My Cultural Life - Homecomings

What's Up?

Green energy. That's what's up. I write this on Monday morning. The house is overrun with workmen. At the last count there were 10 of them. They are deconstructing my hoose and putting in a air source heat pump, solar panels and extra insulation. It is organised chaos. literally. They're going to be here for about a week; four days of installation and then a couple of days of making good - putting it back the way it was before they started (after a fashion, I suspect).

The cost? Pretty much nothing. It will cost us, but this is thousands of pounds worth of work compared to the couple of hundred it will end up costing us. We're losing a brand new radiator, about a fifth of a tank of oil and our electric heaters are now obsolete; there's always a cost for everything though, isn't there?  

Why are we doing it? I've been noticing the cold in this house for the last couple of years and we know people who have had it done; we looked into it and by the end of the first phone call we'd signed up for it. Two days later the house had a cavity wall insulation and we noticed that the difference almost immediately, so that pretty much made us realise we were doing the right thing. this disruption is going to be a bagful of stress though... [and it was!]

Welcome Back

When the documentary series Welcome to Wrexham started four years ago there were 18 episodes in the first series and it won over so many people with its frank look at a struggling town/city in North Wales that had just been given hope because Hollywood stars had just bought the football club. Season two was 15 episodes as we watched the football team get promotion from non-league back into the big leagues. It was still a cracking TV show full of human interest stories and Hollywood banter. Then series three came along, a very important football season - which saw Wrexham back in the EFL and aiming for promotion from League Two to League One - was only eight parts and felt rushed and a little superficial. It was like the interest had disappeared - when it clearly hadn't - and it had wrapped itself up before it felt like it had started. It wasn't as good as the first two series and it seemed that as the club grew the TV interest waned. Season four has just dropped with the opening two parts. The worrying thing is, yet again, it is only eight parts and this time League One is going to be a really tough ride. League One is a graveyard for former top teams. It look Man City three years to get out of, the same for Leeds and former Premier League teams - 8 of them - were wallowing in a division that is possibly one of the most difficult to upwardly get out of...

For those of you who don't follow football, the season which was focused on in the opening two episodes of series four, has just concluded with Wrexham finishing 2nd and winning back-to-back-to-back promotions. That's a spoiler only if you've lived under a rock for the last year or are not interested in football, in which case you're probably not watching this show. However, it felt like the original Welcome to Wrexham was back with a great mix of the people, the players and the Hollywood A and B listers. Last year I found series three a bit of a slog despite its seriously curtailed number of episodes; I get the impression that this year, despite knowing all the spoilers, this is going to feel too short. Even if you don't like football, I'd recommend this because it's funny, poignant and real.

Silly Nonsense

Why on earth did we decide to watch Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story when we could have watched something else? Probably because we're getting to the stage where anything we haven't seen is going to get elevated into the realms of 'must see.' The thing about this movie is it's quite amusing, very silly and very cringe-inducing. It has an absolutely brilliant cameo by Jason Bateman playing a Dodgeball pundit called Pepper Brooks, in what is one of his zaniest roles (and given he has made some reasonable comedies is a compliment - or maybe an insult - I dunno...). Vince Vaughn plays the owner of a crap gym that's in danger of being sold off because he hasn't bothered to do any paperwork for about 20 years. Ben Stiller plays his nemesis, the owner of a swanky gym across the road and Christine Taylor (of Brady Bunch Movie fame) as the lawyer who is charged with sorting out Vaughn's problems and facilitating its sale to Stiller. So far so relatively normal. Vaughn needs to raise $50,000 in a month or he will lose everything. One of his customers says they should enter a Dodgeball tournament to win $50K and Taylor joins their underdog team when it's discovered she has a great right arm throw.

It's clear from the outset how it's going to end and the journey is full of unexpected belly laughs, cringe-making moments and ridiculously stupid set pieces. I'm sure it was a great success back in 2004 but feels tonally all over the place 21 years later. However, it wasn't that bad and I've seen much worse films. That said, I can only really give it a 6/10 and that feels generous...

Shine On

I finished the Stephen King novel Doctor Sleep on Sunday. It's the sequel to The Shining (the book not Kubrick's film) and while it's been over ten years since I last read it, I was surprised at how much I had forgotten and that was mainly because of the film, which takes so many liberties I'm amazed King even allowed it to happen. The one thing about the book that I'd really forgotten about was just how good it was and how different from Mike Flanagan's film. The interesting thing for me is I really didn't like Kubrick's film, but that might have been because I didn't really enjoy King's original novel. It was the third novel of his I read, after Salem's Lot and Carrie. But here's the main point; I don't think I've read the thing more than once; as a 17 year old it hadn't grabbed me by the balls, not like his book about the telekinetic teenager or the town full of vampires; this haunted hotel thing with the annoying cast of ghosts simply didn't have the same effect on me that it had on others. Maybe it's a story I should return to now I've read the sequel twice? I think of myself as a proper King aficionado and while there are a few of his stories I have yet to read (the Mr Mercedes Trilogy; Billy Summers and some of his short story collections) and about half a dozen I've yet to reread, my lack of interest in The Shining is probably something that would confound other King fans. 

In Doctor Sleep we rejoin Dan Torrance as an alcoholic adult following in his father's footsteps and we stick with him until he reaches what he feels is his rock bottom; it's at this point in his life where the only directions are death or redemption, so Dan chooses the latter and that brings him to a small town that's close to a young girl with powers that make Dan's look like parlour tricks. It also brings him in contact with one of King's group of villains - the True Knot - travelling vampire-like creatures who essentially hunt kids with the shining, so they can feed on them and live forever. The opening third of the book takes place over 13 years; jumping in and out of Dan and (the new kid with the shining) Abra Stone and then the rest is pretty much a rollercoaster that takes place over the space of a few days and it really is one of those stories that you don't want to put down. I'd forgotten many things about this story, crucial things that were completely ignored in the recent film. If you're a lapsed King reader, this is something I'd recommend dipping your toes into; it's a little like King at his peak and it will send a shiver down your spine and put a smile on your face.

The Zzzzzs of Us

Joel is back! He didn't really die and now he got better! Actually, this is a flashback episode that fills in the blanks about why Joel and Ellie weren't really talking. The problem with it, like most weeks, was that fuck all happened and even the one moment of potential fungal mayhem was muted and full of betrayal. It was more balanced with Pedro Pascal back in it; there was a sense of two different characters interacting and driving a narrative forward rather than the rather putrid and faux romance of two girlfriends out on a revenge spree. The problem I had with it was that this is the penultimate episode of the season - a season, incidentally, that has been about one episode with lots of flowery padding around the edges - and it dwelt on the past rather than setting us up for a bonza finale. Of course there isn't going to be one. It's going to end on some kind of a cliffhanger, because there's going to be a season three and this is going to be an extension of the computer game rather than following its lead. I think the general reaction of both the wife and myself suggests that season three might not be playing in this house.

Bookkeeping 

Well... that made a tremendous change. What a cracking film The Accountant is. Starring Ben Affleck, Jon Bernthal, John Lithgow, Anna Kendrick and JK Simmons, it really was so much better than I expected, especially for a one-man-army-action-flick. Affleck plays a man - let's call him Chris - who is autistic but has managed to manage it to the point where he simply comes across as antisocial and a bit boring. He is also a maths savant and doesn't care who he works for because he doesn't get personally involved, whether that's a good company, a bad one or a dodgy organised crime one. You get his backstory through a series of flashbacks and to be honest with you, it deals quite truthfully with autism and yet manages to mesh it with one of the best action thrillers I've seen in ages, jam-packed full of unexpected twists, turns and even a little cliché busting - because the chief protagonist is autistic and people with autism might have routines but they're often not cliched. 

To go into details would give away what ends up being one hell of a 'I didn't see that coming' moment, but it's safe to say that if you haven't seen this film before and you stumble upon it, you probably wouldn't want to spoil it for anyone else. This is an excellent film and deserves an 8/10 at least.

Benvenuto a Casa

It feels a little like the autumn... Obviously I'm not talking about the weather, which is due to break by the time you read this, but by the better than average fayre we've been watching so far this week. After weeks of mediocrity and having to sit through fucking The Last of Us, there are some things, this week, that have been great; none more so than on a warm Tuesday evening, watching the above Ben Affleck feature and then following it with something I didn't know existed until Tuesday morning. Tucci in Italy is a companion to Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy, the TV series I raved about a few years ago. Well, Stan the Man is back in his favourite country, sampling his favourite cuisine in some of Italy's most wondrous settings. It was a joy to behold, even if the opening episode seemed to feature foods you would be hard pressed feeding your dog...

Tucci in Italy is a love letter to Stanley's best loved places and it kicks off in Tuscany, specifically Florence, where he eats among other things diced tripe, swordfish marrow and cured lard. He seems to love them all, even if many of the 'food' stuffs actually made the wife turn away while pulling that if-I-have-to-watch-this-I-will-be-sick face. It's just a shame it's only five episodes, because I could watch Tucci wander round Italy every day. We loved Stan's first foray into the home of his ancestors and while the food in this, so far, hasn't been that palatable (apart from fake tripe - yes, you heard that correctly - which is a vegetarian dish), it makes us both want to go to Italy before I die...

A Complete Twister

Oddly enough I remember State of Play the TV show from the noughties, but knew little about the US feature film from 2009. Updated and written to fit into US expectations and understanding, this is a meandering great mystery that will fragment the way we think government works. This time it's Russell Crowe playing a high-profile Pittsburgh-born political journo, Rachel McAdams as a 'junior' reporter and Ben Affleck as a Republican Congressman mixed up in mysterious deaths and dead end paper trails. It starts with a thief's death, which is quickly followed by a cyclist's demise, then it's person after person targeted for death by what appears to be a well-oiled number of deliberate hits. After the beginning of this story, it appears that there is nothing untoward, but when the death of a Congressman's aid, in an apparent suicide becomes linked with the first two deaths things start to get murky. A private company of mercenaries is implicated in this, especially as this is a company Affleck's character is after; but appearances can be deceiving... 7/10

Men Behaving Badly

With Coop out on bail, despite everyone thinking he's a murderer, things get a little fractious in this suburbia-is-really-hell series. First off, ex-wife Amanda Peet has an actual fight with Olivia Munn in a coffee shop, which ends up being caught on video and goes viral. Coop's introvert son, Hunter, gets an older more forward girlfriend, while his daughter Tori finally realises that the boyfriend her father thinks is a dick is actually a dick. Meanwhile, sister Alison, whose back story is basically that she was mentally fucked up by an ex-boyfriend who shat on her, is now getting mentally fucked up because the same ex, now married, has been screwing around with her and just for his own jollies, it seems...

So, what's Coop been up to? Well, he's blackmailed his lawyer into representing him; everyone thinks he's guilty (apart from us, because we know he didn't do it) or is leaving him like rats from a sinking ship; so he does what is best for everyone and goes partying with his ex's new boyfriend, Nick and Barney, his injured business manager and this is what most of the episode was centred on. Considering next week is the season finale and I don't think Coop will spend it in a prison, I expect there will either be some revelation in the works or an absolute I-didn't-see-that-coming cliffhanger. Whatever happens, Your Friends & Neighbors [sic] has really been a grower.

Blink and You'll Miss It

The third episode of Murderbot was yet again so short you could have popped out to get a drink and it would have finished. There's an interesting idea here, but what I can't get my head around is while there are some funny moments, this is clearly not really a comedy led show; there's a sinister backstory that's trying to come to the surface. So why are the episodes literally 20 minutes long? This week, Murderbot and four of the scientists are travelling to the other side of the planet to speak to the other scientific camp about the strange creatures and what the hell they're doing. Of course, we already know what they're going to find so Murderbot sends the scientists away and goes into the other camp, armed but with little idea what he's going to face. I like this, but I get Sunny vibes from it. Remember Sunny? The Apple TV+ show about the robot who is Rashida Jones's dead husband's gift which got very tedious extremely quickly. Well, I'm hoping this doesn't go the same way because I want to like this, even if Alexander Skarsgård really isn't the right actor to be playing this role. He's playing a synthetic robot with organic elements, the problem is those organic elements are human-based, but he plays this like they're wood. 

What's Up Next?

I should be buzzing. My football team won a European trophy, but for reasons I don't want to talk about and you're not interested in, let's just say it might be a victory with an unhappy outcome... Other than that most of the football season will be over so people can enjoy a football free world for a couple of months - except for the internationals, the World Club Cup and the start of the Scottish season by the time July gets here, so a few football-free days might be more accurate...

There's a new series of Clarkson's Farm and we have FIVE parts of it to watch next week. There's the season finales of the dreadful The Last of Us and the very good Your Friends & Neighbors [sic], more Welcome to Wrexham and there's even a couple of new movies to watch. The thing is summer used to be a graveyard for television, but not any longer, it seems!