Monthly culture, February 2026
Thursday, March 19th, 2026 08:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tamaranth12FEB26: Booksmart (Wilde, 2019) -- Netflix
Olivia Wilde's directorial debut, in which Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever play Molly and Amy, two academic high-achievers who realise they haven't partied enough. The action takes place over a single night, and focuses on their friendship, their attempts to Do Romance, and why you should never accept strawberries from spaced-out drunks (Gigi, played by Carrie Fisher's daughter Billie Lourd) who have laced the fruit with hallucinogens. Very funny, sometimes horrible, and foregrounding the relationship between two young women rather than their romantic adventures.
13FEB26: Lee Miller -- Tate Britain
Just made it on one of the last days of the exhibition. Having seen Lee, I knew something of Miller's wartime photojournalism, but was only vaguely aware of her reputation as a Surrealist photographer, and knew nothing of her early years as a model (including a 1920s ad for Kotex, which nowhere indicates the intended use for the product). Many excellent shots, both wartime and on trips to Egypt, Greece etc. I was pleased that the exhibition showed the grimmer pictures, from Buchenwald and Dachau, in a separate room with a notice warning of distressing content.
I also learnt about a summer party of Surrealists in Cornwall in 1937. This sounds fascinating -- surely someone has novelised it? (
19FEB26: Amsterdam (Russell, 2022) -- Netflix
Set in the 1930s, and not only in Amsterdam. A nurse, a doctor and a lawyer (Margot Robbie, Christian Bale, John David Washington: Valerie, Burt and Harold) investigate the murder of Bill Meekins, who commanded the regiment in which Burt and Harold served. A ridiculously star-studded cast (it also features Robert de Niro, Taylor Swift, Zoe Saldana, Mike Myers, Rami Malek) and a sweeping conspiracy that is based on the Wall Street Putsch. The pacing was sometimes uneven but this was an enjoyable couple of hours.
21FEB26: Cosi Fan Tutte (Mozart, 1790) -- English National Opera
Absolutely splendid staging set in Coney Island in the 1950s, with a circus motif -- including assorted fireeaters, contortionists and acrobats -- and a brightly-coloured set. Ailish Tynan was awesome as motel-owner Despina (they've cut the line about 'a girl of fifteen', as well as some of the more misogynist/racist bits) and Lucy Crowe was an excellent Fiordiligi. I thoroughly enjoyed this and was surprised, at the interval, to find that nearly two hours had passed!
Also, delightfully, caught up with an old friend who had bought her ticket the day before. She loved it too.
I recommend the seats at the back of the upper circle -- < £30, handy for the bar, only drawback is inability to see surtitles.
26FEB26: Train Dreams (Bentley, 2025) -- Netflix
One hundred minutes of bleakness and tragedy, covering the life of Robert Grainier, a logger in Idaho, through most of the twentieth century. Great performance from Joel Edgerton, but felt much longer than its 102 minutes and failed to engage me.
27FEB26: Iolanthe (Gilbert and Sullivan, 1882) -- Wilton's Music Hall
Charles Court Opera return for another operetta: this is the one about the fairies and the House of Lords, and the man who is Tory to the waist and Faerie below. Featuring two Tories who were clearly Thatcher and Tebbit, and a rousing chorus of 'bow down, ye lower middle classes'. Great fun!
Also a week in Malaga, just in time for Storm Leonardo...
Olivia Wilde's directorial debut, in which Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever play Molly and Amy, two academic high-achievers who realise they haven't partied enough. The action takes place over a single night, and focuses on their friendship, their attempts to Do Romance, and why you should never accept strawberries from spaced-out drunks (Gigi, played by Carrie Fisher's daughter Billie Lourd) who have laced the fruit with hallucinogens. Very funny, sometimes horrible, and foregrounding the relationship between two young women rather than their romantic adventures.
13FEB26: Lee Miller -- Tate Britain
Just made it on one of the last days of the exhibition. Having seen Lee, I knew something of Miller's wartime photojournalism, but was only vaguely aware of her reputation as a Surrealist photographer, and knew nothing of her early years as a model (including a 1920s ad for Kotex, which nowhere indicates the intended use for the product). Many excellent shots, both wartime and on trips to Egypt, Greece etc. I was pleased that the exhibition showed the grimmer pictures, from Buchenwald and Dachau, in a separate room with a notice warning of distressing content.
I also learnt about a summer party of Surrealists in Cornwall in 1937. This sounds fascinating -- surely someone has novelised it? (
19FEB26: Amsterdam (Russell, 2022) -- Netflix
Set in the 1930s, and not only in Amsterdam. A nurse, a doctor and a lawyer (Margot Robbie, Christian Bale, John David Washington: Valerie, Burt and Harold) investigate the murder of Bill Meekins, who commanded the regiment in which Burt and Harold served. A ridiculously star-studded cast (it also features Robert de Niro, Taylor Swift, Zoe Saldana, Mike Myers, Rami Malek) and a sweeping conspiracy that is based on the Wall Street Putsch. The pacing was sometimes uneven but this was an enjoyable couple of hours.
21FEB26: Cosi Fan Tutte (Mozart, 1790) -- English National Opera
Absolutely splendid staging set in Coney Island in the 1950s, with a circus motif -- including assorted fireeaters, contortionists and acrobats -- and a brightly-coloured set. Ailish Tynan was awesome as motel-owner Despina (they've cut the line about 'a girl of fifteen', as well as some of the more misogynist/racist bits) and Lucy Crowe was an excellent Fiordiligi. I thoroughly enjoyed this and was surprised, at the interval, to find that nearly two hours had passed!
Also, delightfully, caught up with an old friend who had bought her ticket the day before. She loved it too.
I recommend the seats at the back of the upper circle -- < £30, handy for the bar, only drawback is inability to see surtitles.
26FEB26: Train Dreams (Bentley, 2025) -- Netflix
One hundred minutes of bleakness and tragedy, covering the life of Robert Grainier, a logger in Idaho, through most of the twentieth century. Great performance from Joel Edgerton, but felt much longer than its 102 minutes and failed to engage me.
27FEB26: Iolanthe (Gilbert and Sullivan, 1882) -- Wilton's Music Hall
Charles Court Opera return for another operetta: this is the one about the fairies and the House of Lords, and the man who is Tory to the waist and Faerie below. Featuring two Tories who were clearly Thatcher and Tebbit, and a rousing chorus of 'bow down, ye lower middle classes'. Great fun!
Also a week in Malaga, just in time for Storm Leonardo...
