Review: Blade Runner

Quintessential film noir set in a rain-streaked dystopian city of the near future. Often copied, but rarely rivalled - while on the surface it's a story about a detective hunting down rogue robots, at its heart, it's a mediation on what it means to be human and the shortness of our individual existence.

It's not without its weaknesses. It's not an immediately accessible film, particularly in the newer non-voiceover cuts. That hardly matters to me as I've seen it so many times that I'm familiar with the meaning of the various allusions to the possible true nature of one of the principal characters and other iconography.

The plot is also not particularly strong either. But the visuals, oh my goodness. From the dirty, neon- crowded street level scenes to the ones soaring above it all - they were awe inspiring when I first saw the film in the late 80s, and they still feel remarkably current - especially in their use of light. That's an incredible achievement considering the film is more than 30 years old.

Verdict: Mediative and visually-striking.

Review: Night Shift

The last and best of the Midnight trilogy by Charlaine Harris.  Finally, each character's back story is fully fleshed out, and they feel less like individual cyphers and more like a community of interesting people.

There's only one mystery to solve, and it's a slow to get going. The resolution is somewhat obvious, but overall this is a much more satisfying read than the previous books.  This is because the characters feel individual and that they have agency rather than being there to simply move the plot on.

Verdict: Good paranormal fantasy.

Review: The Power of Time Perception: Control the Speed of Time to Slow Down Aging, Live a Long Life, and Make Every Second Count

I found this to be a quixotic read as it bills itself to be predominantly a hands-on guide, but the author spent the vast majority of their page count on discussing the theory of how our brains work in terms of perceiving time.  As is often the way with these books, I was hoping for a practical step by step guide focussing on application rather than an overview of the field and a few pointers.

But that doesn't mean it wasn't useful and thought-provoking read.  I can see myself returning to many of the ideas within it.

The key tips I took away were:

• Introduce more novel experiences to build more memories. Even taking a different route to work does this.
• Focus on collecting pleasant memories
• Build anticipation through planning experiences
• Increase mindfulness and pay more attention to what's going on at the moment
• Slow down.
• Induce flow by paying more attention to the task at hand.

Of those, the ideas around flow, novel experiences and collecting pleasant memories were of most interest.

Verdict: More thoughtful, than practical.

Review: Moonlight

Moving film which effectively subverts the "traditional" African American coming of age in a tough neighbourhood story to show a much more nuanced and vulnerable side to masculinity.

The cast is near-uniformly excellent, although Harris is exceptional. This is hardly a fast paced film, but the framing is at times exquisite which made it impossible to take my eyes away from the screen.

If there is a fault - it's in the sound design which made the dialogue difficult to follow at times.  That poses a real problem because the Amazon Video version we watched didn't have subtitles and key plot developments - like the fate of particular characters - can hinge on a single line of dialogue which allows you to infer something that happened off-screen.

Verdict: Rarely told story.

Review: Free Country: A Penniless Adventure the Length of Britain

Entertaining account of two young friends' attempt to travel from Land's End to John O'Groats starting with nothing more that a pair of Union Jack adorned boxer shorts each.

I breezed through this within a few hours, drawn in by the sheer ludicrousness of the experiment and easy writing style. Would they really be successful in relying on the kindness of strangers for clothes, transport, food and shelter for the entire trip?

I won't spoil the book, but it's fair to say that Britain has retained its tolerance for eccentrics.

It has plenty of comic moments, but like the protagonists I was beginning to tire of the trip as they settled into a routine of blagging and the places and characters they encountered became less distinctive - especially once they crossed the border into Scotland.

Verdict: Chilled-out fun travelogue.

 

Review: My Boy Jack

Made for television 2007 film starring Haig, Radcliffe, Cattral and Mulligan covering Kipling's son's wartime experiences. It's a poignant rather than redemptive story.

Haig is excellent as Kipling. By turns, he portrays Kipling as a rabble rousing war propagandist, a domineering father determined to live vicariously through his son and yet also a loving man. It would be easy to judge him harshly, but he was a man of his time.

Radcliffe doesn't have a great range - but the role of John Kipling - a young man unable to stand up to his father, but quietly determined in his own way suits him. It's not just in physical resemblance that his character resembles his on-screen father.

The standout scenes, for me, are of the trench where Kipling Jr's platoon are waiting to go over the top.  Somehow, it manages to capture the nuances of different members reactions much more effectively than most wartime dramas.

Also of personal note, the film features an early Douglas motorcycle. As a child, I helped a neighbour restore a slightly later example. The distinctive livery brought back a lot of memories.


Verdict: Satisfying wartime drama

Review: Purple sweet potato

The missus has been raving about the purple sweet potato from her native Borneo in the last week - and so I resolved to taste one if I could.  The only trouble is I live in North Wales with only a small town nearby.

But the universe must have been feeling kind this week (and no, I don't believe in any of that The Secret stuff) as I somehow found myself in town on market day - and local veg stall actually had them.  I selected the biggest of the tubers and handed over my quid.

The missus was only partly impressed. Apparently, it was not purple enough.

Returning home yesterday I found the missus had steamed it. The mid-purple flesh was firmer, more flavoursome but more subtly sweet and less watery than the orange variety. The skin had some bitter notes, but not overly so.

Verdict: Superior sweet tatws.