Chatterbox - still talking nonsense

Just some films I have enjoyed over the first few months of 2024.   Nyad:   A film about one woman's determination to swim across the straits of Florida.  One of those films about individual grit and determination, and with great performances from Annette Benning and Jodie Foster.  My only problem with this is the same as with all of the 'individuals against the world' movies - it's good that they succeeded, but if only they could have put that effort and money into something that would made a difference to the world, rather than just to the individual in question.  Everybody loves Jeanne:  A lovely little romance between two odd souls, Jeanne a bankrupt entrepreneur who invented a product to clean the oceans, and Jean, who is strange, but strangely optimistic despite mental health issues.  Quirky and sweet. Joyland:  The youngest son in a Pakistani family takes up a job as a backing dancer to a transgender performer, and his wife struggles to cope.  Sweet and sad, th

I had a double bill sort of a day.  The last bit first…  Till the Stars Come Down  This production is in the round and for the first time ever I was on the far side of the Dorfman theatre.  On a simple, circular, revolving set, the play opens with women getting ready for a wedding, and for a good half hour the chat and laughter (with some pretty good one liners) swirls around as we get to know the three sisters at the heart of this play, a couple of nieces and Aunty Carol (an impressive Lorraine Ashbourne).  These woman are close, although Maggie (Lisa McGrillis) has moved away, something Hazel (Lucy Black) is clearly bitter about; and it also appears Aunty Carol has more or less invited herself and her ridiculously big hat.  The men only appear later as the wedding gets going, and that feels right in a play about all sorts of things but with a backdrop of a post- mining town where the main work is at a warehouse and the younger generation don't seem to know anything about the mine