Entering summer madness mode aren't we? The heat may not have reached the UK, but we are on fire so many other ways. The former Brexit banker known as Farage is creating a stink because banks didn't want his money because, in playground speak, they didn't like him. I'm sure it's more complex than that, not that the papers would or could tell all, possibly because he knows some of the publishers anyway. And men get emotional about money. And any former banker is never a former banker. They always think in asset and liability terms. Bottom feeders, focusing on the bottom line. Tis a pity this story won't release more about Farage and his money, where it came from etc., but then that really would be opening up a can of worms, something no bank wants to happen.
But to more serious news, just watched Oppenheimer, which suggested that nuclear bombs will end the earth. Nope the earth will end us. The earth is on a tilt, something to do with water, I read somewhere, the Antarctic is dissolving which is awful but the 'powers' are pleased because then allegedly they are able to drill for oil, and volcanos are exploding more, and everyone is still intent on going to Greece, Turkey, southern Italy in the summer, with their families despite the fact it will be too hot to go out after a certain time and if you don't get sunstroke, skin cancer you may just dehydrate and faint as I did one year in Turkey (not even mad dogs went out that year in the mid day sun - just nutty English women..). See summer madness for you.
Anyway, back to bombs. Extraordinary performance by Cillian Murphy, and the supporting cast, but he is the mainstay of each frame. The bomb is not the star of the show, just a catalyst. Downey Junior plays a politician to perfection. Vindictive and patient hiding in the shadows, was a line that stung the audience, but then it was a Richmond audience and I am sure there are a lot of those who look out for the shadows and many who are in them. Politicians came out of it very badly, as in Hollywood films they always do - as do lawyers who are not the main character, and bankers. They know who the bad guys are. In fairytale land only the 'good' people will leave and all the horrid people will suffer unimaginable suffering and then disappear. Poof. Although that's subjective and based on perception and politicians, religion, certain media etcetera, do everything in their power to smudge, distort, blur that perception, so that in the end you don't trust anyone. Which was their game plan in the first place.
Chris Nolan really does not know what to do with his female stars. He wastes them, even in what I feel is his best film Inception, they are used sparingly, objectified to the point of being ornaments on the sideboard. Florence Pugh, in it only four times, although over exposed in three, is wasted and still manages to be amazing. Emily Blunt, again under used is brilliantly brittle. Downey Junior, away from his Iron Man, superb as a malevolent opportunist as is the case in politics. Fascinating to learn Hitler allegedly didn't want to invest in research into the atomic bomb as he viewed it as a Jewish weapon. Oppenheimer was complex but then genius are complex. It is the shallow puerile ones, as this film illustrates, who wait in the shadows deciding to drop the bomb. The government did everything they could to trash Oppenheimer's reputation, but the scientists who are collegiate (a concept quite alien to politicians and politics for that matter) banded together despite their differences, which were obviously academic. The bigotry overwhelmed their greed for power.
So when I went to see Barbie (full house, lots of men there surprisingly but all under 30) I was expecting puff candy floss pink. A film which celebrated women, where men played the bit parts. The media played up to the patriarchy in the 'real world' and focused on Ryan Gosling's fab performance as Ken who only exists when Barbie plays with him. A bit like Henry VIII only being remembered because he has six wives. In Barbieland, the women were in charge of everything, everything was pink, there was no eating, just pretend, no drinking, just pretend, no waves or water, just pretend, and women could be anything they wanted to be. Just pretend. No cellulite and no flat feet. Helen Mirren did a wicked take as a narrator. There was a feminist soliloquy which everyone clapped - the girls did and some of the boys although they know the world is still resolutely patriarchal. The most revealing thing was - and I was shocked by this - I know Ken. I have dated Ken. I have been taken back to Ken's Mojo Dojo Casa House. OK, not admittedly anyone as attractive and buffed as Ryan Gosling, but definitely plastic and shallow. In fact I know a lot of Kens. Or rather I knew. One unnervingly behaved so much like the Ken when he was at his most plastic, he was nothing more than a doll to be toyed with. And I loved the swipe at Pride and Prejudice. Clever.
And then I saw Alice in Wonderland in Kew Gardens which was amazing. I interviewed the writer and director and Alice and Mad Hatter, and told them about The Intelligent Gardener, my take on Alice who decided to not go down the rabbit hole and write her own narrative, taking on the narrator with big boots on. Real kick ass. Every production has strong characters. Sometimes its the protagonist, sometimes its the anti hero, sometimes its 'the other guy' who steals the scene. In this one it was the Queen of Hearts. She is so angry. Like raging Queen. Brilliant. In the original the King is simpering, but in this one he comes across between Boris Johnson (big belly) and City Trader. He is still brow beaten by the Queen. In fact there are a lot of angry women in Alice in Wonderland, and a lot of afraid men. Which brings me nicely back to Barbie and Openheimer, where oddly it was just the same and all the men are puerile war mongers and women angry queens. And some of the men are too.
