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Thanks to Andrew's parents adding us to their Netflix account we've been catching up on recent films released on the platform, notably Glass Onion (dir. Rian Johnson, 2022) and The Wonder (dir. Sebastián Lelio, 2022). The Knives Out films, as enjoyable as I find them, don't need any help from me. The Wonder , however, is a film I feel ought to research and write about, and it is that feeling moreso than the film itself that I'll share thoughts about for now. In 2016 while I was a fixed-term lecturer in film at Lancaster University I designed a project with which to apply for a Leverhulme early career fellowship in the hopes of getting myself a job remaining there and developing my career in a more solid direction. It was a study of contemporary transregional moving image production across Britain and Ireland. It would have been an expansion of my PhD research on these practices in Northern Ireland since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 out to and across the other smal...

Because I couldn't think of anything for this week's post, and especially because I'm sure you're all dying to know, I thought I'd update you on where I'm at with my late-in-life Star Trekking.  We completed Deep Space Nine a while ago and I do miss that crew. We also watched the four Next Generation movies, and with those done that means my time with Worf (Michael Dorn) is sadly at an end. I do have a soft spot for the stoic Klingon.  As I write, we're most of the way through season 2 of Voyager . Gaping wide holes in logic aside, I'm enjoying it and feeling affinity with members of its crew too, particularly Tuvoc (Tim Russ). I seem to be drawn to characters who have a stern exterior but who are actually rather vulnerable and practise stringent self-control unless something makes them crack. My favourite line so far is Tuvoc pointing out that we must 'not mistake composure for ease'. It struck me to the core. A key theme coming up in recently w...

I've recently spent some time in the company of the good and not-so-good folk of Dreamland and surrounding fairytale/medieval territories. As a huge fan of Futurama I was dubious about getting into another Groening creation for fear it would not live up to the geeky heights of its predecesor. But Netflix had my number as a substantial amount of my watch list is animation, and I bit when Disenchantment was pushed at the release of part 3 in January 2021.  The show's serial structure is notable: it is presented in parts with chapters, not seasons and episodes, reflecting its continuous story-arc rather than episodic self-contained narratives presented across a series. Even the designated lands, countries and settlements in between throughout the diegesis align with litereary genres and sub-genres all with their roots in fairytale, fantasy and science-fiction. Each place and the microcosmic communities or groupings within have despots, with unease and social change brewing amongst...