Hello again!
Hello and thank you again for all your lovely comments. I am still hoping that the new blog will appear next week but we have had a humungous number of IT issues to overcome and not all have been resolved. We are both a bit flummoxed as to why, even my very IT conversant husband is tearing his hair out as to why this is happening!
Not to worry as I still have the Frugal blog. And here for you in this post are films I’ve seen in December, January and early February, starting with one I mentioned in my 2024 review of films: Conclave. It’s wonderful. Do go and see it, or stream it if you can, the film is now on Amazon. You probably all know it is the film of the book by Robert Harris and is about the vote for a new pope. Although I’d call this a cerebral film, as it is intelligent, well made with a brilliant cast including John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci and Ralph Fiennes, this is not in any way boring. On the contrary, there are so many plot twists you could think, what next! It is absolutely a very entertaining and gripping film.
Btw, as the subject of the film is about Cardinals voting for a new Pope, there are very few women in the film, apart from a host of nuns running around after the Cardinals, all unnoticed by them, of course. And yet, Isabella Rossellini, who is the nun’s head honcho has been nominated for a Supporting Actress Oscar and while she has a relatively small part in the film, there is one scene where she is totally magnificent. I’d say go see the film just for a glimpse of her bobbing that curtsey. And final note on this film – I hadn’t read the book but very early on I guessed who would be voted in as Pope – did you? 5* for this one.
A sweet and rather lovely film, which we streamed on Amazon, was Joy, the story of the first in vitro fertilisation baby, Louise Brown. What fascinated me was that I knew of the famous surgeon, Patrick Steptoe, but I hadn’t realised that the pioneering work done to enable infertile women to have babies included Dr Robert Edwards, and, a nurse, Jean Purdy, who was also an embryologist. Oh, a woman was involved, was she? And why hadn’t I heard of her? Sadly, she died of cancer at the age of 39. She seems to have been forgotten, while everyone remembers Patrick Steptoe and, indeed, Dr Edwards who got the Nobel Prize for medicine in 2010. ‘Tis ever the way. An excellent film 4* from me.
Then early in January we streamed The Substance (on Amazon) as there was/is a lot of buzz around it. I was curious. 😳 OMG, let’s put it this way, I watched it, so you didn’t have to because what a film! If you are the slightest bit squeamish just don’t ever watch, as this is a body-horror and oh, my word, it is exactly that. It’s a shame really as the premise – the glorification of youth and the rejection of any woman over 50 as being old beyond years is an interesting one. But seriously? Why not try and do this in a more thoughtful way? 2* from me.
And again, I say, what a film about the next one, which is Nickel Boys, the film of the book by Colson Whitehead. It should be compulsory viewing especially in the South of the States. The chief character Elwood gets sent to reform school for boys and the book, of course, is based on the true story of the Arthur G Dozier School for Boys in Florida. It’s a brilliant film and follows the book closely implying rather than setting things out. You have to work hard to understand some things. I like films that make you think, now what was that…?? The cinematography too is extraordinary as many of the scenes are shot from the perspective of Elwood. I left the cinema thinking, I get it. I understand your plight. I empathise. May racism never rear its ugly, cruel, horrible, unfair face again. And then of course, you sigh…..5 plus * for this one.
And just in case you think I watch nothing but serious films (actually I like all genres apart from frothy rom coms. Those I find excruciatingly boring) here’s another 5 plus* film. It is of course, ta da, A Complete Unknown, starring Timothee Chalamet. Oh my, what a FANTASTIC and AMAZING film. It is so enjoyable and as I saw the film in the afternoon practically everyone had white hair – we were all revisiting our youth! Every single song in the film seemed so familiar. Actually, I’ve resisted the charms of Timothee Chalamet for some time, but I am now hooked! In fact, Chalamet so convinced me that he was Dylan and that this was how Dylan sang, that when we got back, and we listened to some Dylan tapes, I thought it didn’t sound quite right 😂 Bill explained that the sound in the cinema is much richer than these early recordings so that’s why the sound was thinner. Also, Dylan in those early days had a higher vocal register than Chalamet and was more nasal. Beyond excellent film though so 5 plus * for this film.
Because the Oscars are almost upon us, we decided to watch 3 films (on 3 consecutive evenings) to get a sense of why they had nominations. The first was The Apprentice (Amazon), which is, of course, about none other than a young Trump being schooled in the art of the deal by the lawyer Roy Cohn. Sebastian Stan playing Trump has been nominated for Best Actor and Jeremy Strong has been nominated for Best Supporting Actor. Look it’s Ok, I kind of understood Trump a little more than I did before. But I am glad I paid virtually nothing to watch this film. Not sure if it deserves 3* – maybe just about.
The next film was a bit mind-blowing, and I wasn’t sure what I could say about it or what score it should have. This was Elvira Perez (Netflix) and amongst the many nominations the film has, is one for Karla Sofia Gascon as Best Actress. At first, I admired the film as it’s different and indeed original. But did I actually like it? I can’t say I warmed to it. In a nutshell, the film is about a drug baron changing his life and becoming a trans woman, who then sets up a charity to find the ‘disappeared’. Did I say, it’s a musical. All well and good, and yet there is much controversy around this film – and the actress. First of all, the film is set in Mexico and yet the French director shot everything in France, and consequently the film is seen as concocting a skewed version of both Mexico, and transwomen and their behaviour. In addition to that Gascon has been found to have some unfortunate views. But interesting, don’t you think, that this controversy has arisen just as the film received a lot of nominations. Timing? As for my score, I wasn’t going to give it more than 3*. I’m not sure why it got so many nominations in the first place.
And the 3rd film we watched was Gladiator II. Again, it was OK. But it was a bit run of the mill, swords and togas type of representation of ancient Rome. A bit empty in my view, which is why it hardly features in the Oscars, think it got a Costume nomination. I sniffily think it barely deserves 3* – maybe 2 and half*
We intend to watch Sing Sing (Amazon) quite shortly as that has a Best Actor nomination for its star Colman Domingo. I saw a trailer for it at our local cinema and it seemed up-lifting as it is about convicts, especially the character played by Domingo, finding redemption in Shakespeare. Now that sounds interesting.
Thank you again for being so patient. The new blog may appear (hopefully) sometime next week.
With love, Penny
P.S. Do tell of any good films you’ve watched – always love to get recommendations
Unfortunately I was also persuaded to watch The Substance – what a grotesque film! I was repulsed and I also thought the subject matter could have been highlighted in a different way!
Grotesque is absolutely the word – and yes what a shame as it could deal with the subject far better. But this way….? Yuk!
Thanks Linda – we’re on exactly the same page 😊
Morning Penny.
Thanks for your round up of films, many of which I’ve seen. I agree with your assessment of Conclave, A Complete Unknown and Nickle Boys.
We’ve also seen Blitz by Steve McQueen: about a black boy moved out of London during The Blitz. Not great, but watchable. And Laura, about a stripper and the son of a Russian oligarch. Quite funny, but forgettable. (In fact I had forgotten until I looked in my diary!)
The Brutalist was excellent. It’s about a Hungarian Bauhaus architect in post-war US. NB: It’s over three hours long but there’s a 15 minute interlude. Brooklyn (Amazon) based on Colm Toibin’s book is lovely and well worth a view. Also Irish, we enjoyed Kneecap. It’s about an Irish punk band navigating Belfast post The Troubles. Lots of dialogue in Irish with subtitles, but it works and is fun.
And today it’s Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths with the excellent Marianne Jean-Baptiste.
Like you, we love good films. I resist heavy gore and, ever since The Pit & the Pendulum (aged 16), any creepy stuff but don’t mind sentimental or gush if in the mood.
I grew up going to the ‘pictures’: Saturday mornings with my friends; I can still sing you “We are the boys and girls well known as minors of the ABC…” (I’ll save ’til we meet!) Then, on Monday evenings, I went with my Grandmother and aunt. Nan made sandwiches to take for our tea, which we followed with ice cream. But the treat was a bag of chips on the bus home (we knew how to live in Romford!) Finally, on Tuesday or Thursday evenings I went with my Dad: I aspired to go upstairs to the circle or at least up the back – less posh but a class above the cheap front stalls. But, my Dad said, “We can go in the posh seats, but there’ll be no ice cream.” I never made it up to the circle!
Then, we got a television and the curtains fell:
I rarely went to the pictures until I started ‘courting’ … Cinemas were about the only thing open on Sundays.
BTW – are you still involved in your film club?
Good luck with the website. Stay warm. Mary x
Update: Hard Truths was excellent: tough realism. Laughter and tears. Needs buried and unmet. Acting excellent.
Can’t wait to see it – and I accept it will be a hard watch but good.
Oooh you too love films! Not seen Blitz and would only do that if I had nothing else to watch as I’d already gathered its OK but nothing special. Brooklyn is a gorgeous film and we’d seen it and thought it so good it was shown at our Community Cinema during our first 5 years there. Yes, and no, re: that, as we had had enough after 5 very successful years. And then after another 5 years, it all seemed to fall apart as the people who took over disappeared themselves! We stepped in to ‘help’ and one year later found ourselves running it with only 3 other people helping us. Numerous pleas for help never got us beyond – we’ll help to put the chairs out – that’s no use!!!! So we said enough and the Community Cinema has folded. But someone at some point in the future, will suddenly say, oh, why don’t we show films and a new film club will arise. These things happen.
Planning to see Hard Truths – I like Mike Leigh a lot. And will wait to stream The Brutalist.
And sigh, my parents never allowed me to go to the Saturday morning screenings. They were that type of parent that said, No, certainly not. It’s not suitable, my dear….. hurumph!
Thanks so much and will post next week on the new one as there are only 5 subscribers and you will only know about this post through the Frugal blog and all you will have to do is click on the link to get to it. But the real test will be the 2nd post with many more subscribers, as the blooming email keeps saying its from Frugalfashionshopper – grrrrrr! I had thought it would be as simple as setting up My Other Blog but it has proved not to be the case!!!
Best wishes Mary 😊
Going to see A Complete Unknown at our local independent cinema tomorrow so looking forward to it even more now after your glowing review Penny. Thank you!
I do hope you liked it. Someone I know thought Timotheeeee Chalamet a bit much, but actually to give him his due I thought him really excellent.
Happy to still have the Frugal blog. So often I find myself struggling with technology. The more it is updated the more issues I seem to have. I hear good things about Enclave and it was being shown at the local library. Unfortunately, I had rescheduled a dentist appointment for the same time. And I would like to see Nickel Boys. I recently read Colson Whitehead’s earlier book The Underground Railroad which was very powerful. I have been fan of Bob Dylan since the beginning. Several years ago my son took me to see him perform at the outdoor arena at Jones Beach, about an hour from where I live. I had always wanted to hear him in person. Not just as a fan but I found out years ago that we have the exact same birthday, year and day.
I have been trying to get to the bottom of my dizzy spells. And the good news is that for the last few days they have been gone. I went to the ENT who found nothing wrong with my ear canals. I did however book a hearing test something I ought to have done anyway. That’s next week. Last week I had an ultrasound of my carotid arteries. A couple of years ago I had this done and much to my surprise was told there was some partial blockage on the left. Not serious enough to need any action taken but noted. This time the technician told me that he could not find any blockage and that I was in good shape, and in his words keep doing what you are doing. Usually the person who does the test won’t tell you anything but I think he wanted to reassure me. I am still supposed to get an MRI of my brain at the end of the month. The ENT MD said that if there is a problem it is probably too small to show up in the scan, so I am thinking about cancelling, especially if the dizziness is still gone. And I want to get back to my yoga classes. One thing I have been doing is for the last several years is trying to eat a mostly vegan diet. Not just not eating animals but trying to eat less dairy, I do eat fish, usually when I am eating out in a restaurant with friends or family as it is often the most healthy choice. Hope I have not bored you with all this health talk, such an old lady conversation!
Jealous of Sue the above responder for her local independent cinema. Boy do I miss them!
Love from New York, Darby
Never worry about talking and writing about your health as it is our reality. And I hope the new blog will slowly change the attitude that we shouldn’t talk about our health – why ever not. Ageing is something that is real and we have to deal with it. I hope to reassure people about this and it will be one of the conversations we have plus of course all the other things that interest us such as our cultural activities, as we don’t cease our love of theatre, art, books and cinema when we age. The way I see it is, as we age we live our lives to the best but that also means saying something about our health issues – to repeat myself – why ever not!!
I am glad to hear the dizziness is resolving. You will hear in the next couple of weeks about my health, but for now I am going to say WOW – you’ve seen Dylan perform, how wonderful!!! You would love this film so I do hope it’s on somewhere near you. Also if you can’t get to see Nickel Boys I thoroughly recommend reading The Nickel Boys. Like The Underground Railway it’s very powerful and I can’t read it late at night.
I was wondering Darby I do watch every type of film including films that maybe now would seem very very liberal as you call it in the States (I will one day write about the different interpretation we Europeans give that word) I see many ‘liberal’ films including ones that feature racism in the States – are they easily available in the States? Interested to know.
Keep well and warm Darby – much love from over the pond 😊
I think the only one of these I’ve seen is The Substance, and I had major issues with it. First of all, everyone is going on and on about how great Demi Moore looks for being 61. Well, let’s face it, there’s been…ahem…a bit of work done there, right? On the other hand, unless they had an editor photoshopping for hours and hours, she works to keep her body looking like that. Secondly and most importantly, if the message of the movie is to criticize just how far a woman has to go to stay relevant in today’s world, why did they always have to be naked for the Substance to work? Did we really need to see both women completely naked so often. Then, of course, there are the workout scenes…they stopped just short of porn…or, did they? I honestly was shocked this film received Oscar nominations. I thought it was dreadful on so many levels. And, I’m not a prude by any means.
I do hope you’re able to iron out your IT bugs. I’d love to make some changes to my blog, but I’m scared to death I’ll wreck it!
Have a fantastic weekend, Penny! I hope you’re getting some sunshine!
https://marshainthemiddle.com/
This film is all wrong – every single part of it. As the younger versions is so obviously not Demi Moore how did she benefit from the transformation???? Nuts.
And as for all the body horror and the near porn shots….. I agree with you totally, I am neither prudish nor easily shocked. And I can watch blood in the form of quite often violent shoot outs of a certain kind like the JohnWick series. But this film was horrific and disgusting. If it wins any Oscars I shall be outraged!
RE: the Oscars – not liking them at the moment as for starters I think the views of the trans actress (who plays the lead role in Elvira Perez) were known for a long time. And now there is a controversy – timing!
But there are good films out there. Do see Conclave – so intelligent and intriguing and Nickel Boys – very powerful, and A Complete Unknown – what sheer delight! Now that’s such a good one to watch.
No sunshine here whatsoever! It’s grey and damp cold – but it’s very British weather so we are used to it 🤣
Thanks Marsha 😊
Oh it can be so stressful when tech things don’t work the way we want. Well, can be…. it just is. How is your writing a book going? And aren’t you often in this month going to Dungeness? Have a good weekend!
I’m going to Dungeness in September. Can’t go on holiday at the moment as I have hospital appointments to go to and issues to deal with. More about that soon.
The new blog will eventually turn into a book – that’s what I plan anyway. The IT issue is that the Jetpack email (that is sent out automatically to tell subscribers about a new post) refuses to do anything other than say it’s from Frugalfashionshopper – grrrrr!
You have a lovely weekend too Nancy 😊
Thanks for the recommendations. May I also recommend Maria with Angelina Jolie. She was surprisingly excellent and the accompanying sound track was obviously a bonus.
Oh yes, I shall watch the film when I can stream it as I missed it when it was on at the cinema. Btw, if you are from the UK there is an excellent documentary on Maria Callas which traces the reason for her declining voice to the way she was taught singing in the very early days of her singing life. It’s fascinating.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0026d5x/maria-callas-the-final-act
Thanks Christine 😊
I watched a wonderful film last night on Netflix called In Her Place. I related to the lead character Mercedes so much. It is set in Chile in the 1950’s so fabulous clothes.
Number 24 is another Netflix film, about the Norwegian Resistance in Ww2. Very interesting and the lead character is so very admirable.
Will look out for Her Place. I’ve been meaning to watch Number 24 for some time now. We were put off as it seems to be dubbed which is my idea of an absolute ‘no’. But we have just discovered that we can turn the entire system of Netflix to a certain language of your choice, so tonight we are going to watch Number 24 – in Norwegian, with subtitles of course 😂 I am always interested in anything Norwegian. Thanks Carole 😊
I haven’t seen any of these movies. I have been mostly watching movies with my boys. I hope you get your IT issues figured out soon. I do not like when that happens.
http://www.chezmireillefashiontravelmom.com
When we had kids we hardly did anything and we didn’t watch a lot of films either. You will, you will Mireille!
And if you ever have a teensy bit of time to yourself – look out for the films that I’ve given 5* – they are well worth watching 😊
Hopefully the It issue can be sorted..Thanks for all your film recommendations , not sure they have arrived here yet , we often get them much later in our local cinemas. As a matter of principal I refuse to use Amazon. Take care,
So glad for these recommendations. Now to find out if we can watch them at home or if we need to go to the theater. Looks like we can at least watch Nickel Boys and Conclave from our recliners!! Yay!! We have just finished the Yellowstone series. An awful lot of violence, deceit and not a single character we could really get behind or like. Took pictures of your suggestions so starting tomorrow we can start watching something worth our time!!