Monthly culture: August 2021
Saturday, September 25th, 2021 06:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tamaranth05AUG21: The Fast and the Furious: Hobbs and Shaw (Netflix)
I have not seen any of the other F&F films and had no knowledge of the protagonists' back stories, but this was an entertaining enemies-to-friends adventure, with themes of family and vengeance, a Strong Female Character, and Idris Elba as a cybernetic ally enhanced baddie. The threat is a super-virus, which was a little too relevant for comfort.
07AUG21: La Traviata (Verdi) (Glyndebourne Live)
Venera Gimadieva as Violetta, Michael Fabiano as Alfredo, luscious music, opulent setting, I miss live opera.
12AUG21: Love and Monsters (Netflix)
The monsters are mutated cold-blooded creatures (no, not Tories), and the love is what's missing from Joel's life in his underground colony - though he does get to talk to his girlfriend, Aimee, who he last saw seven years ago when the monsters first came. Despite being easily scared and not very competent, he decides to set out for Aimee's colony, and the folk in his own colony let him go. Cue monsters, leeches, a touchingly emotional AI, a Vengeance Crab and some surprising twists.
13AUG21: Free Guy (Greenwich PictureHouse)
I did not expect to enjoy this as much as I did. The premise - Ryan Reynolds as Guy, a Non Player Character in the virtual world of Free City - had potential, but his journey to sentience and self-actualisation (via a strategy of levelling up by doing good deeds, instead of the usual carnage and violence) was funny, philosophical and surprisingly moving. Taika Waititi as Antwan, the nefarious boss of the games company, was delightfully eccentric; Jodie Comer as Millie / Molotov Girl, Guy's 'dream girl' who has reasons of her own for trying to hack Free City, is tough and competent; there is a cameo from Chris Evans that had the entire (not very crowded) cinema cheering, and which I'm glad I wasn't expecting; and Ryan Reynolds is perfect in the title role. Immense fun and very cheering.
19AUG21: Dark Waters (Netflix)
Fictionalised account of lawyer Robert Bilott's crusade against Du Pont, who poisoned a town's water supply with carcinogens and then lied about it. Mark Ruffalo very good as Bilott; Anne Hathaway plays his wife; happy ending, but not exactly a cheerful film.
22AUG21: Dido's Ghost (Edinburgh International Festival)
Reboot of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, blending the original music with new content by Errollyn Wallen. Dido's sister Anna is a refugee, arriving at Lavinium where Aeneas and his wife Lavinia: 'this pretty memory appears from Widow City'. Lavinia knows that her husband is haunted, figuratively and now literally, by Dido's ghost: she is, understandably, jealous (and her arias had a hard edge). Dido's famous lament is revisited, sung here by Aeneas. We saw this in a huge marquee in Edinburgh: the soloists had to compete with seagulls screaming outside, and I was too far from the stage to really engage with this as a live performance.
23AUG21: Rosetti's Women (Lemon Squeeze Productions, Edinburgh Fringe)
Should probably have been called 'Some Women Who Had the Misfortune to Associate with Rosetti'. The women -- prostitute and model Fanny Cornforth, muse and wife Lizzie Siddal, 'conniving socialite' Jane Morris -- each tell their tales of Rosetti, and Jane reveals she encouraged Lizzie to take a 'small overdose', and sent the note telling Lizzie where Rosetti was (and who he was with) on the night Lizzie died. Well-acted, with a sense of three very different personalities: Lizzie (Emma Hopkins) in particular had a luminous intensity that reminded me of Millais' 'The Bridesmaid'..
23AUG21: Aca-Betrayal (Illuminations, Edinburgh Fringe)
Musical comedy, all a capella and beat boxing, set in the run-up to the International Festival of A Capella. I suspect the songs, none of which I recognised, were well-known chart hits. I was probably too old for this, but the performances were very polished.
23AUG21: Black Country New Road (Edinburgh International Festival)
Complex music that I'd need to listen to several times to really make sense of: I liked it though. Reminiscent of the Cardiacs, amongst others. (I was also reminded of Hawkwind.) Less pop-punk than Arcade Fire, to whom I've heard them compared.
24AUG21: Damon Albarn (Edinburgh International Festival)
Albarn imagining a band playing on a Covid-stranded cruise ship off the Devon coast ... He made the festival team take his name off the album cover projected behind him, because 'it's not representative of this fantastic ensemble'. I didn't entirely engage with this gig either: possibly my cultural receptors have atrophied during lockdown.
I have not seen any of the other F&F films and had no knowledge of the protagonists' back stories, but this was an entertaining enemies-to-friends adventure, with themes of family and vengeance, a Strong Female Character, and Idris Elba as a cybernetic ally enhanced baddie. The threat is a super-virus, which was a little too relevant for comfort.
07AUG21: La Traviata (Verdi) (Glyndebourne Live)
Venera Gimadieva as Violetta, Michael Fabiano as Alfredo, luscious music, opulent setting, I miss live opera.
12AUG21: Love and Monsters (Netflix)
The monsters are mutated cold-blooded creatures (no, not Tories), and the love is what's missing from Joel's life in his underground colony - though he does get to talk to his girlfriend, Aimee, who he last saw seven years ago when the monsters first came. Despite being easily scared and not very competent, he decides to set out for Aimee's colony, and the folk in his own colony let him go. Cue monsters, leeches, a touchingly emotional AI, a Vengeance Crab and some surprising twists.
13AUG21: Free Guy (Greenwich PictureHouse)
I did not expect to enjoy this as much as I did. The premise - Ryan Reynolds as Guy, a Non Player Character in the virtual world of Free City - had potential, but his journey to sentience and self-actualisation (via a strategy of levelling up by doing good deeds, instead of the usual carnage and violence) was funny, philosophical and surprisingly moving. Taika Waititi as Antwan, the nefarious boss of the games company, was delightfully eccentric; Jodie Comer as Millie / Molotov Girl, Guy's 'dream girl' who has reasons of her own for trying to hack Free City, is tough and competent; there is a cameo from Chris Evans that had the entire (not very crowded) cinema cheering, and which I'm glad I wasn't expecting; and Ryan Reynolds is perfect in the title role. Immense fun and very cheering.
19AUG21: Dark Waters (Netflix)
Fictionalised account of lawyer Robert Bilott's crusade against Du Pont, who poisoned a town's water supply with carcinogens and then lied about it. Mark Ruffalo very good as Bilott; Anne Hathaway plays his wife; happy ending, but not exactly a cheerful film.
22AUG21: Dido's Ghost (Edinburgh International Festival)
Reboot of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, blending the original music with new content by Errollyn Wallen. Dido's sister Anna is a refugee, arriving at Lavinium where Aeneas and his wife Lavinia: 'this pretty memory appears from Widow City'. Lavinia knows that her husband is haunted, figuratively and now literally, by Dido's ghost: she is, understandably, jealous (and her arias had a hard edge). Dido's famous lament is revisited, sung here by Aeneas. We saw this in a huge marquee in Edinburgh: the soloists had to compete with seagulls screaming outside, and I was too far from the stage to really engage with this as a live performance.
23AUG21: Rosetti's Women (Lemon Squeeze Productions, Edinburgh Fringe)
Should probably have been called 'Some Women Who Had the Misfortune to Associate with Rosetti'. The women -- prostitute and model Fanny Cornforth, muse and wife Lizzie Siddal, 'conniving socialite' Jane Morris -- each tell their tales of Rosetti, and Jane reveals she encouraged Lizzie to take a 'small overdose', and sent the note telling Lizzie where Rosetti was (and who he was with) on the night Lizzie died. Well-acted, with a sense of three very different personalities: Lizzie (Emma Hopkins) in particular had a luminous intensity that reminded me of Millais' 'The Bridesmaid'..
23AUG21: Aca-Betrayal (Illuminations, Edinburgh Fringe)
Musical comedy, all a capella and beat boxing, set in the run-up to the International Festival of A Capella. I suspect the songs, none of which I recognised, were well-known chart hits. I was probably too old for this, but the performances were very polished.
23AUG21: Black Country New Road (Edinburgh International Festival)
Complex music that I'd need to listen to several times to really make sense of: I liked it though. Reminiscent of the Cardiacs, amongst others. (I was also reminded of Hawkwind.) Less pop-punk than Arcade Fire, to whom I've heard them compared.
24AUG21: Damon Albarn (Edinburgh International Festival)
Albarn imagining a band playing on a Covid-stranded cruise ship off the Devon coast ... He made the festival team take his name off the album cover projected behind him, because 'it's not representative of this fantastic ensemble'. I didn't entirely engage with this gig either: possibly my cultural receptors have atrophied during lockdown.
