Reading - September 2022

The Pre-Loved Club by Sue Teddern (2022)

This is a modern romance of sorts, I guess: two people, both separated from their first partners, who gradually realise they want to be together, but only after attempts with other people. It's more realistic and believable than your typical Silhouette romance, but oddly I found it a little frustrating, as it was obvious how it was going to end but seemed to take ages getting there. Still, I quite liked the "he said, she said" format (which reminds me, I would quite like to see that film again!)

One Man and His Bike by Mike Carter (2011)

I think the bicycle is a fantastic invention and I really should ride mine more. This is a feeling only made more intense by this somehow matter-of-fact and yet wondrous recounting of a journey around the coast of the United Kingdom. Part travelogue and part ode to his bike (a Ridgeback) and cycling in general, it makes you realise how big the country actually is - compared to, say, a man on a bike - and how different the regions are. It makes the four miles to work seem trivial but I'd still be nervous about some of the roads!

Watching - September 2022

Miss Americana (2020)

I came across Taylor Swift's Tiny Desk Concert while browsing for more music, and enjoyed it very much, and in reading around the subject (as I tend to), I saw reviews for Miss Americana. I enjoyed it a great deal: I liked the way it managed to compress a view of the madness of celebrity at that kind of scale with a view of the human at the centre of it. Inevitably there's a slight feel of artifice, because do people really film themselves at random moments, and how do we know that wasn't the fifth take? But I don't know how you'd avoid that, and it seemed genuine and heartfelt to me. Towards the end she says that she's very conscious of the saying that famous people get frozen at the age they become famous, and how she's trying to ensure she avoids that. I can't imagine how hard it must be to grow up in that kind of spotlight, just like I can't comprehend the kind of drive it takes to achieve what she has. I'm kind of in awe of it, to be honest.

He's Just Not That Into You (2009)

I read the book back in 2014 (iirc I found it at the book exchange at work - not an obvious book to be found in a very male-dominated environment) and thought it was amusing but over-simplistic, like an attempt to view life as if it was a romcom. And lo and behold, they made a romcom out of it! It's a ensemble cast with multiple stories intertwining and no, not all of them are happy-ever-after, but the overall message still seems simplistic. And if some of the scenes are moving, some are just cringey. Passes the time well enough though.

Working Girl (1988)

Possibly one of the archetypal 80s films, capturing that decade's aspirational sense of destiny and empowerment, plus a whole load of hairspray and shoulder pads. Sigourney Weaver is superb, Melanie Griffith does the Pygmalion-style transformation pretty well (also she's gorgeous, in a very 80s way, which perhaps says something about my age), and Joan Cusack is wonderfully Noo Yoik. And the opening combination of the Staten Island ferry crossing to the New York skyline with Carly Simon's amazing modern day hymn "Let the River Run" playing is just wonderful. Very enjoyable. (Also, I discovered Radio 4's Soul Music via its episode on the song)

Paddington (2014)

Showing on BBC1 while we were having dinner, and natural family viewing. I hadn't seen it for a while. I love the stylised, highly coloured version of London (although it is clearly a fantasy), and also the way the film makes clear that Paddington is an allegory for all immigrants - although I believe Michael Bond's original inspiration were the Jewish Kindertransport children from Germany rather than the Windrush generation that the film implies with its use of calypso music.

Bringing Up Baby (1938)

I do love a good romcom and the genre dates back a long time - and if Rotten Tomatoes is to be believed, many of the earliest were the best. I'm not so sure there isn't a certain amount of rose-tinted spectacles going on here though, as I was distinctly underwhelmed by this. It's silly and far-fetched and I couldn't really get past the one-dimensional characters either. Still, I can say I've seen it now.

Stewart Lee: Snowflake (2022)

Judging by a thread on the guitar forum I frequent, Stewart Lee can be a bit divisive. I personally think he can be hilarious and tedious at different times. There's a point in this where he keeps saying "for example, this actually happened" that had me in tears. Then later he's showing Ricky Gervais attempting to "say the unsayable" where I was hoping it would end soon. My understanding of what he's doing - which isn't "just jokes" - was enhanced considerably by reading his books. Anyway, this was funny.

Broadcast News (1987)

Another classic romcom, it says here, although this is a little less obviously rom or com than I expected, and more of a drama - but a very good one. The script and performances are nicely nuanced - for example, I like the way that it would have been easy to portray Tom (William Hurt's character) as just a handsome simpleton, but it slowly becomes apparent that he has his own skills. Holly Hunter is the centre of the film and spectacular with it, which makes me wonder why she wasn't a huge star after this. But the film does raise other questions: what's romantic about a film where no-one actually gets together? And is Joan Cusack in every eighties film?

The Sure Thing (1985)

More eighties romcoms, in this case one of my favourites and starring John Cusack this time, instead of his older sister. It's funny, so sweet and, yes, romantic. Cusack looks very young (he would have been about 18 or 19 at the time) but his personality and style are already coming through, and Daphne Zuniga is perfect as a slightly uptight, bookish girl who learns to relax a bit. The clichés are fairly abundant but it doesn't spoil the film for me as Cusack is so cool and Zuniga so cute. Although the dreadful saxophone-laden ballad at the end might just count as the most eighties thing ever.