THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

I missed it then. The character was firmly upper middle class, of which that would have been the predominate class at Oxbridge. The narrative that poor seeks out rich or rich takes in poor missed the entire point. Its basically wealthy posh person fucks over uber wealthy, uber posh people.

Saltburn Spoiler Alert Below


In no way is he upper middle class - it's a nice house but it's on Merseyside. Sell your "rural Bedfordshire" house (from the darts thread today ) and you could buy a McMansion up there. He's from a normal middle class home but he's a misfit and loner (his mum says he had no friends). And, it transpires, a psycho!

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I don't need your ill-informed, half-baked, idiotic opinions. I have plenty of those myself.

I suspect your perception of what houses in rural beds might be worth is correct but you are underestimating what of houses of that ilk are going for on Merseyside, around the Wirral and L18. Thats by the by. I think the film is shit and stand by that

And that's fair enough.

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I don't need your ill-informed, half-baked, idiotic opinions. I have plenty of those myself.

Released last autumn Wes Anderson has written and directed four short films adapted from/inspired by Roald Dahl stories, which I've only just caught up with:

Poison, The Rat Catcher, The Swan and The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar

Thankfully - and joyously - whilst these are pretty much what you expect in Anderson style the most beguiling thing is they feel quintessentially British, although perhaps not surprising given the heavyweight troupe of actors includes Benedict Cumberbatch, Dev Patel, Ben Kingsley, Richard Adoyade and Ralph Fiennes

If you are a fan the straight to camera storybook style wont disappoint and the mix of live action with occasional animations is charming and atmospheric. With three lasting 17 minutes each and just the one at 37 minutes the complete set are easily watchable in one go, more details here - https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/wes-anderson-netflix-short-films

Whilst it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea they're a shoo-in for Anderson enthusiasts, I’m looking forward to re-watching them soon

As a Tom Hanks fan, and a big fan of the original Ladykillers film, I decided to re-watch the 2004 version that he was in. I watched it once, years ago, and remembered disliking it and not going near it since. But in my current mood of watching plenty of films, I thought 'give it another go'.

So I've just done so. And hated it again! It's a travesty what they do to it really. Tom Hanks is good, as usual (though hard to recognise!) But everything else about it has such a completely different feel. They stick close enough to the general plot as far as that's concerned. But as for the tone, feel, casting and dialogue (constant swearing)... it's just all so different and inferior.

I'm pretty sure it'll be a long time, if ever, before I make the mistake of watching it again. I'll stick to the original version, and plenty of the other Tom Hanks films that I love.

Asteroid City

It’s a Wes Anderson film, so you know what you’re getting from the off. A stellar ensemble cast. Bold primary colors. Wonderful, stilted dialogue, that has you laughing out loud at certain points, and as usual, intricate multiple interlinked storylines. Yes it had all of these, but when you consider what he’s done in the past, The Royal Tenenbaums, and the absolutely wonderful The Grand Budapest Hotel to name but two, this one fell somewhat flat.

The plot concerns a play within a play. Playwright Conrad Earp casts his play, Asteroid City, and we then cut back and forth between the actors, shown in black and white, and eyeball melting color of the play. It’s difficult to give a summary, but for what it’s worth. The titular city, set somewhere in mid-fifties Arizona by the look of it, hosts a junior stargazers competition when an alien lands, then rapidly flies off again. That’s it. Obviously that’s not exactly it, but being who the director is, the plot is the least important thing.

All in all, I was disappointed with this, and watched it more out of a sense of duty simply because I’m a hip young gunslinger and I thought I should. You’d think that as a sixty one year old man I’d have gotten past such affectations, but apparently not.

If you’re an Anderson fan, watch it. If not, give it a miss.

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When you make your music, do you think about the man in the street? No, I've met the man in the street. He's a Ladybit.

Ah, the curse of self knowledge!

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I don't need your ill-informed, half-baked, idiotic opinions. I have plenty of those myself.

You're watching shit like that and sometimes you think "What the fuck are you doing mate? No one's going to be impressed. Stick some Father Brown on or something"

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When you make your music, do you think about the man in the street? No, I've met the man in the street. He's a Ladybit.

The Beekeeper

Much to my delight, I’ve discovered that Jason Statham has his own channel on Sky Movies. An entire channel that only plays Jason Statham movies back to back, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. What more could a man ask.

If the aforementioned man likes the sort of film where old Jase boots the shit out of multiple baddies, while they barely lay a glove on him in a plot free pile of rubbish, then Sky have the very thing for you. I’ve only watched one Statham film, this one, and I seriously doubt that I’ll be bothering my retinas with another. Having said that, you have to admire him. He’s made an extremely good living out of an extremely limited pallet. So fair play to him.

If you want a plot summary. He boots the shit out of multiple baddies, while they barely lay a glove on him.

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When you make your music, do you think about the man in the street? No, I've met the man in the street. He's a Ladybit.