My Cultural Life - Ghosts of the Past

What's Up? 

Christopher Nolan's masterpiece The Odyssey has come in for criticism from the far right for casting Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy; apparently arseholes, um Nazi historians are angry that it's 'historically wrong' to cast a black actor in this role, despite Helen of Troy being a made up character who isn't at all historical. In fact, black casting has been increasingly in the news over the last few years, with white supremacists getting angry about black people playing mermaids, Shakespearean characters, even er... black people. White supremacists don't want black or brown people cluttering up any of their entertainment.

The thing is, I get it, sometimes. I don't get why people [read: arseholes] get annoyed about fictional characters being portrayed by actors of a different colour, because that is simply racism and shouldn't be tolerated. I do, however, take issue with history being... ahem... blackwashed. I also almost take offense at the idea of people casting non-white people in roles where there simply wouldn't be a non-white actor because they're worried about the backlash. This doesn't happen very often, mind, it's not like I rage at the casting of a black actor the way some Reform spokespeople rage about black actors appearing in a large number of adverts on TV. I understand why they say things, I just don't think it's an argument that is worth getting into - mainly because it's difficult to try and make an argument against it without sounding like a racist.

In fact, the only thing I've seen in recent years that annoyed me was the fantastic Wicked Little Letters and the casting of Anjana Vasan as an Indian women police constable in a true story from the 1920s. Not only were there no women police officers then, there most assuredly weren't any Indian ones. It doesn't matter how good Vasan was as Gladys Moss, it simply wasn't historically accurate and I'm sorry, but that spoilt it for me. We rail against the establishment for rewriting history, yet we allow filmmakers to distort the past to appear to be 'woke' and, of course, by appearing to be 'woke' they then get accusations of being woke from people who are racist rather than sticklers for historical accuracy. I could have lived with the changing of Jesse Buckley's character's Irish husband (in real life) into a black West Indian, but having a woman - whatever her race - as a police constable 30 years before the first women police officer was unnecessary and is just an open goal for racists and Reform voters.

When you get actual historical inaccuracies like this, it makes it so much easier for arseholes and racists to attack something like The Odyssey for casting a non-white person in a fictional character's role. I mean, there's even been annoyance about a Bostonian actor playing Odysseus and a bunch of white English and American actors playing Greeks. Also, don't forget that Leonard Bernstein's family were not only happy with Bradley Cooper playing him in a film, they praised his performance, despite the actor not being Jewish or gay, this didn't stop a lot of wankers raging against it... 

Oh For Fuck's Sake...

So, the other week, the wife was at work when a colleague said she'd been to the cinema the night before and seen a film called Backrooms. When she was asked what it was like, she said, "I wouldn't watch it again" and then added, "It had a really crappy ending." Now, I think that is a relative description, because I'm sure someone, somewhere will watch it again and also probably think the ending was great. That same person, or even persons, might think this is a great film and who am I to argue with them. After all, it's all a matter of taste...

Backrooms is about a place - possibly another dimension, or a decaying echo of the past recorded on a different level of consciousness. Or it's just a fucking awful film using a slightly off-kilter direction and sound scape to make the viewer think they are watching something strange, and, boy, is it strange, but not in a good way. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Clark, the owner of a discount furniture store whose marriage has fallen apart, he's drinking, living in his own store and seeing a Norwegian shrink about his issues. He discovers an interdimensional doorway, in the store's basement, which leads to a never ending series of yellow rooms, each with odd things in them. He's also convinced there are other people there, people or things. Renata Reinsve plays Mary, his psychiatrist who also has had a strange life, which is touched upon. She goes in search of Clark and ends up in this weird yellow world. Very little happens; she's saved from a giant mutant pirate version of Clark by 'scientists' and then doesn't know what is going to happen. The end. That's one hour and 45 minutes of my life I'm never getting back. 2/10

Southern Gothic

I was about 30 minutes into The Skeleton Key when I realised that I'd seen it before, but a long time ago. There were things that just rang bells - John Hurt and especially Peter Sarsgaard - who rarely plays the good guy. The main problem I had with this 'Saturday night' movie was it had a lot of promise but fell a little flat as far as the scares were concerned. This was a hoodoo thriller with an enormous twist at the end that, to be fair, I'd forgotten about, but didn't exactly make me think I'd watched anything other than a relatively generic 'ghost' story. Kate Hudson wasn't bad as the girl uncovering wonky doings in an old southern mansion, but I felt she was exploited a little because it was Kate Hudson and getting her baps out was possibly expected. It was okay, but had some massive plot holes and an obvious red herring. 5/10

Ancient Reeves

When we discovered that Holidays in the Danger Zone: Meet the Stans was 23 years old it put so much into perspective. George W was still US President; it was only two years after 9/11 and the people on the first of the two episodes we watched were all talking about the recent fall of the Soviet Union. Oh and Simon Reeve looked like he'd just recently been born... The first of these two 2003 documentaries featured Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, both bleak and unforgiving countries that had much of their soul and culture ripped away by the Soviets, but had grown to be more trusting of Russians than anyone else. I said to the wife, it would be fascinating if Reeves were to revisit these documentaries in the next few years to see how much has changed.  

The second part of this two part look at the Stans features Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and these are two far more scary countries than the first two. In 2003 Uzbekistan was more like the old USSR and there was a real feeling of jeopardy for Reeves and his crew, while Tajikistan, which was one of the poorest countries in the world when this was made, was a contradiction in terms, with a country full of very rich drug barons side by side with people on $5 a month. However, while the Tajiks were poor, they were incredibly hospitable towards the film crew and towards westerners in general, whereas none of the other countries were. It was an interesting look back on a past that probably is no reflection on these four countries in 2026 - but we may never find out.

Triple Bollocks

Oddly enough, most of the reviews I read about Triple Frontier said very much the same thing as I will say about it; it starts very well and then pretty much loses it about halfway in. A group of ex-CIA operatives go on a private mission to rid South America of one of its worst drug barons and steal as much of his money as they can and keeping it for themselves. Starring Oscar Isaac, Ben Affleck, Charlie Hunnam, Pedro Pascal and some other bloke, it literally lost its way and the way it was written, with Affleck's character acting like he was written by two people who didn't know what the other had written. The story was an example of how everything that can go wrong does go wrong and by the end I just couldn't wait for it to finish. 4/10

Dragon Lanced

Yawn... This week's House of the Dragon was on TV on Monday night. There were more dragons in it and some other stuff. It seems to be a race to the bottom: which monarch is worse than the other? While the old regime, or what's left of it, goes around being shits to the poor people of Tumbleton, the new incumbents in Kings' Landing are weeding out insurrection by being horrible to everyone, thus fostering more insurrection, I've no doubt. Basically, if you're not a royal or friends with one you are cannon fodder, unless you are Aegon, who is having to sift through shit and kiss the feet of his underlings to ensure he's not killed for being a cock. Oh and Matt Smith's daughter has undergone a drastic transformation as she tries to keep her wild dragon in check.

Spaceba Comrade

Anna Maxwell Martin has no problem looking her worst for whatever role she's playing. She does vile horrid bitch so well, you wonder if any of her real life friends actually like her, for fear she might knife them or something. In the For All Mankind spin-off series Star City, she plays a Soviet hatchet woman, who is in charge of security and ensuring that sedition doesn't happen and if it does, making sure that whoever does it doesn't do it again. Rhys Ifans plays the head of Star City - the Russian NASA - although he's not allowed to really be in charge and the CCCP don't want anyone knowing who he is or what he's done. This first series seems to be set in 1969, telling the story that was happening in the background of the first season of For All Mankind; it's a little disconcerting because all the Russians have colloquial English/Irish accents, but all the writing is in Russian, but it's suitably bleak and harrowing as we get to know, in the opening episodes, the main players in this alternate history alternative view...

Cartoon Bollocks

While England were being knocked out of the World Cup, we decided to watch the 2024 remake of Road House, the film which originally starred Patrick Swayzee, who was replaced in this by Jake Gyllenhaal - showing just how far this one time A list actor has fallen. I only really wanted to see this because it had the fabulous Jessica Williams in it, but her role was less substantial than you would have thought, given she was the owner of said Road House and Gyllenhaal's employer. The thing is, for the opening hour this wasn't a bad movie; it was most definitely not terribly serious, but it was fun, then Connor McGregor was introduced and it took a significant turn for the worse. It really was comic book stuff, with staged fights, dodgy villains, over the top action sequences and corny dialogue and while it was a far better way of spending the evening - I could have been watching my first full game of the World Cup - I think I would have preferred a visit to the dentist (which I needed). 4/10

Sweets For My Sweet

Just last week I was saying how, for such a short series, they manage to cram so much into Sugar and while this week was no exception, it did feel like this was one of those 'filler' episodes, despite a lot happening. John manages to subvert the crooked cops from what they thought they were doing, while doing some introductory research into the cactus guy who seems to be working with the dodgy senator from the first series and spend an entertaining evening with Charlotte (who I still think is more than just a potential love interest). The interesting thing about Charlotte is she's played by Laura Donnelly and it's quite a remarkable transformation from the woman who made her name in such things as Outlander, The Nevers and Werewolf By Night - it's taken me four and a half episodes to realise this. It's still a classy TV show even if this week felt - oddly - like it was not going anywhere, even if it covered a lot of ground.

What's Up Next?

I suppose this coming week is going to be dominated by what Andy Burnham does in his first week as PM and how many minutes the press are going to give him before they start digging the knives in. Burnham might not be as left wing as some of us would hope for, but he does seem to be a step in the left direction - at the moment. I'm being quite reticent about his anointment as Supreme Leader and hope that he has the balls and the backbone to stand up to the likes of Trump and even the Clacton Fuhrer, who is apparently either neck and neck or behind Count Binface in the polls. Oh we can pray and keep everything that can be crossed crossed. As I said to the wife, anything less than an increased majority is going to be seen as a massive defeat for the Fag Ash Fuhrer and a defeat would be the end of him and likely the end of Reform. I'm betting Kemi is praying for a miracle.

TV has more of the above, while films is a dwindling resource - I still have about 40 to watch, the problem is finding the motivation to watch them, or a willing wife who will put up with some of my choices...

As the heatwave finally wanes and we're faced with a week of actual old skool summer - but still no rain - will I manage to keep my shorts on?

My Cultural Life - Food, Glorious Food

What's Up? 

Laila Cunningham, that's what. In a week dominated by massive right wing twats, this Reform candidate for Mayor of London has to be one of the most awful people I have ever seen on television. Shouty, offensive, immovable, not prepared to allow others an opinion and absolutely full of the most rancid bullshit I've ever heard spouted from a would be politicians mouth.

She appeared on Newsnight on the day her Fuhrer resigned from parliament only to call a by-election so he could stand in it again, as some kind of parliamentary publicity stunt, which appears to have backfired. The Clacton Fuhrer has done this to postpone a Parliamentary investigation into the awful lot of money he was gifted before he decided to stand as an MP in one of the most deprived and racist areas of Essex. None of the other major political parties are running, so the Clacton Fuhrer's Nige versus the establishment gimmick is now Nige versus Count Binface - seriously; if you haven't been watching the news then maybe you should because if you think the UK's future fascist dictator is a decent man, you'll soon be educated into seeing how wrong you are, or maybe how nasty and racist you are for thinking he's a decent man.

Anyhow, back to Cunningham, who is an attractive woman until she opens her mouth, then you can see her for all her nasty, self-interested, whataboutery viciousness. Jeez, she literally took over Newsnight, talking over everyone, shouting at them, trying to change the narrative away from her boss's behaviour by doing that old right wing playbook attack of 'But what about blah?' She refused to answer any questions, which suggests she'd make a great minister, but instead of staying placid and even tempered she glared and scowled at the other guests - a Times journalist and Hannah Spencer of the Green party, who at one point actually started laughing at Cunningham (who claimed the Clacton Fuhrer was one of the most honest people she'd ever met), before half-heartedly apologising. If the Reform candidate had a knife, Spencer would have been stabbed to death.

Perhaps this is why Reform is popular (amongst the idiots of society) because they're just shouty angry imbeciles who reflect the anger of ignorant racists across the country? One thing is sure, if Cunningham becomes mayor of London, then expect all manner of purges from foreigners to freedom of speech. Reform is no longer just the Clacton Fuhrer's platform for hatred, there are other far worse nutters in that party. Be afraid, be very afraid...

Just Glorious

You will laugh. You will wipe away tears. You will wonder how a television programme could be so absolutely fucking wonderful. The final season of The Bear is one of the greatest seasons of television I have ever watched; it is almost televisual perfection. I'm slightly lost because there won't be any more. I remember season four coming in for a lot of criticism; apparently it wasn't as good as other seasons, but that's bullshit. It was a season that gave us some meat to flesh out these bones we'd grown to like without really knowing much about them outside of the kitchen (from hell). This final season, of which seven of the eight episodes take place over one day, was the soup that came from all that stock; it was the real lamb in the authentic kebab; it was the finished dish. From the disasters of their building falling apart around their ears to the denouement, which will fucking break you in two with joy, this has been so emotional. Watching Richie become the absolute boss of a maître de to Sydney finally coming of age; to Sugar discovering how to be happy again to Carmy realising that as much as he loves cooking, his life belongs somewhere else now...  

Fuck, this was so good... Let me tell you something; back in the 2000s, there was this dodgy Indian restaurant called Pooja; it was on the edge of a run down industrial estate in Wellingborough and had questionable migration issues. It was the best Indian restaurant I've ever eaten at and they did a dish called Aloo Baingan - a potato and aubergine curry - and it was and will probably always be the best thing I have ever put in my mouth. Pooja closed down and we then moved away from the area and I will never have that experience and that taste again. I have the memory of it and I will have the memory of The Bear, because both have been so very important to me in my now long life. If you get the chance watch this TV show, mainly because you will never, ever, get the chance of eating the Aloo Baingan I loved so much.

LA Law

There's a constant problem with something as good as Sugar and that is writing a review every week that doesn't spoil it for people who aren't up to speed with it. I can wax lyrically about how it's a love letter to film noir or how our protagonist is just the nicest guy in LA, or even how he can wander into the most dangerous of situations and yet hardly ever feel threatened, but without specifics it's difficult to tell you what it's about. This week answered a question and also left us in a weird situation of wondering just what this season is about given Danny Moon's brother is no longer missing... Yet, it also feels like we've barely scratched the surface of that particular thread while expanding in other directions of this surreal and dreamlike detective series. Colin Farrell oozes class, his supporting cast all do exactly what is expected of them and yet one wonders if the current main story is just a garden path for a bigger, wider reaching, real story. Superb.

In this week's second episode of the double bill, a major question appears to be asked - is there a red herring hidden in one of the subplots or is something wider reaching going on under John's nose. We also discover that life outside of Earth's atmosphere is peaceful, with a code of ethics and the core principle of 'thou shalt not kill,' which, of course, makes John's life as a PI, on Earth, all the more ironic and interesting. There's a lot going on in this series, which considering it's made up of eight less than half hour episodes is a lot of bang for your buck, yet it manages to satisfy you every week.

Ruling

Rhaenyra's now in charge and by God she's going to do a good job, except it's a lot tougher than she expected. King's Landing is in a mess, the crown has no money, there's no food, people are making demands of her now she's queen and she doesn't really know what to do unless it's what a Targaryen always does, which is go mad. There's a bit of subterfuge afoot as James Norton's character appears to have pulled a fast one on Matt Smith and yet again I couldn't wait for it to be over so that we're closer to the end of the series. Remind me, why am I watching this? Oh, I'm talking about House of the Dragon...

American Idiots

I have to say that American Animals wasn't exactly what I thought it would be; it's a curate's egg of a heist film because it's part documentary, part docudrama and a wee bit strange, especially when the real life crosses over into the adaptation. Barry Keoghan and Evan Peters are the two main stars; the former plays art student Spencer, while the latter is sports scholar Warren. Between the two of them they come up with a plan to steal rare and priceless books from the college library in what, on paper, seems like a walk in - walk out - no one gets hurt - easy raid, but we're talking about two college kids with their two equally not criminal friends who plan to do a robbery that doesn't really go according to plan and ends up with them getting into a lot of trouble. Despite it's very strange tone, this felt a little over long and the thing I was most impressed with was Keoghan's American accent in this 2018 movie, given the film he made this year, where he was supposed to be a Yank, his Irish accent kept slipping through. 5/10

Deadend & Pulverise

I can't remember what I wrote originally and I can't be arsed to go back two years to find out, but on rewatching Deadpool and Wolverine all I can safely say is there's about 20 minutes of this film that were enjoyable, the rest... not so much. The problem with Deadpool films (and there's only been three) is when it's funny it's great, but then it isn't. It's a funny concept that loses itself when you try and add a story to it. The character and therefore the movies work as comedy vehicles and because of the fourth wall breaking, reverential dialogue and sleazy sex jokes adding a story, however slight, renders it moot.

My biggest problem with this film is it simply isn't very good, at least it stops being good once it goes on its quest and then it's Mad Max with dodgy villains and loads of unnecessary bollocks - in this case, all the Deadpools and why they're targeting 'our' Deadpool. That was one of the many things in this film that made no sense. While we're on the subject of nonsensical, what about the reason for this specific Wolverine being the worst one? What I struggle with the most is how it made so much money at the box office; it would have made a great half hour one-off episode on the Disney+ channel. Why the relatively poor choice of defunct heroes? Jennifer Garner's Elektra felt like a real barrel scraping moment; Wesley Snipes as Blade felt clever, but he only really had one decent line. Channing Tatum's Gambit had his moments, which is why he's been resurrected for the upcoming Avengers movie and Chris Evans as a foul mouthed Johnny Storm simply wasn't on screen long enough. 

I did have a few LOL moments, but the majority of them were in the opening 18 minutes, the moment Matthew McFadyen appeared it quickly went downhill and Emma Coren's Cassandra Nova was nihilistic without really having a reason to exist. It was simply lots of stuff put together with barely any glue to hold it together; in fact giving this a 5/10 feels like I'm over rating it... 

Goodbye Blackberry Way

The true story behind the creation, development and hyper expansion of a mobile phone doesn't, at first glance, exactly make you think 'great movie material' but Blackberry is considerably better than you might think. Jay Baruchel plays Mike Lazaridis - the man who developed the groundbreaking mobile device and Glen Howerton as Jim Balsillie, the man who took the nerds and turned them into one of the most lucrative companies the world had ever seen, even if how he did it broke a few rules. This is a funny and yet gripping film about a bunch of nerds who create something so big, both culturally and financially, but be allowed to be mismanaged by a clever and utterly dislikeable man. It's been on Film4 just recently and will probably hang around for a while, so it's worth checking out if you get the chance. 8/10

Fiction Stranger Than Truth

Season two of Jack Ryan has been a little more complicated than season one, but it still has been quite compelling, even if some of it feels forced... The main story is about a corrupt Venezuelan president who is up for re-election while being involved in some dodgy mining business in the jungle... or is he? This is a real globe trotting series with Jack in Venezuela, London, New York and everywhere in between. John Krasinski has added a beard to his repertoire and Wendell Pierce's Jim Greer has a heart condition, but it's essentially loose cannon genius analyst Ryan uncovering some dodgy dealings which, this time, result in the death of one of his close personal friends. While this series appears to follow directly on from the last, there's noticeable missing characters - such as Abby Cornish's girlfriend and doctor. This time around there's more action and double crossing, but it begins to feel a little ... grey by the time we get to the final few episodes. This has not been as good as the first series, even if it has had some truly shocking moments; however it's still quality TV and has a slew of guest stars, such as the late Anthony Head, Neil Stuke and Noomi Rapace.

What's Up Next?

I'm having a headache with Facebook at the moment. I don't know if it's just not working very well for PC browsers any longer; if my PC simply can't handle all the extensions I've got (none of which seem to do what they claim to do) or if my PC just needs replacing with something newer and quicker - which opens a can of worms I really don't want to go anywhere near at the moment, but will probably have to at some point.

The tennis will be over by this time next week and the World Cup down to its final couple of matches (but the Scottish football season will kick off just as next week's blog is hitting the real world) and the bleedin' Commonwealth Games will be starting - there's no escaping sport sometimes...

We have some old TV to watch; a couple of very early Simon Reeve series that we haven't been able to find (until now), the usual next episodes of stuff we're ploughing through and the usual 'whatever we watch you're going to hear about' stuff.

As always...

My Cultural Life - Loads of Grief Dragons

What's Up?

I do wish people would apply logic to some of the nonsense they hear and believe. We're currently in a strange situation that I like to call Schrödinger's Russia - where the former Soviet Union is simultaneously struggling to win the war in Ukraine while likely to attack other, well-armed, European countries by 2030. How does that even work?

Apply some logic here; we've been told in recent weeks that Russia is now not winning the war with Ukraine; that the country is running out of money, food is scarce, the people are losing faith in Putin and they're beginning to seek a way out of the war that has lasted over four years. Yet we're also told that the UK has to spend more money on defence because NATO believes that in 2030 Russia is likely to attack the UK. What with? Empty food cartons and bad language?

Remember Edwin Starr? He was the guy who said, 'War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing, say it again...' Okay, 'War, what is it good for? Making defence contractors loads of money, shit loads of money; that's what it's good for and that's what is going to happen'. We're being gaslighted into believing that we're headed for a war that by the logic applied to the two narratives is going to happen but can't happen because Russia can't afford it...

26 years ago, the world was safer than it had been for a century, someone flies some jet planes into the Twin Towers and suddenly 25 years later we've got a warmongering leader of the free world and Europe is so scared that this orange Shitler won't help us we're having to forsake welfare and road fixing to ensure that we have enough weapons to fight a threat that simultaneously is and isn't there...

You couldn't make this shit up if it wasn't already made up. The largest corporations in the world are arms manufacturers and like our anything but philanthropic billionaires, they want more money to create more things to kill people and pile huge sums of money into the media to convince us that our freedom is at risk from a country that can barely afford to feed itself any longer.

A Comic Book Tale

Probably the film pick of the week (it's only Tuesday when I write this) has to be the short but almost perfectly formed People Places Things from 2015, starring Jemaine Clement, Regina Hall and Jessica Williams. It tells the story of a moderately successful graphic novelist whose marriage falls apart - without any real warning - and how he bounces back from it with the help of his twin 6-year-old daughters, one of his students (because he teaches to supplement his income) and her mother, who he ends up dating. It's genuinely funny, touching and awkward, with some great performances and a simple idea well executed. If this ever crosses your path, grab hold and give it a watch, it's really good 8/10 

Game of Tears

After last week's bloodbath, this week's House of the Dragon was all about grief and becoming queen of the world. It seems they've upped the dragon count in this series, the big buggers are never off the screen. Matt Smith goes around chewing up the scenery and Rhys Ifans makes a quick reappearance before being separated from his body. Again, the lack of empathy or interest in most of the characters means that I didn't really give a shit about any of them, nor will I as the series goes on, although I'm slightly intrigued by the Targaryen cousin who has managed to tame her own wild dragon and now hasn't got a clue what to do... 

Not Over

Welcome to Wrexham has been renewed for THREE more seasons, taking it through to 2029 and making me feel a little silly to suggest this would be the last. That's not to suggest there wasn't an air of finality about it, but perhaps I just misread disappointment as an ending. The finale of season five was about failure and took us full circle back to the end of season one when Wrexham missed out on a play-off out of the National League by one point. The biggest problem I have is because anyone who has watched this programme now follows the club's progress, nothing feels interesting when there isn't something to celebrate at the end of it.

Sweet Smells

Sugar is a joy to the eyes. A love letter to LA through a skewed lens and the eyes of an alien whose superpower is being nice to people. Colin Farrell is an A list actor who makes this 'hard boiled detective' series such a wonder to behold. As he searches for the brother of upcoming prize fighter Danny Moon, his search takes him to the seedier parts of the sprawling city, into a place where danger doesn't recognise nice people. Sometimes this show puts detective work in the background, but this week it really is the backbone of an episodes that ends with a massive shock and the question of how John Sugar is going to keep his secret if this pans out the way it should. Excellent stuff, the highlight of my week.

Over and Over Again

A film that has sat on the FDoD for almost a year is the 2025 lo-budget sci-fi thriller Redux Redux - a multiverse story about a vengeful mother travelling to different realities to murder the serial killer who killed her daughter. I've got to be clear about this movie; it has some dodgy acting, there are huge plot holes in the story - from how she manages to move the machine that transports her from one reality to another, to how come many years haven't passed given how many versions of her daughter's killer she's offed and the fact she has to wait a week to kill him to steal his wages to ensure she can continue to kill him... But, apart from those things and the slightly naff Terminator style soundtrack, it's actually not a bad film; it keeps you tuned in and it has an interesting twist, so all the faults tend to fade out. 6/10

American Nazis

It's funny how a film that's almost 30 years old can be contemporary and topical, but American History X is both. Made in 1998 and starring Edward Norton, it's the tale of a white supremacist who ends up doing time for killing two black hoodlums trying to steal his car and gradually discovers that his racism is misplaced, so on his release he tries to change his brother from following the same path as he did. It is a vile, violent and depressingly tragic movie that feels like little has changed, maybe it's even got worse in the USA. The acting feels a little forced, maybe the script is a little too polished, but in general it's a visceral and unpleasant high quality film. 7/10

Love and Grief

I was convinced less than ten minutes into Miss You, Love You that it must have originally been a play and while I haven't yet confirmed that by the end of it I was convinced it had to be. The reason is because it's largely a two hander about a women - Allison Janney - whose second husband has just died and the man who has come to help her through the initial process of the funeral - Andrew Rannells - who just happens to be the PA of her son, who won't be attending the funeral. It all sounds rather depressing and funereal, but despite the huge amount of words and exploration of the two principle characters' psyches, it's actually quite an entertaining film. This doesn't pan out the way you think it's going to and there's two stories behind the façade that we eventually learn about. What this movie really is about is grief, not just for a dead loved one, but also for a lost childhood, a failed romance and the sacrifices that are made to make other people happy, even if they make you unhappy through doing them. 6/10 

The Boss

This is going to be a short week because it's Quiz Night on Friday and therefore our week of viewing is cut short. To finish this week off, we decided to finally start watching the final eight episodes of the truly magnificent The Bear, and what an opening two parts we were treated to. The opener - just 17 minutes long [short?] was the aftermath of the final episode of season four - when the clock ran down on their time and uncle Jimmy's time ran out. This, like so many other of the season openers, was stupendous as Chicago is hit with a series of torrential rain storms that show up what a terrible state the restaurant is in from a building's point of view and while I know nothing about this final season, I can guess that this entire season is going to take place over just one day. 

As everything is ruined by the drains overflowing, Syd and Carmy have to try and come up with a way of keeping the restaurant going even though they have no money and Jimmy is going to pull the plug. The staff are all frantically looking over their shoulders as unemployment beckons and Richie - who has been involved in a car accident - seems to have become some kind of organisational guru and is the only member of the team who can see the light at the end of a shit-filled tunnel. As usual this is extraordinary television; arguably the best thing on the small screen.

Dragon Slayers

It's been ten years since Joe Hill's last novel (the execrable The Fireman), so I didn't have a lot of hope for King Sorrow, a book about an imaginary dragon brought into this world to deal, initially, with some bad people from the other side of the tracks. Unlike his father (Stephen King), Joe seems to shy away from prolific and for once having taken almost a decade to write this tome (it's almost 1000 pages long) it seems to have paid off, that's because King Sorrow is a cracking read. It's set in his father's universe, with nods to a number of his books from The Dead Zone to one of his short story anthologies. This story is set across 30 years of a group of six friends' lives and ties the dragon they summon to a number of actual disasters. It would be fair to say that much of Hill's writing is massively influenced by his father and that isn't such a bad thing; this particular story is split into five 'books' and each one is different from the previous in the way the story is told. It is the best thing Hill has ever written - but there was a very low bar, to be honest - and I think you can excuse the dodgy set up and the less than convincing conclusion, but you also have to realise that this is a story that not only has a dragon in it, but also trolls, magic swords, imaginary serial killers and a truly evil tech bro.

What's Up Next?

More of this offensive World Cup, that's for sure. Why offensive? Well, given how corrupt FIFA is and its seemingly obvious desire to ensure that as many teams it wants progress to the latter stages as possible, you can almost excuse all the new rules placed to hinder the game rather than progress it... Look, I hate any international football competition that has FIFA's grubby mitts any where near it. They should not exist; there should be a new world footballing organisation that has the best interests of the game at its core, rather than that Trump loving snake oil salesmen Infantino spouting as many lies as his 'good friend' the orange Shitler...

Anyhow...

The Bear will be concluded; there will be more Sugar (possibly a double bill) and more overwrought dragon nonsense. Our viewing will not be governed by the shite football competition nor the other people hitting balls around on grass with bats or rackets. RAH!

My Cultural Life - Sects and Drugs

What's Up? 

I get it that some people want to label Keir Starmer as the worst PM of modern times, but this appears to be based on his support of Israel and the banning of certain rights to protest and yes, this is awful and not what you'd expect of a Labour PM, but does that really make him the worst?

The economy is in a better place, some of the policies the Tories brought in have gone and we're in a dialogue with the EU about making life a bit easier for people and businesses - none of this would have happened under the Tories or will happen if Reform get in.

A friend of mine claimed what Starmer has done trumps [ahem] being responsible for taking us out of the EU (Cameron); Crashing the economy (Truss), or being responsible for thousands of unnecessary deaths, taking the piss out of the nation while partying when the nation mourned the death of the then monarch's husband and being a fat, blonde, posh cunt (Johnson). We know (or at least most of us with a brain) that Israel's government is an evil, almost Nazi-like entity and supporting that is horrendous, but we have many politicians, the media and hosts of very rich people who also try and hide the truth of what that horrid country has done to its neighbours for over 70 years; singling Starmer out for just perpetuating this seems harsh and a little biased.

That said, good riddance to bad rubbish and be careful what to expect from the vaguely left of centre Andy Burnham. He is also a huge supporter of Israel (because they buy UK politicians like a kid buys sweets) and would still be classed as right of the party if this was 10 years ago. He needs to do some radical things, which will likely mean borrowing money, which will attract the ire of the media even if things start to look better for the average person. The media and the Establishment seem to relish the idea of having a corrupt authoritarian limited company running the country; presumably they want to see how far their 'social experiment' can destroy lives before consigning the Essex Fuhrer to the history books.

As the country swelters, forget about this nonsense from right wing politicians about having another General Election (oh the hypocrisy) and just hope that enough positive things are achieved over the next three years to stop the UK's march into fascism and even more despair. Just remember how bad Brexit has turned out for this country and remember that it was originally all the idea of the frog-faced cunt who wants to be the next PM...

Super Drug

If this week's film and TV consumption ends up being light on content, it's probably because we spent Saturday, Sunday and Monday watching the 2021 Hulu series Dopesick, about the heinous drug oxycontin. As someone who was prescribed this in 2014 after I slipped a disc, I can testify that it's a vile and horrific drug and I only used it for about four days and then spent almost two weeks to kick it out of my system. However, this eight-part mini-series follows the trail from 1996 up to when the DEA finally managed to nail the company for misleading the medical profession and the rest of the world with outlandish claims that were totally unfounded.

This is a superb series that examines the case from different angles over multiple timelines; featuring people such as Michael Keaton, Kaitlin Dever, Peter Sarsgaard, Rosario Dawson, Will Poulter, and Michael Stuhlbarg, it highlights the injustice and the lengths a pharmaceutical company went to make money, risk lives and give backhanders to stay beyond the reach of the law. It is one of the best mini-series I have ever watched and you should track it down.

Dragon Force

I've got to be honest, there's a degree of habit involved when watching House of the Dragon, I'm just not that into it, but I feel I have to stick with it and I'm not even sure why. That said, season three's opening episode was one of those parts that will have people talking because it was almost an hour of relentless stuff happening and the usual Game of Thrones type shocks and things going wrong. I've lost track of some of the peripheral characters; there was a woman warrior in it I had no recollection of whatsoever and those shocks I mentioned no longer have any real shock value. What happens over the next seven weeks will no doubt have newspapers and reviewers chatting incessantly about it, but to what ultimate goal? I feel this 'genre' of TV show might well be on the verge of outstaying its welcome and I'm not really expecting anything unexpected. The dragons are good fun though, until one of them goes a bit rogue... 

Super Spy

The football continues, so to avoid the England match (a dull 0-0 I was informed), we opted to start watching the first series of Jack Ryan (of which there are four seasons and a badly received feature film) starring John Krasinski. My initial impression was how young the lead looked, given his high profile film appearances in recent years. The first series follows CIA analyst and data cruncher Jack Ryan as he navigates the first week of his new boss, a guy with a huge chip on his shoulder, having been dumped into a sideways job after he screwed up on active duty in Pakistan (it might also be because he's a Muslim). One thing is apparent from the get go is that Jack - an ex-marine - is more suited to being an action hero than a desk jockey, although the latter comes in handy as he's on the trail of a new 'Bin Laden' who has been one step ahead of the CIA until Jack comes along. 

He Can Fix Cars

We like a good Jaysun Stayfum film, but I can't recall ever seeing one, at least not since the turn of the century, so expectations weren't very high when we finally got around to watching The Mechanic, a movie that felt as though half of it had been left on the cutting room floor. Stayfum plays Arthur Bishop, a hitman, who has to do a job he doesn't fancy and feels so guilty he takes on the victim's feckless son as his apprentice. The next thing you know the two of them are tracking own his employers with a rubbish truck and a bus. It was 93 minutes long; it could easily have been 113 minutes long and given us some back story, some context, some character development; but what it ended up being was facile and somewhat pointless. 4/10

What's Up Next?

Yes, that's it. A very shallow week and we have a shedload of stuff to watch over the next few days - The Bear, the finale of Welcome to Wrexham, the latest Sugar and maybe start watching Star City, so maybe now the weather has cooled off we can spend more time in front of the box, avoiding football. I also have my first solo quiz night next Friday, so I might be self-indulgent and talk a little about that.

As usual blah blah blah...

My Cultural Life - No Middle Ground

What's Up?

How long before the press get the knives out for Andy Burnham? You could argue that it's already started, what with the BBC ignoring his massive Makersfield majority to concentrate on racist and ignorant Reform voters. Could they not find any of the almost 25,000 people who voted for the ex-mayor of Manchester? Or did they simply choose to make you - the viewer - think that this was a bad victory?

The thing that makes left of centre Burnham different from, say, Jeremy Corbyn is Burnham belongs to Labour Friends of Israel - a little club of people who defend the despot country and will continue to 'work' with it even if the rest of the world has started to finally see what a largely psychopathic nation it is. So he might get a free pass for a while, until he starts doing things that affect shareholders dividends and corporate profits.

I also love the fact that you have Tories, Reform and other right wing parties demanding there be a General Election, when, if memory serves, the Tories in particular dismissed this idea when they appointed their weekly PMs a few years back. I say give Burnham the three years Labour has left to see if he can transform stuff and stand a chance of winning again.

Do I think he will improve things? Probably not, because our media would find a way to make even positive change look like it's terrible. I'll give you a hypothetical - he finds £17billion down the back of the Downing Street sofa and promises to have every pot hole in the country fixed and the work starts the following day; you can bet the Mail or the Express will complain that this money isn't being used for the people who need it most, without ever telling us who they think needs it most (unless it's defence, because we need more bombs to sell). You know it will happen because it happens all the time.

Incidentally, I still wouldn't vote Labour again - at the moment - but I think I'd feel happier about having a Northern PM who talks a good talk...

The Weather, Man

I mention further down in this week's blog about how the FDoD is not as blessed with films for us to watch as it has been in recent times. Looking for something new to look at, rather than try and decide which of the myriad of movies we seem to routinely avoid, I got hold of an old film and a brand new one. We opted for the older one - The Other Guys - and 15 minutes into it we both decided it was a load of shite, so we went for the new release instead. This was a film about a weather man, the one responsible for the D-Day forecast. It was superb.

Andrew Scott plays meteorologist James Stagg, the man charged with getting an accurate forecast for the proposed D-Day landings, which the Allies want to be on June 5th. Chris Messina plays his US counterpart who uses the past to decide his forecasts rather than science, much to the chagrin of the straight-laced and serious scientist Stagg. Brendan Fraser plays General Eisenhower, the man in charge of the Allies and the person who has to decide when D-Day happens. For a 100 minute movie that pretty much takes place in two rooms (it is based on a play), this was a tight and tense true story and is without a doubt the film of the week. You should seek it out, it's bloody spiffing, what, what. 8/10

Magic Moments

I'm obviously getting soft in my old age because I really enjoyed The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, a 2013 Ben Stiller remake of the Danny Kaye classic. The wife had her reservations and was still not totally convinced, but I had been avoiding watching this for a long time and now I've seen it, I'm wondering why I didn't earlier. Stiller plays Walter, a mild-mannered man who works for Life magazine and spends a lot of time day dreaming about how his life could be much more exciting than it really is. Kristen Wiig is the love interest and Adam Scott plays the arsehole new boss, who gets on Walter's case because he can't find the final cover photo for the magazine - taken by Sean Penn's character. The interesting thing about this movie is that it starts off feeling like a post-modern remake of the original, but ends up simply being a good story of a man capable of doing more but hindered by his over-vivid imagination. This is an under-rated film. 8/10

Hungover

Time has not been kind to this movie. In fact, my memory of this was that it was a hilarious film and it was only a matter of time before we re-watched it and then indulged in the two sequels. However, The Hangover is something that has dated extremely badly; in fact, I'm amazed this has such a high IMDB rating (7.7) because it's fucking abysmal. I laughed twice, once early on and then once when it had almost finished, at a mildly amusing joke. This spawned two sequels (although I'm told 3 is really bad, so I should watch it just out of interest)? This might have well been a film about four strangers on a stag do for the amount of bonhomie there was on display and whoever said that Galifianakis was funny presumably had a bet on with someone... Four guys go on a Stag Do in Las Vegas and 24 hours later they're trying to remember what happened. Bradley Cooper - yes, that guy - should be ashamed of himself. 3/10

Field of WTF

I was about three quarters of the way through the concluding The Rose Field, the third book of Philip Pullman's Book of Dust trilogy and the concluding part of his sequel to His Dark Materials, when the wife asked me how it was going. "It's a cracking read, absolutely galloping along at a tremendous pace and with loads of nods back to forgotten and much-loved characters." I'm now thinking I shouldn't have opened my mouth, because what was all the things I described suddenly became an impenetrable limited number of words... I have no idea what it ultimately was about, why it existed and how Pullman managed to (or didn't, IMO) tie it all up inside 30 pages. There is a lot of allegory in this book, you can see that Pullman is having a sly dig at modern 'real' life through some of his sermonising, but I simply didn't understand the ending and felt it was a huge anti-climax. I was left feeling that, maybe, there was another trilogy afoot - but the author is 80 and it took him a decade to write this and ultimately I felt utterly let down by it all. If you've never read any of these books then there's little point in me recommending them and if you, like me, are a fan and you have read this, please explain to me what the fuck it was all about.

Daytime Channel Hopping

There's a world cup on and while there is the promise of some nuggets of sweetcorn in all this sporting diarrhoea, I'm getting to the stage where the Flash Drive of Doom (FDoD) is beginning to look like the scrapings of the scrapings of the bottom of the barrel. 

That means this blog is low on content - although I am now toying with the idea of not reviewing every episode of every TV show I like after discovering that some of my readers skip these reviews, despite me trying very hard to avoid spoilers. So, expect some changes once the sports are out of the way. 

This left me with an idea; write a section about all those TV programmes I'd never review or never actually watch more than a few minutes of; so I went channel hopping...

BBC1 - welcome to the social conditioning experiment, where the nation's broadcaster normalises things we should be raging against. Take Morning Live, a show I used to call Scam Daily or even People Are idiots. This is a programme that literally teaches us how not to get ripped off while simultaneously giving us guidance on how to live - if you can see the cistern then you're sitting on the toilet the wrong way. I'm gobsmacked that we're even getting TV like this in 2026; something akin to a huge daily public information film. The thing is while I doubt this show is aimed at Britain's poorest people - it's far too middle class - it does appear to be showing people how to live life for less money, how to save, how to avoid huge fees and how to accept less as the new normal. It's a hideous TV programme and it has bloody Helen Skelton on it, a woman who gives me hives.

BBC2 - during the day this station is all about news and we all now know that the BBC News is either too left wing or too right wing depending on who's watching it. The reality is when you have a news station (occupying a TV station) that is made up almost entirely of members of the Conservative party and a brief that is to scrutinise anything left of centre and breeze over anything that's right of centre then you know you're in for a political kicking. The BBC has a huge archive of programmes, I fail to see why they can't just turn BBC2 into a classic TV station until 6pm at night.

ITV(1) - does anyone watch this? Even when I'm channel hopping I rarely stay on channel 3 for longer than it takes the information screen to disappear. Quiz shows are, I suppose, the only reason this side is ever on in my house. It's not snobbery, I just find 98% of ITV's output off putting.

Channel 4 - Frasier... it used to be Friends. I expect in the future it will be some other 'classic' US sitcom. When it's not repeating something it didn't make it's got travel and property shows. Channel 4, like pretty much all other mainstream channels, is about as middle class as croissants. In the afternoon it's all about living somewhere else, like they're subconsciously telling you that elsewhere is so much better than here - then they show Brits living calamitous lives in countries where they refuse to learn the lingo...

Channel 5 - fucking Jeremy Vine and all the spin-off shows. Let's have a continuous stream of phone-in shows to highlight the fact the UK has so many fucking opinionated right wing arseholes, all being cheered on by that ghastly fucking cyclist. Not only should Vine be castaway on some distant planet, the entire day time output of this sleaze-infested channel of shite should be covered in petrol and burned.

Other Channels - have you ever wondered how some of you can have over 100 TV channels to choose from and they all seem to show programmes from somewhere else? Ignore the shit TV and concentrate on the adverts - everything from cheap cremations to 'Ronco' styled deals for everything from high powered anus washers to 'no strings attached' insurance policies that come with a free pen. If ever we needed a reminder why society is all about money now it's the adverts on the lesser TV channels. Everything has been monetised - this is why there's a clamour for more volunteering, because they only look for volunteers for things cunts can't make money from...

And breathe.

Spoiler Warning

So, the revelation that Jeremy Clarkson has had cancer was slightly ruined by it being plastered all over the news channels before anyone watched Clarkson's Farm. So I make no apologies for dropping that bombshell, if you didn't know then congratulations for not watching, reading or listening to the news. Given that Mr Geniality has made a couple of series of Who Wants to be a Millionaire since concluding this season, it would be safe to assume there will be a sixth series of his farming adventures and given he's had heart surgery and cancer in recent months, perhaps we might see a different Clarkson; one a little more tolerant and less Conservative (with a giant C)...

As for Clarkson's Farm, well it concluded (eight episodes in three weeks feels like Amazon was dumping it out there) with a couple of parts that were... well, frankly, tragic and devastating and none of it was to do with Jezza's cancer diagnosis. This was harrowing TV that was difficult to watch, had the wife in tears and made you feel real sympathy for the people who work at the farm. I've said for a long time that this is a truer reflection of British farming reality than anything Countryfile could offer and this proved it. Brilliant TV, but Jesus... it was heartbreaking.

Finale of Death

Widow's Bay ended in a truly disturbing way. Yes, there's probably going to be a second series and we should all be grateful - but if there isn't it still works as a standalone mini-series. The twist we all knew was coming was exactly as I forecast (not here) four weeks ago and it was joyously horrific. This TV series absolutely hit the right notes with its mixture of horror and absurd comedy, although the humour got drowned out a lot in the end, but was still lurking in the shadows. I can't recommend this enough. 

Trailer Trash

The new Spider-Man trailer has dropped and I've got to be honest, there seems to be an awful lot going on in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. There's the Scorpion, the Hand, Frank Castle, Bruce Banner, some ethereal villain, Spidey mutating, not a peep of 'Jean Grey' (if Sadie Sink is even playing her?) and tons more. Could it be senses overload with this? It's set in the city; no obvious big bad and there's a grittiness to it that reminds me of some of the early Captain America films, yet nothing about it is making me excited. 

Under-rated Gem?

I think I've been conned. I saw several reviews of a 1987 sci-fi action flick that all claim it's a great but overlooked movie. The Hidden isn't great, but it is a film, at least after a fashion it is. Kyle MacLauchlan plays an 'FBI' agent on the trail of a number of related serial killers with a penchant for fast cars, guns and women. Michael Nouri (no, me neither) is the cop he's teamed up with to track the wanted people. This is a film that has a cameo from Claudia Christian - pre Babylon 5 days - showing off her (arguably expensive and impressive) rack and giving them a good rub - yes, it was that tacky. I don't think I've seen a worse movie in the last dozen years. This is an absolute stinker about an alien chasing another alien across the planet, who happens to do so my inhabiting the bodies of people. It has a script that fell out of a donkey's arse; acting that would look bad in an Am-Dram pantomime and direction that stunk out the place. This is not an under-rated gem, it's fucking awful. 1/10

She-Punisher

Where to start? Maybe with the fact that Jennifer Garner can't really act or why was this film called Peppermint? Despite being quite an awful Punisher rip off (literally), there was some quite clever build up, but the acting was so poor that anything marginally good about this movie was lost in the fog of shite that descended on it after about 10 minutes. This is essentially the story of a woman (not called Francine Castle) whose husband and daughter are killed by members of a Latino drug cartel, so she waits five years, trains herself to be a one-woman-army, and then comes back to LA to kill everybody remotely linked to her family's deaths and all the corrupt officials who allowed the killers to walk away. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't very good. it was essentially the story of the Punisher tweaked a little and with a female Punisher rather than a man. 3/10

Tying Up Loose Ends

Next week is the season finale of Welcome to Wrexham. I firmly believe that two things will happen between now and next June. The first will be that Ryan and Rob will sell their controlling shares of the football club, stay on as emeritus directors and will be able to walk away with their heads held high and the fans adoration. The second will be that if Wrexham do not win promotion to the Premier League, there will not be a not be a sixth season - anything they film between now and next May will be shelved if the plucky little Welsh city doesn't reach the footballing nirvana. The reason for me thinking this way is simple - it feels like they're tying up all the loose ends at the moment; putting spotlights on people who haven't had the attention and continuing with the valedictorian theme I spotted last week. If this is the case then it was good while it lasted...

Sweet

I can't think of a better way to finish the next eight weeks than with an episode of the sumptuous Sugar. Colin Farrell is back as the benign alien private detective, now stranded on Earth and continuing to be a private eye, while driving in his classic car and wearing the sharpest of suits. Oh how I've missed this utterly stunning modern noir series. This new series is three pronged, by the looks of things, as John tries to track down the dodgy brother of a Korean boxer; keeps tabs on the senator whose son was the serial killer from last series and exploring whether he's the only alien left on the planet. There's little wrong with this series that I can see, it's also on Apple TV+ so it's another reason for you to watch it. Superb.

What's Up Next?

The final series of The Bear, the third series of House of the Dragon, more Sugar and more shite movies. Woo hoo!