Monthly culture, November 2023
Friday, December 22nd, 2023 02:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tamaranth09NOV23: The Substitute (Lerman, 2022) -- Netflix
A highbrow poet and professor of literature becomes a substitute teacher at a run-down school in a rough suburb of Buenos Aires, where he grew up and where his father still lives. One of his pupils gets involved with drug traffickers. Lucio (protagonist) also has to work on his relationships with daughter, ex-wife, father. Good performances (especially the kids), worthy plot: the English dub was done by people who had never actually had conversations. Also a few trailing plot threads.
11NOV23: The Marvels (DaCosta, 2023) -- Greenwich PictureHouse
I loved it -- so much better than Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and with excellent performances from the three female leads (Brie Larsen as Captain Marvel, Teyonah Paris as Monica Rambeau and Iman Vellani as Ms Marvel). There was a wholly unnecessary trip to a planet where everyone communicated in song -- giving opportunity for a dance number -- and a delightful scene ofcat flerkin-herding, to the strains of Memory: there was repentance and restitution and a gentle revolution, with Kamala Khan 'putting together a team'. And a cameo by Valkyrie which should spawn a thousand fanfics. My only major criticism is that the soundtrack lacked interest.
16NOV23: Mixed by Erry (Sibilia, 2023) -- Netflix
Delightful Italian film, set in 1980s Naples (OMG the *hair*) about brothers running a bootleg cassette industry, complete with investment from the local Mafia boss: this is based on a true story, and the brothers were effectively Italy's third-biggest 'record label'. I really enjoyed this, not least because it was so resolutely on the side of the working-class heroes.
A good article about the brothers and the film
what they're doing now (fighting Amazon;
22NOV23: Rachmaninoff: Vespers (Parliamentary Choir) -- Southwark Cathedral
I wouldn't have known about this if I didn't have a friend, M, in the Parliamentary Choir. This was a relatively short concert, choir only (apart from a brief outing for the Cathedral organ, doing Alain's 'Litanes'). The Vespers have a Slavonic influence and echoed delightfully in the vast space, though it was up against the screech of trains passing on the main line just outside. Preceded by Gjeilo's 'Ubi Caritas' (short and sweet), Rheinberger's 'Abendlied' (ditto), and Barber's 'Adagio' arranged for voices -- all new to me.
23NOV23: Submarine (Ayoade, 2010) -- Netflix
Teenage romance in Wales in 1986, plus a terminally-ill mother in hospital (this cut close for me) and troubled marriage of protagonist's parents. A weird blend of pain and tweeness, all rather stifled by Oliver's emotional numbness.
30NOV23: The Killer (Fincher, 2023n) -- Netflix
Michael Fassbender plays the nameless protagonist, with a lot of edgelord philosophising about the gentle art of assassination. He kills lots of people, including Tilda Swinton's rather delightful character The Expert. The ending fizzled out, unsatisfactorily. Not bad, not great.
A highbrow poet and professor of literature becomes a substitute teacher at a run-down school in a rough suburb of Buenos Aires, where he grew up and where his father still lives. One of his pupils gets involved with drug traffickers. Lucio (protagonist) also has to work on his relationships with daughter, ex-wife, father. Good performances (especially the kids), worthy plot: the English dub was done by people who had never actually had conversations. Also a few trailing plot threads.
11NOV23: The Marvels (DaCosta, 2023) -- Greenwich PictureHouse
I loved it -- so much better than Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and with excellent performances from the three female leads (Brie Larsen as Captain Marvel, Teyonah Paris as Monica Rambeau and Iman Vellani as Ms Marvel). There was a wholly unnecessary trip to a planet where everyone communicated in song -- giving opportunity for a dance number -- and a delightful scene of
16NOV23: Mixed by Erry (Sibilia, 2023) -- Netflix
Delightful Italian film, set in 1980s Naples (OMG the *hair*) about brothers running a bootleg cassette industry, complete with investment from the local Mafia boss: this is based on a true story, and the brothers were effectively Italy's third-biggest 'record label'. I really enjoyed this, not least because it was so resolutely on the side of the working-class heroes.
A good article about the brothers and the film
what they're doing now (fighting Amazon;
22NOV23: Rachmaninoff: Vespers (Parliamentary Choir) -- Southwark Cathedral
I wouldn't have known about this if I didn't have a friend, M, in the Parliamentary Choir. This was a relatively short concert, choir only (apart from a brief outing for the Cathedral organ, doing Alain's 'Litanes'). The Vespers have a Slavonic influence and echoed delightfully in the vast space, though it was up against the screech of trains passing on the main line just outside. Preceded by Gjeilo's 'Ubi Caritas' (short and sweet), Rheinberger's 'Abendlied' (ditto), and Barber's 'Adagio' arranged for voices -- all new to me.
23NOV23: Submarine (Ayoade, 2010) -- Netflix
Teenage romance in Wales in 1986, plus a terminally-ill mother in hospital (this cut close for me) and troubled marriage of protagonist's parents. A weird blend of pain and tweeness, all rather stifled by Oliver's emotional numbness.
30NOV23: The Killer (Fincher, 2023n) -- Netflix
Michael Fassbender plays the nameless protagonist, with a lot of edgelord philosophising about the gentle art of assassination. He kills lots of people, including Tilda Swinton's rather delightful character The Expert. The ending fizzled out, unsatisfactorily. Not bad, not great.
