My book theme for March was historical fiction. While I watched one series that firmly fit into this genre, the rest was a mixed bag again, not least because I wanted to watch Oscar titles during Oscar month.
What’s Love Got to Do With It?
2022
Directed by Shekhar Kapur and starring the lovely Lily James, this is bog-standard British rom-com fare, which means it was sweet, funny, and entertaining, but completely predictable. The premise is of a young documentary filmmaker who documents her English-Pakistani childhood friend’s journey to marriage after he decides to allow his parents to arrange it. Obviously James and her friend fall for each other instead. The film seems to be telling you that arranged marriages are not to be scoffed at and can even be more successful than romantic ones (the former’s divorce rate is certainly lower), but this being a rom-com, it ultimately tells you to hold out for “true” love instead.
Blonde
2022
As the Oscars approached, I devoted a weekend to watching Oscar movies. Ana de Armas is the primary reason I watched this movie. I adore her and here she portrays Marilyn Monroe, a performance that saw her, very deservedly, nominated for Best Actress. I’m very happy Michelle Yeoh won the Oscar, but I would have been just as happy with de Armas winning. She is one of the best things about this movie, the other two being the music by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, and the other the cinematography. The script leaves much to be desired though since it focuses on nothing other than Monroe’s relationships with the men in her life and makes it appear as if they’re the only reason she ever had any success.
All Quiet on the Western Front
2022
This was my next Oscar watch. I’d read the book by Erich Maria Remarque several years ago, so I only vaguely remembered the story. But a moment that always stayed with me, was the harrowing part when Paul kills a French soldier in No Man’s Land and instantly regrets it, which of course makes it into the movie. The brutal trench scenes are there too, juxtaposed by stuffy old men dragging out armistice talks, illustrating that war is merely “the game played by old men with the lives of the young”. What really stood out for me was the music by Volker Bertelmann aka Hauschka. The unsettling theme that plays throughout underlines a sense of doom not just about war but about humanity as well.
Castle
Season 2
The second season of this comedic crime series delivered more of the same, which is exactly what I expect and want of the next six seasons. Beckett gets a love interest, but that doesn’t last long. I know (or at least I’m pretty sure) she and Castle will wind up together eventually. Normally this would irritate me (like with Magnum and Higgins in Magnum PI), but here it works.
Everything Everywhere All at Once
2022
This year’s Best Picture Oscar winner. I loved the zany script and sense of humour and Michelle Yeoh is completely fabulous. There was something Blackadderish about the humour and theatricality of the film, which made me like it even more. Unfortunately I was quite tired when I watched this, so I’d like to watch it again to properly absorb it, especially since its universe-hopping does not make it conducive to watching with a tired brain.
Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead
2009
I had so much fun watching this movie. My best friend and I watched the first movie about twenty years ago. Recently I found out there are six sequels, so of course we had to watch one of them and, as we did with the first, deliver running commentary throughout. Since it’s complete trash, there’s plenty to rip into and we did so with relish. I don’t remember much about the first movie (not that it matters) except that it’s about a road trip gone wrong and stars Eliza Dushku. Here, instead of a carload of teenagers about to buy the farm you get a busload of prisoners, making it something of a poor man’s Con Air. But the worse these films are, the more fun my friend and I have tearing into them.
The Thin Man
1934
This was the chosen title for this month’s Shedunnit watch party and an inadvertent Oscar watch, because in 1935 it was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. I enjoyed it immensely. Based on the detective novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett, it features a pair of charming leads, Nick and Nora Charles, played by William Powell and Myrna Loy. The pair absolutely spark together, their chemistry electrifying the whole movie. There’s a whole slew of sequels, which I’d absolutely love to watch just to enjoy more of this delightful pair. And because they solve mysteries, which I love too of course.
The White Queen
Based on three of Philippa Gregory’s books, this was really the only thing I watched that stuck to theme. Unfortunately it’s monumentally boring. It dragged on in the same tiresome manner that Gregory’s book did. It precedes the series, The White Princess, which I enjoyed; but I will not be watching the third series in this collection, The Spanish Princess, after boring myself to tears with The White Queen’s nonsense. The characters and cast are awful, which is surprising since one of them is Rebecca Ferguson, whom I’ve always liked a lot. One of the things I loved about The White Princess was Jodie Comer, who I’m now realising must have been carrying the whole show, because she elevates the character beyond the silly script based on Gregory’s even sillier writing, which the cast here is not able to do. What is wildly entertaining and what I highly recommend instead, is reading Frock Flicks’ breakdown of the costumes.
I’m not going to bother with the trailer, so rather read my article on Queen Elizabeth I here, since she’s a descendant of this show’s characters.
Lioness
Season 2
This was a show I worked on, so I had no choice but to watch it, but I enjoyed it a lot. It’s a crime drama, but has unexcepted moments of humour. It felt a bit like it was veering into South African soap territory with the melodramatic turns the story started to take, but it’s grounded by a good cast. What’s more, the soapiness, and especially the humour, make it feel a lot more South African than other local shows that try to be more “international”, which made me love Lioness even more. Sadly, the last episode felt very rushed, like they were trying to cram what needed at least two more episodes into one. But it’s all very entertaining, even more so than the first season. I would have liked to see more of Gerald Steyn’s character, so here’s hoping for a third season that gives him more to do.
Read my articles on jealousy in the show here and the use of split screens in the show here.