Category: Politics


The elevated horror of Robert Eggers

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January 5, 2025

Nosferatu directed by Robert Eggers (USA, 2024)

‘Elevated horror’ is a term used to distinguish artier cinema from the cruder slash and gore brand of bloody horror mayhem. It’s a pompous label which suggests that an arthouse aesthetic raises films above the baser (and more mainstream) characteristics of the genre. This is akin to those snobbish readers who make a point of distinguishing between old school Sci-Fi novels and the weightier sounding ‘speculative fiction’.
Essentially, ‘elevated’ films are those that pay tribute to their sources but add a knowing modernist slant – The Bababook, Get Out and any recent folk horror would fit this bill. Robert Eggers’ homage to FW Murnau’s 1922 silent classic can confidently included in a list of ‘horror with something to say’ movies.
But what can be added that is truly fresh or original to a story that has been told so many times? Not much, seems to be the answer since although the bloodthirsty undead anti-hero goes by the title of Conte Orlok he is still Dracula by another name and the story faithfully follows the central plot of Bram Stoker’s classic Gothic novel published in 1897.

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No buzz for Blitz

Filed under: British identity, Movies, Politics — Leave a comment
January 2, 2025

One notable omission from almost all of ubiquitous ‘best films of the year’ lists is Steve McQueen’s Blitz. This film certainly has not generated the kind of the buzz one might have expected from such a high profile director dealing with such a timeless (at least to we Brits) subject matter.

When it comes to the cinematic treatment of race and identity in the UK, all paths sooner or later lead back to Empire. Although much is made of the cultural ‘revolution’ of Beatlemania and the sixties, the collective trauma of the second world war remains a watershed event for the nation’s self-image. There is an abiding myth that Britain alone defeated the Nazis; that the triumph over fascism came about because of the oratory of Winston Churchill and the songs of Vera Lynn. This is why, almost three quarters of a century after the end of empire, wartime events remain a potent reference point on the question what it means to be British

Despite this, McQueen’s tortuous Occupied City about the aftermath of wartime trauma in Amsterdam in the Netherlands gained more plaudits than the story of a bombed out London, England. Perhaps it was an the error for Blitz to go to streaming (on Apple TV) rather than trying to built momentum in cinemas. Is this the modern equivalent of straight to video releases? Ironically, McQueen was on record as aiming to reach as wide an audience as possible. For the moment at least he seems to have failed.

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The Substance – a brainless body horror

Filed under: Movies, Politics — 1 Comment
October 18, 2024

THE SUBSTANCE directed by Coralie Fargeat ( USA, 2024)

I suppose the premise of this film is that women are pressurised into preserving a body shape and tone to the point that they are seen as worthless when deemed to be beyond their prime. Demi Moore is Elizabeth Sparkle, the presenter a morning TV exercise show – Pump It Up . A ruthless producer Harvey (Dennis Quaid) decides she is past it and is looking for someone younger.
Since all the male characters are either guileless nerds or manipulative lechers it begs the question as to why a woman as intelligent as Sparkle should feel pressurised into pleasing them.
After narrowly escaping serious injury in a car crash Sparkle is advised to take a supposedly miraculous product (‘Substance’) by a medic who looks so plastic that he hardly seems a good advertisement for this product. Without doing any further research she signs up for the treatment and is undeterred by having to collect the drugs in person from a shady back street address. Personally, I would at least have Googled it!
Ironically, Moore looks so well preserved and in such good shape that she seems to already have discovered her own personal wonder drug to stem the ravages of age. Nevertheless, she injects the liquid which results in a more youthful body double literally emerging from within.
The graphic birth scene is straight out of the Cronenberg playbook and the surreal atmosphere of the film owes a lot to David Lynch. However, French director Coralie Fargeat lacks the craft and vision of these mentors so the film merely descends into absurdist depths. The result is that any serious messages are lost. If there’s a feminist intent it drowns in a sea of blood and gore.
Out of Sparkle Margaret Qualley appears as Sue, a Barbie-like creation whose ‘perfect’ body compensates for her air-brain. For a film that assumes to criticise the patriarchal obsession with shape, tone and youthfulness, it crudely gratifies the male gaze by zooming in on her twerking ass in tight-fitting bikini. There’s a fine line between parodying body obsession and pandering to it which the film oversteps every time. Demi Moore’s committed performance is a small saving grace. A scene of her preparing to go out on a date and desperately applying make-up is brilliantly done. Her transformation from mature beauty into hideous hag is effectively rendered yet the story is ultimately a sensationalised parable with nothing substantial to say. With no moral code to steer it the director is reduced to a gross-out splatter-driven finale that emphasises its vacuous content.
Whatever happened to the idea of ageing gracefully?

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Learning to fail better

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August 2, 2024

BLACK BOX THINKING by Matthew Syed (Portfolio, 2015)

“True ignorance is not the absence of knowledge, but the refusal to acquire it.” – Karl Popper

“Ever tried. Ever failed. Try again. Fail again. Fail better” – Samuel Beckett, ‘Worstword Ho!’

We all learn from our mistakes, or at least we should.

Matthew Syed shows that human psychology gets in the way of putting this basic principle into practice; he writes: “The basic proposition of this book is that we have an allergic attitude to failure.”  He shows how failure to learn from mistakes discourages innovative thought and stifles creative ideas.

Using well-chosen examples from medical practice, the aviation industry, vacuum cleaner design, teenage delinquency, business practice, soccer and formula one racing, the author shows how we need to redefine failure as a learning opportunity rather than a source of shame or blame.

Intuitions need to be tested and inbuilt biases recognized. Altering long-held beliefs goes against the grain even when the evidence shows that this is the logical and correct thing to do.  Syed explains that cognitive dissonance is the process by which we make intellectual contortions to justify erroneous actions.

Critical thinking is not helped by the way the media favour simplicity over complexity, assigning blame without fully considering the context and examining all the salient facts. Syed advocates the use of randomised control trials (RCTs) to test out theories and says  “to generate openness, we must avoid pre-emptive blaming.”

Above all, this book has serious implications for the way we teach and assess children and evaluate working adults. Education and instruction is conceived on the basis of providing a body of knowledge as though this was fixed and infallible. Failures are punished. Exams are too often a process of regurgitating information.

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The Windrush Betrayal

Filed under: Good causes, Politics — Leave a comment
February 13, 2024

The Windrush Betrayal : Exposing the Hostile Environment by Amelia Gentleman (Guardian Faber, 2019)

Betrayal is a strong word. It means calling out disloyalty, deception and, above all, a violation of trust. It is absolutely the right word to describe the trauma and destruction of the lives for those now referred to as the Windrush generation,

Jamaica gained independence on 19th July 1962. Before that it was part of the British Empire. This meant that passengers who disembarked from the SS Empire Windrush ship at Tilbury Docks in England on 22nd June 1948 were officially British citizens.

With hindsight, the problems these passengers subsequently faced could have been forseen. Eleven Labour MPs wrote to Clement Atlee, the Prime Minister of the time, proclaiming “An influx of coloured people domiciled here is likely to impair the harmony, strength and cohesion of our people and social life and cause discord and unhappiness among all concerned.” Faced with such blatant racism, perhaps the only surprise was how long it was before the proverbial shit hit the fan.

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