Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

The climax is the least enjoyable bit - a more or less generic battle (despite the martial arts theme) in the shadow of a more or less generic threat to the world as we know it. But more or less everything up to that is plenty enjoyable - nothing extraordinary but zipping along. Plus Tony Leung and Michelle Yeoh for some serious ballast.

Argo

Rewatch. Last time.

Moonlight

I think it's the combination of how straightforward the story is (its directness surprised me) and the poetic nature of the visuals through which it's told. This is a real one and I can tell it'll stay with me.

My Neighbour Totoro

Had not seen this before. It's properly lovely. The intimacy and child eye-level imagination are what really make it, complemented by the animation itself as always with Miyazaki.

Eternals

Definitely the moodiest and most lovely-looking Marvel movie I've seen as well as comfortably the most diverse. Has a bit of an intrigue factor therefore, which balances out the messiness of its story architecture.

John Wick 1-4

Rewatching the first three (1 & 2, 3) and then the 2 1/2 hour long 'Chapter 4', it's striking how coherent and taut the whole affair is. This last one felt a bit video game-y at times but it also felt duly epic.

She Said

What She Said has going for it: an important story, told in a way that centres women and, in moments, conveys the horrific nature and impact of Weinstein's abusive and violent behaviour; quality actors (Carey Mulligan, Zoe Kazan, enjoyable supporting actors all round); the inherent drama of the journalists' investigation. 

What's lacking: beyond that inherent drama and the urgency of the topic itself, there's no real sense of dramatic conflict or uncertainty (we know how the story ends); despite 'the system is enabling Weinstein' being very overt text, those broader aspects never really come properly into focus; in general, there's something a bit context-less about how the story is told, lacking the texture for example of Spotlight.

The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story edited by John Freeman

Aims to collect a sample of the 'best and most representative' American short fiction from 1970 to 2020. That's more or less my sweet spot, so while I'd only read a small handful of these before - "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" (Le Guin), "Taking Care" (Joy Williams), "Sticks" (Saunders), "The Great Silence" (Ted Chiang), "The Dune" (Stephen King), "The Midnight Zone" (Groff), each good-to-excellent, though the Chiang one isn't one of his best, and Williams, Saunders and Groff in particular being all-timers for me - as a whole it's rich pickings. 

Elsewhere there are familiar writers (Raymond Carver, Lydia Davis, Karen Russell - her "St Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves" is devastatingly good/sad), a couple who I've wanted to read for some time (Denis Johnson, Tim O'Brien) and quality all the way through (I have a weakness for flash, but still, Sandra Cisneros' "Salvador Late or Early" is great). Notable themes: trauma and hardship, sensitively and clearly depicted, seemingly often from personal experience. 

Ted Lasso season 3

In this season, Ted Lasso is a show that no longer knows what it's for. Still has a fair bit of charm, but a lot of that's on the coat tails of the previous seasons.

"Catherine Opie: Binding Ties" (Heide)

These didn't stick hard with me as a whole (maybe not really to my taste), but I did feel a bit of fizz - a spark - from them.

"Pig Pen" (1993)

"Self-Portrait/Nursing" (2004)

The Smile - A Light for Attracting Attention

Thom Yorke. And Jonny Greenwood. Still good, today, after all these years.

Emily St John Mandel - Sea of Tranquility

Sea of Tranquility is written with a clarity and precision that, combined with its sparseness of prose, could easily have been distancing. Instead, the wonderful writing is what enables this crystalline novel to affect as much as it does. What it's 'about' isn't overly laboured, though the big clue is the section about 'so what' being the appropriate response if the simulation hypothesis is accurate; it's graceful in the way it's both literary and science-fictional, and in the endings it gives its characters.

Interesting compare and contrast: To Paradise. Multiple time periods (past, present, future), linked narratives, pandemic and partial social collapse, preoccupation with what it means to live with meaning.

The Handmaiden

Park Chan-wook is one of those film makers whose hand is unmistakeable - all of his films feel like his. The Handmaiden has that same heavy texture, immersive, unsettling and in the end moral. Like nearly all of his films, it drew me in despite elements that repulsed me.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

A goof but a fun one.

The Departed

Rewatch; last time.

"Expressive potential: Studies in abstraction" / "Australiana: Designing a nation" @ Bendigo Art Gallery

The distinction's false but one of these very much registered for me at the emotional level, the other at the political.

The small 'abstract' exhibition was pieces from the Bendigo Art Gallery's collection, a mixed bag in quality, several with unfortunately reductive titles. Most striking were Charles Godfrey's "Summer (2)" 1960-64), below/detail, and John Passmore's "Abstract" (1959).

From the (good) 'Australiana' exhibition:

Penleigh Boyd - "The breath of spring" (1919)

Margaret Preston - "Banksia and Flannel Flowers" (1938)

Grace Cossington Smith - "Bottlebrushes" (1935)

Elif Batuman - Either/Or

Either/Or works as entertainment but, like The Idiot, it has a lot going on beyond its loose, episodic 'plot' of Selin's further misapprehensions and misadventures. Just what that is, is a bit elusive, but has something to do with how we make sense of our lives and our selves - how we should be - through, not stories exactly (that old cliche), nor literature narrowly, but rather out of the many intersecting forces, narrative and otherwise, that shape us whether we like it or not. Piquant, funny, and at times touching. I'll read as many books about Selin as Batuman wants to write.

Jen Cloher - I Am the River, The River Is Me

I've never felt that Jen Cloher was in any way fashionable or cool, but from the very beginning - for me that was Dead Wood Falls some 17 years ago - what they've always been is consistently good, in a way that's all the more impressive for being always so seemingly unassuming. And in that sense, this latest one is a continuation - just high quality songwriting and musicianship, with catchy songs that are about more than their catchiness. It's impressive.

boygenius - the record

Their first ep was a nice surprise and all three - Lucy Dacus, Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker have only gone from strength to strength since then - so this full length is a rare pleasure. It genuinely does sound like a collaboration in which each of their voices (figuratively/literally) is clear, it grows in quality over time, and it's got some distinct highlights from each of them - although I'm particularly liking "Not Strong Enough", which is one of the most difficult to identify the primary songwriter for.

The Last Kingdom seasons 1-5 & Seven Kings Must Die

Surprisingly good which is why I kept going. It gets a bit formulaic at times - queen/princess must be rescued, only Uhtred can/will do it, small group must infiltrate heavily protected enemy camp, end with rousing battle won by bringing distrustful groups together to defeat common enemy - but it's also neatly constructed, with some plot twists and surprises but the big resolutions feeling right.