Which is pretty true, tbh. I have no idea what house Uppercross and Kellynch might be based upon but visiting Bath last week was excellent and I’d heartily recommend a trip there to pretty much anyone. I’m not entirely sure why we never visited Bath before, since it’s only about two hours drive away.

Bailbrook House Hotel

I randomly managed to pick a hotel within 5 minutes drive of Bath and that turned out to be very comfortable with nice grounds and fantastic staff at a reasonable price (at least in comparison to what else was on offer in the area). Handily, it also turned out to be within 5 minutes (in the other direction) of the nearest Catholic church and that church turned out to have a decent-sized car park so we didn’t end up taking the 30 minute walk there on the Sunday were were there.

I don’t think I’ve eaten so many eggs for breakfast in a week at any other time in my life, but what are you going to do when the breakfast restaurant will do poached eggs (or in fact, eggs benedict) or soft boiled eggs and soldiers so well? Plus I’m sure it fortified me for a day’s sightseeing. Yes. That is exactly it.

The Royal Crescent

As with most holidays that don’t have a pre-planned itinerary from a tour operator, we ended up sight-seeing at random. First up was the Royal Crescent.

It turns out that while house numbers 2 to 30 Royal Crescent have been turned into a swanky hotel, no. 1 Royal Crescent has been turned into a museum and decorated in much the same way as it would have been in the late 18th century. The rooms and history of the house was fascinating, but what really stood out was how the staff all seemed to be really interested in the house and sharing information about it and the Georgian period with visitors.

More about Bath to come!

A telescope was thoughtfully provided so we could spy on the neighbours

Link to the original site

As for… probably the last 7 years, I remain largely not much of a blogger anymore. Every year that I’ve attended the London Film Festival, I mean to write about what I saw and…. never get round to it.

Well. Here goes – a few words about all the new films I saw last year. At least I got into the practice of keeping a list of all the new films I saw over on Letterboxd and every time I added to it, took a look to re-arrange everything in order of how much I liked the films.

In reverse order then, starting with the film I enjoyed the least.

• Avengers: Age of Ultron – Ugggh. This film was mostly just disappointing. What was going on with the Natasha Romanov/Bruce Banner thing? It came from nowhere and the relationship seemed out of character for both Romanov and Banner. Probably more because there was no lead up for us to see how it could have developed. Maybe…Nick Fury and Maria Hill were consistent with the rest of what we’ve seen in MCU? Everyone else? Not so much.
• I Am Belfast – A kind of wandering essay film about Belfast. It was nice to look at and the people in it were great to hear from. That’s all I’ve got.
• Blood Of My Blood – Half the film is set in 17th Italy and the other half in the same village in the modern-day. Amusing but felt kind of like there were 2 different films that didn’t have quiet enough story on their own kind of smushed half and half together.
• Exotica, Erotica, Etc. – So I saw this film and then a few days later I saw Jay Malinowski at the Lexington (ditching one of the films I had planned to see at LFF because live music will probably always trump a thing I can see on DVD later) AND it felt like both things kind of mixed together – Jay Malinowski’s set was largely stuff from Martel, an album with a sort of nautical journey theme woven through.
• Elstree 1976 – A documentary about some of the actors who appeared in the original Star Wars trilogy and how the films has affected their lives. I
• Office – I can’t say that I ever thought I would see a Chinese musical in 3D entirely set in the corporate world but there it was. I only wish I understood the language to better enjoy it because I am CERTAIN there was clever wordplay that could not be contained in the translation.
• Truth – Even though I was about 20 in 2004 I had no idea that the events in this film were even happening so it was fascinating to watch.
• Youth – All I remember is that while I enjoyed this film, it felt like nothing really happened for a really long time which may have been the point. Also, Rachel Weisz was awesome in it.
• Suffragette – Enjoyable enough but the main character Maud was a bit empty and obviously it was implausible for a newly minted suffragette to be at all the big moments of the suffragette movement at the time BUT I guess they had to somehow have a self-insert character for the audience to move through the story with? Maybe. Perhaps a film that followed the story of a real woman who was fighting for the vote would have been better.
• Twinsters – SO I heard about these two sisters who had been adopted as babies by parents in different countries and who had found each other on Facebook a while back BUT THEN I guess they made a film and people I follow on twitter mentioned watching it and THERE IT WAS on Mum’s Netflix so I watched it and it was delightful and moving and heart-warming and all the things.
• Magic Mike XXL – A DELIGHT from start to finish. I don’t think I have ever watched a film where every single person in the cinema with me had such a good time.
• A Perfect Day – I don’t think I expected to watch anything so funny when I bought the ticket for this film, thinking “Oh yes, a film about aid workers in a war zone will be interesting,” but it was and I recommend it to everyone.
• The Man from U.N.C.L.E. – All I knew about the series that this film was based on was that it had Robert Vaughan and Ducky from NCIS. Lots of fun to watch and obviously features Henry Cavill eating a sandwich as a key point in the film.
• High-Rise – The thing about the London Film Festival is that I buy all my tickets in one go based on what the BFI website says the film is about and then I forget ENTIRELY what I have signed myself up to see. And it’s not like I know much about JG Ballard or Ben Wheatley anyway. I knew that this was about a futuristic apparently utopian 70s tower block with its social hierarchy arranged on the various levels and everything then degenerating into a dystopic horror show and at some point Tom Hiddleston got his kit off. It turned out to be GREAT and a DELIGHT and HILARIOUS.
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens – I feel like I have only just seen this film (and kind of yeah, that’s true) and that I want to see it again in the cinema really soon BUT it is still my sixth favourite film of the year. Finn and Rey are ENCHANTING and I wouldn’t mind just watching a film where they go on an space-road-trip and discover the galaxy and everything they’ve never imagined.
• Mad Max: Fury Road – While it feels like I only saw The Force Awakens five minutes ago, it feels like I watched Fury Road at least a year ago – even though this was my birthday film and that was only in May. I liked that this was basically the story of Furiosa and the Wives rather than Max.
• John Wick – The violence and killing and everything was great and my Mum and I both enjoy violent action films but the REAL HIGHLIGHT was Keanu Reeves hanging out with a puppy.
• Spy – So I guess a lot of my top ten includes film that were pretty funny but Spy is probably the funniest film I saw all year.
• The Martian – I don’t like watching bad things happening to astronauts SO the idea of an astronaut being stranded on Mars was a bit daunting but this film is great and heart-warming and well-paced.
• Jupiter Ascending – OF COURSE Jupiter Ascending was going to be my favourite films this year. It was ridiculous and awesome and Jupiter is a great heroine. It totally filled 2015’s Pacific Rim shaped space in last years cinema-going.

And that’s it. Who would have thought that Jupiter Ascending would have been so much better than Avengers: Age of Ultron at the beginning of the year?

Link to the original site

So, at last year’s London Film Festival, I went to see some experimental short films and Transcalar Investment Vehicles was one of them, but unfortunately the version of the film they had at the festival wasn’t the correct final version. Anyway, the LFF peeps said they’d show the right one at a later date and that there would be free tickets for the people who had turned up for this showing.

The rescheduled showing of Transcalar Investment Vehicles was last week. I… don’t know if the right version of the film conveyed Koob-Sassen’s ideas more effectively than the wrong version but then I guess experimental cinema isn’t something that I’m particularly into or have a lot of experience watching. I’m more of a regular narrative film viewer, I guess. Saying that, I did enjoy the experience and I think that sticking around for the Q & A afterwards was really worthwhile, not least because people who actually “get” this style of film were making interesting comments and asking questions and maybe the discussion part of the evening was more enjoyable than the actual film? It’s hard to tell.

MY POINT, THOUGH (I have one, I swear), is that in the film there is a financier character, whose scheme is to channel investment made in fossil and nuclear energy industries into some kind of north African solar panel development in the wake of oil tanker and nuclear plant disasters. We meet the financier mostly while he’s explaining what this scheme involves to an American political speechwriter (played awesomely by Chipo Chung who I hadn’t really heard of before seeing this but I really enjoyed her performance*). In the course of the post-film discussion, Koob-Sassen talked about how the financier in this story was a “heroic financier” – something I hadn’t considered at all. I mean, at the moment, when you think about anyone involved in the financial services industry, they are pretty much always coloured as the bad guys – thanks to all the economic problems of the last few years. Then in the course of his discussion with the speechwriter, you kind of get the idea that the stuff he’s talking about is a bit out there and has the potential to be very bad – based on the reaction expressions of the speechwriter (who of course has to spin the topic to her audience in a favourable way later). The financier seems to have a grasp of and solutions for things on a large-scale but at the same time, seems kind of unaware of the effects of his solutions on smaller, person-to-person levels.

If I understood the finance stuff better, maybe I would see how the financier is heroic better too.

ON THE OTHER HAND, it got me thinking about the various hero and villain stories that make up nearly all the superhero films, comics and TV shows that I seem to be watching non-stop at the moment. The thing that often comes up is the idea that the villain is the hero of his own story. From the POV of the villain in the story, he is the hero. MOSTLY it makes me think about Ward from Agents of SHIELD. Ward is a TERRIBLE person. TERRIBLE. Yet he continues to act like nothing he is doing is wrong (he’s been murdering and betraying people ALL OVER THE SHOP).

And then that makes me think about the character of Skye and, totally unrelated to the stuff I’ve been talking about so far, how the character is mixed race (Chinese & White) and how AWESOME this is because I’ve pretty much seen…. no one like me on TV. I suppose Keanu Reeves in 47 Ronin SORT OF counts if you grasp at straws a bit. SKYE. FOREVER AWESOME.

* Looking on IMDB it turns out that she has been in like… all the things ever that I loved. She was Chantho in Doctor Who. She was the voice of the ship, Icarus, in one of my FAVOURITE FILMS EVER – Sunshine.

Mirrored from half girl, half robot.

comments

Link to the original site

So, at last year’s London Film Festival, I went to see some experimental short films and Transcalar Investment Vehicles was one of them, but unfortunately the version of the film they had at the festival wasn’t the correct final version. Anyway, the LFF peeps said they’d show the right one at a later date and that there would be free tickets for the people who had turned up for this showing.

The rescheduled showing of Transcalar Investment Vehicles was last week. I… don’t know if the right version of the film conveyed Koob-Sassen’s ideas more effectively than the wrong version but then I guess experimental cinema isn’t something that I’m particularly into or have a lot of experience watching. I’m more of a regular narrative film viewer, I guess. Saying that, I did enjoy the experience and I think that sticking around for the Q & A afterwards was really worthwhile, not least because people who actually “get” this style of film were making interesting comments and asking questions and maybe the discussion part of the evening was more enjoyable than the actual film? It’s hard to tell.

MY POINT, THOUGH (I have one, I swear), is that in the film there is a financier character, whose scheme is to channel investment made in fossil and nuclear energy industries into some kind of north African solar panel development in the wake of oil tanker and nuclear plant disasters. We meet the financier mostly while he’s explaining what this scheme involves to an American political speechwriter (played awesomely by Chipo Chung who I hadn’t really heard of before seeing this but I really enjoyed her performance*). In the course of the post-film discussion, Koob-Sassen talked about how the financier in this story was a “heroic financier” – something I hadn’t considered at all. I mean, at the moment, when you think about anyone involved in the financial services industry, they are pretty much always coloured as the bad guys – thanks to all the economic problems of the last few years. Then in the course of his discussion with the speechwriter, you kind of get the idea that the stuff he’s talking about is a bit out there and has the potential to be very bad – based on the reaction expressions of the speechwriter (who of course has to spin the topic to her audience in a favourable way later). The financier seems to have a grasp of and solutions for things on a large-scale but at the same time, seems kind of unaware of the effects of his solutions on smaller, person-to-person levels.

If I understood the finance stuff better, maybe I would see how the financier is heroic better too.

ON THE OTHER HAND, it got me thinking about the various hero and villain stories that make up nearly all the superhero films, comics and TV shows that I seem to be watching non-stop at the moment. The thing that often comes up is the idea that the villain is the hero of his own story. From the POV of the villain in the story, he is the hero. MOSTLY it makes me think about Ward from Agents of SHIELD. Ward is a TERRIBLE person. TERRIBLE. Yet he continues to act like nothing he is doing is wrong (he’s been murdering and betraying people ALL OVER THE SHOP).

And then that makes me think about the character of Skye and, totally unrelated to the stuff I’ve been talking about so far, how the character is mixed race (Chinese & White) and how AWESOME this is because I’ve pretty much seen…. no one like me on TV. I suppose Keanu Reeves in 47 Ronin SORT OF counts if you grasp at straws a bit. SKYE. FOREVER AWESOME.

* Looking on IMDB it turns out that she has been in like… all the things ever that I loved. She was Chantho in Doctor Who. She was the voice of the ship, Icarus, in one of my FAVOURITE FILMS EVER – Sunshine.

Mirrored from half girl, half robot.

comments

Link to the original site

So, at last year’s London Film Festival, I went to see some experimental short films and Transcalar Investment Vehicles was one of them, but unfortunately the version of the film they had at the festival wasn’t the correct final version. Anyway, the LFF peeps said they’d show the right one at a later date and that there would be free tickets for the people who had turned up for this showing.

The rescheduled showing of Transcalar Investment Vehicles was last week. I… don’t know if the right version of the film conveyed Koob-Sassen’s ideas more effectively than the wrong version but then I guess experimental cinema isn’t something that I’m particularly into or have a lot of experience watching. I’m more of a regular narrative film viewer, I guess. Saying that, I did enjoy the experience and I think that sticking around for the Q & A afterwards was really worthwhile, not least because people who actually “get” this style of film were making interesting comments and asking questions and maybe the discussion part of the evening was more enjoyable than the actual film? It’s hard to tell.

MY POINT, THOUGH (I have one, I swear), is that in the film there is a financier character, whose scheme is to channel investment made in fossil and nuclear energy industries into some kind of north African solar panel development in the wake of oil tanker and nuclear plant disasters. We meet the financier mostly while he’s explaining what this scheme involves to an American political speechwriter (played awesomely by Chipo Chung who I hadn’t really heard of before seeing this but I really enjoyed her performance*). In the course of the post-film discussion, Koob-Sassen talked about how the financier in this story was a “heroic financier” – something I hadn’t considered at all. I mean, at the moment, when you think about anyone involved in the financial services industry, they are pretty much always coloured as the bad guys – thanks to all the economic problems of the last few years. Then in the course of his discussion with the speechwriter, you kind of get the idea that the stuff he’s talking about is a bit out there and has the potential to be very bad – based on the reaction expressions of the speechwriter (who of course has to spin the topic to her audience in a favourable way later). The financier seems to have a grasp of and solutions for things on a large-scale but at the same time, seems kind of unaware of the effects of his solutions on smaller, person-to-person levels.

If I understood the finance stuff better, maybe I would see how the financier is heroic better too.

ON THE OTHER HAND, it got me thinking about the various hero and villain stories that make up nearly all the superhero films, comics and TV shows that I seem to be watching non-stop at the moment. The thing that often comes up is the idea that the villain is the hero of his own story. From the POV of the villain in the story, he is the hero. MOSTLY it makes me think about Ward from Agents of SHIELD. Ward is a TERRIBLE person. TERRIBLE. Yet he continues to act like nothing he is doing is wrong (he’s been murdering and betraying people ALL OVER THE SHOP).

And then that makes me think about the character of Skye and, totally unrelated to the stuff I’ve been talking about so far, how the character is mixed race (Chinese & White) and how AWESOME this is because I’ve pretty much seen…. no one like me on TV. I suppose Keanu Reeves in 47 Ronin SORT OF counts if you grasp at straws a bit. SKYE. FOREVER AWESOME.

* Looking on IMDB it turns out that she has been in like… all the things ever that I loved. She was Chantho in Doctor Who. She was the voice of the ship, Icarus, in one of my FAVOURITE FILMS EVER – Sunshine.

Mirrored from half girl, half robot.

Link to the original site

So, at last year’s London Film Festival, I went to see some experimental short films and Transcalar Investment Vehicles was one of them, but unfortunately the version of the film they had at the festival wasn’t the correct final version. Anyway, the LFF peeps said they’d show the right one at a later date and that there would be free tickets for the people who had turned up for this showing.

The rescheduled showing of Transcalar Investment Vehicles was last week. I… don’t know if the right version of the film conveyed Koob-Sassen’s ideas more effectively than the wrong version but then I guess experimental cinema isn’t something that I’m particularly into or have a lot of experience watching. I’m more of a regular narrative film viewer, I guess. Saying that, I did enjoy the experience and I think that sticking around for the Q & A afterwards was really worthwhile, not least because people who actually “get” this style of film were making interesting comments and asking questions and maybe the discussion part of the evening was more enjoyable than the actual film? It’s hard to tell.

MY POINT, THOUGH (I have one, I swear), is that in the film there is a financier character, whose scheme is to channel investment made in fossil and nuclear energy industries into some kind of north African solar panel development in the wake of oil tanker and nuclear plant disasters. We meet the financier mostly while he’s explaining what this scheme involves to an American political speechwriter (played awesomely by Chipo Chung who I hadn’t really heard of before seeing this but I really enjoyed her performance*). In the course of the post-film discussion, Koob-Sassen talked about how the financier in this story was a “heroic financier” – something I hadn’t considered at all. I mean, at the moment, when you think about anyone involved in the financial services industry, they are pretty much always coloured as the bad guys – thanks to all the economic problems of the last few years. Then in the course of his discussion with the speechwriter, you kind of get the idea that the stuff he’s talking about is a bit out there and has the potential to be very bad – based on the reaction expressions of the speechwriter (who of course has to spin the topic to her audience in a favourable way later). The financier seems to have a grasp of and solutions for things on a large-scale but at the same time, seems kind of unaware of the effects of his solutions on smaller, person-to-person levels.

If I understood the finance stuff better, maybe I would see how the financier is heroic better too.

ON THE OTHER HAND, it got me thinking about the various hero and villain stories that make up nearly all the superhero films, comics and TV shows that I seem to be watching non-stop at the moment. The thing that often comes up is the idea that the villain is the hero of his own story. From the POV of the villain in the story, he is the hero. MOSTLY it makes me think about Ward from Agents of SHIELD. Ward is a TERRIBLE person. TERRIBLE. Yet he continues to act like nothing he is doing is wrong (he’s been murdering and betraying people ALL OVER THE SHOP).

And then that makes me think about the character of Skye and, totally unrelated to the stuff I’ve been talking about so far, how the character is mixed race (Chinese & White) and how AWESOME this is because I’ve pretty much seen…. no one like me on TV. I suppose Keanu Reeves in 47 Ronin SORT OF counts if you grasp at straws a bit. SKYE. FOREVER AWESOME.

* Looking on IMDB it turns out that she has been in like… all the things ever that I loved. She was Chantho in Doctor Who. She was the voice of the ship, Icarus, in one of my FAVOURITE FILMS EVER – Sunshine.

Mirrored from half girl, half robot.

comments

Link to the original site

So, at last year’s London Film Festival, I went to see some experimental short films and Transcalar Investment Vehicles was one of them, but unfortunately the version of the film they had at the festival wasn’t the correct final version. Anyway, the LFF peeps said they’d show the right one at a later date and that there would be free tickets for the people who had turned up for this showing.

The rescheduled showing of Transcalar Investment Vehicles was last week. I… don’t know if the right version of the film conveyed Koob-Sassen’s ideas more effectively than the wrong version but then I guess experimental cinema isn’t something that I’m particularly into or have a lot of experience watching. I’m more of a regular narrative film viewer, I guess. Saying that, I did enjoy the experience and I think that sticking around for the Q & A afterwards was really worthwhile, not least because people who actually “get” this style of film were making interesting comments and asking questions and maybe the discussion part of the evening was more enjoyable than the actual film? It’s hard to tell.

MY POINT, THOUGH (I have one, I swear), is that in the film there is a financier character, whose scheme is to channel investment made in fossil and nuclear energy industries into some kind of north African solar panel development in the wake of oil tanker and nuclear plant disasters. We meet the financier mostly while he’s explaining what this scheme involves to an American political speechwriter (played awesomely by Chipo Chung who I hadn’t really heard of before seeing this but I really enjoyed her performance*). In the course of the post-film discussion, Koob-Sassen talked about how the financier in this story was a “heroic financier” – something I hadn’t considered at all. I mean, at the moment, when you think about anyone involved in the financial services industry, they are pretty much always coloured as the bad guys – thanks to all the economic problems of the last few years. Then in the course of his discussion with the speechwriter, you kind of get the idea that the stuff he’s talking about is a bit out there and has the potential to be very bad – based on the reaction expressions of the speechwriter (who of course has to spin the topic to her audience in a favourable way later). The financier seems to have a grasp of and solutions for things on a large-scale but at the same time, seems kind of unaware of the effects of his solutions on smaller, person-to-person levels.

If I understood the finance stuff better, maybe I would see how the financier is heroic better too.

ON THE OTHER HAND, it got me thinking about the various hero and villain stories that make up nearly all the superhero films, comics and TV shows that I seem to be watching non-stop at the moment. The thing that often comes up is the idea that the villain is the hero of his own story. From the POV of the villain in the story, he is the hero. MOSTLY it makes me think about Ward from Agents of SHIELD. Ward is a TERRIBLE person. TERRIBLE. Yet he continues to act like nothing he is doing is wrong (he’s been murdering and betraying people ALL OVER THE SHOP).

And then that makes me think about the character of Skye and, totally unrelated to the stuff I’ve been talking about so far, how the character is mixed race (Chinese & White) and how AWESOME this is because I’ve pretty much seen…. no one like me on TV. I suppose Keanu Reeves in 47 Ronin SORT OF counts if you grasp at straws a bit. SKYE. FOREVER AWESOME.

* Looking on IMDB it turns out that she has been in like… all the things ever that I loved. She was Chantho in Doctor Who. She was the voice of the ship, Icarus, in one of my FAVOURITE FILMS EVER – Sunshine.

Link to the original site

• RT @SFXmagazine: Roberto Orci reveals #StarTrek 3 will not use his script http://t.co/gVkH4XKgYr 18:52:41, 2014-12-29

Link to the original site

It seems like every year I’ve gone to LFF I don’t actually really talk about it until weeks and weeks later. Such is life. Luckily I keep my Letterboxd account updated and that helps me to remember. I think the only thing I’m hazy on are a few of the shorts that I saw. Onwards. There’s going to be spoilers (probably). There’s… going to be more than one part to this report on LFF.

( Read the rest of this entry » )

Mirrored from half girl, half robot.

comments

Link to the original site

It seems like every year I’ve gone to LFF I don’t actually really talk about it until weeks and weeks later. Such is life. Luckily I keep my Letterboxd account updated and that helps me to remember. I think the only thing I’m hazy on are a few of the shorts that I saw. Onwards. There’s going to be spoilers (probably). There’s… going to be more than one part to this report on LFF.

1. Björk: Biophilia Live – I think that on the day I went to see this I had been really busy during the day because I know that somehow I manage to always schedule the sonic stream films for times when I know my brain will have no processing power at all. Biophilia was DELIGHTFUL. It’s basically just a recording of one of the gigs that she did on her Biophilia tour at Alexandra Palace. ANYWAY Björk is super cute and delightful as always and the Icelandic choir she has along with her are awesome.
2. The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga – This is a film that kind of has two parallel strands running all the way through. One is the animated story of the witch Baba Yaga – and the animation is such (and the narration of this part) that this part of the film feels like a bedtime story told to a child by their parent or grandparent. The other inter-weaved part of the story is kind a meditation on life and nature and stuff in Eastern Europe.
   As the dialogue is entirely in Polish and Russian, I’m curious as to how well the subtitles translate what’s being said – the film is very poetic and the nature of translation means that there can be a clash between precisely translating meaning literally or giving a better feeling for the mood of the words.
3. Métamorphoses – This is basically a retelling of some of the stories in Ovid’s Metamorphoses set in modern day France. I wasn’t paying attention when I booked this one so it was unexpectedly in French but I was paying attention to the bit where it said it was based on Ovid’s work so there was pretty much the amount of people and gods getting it on that I was expecting.

   Only with more full frontal male nudity.

   That was unexpected.

   I did enjoy the translation of the classic stories into a more modern setting though and Jupiter is exactly as I would have thought.

4. The Drop – THE DROP. THE DROP WAS DELIGHTFUL. WELL. I think it has gotten more delightful the further away I get from seeing it but at its heart, The Drop is a solid and satisfying film with a cute dog. And before I get into the slightly spoilierish bit of my wittering, though the dog gets introduced as having been left beaten up in a rubbish bin, things only get better for the dog after that and nothing bad happens to him.
   Now onto the slightly spoilery thing – I really liked the bits where Bob went to Mass. This might just be my love of Roman Catholic things showing up in films, but I liked how that impacted on the story and signposted something of what was to come (which is the spoilery bit). It’s a bit like an Easter egg for people who know about the Catholic scene. The thing is that Bob (Tom Hardy’s character) and the police detective both attend weekday Mass every day – you can tell it’s a weekday Mass because like… no one is there (on a Sunday the church would have a lot more people) and Bob does not go to receive the Eucharist with everyone else. Later on the detective even comments on it. Now the thing is, I sat there in the cinema thinking pretty much what the detective would probably have been thinking – “what has Bob done in his life that means that he regards himself as unable to receive Communion?” Usually? Everyone goes, so long as they are Catholic and have made their First Holy Communion. Anyone else who wants to, can receive a blessing. Bob does none of these things and this combined with the fact that he is there at all on a weekday points towards him having done something pretty bad in the eyes of the Church in the past (and in the context of the film it didn’t seem very likely that he gotten divorced and remarried, which is one of the things that might make an observant Catholic feel unable to receive Communion). Up until this point in the film, Bob seems like a quiet, gentle guy and you kind of think that the film is about James Gandolfini’s character Marv, who seems to kind of push Bob around, and the stuff going on in his life. But Bob has clearly done something very wrong in the past and the film hints at it with this thing in the Church and then reminds/informs us of it again when Marv warns someone not to underestimate Bob. It’s there that you start to see that Bob allows Marv to push him around a bit and tell him what to do – to allow Marv to continue to partially relive his former glory days. Bob is not necessarily what he appears to be and even though he is Marv’s cousin and is undoubtedly loyal to Marv, you do get the sense that sometimes Marv looks at Bob and is wary of him. Then there is the reveal and it all makes sense and it terribly satisfying and everyone should see it.

Ok. I think… I’m going to stop there and do the rest of the films another time.

Mirrored from half girl, half robot.

Link to the original site