Another week without theatre because I got my live cultural fixes this week from London Pride then Wet Leg and Pulp all on the same day. All lovely experiences although it reminded me how annoying other people can be*, despite the uplifting experience of a crowd cheering or singing in unison. I can report Pride still keeps a tiny beating heart of protest in there despite the size of the crowds and corporate-ness. Wet Leg were as entertaining as I hoped and Jarvis has definitely still got it.
What I have done though is watch some films and tv on streaming so here are my ramblings about those instead.
God’s Own Country
Brokeback Mountain with a Yorkshire accent. I really enjoyed this redemption story from 2017 about a trapped young man (Josh O'Connor) keeping the family farm together in desperate circumstances and with a coping strategy involving alcohol and casual sex. He is saved in more ways than one by a Romanian farm worker (Alec Secareanu) who comes to help with the lambing. Uncompromising in its depiction of the brutality of farming life, but beautifully scripted with stunning scenery and sensitive performances all round despite the rawness of it all. Loved it.
The Power
I read the 2016 novel by Naomi Alderman a few years ago and really enjoyed it and the Amazon Prime series brings it bang up to date. We only have season one at the moment but this is an exploration of what might happen if women suddenly had the physical power to hurt and overpower men. It’s a fantasy about what might happen to patriarchal power structures and cultural attitudes and as you would expect there's a fight back against the women, who then have to work out what they want to do now that they have power. Do they want revenge, power for its own sake or to create a more equal society? High production values and a well controlled narrative to give a fair weight to the different strands of the story and ethical challenges. Great cast including Eddie Marsan and Toni Collette and a lot of young talent including Ria Zmitrowicz, Halle Bush and Auli'i Cravalho. The slightly updated story captures the power and influence of the Andrew Tate types, religious perspectives, and a sense of the recent pushback against women's rights, whilst giving a lot of time to the nuances of what this might actually mean if the tables were turned at a family level too. It’s also fast paced and full of action. Definitely worth a watch!
Silo
This is based on a series of science fiction novels by Hugh Howey, originally self published on Kindle, It's great to see talent being spotted, but I loved the books and so was a bit nervous to see what AppleTV made of it. Only ten episodes in so far which covers just a bit of the whole story, but I really enjoyed it. The action takes place in a Silo which has been built to protect 50,000 people from an apocalypse that no-one can remember but that happened over 100 years before. Memories and artifacts of the before times are banned and this is effectively a police state, with stratified class levels and protection from knowledge to keep everyone safe from what's outside. As you'd expect with an AppleTV production, tons of money has been spent on this, but the real value is in the performances from Harriet Walter, Iain Glen, Tim Robbins and Rebecca Ferguson in the lead role of Juliette. Season 1 ends on a bit of a cliffhanger but enough has been resolved to get us into Season 2 (assuming there is one!) . If you like a dystopia story with lots of intrigue and action, this one is definitely worth a look.
*Why would someone spend £75 on a ticket then spend the whole time that the band is performing carrying out a live stream of their internal dialogue about, for example, what is in their fridge? It's ok, we were standing in a field so we could move away but I did worry that there was more than one of them talking rather than listening or even singing and/or dancing.
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