Chatterbox - still talking nonsense

I last ‘saw’ Noises Off in 2012 and it was fun on that occasion, although not all for the right reasons .  This time, with a family outing to the revival at the Phoenix Theatre, I had a lovely reminder of the joy of laughing with a room full of other people. And I could see the whole stage this time!  This farce about a farce squeezes every ounce it can out of the genre, performing the door slamming, trips, falls and trouser dropping with meticulous precision.  To keep the meta-ness going, the programme also contained a beautifully po-faced parody literary essay about ‘Nothing On’, the play within the play which made me wince a bit as I am a sucker for those essays in the more arty end of theatre programmes.   I enjoyed Felicity Kendall’s performance as Dotty  and Joseph Millson as Garry, and the whole cast operated together as a well oiled and choreographed machine which was a joy to watch.  I had a lot of fun and we all laughed a lot.  So m...

I finally caught up with Cate Blanchett in   Tár.  What a stunning performance.   Tár is  clearly a monster in the long tradition of egotistical artists believing that they can do no wrong and Blanchett manages to be both watchable and awful.   A film about cancel culture and power, I can’t decide whether putting a woman in that position was a cop out or stroke of genius, or maybe just being provocative*.  It lays out the problem in the early scenes with the student Max, and it’s clear from then where this will go.  My main gripe with the film is not that Lydia  Tár  is too big for her boots, but, appropriately I suppose, that the film is too. There were nice little flashes of wit throughout, and the denouement did make me smile, but the whole was dragged down by being overlong  and the script and dialogue a little too pleased with itself.  I suppose it could be just being a bit meta with all the pretentiousness but it did get ...

After a number of false starts I finally watched All Quiet On The Western Front all the way through.     Beautiful and haunting cinematography, fantastic special effects, great performances and the script and storytelling was spot on.     A mix of the mundane, friendship and camaraderie, broken into by pure brutality explicitly illustrated, and laying out with absolute clarity the pointlessness of war with not a shred of sentimentality.   The opening sequences showing the grinding nature of the war machine are impressive and I can't see how anyone could feel a sense of nostalgia or glory for wartime after seeing it.  I can’t fault it and so can see why it is up for best picture as well as lots of individual awards. And yet… I’ve been reflecting and I’m still not really sure why I  don’t feel excited about this.    I hope it isn’t just because I am being contrary or overly picky (although that is definitely possible… ) The only thing I can com...

I had a lovely time this afternoon in darkened rooms.  I originally felt a bit guilty getting tickets for some of these screenings at the BFI Future Festival as the main point of the festival is for young film makers to network but when I saw the number of empty seats at each ‘sold out’ event I stopped worrying - they do need to sort out their website and bookings for another time though.     Anyway, a star attraction for me today was Alice Oseman talking about how they broke into the various industries they are now working in, and about their writing process.  Although there was, of course, a focus on Heartstopper, it was good to step away from that a bit and hear how this talented young person has come so far so quickly.    A bit that chimed with me particularly, was the discussion about character, personality and story arc coming first, and how gender and sexual identity are important but not the only point, despite this being the aspect that has driven...

After a lovely weekend last week at a family wedding, I am back on the case of catching up on the Oscar nominations from the various streaming services so thought I would treat the internets to my considered but not particularly well informed views on those too. Everything Everywhere All At Once I was pleased to see Everything Everywhere All at Once is on the list. I wrote about this a while back here and it's really sharp and clever filmmaking - each one of those multiverses that are flashed through in a couple of frames bringing something different  (including references to Twin Peaks amongst others) - really should be watched frame by frame to catch everything, and it’s great to see Michelle Yeoh nominated - it is her performance that holds the whole bonkers thing together, so fingers crossed for her.   Triangle of Sadness Available to rent on Prime, I watched this after a really heavy day at work and it made me laugh.  At lot.  A black and gross comedy in th...