Sky Ferreira - Night Time, My Time

A handful of sweetly fizzing pop moments, foremost among them "I Blame Myself", nestled amongst others that are more nondescript.

Nina Simone - Wild Is The Wind

Oh Nina, you never disappoint. Endless.

Interstellar

Another quite magnificent outing from Nolan, working as story, spectacle and mood piece all at once, and in ways that reinforce rather than pulling at each other. Clean construction, great images (the scenes on Earth don't suffer by comparison to the space ones), sustained atmosphere and excitement; high quality actors and acting too.

Wallace Stegner - Crossing to Safety

Humble and in some respects small-canvas, even to the extent of authorially pointing out its own lack of typical dramatic tensions or high points, but with an eye for the substance of what make a life, and what makes a life worthwhile.

The Robert Frost snippet that introduces it, and from which it draws its title, frames the novel aptly:

I could give all to Time except - except
What I myself have held. But why declare
The things forbidden that while the Customs slept
I have crossed to Safety with? For I am There
And what I would not part with I have kept.

Boyhood

Very nice; the film's understatedness of narrative and the simplifying drive of its structure create the possibility of both over and under-estimation, but I feel secure in saying that through whatever combination of design and good fortune, it comes off.

(w/ Kevin)

Shovels & Rope - Swimmin' Time

A raucous good time, skipping through 13 characterful slices that are equal parts swampy folk-country and americana-y indie-rock (artists I've thought of at various times while listening to Swimmin' Time: Mates of State, White Stripes, Laura Stevenson ... though Shovels & Rope are as rootsy as any of those at their grittiest).

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1

Both opens and closes deliberately jarringly, on notes that emphasise the costs of the protagonists' actions, reflecting the film's (and the series') concern with that theme. 'Realistic' might be going too far, but realism-minded maybe isn't. Mockingjay Part 1 isn't self-contained - it picks up where Catching Fire left off, and ends without much resolution, with part 2 in the offing - and that might be part of why it doesn't produce quite the same rush as its predecessors, but that's offset by the pleasingness of its continuing interrogation of those ideas of individual heroism and agency, social dis/order and violent change in a way that's both sophisticated and slickly (in a good way) exciting.

"The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From Sidewalk to Catwalk" (NGV)

This was actually great! Showcasing both couture and pret-a-porter pieces - and, thanks to this exhibition, I now know the difference between the two - across a mix of mannequins (many with projected, moving faces and speaking alternately in French and English, adding a considerable dynamism; some, in the 'Punk cancan' room, on a revolving catwalk) and photographs (figures like Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Lily Cole, all deserving of their iconic status in this context in a way that I rarely grasp or focus on - and, especially, Madonna).

I hadn't known that Gaultier did the costume design for The City of Lost Children, but it makes sense in retrospect; also (separately) I can't remember ever having had my breath taken away even a little bit by a piece of clothing but that's the effect that a long tortoiseshell-print silk satin cape (part of a 'Swashbuckler' collection) had. The bondage room was apt too.

Pacific Rim

I tend to like the idea of giant monsters more than I do the actual thing (well, 'actual'), but giant monsters vs giant robots as done by Guillermo del Toro is a solid proposition and Pacific Rim is enjoyable. Also, Rinko Kikuchi who is now officially in everything (this was the third thing I've seen her in over the last few months, the others being 47 Ronin and Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter).

Haruki Murakami - The Strange Library

A curiosity and a fitting addition to Murakami's oeuvre (in translation - it was published in the original Japanese some years back). Bonus appearance by the sheep man, that unassuming figure of the unconscious. Very nice presentation too.