M3GAN 2.0: I didn't really expect much from this, so it's more a case of it exceding my low expectations than being genuinely great cinema. Still, I'm a sucker for a sequel where the prior antagonist joins the protagonists, especially when the character is having fun. It kept me entertained.
Sinners: It's a good hour before the film really gives an idea of what it's building to, so there's ample time to invest in the characters. It pretty much shifts to a different movie at that point, changing tone, but it works becuase of that strong foundation to start. Great performances all round.
Jerry Maguire: Even after his moment of clarity, he doesn't really learn his lesson. He keeps walking away from Rod at every opportunity until he has no other choice (and still wobbles even then). He's not any better with Dorothy. But Tom Cruise plays him so damn charming that it overcomes all that.
Still from Jerry Maguire, of a scene where he's holding a goldfish in a bag and asking if anybody else in the company will leave with him.
Still from the movie Sinners, with most of the principal characters standing in the doorway of the juke joint, looking out.
Still of a scene from the film M3GAN 2.0, with the Megan character up on stage and dancing (as part of her disguise).
Film highlights for February (first-time viewings only):
-Jerry Maguire (1996): The character shouldn't work as somebody to root for, but somehow does.
-Sinners (2025): Excellent. Puts in the work to develop the characters before everything kicks off.
-M3GAN 2.0 (2025): More fun than I expected.
"Shabana Mahmood vows to stick with hardline migration policies after byelection defeat."
"US and Israel launch joint attack on Iran as Trump urges regime change."
Gosh. Yesterday's feeling of cautious optimism really didn't last long, did it?
I'll enjoy the feeling of optimism that follows a result like this. No combination of Green:Labour share could have given Reform a victory. *Maybe* Labour will stop trying to out-Reform Reform and act more left-wing. *Maybe* there's enough non-right support nationwide to keep Farage from being PM.
Star Trek TOS passed me by as a youth, so I'm only going through it now. I've reached 'Shore Leave,' where Kirk believes Spock is massaging him and thinks nothing of it (then stops when he realises its the yeoman). It's moments like that when you can understand how TOS sparked so much... creativity.
"White-tailed eagles, pine martens and beavers will be released across England before the May elections as the Labour government attempts to staunch the flow of nature-loving voters to the Green party." It would certainly be novel to have a few months of Labour trying to appeal to Labour voters.
This captures the struggle that's coming to keep Reform from power. Like Farage, Goodwin doesn't want to spend time in the constituency and can't talk local issues, but that doesn't necessarily matter to some voters. They don't want to vote for politicians, because those people keep failing them.
My first run in Star Trek: Voyager - Across the Unknown ended in failure by sector 4, either in mutiny or destruction. It was going great until I ignored the main mission to go seeking out new life and new civilisations. The crew didn't appreciate delaying the voyage home (or the starvation).
Frustratingly obvious. David Cameron shifted the Tories to the centre to make them more palatable (and still needed a coalition). Voters to the right won't ever vote Labour, and voters on the left won't support a Labour party that only looks to the right. Bizarre. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
A year on, and it turns out it wasn't enough that the winners weren't Conservatives. We have a Labour party happy to sit in the centre ground vacated by the Tories, doing what a Tory government should be doing instead of what Labour should be doing, and just as paralysed by fear of Reform.
I finished The Day of the Jackal on Sunday. On Monday, Frederick Forsyth died. In the legion of thrillers he inspired, that wouldn't be mere coincidence. Of course, for a book that popular, it's more unlikely that somebody *doesn't* finish it on any given day.
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...
Emerging briefly from hibernation to acknowledge a rare feeling of political optimism. I'll still maintain my streak of never voting for a winning party (or referendum result), but the winners won't be the Conservatives. That's more than enough.
Image of an old metal clock, sitting on a much larger clockface that is weathered and damp, with a large window in the background letting in sunlight. The image is almost black and white, save for some brown colouring in the centre of the larger clock that looks like rust.
“The most it ever seems we know how to do with time is to waste it.”
- The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, by Claire North (2014)
One of my favourite reads of 2023. Time travel that isn't time travel, with a few people starting their lives over every time they die but retaining their memories.
I'll just post into the void for a while, until I get a feel for if this will stick. Pebble announced it was shutting down within weeks of me making my only post, so hopefully this will go better.
Some 2023 writerly statistics:
Books Read: 63
Words Written: 247,578 across 23 projects
Books Written: 2
Books Published: 0
Five books that are just about ready to publish, with a little work. Feels like that needs to be a goal for the year. Not a New Year's Resolution, but something to aim for.