Here are a few things that have been on my mind. Take it or leave it as you like.
Mark Kermode seems like a thoroughly nice sort of chap. I share much of his lefty politics. I admire and respect the huge effort he has put into studying film and there is no doubt that his knowledge will forever dwarf mine. A lot of the films I love he showed me to and like him, I have a love of horror cinema that runs pretty deep. For many years he was my first choice for film criticism, and for deciding if a movie was worth spending my money on.
Avatar: The Way of Water was released late last year to mixed reviews, although it’s currently sitting at 76% on Rotten Tomatoes. It has a simple, predictable plot. You could go so far as to call it simplistic, although at least this time there’s no Unobtanium (and yes, that may be a genuine term used in engineering, but it’s still a placeholder). However, as sure as night follows day, Cameron’s chances of succeeding with the movie were doubted by everyone (including him this time), followed by it earning gigagillions at the box office and becoming likely the most successful movie of all time. He’s currently got two of the top three spots in fact, with the re-release of Titanic. The guy’s released nine feature films. Four of them since Terminator 2: Judgement Day have been the most successful movie ever made at that point. Two of the others are Aliens and The Terminator. I’ve said it before, but it’s hard to argue that this guy isn’t the most successful director of all time.
Of course, that doesn’t mean all his films are good, or that he’s necessarily a nice or even decent person, but it surely means his films should be given respect and a serious review, for better or worse.
All of this means I was very disappointed by both the written and verbal reviews that I saw Kermode give the Avatar sequel. On the podcast/YouTube review, he spent much of it doing silly voices and once again raised the fairly tired point about the floating mountains (barely in this film) being reminiscent of some 70’s prog rock album art. His review for The Observer essentially describes the plot and takes a dig at the visuals, with the textual equivalent of silly voices thrown in. For example:
“There are moments that are meant to be thrillingly exciting. These are easy to spot because the characters on screen shout “Woohoo!” in the same way that young Anakin shouted “Yippee!” in Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace. Sadly, the comparisons with Lucas’s ill-fated space opera prequels don’t end there. Like Jar Jar Binks, the residents of Pandora appear to have been designed by a stoned sixth former while listening to Tales From Topographic Oceans, all wide-eyed Middle-earth wonder mixed with cod FernGully-style fairytale heroism.”
If you’re going to be a critic, you have to expect criticism. The Observer review is certainly better than the podcast, but that paragraph is the closest it really gets to cogent critique.
It’s quite possible I’m being unreasonable. Yes, I enjoyed the film, simplistic plot and all. I enjoyed it in much the same way I enjoyed Top Gun: Maverick last year. It was sheer entertainment and between them, these two films have done more to support the cinema industry in the last year than anything else, including the MCU.
Maybe I’m biased toward Cameron. Maybe I’m being hypocritical too because God knows, it can be great fun tearing into a film and trying to find funny one-liners to condemn it. I just expect more from Mark Kermode. He’s a ‘proper’ film critic, unlike me. I want to know coherent reasons why I should or should not spend a considerable amount of money in difficult times. Criticising the way the film looks doesn’t ring true to me… say what you like about the plot and the running time, but the visuals are incredible. There are billions of dollars on that screen and of the things that might take you out of the world, the images do not seem to me to be likely.
So yeah, maybe I’m biased, but it also sounds like Kermode is too, on this occasion.
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Been thinking about the NHS and plastic bags. I’ve had to use the former quite a lot lately and it’s impossible to do so without thinking about politics and the future. The Tory press is constantly at its throat, paving the way for the inevitable scrapping of it should this ‘government’ manage to cling to power for much longer.
Now, bags. Mrs GG seems to think I’m an organised sort of person. This is laughable nonsense. I’m not too bad at work and if we’re playing a board game, I’m your huckleberry. Beyond that? Couldn’t organise a balls up at a tennis match.
This means that whenever Mrs GG goes shopping, she has bags of bags. The car will be sinking on its suspension on the way to the shop due to the sheer number of bags. Whereas I, even if going to the shop from that very same car, get to the till and have to buy more bags with the grinding inevitability of Jeremy Clarkson offending someone. It’s pathetic.
And why? Because my whole life, people gave me bags at the till, the same way people give freebies to the rich. The cultural adjustment required for me to remember to take a bag with me might finally soak into my brain pre-mortem, but I seriously doubt it.
Now consider what it will be like for us all when the NHS has gone. An obvious tragedy, but as ‘cultural adjustments’ go, I’m not sure we’ll ever be ready for it.
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Finally and most importantly, I’m delighted to be able to introduce you to one of a series of posts from long-time reader Artemis! I can’t tell you how pleased I am about this personally and for the site. The fact is, this site needs more content if it’s going to survive. It’s paid up for another year or so, but once those renewal fees come through I’ll have to think seriously about whether to keep it going. I love writing on here, but work and life mean I can’t do it anywhere as much as I’d like, which in turn means we lose visitors and interest. So, for those of you that enjoy what you find, please consider getting in touch, because no reasonable submission will be turned away. In the meantime, enjoy Artemis’ first post which is about podcasts. Here are a few that I really enjoy:
– In politics, the best one is The Rest is Politics, a left-of-centre discussion hosted by Alistair Campbell and Rory Stewart where they do an excellent job of ‘disagreeing agreeably’. If only there were a few more grown-ups like them around right now.
– I’ve also started listening to The News Agents, with Emily Maitlis, Jon Sopel, and Lewis Goodall. Good to hear three intelligent journalists off the leash and some good interviews to boot.
These are great to get your news from, particularly at the moment. A great friend said the other day that he and I were the type of people that read The Guardian for five minutes and are depressed for a week. It’s true. The last time I stopped myself from reading the news every day, I tuned into the Rest is Politics instead and had a far more interesting, nuanced view of the world. Definitely worth a listen.
Lifestyle-wise, I have to shout out The Art of Manliness. I find that title a little embarrassing (I’m as manly as a boiled carrot), but it’s a really excellent, thoughtful place to find everything from philosophy, cooking skills, science, history, and yes, exercise and self-defence, grooming and so on. The host, Brett McKay is an ex-lawyer and now (I believe) full-time podcaster and author who is on a mission to restore the simple principle of being a better man, with everything that entails. Put any bias over the title aside and give it a listen.
Finally, I better mention at least one film pod. Obviously, there’s Kermode and Mayo as mentioned above, but these days I prefer just to find their individual film reviews on YouTube. I have a love/hate relationship with The Film Junk Podcast. Hosted by three Canadian guys with regular guests, they claim to be the longest-running film pod. One of them, Jay, makes his own independent movies and both he and the ‘main’ host Sean are particular fans of horror, but each episode goes through one main review and a whole host of other films, so you’ll usually get something worth watching from it. Podcasts are strangely intimate though, particularly if you’re listening through headphones. There’s been a few I had to stop just because of the host’s voice! The thing with Film Junk is the interplay between the group. Jay and Frank are both very opinionated, which leads to some funny arguments, but there are times when I find it a little wearing. So I tend to binge a whole bunch of their ‘casts, then take a long break.
Anyway, a few to consider.
Take it easy folks, we’ll be back soon.
