films. They have a decent selection, lately, and this is a silent film from 1922, about the Inuit community. I decided to give that a shot today.

Well, I watched enough of it to be able to tell you to jump to about 9:45 in - that's when the feed actually starts. But as I was waiting for it to buffer - I tend to have that problem with Sands Films, on my mother's laptop - I got another advertising email from Amazon Prime. And they had some interesting options. :-) So.. I had a peek at Upload, a comedy sci-fi series about a world, not too far in the future, where people's memories, personalities etc. can be uploaded to a program they subscribe to, so that they can have - essentially - the afterlife of their choice, which they can experience as themselves, in simulated bodies.

First impressions - man, this is clever! We follow the story of a young man (Robbie Amell, doing a good impression of a young Tom Cruise), whose life is cut tragically short in a freak accident. However, he doesn't die straight away - and his high-maintenance, upper-crust girlfriend has a pretty high-class subscription to the upload service, where all her family plan to spend the afterlife. So she badgers him into being uploaded, on her subscription, so they can (eventually) spend the afterlife together, in genteel luxury.

The tech in it is all recognisable - just one step up from what's currently available. Expect to see 3-D printing, new and interesting communication devices - oh, and controversially, his death is caused by an (impossible!) accident in a driverless car, which completely ignores the obstacle in front of it. Google is referenced, too - we're really not that far away from this version of reality. Except, perhaps, for the central premise.

Loads and loads of cute little touches - in the afterlife, for example, he passes someone uploading a review of the setting, remarking how the repeating gif for the light sparkling on the lake water is a bit repetitive. He also points out how the large numbers accessing that scene lead to a bad frame rate (and we see it freezing). Oh, and don't forget the regular little annoyances of a posh hotel retreat - breakfast finishing at 10am?! Drat. Or the guy continually trying to give people free gum samples. Even in the afterlife, you can't escape these things. But what sustains the story into a second season is that there's some suspicion over our hero's death - after all, driverless cars don't crash, right? And in Episode 2, we learn why we might start to think that foul play was involved.

Excellent stuff - looking forward to Episode 4, and beyond..

TV Series: Little Fires Everywhere (Episode 1)

TV was decent on Sunday, so I watched that instead. Tonight, however, with nothing on tv again, I turned to Amazon Prime again for Little Fires Everywhere, a miniseries with Reese Witherspoon. She's the perfect mom in a small American town: beautiful house, beautiful and well-ordered family. Until an African-American woman, played by Kerry Washington, and her daughter move to town. Scruffy, not well-to-do, disordered - she's the antithesis of Reese Witherspoon's withering rota of chores, and rules to be obeyed for the sake of it. She's actually not that keen on the place, until she discovers that her daughter is fitting in, and decides that maybe she should give her some stability, for once. So we get a series.

Evidently some sort of examination of the nature of motherhood, it's based on a book. And apparently, the writer co-produced the TV series, with the aforementioned stars. And I just watched the first episode. And..

I won't be watching the rest. (Although I was nosy enough to peek ahead at the plot.) I'm just not into that kind of drama - certainly not on screen, anyway. Might have preferred the written version. On screen, I prefer something with more plot, maybe some humour.. I didn't find a single thing in this that interested me, and I went in search of the plot online just to see whether anything does happen in it. Well, it does, later - but I'm not that interested, and I think I'll turn my attention elsewhere, next.

And what's coming up next is Nanook of the North, with Sands Films. They have a decent selection, lately, and this is a silent film from 1922, about the Inuit community. I'll give that a shot on Saturday - if not before.

Film: Tumbbad

For today, I had Tumbbad, on Amazon Prime - this is a Hindi horror film about people that come across what you might call cursed treasure.. The trailer has a strong Gollum vibe, with the treasure seeming to speak to its possessor in a similar voice to Gollum. "My precious", indeed.

Well, the treasure doesn't do much talking in the film itself, but the film is very good. Quite an original production, in my experience - but then, I haven't seen much Indian horror. The story hinges on the goddess of prosperity, who created the world, and whose benefices include gold, on the one hand, and wheat on the other. Story is (and this is made up), her first child was called Hastar, and was ferociously greedy - wanted it all for himself. Well, he managed to get the gold, but was blown to bits before he could get at the wheat. She managed to salvage what was left - so he still exists, perpetually rich, and perpetually hungry.. and no-one is to speak his name.

Cue the village of Tumbbad, where it almost always rains. Sign of the gods' displeasure. A dilapidated mansion houses a single old man, who is tended to by a downtrodden woman. Turns out the two little boys with her were fathered by him. They live nearby, and every night she has the unenviable job of feeding a sleeping old woman, chained up in a corner of the mansion. Yes, while she's asleep. This is what happens if you get too close to Hastar, it transpires - and if she isn't fed, she turns cannibal. She's immortal, and perpetually hungry. If she wakes, she can be put back to sleep by threatening her with Hastar.

Our hero is one of the boys. He is intrigued about the treasure, secreted somewhere about the mansion - but the mother gets them out of there asap, heads for the big city. Fast forward to when he's a grown-up, and she's died, so I guess he feels he doesn't need to keep his promise to her any more, not to return. So he goes in search of his fortune..

Very atmospheric, plenty of doom, gloom, and cobwebs. Always, there's a sense of tension - the process by which he retrieves the treasure is eventually revealed, and has a logic to it - and the moral (greed will be your downfall) is carried right through to the catastrophic finale, which quite creeps up on you, as you begin to wonder how they're going to end it. Highly recommended, for horror afficionados. Very, very interesting. Very, very creepy.

Tomorrow, I'll be looking to Amazon Prime again for Little Fires Everywhere, a miniseries with Reese Witherspoon. Less creepy, I daresay.

Series: The Grand Tour Presents, Episode 2 - A Massive Hunt

TV failed me again tonight, earlier than I wanted to go to bed - so it was back to The Grand Tour Presents on Amazon Prime. Episode 2 is A Massive Hunt, set in Madagascar, it seemed!

Of course, this is the team that used to present Top Gear - before Jeremy Clarkson was fired for punching a chef who wouldn't open up the kitchen, late at night, to give him a steak. Apparently. Anyway, the other presenters walked out in sympathy, and they all started The Grand Tour series on Amazon Prime. I don't watch Top Gear any more - without Clarkson, it's not the same. This is a fantastic team though.

This is the fourth series of Grand Tour, and only has two episodes, so far - and I guess, for the forseeable future. Anyway, I thought I'd read it wrong when the episode actually started in Réunion.. which, it turns out, is literally a département of France, and therefore their flight from France is actually the longest internal flight in the world! (One for the pub quizzes, that.) And it looks absolutely idyllic - tropical beaches, good facilities. They're back in cars for this one, and each goes for something suitably stylish - I presume that stretch of road they demonstrate the cars' abilities on is closed for the purpose; I'd hate to meet them coming in the opposite direction!

But ah, I wasn't mistaken. Turns out they're on a mission to find the treasure of a pirate that was executed on Réunion - they have a reproduction of the coded letter that's supposed to reveal the location of his buried treasure. Well, Richard Hammond, who has something of a pirate fetish, eventually realises that, given that this pirate was arrested on Madagascar, that's probably where he buried the treasure! So they decide to head there. James May then tells them about this friend of his, who's described the roads there as the worst she's ever travelled. So, before they head off, they beef the cars up a bit..

Now, I don't know whether it's because they're back on more familiar territory than in Episode 1, or because I'm less interested in boating - of which I have no experience - than in driving, in which I have. Or maybe I'm in a better mood today than I was on Sunday, when I watched that. But jeez, I laughed so hard at this - over and over, as the saga continued - that I practically choked. It is absolutely hilarious. And you know, that woman wasn't joking about the roads - the road they travel on, the RN5 up the East coast, is a strong contender for worst in the world. Leads to the likely treasure location, of course.

Not a journey I'd recommend - it's 4WD only, I've offroaded before, and I remember how stiff and sore it left me. And the sight of the vehicles trying to navigate the road frequently left me gasping. Indeed, Hammond has to abandon his car, in the end (spoiler!) - and remarks that this is the first time they've actually lost a car. Strongly recommended - and the scenery continues to be gorgeous.

So - for Saturday, that now leaves me with Tumbbad, also on Amazon Prime - this is a Hindi horror film about people that come across what you might call cursed treasure.. The trailer has a strong Gollum vibe, with the treasure seeming to speak to its possessor in a similar voice to Gollum. "My precious", indeed. Could be decent, I'll give it a shot.

TV Series: Good Omens (Episodes 5 & 6) & The Grand Tour Presents: Episode 1 - Seamen

Sunday afternoon, and anything that might have been decent was a repeat. So, back to Amazon Prime for Good Omens.

It's a rather excellent sci-fi comedy about the end of the world. Somebody has triggered Armageddon, and it's up to an angel (Michael Sheen) and a demon (David Tennant) to stop it. Frances McDormand is God, who narrates but otherwise minds her own business, Miranda Richardson plays the hapless medium who represents the first recorded case of angelic possession. Bill Paterson is the head of the local neighbourhood watch. Based on a book co-written by Terry Pratchett, it's quite clever - and I do love that the Antichrist is a small boy. Ooh, and finally at the end of the series, Satan finally makes quite an entrance - and you'll be hard pressed to recognise Benedict Cumberbatch, under all that makeup. Finally, right at the end, Tori Amos performs a lovely version of A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square.

Ah, finally in Episode 5, the medium is possessed! Was wondering when that was going to happen. Happens during rather an OTT scéance.. but thereafter works quite well. Our angel accidentally loses his body, you see, and needs another. The four Horsemen of the Apocalypse finally meet up - "four teas, one black, please. And a cheese sandwich." And the existence of the M25 is finally explained as a demonic creation, built in the shape of a sigil that represents devil worship. Being the end of the series, of course everything gets resolved - but I can predict you won't guess how. Anyway, the series is an absolute delight, and I'm dying to hear that they've made another series.

..And would you believe it, after watching the rest of the series, there still wasn't anything on tv! So I had a peek around the latest email that Amazon Prime sent me, yesterday, and ended up watching The Grand Tour Presents: Seamen. Of course, this is the team that used to present Top Gear - before Jeremy Clarkson was fired for punching a chef who wouldn't open up the kitchen, late at night, to give him a steak. Apparently. Anyway, the other presenters walked out in sympathy, and they all started The Grand Tour series on Amazon Prime. I don't watch Top Gear any more - without Clarkson, it's not the same. This is a fantastic team though, and the first time I've watched the series.

Anyway, The Grand Tour Presents series only has two episodes so far, and both are 90-minute specials. "Seamen" is the first, and chronicles their trip down the Cambodian section of the Mekong to the sea. Each buys a different boat for the voyage - and my main takeaway was, never go on a similar trip! They face shallow waters because of climate change - here, the propeller-powered boats get caught in mud and tangled in fishing nets, and Clarkson's jet-powered boat has to tow them. Exactly the opposite happens when they find their way clogged with weeds - his boat gets stuck, and the others have to slice a way through for him with their propellers.

They face eating insects, and trying to sleep amid constant noise from engines and barking dogs - but the worst is the final stretch, where they find the sea about 30 miles off their intended finish point! So they decide to risk the open water - and watching the small boats bob around in the water like corks, and slam into waves, does not make for pleasant viewing! They're nearly swamped, and there is real worry when they lose radio contact with each other. But never fear, they live to make another episode - A Massive Hunt, set in Madagascar, it seems! And I guess that's on the menu for Saturday..

Film: Legal Eagles

Well, well, well.. first time in ages that tv had a film I wanted to see, at a time I could see it! I'd actually seen Legal Eagles before, but couldn't remember a thing about it - it was made in the 80s. So that was all right then.

Directed and co-written by Ivan Reitman, it stars Robert Redford and Debra Winger as lawyers on the opposite side of the courtroom, Daryl Hannah as the hapless client that Debra is defending, and Terence Stamp as the (main) bad guy. Brian Dennehy is also involved with the case.

Oh, what a pleasure to see a civilised comedy - one with intelligent, well-dressed, professional people and quick, intelligent conversation. As opposed to, you know, pretty much every comedy that's come out in the last several years, that I can think of. I have nothing per se against toilet humour, but it does get old..

Anyway, this was back in the good old days when Robert Redford was less wrinkly. And sure enough, he has plenty of female attention in this - it's a no-brainer that he gets together with Debra Winger, and Daryl Hannah is busily playing her sexy ingenue routine, so what's a guy to do?! There's also a fair bit of action in this, and a backstory that gets a bit convoluted - but I probably just wasn't paying enough attention. Never mind, they're good at glossing over it, and you can focus happily on the action and the love story. Most enjoyable. And keep watching over the closing credits for more scenes of Redford and Winger together.

Tomorrow, back to Amazon Prime for Good Omens - I'm way too tired now!

TV Series: Good Omens (Episode 4)

..And with, as usual, not much on telly on a Saturday afternoon - it was back to Amazon Prime for Good Omens.

It's a rather excellent sci-fi comedy about the end of the world. Somebody has triggered Armageddon, and it's up to an angel (Michael Sheen) and a demon (David Tennant) to stop it. Frances McDormand is God, who narrates, Miranda Richardson plays the hapless medium who represents the first recorded case of angelic possession. Bill Paterson is the head of the local neighbourhood watch. Based on a book co-written by Terry Pratchett, it's quite clever - and I do love that the Antichrist is a small boy.

Well, now it's all starting! Witches are a force of good in this, and the witchfinders that we've met over previous episodes converge on the small village, along with all the mayhem of legends coming to life. We've finally met all four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and our favourite angel and demon have fallen foul of their superiors - for consorting with each other. Some familiar corporate nonsense, here. God, as usual, works in mysterious ways. And the weather is awful.

Roll on the end of the world! Seriously, this is a delight to watch - the little details are terrific. Like the horseman called Famine, who sells non-nutritional food to fast food restaurants..

TV Series: Good Omens (Episode 3)

Wow, tv has been bad this week! Not bad enough to stop watching, but so much gloom and doom.. including tonight's Late Late Show, which normally forms the backbone of my Friday nights in Ireland. (Whee!)  A couple of decent items were completely overwhelmed by interviews with participants on RTÉ's fitness programme, Operation Transformation, (yuck!) and an interview with Barry McGuigan about his deceased daughter. Oh, what a downer! With nothing else decent on, we went to bed early, and I was free to return to Amazon Prime for Good Omens.

It's a rather excellent sci-fi comedy about the end of the world. Somebody has triggered Armageddon, and it's up to an angel (Michael Sheen) and a demon (David Tennant) to stop it. Frances McDormand is God, who narrates, Miranda Richardson plays the hapless medium who represents the first recorded case of angelic possession. Bill Paterson shows up in this one, as the head of the local neighbourhood watch. Based on a book co-written by Terry Pratchett, it's quite clever - and I do love that the Antichrist is a small boy.

They spend the first half of this episode reprising snippets of the last 6,000-odd years since the world apparently actually began, and the relationship between our favourite angel and demon. And then it's back to the mayhem of a small English village, where the Antichrist is, it seems, becoming powerful enough to influence the world around him. Another excellent episode - the flashbacks work perfectly well if you haven't seen the previous episodes, but for the present day, it does help to know who's involved. And the hellhound gets a starring role.. Again, highly recommended - can't wait to get back to the rest of this series, I'm starved for something decent to watch!

TV Series: Good Omens (Episodes 1 & 2)

Today looked like film again - and Amazon Prime kindly sent me an advertising email yesterday. Some highly rated stuff - so I said I'd give it a shot! Highest among them - that I'd be interested in - is Good Omens, a sci-fi comedy about the end of the world. Somebody has triggered Armageddon, it seems, and it's up to an angel (Michael Sheen) and a demon (David Tennant) to stop it. Frances McDormand is God, who narrates, Miranda Richardson plays the hapless medium who represents the first recorded case of angelic possession. Based on a book co-written by Terry Pratchett, it looked quite clever - and I do love that the Antichrist is a small boy. Seems so appropriate. Anyway, I love that kind of stuff - and end-of-the-world stories seem so appropriate, these days!

Plenty of free time this afternoon to watch a couple of episodes. And yay, it is clever! One of those where you can coast along, or you can really pay attention, to catch all the references. They borrow heavily from The Omen, where the Antichrist is swapped, as a baby, with the son of an American diplomat, thus placing him in a position of potential power and influence. And when he's a bit older, he gets a hellhound as a companion and protector. Watch how they play with these ideas, though! David Tennant gets reptilian eyes - when you can see them, as he usually wears sunglasses. And there are fantastic subplots regarding a family of fortune-telling witches, the descendant of a witchfinder, and the, em, four horsemen of the Apocalypse. We've only met War so far, mind - strutting her stuff in the Middle East, naturally. Mind you, they've dropped Conquest and Plague (outdated, I guess) in favour of the more familiar Death - and the on-trend Pollution. I'm gonna enjoy meeting them..

Excellent series - good fun, but also with enough historical and mythological detail, and knowing references, to keep us nerds happy. Terrific CGI, as you'd expect. It's a real shame there is only one series - I hope they make more, when possible. I see there was a massive swell of protest against this, saying they were making light of Satanism - funny how you never hear of people protesting about books, like the one this is based on. Well, except for the Muslims. I suppose the others don't read so much..?

Will be delighted to keep watching this..

Film: The Lives of Others

So, tonight's tv served up The Lives of Others. I do think I've seen this before, but it's one of those I saw years ago, didn't remember anything about, but really wanted to see again. Happily, there wasn't anything on other channels to clash with it.

It's a German film, set in 1984, in the GDR, where a Stasi agent - as the blurb would have it - becomes obsessed with the man (Sebastian Koch) that he's got under surveillance. Now, I do love a good Cold War drama - nothing quite like them for sheer suspense, as oppressed citizens try to get on with their lives in grey and unforgiving surroundings, while those in the know complete dangerous assignments, for the greatest stakes. We meet our agent in his capacity of interviewing suspects, and are left in no doubt about his cold and calculating treatment of them - indeed, he teaches a class on it.

And then.. he's ordered to start surveillance on a famous writer. They put the equipment in place, this agent starts listening.. and he turns into Walter Mitty. You see, this writer is so much more glamorous - he has a nicer apartment, a beautiful girlfriend, is better dressed; hey, he even has more hair! I don't know whether the agent fantasises about being him, but he certainly admires - or sympathises with - him; he even sneaks in there when they're out, and nicks a book! Well, in contrast, his own life is so drab - a drab apartment, a lonely existence; who'd go out with a Stasi agent? Thing is though, how far is he willing to go with this - and how far will he be allowed to go, in this nosy and oppressive environment?

It's compelling. The agent doesn't say much, but his face speaks volumes - and he really carries the film. Mainly, you get a sense of exasperation, as you see everything these people can't do - the film turns riveting towards the end, however, as the writer (who is up to no good) comes closer to discovery. And at the very end of the film, we flip into the future, the fall of the Wall, and a fascinating scene where he gets to see the official records of his surveillance, and realises the truth of what was happening all along! Absolutely terrific film, very highly recommended.

Tomorrow, looking like film again - and Amazon Prime kindly sent me an advertising email this afternoon. Some highly rated stuff - so I'll give it a shot! Highest among them - that I'd be interested in - is Good Omens, a sci-fi comedy about the end of the world. Somebody has triggered Armageddon, it seems, and it's up to an angel (Michael Sheen) and a demon (David Tennant) to stop it. Frances McDormand is God, Miranda Richardson plays the hapless medium who represents the first recorded case of angelic possession. Based on a book co-written by Terry Pratchett, it looks quite clever - and I do love that the Antichrist is a small boy. Seems so appropriate. Anyway, I love that kind of stuff - and end-of-the-world stories seem so appropriate, these days!

Musical: Ruthless

This evening, Up in the Cheap Seats is watching Michael Ball perform a Heroes concert, full of showtunes, on The Shows Must Go On. However, this is only in some parts of the world - here, they're showing us Ruthless, the musical that spoofs musicals. It'd be great to see a musical again, it's been a while - and hey, I couldn't have watched with the group anyway, they're watching too late for me..

And yes, it is great to see a musical! A Broadway production, it has a bit of everything - as you might expect. Marvellous performances as we watch Shirley Temple's evil twin plot and scheme her way to the lead role - no surprise that it's once she gets it, the show takes off! I particularly loved grandma's number, "I hate musicals". Had it all been that good, I'd have been more entertained. So - I didn't find it laugh-out-loud hilarious, but I did chuckle. Amusing entertainment for a cold afternoon. Showing until 7pm tomorrow, GMT.

Tomorrow, looking like film again - and Amazon Prime kindly sent me an advertising email while I was watching Ruthless. Some highly rated stuff - so I'll give it a shot! Highest among them - that I'd be interested in - is Good Omens, a sci-fi comedy about the end of the world. Somebody has triggered Armageddon, it seems, and it's up to an angel (Michael Sheen) and a demon (David Tennant) to stop it. Frances McDormand is God, Miranda Richardson plays the hapless medium who represents the first recorded case of angelic possession. Based on a book co-written by Terry Pratchett, it looks quite clever - and I do love that the Antichrist is a small boy. Seems so appropriate. Anyway, I love that kind of stuff - and end-of-the-world stories seem so appropriate, these days!

Film: Uncle Frank

Well, tv lately has generally been decent - but failed me as I was going to bed tonight. So I thought, hmm.. a chance to watch something else. Now, the film I chose was Uncle Frank - not originally on my list at all, it was actually one of the newspaper's recommendations; they have an article every Friday, suggested online viewing for the weekend. And this is available on Amazon Prime.

And wow, I'll pay more attention to them in future! This is terrific. Set in the 70s, it's told from the perspective of a teenage girl, just coming of age, whose life is shaped by her uncle Frank (Paul Bettany). They're from a redneck family in South Carolina - Margo Martindale plays his mother, Steve Zahn is his brother, who's married to Judy Greer; they're the niece's parents. Lois Smith plays his slightly dotty aunt.

We get a brief introduction to them when the girl is 14, then it jumps forward four years - by which stage, uncle Frank's influence has caused her to go to college in New York, where he teaches. Which, as promised, opens up a whole new world to her.. including the reason that Frank's father never seemed to like him, and so he escaped to the big city - he's gay. His partner is the gorgeous Peter Macdissi - who also produced; and apparently this is partly based on the life story of Alan Ball, who wrote and directed. Anyway, things come to a head when Frank's dad dies, and they all return for the funeral..

It's funny, and it's devastating. Dark scenes are lightened by some really funny characters - and gee, (almost) everyone is really nice! Mind you, when Frank's partner points this out to him, he's told that's just how it is, down that way. And you just love being a fly on the wall when Frank's secret comes out - but the revelation, in flashbacks, of how his life has been is what elevates this above a tepid comedy. Excellent recommendation by the paper, excellent choice on my part - I was really moved. And now I can recommend it, too! (Highly.)

Tomorrow, Up in the Cheap Seats is watching Michael Ball perform a Heroes concert, full of showtunes, on The Shows Must Go On. However, this is only in some parts of the world - here, they're showing us Ruthless, the musical that spoofs musicals. It'll be great to see a musical again, it's been a while - and hey, I couldn't have watched with the group anyway, they're watching too late for me..

Film: Time

Not much on these days - not on Meetup (online), not on telly. You might be forgiven for thinking the world had gone to sleep. Well, today was film again, and I still had a backlog of Time, on Amazon Prime, and Zero de Conduite, on the Internet Archive. And so, I finally watched Time.

It's a documentary about the Riches - Rob G and his wife, Fox, are a likeable and charismatic American couple who, in the late 90s, were starting out, buying a house, starting a business and a family. But undisclosed hardships - which, to be be fair, could happen to anyone - led to financial problems, and they ended up robbing a bank. For a measly $5000. Anyway, they were convicted of armed robbery. She took a plea bargain, it seems, and got 3.5 years in prison - in his case, there was some confusion; he seems to have rejected the plea bargain (he was due for more jail time than she was, as she just drove the getaway car), but then his lawyer changed, the second one dropped the case, it ended up in trial.. and he got 61 years! Without right of parole.

Er, what? I mean, he had no previous criminal record. Yes, it was armed robbery - but no-one was injured. And in a country that is, frankly, awash with guns, armed robbery is much more likely than unarmed, it seems to me. Of course, we can't ignore the fact that he is black.. Anyway, the kids went to her mother's - she gave birth to twins in prison as well - and when she got out, well! She ran for public office, and started a tireless campaign to get his sentence reduced - and you'd have to agree, it sounds excessive. The whole is shot in black and white, and up-to-date footage of her campaign is mixed with home movies that she shot consistently through the years, to keep Rob in touch with what was going on. The upshot is, she managed to get him out after 21 years.

During which time, she raised five sons on her own. And to her credit, they seem to be shining successes - well-spoken, good-looking, intelligent - university students and rights campaigners. As one remarks during a speech to college freshmen, children of inmates usually drop out of school..

So, a truly inspirational documentary - and it's interesting to see a documentary about the effects of prison, from people who quite clearly admit their wrongdoing, but want to highlight the injustices of the system. Mind you, how you feel about it will depend on your tolerance for inspirational programming. Me, I found other things to do while it was on in the background. The end, where they are finally reunited, is worth watching though.

Back to work tomorrow, ugh. And next weekend, I guess I'll be moving through my film list again..

Film: The Unbelievable Truth

Today, Up in the Cheap Seats has a couple of events, but I've already seen what they're watching. So, film again, and I still had a backlog of The Unbelievable Truth, Time (both on Amazon Prime), and Zero de Conduite, on the Internet Archive.

Started The Unbelievable Truth yesterday, finished it just now. Excellent, deadpan humour throughout, in this tale of a local lad, returned from prison, and everyone - but everyone - has an exaggerated version of what he did. Very understated performances by everyone, in what must be described as a truly surreal small town - which will still be familiar to anyone who's ever been in one. Highly recommended, for a quirky, offbeat experience. And a real throwback to 80s fashions!

Not much else on right now, so will just work my way through that backlog. When I get a chance..

Talk: British Heroes and Villains

London Social Detours was back today, with another British Heroes and Villains talk. Well, I said I'd risk it - although I reserved the right to sign off again if that angry chipmunk started chirping!

Quite a few attendees - and an interesting talk, focusing on five celebrities, as usual.

• Elizabeth I got a generally positive rating - yes, she was ruthless and ordered several executions, but that was the nature of the times in which she lived, and gee, her father was worse!
• I had never heard of Rosalind Franklin, so this was instructive. Another general consensus, this time that she made an important contribution to scientific research, and the fact that she was hard to get on with was neither here nor there. And maybe they were just hostile to a woman in the field!
• Predictably, Ken Livingstone divided opinion. I wasn't living in the UK during his tenure, so didn't feel entitled to comment - although knowing he was on the opposite side to Thatcher naturally puts him on the side of the angels, in my estimation!
• Again, I'm pro-George Orwell. Sadly, I fell asleep as she started to talk about him - well, the afternoon was darkening, I was tired after another late night, and her voice is so soporific.. and so I completely missed the talk about Prince Charles. Well, I know as much as I need to about them both!

So, I generally agreed with opinions in the chat afterwards. As for the angry chipmunk - we could hardly see her, she had her screen angled to show mostly wall! She didn't contribute anything - when the organiser asked whether she was feeling ok, she confirmed that she'd had a "heavy" night. Well, may she she have many more!

Tomorrow, Up in the Cheap Seats has a couple of events, but I've already seen what they're watching. So, film again, and I still have a backlog of The Unbelievable Truth, Time (both on Amazon Prime), and Zero de Conduite, on the Internet Archive. I've actually started The Unbelievable Truth, there having been little on this afternoon before the talk. So, will hope to get that finished, and start another..