April TV and Film

I was mainly watching TV this month, although there were a few films here and there that caught my attention.

The Change - series 2 (streaming C4). Continues on from exactly where we left everyone in series 1. There’s a bit of a magical realism feel about this comedy where Linda (Bridget Christie) leaves her husband and children to take some time back in repayment for all of her unpaid and unappreciated work as a woman, wife and mother over the years.  Menopausal and pissed off, she ends up living in a small backwater in a caravan in the woods.  But she clearly still loves her husband (played subtly to pack the character with subtle unsubtlety by Omid Djalili) and although she finds a male friend he’s not a romantic interest which I love too. Riffing off of Christie's comic fury about the way women are treated, particularly as they get older, it’s also properly funny whilst being a bit misty eyed about the cycle of life too. I also get a bit of a Detectorists vibe from it through its gentle flow, lots of great two hander conversations mixed in with the silliness, all intertwining with folklore and history plus clever use of music.  I especially love the little head to heads she does with Paul Whitehouse, who each episode is full of some Daily Mail or Twitter induced outrage or nonsense, neatly demolished. They remind me a bit of the old Smith and Jones scenes.  Gently skewering toxic masculinity but also pretty entertaining on the relationships between the women and life in general this is just my cup of tea. 

Dr Who  (BBC1 and iplayer) is back and I’m enjoying Ncuti, who is turning out to be a great Who.  As the series goes on we are getting fewer sugary teary moments and a welcome harder edge. 

Our Friends and Neighbors (streaming, Appletv+)  Jon Hamm as a divorced ex-trader trying to keep up with his and his family’s lifestyle despite having no job and turning to crime instead.  Yes it’s another series taking the pee out of the rich and vacuous, but it’s fun, slick and smart and has Jon Hamm in it alongside a fantastic supporting cast - what’s not to like? 

The Last of Us (streaming - Sky and NowTV)  It’s back with season 2 and I’m still invested. Pedro Pascal as intense tortured 'dad' with a secret to keep and Bella Ramsey as stroppy Ellie are as addictive as ever.  Episode 2 is just heartbreaking - an equivalent to the Red Wedding and I did a real Noooooooo at the ending, but I am here for the long haul. Such lovely storytelling.  

The Studio (streaming - Appletv+) continues with more genius.  Episode 3,  The Note with Ron Howard as that week’s auteur was particularly enjoyable, this time dealing with an overlong self indulgent film.  Fantastic frenetic performances, every line with a purpose as everyone tries to avoid giving the honest note. Chock-full of fabulous cinematography and witty visuals as well as verbal jokes and callbacks.  I just love this. So, so funny, and this particular topic certainly hit home with me given my allergy to overlong films.  But coming on close behind is Episode 7 which picks up all of Hollywood's angst around racial politics - again very funny.

Resident Alien  (streaming - Netflix)- slowly working my way through this. Alien crash lands on earth with a plan to destroy it but finds his plans are thwarted. So he poses as a human called Harry.   Plus Max the kid is thwarting him at every turn even as Harry is constantly planning to kill him.  I hope it doesn’t go too empathetic as I am enjoying his amorality. 

Black Mirror Season 7 (streaming - Netflix) I always love a new series of Black Mirror, but as always this was a bit of a mixed bag.  Common People, with Chris O'Dowd was sad and sentimental whilst swiping at the way that technology companies work and a scary look forward to what future healthcare could look like.  Hotel Reverie was a properly sentimental love story enabled by technology, giving us a bit more of Brooker’s soft side to balance the cynicism and righteously fuelled anger.

The Last Showgirl (Film, streaming - Mubi).  Pamela Anderson is a dream in this role as Shelly, joyous and optimistic at the start, even though the world doesn’t work out as she would like, becoming heartbreaking as she tries to look on the bright side as the show she has been working in since the 80s closes and she finds the world has moved on without her.  Shelly believes she has talent and class but nobody wants it, with a particularly brutal analysis of  her place now that she is ageing and no longer desirable in the same way.  So this film is an interesting partner to The Substance.  Another joy here is that Jamie Lee Curtis does her thing as Shelly's friend and is both funny and heartbreaking. With gorgeous cinematography and clever colour choices and music, this is a beautiful film about women who are left behind by the world when their main selling point, youth and beauty, is over.

Bring them down  (Film, streaming - Prime)  A revenge thriller which didn’t hit the spot for me.  One of the main attractions was the good cast including Barry Keoghan and Paul Ready. It was supposed to have some dark humour but to me it just felt bleak.  I have to say I fast forwarded through the bits where animals were being hurt but was happy to see the pretty horrid humans suffering a bit. It was also pretty predictable and I didn’t really need the flashback to work out who was responsible for the misery.   At least it wasn’t two hours long.  

Moonrise Kingdom (Film, streaming - Netflix) This only had a few days left on Netflix so I went for a little bit of joy after watching Bring them down (see above)  I hadn’t seen it for years but I still love this silly little movie.  It’s cutesy and twee in places but also lovely too with even the smaller characters being distinctly quirky.  A movie full of heart, and packed with an amazing cast.  The cinematography is of course distinctive but not too OTT and it sent me to bed smiling  

The Child in Time. (Film, streaming C4) A sad and sensitive and sweet if a little off centre story, based on the book by Ian McKewan.  It’s about grief and the loss of a child in more ways than one.  Gorgeous acting by Benedict Cumberbatch and Kellie MacDonald.  However I only remembered I had seen it before when I saw Stephen Campbell Moore as the man reclaiming his childhood in the woods, so clearly it didn’t make that much of an impression on me.  One tiny thing that did catch me this time was a little scene filmed in the National Theatre from back in the days before Covid when they used to have live performances in the foyer - I miss that! 

Six (Film/Theatre - cinema). I am not much of a musicals fan mainly because of the cost but this has been on my list for years.  As it was showing at my local cinema it had to be worth a look.  Can confirm it was a lot of fun, and I love anything which manages to get grumbling about patriarchy into the lyrics.  A fun romp through history from the perspective of these women who, they claim, are the main reason we remember Henry VIII at all - that’s a bold claim and as they acknowledge, probably not the full truth.  I liked it anyway - such a lot of fun.  Everyone piled out of the cinema with smiles on their faces. So, as one someone said to me on the way out, that itch still isn’t scratched - still on the list to see it live. 

Warfare (Film, cinema) The film tries really hard to just tell the facts without favour, and it is a really graphic, clear-eyed retelling of a mission gone wrong.  This ambition is undercut though by the dedication to one of the real soldiers in the film, and the photos of the real people at the end. While understandable, it takes us back to a more sentimental view which, while it doesn’t fetishise and does also include the Iraqi family caught up in this, softens the view somewhat.  Another film about war from Alex Garland leaving me with complicated feelings.  It's well worth seeing but I do wonder how it will do at the box office as while it is a big immersive film, it is pretty anti-heroic and it's certainly not feelgood, so I can't see it capturing the Saturday night crowd.