Norse Myths, by Neil Gaiman – powerful, economical re-telling
of the Asgard stories, surely the definitive version for today.
Down Among the Dead Men – Ingle-produced digital
conversion of a 1993 gamebook, with compelling writing style and gameplay which
had me researching Twine (an interactive narrative authoring tool, whose
potential I first saw when playing a training scenario by Cathy Moore).
A House Through Time – lovely compassionate TV series with David Olusoga tracing the inhabitants of a single Liverpool house since its original construction in the mid-eighteenth century: a microcosm of British history.
A House Through Time – lovely compassionate TV series with David Olusoga tracing the inhabitants of a single Liverpool house since its original construction in the mid-eighteenth century: a microcosm of British history.
The Post – gripping and timely film, reconstructing
The Washington Post’s defiance of political pressure to published leaked
documents showing that the Vietnam War was going a lot worse than the
government was saying. Tom Hanks is sturdy as the editor, of course, but an
interesting and important role for Meryl Streep as the paper’s owner, giving
her a prominence which she never had in All the President’s Men. Lovely
reconstruction of old-technology hot metal typesetting too, when her critical decision to publish sets the presses rolling.
What Remains of Edith Finch – beautifully-crafted
atmospheric game, in which the eponymous young woman returns to her abandoned
family home and recovers the tragic histories of her ancestors, all of whom died
in bizarre circumstances. For a game in which death is a recurring theme, the
mood is neither depressing nor ghoulish: just sad. Who’d have thought a
“walking simulator” could be so engaging.
Suffragette – difficult, infuriating film telling the
story of The Cause through the story of an imaginary working class woman (superbly
played by Carey Mulligan) propelled into greater and greater militancy not so
much by suffragette campaigners as by the hostility and humiliation she suffers
as she starts to step out of line. A more useful tale for these times than the
usual narrative of the movement’s leaders.
The View from the Cheap Seats, by Neil Gaiman – fun
collection of reviews and introductions, really making one want to read the
books and comics about which he’s enthusing: the hallmark of a good review.
Art, Passion and Power: The Story of the Royal Collection – Andrew Graham-Dixon’s enjoyable
and informative TV romp through the history of royal art-buying, explaining why so
much top-notch stuff, and why those particular items, ended up in royal
palaces.
Nigel Slater’s Middle East – always a pleasure to
watch a TV programme from Nigel Slater, here sitting down to eat daily food with ordinary families
in Lebannon, Iran and Turkey: about as far from restaurant chef cuisine as you
can get, and demonstrating how traditional food is related to the physical and
social landscape from which it comes.
Trumbo – real-event-based film drama, showing the power of
the Hollywood blacklist in the McCarthy era and how writers succeeded in
working covertly, ultimately rendering the blacklist ridiculous, when Trumbo
won an Oscar for a screenplay he hadn’t officially written.
Goetia – aesthetically pleasing but (for me) deeply
boring game, in which you play a ghost drifting around her family mansion,
trying to undo the damage of occult experiments gone awry. I found it
impossible to get interested in any of the characters (not helped by an absence
of voice acting and, I think, the author not being a native English speaker), and the secret passwords and astrological / alchemical codes which form the
basis of the puzzles left me cold. This game seemed to be all head and no
heart, which is probably right for occult philosophy, but doesn’t make for a
good adventure – at least for me; others seem to have liked it.
The Silk Road Ensemble – documentary with fantastic footage of Yo-Yo Ma
and his motley band of enthusiasts finding and making beautiful music together.
Some great discoveries for me here, for example Wu Man the Chinese pipa player.
Tones, Drones and Arpeggios: The Magic of Minimalism –
informative exploration of some of Minimalism’s milestones (La Monte Young, Terry
Riley, Philip Glass, Steve Reich), with great archive footage and
knowledgeable interviewing and reconstructions by musician Charles Hazelwood.
Civilisations – appointment TV, of course, even if only to see what Simon Schama, Mary Beard and David Olusoga do with the air-space, but I have yet to get through an episode without falling asleep and having to catch up on recording. So far Schama has been totally traditional, Beard critical and challenging but in expected ways; the big surprise, I gather from viewers who’ve skipped ahead on the iPlayer, is going to be Olusoga telling a whole new story.
