Poor Things

On screen and stage

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I stayed up on Sunday night to watch the Oscars, it was on ordinary telly for the first time in the UK and I had a good feeling. And yay, Emma Stone picked up Best Leading Actress, totally deserved! I went to Poor Things for a third time earlier in the evening (as I’ve previously mentioned I would), there was a reasonable size audience for it, good to see (apart from the person who was eating out of a very noisy packet). I’m sure Stone will have a long, successful career but I reckon Bella Baxter will be one of her top performances. Oppenheimer picked up the most Oscars but Poor Things did also get the awards for Make-up & Hair Styling, Production Design and Costume Design, again all three richly deserved.

Oo, I went to see Wicked Little Letters a few evenings ago, what fun!! Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley are both on excellent form, well, the whole cast are a delight. The film is based on a true story that happened in a little English seaside town in the 1920s, but be warned, some of the language is very fruity, okay, there’s long strings of swearing and obscenities like you’ve never heard! Best leave that person behind again, maybe the next film will be nicer and proper. Wicked Little Letters is hilariously funny but there are dark sides around the events too, I thought the balance was played really well.

On the small screen I’ve just watched the final two episodes of Our Flag Means Death, man, that was brilliant telly! Just so many great elements to it, so of course it’s been cancelled, no series three, boo. Mind, this way it remains a beautiful gem, no overstaying and sinking into the mediocrity of weaker stories (though with Taika Waititi at the helm that could have taken quite a while).

In other news, the first batch of tickets for this year’s Edinburgh fringe are on sale, not that I’ve bothered to look, all in good time. What I have had a ganders at was the line-up at the Leicester Comedy Festival in February; good to see plenty of WIPs (Work In Progress), hopefully they’ll be all polished and sparkly by August. Grubby Little Mitts have yet another new show, yay, Luke Rollason too, two for my definites pile, well I assume they’ll be coming to Edinburgh. Very exciting, I see that John Robertson was trying out a new show, I really hope that makes it up here.

I also had a peek at who’s been at the Adelaide Fringe Festival. Eric’s Tales of the Sea – A Submariner’s Yarn is still doing the rounds! I wonder if it’s still the same as when I saw it many years ago or has he tweaked it over time? Manbo and Yippee Ki Yay, two great shows paying homage to two classic 80s movies, popped over. The fabulous Aidan Sadler has been having a whale of a time out there, first time in Australia, first time in drag – I follow them on Instagram, very entertaining stories!

Starting this week and going on until the end of March is the Glasgow International Comedy Festival. I haven’t looked to see what’s on, hopefully plenty of shows being nicely honed for Edinburgh in August. Oh, I do know of one, Napoleon’s 100 Days on for two shows Monday 18th and Tuesday 19th, by the same chap who totally captivated me with the marvellous tale of Mark Twain’s The Stolen White Elephant last year. I’ll be away otherwise I may well have popped across, but hey, it’s going to be at the Edinburgh Fringe, I shall definitely see it then.

Well, my friend, its now very late, so I’ll bid you good night and sweet dreams.

Did I say tomorrow?

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I never did get round to writing more about Poor Things as I said would, oh, three plus weeks ago?! Life, huh. Since then Emma Stone has won Best Leading Actress at the BAFTAs, and quite rightly, her performance as Bella Baxter is possibly the best work she’ll ever do, I totally bought into the premise of Bella. Like I’ve said previously, Poor Things is an adult fairytale, it’s not some harrowing real-life scenario, apparently some folk were real hung up on parts, hmmm, I don’t think they got it!

Bella Baxter sees life with all the glee, curiosity, simplicity of a child; there’s also the petulance and innocent self-centeredness of a child yet to discover the wider world. She’s uninhibited and unaffected by societal norms, and so doesn’t react to situations as those around her would expect; the two villains in the tale are completely undone by Bella’s simplistic pragmatic ways. Yes, there’s lots of sex, or “furious jumping” as she calls it, but as Kenny Everett would say, it’s all done in the best possible taste!

Poor Things also won BAFTAs for Make-up & Hair, Costume Design, Production Design and Special Visual Effects, which doesn’t surprise me in the least; PT is stunning in all visual aspects. Two more things, Mark Ruffalo is tremendous as Duncan Wedderburn, cad and bounder, played to the max; and I found that occasionally Bella’s turn of phrase reminded me of Amy Farrah Fowler when she first turned up in The Big Bang Theory, anyone else get that?

If Cineworld puts on all the Best Film Oscar Nominations this year I would go back and see it again, hell yeah. Would I go see Oppenheimer again? No, I did enjoy it but once was enough. Oh, I saw American Fiction last weekend, picked from just a quick glance at the blurb; good call, I thoroughly enjoyed it! Turns out it’s up for a few Oscars and won Best Adapted Screenplay at the BAFTAs.

Tonight it’s time for something completely different – in honour of it’s 48½ anniversary Monty Python and the Holy Grail is showing on the big screen. Of course I’m going! And from the ridiculous to the sublime, tomorrow evening sees Babyface and the Beltin’ Boys back at Stramash, yay!

Promise my next post will be sooner than this was! Toodle pip!

An unlikely double bill

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January hasn’t been a month for doing much, certainly not outside anyway, lucky for me there’s been things to see in the cinema. Mind, I let a few go by, awkward times or appalling weather to battle through; just two shone through as seriously worth seeing – and how, I went and saw both a second time! Just as Barbie and Oppenheimer made an unlikely double act so too do these two, Wonka and Poor Things!

Just sticking this here, just because

Okay so Wonka is PG and Poor Things is 18 but they’re both fantastical fairy tales, just one has more adult themes (probably not for a prudish relative nevermind the children!). Both have glorious cinematography, stunningly sumptuous sets; and the hair, make-up and costumes were pretty damn fine too! The music in each is so perfect to the stories, Poor Things has been nominated for the Best Original Score Oscar, along with about ten other nominations.

The music in Wonka is so so wonderful 💛 Yes, it gets a golden heart from me. Really, I cannot believe that A World Of Your Own hasn’t been nominated for Best Song Oscar, it’s so utterly charming and joyous, with a touch of bittersweet. All the songs are deliciously sharp-witted but when you have Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy writing them, well, it’s to be expected (he’s also responsible for that Eurosong entry My Lovely Horse on Father Ted).

I have little, well, no love for Tim Burton’s film in 2005, it was all so wrong; but hearing this film was being made by Paul King (who made the Paddington films) as a prequel to the original 1971, oh yay, definitely promising news. Oh, my heartses, when the film opened with those familiar notes! A very charming bow to the original, and an orange and green Oompa-Loompa singing his Oompa-Loompa ditties too!

The whole cast are brilliant, the big musical numbers, just jaw-droppingly wow. Timothée Chalamet is perfect as a young Willie Wonka who’s sweet, quirky and a tad naive; an irrepressible optimist who’s come to town to open his dream chocolate shop….. Mean, unscrupulous baddies at every turn, but Willie’s winning smile makes friends and sells chocolates. As the story unfolds he becomes smarter and wiser but never loses his childlike sense of joy, it was like the mix of these created who he became; I fancied his eyes sparkled a little brighter (and wilder!?) and his tone had a more confident edgy smile in it by the end of the film. I reckon Gene Wilder would have approved!

Okay, I seemed to have prattled on somewhat about Wonka, oops. I’ll leave saying more about Poor Things until tomorrow. I’ll leave you with few pics from the Innocent Railway Tunnel today, the graffiti gallery has all been refreshed, so…..

Toodle pip!