R's rue: 01/24/22

Pride

Life is

A journey

In finding

Belonging

In community

I will say

As I shared

The truth

Of Cerebral Palsy

Freedom is coming

The truth

Does set you free

No matter

How much

It hurts your pride

from R's rue https://ift.tt/3qZcRpK

Jug

I’ve now got four days off before nights

I’ve booked Bluebell in for a service and tyre sort out

Cinema with one friend

Lunch with another

Bought this jug on a whim

Hopefully meet with another if I can

I’m feeling a bit lost despite my friends

from Going Gently https://ift.tt/3g0rOBD

Guillermo del Toro’s 2006 movie Pan’s Labyrinth is one of my all time favourite movies to date and since then he has only made six films, with only one The Shape Of Water being anything of note for me.

I was therefore very interested in seeing his latest movie, the neo-noir psychological, remake Nightmare Alley.

Set initially in a depressed and seedy Midwest freak show, we meet psychologically damaged Stan ( Bradley Cooper) a natural grifter with a knack of reading people. He is taken in by the unscrupulous show owner Clem ( a wonderfully seedy Willem Defoe) and teams up with the moral but alcoholic Pete ( David Strathairn ) his wife Madam Zeema ( Toni Collette) and showgirl Molly (Rooney Mara)

Learning the ways of duping the public, Stan and Molly start a successful clairvoyant show in the city, here Stan meets the mysterious Dr Ritter ( Cate Blanchet) a psychologist with whom he teams up with in order to con a famous businessman but their relationship is complex with both playing psychological games with each other and things eventually dissolve into tragedy.

Rooney Mara

Del Toro grabs the new-noir mantle very early on in this movie and produces a nightmarish, slightly unreal world of a run down carnival heavy with poverty, ruthlessness and regret from the get go.

It’s wonderfully shot and cleverly observed piece cinema.

Cooper is charismatic and incredibly believable as the damaged Stan who through childhood abuse had learned to manipulate and film flam people.Colette and Defoe are standouts from the carnival scenes and Blanchet matches Cooper quite nicely as the the two circle each other psychologically , like two predators looking forward a weakness.

It’s a tense, bleak, violent and beautiful looking film

Which leaves the audience unsettled and on edge by the time the last reel rolls.

Toni Colette

from Going Gently https://ift.tt/3tUOcod

Drama

Stephen Graham as Andy Jones

"Boiling Point" is a drama and not a documentary. Released just before Christmas, this British film is set in a busy upmarket London restaurant with the central focus being Andy Jones, the head chef and part-owner of the establishment played by the brilliant Stephen Graham.

Written and directed by Philip Barantini who just happens to have much personal experience of working in restaurants, the film is very special in the sense that it consists of one continuous ninety minute take. There's no splicing or cutting to other cameras. It's just one camera roving around the restaurant, sometimes following Andy Jones or taking us to tables where demanding diners are seated.

In this sense it does have some of the characteristics of documentary film making. However, as I said at the beginning "Boiling Point" is a drama. It was carefully scripted and carefully rehearsed to give the impression of reality unfolding before our eyes. Stuff happens including angry tensions between the kitchen staff and front of house and the unwelcome visits of a top food critic and laddish social influencers who demand steaks even though steak is not on the menu.

It would be interesting to tune into what really happens behind the scenes in upmarket restaurants. I would like to think that most eateries are far more harmonious, orderly and much less dramatic than in the story that unfolded at "Jones & Sons" on that particular Mad Friday before Christmas.

On this grey day, I caught a bus into the city centre to watch the film on a big screen. Seeing good films on a television set in one's own home is just not the same. It is more enthralling to sit in a comfortable cinema seat in darkness with surround sound and full concentration. "Boiling Point" was well worth the effort.

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