Chatterbox - still talking nonsense

I am spotting a bit of a theme in my January telly. Fellow Travellers:  this lush and steamy romance between two men over decades from the 50's to the 90s, is hidden away a bit at the moment on Paramount+ and I watched this on a free trial (which I then forgot to cancel of course!).  Whilst the romance creates the heart of the story, it is a vehicle for looking at civil rights abuses and battles over the years.  Hawk (Matt Bomer) is a war hero and a State department official, whilst Tim (Jonathan Bailey) is a congressional staffer working for Senator McCarthy.  The story spends a fair chunk of its time on the McCarthy years, focusing on the persecution of LGBTQ+ people alongside anyone with slightly leftish tendencies as 'fellow travelers' of communism. The accompanying racism and sexism and bigotry of the time in general is brought to life through the secondary characters - what must it have been like to be gay and Black, and maybe also a woman?  The kafkaesque...

I've tidied up my notes on some of the films I saw in January. Bird:  Strange,and pretty brutal fantasy/realism coming of age film with Barry Keoghan as an apparently deadbeat dad to Bailey who is 12, views the world through a phone camera and doesn’t want to wear a bridesmaids outfit to their dads wedding.   Set in Gravesend, with a scruffy urban landscape but also capturing the wild beauty of the marshes too where Bailey spends a lot of time watching and photographing the birds, and where they also meet a man called Bird looking for his family. Bailey's mum and siblings are living with a pretty unpleasant man, and there are some gruelling scenes, but there is also kindness and community amongst the brutality.  I really enjoyed Keoghan's layered performance, and I did chuckle at what did appear to be a reference to Saltburn in the middle there.  This isn't at all flashy, a quietly classy film despite the bravado we see throughout, and has a good heart which sh...

This play dives straight into action with the opening scene between two men as Christopher assumes that Sihle (Sifiso Mazibuko) is a workman associated with the truck that is blocking his driveway, only to find out that they are actually new neighbours in suburbia, having renovations done.  This sets the scene pretty well as a sharp comedy/satire about prejudice and privilege, class and wealth which is as entertaining as it is uncomfortable in places.   We meet three couples in the neighbourhood, firstly Christopher and Lynette, white and well established; Lynette manages sale of the properties and ‘encourages’ the right sort of people.  Another white couple, Andrew and Jess who have stretched themselves to live in the estate and don’t really feel they fit, and then there are Sihle and Bonola, a Black couple, aspirational professionals who have worked hard to get where they are.  Bonolo (Mimî M Khayisa) in particular is very wedded to showing that they belong in...

The first trip back to the theatre in 2025 was to this comedy about friendship, family, obsession and mental health.  A very funny, but intimate three hander in a small space, it can be difficult to hit the right tone to actually make the audience properly laugh and stay believable, but this one got it just right.  Brilliantly written dialogue performed spot on, I really believed in this group of friends/family despite the frantic and overwrought responses that spiral from an unexpected and unwanted ‘gift’. I also loved the way that the excel spreadsheet was given its rightful place as a crucial tool for the obsessive mind. We had front row seats in the corner which meant that we were side on and slightly behind the action but actually it didn’t affect things too much at all, and we had a better view of what was going on behind the sofa… to be honest that really only came in useful once but still…. I laughed a lot; this is funny and with heart, letting us skate lightly across ...

I did get out of the house once to do something a bit cultural over the christmas break. I first saw Matthew Bourne's version of this ballet many years ago, although I can't remember when or who with, but I remembered loving it, so it was good to visit again this time on a family New Year outing.  We were in the cheaper seats in the second circle so our view was a largely overhead one, and we couldn't see much of the orchestra, so that was a shame, but overall, Sadlers Wells tickets for £30 with a pretty clear view of the stage isn't a bad deal in my books.  I have to say it wasn't everyone's cup of tea, with a ballet virgin and some confusion over storylines in our party, but I still enjoyed it a lot.  Of course the most obvious difference from the original story and choreography is that the swans are male, powerful and a bit menacing but the story has had to go through quite a few revisions to make sense.   In this version, there is clearly a tragic gay love s...

Smashing together some of my favourite TV and film  here's a fairly short list of my best of the year.  As always, they are things I have seen this year, rather than when they first appeared.   If you want to see my fuller comments you can follow the links. Best film drama Putting all the different genres together this year, the nominees are: Past Lives: A story about missed love, what might have been and hope.   Understated performances from the two leads as the characters meet at various times over the years Poor things:  This was such an original film with fantastic performances, particularly from Emma Stone, but from all of the supporting cast too.  The set design and costume was fantastic too, and the whole thing was strange in a good way. A Real Pain:   A quietly funny and moving odd couple movie with Jesse Eisenburg and Kieran Culkin as two cousins meet to join an Auschwitz tour and visit the home of their Grandmother in Poland....