film reviews, interviews, features | BRWC

Author: Esme Betamax

  • Your Fat Friend: Review

    Your Fat Friend: Review

    Your Fat Friend: Review by Esme Betamax

    I first found out about Aubrey Gordon via the You’re Wrong About extended universe – a smorgasbord of podcasts including but not limited to: You are Good, The Bechdel Cast, and Maintenance Phase, which Gordon hosts alongside Michael Hobbes (You’re Wrong About; If Books Could Kill). The pair teaming up to call bullshit on the wellness industry, one diet book at a time.

    In 2018 Gordon piqued the interest of acclaimed documentary filmmaker Jeanie Finlay after reading a single blog post: A request from your fat friend. Contacting her to float the idea of a documentary turned out to be a shrewd bet, as Gordon’s fanbase has since flourished. Astute but unsurprising as Finlay has an eye for interesting characters and fascinating subjects. Her 2019 film Seahorse follows 30 year old Freddy, a trans man, through his experience of pregnancy and childbirth. Weirder still is 2011’s Sound it Out, from the point in time when record shops were all but extinct (!)

    Filming Your Fat Friend over 6 years, Finlay folds in the journeys of Gordon’s parents, Rusty and Pam who separated years earlier. Initially reluctant to be in the film, Pam’s relationship with Aubrey ends up being one of the most engaging aspects of the film. Not that their dynamic is dramatic or bombastic – the moments that Finlay includes are kind and quiet, yet somehow together they begin to thaw a sort of shame-based permafrost. Feelings run deep and, as Pam attests, when you speak about them on film (and so can be held accountable), many things bubble up to the surface. It’s not a comfortable trip but it’s worth the effort.

    Having listened to Maintenance Phase, I thought I knew what I was in for, but did not expect my own feelings and memories to be cracked open:

    Two girls from my class in the infants playground, one ginger, the other blonde, the kind of inseparable Best Friends who had known each other since before they were born approached me to declare “Our mums say that people are tall and thin or short and fat, and you are short and fat”. Or the GP who brusquely told me at the age of 14 that I would benefit from losing at least a stone and sent me on my way. Why are these things lodged so clearly in my memory?

    In the way that the best documentaries do, Your Fat Friend is likely to leave you with more questions than answers. Yours will be different because these are personal journeys, but here are a couple of mine:

    Why do we speak so euphemistically about our bodies?

    What causes us to go to war with our own bodies and how will we stop?

    Aubrey Gordon and Jeanie Finlay tour the UK and Ireland, previewing Your Fat Friend  throughout January. At the Watershed screening Q&A host Naomi Alderman (author of Disobedience; The Future) remarked that as the younger women in her book The Power awaken something in older women, this film helped her come into her own fatness, letting go of shame and tapping into a source of strength. 

    L-R: Aubrey Gordon, Jeanie Finlay, Naomi Alderman

    Your Fat Friend is released in the UK on 9th February 2024

    Season 1 of The Power by Naomi Alderman is available on Amazon Prime

    The Power – Official Trailer | Prime Video

  • Viral Dreams: Raindance 21 Review

    Viral Dreams: Raindance 21 Review

    Viral Dreams is a documentary about YouTubers in 2020. It focuses on 7 young people whose big adventures were sent awry by the global pandemic. Their ever-growing subscribers follow them navigating isolation, uncertainty, fear, joy, and love. From Tequila, who is juggling raising a son, starting her own business, and earning a living as a stripper, to Riley, whose trajectory working on an empty cruise ship seems to start out like Sam Rockwell’s character in Moon, and end up closer to Chris Pratt’s character in Passengers (though a whole lot less problematic, I am sure).

    Deftly curated collection of videos, such that you forget that they did not set out to be part of this project. Do YouTubers ever consider themselves documentary filmmakers? These individuals don’t seem to think that. They talk of being part of a community. They have created TV shows with a built in parasocial aspect.

    This generation does appear to wear its heart on its sleeve. As though they cracked the secret early on that strength and vulnerability are inextricably linked. Is the ‘content’ interesting? Sure. Up to a point, though it’s not for me. It’s for their peers. Not wanting to leap headfirst into generational bickering (some of my best friends are boomers), but as a ‘Geriatric Millennnial’, I did not grow up immersed in social media. Young people have always used whichever technologies are available to them for communication purposes. If Wayne’s World is to be believed, Gen Xers had public access TV. 

    A lot of this film shows familiar aspects of growing up. Self expression is nothing new, though usually there is a break in communication with older generations (Abe Simpson put it best):

    Teenagers tend to pull away from adults, while those in their 20s appeal to them for respect. A bambi-legged display of confidence, worldliness, and bravura.

    So what is different? It seems to come down to the sheer scale of it. 1m subscribers? That’s a baffling number. Imagine the entire population of Bordeaux suddenly taking an interest in the minutiae of your life. How can it continue to be compelling? Mind you my nephews can watch hour upon hour of unboxing videos, so what do I know?

    I recently watched Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord, and was struck by how much the following statement could refer to social media, in Viral Dreams: “The Spectacle is simply the common language of the separation. Spectators are aligned solely by their one-way relationship to the very centre that keeps them isolated from each other. The spectacle thus reunites the separated, but it reunites them only in their separateness.”

    The highs and lows that we all felt throughout 2020 are displayed here, and accented brilliantly by the score, which is made up entirely from lockdown sessions. Viral Dreams ties together two main themes: Youthful exhibitionism, and the collective trauma of a global health crisis. The desire to build an archive is an innately human one, and an indelible record of young adulthood will prove to be a blessing and a curse.

  • Arab Blues: WoW Film Festival Review

    Arab Blues: WoW Film Festival Review

    It comes as quite a surprise that Arab Blues is writer/director Manele Labidi’s first feature length film. It has the effortless nature of an experienced director. With bold colours, fierce women, and a playful attitude towards sex and death, this could very well be an Almodovar number.

    The lead role, Selma Derwich, Psychoanalyst, is played by Golshifteh Farahani who you will likely remember alongside Adam Driver in Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson. She has returned to Tunis after a long stretch in Paris, having decided to set up her own psychotherapy practice. As it turns out, the rules and customs of her native land may be too difficult for her to navigate.

    Is Selma a local or a foreigner? She is recognised as both, and neither. Referred to as “Miss France”, subtle comedy arises through interactions with the locals. They are impressed by her intellect and worldliness, only to wind up bemused by how dense she can be about their way of life. Arab Blues contains a world of opposites. She is smart yet stupid. Savvy yet foolish. Pay close enough attention and you will be rewarded with brief cameos from David Hasselhoff, Demis Roussos and Julio Iglesias.

    Selma’s unexpected confidante, Olfa (Aïsha Ben Miled) is a particular favourite character of mine. Smart and rebellious, she reminds me of Catherine (Ludivine Sagnier) in François Ozon’s 8 Femmes.

    As a title for the English release “Arab Blues” works, but I prefer the original title “Un Divan à Tunis” (A Couch in Tunis) because status & authority (or lack thereof) seems entirely determined by the seat in which each person is sitting. Multiple scenes see characters butting heads over who may sit where.

    The film is complemented by the soundtrack which includes Città Vuota by Mina and original music by Fleming Nordkrog, a hugely prolific film composer.

    https://youtu.be/K9rZ1GIUMSA

    As she moves her belongings into her apartment, one man notices Selma’s framed portrait of Freud wearing a fez. He asks “Is he your father?” A simple enquiry that is oh so much deeper than he could know.

    Arab Blues is a strong debut from a sharp mind. Manele Labidi is one to watch. 

    WoW Film Festival

    Find what you seek in unexpected places. WOW “Wales One World” Film Festival is a small festival from Wales that started 20 years ago. We curate eye-opening world cinema so you can experience the weird, wild, wonderful world we live in. The 2021 WOW Film Festival is all available online, and all free! Small is beautiful.

  • Justine: Review

    Justine: Review

    Justine is a loosely spun tale of addiction and self-sabotage. It is written by Jeff Murphy (Hidden; Hinterland) and directed by Jamie Patterson, a dynamic director who spans genres from rom-coms to sci-fi-horrors at an average of two productions per year.

    Justine (Tallulah Haddon), is petulant and abrasive, spending her time drinking vodka and shoplifting (and shoplifting vodka). She roams around the sparsely populated and less trendy corners of Patterson’s hometown, Brighton, suggesting that this could be anywhere really.

    Justine picks up Rachel (Sophie Reid) with relative ease, perhaps representing a spontaneity that is lacking in her own life. Here there are similarities with My Summer of Love (2004), and Me Without You (2001), which delve into obsession and toxicity between young women, but are both far more compelling than Justine.

    The small cast includes a comedy-free appearance from Steve Oram (Sightseers; The End of the Fxxxing World), and Sian Reese-Williams, with the face for gritty British drama (Hidden; Silent Witnesses; Line of Duty). Reese-Williams is almost too convincing as Justine’s case worker. Delivering a message of support with the hard demeanour of someone who has seen it all before, and is fed up with your bullshit.

    Justine does not meet the expectations set by 2018’s Tucked, though the combination of sexuality, self-destruction, and addiction is a well that won’t run dry any time soon.

    Justine has a UK release date of 5th March 2021Jamie Patterson’s upcoming projects include The Kindred and God’s Petting You.

  • Robin Williams, American Master: Book Review

    Robin Williams, American Master: Book Review

    Robin Williams, American Master: Book Review. Esme Betamax @betamaxer

    Author Stephen Spignesi is “[…] considered a world authority on Stephen King, The Beatles, Robin Williams, the Titanic, and other historical and pop culture subjects.” So probably the right kinda chap to bring along to a pub quiz. This quote tells you everything you need to know about where the author stands: “Admittedly some of the jokes wouldn’t fly today in our politically correct and hypersensitive cultural climate”.

    In a bid to squeeze a little more out of Williams’s legacy (Robin, we’re on first name terms here) the author sticks to his film career for this volume, unlike his previous book on the subject. The Robin Williams Scrapbook, published in 1997, took a more general approach, covering film, television, and stand-up. He also takes the opportunity to clear up any uncertainty surrounding Williams’ death in 2014.

    Robin Williams, American Master contains a full filmography from Can I Do It…’Til I Need Glasses? to the posthumous release Absolutely Anything, via many uncredited roles. However, Spignesi would rather ignore a whole swathe of these films. He starts out pretty enthusiastically with 1980’s Popeye, but chucks it (with Can I do it…) under the bus, claiming Garp to be his true film debut. “Perhaps we should consider The World According to Garp as Robin Williams’s real film debut, Popeye notwithstanding.” His desire to appear impartial seems an odd stance to take.

    It comes as some surprise that a self confessed fan would present Robin Williams as he does. He views most of his film career as a square-peg-round-hole situation, in which Williams must repeatedly ad-lib his way out of bad scripts. He says “Robin Williams’s name on a film implies a certain something—sure it’s essentially an indefinable something” but it’s clear that for Spignesi that “something” boils down to the amount of stand-up material he can fit in, no matter the plot.

    Spignesi throws trivia at the reader with the pace and indiscrimination of an Aldi cashier. Some of these trivia points are informative, for example a full list of the 90(!) character transformations by the genie in the 3rd installment of the Aladdin franchise. More often they are dubious. For instance: “Patch [Adams] shouts out “Let’s do it!” which may be a nod to Robin’s deceased friend John Belushi who shouts the same thing in Animal House.” Surely this Belushi connection is too tenuous. 

    He refers to the same critics — Roger Ebert, “Robin Williams and animation were born for one another”; Leonard Maltin “Williams is terrific as usual”; James Berardinelli “Robin Williams hits all the wrong notes” — as a gesture towards continuity. However, the effect is more repetitive than anything, and the amount of negative feedback is unexpected.

    Robin Williams, American Master is for superfans and trivia nerds. It’s the box-set released by your favourite band that you have to buy if only for that one B-side you can’t get anywhere else.

    Robin Williams, American Master is due for release on January 21, 2021 from Post Hill Press