Monthly culture: June 2022
Friday, July 22nd, 2022 09:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tamaranth02JUN22: Space Sweepers (Jo Sung-hee, 2021), Netflix
Initially confusing but, after that, immensely good fun: a diverse, polyglot solar-system-based space story, which I thought had echoes of The Wizard of Oz. Felt a bit like a Becky Chambers novel, though fewer female characters: there is, however, a former military bot named Bubs who identifies as female, and a girl-child (named Dorothy!) who has immense potential.
11JUN22: Starcrossed (Rachel Garnet / Shakespeare), Wiltons Music Hall
A reimagining of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet focussing on Tybalt and Mercutio, and positing a tragic love story between the two. The whole play is performed by just three actors -- Connor Delves as Mercutio, Tommy Sim’aan as Tybalt and Gethin Alderman as everyone else. Alderman's Juliet is very sweet, and his simultaneous Lords Capulet and Montague a bravura performance. Some of the dialogue is from Shakespeare, but a great deal of it is Garnet's own, and she blends the two seamlessly into a tale of duty, legacy and doomed, forbidden love. ('the dream to hold my hand can never be'). The actors all sing and play instruments, too: the play opens with the doleful 'Twa Corbies' and features 'Fair Maid o' Bedlam'. Magnificent: live theatre at its best.
16JUN22: A Futile and Stupid Gesture (Wain, 2018), Netflix
Fictionalised biopic of Doug Kenney, co-founder of National Lampoon, and his oscillating friendship with Henry Beard. Good performances all round, with some knowing asides to camera ('why, yes, it was far more racist and sexist than this!', plus a long rolling list of the things they changed) and some very entertaining scenes. In the end, though, just another story about a man so bound up in childhood traumas that he never quite grew up.
We spent quite a while in the film-group chat educating our visitor from another planet, who did not know about American comedy, SNL, rock family trees, et cetera.
23JUN22: The House (de Swaef / Roels / von Bahr / Baeza, 2022), Netflix
Three surreal, stop-motion animated shorts, made by different directors / artistic teams, centred on a single house. The first ('And heard within, a lie is spun') is a dark tale of obsession as Mabel's parents become fixated on tending their new house. Lots of lovely textile-textures here, and a tragic ending. The second ('Then lost is truth that can't be won') features anthropomorphic rats: our hero is a desperate property developer rat (voiced by Jarvis Cocker) who falls foul of a mysterious couple who claim they want to buy the house, but simply ... don't leave. The third, 'Listen again and seek the sun', moves from rats to cats: Rosa is the landlord, dreaming of restoring the house but unable to get rent from her two lodgers, Jen (voiced by Helena Bonham-Carter) and Elias. Outside the house, the water is rising, and Jen's 'spirit partner' turns up...
All quite dark and bleak, though signs of hope in the final few minutes.. Beautifully drawn and animated, though, and there's a shared theme of claustrophobia, clinging to the past and the house, being afraid to let go and being helped (or 'helped') by others.
24JUN22: Lightyear (MacLane, 2022), Greenwich PictureHouse
I think I would have enjoyed this a lot more if I hadn't known that Lightyear was voiced by Chris Evans: as it was, my hindbrain kept comparing the character and his arc to Captain America, another character who sees many of his loved ones age and die. Loved Sox, the robot cat, and Alisha (Buzz' old friend) and her wife, and the evolution of Alisha's family. Beautifully animated but just didn't click for me.
30JUN22: Tove (Bergroth, 2020), BBC iPlayer
Finnish-made biopic of the early life of Tove Jansson, creator of the Moomins, covering about a decade (1944-54) of her life, from moving out to live in her own studio to meeting her life partner, Tuulikki Pietilä. The focus was on her affairs with Vivica Bandler, a married (female) theatre director, and Atos Wirtanen, a politician who was apparently the inspiration for Jansson's Snufkin. Great period feel without overdoing the retro charm. Everyone smoked and drank a lot, and danced. Lovely clip at the end of the real Tove, filmed by Tuulikki on the island where they spent their summers. I discovered there had been a Moomin play! The film group's consensus is that this is overdue for a revival...
Initially confusing but, after that, immensely good fun: a diverse, polyglot solar-system-based space story, which I thought had echoes of The Wizard of Oz. Felt a bit like a Becky Chambers novel, though fewer female characters: there is, however, a former military bot named Bubs who identifies as female, and a girl-child (named Dorothy!) who has immense potential.
11JUN22: Starcrossed (Rachel Garnet / Shakespeare), Wiltons Music Hall
A reimagining of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet focussing on Tybalt and Mercutio, and positing a tragic love story between the two. The whole play is performed by just three actors -- Connor Delves as Mercutio, Tommy Sim’aan as Tybalt and Gethin Alderman as everyone else. Alderman's Juliet is very sweet, and his simultaneous Lords Capulet and Montague a bravura performance. Some of the dialogue is from Shakespeare, but a great deal of it is Garnet's own, and she blends the two seamlessly into a tale of duty, legacy and doomed, forbidden love. ('the dream to hold my hand can never be'). The actors all sing and play instruments, too: the play opens with the doleful 'Twa Corbies' and features 'Fair Maid o' Bedlam'. Magnificent: live theatre at its best.
16JUN22: A Futile and Stupid Gesture (Wain, 2018), Netflix
Fictionalised biopic of Doug Kenney, co-founder of National Lampoon, and his oscillating friendship with Henry Beard. Good performances all round, with some knowing asides to camera ('why, yes, it was far more racist and sexist than this!', plus a long rolling list of the things they changed) and some very entertaining scenes. In the end, though, just another story about a man so bound up in childhood traumas that he never quite grew up.
We spent quite a while in the film-group chat educating our visitor from another planet, who did not know about American comedy, SNL, rock family trees, et cetera.
23JUN22: The House (de Swaef / Roels / von Bahr / Baeza, 2022), Netflix
Three surreal, stop-motion animated shorts, made by different directors / artistic teams, centred on a single house. The first ('And heard within, a lie is spun') is a dark tale of obsession as Mabel's parents become fixated on tending their new house. Lots of lovely textile-textures here, and a tragic ending. The second ('Then lost is truth that can't be won') features anthropomorphic rats: our hero is a desperate property developer rat (voiced by Jarvis Cocker) who falls foul of a mysterious couple who claim they want to buy the house, but simply ... don't leave. The third, 'Listen again and seek the sun', moves from rats to cats: Rosa is the landlord, dreaming of restoring the house but unable to get rent from her two lodgers, Jen (voiced by Helena Bonham-Carter) and Elias. Outside the house, the water is rising, and Jen's 'spirit partner' turns up...
All quite dark and bleak, though signs of hope in the final few minutes.. Beautifully drawn and animated, though, and there's a shared theme of claustrophobia, clinging to the past and the house, being afraid to let go and being helped (or 'helped') by others.
24JUN22: Lightyear (MacLane, 2022), Greenwich PictureHouse
I think I would have enjoyed this a lot more if I hadn't known that Lightyear was voiced by Chris Evans: as it was, my hindbrain kept comparing the character and his arc to Captain America, another character who sees many of his loved ones age and die. Loved Sox, the robot cat, and Alisha (Buzz' old friend) and her wife, and the evolution of Alisha's family. Beautifully animated but just didn't click for me.
30JUN22: Tove (Bergroth, 2020), BBC iPlayer
Finnish-made biopic of the early life of Tove Jansson, creator of the Moomins, covering about a decade (1944-54) of her life, from moving out to live in her own studio to meeting her life partner, Tuulikki Pietilä. The focus was on her affairs with Vivica Bandler, a married (female) theatre director, and Atos Wirtanen, a politician who was apparently the inspiration for Jansson's Snufkin. Great period feel without overdoing the retro charm. Everyone smoked and drank a lot, and danced. Lovely clip at the end of the real Tove, filmed by Tuulikki on the island where they spent their summers. I discovered there had been a Moomin play! The film group's consensus is that this is overdue for a revival...
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Date: Monday, July 25th, 2022 12:21 pm (UTC)