Category: not a book

film

Not a Book: Asteroid City

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I actually had a couple of things I was noodling about writing about today. But in the end, I’ve gone for the new Wes Anderson movie because it came out in theatres here this week.

So lets do the plot – and it should be said that this may be the most Wes Anderson-y of all of his plots – it starts with a TV host introducing you to a tv production of a play in which a war photographer’s car breaks down in the town where he and his family were heading for the junior Stargazer’s convention. The action from the play is interspersed with the history of the play’s original production complete with recreations of what was going on backstage. Or at least that’s what I think is going on. Have a watch of the trailer.

If you’re ticking off Andersonian tricks and tropes it’s got the changes in aspect ratios, the vivid color pallettes, completely stylised universes etc. Not that you see all of that in the trailer – which is entirely of the production of the play. So that was a bit of a shock for me when the film started! If you like Wes Anderson, this is absolutely Peak Wes Anderson and the critical response appears to be: if you like Wes Anderson already, then you’ll like this but it probably won’t convert anyone new. And I would agree with that – I enjoyed it and it was fun, but it wasn’t my favourite. Him Indoors said on the walk home that he preferred The French Dispatch – and Grand Budapest Hotel over both of them. I could have used a bit more plot but I love the whole look of it and I also loved spotting all the regulars and all the quirky weirdness of it. Like the roadrunner.

Basically if you want a Wes Anderson coming of age movie set at an Astronomy convention in the desert, this is that.

Have a good Sunday everyone

not a book, streaming

Not a Book: Shiny Happy People

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My interest in the weirder side of American religion and cults is well known on this blog – see my posts on things like Educated, Unfinished: Short Creek, LulaRich and so much more – so the fact that I’m writing about the new Amazon Prime documentary about the Duggar family and the IBLP should probably come as no surprise to you.

In case you haven’t come across the Duggar family (lucky you?), parents Michelle and Jim Bob believe in having as many children as you can and featured in a string of documentaries and later a TLC docu-series starting with 14 kids and counting, where the number in the title increased as more kids were born and eventually also started to feature the eldest kids marriages. This initial series was cancelled after allegations emerged that their eldest son Josh (all the kids have J names) had molested girls (including some of his sisters) when he was a teenager. But TLC then commissioned Counting On – focusing on the elder daughters as they married and had kids. This ran for a number of seasons until Joshua was arrested and charged with possession of child sexual abuse images. He has now been convicted and is serving a jail lengthy jail sentence. Across four episodes, Shiny Happy People examines all of this and puts it into context of the “church” that they belong to – Bill Goatherd’s Institute of Basic Life Principles – and where it all sits in the right wing American Christian fundamentalist ecosystem.

I was not a viewer of the …And Counting series, but was aware of the series because of the press coverage of it and watched the first episode Counting On to see how on earth they were going to deal with the elephant in the room (spoiler: they did not deal with it) and continued watching in horrified fascination at a world where people got engaged after a handful of dates, were saving their first kiss for the altar and not allowed to be alone with their future spouse until they were married. And that’s before you get into the fact that the Duggar daughters – in their late teens when they married – had spent their childhoods bringing up their younger siblings, and were giving birth on sofas at home with no professional medical help. Horrifying. But no matter how bad you think that sounds, it’s all a lot worse when you’ve watched the documentary and have the rest of the context. It’s bad.

The documentary came out on Friday last week, and I had watched all four episodes before formula one qualifying started on Saturday afternoon. To be honest I could have finished it on Friday night, but it was nearly midnight by the time we finished part three and I was worried I’d have nightmares if we carried on. I was expecting it to take me longer to watch, because traditionally Him Indoors isn’t interested in this sort of documentary – but he came in as I was watching part one and got caught up in the horror of watch he was seeing and wanted to keep watching. He wasn’t fully aware of everything that had gone on and what the family actually believed and so his face as it all unrolled was an absolute picture. There was also quite a lot of ranting.

I’m not going to say this is a fun watch. It’s not. It has child abuse, child sex abuse and possibly the most horrifying public spanking demonstration you will ever see. I definitely came away feeling icky with myself for ever having watched the TV show – even though I was watching because I thought their lives were insane and ridiculous. But the documentary is incredibly interesting and illustrative of a lot of things that you might have seem bubbling along in American culture and wondered what was going on. I recommend it – but pay attention to the warnings at the start of each episode and expect to be horrified by what you see.

not a book, theatre

Not a Book: Buffy Revamped

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Happy Sunday everyone. Did I spend my Saturday night laughing about Buffy? Yes I absolutely did, and now I’m going to tell you about it!

In Buffy Revamped, comedian Brendan Murphy takes you through all seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in 70 minutes mainly in character as Spike but he does pretty much play everyone at some point or another. But not Riley. Because there would be no point to playing Riley. He was pointless. Anyway, this is full of 90s in jokes as well as all the in jokes about the show and quotes galore. And you’ll get to do a bit of singing too.

I had an absolute ball – it’s funny and inventive and made me feel just the right amount of nostalgia. It’s fast paced and rattles through the events of the series – at the start you wonder if it’s going to get everything you want it to mention in, but some how it does. It’s not surprise to me that it is off to the Edinburgh Fringe in August because it seems like the perfect fit for it. It’s also touring all over the place before and after that – including a couple of nights in London next week. Well worth an evening if it’s coming near you.

If the apocalypse comes, beep me.

not a book

Not a Book: Tina Turner

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It’s Monaco today and the Indy 500, so there is some motorsport in my plans, but I wanted to spend a bit of time today talking about Tina Turner, who died this week at the age of 83.

Obviously she was a musical legend and had a back catalogue where everyone knows at least three songs, probably half a dozen. But she was almost possibly the most famous domestic abuse survivor in the world after she spoke out about the abuse she suffered at the hands of Ike Turner when they were married. There have been movies and documentaries about what went on – I first stumbled across What’s Love Got to Do With It on late night TV when I was in secondary school – but a couple of years ago Tina herself took part in a documentary so if you’re only going to watch one thing make it that. It’s been back on Sky’s documentary channels already this week – so it should be findable in their on demand system in this country, it’s in HBO’s catalogue in the US. Here’s the trailer:

I’m going to leave you with a link to the first ever Tina Turner song that I heard, which is maybe still my favourite. I mean I love Proud Mary, but River Deep Mountain high is something else. If you’re talking about problematic men, this song has a pair of them – not only is it from the Ike and Tina era, but it’s written and produced by Phil Spector. I love the Wall of Sound sound, but it was hard to listen to for a while. But she still performed it – including at her concerts as well as when she was inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for the first time – she was inducted twice once for Ike and Tina and once for her solo work. And Spector died in 2021 (while still serving his sentence for murder) and Ike died in 2007 so that’s made a difference for me too.

Oh I can’t resist it. Have the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame performance too. It has Stevie Wonder playing back up in the band. And she sounds amazing.

Thanks for all the music Ms Turner, you’ll live on through it.

not a book, tv

Not a book: Eurovision II (again!)

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So Eurovision is over for another year. And what a year this has been – having the contest here has been a real experience, even if the UK entry didn’t do very well. But hey, the host often doesn’t do that great. That’s what I’m telling myself anyway. It was quite a show though – Liverpool did us proud. I’ve put the winning performance at the bottom in case anyone hasn’t watched yet, but I wanted to highlight my favourite bit of the night: the interval act:

Obviously Liverpool has a great musical heritage, and I loved the way Eurovision paid tribute to that in the most Eurovision way ever. If you haven’t watched it, click play and I defy you to be unmoved by it. I loved all of it – and also that Dadi Freyr finally got to perform on the Eurovision stage having been the favourites to win the 2020 contest that was then cancelled because of Covid and then coming back in 2021 only to be unable to perform on the night because of a Covid case in the group. Honestly just wonderful. The best interval act since Mans and Petra did Love Love Peace Peace.

And the other thing that has come out of this week has been the world getting to see Hannah Waddingham do her thing and just loving her. I’m a big theatre nerd as you all know, and she’s been on my radar for years and years now, but it’s only since Game of Thrones (she’s the shame nun) and Ted Lasso that she’s really hit the big time beyond us theatre nerds. And I love it when a theatre person gets the notice they deserve – see Mark Rylance but in a different way for him of course. Anyway, if you watched Hannah this week and wondered what else she can do, have this video of her performing as part of the cast of Spamalot (along with Tim Curry!) at the Royal Variety performance back in the day.

Anyway, here is this year’s winner:

I don’t love Tattoo the way I loved Euphoria so I’m trying not to be bitter that my favourite didn’t win, but I can’t be too angry about being back in Sweden for the 50th anniversary of Waterloo. And what was my favourite I hear you ask? Well, for once my favourite did rather well – even though as usual it was one of the wilder and more “novelty” songs – no not Croatian Monty Python guys (who threatened to perform naked if they one) but Finland and Cha Cha Cha.

They won the popular vote, but the juries didn’t go for them so we’ll see you in Sweden next year Eurovision fans!

not a book, tv

Not a book: Eurovision

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It’s the start of Eurovision finals week again – except for my friends who are super fans, it’s two weeks this year because they’re already up in Liverpool because this year we have a home Eurovision – sort of. After Ukraine won last year, the UK is hosting the contest because of the war and Liverpool is going all out.

I’m not going to Merseyside, but I am looking forward to seeing all the pictures from the people who are. And my Eurovision season is already underway – the team I was on won a Eurovision quiz a few weeks back, which was very exciting even if I can’t claim that much credit (I only got one question that no one else on the team did!) but I’m not massively across all the songs yet – but that’s what the semi finals are for for me!

If you’re a fan enjoy this week – and let me know your favourite this year in the comments!

not a book, streaming

Not a Book: Keep Sweet

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I only got two thirds of the way through the first episode of Keep Sweet the first time I tried to watch it – despite thinking I was prepared for how grim that would be given that I’ve read Under The Banner of Heaven and Educated and listened to the whole series of Unfinished: Short Creek. It took nearly nine months for me to come back to it – because if there’s one thing that the second half of 2022 and the start of 2023 has been for me it is a test of my resilience. But I did come back to it, and now I have some thoughts to share.

So Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey is a documentary series about the Fundamentalist Mormon Church, focusing on the rise (and fall) of their leader Warren Jeffs. Now given that I’ve already mentioned several other things based around this group, it may seem odd to describe them as secretive. But they are – and the only reason we know what we do is because of people who have started to speak out after leaving the religion and the court records around the trial of Warren Jeffs.

The FLDS are a polygamist group and there is a lot more to unpack about them than you can fit in one four part documentary series. If you already know a bit about them, you’ll notice that there are some bits missing from this, or that the reality isn’t quite as neat as the documentary makes it seem. But I liked that uses the women who were affected to tell the story and explain what it was like to grow up in a cult, why they believed what they did and how they escaped or broke free. As I mentioned at the start of the post, the first episode is quite grim, but if you can cope with that, it gets easier – or at least you know what you’re dealing with. If you are interested in religion in America, cults or the like, this is probably going to be at least slightly of interest to you if you haven’t already watched it.

That first weekend I started watching it was actually the weekend that it was released, so you you might now have to search for it on Netflix because as we know the algorithm prioritises the new. And there is always something new on Netflix – the latest being a documentary about the Waco Siege, which I will probably also watch at some point.

And before I go – if this is of interest to you as well as the posts I referenced at the top about Educated and Short Creek, I’ve also written about Murder Among the Mormons, The Eyes of Tammy Faye and slightly tangentially Bad Bets and The Cult of We.

Have a great Sunday everyone.

not a book

Not a Book: Private Lives

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This week we’re back in the theatre as we had a wonderful night at Private Lives last weekend and it’s been a while since I talked about a show.

For those who have never come across Noel Coward’s comedy, it is about a divorced couple who meet each other again on their honeymoons with their new spouses. Over the course of three acts you observe their stormy relationship – and the contrast with the people they have chosen for their second attempt at matrimony. At this point I’m going to take the opportunity to quote a bit of Gaudy Night at you, because it sums up the situation nicely, although as you can see Harriet doesn’t fancy a relationship like Elyot and Amanda’s at all – and of course it would be very tiring.

Otherwise one would get the sort of couple one had in Private Lives, who rolled on the floor and hammered one another when they weren’t making love, because they (obviously) had no conventional resources. A vista of crashing boredom, either way.

Gaudy Night, Dorothy L Sayers

In the new production at the Donmar Warehouse, Elyot is played by Stephen Mangan and Amanda by Rachael Stirling and they really do go for each other when they’re not intertwined on the sofa. The physical violence between the couple is the bit that can feel the most dated (it was written in 1930) but if the chemistry between the leads is right, they can carry you through it – you believe in the rollercoaster highs and lows of their relationship. In Stephen Mangan’s hands Elyot is more of a faded charmer with a wicked sense of humour than a dashing rake and Stirling’s Amanda is a woman who is fed up with being expected to stick to the conventions. It’s darker but it’s funny and the ending is brilliant.

It’s been a decade since I last saw Private Lives – that time with Toby Stephens and Anna Chancellor (which I enjoyed so much I went a second time with the family)and it’s a lot of fun to see a familiar text being polished up and exhibited afresh. The third act in particular has plenty of opportunities for interpretation. It was Him Indoors’ first time seeing any show more than once and it was fun to hear his thoughts on seeing something done differently. I think he preferred this version – I can’t decide, so maybe I should just go and see it again, again? Extraordinary how potent cheap music is…

Happy Sunday Everyone

not a book, streaming, tv

Not a Book: Our Flag Means Death

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It’s Sunday again and time for me to talk about something that isn’t a book again, and today it’s Our Flag Means Death – which is a comedy series about pirates very loosely based on a real life pirate.

It’s the early Eighteenth Century, and Stede Bonnet is tired of his comfortable life as a husband and father on Barbados and buys a ship and runs off to be a pirate. Except that he’s a really, really bad pirate. Like terrible. He has no aptitude for killing and his ship is outfitted for luxury rather than anything else. When we meet him at the beginning of the series, his crew are so fed up of him that they’re considering mutiny, but decide that he’ll manage to get himself killed soon enough. Except he doesn’t and soon he and his crew come across the notorious pirate Blackbeard, and they make a deal – Blackbeard will help Stede become a better pirate and Stede will teach Blackbeard how to become an aristocrat. Except it’s not as simple as that. Oh and it’s a romantic comedy.

If you’re struggling to get your head around all this, and I’ll admit I’m not doing a very good job of explaining it (luckily the first series came out in the US a year ago, so I’m hoping some of you will already have watched this and have thoughts to share), but you’ve probably spotted Taika Waititi in the trailer, and he’s also an executive producer. So the easy way to describe this is to say think of the same sort of humour as What We Do in the Shadows, but with pirates in the 1700s (and not a mockumentary). The episodes are only 25 minutes long, they’re very easy to binge and if it works for you (and it really works for me!) it will leave you with a big smile on your face.

If you’re in the UK, the first series is available on the BBC iPlayer to watch now. If you’re elsewhere in the world, you’ll need to look for it on a streaming service – probably whatever HBO Max is called in your territory. Series two has finished filming but there’s no news yet on a release date for it.

Have a great Sunday everyone.