Movies

Just watched The Secret Agent which means I have now seen 7 of the 10 Best Picture nominations (I'm missing Hamnet, Train Dreams and Sentimental Values). It won't win, but it's by far my favourite of the 7 and the only one that I think would actually be worthy of winning in what I consider a pretty weak year. It's long (2 hours 40), messy, and for the first hour doesn't seem to be going anywhere, but there are tons of good performances (the lead Wagner Moura is nominated for Best Actor and IMO should win), the characters of whom there are many are all written and acted superbly to be far more interesting and multi-dimensional than most movies manage, and the cinematography and score are absolutely gorgeous and absorbing. I promise it's worth sticking with the slightly slow and meandering first hour because once the strands start weaving together it becomes absorbing, and it's one of those movies that definitely deserves a rewatch because there's a bunch of stuff I'm sure I'll notice the second time round.

Big recommend on this. Really liked it.

Hmmm. I sacked this off after 30 minutes for this reason. Now I’m wondering whether to put myself through that start again in order to see it through…

My students keep pestering me to watch Train Dreams, so that might be tonight’s watch.
I watched The Red Shoes and Zabriskie Point over the last two nights. Both nice to look at but absolutely not for everyone as they’re arty/pretentious (depending on your take) as all get out. Zabriskie Point was similar to lot of late 60s/early 70s counter culture films I’ve seen. Just when I was thinking it was even a bit “normal” for Antonioni/the era, I got multiple minutes of stuff exploding (houses, fridges, bookshelves, who knows what else) with a Pink Floyd soundtrack as a critique of consumerism/rampant capitalism. Probably.
My enjoyment of said scene probably enhanced as I was slightly off my face.

War Machine on Netflix. Objectively it's a terrible movie, but damn if it isn't 100 minutes of brainless fun. Alan Ritchson (Reacher) in full machismo mode fighting an alien, large Predator influences, lots of shit blows up.

As a straight 52 year old man, I'm happy to admit that I thought Wicked: For Good was an absolute joy to watch, just as the first one was.

Went off to the pictures on Saturday to watch "The Hail Mary Project". It's the feel good, buddy movie we might need in this fucked up World right now. Little if any shooty shooty bang bang. Definitely some Martian like tropes. Felt better for seeing it.

Rewatched Her. I loved it when it first came out, but it's one of those rare movies that's more relevant and current now than it was then. If you haven't seen it then please do, it's a wonderful movie and ScarJo gives one of her greatest performances without ever appearing on screen.

Mercy. Not as bad as the critics would have you believe. A waste of the wonderful Rebecca Ferguson's talents though.

Slightly disappointed that we couldn't persuade Little Miss BW to watch The Magic Faraway Tree over Easter. It was one of mine and (apparently) Mrs BW's favourite childhood books, and we read it to Little Miss BW when she was a pre-schooler. She also loved it.

Unfortunately, we're at the pre-teen 'no fucking chance I'm going to the flicks with my parents' stage. Perhaps Mrs BW and I can just go by ourselves and try not to look like Epstein and Maxwell on the pull...

The trailers I saw looked alright. Was thinking of going at some point over the weekend. Probably go to the Mario movie too.

Taking Miss Shady and her friend to Mario in the morning. One of those instances where I'll get credit for taking them, but actually want to go myself. Win win.

And I thought it was bad that my daughter had a friend called "Life". I asked, "does she have a brother called death?" I'm guessing you've asked if Mario (I'm assuming middle class, non-defined gender) has a sibling called Bowser.

edit: shit, just realised I misinterpreted everything by skipping a single word.

Have you been drinking?

Watched Taken last night for the first time in years. A quintessential action movie - 90 minutes of righteous violence and quotable dialogue. Then I watched the sequel - it's not as good but it was still pretty fun.

Watched Mercy earlier on Amazon Prime. I thought it was decent enough.