Fisk - Series 3 - I loved the first two series and have been waiting eagerly for its return. Fisk is now a Partner which means she gets to bring in the nice biscuits and a fancy coffee machine, but she still has her badly fitting brown suits and continues to be the fall guy as she spends her day fending off mendacious fools. Fabulous scripts with great dialogue, the characters are well-meaning but also self absorbed and mildly incompetent. Both petty and banal, the comedy is always underplayed but it's dry, warm and quietly very funny. Recommended
(Series, streaming on Netflix)
Platonic -Series 1 -Late to the party on this one and for the first few episodes I wasn’t getting it at all. The point of this is to take the premise of
When Harry Met Sally and show that a man and a woman
can be ‘just friends’ and it definitely does that. Despite my misgivings, I did keep going with it (to be fair it was sometimes on in the background) and by episode 6 it grew on me a bit. There is, refreshingly, no hint of romantic tension although I am at a loss to understand why Sylvia is seemingly jealous whenever Will has a partner. Although I love Rose Byrne I thought Seth Rogan was just doing his man-child thing which I find annoying, and their friendship in general often brings out the worst in both of them and I found that a bit irritating too. There’s a smart sensibility underlying the silliness though, and some slyly sharp bits throughout which make it worthwhile, including the music which is always worth noting. There is another series but I need a bit of a rest before I go back to it I think. (
Series, streaming on AppleTV+)
The Thursday Murder Club - I read the book when it first came out and it has enough twists and turns to keep it interesting. The film has a seriously starry cast, and a pretty sharp script, but somehow it was just a bit dull. I think they removed a number of subplots, presumably to ensure it fits within the film length rather than going for a limited series, but, despite the skill of the people involved, the charm got cut too. (Film, streaming on Netflix)
Materialists - I loved
Past Lives which was also by Celine Song, and her second film takes a different look at love, investigating the modern view of matchmaking which harks back to Jane Austen’s view that marriage is a largely a business deal and love is a nice extra if you can get it. Anyone who has been in the dating world in the last 20 years will recognise the brutal non-negotiables around what has value in this market, and there are definitely some laughs in that. This film lays it all out clearly, with some slightly scary examples of how to invest in yourself to get ahead in this market. Dakota Johnson plays Lucy who has a stark choice - Pedro Pascal with money and knows how to use it, or Chris Evans as the penniless but lovable alternative. This is a wordy film which works for me, however (and this may be the cynic in me) I found the materialists more compelling in their arguments despite the heartfelt declarations of love. (
Film, in the cinema)
Limbo - British film about a group of refugees placed on a fictional Shetland Island, all resigned to do nothing but wait with no money and nothing much to do. As men, they know they are the lowest priority for their asylum claims to be considered.and are resigned to a long wait. So, they wait anxiously for the weekly post, argue and make alliances amongst themselves, make friends with the locals despite the predictable abuse about stealing jobs,being rapists or terrorists or muslims, and we find out a bit about how they came to be there. The classes they attend with Holga and Boris are bleakly funny. But it’s also beautiful - the scenery is gorgeous and the pace is slow but observant. The growing friendships between the locals and the migrants is well observed, and it has a quietly optimistic tone amongst the melancholy and heartbreaking back stories. (
Film, streaming on Prime/Mubi)
Four Mothers - Irish comedy drama about a man (James McArdle) who is a writer but also a carer for his mum. He is put upon by his friends to look after all of their mums too as his friends head off for a party weekend while he tries to manage the promotion for his latest book at the same time. Cue all sorts of comic shenanigans. Sweet in all sorts of ways, although I didn't get why his mum was so difficult at the start. It's a bit sad but also warm and funny as all the characters find new, braver and better ways to live. (
Film, streaming on BFI Player/Prime)
The Seed of the Sacred Fig - This is both a cracking thriller and a moving account of the 2022 women’s uprising in Iran, seen through the eyes of a fictional family. The title refers to the fig which has a very specific life cycle. The seeds are eaten by birds then are dropped onto trees where they germinate, the fig’s roots grow around and eventually strangle the host tree. In the fictional family the father, Iman, has just been promoted to be an investigator for the revolutionary guard. His teenage daughters are following the uprisings on social media and they have a friend caught up in the demonstrations and arrests. The film shows how insidious the mistrust and how deep the patriarchal misanthropy runs as we watch this family fall apart while the grip of the theocracy tightens on them all. Harrowing, but honours the bravery of the women and girls trying to get some measure of freedom and produces an absolute indictment of the regime (not that we really need it). Powerful stuff. (
Film, streaming on BFI player/Prime)
Tom of Finland - I admit I watched this because it has Finland in the title and a lot of the film is based in Helsinki. It’s actually a fairly standard biopic about Touko Laaksonen, a Finnish artist who made his mark through his male nudes and particularly gay erotic art. A soldier in the Second World War he lived through the AIDS crisis and the losses and persecution over the years. A few too many men in leather for my liking but it was clever the way Tom’s aesthetic was brought into the film. Not a film to set the world on fire but it was interesting enough history from a different angle (
Film, streaming on Prime)
The Peanut Butter Falcon - sweet little road trip story, about Tyler (Zack Gottsagen), a young man with downs syndrome who runs away from a care home to go to wrestling school. On the way he finds a best buddy and a life, and in the best tradition of this type of film, he teaches the people he meets along the way, and those who are looking after him (Dakota Johnson and Shia LaBeouf), lessons about their own lives. Avoiding cliches about disability and pulling on Huckelberry Finn vibes this is funny and sweet as Tyler meets people both good and bad, and rises above the sometimes violent and grim realities through hope and determination (
Film, streaming on Prime)
The Lesson - a bookish sort of revenge drama which doesn’t have any huge surprises but has a fun performance from Richard E. Grant as a writer who hasn’t published since the death of his oldest son . Daryl McCormack is charming and watchable as the young writer employed to coach his younger son through his Oxford entrance. I sort of guessed where it was going but it’s entertaining and not too long, and brevity is always a plus. (Film, streaming on Netflix)
Last Swim - It’s A level results day and Ziba and her friends are spending the day celebrating out and about in London. But both Ziba and Malcolm suspect their futures may not be as bright as they hoped. Crap CGI aside, this is a bittersweet coming of age story without a tidy happy ending. (Film, streaming on BFI Player/Prime)
Theo and Hugo: Paris 05:59. Referencing and riffing off Balzac’s ‘Seamy Side of History’, this is a beautifully crafted romance entwined with the 'seamy side’ as the two men meet and fall in love in a single night in Paris in real time. It’s the 'seamy’ context that makes this notable. Firstly they meet in a gay sex club and the first 20 minutes of this film contains very (and I can’t emphasise this enough)
very explicit sex scenes. I was worried someone might get their eye taken out with the amount of erect penises in active use. These scenes, lit almost completely in blue and red, are important as they give us Hugo and Theo’s version of a meet-cute and provide the engine for the rest of the narrative. We end up in magical realism at some points (despite the prosaic condom and wipe dispensers on the wall) as the lighting turns the bodies into abstracts and the two men eventually find each other amongst the multiple bodies. After they leave the club, the two men go on a magical odyssey through backstreet Paris, lit beautifully in golds and blues, interrupted as they realise that they have had unsafe sex and need to visit a&e (both characters say more than once that 'desire is stupid'). I assume that the medical advances since the film was made probably means this is a less likely scenario today but it gives the impetus for the rest of the narrative. There’s a wander to the less than salubrious areas of the city which still look golden, shuttered shops, grafitti, getting a kebab (where they meet a Syrian refugee) and taking the first metro of the morning (chatting to a chambermaid), all the time talking about Balzac, Mauriac and their lives and dreams. Full of hope against adversity, magic despite reality, I really enjoyed this. The cinematography is gorgeous from start to finish. And this is a romance in reverse, starting with the sex, then getting dressed and then getting to know each other. All in just over an hour and a half. I would say miss the first 20 minutes if you are shockable but then you would miss their meeting which is somehow cute and funny despite, or maybe because of, the nakedness and BJs around them (
Film, streaming on BFI player/Prime).
Comments
Post a Comment