One of the many things that struck me at the peak of COVID (aside from at least one bout of the thing itself) was how unwilling mainstream cinema was to grapple with it. The pandemic was an inconvenience, a frustrating aside, one that didn’t align with the stories Hollywood wanted to tell. The few films that did mention it were explicitly About Covid, and exceptions to the rule. Which is strange when you consider how many films made during WWII that were not been explicitly about WWII still accepted WWII as a fact of modern life. Maybe because there was no TV, no physical media, and few rep theatres, films only really existed in the moment, so felt more obliged to reflect current events. Worrying about the longevity of a film was, in those days, as sensical as worrying about the longevity of a theatre production.

Maybe we’re shifting back to that WWII mindset. In, worryingly, more ways than one. Instead of cordoning off our escapist fantasies from the threat of societal, political, environmental, technological breakdown, cinema may have finally waved the white flag. You simply can’t ignore all this stuff any longer.

Continue reading →

The first proper book I ever read (or, to be honest, had read to me) was The Hobbit, and I spent most of my childhood (plus, to be honest, my adulthood) wanting to be one. As I wasn’t allowed to outside without footwear, the primary appeal (and, to be honest, the secondary and tertiary appeals) of being a Hobbit was living a lifestyle devoid of footwear.

Earlier this year, I took my first-ever trip to Aotearoa (New Zealand), and stepping – with actual shoes – into Hobbiton was a life-altering experience. This wasn’t like seeing the outside of Scottie’s house from Vertigo (a thoroughly random example that just happens to accord with something I did in San Francisco a year earlier); this was immersive and expansive and real, the town seeming to go on forever, just like I imagined it. As close to a childhood fantasy world properly coming true before your eyes as is physically possible. Continue reading →