Monthly culture, June 2023
Friday, July 21st, 2023 08:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tamaranth02JUN23: Across the Spiderverse (dos Santos / Powers / Thompson, 2023) -- Greenwich PictureHouse
Every frame is a work of art, but there are so very many frames, and it's only part 1 ... I did emjoy this a great deal: the Da Vinci vulture! Spiderpunk (and his fanzine aesthetic! Canon Events! Notes from Ed! There was, however, too much of a good thing. Looking forward to part 2, and to rewatching this immediately beforehand.
15JUN23: Viceroy's House (Chadha, 2017) -- Netflix
Gillian Anderson as Lady Mountbatten was excellent, Hugh Bonneville rather less convincing as Lord M. Some of the performances (especially Old White Men) felt rather stilted. A nasty tale of 'divide and rule', coupled unwieldily with a love story between a Hindu and a Muslim. Far, far too kind to the Mountbattens: fake history.
22JUN23: The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (Gormican, 2022) -- Netflix
In which Nicolas Cage plays a hapless, self-obsessed, out-of-work actor named Nicolas Cage, and is surprisingly convincing. Pedro Pascal is Javi Gutierrez, a millionaire playboy who's also a Cage superfan and wants to co-create a film. The two bond, over LSD and Paddington 2. Javi's evil cousin gets involved, as do Cage's family (his daughter excellently played by Lily Mo Sheen, daughter of Kate Beckinsale and Michael Sheen). A film is made, but at what point does this film become that film?
Bonujs Fun Fact: did you know that xthe Ukrainian dub of Paddington 2 features Volodymyr Zelenskyy as Paddington?
23JUN23: Asteroid City (Anderson, 2023) -- Greenwich PictureHouse
I have been on the fence about Wes Anderson (always stylish but sometimes too much artifice) but I loved this to bits. Splendid cast including Scarlett Johanssen, Tilda Swinton, Jeff Goldblum, Tom Hanks, Adrien Brody, Edward Norton and many many more. There was a trio of eerie little girls with witchy habits; proving the hypothesis of celestial flirtation; hyper-colour; a UFO; a martini vending machine (see next-but-one mini-review); and some very funny lines, funnier for their deadpan delivery. Also, you can't wake up if you don't go to sleep...
25JUN23: Steve Earle at the Barbican
A Sunday night gig is never a sensible idea, but this was fun, with an opener of the Pogues' 'If I Should Fall from Grace with God', and quite a few other songs I actually recognised. (I went with T, who is a big fan.)
28JUN23: Asteroid City Exhibition -- 180 Studios
I'm not sure what I expected but this was almost as delightful as the film: so many props, including the martini machine mentioned above, and a chance to see some of the details that escaped me in the film. (Element 102: 'smoresium'.) Not too busy, and there was time to linger over a non-vending-machine martini that cost a non-vending-machine price.
29JUN23: Where the Tracks End (Contreras, 2023) -- Netflix
A long and restful film, which I did not entirely follow: children in rural Mexico, a determined teacher, and a young schools inspector touring rural schools with notices of closure. It was relaxing and quite beautiful in places.
30JUN23: Chevalier (Williams, 2022) -- Greenwich PictureHouse
Amadeus for our time: Joseph Bologne (Kelvin Harrison Jr) is a preternaturally gifted musician, and his white father takes him from his mother and sends him to school in Paris, where he endures a great deal of racism. Undeterred, he excels at music and fencing, the latter attracting the attention of Marie-Antoinette who becomes his sponsor, and Joseph becomes the Chevalier de Saint-Georges. There's conflict with Gluck over the directorship of the Paris Opera; a love affair with a pretty soprano, though marriage is not an option for several reasons, the soprano already being married and Joseph constrained by the law -- 'it's illegal for someone of my complexion to marry someone of my class'; the sudden arrival of Joseph's mother, who associates with other Black women and chats to them in a language Joseph has forgotten. Increasing racism and an appalling act of infanticide ('who decides which men get to keep their children?') turn Joseph against polite society, just in time for the French Revolution.
I liked this: there were some inaccuracies (he never violin-duelled with Mozart) and some details I thought anachronistic (lady violinists in a professional orchestra?), but the script was good, the costumes superb and the music made me want to listen to more of Bologne's work.
Every frame is a work of art, but there are so very many frames, and it's only part 1 ... I did emjoy this a great deal: the Da Vinci vulture! Spiderpunk (and his fanzine aesthetic! Canon Events! Notes from Ed! There was, however, too much of a good thing. Looking forward to part 2, and to rewatching this immediately beforehand.
15JUN23: Viceroy's House (Chadha, 2017) -- Netflix
Gillian Anderson as Lady Mountbatten was excellent, Hugh Bonneville rather less convincing as Lord M. Some of the performances (especially Old White Men) felt rather stilted. A nasty tale of 'divide and rule', coupled unwieldily with a love story between a Hindu and a Muslim. Far, far too kind to the Mountbattens: fake history.
22JUN23: The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (Gormican, 2022) -- Netflix
In which Nicolas Cage plays a hapless, self-obsessed, out-of-work actor named Nicolas Cage, and is surprisingly convincing. Pedro Pascal is Javi Gutierrez, a millionaire playboy who's also a Cage superfan and wants to co-create a film. The two bond, over LSD and Paddington 2. Javi's evil cousin gets involved, as do Cage's family (his daughter excellently played by Lily Mo Sheen, daughter of Kate Beckinsale and Michael Sheen). A film is made, but at what point does this film become that film?
Bonujs Fun Fact: did you know that xthe Ukrainian dub of Paddington 2 features Volodymyr Zelenskyy as Paddington?
23JUN23: Asteroid City (Anderson, 2023) -- Greenwich PictureHouse
I have been on the fence about Wes Anderson (always stylish but sometimes too much artifice) but I loved this to bits. Splendid cast including Scarlett Johanssen, Tilda Swinton, Jeff Goldblum, Tom Hanks, Adrien Brody, Edward Norton and many many more. There was a trio of eerie little girls with witchy habits; proving the hypothesis of celestial flirtation; hyper-colour; a UFO; a martini vending machine (see next-but-one mini-review); and some very funny lines, funnier for their deadpan delivery. Also, you can't wake up if you don't go to sleep...
25JUN23: Steve Earle at the Barbican
A Sunday night gig is never a sensible idea, but this was fun, with an opener of the Pogues' 'If I Should Fall from Grace with God', and quite a few other songs I actually recognised. (I went with T, who is a big fan.)
28JUN23: Asteroid City Exhibition -- 180 Studios
I'm not sure what I expected but this was almost as delightful as the film: so many props, including the martini machine mentioned above, and a chance to see some of the details that escaped me in the film. (Element 102: 'smoresium'.) Not too busy, and there was time to linger over a non-vending-machine martini that cost a non-vending-machine price.
29JUN23: Where the Tracks End (Contreras, 2023) -- Netflix
A long and restful film, which I did not entirely follow: children in rural Mexico, a determined teacher, and a young schools inspector touring rural schools with notices of closure. It was relaxing and quite beautiful in places.
30JUN23: Chevalier (Williams, 2022) -- Greenwich PictureHouse
Amadeus for our time: Joseph Bologne (Kelvin Harrison Jr) is a preternaturally gifted musician, and his white father takes him from his mother and sends him to school in Paris, where he endures a great deal of racism. Undeterred, he excels at music and fencing, the latter attracting the attention of Marie-Antoinette who becomes his sponsor, and Joseph becomes the Chevalier de Saint-Georges. There's conflict with Gluck over the directorship of the Paris Opera; a love affair with a pretty soprano, though marriage is not an option for several reasons, the soprano already being married and Joseph constrained by the law -- 'it's illegal for someone of my complexion to marry someone of my class'; the sudden arrival of Joseph's mother, who associates with other Black women and chats to them in a language Joseph has forgotten. Increasing racism and an appalling act of infanticide ('who decides which men get to keep their children?') turn Joseph against polite society, just in time for the French Revolution.
I liked this: there were some inaccuracies (he never violin-duelled with Mozart) and some details I thought anachronistic (lady violinists in a professional orchestra?), but the script was good, the costumes superb and the music made me want to listen to more of Bologne's work.
no subject
Date: Sunday, July 30th, 2023 09:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Monday, July 31st, 2023 06:08 am (UTC)See also: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NoteFromEd
no subject
Date: Monday, July 31st, 2023 09:56 pm (UTC)