Finished reading: Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency by Olivia Laing 📚
As with every other book I’ve read by Olivia Laing I’ve come away with a list of artists and authors, and their work, to follow up on.
The Farewell, 2019 - ★★★
The central relationship between grandma and granddaughter was enough to keep me engaged in this story. And I found myself on a similar journey to Billi, learning to appreciate the differences in familial, and particularly intergenerational, relationships between eastern and western cultures.
I’m a little bemused by references to the film as a comedy-drama. There’s humour in it for sure, but it’s bittersweet and I think to call it comedy is a stretch.
TIL about the role of a Chief Evangelist. Sounds a bit icky to me.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, 2022 - ★★★
Ridiculous and entertaining. I think I marginally preferred this second outing for Benoit Blanc to his debut.
There were moments however where I was pulled out of the story and reminded these "disruptors" with their endless pots of money and huge egos are out there causing havoc in the real world.
Finished reading: The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern 📚
Woah 🤯 The perfect holiday read, I’ve devoured this over the past few days.
Question about importing feeds (eg Letterboxd) to microblog; will it pull in existing entries or just those published after the feed is added?
A walk at the coast was a great way to start the day (and year)
Wedding Season, 2022 - ★★
A friend recently introduced me to the concept of “fake date” films and this one certainly fits the bill. One of the better films I watched in my pre-Christmas, cold induced rom-com binge.
Falling for Christmas, 2022 - ★★
There should be a special star rating system for Christmas films. This one was actually better than I expected.
Beauty, 2022 - ★★
I liked the style of this film, including the decision not to let us hear Beauty sing. Ultimately it’s a tragedy and felt reminiscent of what I know about Whitney Houston’s life, which left me wondering whether the character of Beauty was based on her.
Overall, I felt the filmmaker was trying a bit too hard and failed to create any connection for me with either the characters or story.
Inside Out, 2015 - ★★★★
Thoroughly enjoyed this. Pixar at its best.
… slightly concerned the guiding emotions in my head behave a little like those in Dad’s head though.
2022: A year in books
Here are the books I finished reading in 2022. I didn’t set myself a goal, it’s not helpful for me. Instead I prefer to aim to read a little every day. The final count of 18 feels about average for me over the course of a year.
Of these titles, the standouts were:
- The Name of the Wind
- Treacle Walker
- The Vanishing Half
- Spring Cannot be Cancelled
- Great Circle
Joker, 2019 - ★★★
I don’t know what to make of Joker. It made me feel supremely uncomfortable and I don’t know if that’s a result of its brilliance or because it vastly missed the mark. What I do know is Joaquin Phoenix is always intriguing.
This rating could have been a 2 and could have been a 4, so I split the difference.
