Hamo Improviso

Gosh, I don't know. Just a way to track and trace the good culture. Maybe.

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I thought this was kind of adorable. It helpfully wrong footed you throughout and the performances were uniformly, at the very least, charming, and often quite marvellous. Tiny performances from Broadbent, Thompson, Whitehouse, et al but all contributed to the fun. A general joy.

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Very exciting and enjoyable thriller series with an appealing and attractive cast. The presence of Hong Chau set it apart too. Always excellent, she brings credibility to every project. It was pretty unlikely stuff but nicely done and pretty compelling. Looking forward to season 2.

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Felt like a passion project from Russell T Davies. A light shone on the sacking of Noel Gordon from Crossroads. Camp and funny at times but also moving and a reflection of times, not so long ago, where women who made noise, caused trouble, spoke up, were summarily sacked. Great central performances. Bonham Carter of course, but Augustus Prew too as Tony Adams.

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I was fully expecting this to be dire. It was not. Indeed not just was it not dire, in fact it was must watch TV with great performances, excellent songs, likeable characters, a fascinating, involving story and a convincing conjuring of mood and place. Terrific adaptation of the book.

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A rare foray into properly classic literature instead of all this modern nonsense I’m normally nose deep in. I don’t think old fashioned things are really for me. Still, this was excellent, if you excuse the fact that it’s not set in an pub in a West London in 1997. Romantic, surprisingly funny, gorgeously thick with terrific dialogue and gloriously polished sentences. Marvellous.

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Well I thought that was broadly terrible. After 3 seasons of mad, but consistent and clever, TV this season worked much too hard, failed much too much and jumped the shark in a lumpen, lead footed way. The London locations didn’t help. It removed it from its locus and created a new space to exist in, with whole new, wholly unlikeable characters who proved to be ciphers adding nothing, just killing time so the thin (but bloated) plot could play out. Some weird over acting made the subtle work by the intelligent lead all the more impressive, though it also made you wonder if he wasn’t rolling his eyes at the plotting and the inferior talents of his costars. Oddly depressing. Though enjoyable. In a way.

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Second time for this. Hugely enjoyable with its exploration of Bergman’s life and style, as well as a meta film within a film Russian doll structure which then intwines with the wider narrative. Intelligent, thoughtful, well played.

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A strange film. It’s subject matter quite dark, with murder, prostitution, abandoned babies, and human trafficking at its heart. In fact it’s gloriously comic in places, sweet as it finds a ramshackle, chaotic family journeying towards some kind of redemption. Great performances, great use of locations, Korea looking amazing. A gorgeous film.

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I’ve never read the book but feel like one day perhaps with a lengthy enough timeframe open to me that I could. For now though a second viewing of this outstanding BBC production. Really well cast and riveting. Philosophical as well as romantic and action packed. It’s just storytelling at its best. Andrew Davies seems to have compacted the immense book into something that captures its essence while still galloping beautifully along. An absolute pleasure.

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Just read the book, so excited to see the TV adaptation. It couldn’t have been more faithful to the book, which might have occasionally been to its disadvantage as it came across so literary and wordy that it slightly defeated the visual medium. Still, it was beautifully done. Great cast, with Caplan a particular a joy. I like projects that have faith in the intelligence and patience of the audience.

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I’ve read a number of books by this author and had assumed this was just another of his fully fictional novels. In fact it’s a portrait of the poet Charles Causley and his relationships with his parents. Prettyimmersive. Sometimes I thought it rather ventured into romantic fiction territory. Something of the Barbara Taylor Bradfords. War, poverty, picnics. But it stayed just the right side of that for the most part and shed light on a life that deserves some illumination and was enjoyable and rich in the telling and quite moving.

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Mini break from fiction. A history of the long playing record from the (arguable) start of it as an art form in 1967 with Sgt Pepper to the point in 1982 where Thriller was the last mega seller on vinyl. Really liked it but not entirely convinced by the start and end points. A real celebration of some remarkable albums and a magic time in musical appreciation where the full album was the dream, before we shuffled tracks or streamed singles. The album as a full artistic statement. Arguably it’s coming back via the vinyl revival. But probably not, those are often art objects and were steam the highlights. A celebration then. And a requiem.

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One of my favourite TV programmes, and recently re shown on BBC4. A blessing to see it in HD after so many years of viewing slightly cloudy DVD’s for my frequent rewatches. I read the 6 books that it was adapted from a couple of years back and they were excellent too. The scenes of the Balkans being overrun by the enemy and the need to flee, struggling through Europe to find some kind of peace feels very resonant now. Highly recommended. Great central duo and Rupert Graves earnest and engaging for the second (Levantine) half of the series. A classic adaptation.

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Had this downloaded on Kindle for some years and the prospect of a TV adaptation (that I have but yet seen) spurred me to read it. Really enjoyed it on a purely novelistic level, but also enjoyed the structure and the strongly feminist point of view that had emerged by the end of the book. Occasionally a tad baggy but always entertaining and the characters were strongly drawn and believable. Intelligent and thoughtful. Looking forward to the TV show.

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Really enjoyed this. Cried when David Lynch came on as John Ford. Carried on crying till the end. I don’t know why. Odd when emotions overcome us. What does it mean? I do love Lynch and his art has soundtracked my life, and I believe Twin Peaks The Return is the greatest piece of art ever made in history of civilisation. I may be wrong about that, but I don’t think I am. This was my third film in three weeks supposedly about the transformative power of film and the first where I actually believed it. Great acting, a sense of safety in the hands of a master. Never really one of my favourite directors on an emotional level, but technically brilliant and with a perennial focus on childhood, innocence lost, forces that come and tear you away from being that boy you were. This is the summary, the explanation. Never pat or cliché, open to interpretation (notably Sam’s decision to present his record of the Ditch Day as a sort of Leni Riefenstahl Aryan propaganda film both shaming the anti-Semitic bully while making him into a golden God; a strange and powerful, ambiguous section of the film). A really warm, intelligent film which records the sentimental education of a defining artist of his era.

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Pretty excellent stuff. Not just sweetly funny, not just dramatic and compelling, not just absolutely beautifully acted by the entire cast, but also, I think, a subtle, intelligent allegory of the history of Ireland over the last 100 years or more. Essentially, an argument borne of nothing that escalated into increasing acrimony and then madness and violence, achieving nothing but self destruction, pointless loss and a sad sense of futility. At least that’s how I read it. A proper good and wise film and a pleasure to watch.

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The third series was extraordinary. Performances of rich depth, real humanity. The liberating humanity of Tommy at the table in the final episode, the creeping sense that you wondered if it had all been a misunderstanding, if he had been a better man than you knew. Lancashire’s searing, devastating performance throughout, but particularly then. Remarkable.