Film

• Uproar (2023) - a New Zealand coming of age tale. There are no surprises here. You know exactly what you are getting right from the start, but it is solidly and engagingly done, with some some good performances from Josh Waaka and Rhys Darby particularly.

• House of Flying Daggers (2004) - continuing my SO’s wuxia fad at the moment. This one looks wonderful and has some great set pieces early on but then runs out of ideas and drifts to a stop in a morass of repetitive melodrama and loose ends. Very pretty but frustratingly unsatisfying.

TV

• A Gentleman in Moscow - the pick of the crop at the moment with Ewan McGregor and Alexa Goodall both both proving charming in their respective roles. The tale balences the pre-revolutionry culture, the bolshevic ideals and the grim reality well - although glamourising the former quite a bit, at least initially.

• Renegade Nell - this has a lot of positive reviews, and i certainly enjoyed the writer’s Gentleman Jack, but on the basis of the first episode it seemed to be tonally all over the place, as though the writer had one thing in mind but the director, or studio bosses or someone were trying for something totally different. I found it pretty off-putting and am not sure whether I’ll continue.

• Extraordinary - I thoroughly enjoyed season 1 and am glad to see that season 2 is keeping it up. Some of the novelty value of the superpowers in season 1 has been replaced by more emphasis on the individual characters this time round, but the comedy is definitely still on point.

Watching Beyond Paradise season 2 (currently 3 episodes out), and also the new series 17 of Taskmaster UK.

I watched the 2007 version of Funny Games and Alien Nation.

I didn’t think either was that great. I’m wondering if 70s movie called Funny Games is better.

Alien Nation was a somewhat generic buddy cop film with an alien being one of the cops and the other being a bigot. The whole movie feels like a not so subtle metaphor and the actual aliens don’t really have a unique role or identity.

For film, I watched 7 Men From Now (1956). This was the first old western I watched in many years (since I was a child). Also watched Unstoppable which was visually interesting but pretty meh in most other regards.

For series, rewatching How I Met Your Mother for some good laughs.

Beowulf & Grendel (2005)

Quite enjoyed this, review coming later in May for a blogathan.

Wrath of Gods (2006)

The making of Beowulf & Grendel. Bloody hell, the shit they went through to get this film made! Well worth a watch even if you haven’t seen the film.

The Train (1964)

A review.

Troll Hunter (2010)

Really, really enjoyed this. Saving detailed thoughts for a review.

His Dark Materials series by BBC - decent fantasy and adaption I guess (haven’t read the books), if I was younger (~ teen) the story would probably have a bigger impact on me.

Griselda (story of Griselda balanco the hardcore female Colombian coke drug lord)

Single season show on Netflix I think