A review of the 2006 film “Inside Man”
March 6th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
This starts as a bank robbery, becomes a hostage situation, and then finishes up as neither. Writer Russell Gewirtz attempts to come up with a clever plot but, in the end, it is just too beyond credulity.
Nevertheless, any film directed by Spike Lee is worth seeing – although I found the flash forwards confusing. And the cast list is amazing: headed by Denzel Washington and Clive Owen, we also have Christopher Plummer, Jodie Foster, Willem Dafoe and Chiwetel Ejiofor, but the distinguished support actors are underused.
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A review of the new blockbuster movie “Dune: Part Two”
March 3rd, 2024 by Roger Darlington
We’ve had to wait two years for the second part of French-Canadian co-writer and director Denis Villeneuve’s hugely ambitious screen version of Frank Herbert’s classic science fiction novel of 1965. I took the opportunity to rewatch the first segment a few days before I viewed the second.
As with “Part One”, I caught “Part Two” on the first weekend of its release and ensured that I savoured it in IMAX. This second segment is even longer (166 minutes) and seemed even louder (Hans Zimmer again), but there’s more action and even bits of romance and humour, so I was happy to endure the bottom-numbing experience.
The cast list is magnificent, again led by Timothée Chalamet whose profile has risen in the intervening two years. Most of the stars from the first movie are back: Rebecca Ferguson, Charlotte Rampling, Zendaya, Josh Brolin, Jason Momoa, Javier Bardem, Dave Bautista and Stellan Skarsgård. But we have even more stars in the firmament: Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Christopher Walken and Léa Seydoux.
The problem is that many of these actors are underused in such a sprawling tale and (with the exception of Javier Bardem) they essentially have one expression which is unrelentingly stern. One longs for some variability or subtlety.
I think that I enjoyed the sequel a bit more than the original because I had a slightly better idea what was going on. But really “Part Two”, like “Part One”, is mainly about visual spectacle – at which it is stunning – rather than narrative or characterisation – at which it is rather leaden.
I mean, really, what is one to make of declarations like: “I am Paul Muad’Dib Atreides, Duke of Arrakis. The Hand of God be my witness, I am the Voice from the Outer World! I will lead you to PARADISE!” And, apparently, it isn’t over: Villeneuve has set us up for more.
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Ever heard of the Phaeton complex?
March 1st, 2024 by Roger Darlington
When I check out the biographical details of people who are successful in various sectors, I’m struck by how often their childhood is characterised by the absence, physically or emotionally, or one or both parents.
Apparently this phenomenon has a name: the Phaeton complex. As Wikipedia puts it:
“The Phaeton complex is a psychological condition described by Maryse Choisy as a “painful combination of thoughts and emotions caused by the absence, loss, coldness, or traumatizing behavior of one or both parents, resulting in frustration and aggression”.
The theory was devised by Lucille Iremonger, who in 1970 studied the 24 British prime ministers who held office from 1809 to 1940, and found that 62% of these men had lost one or both parents by age 15, compared to a national average of 10-15% in those times. Hugh Berrington expanded on the theory in 1974, finding sufferers of the Phaeton complex to be less sociable, flexible or tolerant, instead being ambitious, vain, sensitive, lonely and shy.
The name derives from the Greek myth of Phaeton, a child of the sun god, who demands to drive his father’s chariot and in doing so, falls to earth and scorches the Sahara Desert.”
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A review of the book “But What Can I Do?” by Alastair Campbell
February 24th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
The last book that I read was “Why We Get The Wrong Politicians” by Isabel Hardman. In my view, that work put too much emphasis and blame on individuals for the current state of British politics, spent far too much time describing the problem and very little time suggesting remedies, and was overly pessimistic about the present condition of public affairs.
By contrast, this book by Alistair Campbell – best-known as Tony Blair’s Director of Communications from 1994-2003 – takes a more systemic approach to “Why Politics Has Gone So Wrong” (to quote the sub-title), spends even more time on addressing “How You Can Help Fix It” (again to quote the sub-title), and overall is much more positive about the prospects for reform and renewal.
Campbell identifies the tipping point when contemporary politics went wrong as the global financial crisis of 2008/09 and summarises the major causes as the three Ps: polarisation, populism, post-truth. His advice is simple but sensible: resist cynicism, develop a campaigning mindset, be a leader, be a team player, be a strategist, learn confidence, acquire persevilience (what he describes as “the marriage of perseverance and resilience”).
There is nothing particularly new or dramatic here, but there is a great deal of really practical advice from an experienced campaigner with lots of anecdotes and extensive contacts. Campbell writes in a lively, accessible style that draws on his considerable experience and is candid about his own strengths and weaknesses. Whereas the tone of Hardman’s book questions why anyone would want to go into politics, Campbell concludes his work with a chapter entitled “How To Get Into Politics”.
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How good is your Chinese history?
February 20th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
This week, it’s half-term in the town where my two granddaughters live and I’ve agreed to entertain each of them for a day. Today was the turn of the younger who is seven. I asked her what she’d learned at school recently and she told me that they had been studying the Shang Dynasty.
Now it’s 70 years since I was at primary school, but I’m sure that we never studied anything as remotely interesting as the Shang Dynasty. Did you? Indeed I would guess that most adults in the Western world know nothing at all about the Shang Dynasty, so allow me to enlighten you.
The Shang dynasty was a Chinese royal dynasty that ruled in the Yellow River valley during the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and followed by the Western Zhou dynasty. The classic account of the Shang comes from texts such as the Book of Documents, Bamboo Annals and Records of the Grand Historian.
Modern scholarship dates the dynasty between the 16th to 11th centuries BC, with more agreement surrounding the end date than beginning date. I cannot imagine what was going on then in what we now call Britain, but I guess not so much.
So now you know …
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A review of the 2020 film “The Courier”
February 18th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
This espionage drama made little impact on its release because, at that time, we were just emerging from a global pandemic and cinemas were struggling to attract customers. Russia had not yet invaded Georgia and threatened to use nuclear weapons. But it is a film that is worth seeing because it is based on a true story in a period when humankind was facing an even more existential threat than Covid-19 and it is a reminder than you can never trust the Kremlin.
At the height of the Cold War in 1960, a high ranking Soviet official called Oleg Penkovsky (ably portrayed by Georgian actor Merab Ninidze) is so concerned at Khrushchev’s threats to “bury” the West that he reaches out to the CIA with information that he hopes might de-escalate the situation. The CIA works with MI6 to find a safe way to bring our the information and they settle on an ordinary British businessman called Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch who never fails to give a convincing performance). Matters come to a head when Penkovsky provides material of assistance to the Americans in the Cuban missile crisis and when the Soviets realise that they have a traitor in their midst.
Unlike so many films these days, “The Courier” follows a straight and simple narrative with no flash-backs and no twists. As such, it is a workmanlike production which relies on the true story itself to highlight the need for, and the dangers of, spycraft.
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A review of the 2022 film “Aftersun”
February 17th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
By the time that I caught up with this film, it had received 121 nominations and 33 awards, so the critics clearly adored it, and I wanted very much to do so too. I love to see new talent and this is the feature film debut of Scottish director, writer and producer Charlotte Wells.
The story is the holiday in a Turkish holiday resort of 11-year old Sophie (played by an amazing Franki Corio) and her 31-year old father (wonderfully portrayed by Paul Mescal) who is divorced from her mother. It is beautifully acted but, for me, it is too slow, too little happens, and what is really happening is too opaque.
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Three quotes from three US presidents
February 13th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
“Ich bin ein Berliner.”
— President John F. Kennedy, June 26, 1963
“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
— President Ronald Reagan, June 12, 1987
“I would encourage [the Russians] to do whatever the hell they want.”
— Donald Trump, February 10, 2024
Posted in American current affairs | Comments (0)
A review of the inspirational new film “Nyad”
February 12th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
How would anybody even think of swimming nonstop from Cuba to Florida? This is a 110-mile stretch of ocean bedevilled by powerful currents, sharks and jelly fish. American long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad knew better than anyone what would be involved and how impossible it would be. After all, when she was 28, she had tried and failed. But, aged 60, she decided that she wanted another go. It sounds crazy, but this true story makes for a compelling movie.
It is directed by wife and husband team Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, previously known for excellent documentaries and here making their feature film directorial debut. The work has a documentary feel to it which draws in the viewer. But it is the casting that makes the movie. Annette Bening, as you’ve never seen her before, is “the swimmer” and Jodie Foster is her former partner, best friend and coach Bonnie Stoll. Both give outstanding performances which understandably have attracted award nominations.
Of course, all heroes are flawed and Nyad has been challenged over details of her record but, as a film, “Nyad”is a considerable success – gripping and inspirational. You can find it on Netflix.
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A review the new film “The Zone Of Interest”
February 11th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
This is a really disturbing film about the greatest crime against humanity: the Holocaust of the Second World War. It is loosely based on the novel of the same name by British writer Martin Amis and it is both written and directed by Jonathan Glazer who is both British and Jewish. It is largely set at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in German-occupied Poland where over a million, mainly – but not exclusively – Jews, were murdered.
I spent a day at the site in the Winter of 1993 and I will be forever haunted by what I saw.
What is so astonishing about this work is what you do not see but what you hear. The narrative is set largely in the family home of the commandant Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel), his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller), and their five children, which is located against one of the high walls of the camp, and much of what we see is the enjoyment of their domesticity.
But, all the time that we are at their home, we hear in the background the unmistakable sounds of the machinery of genocide – the trains, the shouting, the shooting, the screaming – and, at the very beginning and the very end of the film, there is discordant orchestral music which bookends this tale of horror.
The lead actors and most of the dialogue are German; the support actors and the location shooting are Polish; and the funding was American, British and Polish. It has been nominated for five Academy Awards, three Golden Globes and nine BAFTAs. It is a chilling film that you will never forget.
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