Kermode & Mayo's Extra Takes (2022-06-12, 2022-06-13, and 2022-06-16)
Recommendations:
The Nest (2020). 'Jude Law's best performance in ages'. As I was writing this, my wife reminded me that we already saw it, and enjoyed it, as with everything else we've seen from the same director.
All My Friends Hate Me (2022). 'Peter's Friends (1992) by Ben Wheatley'. Haven't seen Peter's Friends, but anything resembling Wheatley's work automatically piques my interest. Sounds like Silent Night (2021), but done right.
Swan Song (2021). Joint FOTW with the above. It's got that German guy from everything in it.
Twisted Obsession (1989). Also called The Dream of The Mad Monkey. Supposedly a twisted version of Peter Pan. Sounds really, really cool but very difficult to find.
Undone (2019). Elements of Slaughterhouse Five (the book) and A Scanner Darkly (the movie). Started to watch this back in 2019. Liked what I saw but never finished it, can’t recall why.
Miscellany:
Watched The Innocents, which was recommended a few weeks ago. It was great 👍
Watched the first two seasons of Unforgotten and started the third. I wouldn’t describe it as good — the performances and dialogue are super clunky — but something is keeping me going with it.
Watched five or six episodes now and The Essex Serpent is crap frankly. Not just subpar or dull, but a genuine failure of a miniseries. It's easy to lay all the blame on Danes' performance — she’s far too overwrought, to be sure — but the show wouldn't be half this bad if that were the only problem. She didn't make her character go crying off to bed three times in the same episode; that's in the script! I find none of the main characters even remotely interesting, the townsfolk are laughably stereotyped, and where is the bloody serpent?! I have to say that so far, these TV recommendations are not working out for me.
Watched All My Friends Hate Me. Not really a comedy; I would call it social horror. The mounting anxiety as main character never quite understands the motivations of others or how he himself is perceived strongly resonated with me, though I’m not sure for the reasons the filmmakers intended. It felt like I was watching a film of my life.