holy fuck it’s real

Watched Roofman last night. So strange that so may reviewers seem to dislike the dissonance between the superficial charm of Manchester with the stupid immorality of his actions. It’s the driver of the film: the film is funny and lively but also sad and packed with pathos. A character study.

After realising my most watched director in 2025 was Woody Allen, the next film on my watchlist is a 1972 Walter Hill starring Bill Cosby. Honestly, I should be thrown off Bluesky immediately. 😂

Have England just decided that, maybe, putting a score together helps you win cricket matches?

Now watching:

Read Benbecula: the first piece of fiction in the New Year. Perfect in its way: short and perfectly realised. An unreliable narrator who, in his narrow way, conjures up a lot of insights into island life, mental illness and moral philosophy.

Cancelled

Was going to watch Eddington but why waste the holiday? So watching:

Timothy’s Chalamet plays the unhinged working class hero we need in Marty Supreme. A class warrior fighting against power dynamics and class expectations. Fucking Gwyneth Paltrow and fighting the good fight. Chapeau!

My Top 10 films of the year in a vaguely sensible order: One Battle after Another Train Dreams Sentimental Value The Mastermind The Brutalist 28 Years Later The Phoenician Scheme Weapons Ballad of Wallis Island Highest 2 Lowest

Tonight’s film

Now watching

2025? Can’t wait for it to do one. I’m assuming as soon as we get into 2026 all will be well.

Watching Jay Kelly. Seems ok so far but let’s see

Tonight I am watching NPR tiny deskconcerts which feel very much like them MTV unplugged concerts in the 90s. By which I mean, great!

I’ve been watching Lioness on Paramount and have never seen a show more in love with the military industrial complex. Undeniably good series: tense, exciting, entertaining, but also the most right wing thing I’ve watched since Dirty Harry! And then you’re caught unawares by a moment of tenderness!

Not sure about them banners.

Listening to these local boys. Like a mix of Massive Attack and Frank Ocean filtered through a Scottish sensibility. So not like anything else really.

Watched Train Dreams on Netflix last night. One of the best films of the year: 90 minutes of storytelling perfection. Shame it didn’t get a cinema release but everyone can watch it now and maybe Netflix will commission more films like this rather than the shallow guff it normally comes out with.

Reading The Lonesome Dove Books in chronological order of the events rather than the book’s release dates. Dead Man’s Walk and Comanche Moon are really excellent books, and the latter beautifully evokes the end of the old west. But Lonesome Dove itself is an unimpeachable classic.

A movie that takes place where you’re from. Tiger Bay is obviously Cardiff based. But the opening credits are confusedly set in Newport, my home town. Cardiff - those big city metropolitans- nick everything from us including our most famous landmark:

Really should have been able to wake up this morning and enjoy a Sunday morning of Test Match cricket whilst it rains outside. Come on guys!

Rewatched Inglorious Basterds last night. My interest was piqued by belatedly realising how beloved it is by fans and most critics. Better and funnier than I remember and full of interesting shots and film references but the energy of the first half really diminished. Too long and indisciplined.

Tonight’s movie

One for my Christian name which I’ve not seen and one for my surname (the bane of my school years!)

Quote with your favourite film and album from the year you were born

I watched The Mastermind and Highest 2 Lowest yesterday. Both excellent films and interesting enough that I have spent the morning thinking about them. There is one vague similarity. Reichardt sets her film in the 70s and there a number of scenes that involve manned ticket booths, landlines and..

So that will be the second time I’ve tried to make coffee in a stove top pot without any water. Bialetti will be happy that another order will be coming to them for replacement parts. Surviving as a business on the senility of its customers.

It’ll probably be bad but, hey, maybe not!

Just wondering why we have a new Black Phone movie and then I looked up the original and see it made £160m. So that’s why.

This is fun.

Had a world beating lazy day yesterday and watched all 5 hours of Mr Scorsese. Recommended. Rebecca Miller got access to almost all the key people and it had just the right mix of anecdote, psychological insight and film nerd stuff about story boards, shot selection and editing.

The only tv I watch ‘live’ on terrestrial television is The Traitors and Taskmaster. So kind of annoying they’re on *at the same time* Schedulers: sort it out! 😂

Diane Keaton in her Manhattan apartment with Buster, an Abyssinian, photographed by Jill Krementz in 1977

Apparently Kathryn Bigelow is a CIA asset and now I know that people have reached full 70s paranoia.

Can’t seem to escape Stephen King this week. Watched The Black Phone last night only to discover his son wrote it. Third ‘King’ film of the year with The Running Man to go.

Reading my first Pynchon to improve my reading attention span. I reckon if I get through Vineland by Sunday I’ll be fixed.

Listening to the new Jeff Tweedy record a week. The kind of ramshackle release you can backdrop your life to and pick out your favourite songs. Lou Reed was my babysitter is the driving song of choice. Feel free asks the key question: Let it be or let it bleed John or Paul, Mick or Keith Feel free

A fat president tells military generals to lose weight. Surely a coup must be on the cards in the US!

Apparently for the full vistavision experience you need the specialist projector. And there are only 4 *in the world* So that’s not happening.

One Battle After Another is a lot of a film, almost all of it great. Filmed beautifully it is funny, thrilling, exciting and moving. And it ends with a moment of hope that sends you from the cinema uplifted having seen a wonderful piece of art that has both heart and intelligence.

Watching Boogie Nights, my least favourite PTA, before One Battle After Another, to see if it’s better than I thought it was after seeing it in the Newport multiplex in 1997.

At the cinema

Jeff Tweedy *triple* album dropping tomorrow!

RIP Claudia Cardinale The beating heart of Once Upon a Time in the West. This scene in which she beautifully plays off against Jason Robards & Charles Bronson is just exquisite. Those wonderfully expressive eyes. youtu.be/Q5gT6O9FF8Q?...

Tonight’s movie

I’ve just found out, rather randomly, that Tom Conti had a long standing feud with Thierry Henry when they were neighbours in Hampstead, over the redevelopment of Henry’s house. Sounds like a sitcom waiting to be written.

Tonight’s film

Listening to the audiobook of Oscar Wars: A History of Hollywood in Gold, Sweat, and Tears. Very decent potted Hollywood history.