May television, film and a tiny bit of art

Mountainhead - I saw a preview screening, followed by Edith Bowman interviewing Jesse Armstrong the writer, producer and director, previously the creative genius behind Succession and Peep Show.  This is a very funny but bleak look at what could happen if Techbro billionaires  are allowed to do whatever they want.  Super alpha male, full of their own importance and genius, the world almost literally at their feet, we spend a weekend with them in a mountain retreat while the world burns due to a new social media launch which sends fake content rolling around the world.  These guys think they have the solutions but are only interested if it will actually benefit them personally, and because of their playground level of rivalry things escalate badly. The title is obviously a play on Fountainhead, the novel which champions the rights of individual genius against the needs of the ordinary people in the world (It’s recommended by Robbie the selfish asshole in Dirty Dancing so that tells you how bad it is!).  Armstrong explained that this film came together in just 6 months, starting writing in January and about to be broadcast on HBO/Sky this weekend. In terms of the subject matter it feels very timely, and Armstrong said he wanted to get it out there quickly in the moment even though we could be living with this for years yet.  Scary but also very funny it reminded me of The Thick of It  in terms of pace and where it was prepared to go for a laugh.  It was great to see it with a few hundred other people rather in my living room at home; there’s nothing like that collective gasp or laughter that just builds.  There were also lots of the creatives who worked on the film in the screening - I wonder how enjoyable it can ever be sitting listening to your work succeed or fail in the moment?  Honestly, this is well worth a watch.  There’s not much character development but there is barely time for that.  With a core cast of just 4 actors, one location and a great, tightly packed script, recommended. Seen at BFI, but streaming on Now/Sky

Four Seasons - This is an entertaining four part comedy drama series starring Tina Fey and Steve Carrell. A remake of the Alan Alda film, it was good to see a tiny cameo from him. I didn’t remember much about the film or anything about the sucker punch we get about 2/3 through, so it came at me probably as it was supposed to.  A weird mix of comedy and heartfelt drama and while it won't set the world on fire I largely enjoyed it. Streaming on Netflix

The Last of Us - continued to be impressive for the rest of the series.   Ellie is now well down the monstrous vengeance route, despite her struggle with the morality of all, continuing the themes of the relentless cycle of violence that are everywhere here, mixed in with the stories of love and survival.  There’s a fairly cavalier attitude to keeping characters alive in this, so alongside the affection that I have developed for these characters there’s a constant fear that a favourite is about to be bumped off again.  And the season has now ended with a proper cliff hanger and a long wait to season 3 so I am going to have to be patient unless I am going to try to play the actual game (and that’s not going to happen!)  Streaming on Now TV/Sky

The Handmaid's Tale is back for its final season and I am watching it an episode at a time as they are released.  It’s a bit self indulgent with some overly lush emotional moments. and I’d like some of that to be cut back a bit, but despite that I am back in deep as before.  The Gilead regime is trying to present itself in more palatable ways as the rest of the world struggles to deal with the large volumes of refugees fleeing tyranny.  I still have my crush on Bradley Whitford who plays Commander Lawrence and I probably have more sympathy that I should because of his Josh from the West Wing days (and his real life Twitter/X account).  It’s interesting given the current politics of the world  to see Canada and Europe being persuaded to deal with this monstrous regime for economic purposes and to get rid of the refugee problem. Channel 4 and streaming on C4

Dr Who - The interstellar song context episode in particular went for every bit of in-your-face wokeness it could muster, apparently designed to hit the bigotery buttons of Farage lovers and I am there for it!  I do like Gatwa’s incarnation; I’m intrigued at the violence we see in The Doctor in this episode and I wonder where they are going with that across the series. 

EDIT: I wrote this before the series finale so I had to come back and update - what an ending!  I laughed out loud at the WTF moment at the end. Sad to see Ncuti go far too quickly, and I wonder what on earth they are going to do now! Streaming on iplayer  

Deep End - A  re-released 1970s film starring a luminous Jane Asher, and with a cameo from Diana Dors, this is a fascinating bit of history.  Set in the scruffy east end of London and Soho, the look at both London and the culture of the time is well worth the 90 minutes or so investment.  The mix of grimey-ness and almost oversaturated colour is great to look at.  This is a comedy drama in the style of the 'sex comedies' of the time, mixed with with absurdist tendencies, hints of Carry On culture with undercurrents of misogyny.  Jane Asher is a confident 'liberated' young woman,  the older colleague of a 15 year old boy who begins working with her in the run down public baths.  He becomes obsessed with her to the exclusion of the many other sexual opportunities that are being presented to him constantly throughout the film.  Asher was nominated for awards on the back of it, and was apparently offended when it was suggested that she had a body double for the sex scenes.  A great ending to this, a convoluted set of circumstances meaning that tragedy is pulled from the comedy.  Streaming on BFI player

A Moment In The Reeds -I watched this film because it is Finnish and  I am going to Helsinki in a few weeks so thought it would be useful bit of immersion.  The main thing I took was that Finland outside of Helsinki is not as open and modern as the city, with plenty of racism and homophobia in the gorgeous countryside, but to be honest that probably applies to most places.  A sad sort of film with an annoyingly unresolved ending, but at least I did practise some of the Finnish while watching (Hei!Hei!) Streaming on Mubi

Interior: Leather Bar - I caught this film from 2013 on BFI player.  The premise is that the film maker (James Franco) is trying to recreate the 40 minutes of explicit scenes that were cut from the 1980s film ‘Cruising’ which starred Al Pacino as a cop going undercover in the NYC gay bar scene. I haven’t seen that film but it was apparently criticised as homophobic for treating gay culture as inherently bad.  A fake documentary, this film hasn’t aged particularly well; for example there are no intimacy co-ordinators and rooms full of crew walking in and out as explicit sex scenes are being filmed and some of the debate feels a bit old fashioned.   Despite that, it's still an interesting stab at the issue of heteronormative assumptions, and the idea that gay content and culture is less acceptable than straight.  We see straight actors looking uncomfortable in rooms where gay sex is happening, and lots of unresolved debate about the morality and artistic freedom to use sex as a storytelling device. I liked that at the end the straight actor pointed out how beautiful the main sex scene was, a nice touch which highlighted that things had moved on since the original film.  Overall though, it’s a bit of a mess, and too clever for its own good but it still made me think a bit.  The debate has moved on a bit and some things have changed for the better since the 80’s and also in the decade since this film in 2013, but the debate continues.  I reached for Heartstopper as an example of showing the LGBTQ+ experience in a positive light, but to be fair that also had its own criticisms about sanitisation,  The Heartstopper debate seemed to highlight a bit of a generational divide (and I am somewhat simplifying here) between the older people who fought for their right to openly celebrate their sexuality including the ways presented in this film, versus the younger generation who just want to live like everyone else while being free to love anyone they want. (My Heartstopper musings are here). Given the current pushback on trans and LGBTQ+ rights in the US, UK and elsewhere, it feels like this is still a more live issue than it should be, so this film adds some valuable perspective. Streaming on BFI Player

National Portrait Gallery - And finally, I only had time for one quick art fix this month, a drop into the National Portrait Gallery on one of their late nights, which was lovely because there were absolutely no crowds.  I loved this new stitched portrait by Zoe Buckman of Cush Jumbo, last seen by me as Lady Macbeth at the Donmar.  

And I also visited one of my old favourites, of Lady Ottoline Morrel (by Augustus John) , almost an anti-portrait, which apparently she gave pride of place to over her mantlepiece, I love her fierceness, sense of humour and the fact that she clearly did not g.a.f.