Peter Yorke

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Some George Clooney movies turn out great, and some turn out to be mediocre. This is one of the. better ones.Based on a play,the film focuses on a political campaign worker Stephen Meyers’ and the things he has to do to get his candidate to win the Democratic Primary in Ohio,a stepping stone to the Presidency. The film takes its time, opening in media res, establishing its characters, with overlapping dialogue, quick changes of scene,creating the bustle of a political campaign office. It might take a viewer a while to to clearly separate the mundane from the dramatic in terms of events, and for the main strands of the plot to become apparent, but in the end close attention pays off as the tension builds .Well acted, it could be said that the film reinforces the already well established jaundiced view of politics and politicians and has nothing different to say about politics that has not been said before by Machiavelli and others Nevertheless a film worth watching now that American political scene has become darker and murkier than when this film was made in 2011.

The Ides of March

16 likes

I have heard raves about this film since it’s release in 2007, and now finally have got around to see it. It lives up to its hype to the extent I wish I had previously unwrapped the dvd I bought several years ago . Put off by misguided assumptions about the film, I expected it to be slow moving and arty as too many award foreign films often are It turns out to be a spy film without car chases or violence but nevertheless taut and suspenseful in its portrayal of one man’s everyday life in the East German Stasi in the period before the fall of the Berlin Wall. It is claimed that its portrayal of the Stasi is not quite accurate as The members of the Stasi worked with partners rather than alone as dramatised in this film.This makes the conflict that the main character undergoes somewhat unlikely.However, many other spy films take the same degree of poetic licence. Dont be put off by subtitles, they don’t distrac5 from the quality of the film.

The Lives of Others

19 likes

I loved it and can see why others loved it despite in some respects being a silly film. Starts in a serious manner, but turns more and more into a reminder of Hitchcocks spy films A scene when two spies meet in a music hall remind me of this.As an ex school teacher, I was intrigued that a school such as portrayed here actually existed.The story devised by main actor Eddie Izzard and others decides not to take matters too seriously, and perhaps wastes some of its potential. Entertaining and kept my attention,but a film not strong enough to be serious drama,or funny enough to be comedy.

Six Minutes to Midnight

1 like

I first heard of this book as a teenager, but it has taken me over fifty years to finally read it. Not really a novel,but interconnected stories, built around around a series of political and philosophical debates between pairs of characters, anecdotes stretching across a galaxy over a 200 year period,with very little action, and only glimpses of space warfare lurking vaguely behind some of the debates, this book was probably avantgarde for its genre in its first 1951 publication. How Asimov conveys the epic nature of his setting is the best aspect of the book. Considered to be influential on later sci fi epics like Star Wars , I can’t help wondering what I would have thought of it as a teenager.Its lack of a coherent narrative would probably have made it less than gripping for me to read then Despite the still compelling setting and ideas behind the stories ,aspects of Asimovs writing are now very dated.Some of the conflicting characters debate over the role of atomic power seem trapped in 1940s when it was new. When intergalactic monarchs and ambassadors, break their philosophising to converse in colloquial terms ,using expressions like,’Come,come sir’, this could almost belong in a Victorian setting rather than a novel about the future. Rulers in Asimovs future universe are still medieval in their titles and entitlements, and paternalistic in attitudes to their female consorts even in this imaginary future. Nevertheless, I am committing myself to reading the other two books of the original trilogy, and considering whether it lives up to its greatreputation.

Foundation

59 likes