Monthly culture: February 2023
Friday, March 17th, 2023 09:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tamaranth03FEB23: Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (Crawford/Mercado, 2022) -- Greenwich PictureHouse
Florence Pugh as Goldie, with her gang of Bears that includes Ray Winstone; a doggo with a tragic backstory; visual shoutouts to Banderas' ouevre (I spotted Desperado, Zorro, Once Upon a Time in Mexico); Salma Hayek as the love interest, drawn with fewer human-female traits than before. I thought this was great fun, and the soundtrack was pretty good too.
04FEB23: Hieroglyphs: Unlocking Ancient Egypt -- British Museum
Interesting, and beautifully-presented, exhibition about hieroglyphs and their decoding, and the cultural context of C18-19 Egyptology. Unfortunately it was quite busy -- note to self: avoid Saturdays -- and there were choke-points at certain parts of the exhibition, so there were parts I didn't see (and my rising stress level didn't add to my appreciation of the exhibits). Kudos to the museum for not piping 'ancient Egyptian' music through the space.
04FEB23: Eliza and Martin Carthy and the Restitution at the Barbican
Martin Carthy is 82! But you would not know it from his performance. I was especially moved by 'My Son John', about wounded veterans. Eliza has a fabulous blues voice, really apparent in this set (and possibly because we were seated close to the stage).
09FEB23: The Gentlemen (Ritchie, 2019) -- Netflix
Another of Guy Ritchie's stylish, amoral London gangster thrillers. Hugh Grant is awesome in this, and Matthew McConnaghy also v good. Plenty of casual racism (racist characters rather than racist script) but little, if any, misogyny. Best line: "There is no posh part of Croydon".
11FEB23: Tár (Field, 2022) -- Greenwich PictureHouse
I had wavered about this film, suspecting (rightly) that it would be bleak and miserable in places. But it was also stupendously good and I'm sad that Cate Blanchett didn't get an Oscar for this performance: she was utterly compelling in every scene, with a feline smile and decidedly masculine body language. (I especially liked the scene where she pounded a punchbag to the rhythm of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.) The plot was more complex than I'd expected, too: I want to watch this again, ideally with a pause button, and see if my suspicions about genre (is it a ghost story? Is some of it hallucinatory?) are founded in the actual film, or just in my perception of it. And yes -- it's another film about the stories we tell about ourselves, and the stories others tell about us. Very highly recommended.
16FEB23: Haydn / Mozart: The Sixteen at Cadogan Hall
Utterly blissful Haydn, Nelson Mass: I sat with eyes closed and a beatific smile. Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik is not as much to my taste but very well performed, and -- as usual in live performances -- I realised that there was much more going on than I'd noticed when simply listening without sight of the players. I didn't know Mozart's Vesperae solennes de confessore, and was impressed: excellent bass work and a jubilant Magnificat. So very good to be back at live classical concerts.
17FEB23: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (Reed, 2023) -- Greenwich PictureHouse
I miss the days when the MCU presented serious, engaging SF / thriller films. This was amusing in parts, and there were some nice visuals (animated Burgess Shale!) but I felt it was far too long. Cassie Lang is the most interesting character; Hank doesn't have much to do for most of the film; Scott Lang still irritating, and will not give simple comfort to a dying man. Too much CGI: must have been very boring for the actors.
23FEB23: The Wonder (Lelio, 2022) -- Netflix
Nineteenth-century Ireland: misogyny, anorexia, abuse and religion. Florence Pugh is (predictably) amazing, and Kíla Lord Cassidy as Anna, the young girl who hasn't eaten for months, is astonishing: such a range of emotion despite or because of very little dialogue. Hard to believe she was only 12 during filming. (Interview / feature here: I hadn't spotted that her mother in the film was played by her real mother, Elaine Cassidy.) Based on the novel by Emma Donoghue, which I haven't yet read so can't say how good an adaptation it is: Donoghue collaborated on the script for the film, which is a good sign.
Florence Pugh as Goldie, with her gang of Bears that includes Ray Winstone; a doggo with a tragic backstory; visual shoutouts to Banderas' ouevre (I spotted Desperado, Zorro, Once Upon a Time in Mexico); Salma Hayek as the love interest, drawn with fewer human-female traits than before. I thought this was great fun, and the soundtrack was pretty good too.
04FEB23: Hieroglyphs: Unlocking Ancient Egypt -- British Museum
Interesting, and beautifully-presented, exhibition about hieroglyphs and their decoding, and the cultural context of C18-19 Egyptology. Unfortunately it was quite busy -- note to self: avoid Saturdays -- and there were choke-points at certain parts of the exhibition, so there were parts I didn't see (and my rising stress level didn't add to my appreciation of the exhibits). Kudos to the museum for not piping 'ancient Egyptian' music through the space.
04FEB23: Eliza and Martin Carthy and the Restitution at the Barbican
Martin Carthy is 82! But you would not know it from his performance. I was especially moved by 'My Son John', about wounded veterans. Eliza has a fabulous blues voice, really apparent in this set (and possibly because we were seated close to the stage).
09FEB23: The Gentlemen (Ritchie, 2019) -- Netflix
Another of Guy Ritchie's stylish, amoral London gangster thrillers. Hugh Grant is awesome in this, and Matthew McConnaghy also v good. Plenty of casual racism (racist characters rather than racist script) but little, if any, misogyny. Best line: "There is no posh part of Croydon".
11FEB23: Tár (Field, 2022) -- Greenwich PictureHouse
I had wavered about this film, suspecting (rightly) that it would be bleak and miserable in places. But it was also stupendously good and I'm sad that Cate Blanchett didn't get an Oscar for this performance: she was utterly compelling in every scene, with a feline smile and decidedly masculine body language. (I especially liked the scene where she pounded a punchbag to the rhythm of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.) The plot was more complex than I'd expected, too: I want to watch this again, ideally with a pause button, and see if my suspicions about genre (is it a ghost story? Is some of it hallucinatory?) are founded in the actual film, or just in my perception of it. And yes -- it's another film about the stories we tell about ourselves, and the stories others tell about us. Very highly recommended.
16FEB23: Haydn / Mozart: The Sixteen at Cadogan Hall
Utterly blissful Haydn, Nelson Mass: I sat with eyes closed and a beatific smile. Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik is not as much to my taste but very well performed, and -- as usual in live performances -- I realised that there was much more going on than I'd noticed when simply listening without sight of the players. I didn't know Mozart's Vesperae solennes de confessore, and was impressed: excellent bass work and a jubilant Magnificat. So very good to be back at live classical concerts.
17FEB23: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (Reed, 2023) -- Greenwich PictureHouse
I miss the days when the MCU presented serious, engaging SF / thriller films. This was amusing in parts, and there were some nice visuals (animated Burgess Shale!) but I felt it was far too long. Cassie Lang is the most interesting character; Hank doesn't have much to do for most of the film; Scott Lang still irritating, and will not give simple comfort to a dying man. Too much CGI: must have been very boring for the actors.
23FEB23: The Wonder (Lelio, 2022) -- Netflix
Nineteenth-century Ireland: misogyny, anorexia, abuse and religion. Florence Pugh is (predictably) amazing, and Kíla Lord Cassidy as Anna, the young girl who hasn't eaten for months, is astonishing: such a range of emotion despite or because of very little dialogue. Hard to believe she was only 12 during filming. (Interview / feature here: I hadn't spotted that her mother in the film was played by her real mother, Elaine Cassidy.) Based on the novel by Emma Donoghue, which I haven't yet read so can't say how good an adaptation it is: Donoghue collaborated on the script for the film, which is a good sign.
