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    To my shame, I've only just realised reading above that the title character's mother in 'Mare of Easttown' wasn't actually an astoundingly good turn from Kim Cattrall.

    I did think it was a far more nuanced performance than I'd ever seen her give before! I should have recognised Jean Smart from my lockdown rewatch of the whole of 'Frasier', if nothing else.

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      Watching Halston on Netflix where the show is being totally stolen by Krysta Rodriguez’s Liza Minnelli.

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        Originally posted by Ray de Galles View Post
        To my shame, I've only just realised reading above that the title character's mother in 'Mare of Easttown' wasn't actually an astoundingly good turn from Kim Cattrall.

        I did think it was a far more nuanced performance than I'd ever seen her give before! I should have recognised Jean Smart from my lockdown rewatch of the whole of 'Frasier', if nothing else.
        It took me about three episodes to realise. Your shame is shared.

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          Originally posted by Sits View Post
          Watching Halston on Netflix where the show is being totally stolen by Krysta Rodriguez’s Liza Minnelli.
          Agreed. I watched that because I knew nothing about him or that scene 70s/80s scene. The documentary on him was a bit better, though.

          I don't know anything about fashion, but I can definitely see why he was successful and highly regarded. But he was not a great businessman. Also, too many drugs.

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            Hugely disappointed by Wrath of Man. You'd have thought if anyone knew how to handle the Stath it would be Guy Ritchie, but this offering is just plain tedious. There are two ways a director can go to minimise Jason Statham's limitations. One is conventional — fast, violent with heavy hints of irony. On the other, riskier, road you can take a chance on his latent acting abilities cf: The Bank Job and Spy. Ritchie does neither. Heist movies require tension, tight plotting, well drawn characters and, ideally, a surprise at the end. Wrath of Man has none of these. The story dribbles along by the teaspoonful, there are way too many characters leaving no time for any of them to establish themselves, and the finale is a totally predictable damp squib. Avoid at all costs.

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              At this point, I'm not sure Guy Ritchie knows how to handle anything

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                Definitely can't handle his nosebag.

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                  Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post

                  Agreed. I watched that because I knew nothing about him or that scene 70s/80s scene. The documentary on him was a bit better, though.

                  I don't know anything about fashion, but I can definitely see why he was successful and highly regarded. But he was not a great businessman. Also, too many drugs.
                  We had never even heard of him so I assume he had very little transatlantic crossover. Or we were a bit young to notice.

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                    MsD would know better, but my sense was that Halston was always very-US focused.

                    He was from the Midwest (born in Iowa, grew up in Iowa and Indiana, went to school at the Art Institute in Chicago) and first came to prominence by designing Jackie Kennedy's pillbox hat.

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                      Yes. IIRC he was somewhat looked down on by the British Rag-Mags.

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                        Probably because he really fucking loved swearing (based on the biopic)

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                          Black Widow. Entertaining but daft. Daftly entertaining.

                          (And isn't blockbuster Hollywood getting stuck into a new cold war? I know the comic source material is old cold war but it struck me, after Tenet, that the long-standing use of Brits-as-Eurovillains now has them speak in cod-Russian accents)

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                            Today I learned that Olivia wilde is one of the Cockburn's of Ardmore. (A lovely fishing village between dungarvan and youghal) her grandfather was Claude Cockburn, a journalist (we have one of his books knocking around the house) and erm a likely member of the comintern along with his wife.

                            you hear her uncle patrick on irish radio quite often like his dad he's a foreign correspondent, though likely not a communist, and her aunt was married to Michael flanders, of flanders and swann. (Though he died a decade before she was born)

                            I fucking love flanders and swann

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                                We’re re-watching the 2004 version of North & South (the Gaskell novel, not the American Civil War one). It’s held up pretty well, albeit totally cliche ridden with honest, grimy people of toil, cold, hard mill owners and ignorant middle classes. But perhaps cliche is accurate, who can say? Mrs. S’ favourite Richard Armitage smoulders efficiently throughout, if Daniela Denby-Ashe is perhaps a tad one dimensional in the other lead role. Another Mrs. S favourite, Brendan Cowell does his salt of the earth thing, and Sinead Cusack’s Lancs accent is a challenge. Great fun, on DVD no less as it’s no longer appearing on Netflix.

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                                  I watched Hudson Hawk after my bike ride today. It was terrible, and utterly nuts. I understand why I never watched.

                                  And I watched Nobody this evening which was a whole load of fun, sort of somewhere between Falling Down and John Wick, I guess, with a little A-Team element near the end. Probably not as good as everyone said, but a very entertaining way to spend an evening.

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                                    I watched Gunpowder Milkshake on Netflix last night. I don't know if it was posted upthread. Gist is a hitwoman kills the wrong person and a lot of gangsters are after her. The plotline mirrors the John Wick films. The violence is a bit more cartoonish (a la Takashi Miike), but I enjoyed the film. All of the protagonists were women, which is less common in action films. It took a little while to get going but I'm glad I saw it.

                                    On the Takashi Miike front, First Love was added to Prime in the US a few weeks (?) back. Super violent but cartoonish, as I just wrote, which adds some humor to the film. I think Gunpowder Milkshake was better but I'm glad I watched both.

                                    Here are trailers, which will (of course) be filled with spoilers:

                                    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7ZrjXuNgmA

                                    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f-dyjACbB0

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                                      No Sudden Move makes up for my disappointment with Wrath of Man (above). Possibly because Steven Soderbergh is a proper director who's totally immersed in his process (he's the cinematographer and editor as well as the director of this film.) It's a caper movie but not a conventional one. There are good guys, bad guys and cops, but the gist of the film — money makes money, and everyone else just survives, if they're lucky — is simple enough, but handled with with a pace and complexity that makes the story irresistible. Great cast: Don Cheadle, Benicio Del Toro, Matt Damon, Ray Liotta and others. The camerawork is unusual, even eccentric. Soderbergh used old wide angle lenses that distort the image at their edges. Some viewers find this distracting but I thought the technique worked really well, especially with interiors which had a claustrophobia that added to the overall tension. Thoroughly recommended.

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                                        Originally posted by Amor de Cosmos View Post
                                        No Sudden Move makes up for my disappointment with Wrath of Man (above).
                                        I liked No Sudden Move. It fit well with the HBO remake of Perry Mason. Similar rhythms and twists and time periods.

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                                          I watched Tootsie on Saturday evening. I still think that the big reveal at the end is one of the funniest two or three minutes in the history of cinema.

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                                            Netlix is running a Polish series oddly named The Mire (I'm guessing it isn't close to the original title.) It's a clever little piece of drama that takes place in a small city in the 80s (series 1) and the the late 90s (series 2.) Police and newspaper crime stories are a common enough premise, but the plotting here is extremely subtle. Much, especially concerning the characters relationships, is inferred rather than spelled out as is often the case in close communities. The performances are first rate in suggesting these. The seasons are short, six episodes each, so don't require a huge commitment. For outsiders it also presents a pretty convincing view of what life was typically like in immediate post-Soviet Poland.
                                            Last edited by Amor de Cosmos; 19-07-2021, 00:43.

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                                              I watch Once Upon a Time in Hollywood on Saturday night - really enjoyed it. The bit with Bruce Lee was fantastic.

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                                                Yeah, I watched it again the other week and I really enjoyed it.

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                                                  Originally posted by Amor de Cosmos View Post
                                                  Netlix is running a Polish series oddly named The Mire (I'm guessing it isn't close to the original title.) It's a clever little piece of drama that takes place in a small city in the 80s (series 1) and the the late 90s (series 2.) Police and newspaper crime stories are a common enough premise, but the plotting here is extremely subtle. Much, especially concerning the characters relationships, is inferred rather than spelled out as is often the case in close communities. The performances are first rate in suggesting these. The seasons are short, six episodes each, so don't require a huge commitment. For outsiders it also presents a pretty convincing view of what life was typically like in immediate post-Soviet Poland.
                                                  I saw season 1 and agree- well worth the time

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                                                    If anything season 2 is even better, but only if you've seen season 1, otherwise I think it could be confusing. There is continuity with some of the characters, though they don't necessarily have major roles in both series.

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