review – Page 73

Everest – Film Review

September 23, 2015October 19, 2017yggdrasille

everestmoviex-144292675284pcl Yeah… I’m not picking up mountain climbing any time soon.

Everest is based on the true story of the disastrous climb in May 1996 when eight people lost their lives on the mountain due to the combination of horrible weather, poor decisions and just some plain bad luck. The film is a fairly straightforward portrayal of the tragedy; at the start, we meet Rob Hall (Jason Clarke), a New Zealander whose company offers guided climbs to the summit of Everest, and his group of adventurers. They spend some time at the base camp, where Rob decides to team up with a rival expedition leader, a laid-back hippyish climber called Scott (Jake Gyllenhaal). Then they’re off to the summit, and it’s not too long before the first ominous signs of an impending disaster begin to appear.

New Music 09/2015 – Florence + The Machine, Jessie Ware, SOAK, Georgia

September 21, 2015December 3, 2017yggdrasille

By a strange coincidence, the albums I’ve acquired lately are all by the British (and Irish) female artists and feature moody black-and-white cover photos. They are however nothing alike musically.

Florence + The Machine – How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful

Every time an artist I really like releases a new album my reaction is half excitement, half trepidation – what if it’s no good? Luckily it’s three for three so far for Florence. The reviews I’ve read billed this as a more subdued, intimate offering, and while that’s somewhat true it only really feels reigned in by comparison to Ceremonials, where the melodrama and bombast were cranked up to 11. That album remains my favourite, but a slight change in direction is a smart move, there’re only so many tribal drums and viking warrior vocals you can do before it becomes repetitive. While for me the new album doesn’t have an individual standout track like Rabbit Heart or What The Water Gave Me, the songs are all strong and Florence’s voice is still marvellous, with a few of the songs displaying a new delicacy. It’s a damn shame I’ll be missing out on her live shows this time around.

Random Acts of Heroic Love by Danny Scheinmann – Book Review

September 12, 2015February 6, 2026yggdrasille

This book was rather frustrating. It started off with a bang – in 1992, somewhere in South America, a young man named Leo wakes up in a hospital to find out that his girlfriend Eleni was killed in a bus accident. He has no memory of the crash, and is utterly overwhelmed with grief. This story then alternates with something completely different – in 1914, a young Jewish man named Moritz, who lives in what would later become Poland, is off to the war to fight for the Austro-Hungarian empire, leaving behind a girl he loves. So the book is about these two men in different eras, whose lives revolve around the memories of the women, and who go on quests spurred on by love – a more physical one in Moritz’s case, a more spiritual one for Leo.

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay – Book Review

September 7, 2015October 19, 2017yggdrasille

71BKpcWC4bL Reading this book was like spending a few hours in the company of a frank, intelligent, funny, opinionated friend whose insights make you laugh, nod and go ‘oh hold on there’ in equal measure; the only drawback was that, being a passive reader, you can’t start a discussion. I didn’t necessarily agree with every point made in the book, but then Gay makes it pretty clear that this is simply her opinions, not gospel, and acknowledges her own biases and contradictory feelings on certain issues – like singing along to the catchy-as-hell tunes while loathing their lyrics that demean women.

Control – Film Review

September 3, 2015June 16, 2024yggdrasille

I rewatched this wonderful and sad movie, based on life and death of Ian Curtis, the lead singer and lyricist of Joy Division.

Iris – Film Review

September 1, 2015October 5, 2022yggdrasille

iris

Went to see a documentary about Iris Apfel, the flamboyant 93-year-old style icon and fashion collector from New York with an outrageously individual dress sense.

I’ve seen Apfel’s glorious over-the-top outfits in various publications, yet what comes through the most in this warmly made film is the personality of this singular woman: down-to-earth, blunt, sharp and quick-witted. The camera follows her around the various stores where she rummages for treasures, at fashion shows and museum exhibitions, and at home which she shares with her 100-year-old husband Carl – in a way the film is a very sweet love story.

It also looks back at her career as an interior decorator (her clients included the White House, among others), and captures some of the process by which she assembles her creations: it is, Iris explains, all gut and instinct, putting things together which look like they’ve been created as one thing, rather than something that looks put together. She loves colour; black, she says dismissively, is not a style, it’s a uniform. Take that, black-loving Melbourne! I love black myself, but sometimes it’s outright depressing to walk into a store and see nothing but black, grey and navy.

Iris’ love of fashion and beautiful things and the sheer joy she takes in them was really inspiring to watch. She doesn’t sugarcoat over the tough aspects of the old age, the physical frailty and the periods of exhaustion that follow an activity, yet she’s determined to be in the world and do as much as she’s able to. If I make it into my 90s I can only hope to have the same spirit and love of life.

The Fabulous Baker Boys – Film Review

August 30, 2015June 17, 2024yggdrasille

Another DVD from Mum’s collection. I love films that revolve around music, and this one is about two brothers, Jack and Frank (real-life brothers Jeff and Beau Bridges), who make ends meet playing piano together, a double lounge act they’ve kept up for over ten years.

Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult – Book Review

August 29, 2015September 12, 2022yggdrasille

Jodi Picoult’s novels are my comfort reading, probably in the same way Agatha Christie’s crime novels are. By all rights I should find them overly sentimental and cloying, but there’s just something fundamentally likable, cosy and wholesome about her style – even when she writes about murder, incest or prison rape – and her strong sense of family and friendship is always very appealing.