December film and telly

Television

Plur1bus - Series 1 has now come to an end and I have found it absolutely gripping.  It takes its time to let things come to light, and I love that the heroes of this piece are not superficially likeable.  Instead they are awkward, and difficult to work with, but that also means they are admirable in understanding and following their own moral compass even if it makes them unpopular.  Carol (Rhea Seehorn) is a divisive figure as she is so difficult, but I love her, and she makes the blandness of the mindvirus folk stand out in sharp relief.   There's plenty of topical stuff being talked about here, a critique on  groupthink, what fascism looks like and in the final episode we get to see with Carol that this is also a abusive relationship with the Others, showing a caring face while doing harm.  In the season finale she finally meets up with Manousos (Carlos Manuel Vesga) who is equally difficult and I think this will be a wonderful partnership.I am looking forward to season 2.

Down Cemetery Road - The last couple of episodes of this continued in the same vein as previously.  A strange mixture of drama, cartoonish characterisation and plot, but also great performances which land with an emotional punch too.  The final episode was packed full of some fairly unlikely scenarios, but I still went along with it for the ride.  Emma Thompson's character, the equivalent of Jackson Lamb, was highly enjoyable, although I didn't quite buy the ending for her.  Ruth Wilson as the other half of this snippy, but accidentally effective duo was great.  Adeel Ahktar as the bumbling baddie was enjoyable even as he was ridiculous, and Darren Boyd is fab as a dark mastermind, all that is missing is the twirling of a mustache.  I gather another series has been commissioned so it will be interesting to see if it manages to keep the same momentum and interest. (Series, streaming on AppleTV+).

Boots - A series based on Greg Cope White's memoir about joining the marines in the 1990s when it was still illegal to be gay in the US military.  The first couple of episodes cover the initial shock and acclimatisation and they are also pretty entertaining.  There’s a pretty significant subplot concerning another closeted gay marine, and through him we get to see the challenges and treatment faced by these men and women.  The show reminded me a bit of Orange is the New Black, again based on a memoir, using the story of one individual to lead into a character based narrative with an ensemble cast, turning into a moving drama  whilst really picking apart the shortcomings of the US prison system.  Unfortunately though, Boots stayed annoyingly superficial - there are characters that could be developed, and opportunities to take a more analytical look at the US military, but there was still a bit of a golden glow which sometimes felt a bit like a recruitment ad working against that deeper look.  Whilst this story was properly rounded up, another series was clearly being pitched and I was interested in where it could go, but I understand that it's been cancelled so we will never know. (Series, streaming on Netflix)  

Madam - A series based on a real life memoir, this time a woman living in NZ who decides to start an ethical brothel.  I liked the stuff about how do you keep sex work safe and ethical, and I didn’t know running a brothel had been legalised in NZ so I learned some stuff too.  It’s billed as a comedy  but it’s more a comedy drama really.  It stars Rachel Griffiths as the new madam, and she plays a woman who is wound up so tight it is going to be messy when she lets it go.  The characters are a bit cliched and the laughs mainly come from the clients whilst the drama comes from the women, although I did enjoy some of the moments when the women are together, hanging out.  I enjoyed it, although sometimes the plot is semaphored ages in advance.  It's interesting and entertaining enough, although as they are clearly angling for a second series it ends on an annoying cliffhanger (Series, streaming on Netflix)

The Woman in Cabin 10 - This is a classic nonsense whodunnit laden with so many stars that I was wondering if the yacht would actually be able to stay afloat.  Despite the number of stars, and actors I regard as fairly competent, the plot was nonsensical and more than once I found myself laughing out loud or muttering wtf and not in a good way.  I assume the cast was paid well to be associated with such nonsense. (Film, streaming on Netflix)

The War Between the Land and Sea.  I’ve a bit of a soft spot for Russell T Davis and the Whoniverse so was interested to see where this would go.  With Russell Tovey as an everyman promoted to represent humanities interests in an interspecies conflict, it got off to a good if slow start.  I like Tovey’s character, and I also quite like the UNIT team, although their dialogue is a bit annoying, mainly there to explain things to us.  I like the way that humanities bad treatment of the planet was literally being rained back on our heads in the second episode - some great imagery for what is being done to our seas.  By episode 3 though I had begun to get a bit tired of the overbearing overwrought music and some fairly obvious plot choices together with a fairly slow moving pace. Episode 4 it picked it up again with some action and then episode 5 wound it up pretty quickly.  This is a strange beast, big themes but then it sort of fades away whilst also being a bit overblown at the same time.  I like Jemma Redgrave as Kate,  and Russell Tovey delivered his tear streaked performance pretty well, but the other characters weren’t really given enough space to be more than in service of a plot.  And the whole thing has a pretty depressing ending despite some bits that work out for individuals.  Maybe I am asking too much of a DrWho spin off but there’s no lack of ambition so  I continue to hope.  (Series, BBCtv and iplayer)   

Films

45 Years - I watched this as part of an evening delving into director Andrew Haigh's  (All of Us Strangers) back catalogue. This is a sensitive exploration of what happens when the past becomes suddenly present again.  What are the alternative lives that could have been lived if things  hadn’t happened as they did? Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtney are excellent as the couple, married for 45 years and planning their wedding anniversary party who suddenly find that there are lots of things from the past that they have never talked about, throwing everything then and now into question .  A good life but is it second best?    Quietly devastating.  (Film, streaming on Prime)

Weekend - This was the second in my double bill of Andrew Haigh movies, this one from 2011 is about Russell (Tom Cullen) who is a quietly out, a reserved  man with straight friends.  He meets Glen (Chris New) who is loud, a cynic, aggressively out and proud, and who is about to leave the country.  They have a weekend together, and they cover a lot of ground in that weekend, learning from each other that there are different ways to live and love.  Whilst this isn't as lyrical as the later Hugo and Theo which I wrote about here, I suspect that this film was an influence on it.   Haigh is a master of delicately excavating buried emotion; this might be superficially louder and harder than his later works but it’s also subtle and sensitive and the ending was lovely. (Film, streaming on BFI Player) 

Knives Out- Dead Man Walking - the previous two in this franchise have been lots of fun in all sorts of ways.  This one really feels like it’s a serious film with lots to say, while still being a lot of fun.  A locked door mystery, but with a fully rounded character in Josh O’Connor’s young priest trying to atone for his previous sins, a man of faith set alongside Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc, a man of logic.  I loved the nods to the divided culture we have, where sides are taken, stories built on lies or misunderstandings taken as gospel and magnified through social media.  It takes a collaboration between opposites of faith and logic to solve the mystery.  A fabulous ensemble cast as always, but Josh O’Connor is the undoubted lead alongside Craig in this, bringing his considerable talents to create an empathetic character with depth in the midst of a formulaic concept, where all is elevated into something much more.  Loved it. (Film, streaming on Netflix)

Jay Kelly -  I can’t help but have a soft spot for George Clooney and I do love a bit of Noah Baumbach so I was sad to not get to see the premiere of this at the London Film Festival although I did drop by the red carpet.  Anyway, the film is about an ageing and very popular film star having a late midlife crisis - his daughters are grown up and don’t want him around and he is surrounded with an entourage who deal with his every whim but he still feels like he is alone.  It’s wryly funny a lot of the time, even as he gradually sees that he had choices.  He is always wanting to have another go at every scene his is in, never thinking he has got it right, and as the film unfolds, and he realises his mistakes, it becomes clear he would quite like the opportunity to have another go at his relationships and life.  The recurring cheesecake joke eventually got a good payoff - obvious but enjoyable. The film is slick, looks and sounds lovely, and I enjoyed the nods to the pleasure film brings to the world, even if I wasn’t sure Kelly would make different choices if he ever did get to ‘go again’.  It’s superficial in the characterisation of the people around Jay Kelly though, who are fairly thinly drawn.  Clooney is great, as is Adam Sandler as his agent/‘friend’, although  the lushness of it felt empty and detracted a bit from this hitting the spot for me.  (Film, streaming on Netflix)

Number 24 - the story of Gunnar Sontsteby who was a member of the Norwegian resistance in WW2.  A pretty standard slightly stodgy history biopic, but it’s interesting to see that part of the WW2 story that I only knew in the slightest of detail.  What it does do is show how fascism creeps in, offering simple solutions to difficult problems, and it also asks some good questions about the hard choices that have to be made in war.  In Norway the resistance killed multiple collaborators, some in positions of power, others more ordinary, something hard to talk about or understand post war, and it had some interesting things to say about that. (Film, streaming on Netflix)

Man in an Orange Shirt - a slightly clunky war romance from 2017, set in two timelines.  There’s a great cast; James McArdle plays Thomas an artist, who meets and falls in love with Michael (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) during the war in Italy. Michael has a sweetheart, Flora, at home and goes on to marry her, although Thomas and Michael continue to hold torches for each other. Later in 2017, an older Flora (played by Vanessa Redgrave) deals with the modern day consequences of the relationship.  Shades of My Policeman and a bit overwrought with lots of pining and repression, mixed in with brief passionate interludes and tragic unfulfilled lives, sad in the way that all of these type of films tend to be.  As it’s only an hour long I kept with it in the hope of a satisfying ending, but what I didn’t know was that Prime only has the first half of this two part story, so no good payoff when I had sat through all the angst. (Film, streaming on Prime)

Brainwashed - Sex, Camera, Power - a fascinating documentary/polemic essay from 2022 by Nina Menkes.  The film considers the way that women are captured on film, how choices in approach impact our understanding not only of the film, but more widely.  For example, women are filmed in slow motion in sexual scenes, whilst for men slomo is used for action.  These choices have become so ingrained that they aren’t even noticed or questioned, and these choices feed into gender expectations in the film industry and then wider into society.  It’s a pretty compelling case, although I wish Menkes had chosen more examples of good film making outside her own work.  Everyone should watch this and have a think about how we are being influenced without even noticing. Essential viewing. (Film, streaming on Prime/BFI Player)

Wicked: For Good - A last minute whim took me off to see this at a matinee just before Christmas in  the local cinema.  It picks up as the fascist regime is digging in and making use of Glinda (Ariana Grande) and Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) as the glamorous face of the regime.  Meanwhile Elphiba (Cynthia Erivo) is in exile and trying to fight back against the dastardly plans of Oz (Jeff Goldblum).   It was a lot of fun, although as it was a while since I saw the first film, I missed some of the plot nuances.   I did enjoy the way it wove itself around the original story and its treatment of Dorothy who becomes an annoyance rather than the cute heroine.... although she does serve as a pretty important plot device.   The two films together though are just under 5 hours and that is a very long while to tell a story which isn't that complicated.  I thought some songs would never end.   Despite that, it was a lot of fun, and I walked out having had a fun couple of hours and feeling pretty satisfied with the ending.  (Film, at the cinema)

Goodbye June - A late entrant, I watched this on Christmas Eve.  A fabulous cast who give their all, at its heart it is a sentimental little story about June and her family as she spends her last couple of weeks in hospital just before Christmas.  Kate Winslet and Andrea Riseborough are great as the warring sisters, Toni Collette as the wacky sister, and Johnny Flynn as the lovely and soft son who has been looking after his parents.  Timothy Spall plays Bernie, Junes husband who is struggling to take on the enormity of what is happening to June.  Helen Mirren is defiantly unglamorous and fiercely believable as the dying June.  Finally we have Fisayo Akinade as the nurse who supports June and the family through this few weeks, and turns out to be a bit more important in the longer term too.  It’s very soft focus and not groundbreaking, but despite the subject matter is a warm little film for Christmas.  (Film, streaming on Netflix)