I think we all know the answer to that is “Probably not!”
Sorry, I know it’s been a very long time and I’ve been absolutely awful at keeping in touch, but honestly I’ve still been thinking of you all and how I can actually review movies again.
Probably, if a lot of movie sites were to start quoting me, that would help. Because Klassiki has actually just started quoting my review of Я шагаю по Москве (I Walk Through Moscow) (1964) in its promo literature! It’s been an awful long time since anyone has done that. And look! It seems to have brought me back to life.
I say review, but this is about as much as I can do right now.
I can’t add much more to that, TBH. I’ll get better though.
It’s just a delightful film, with a group of guys walking around Moscow, looking for purpose in life and bumping into random people. One minute, they’re helping to tame an angry dog by reuniting it with its owner, the next they’re guiding a Japanese tourist (who only speaks Japanese and English) to where they think he’d like to go, the next they’re trying to dodge the draft so they can get married, the next they’re meeting poets and girls who work in record shops, trying to work out their futures and whether they need to be properly qualified geologists to work for the Soviet metro system.
It’s all set against the wonderfully beautiful backdrop of 1960s Moscow in the summer and also features one of the genuine classics of Soviet cinematic music, the eponymous Я иду, шагаю по Москве, which went on to become an unofficial anthem for Moscow youth, in a surprising musical number that’s as joyful as the movie itself.
Please do go and watch it when you have the chance!
In which Nat talks briefly about the movies she’s been watching this week for no particular reason and that probably don’t warrant proper reviews, but hey? Wouldn’t it be nice if we all chatted about them anyway?
I’m not saying I’m going to turn into a cat lady any time soon, but I’ve not been out in a while. At least, not to the movies. This is strange for me, particularly with a Robert Pattinson movie in the cinema at the moment (The Batman), but honestly, that just looks nasty. I know: after the entire Dark Knight trilogy, could Batman get any nastier? I’m reassured by people who enjoy such things that yes, Batman can get nastier. So I’m going to give it a miss.
I really hope, though, that are some lovely new films for me to watch at the cinema soon, though.
I’ve not been watching many new films at home, either. Not even that collection of all the James Bond movies I got given for Christmas.
But I have been running a few retrospectives, which I’ll cover briefly after the jump. I’ve also been watching a few Russian movies. For understandable reasons, I hope? 😭
It’s “What have you been watching?”, your chance to recommend to fellow TMINE readers anything you’ve been watching this week
Doing this every two weeks seems to be working out for me right now. I think I can pull this off. Famous last words.
I’ve watched some new TV shows. One from pretty much every country of the world! Well, three of the four usual English-speaking ones. Most of them were rubbish, unfortunately. But at least one was fun. We can talk about those after the jump: Troppo (Australia: ABC), Our Flag Means Death (US: HBO Max), Children Ruin Everything (Canada: CTV) and The Endgame (US: NBC).
But first…
…four shows I didn’t manage to get around to watching
The Dropout (US: Hulu; UK: Disney+) is a switch of the usual ‘drama based on real-life’ offering that we’ve getting of late. It’s a mini-series that sees Amanda Seyfried playing Elizabeth Holmes, and Hulu/Disney+ summarise it thusly: “Elizabeth Holmes, an optimistic and determined young woman, drops out of Stanford to found a promising new blood testing startup.”
Yeah, I know all about Elizabeth Holmes. I know the twist and a whole lot more. Don’t really need to watch that, but I hear Seyfried is very good.
The Porter (Canada: CBC) is something a bit more of a period piece, but is still a real-life story. “The series will depict the history of Black Canadian and African-American men who worked as Pullman porters in the period following World War I, leading to the 1925 creation of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters as the first Black-led labour union.”
Again, I hear it’s really good and it even numbers Alfre Woodard. But… I don’t care. Sorry, the history of the Canadian trade union movement is niche even for me.
Shining Vale (US: Starz; UK: Starzplay) isn’t real at all. It also didn’t hold my attention more than a minute, since it’s a horror comedy-drama about depression/demonic possession.
“A dysfunctional family moves from the city to a small town after Patricia “Pat” Phelps, a former “wild child” who became famous through writing raunchy female empowerment novels, is caught cheating on her husband. The house the family had moved into is a place where in the past, terrible atrocities have taken place. Nobody seems to suspect anything odd except for Pat who’s convinced she’s either depressed or possessed. Pat has been sober for 16 years, but begins to feel very unfulfilled in life – she still hasn’t written her second novel, she can’t remember the last time she had sex with her husband, and her teenage kids have grown up to the point they don’t want their mother in their lives. But soon, the demons haunting the family’s new home begin to appear much more real.”
It may star Greg Kinnear and Courtney Cox but no.
Lastly, there’s The Ipcress File (UK: ITV), the first UK drama I’ve been tempted to watch in a long time. In this case, I simply haven’t got round to watching it. But you know what, I think I will, since I not only love the Michael Caine movie, I’ve even read the book, so I’m interested to see what ITV have done with it.
The regulars
Superman & Lois (US: The CW; UK: BBC One/iPlayer) was great fun as usual, and of course the chance to reunite Supes and his brother was irresistible, so I’m looking forward to that. It’s fascinating that a show that was based on how compelling a performance one actor gave in a completely different TV show now has an equally compelling performance overshadowing it. I do also much admire the fact the show is ‘depatriarchying’ the entire Superman story, too.
Severance (AppleTV+) has continued to be fascinating and JustStark’s suggestion that it’s reminiscent of a Philip K Dick story was something I hadn’t noticed but is spot on the money. But the show alternates as well between interpretations, with allusions to the priesthood in the latest episode and there are also musical references to The Conversation (1974) as well. But the core considerations of whether work might actually be psychologically important to us – so what happens if we can’t – are also interesting. Really, really enjoying.
Bel-Air continues to be equally impressive and powerful. The characters are now evolving in fascinating ways and it’s fascinating to see Will ‘gentrifying’. One of the disadvantages of not watching UK TV any more is that I didn’t notice that this show’s Geoffrey is played by Jimmy Akingbola (In the Long Run, Kate & Koji, Holby City, Rev et al). And this Geoffrey is hardcore. Definitely a must-watch.
And back for a second season is Star Trek: Picard (US: Paramount+; UK: Amazon). That appears to have dumped the entire narrative it was setting up at the end of the first season in favour of yet more Borg stories. But we got Whoopi Goldberg back as Guinan and John de Lancie back as Q – that’s not a spoiler, as it’s in the trailer – all of which suggests better things are to come.
I should also point out that Wu Assassins (Netflix) mysteriously has a sequel movie, Fistful of Vengeance, set in Thailand and featuring all the Asian cast but almost no one else and is largely unrelated to the surprisingly good original in almost any way. The fights are poorly shot, even if the cast are good at them, making them pretty lacklustre, too. I quite enjoyed newcomer Francesca Corney, who was at least funny, but that was about it.
Join me after the jump for a brief rundown of the new shows.
In which Nat talks briefly about the movies she’s been watching this week for no particular reason and that probably don’t warrant proper reviews, but hey? Wouldn’t it be nice if we all chatted about them anyway?
That’s basically me, to every person who pays me, every time I’ve tried to write anything at all for the past month.
It’s going to be a quick trip through all the screens of the TMINE Multiplex this week, almost like when you’re trying to find your screen but you can’t see the number so end up going to each screen in turn to find the movie you booked.
So here we go! In no particular order at all, here’s what currently showing in the TMINE Multiplex.
In which Nat talks briefly about the movies she’s been watching this week for no particular reason and that probably don’t warrant proper reviews, but hey? Wouldn’t it be nice if we all chatted about them anyway?
Heya! How have you all been this week? Get up to anything nice at the weekend? I didn’t manage to make it to the cinema, unfortunately, because honestly, none of the films really interested me.
I’d have quite liked to have seen The 355 (2022) – lots of famous older actresses, including Jessica Chastain, Penélope Cruz, Diane Kruger and Lupita Nyong’o get to be international spies, plus I’m always partial to Sebastian Stan – but my local preferred indie didn’t have it, which would have meant a trip to the (literal) depths of the Vue. Blurgh!
So I didn’t. Fortunately, the goddesses – bless them all – invented pubs and restaurants for a reason, which made my weekend pass very nicely indeed all the same!
But I have watched a whole bunch of movies, at least. More or less one for each of my supposedly regular screens.
In Screen 1, we have a Netflix original, Good on Paper (2021), which is written by and stars my favourite stand-up Iliza Shlesinger, and is based on both a real-life event and one of her sets.
In Screen 2, it’s Russian cinema time with Доктор Лиза (Doctor Liza) (2020), a biopic of sorts about real-life heroine Елизаве́та Петро́вна Гли́нка.
In Screen 3, it’s time to rewatch a ‘classic’: Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988), despite it being the bane of redheads everywhere for more than three decades now.
And finally, because I didn’t manage to watch Boiling Point (2022) as I wanted, I decided to take in another single-shot movie for our short-movie screen, Screen 4: Händelse vid bank (Incident by a Bank) (2010).
See you after the jump! But first, can I see your tickets, please? Sorry, is the app not working? Yeah, the WiFi down here is really bad, isn’t it? Soz. If you swipe… yes and then… is it not in your wallet app? Maybe your email? You know what, just go in, hey?
