#but my boy james norton suffers WELL

[hold-him-down]

y’all my cup runneth over tonight. i rarely feel like purely happy and even more rarely can let the day to day stressors go but i just LOVE TRIPS and love theatre and love the whump vibes and god damn if a little life didn’t deliver on all three 🥰🥰

[emma-what-son]

Little Women reviews are in

I’ve noticed that some reviews are just simply overwhelmingly positive. I just don’t trust that. There has to be something you disliked! The pace, any changes the director has made... Something! Anyway, as always I’ll only post reviews mentioning Emma.

Vanityfair: I won’t go through all the other players in the ensemble, but most of them inhabit their roles with just the right pep and insight. (Only Watson, as dour eldest sister Meg, runs into some flatness.) Gerwig has a lively, natural directorial rapport with actors, creating comfortable spaces in which they can more easily form organic bonds. Little Women is nicely textured in that way, possessed of all the easy chatter and squabble of people who genuinely know one another.

Indiewire: “Little Women” isn’t always perfect: A few line readings fall flat — whenever Watson slips out of her American accent, all bets are off — and a handful of characters aren’t given nearly as much dimension as the sisters. Laura Dern’s soft-hearted Marmee is almost too good to be believed, and Bob Odenkirk’s boisterous initial introduction as the March family patriarch feels out of place (though it’s later redeemed during one of the film’s more amusing final sequences). And yet Gerwig and her girls know the hearts and minds of the sisters through and through. “Little Women” is about them above all else.

Empireonline: And while Meg gets a few good scenes, she’s still underserved compared with her younger sisters.

TheHollywoodreporter: Among the large cast, Watson somewhat fades into the background, possibly because the pretty, vivacious girl makes way so early for the thoroughly good wife who married for love, not material comfort. Dern at times seems a tad contemporary as Marmee, but then that could partly be because her delectable skewering of a quintessential L.A. type in Marriage Story remains so fresh in my mind. But even with limited screen time, all the actors register as fully formed characters.

Variety: A long way from her days as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter movies, Watson portrays Meg as the sister who most knows what she wants, which makes the character’s choice feel like less of a compromise. Pugh has the tricky part, since so many find Amy’s personality off-putting, whereas she makes it possible to understand the difficulties of living in her sister’s shadow.

Screendaily: But this is an all-star marquee line-up. A somewhat miscast Emma Watson - she’s just too modern a presence - plays Meg, Eliza Scanlen is Beth, Laura Dern is Marmee while Meryl Streep plays Aunt March. On the male side, Timothee Chalamet is Laurie, with Louis Garrel playing Professor Bhaer and James Norton as Mr Brooke, the hard-up apple of Meg’s eye. The hair department must have worked overtime.

Screenrant: But while Jo is perhaps the closest Little Women gets to a single protagonist, and Ronan carries that starring role well, Gerwig's script makes sure to give each of the March sisters' their due. Watson brings a great deal of depth and empathy to Meg, while there's a steel to Pugh's Amy that allows her to hold her own alongside Ronan's Jo in a way that's fascinating to watch. Scanlen's Beth has all the sweet charm that the youngest March sister needs. Dern and Meryl Streep round out the exceptionally strong main female cast, bringing warmth and cold sensibility, respectively.

Dailymail: So the performances are terrific across the board, and that includes Watson (who reportedly replaced Emma Stone). She’s a limited actress magicked by Hermione Granger’s wand into better roles than her talent deserves, but she’s perfectly lovely as Meg, the eldest sister.

Telegraph: Emma Watson, supplying her usual finished charm, has no challenge lending consistency to dutiful-but-dull Meg, the eldest; and Eliza Scanlen gives a pale vulnerability to sickly piano prodigy Beth, “the best of us”.

Nerdist: The film isn’t without its weaknesses. The back-and-forth editing is occasionally confusing, and sometimes hinders the power of Jo’s arc. Her growing dissatisfaction with her work and her isolating loneliness is powerful when chronological, and suffers a bit here interspersed with happy memories of togetherness. There’s also one puzzling addition to her relationship with Laurie that rings false to Alcott’s story and Jo’s character, although not detrimentally. Laura Dern’s Marmee feels a little too sparkly compared to the hard-worn and exhausted character of the book, and Emma Watson’s Meg fails to make much of an impression, though she has a few touching moments that contrast her desires with her sisters’.

Flickeringmyth: If anything, the only noticeable flaw with Little Women is that for anyone that’s not Jo or Amy, it feels like there should be more that was probably edited down to keep the running time from going any higher than 2 hours and 15 minutes. That goes for Meg’s relationship and inevitable marriage, the bad boy behavior of Laurie who doesn’t know how to deal with rejection at first (he decides to pursue Amy following that, with Florence Pugh eliciting a great deal of emotion and making a case for Best Supporting Actress choosing between lovers and what’s best for her own passions), and one or two more scenes centered on Beth.

Moviecitynews: Emily Watson seems to be the #2 little woman as Meg, but she unselfishly lets the second dominant character come slowly into focus through the film in the form of Florence Pugh, whose character, Amy, is not as clear about what she wants. Both just get better and better through the film. And Beth, played by Eliza Scanlen, has the least to do in the film, but still comes through as a fully formed character.

Butwhythopodcast: As Meg, Watson is stunning. She carries a calm emotion, embodying her role as the older sister, the template for the girls behind her. Each of the women carries a burden with them, while they carry it differently, they share it all the same. Gerwig nails the burden of family perfectly, while also showing us how a family carries together.

Lenoirauteur: Speaking of a lack of there there, poor Emma Watson. Her Meg has a really interesting story on face value but the story doesn’t get to really dig into her interior life. Which is a shame, because I felt Meg’s desire to know and want fancy things only to fall in love with a man who doesn’t have much is very interesting! But what good does interesting do me, if we barely spend time with her and everyone else gets a much more epic Laurie moment. It’s in the moments we spend with Meg where Gerwig’s changes strain against what you can do with a text and still maintain its effectiveness.

Timeout: But it’s Midsommar’s Florence Pugh who wows you the most as youngest Amy, gliding from bratty competitiveness to a hard-headed realism. (If Emma Watson and Eliza Scanlen as the other two March girls, Meg and Beth, don’t make the same impression, it’s by intention: Gerwig has designed them more as mirrors.)

Everymoviehasalesson: The titular Chatty Cathys are the four March sisters of the 1860s at different coming-of-age stages. The two youngest, Beth (newcomer Eliza Scanlan of Babyteeth) and Amy (rising star Florence Pugh), look up to their older two sisters, Jo (three-time Academy Award nominee Saoirse Ronan) and Meg (the now nearly-30 Emma Watson) with shifting notes of reverence and jealousy.

Denofgeek: Watson’s Meg, meanwhile, feels like wallpaper despite leading many scenes, although this might simply be the result of Watson’s limited range in comparison to Ronan and Pugh.

 Thespool: Ronan continues to prove a beautiful creative partner for Gerwig; her Jo’s an iconoclast and a spitfire, but that just makes her moments of vulnerability that much more deeply felt. Watson turns in fine, elegant work as Meg, and Scanlan commands the screen with quiet stoicism. But Pugh’s Amy March is a particular standout, her pouty brattiness belying her genuine insight into others, especially Laurie.

Forbes: Watson has perhaps the most challenging (and least audience-friendly) role, as the proverbial straight woman of the sisters who is put on the defensive when her dreams end up being the most conventional of the lot.

[sunsetstudiesx]

Film Recommendations!

I thought I’d recommend some of my absolute favourite movies, because I love sharing my love of movies and just things in general with people. So, in no particular order, here is my list of recommendations:

1. Tombstone (1993)

So I just watched this movie a couple days ago and absolutely loved it. Yes, it is a western. Do you need to like westerns to watch it? Nope. That’s why it’s great. And, it’s based on real people/real events. I sobbed hysterically at the end, but I’m also a huge sap. Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday is perfection. I love love love him.

Here’s the plot summary: Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell) and his brothers, Morgan (Bill Paxton) and Virgil (Sam Elliott), have left their gunslinger ways behind them to settle down and start a business in the town of Tombstone, Ariz. While they aren't looking to find trouble, trouble soon finds them when they become targets of the ruthless Cowboy gang. Now, together with Wyatt's best friend, Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer), the brothers pick up their guns once more to restore order to a lawless land.

Quotes:

“I’m your huckleberry.”

“Why, Johnny Ringo, you look like somebody just walked over your grave.”

“You gonna do somethin’ or just stand there and bleed?”

2. Fight Club (1999)

Okay. Okay. I just watched this one, too, and let me tell you. If you haven’t seen it/haven’t been spoiled for it, you have no idea what it’s really about. Honestly. It’s so fuckin’ weird and it blew my mind which is something I thought only M. Night Shyamalan could do. Wow, just. . . wow. Watch it, I implore you. I think everyone essentially knows the basic plot, but here it is if you want it, straight from google:

A depressed man (Edward Norton) suffering from insomnia meets a strange soap salesman named Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) and soon finds himself living in his squalid house after his perfect apartment is destroyed. The two bored men form an underground club with strict rules and fight other men who are fed up with their mundane lives. Their perfect partnership frays when Marla (Helena Bonham Carter), a fellow support group crasher, attracts Tyler's attention.

Quotes:

“You met me at a very strange time in my life.”

“The things you own end up owning you.”

“It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything.”

3. Unbreakable (2000)

Speaking of M. Night Shyamalan. While every one of his movies I’ve seen (Split, Glass, Lady in the Water, The Visit) have all been fantastic and mind-blowing, Unbreakable still has my favourite premise and my favourite Shyamalan twist ending. I love this one, even though I don’t really care for Bruce Willis.

Plot summary: A security guard, having been the sole survivor of a high-fatality train crash, finds himself at the centre of a mysterious theory that explains his consistent physical good fortune. When news of his survival is made public, a man whose own body is excessively weak tracks him down in an attempt to explain his unique unbreakable nature.

Quotes:

“Do you know what the scariest thing is? To not know your place in this world. To not know why you’re here.”

4. This is the End (2013)

Seth Rogen. Jay Baruchel. James Franco. Jonah Hill. Danny McBride. Craig Robinson. Playing themselves. The apocalypse. Hilarity ensues. Cameos from Emma Watson, Kevin Hart, Michael Cera, Rihanna, Paul Rudd, Channing Tatum, Aziz Ansari, Jason Segel, Mindy Kaling, and the Backstreet Boys. It’s so funny, I absolutely love it.

Plot summary: In Hollywood, actor James Franco is throwing a party with a slew of celebrity pals. Among those in attendance are his buddies Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride and Craig Robinson. Suddenly, an apocalypse of biblical proportions erupts, causing untold carnage among Tinseltown's elite and trapping Franco's party in his home. As the world they knew disintegrates outside, cabin fever and dwindling supplies threaten to tear the six friends apart.

Quotes:

“I don’t want to die at James Franco’s house.”

“Oh, no, no, no. I’m drinking and smoking weed. I’m on a cleanse, I’m not psychotic.”

“Take it easy, Dumbledore.”

5. You’ve Got Mail (1998)

Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. This might be my favourite romantic comedy, and I watch a lot. They’re adorable, and Meg Ryan is everything. This one made me cry twice. Once from sadness, once from happiness. Also it has Dave Chappelle in it, who I absolutely love.

Plot summary: Struggling boutique bookseller Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) hates Joe Fox (Tom Hanks), the owner of a corporate Foxbooks chain store that just moved in across the street. When they meet online, however, they begin an intense and anonymous Internet romance, oblivious of each other's true identity. Eventually Joe learns that the enchanting woman he's involved with is actually his business rival. He must now struggle to reconcile his real-life dislike for her with the cyber love he's come to feel.

Quotes:

“There’s the dream of someone else.”

“But I just wanted to say that all this nothing has meant more to me than so many somethings.”

“I love daisies. They’re so friendly. Don’t you think daisies are the friendliest flower?”

6. A Hard Day’s Night (1964)

For anyone who loves The Beatles. Here they play themselves, and show what their lives are like. It’s ridiculous and hilarious and god, if I didn’t love them before I loved them dearly after watching. It’s such a fun, easy watch and I adore it.

Plot summary: Over two "typical" days in the life of The Beatles, the boys struggle to keep themselves and Sir Paul McCartney's mischievous grandfather in check while preparing for a live television performance.

Quotes:

“How did you find America?” “Turned left at Greenland.”

“Hey mister can we have our ball back!”

“You’re a swine.”

7. Dazed and Confused (1993)

My favourite movie to watch at the beginning and end of the school year, and let’s be honest, every month in between. I’ve seen this movie more times than I can say. I love the ‘70’s setting, the actors, the plot. Another wonderful, easy watch that just makes me happy. Killer soundtrack, too.

Plot summary: The adventures of high school and junior high students on the last day of school in May 1976.

Quotes:

“You just gotta keep livin’, man. L-i-v-i-n.”

“It’d be a lot cooler if you did.”

“I just wanna look back and say that I did it the best that I could while I was stuck in this place.”

“I’d like to quit thinking of the present, like right now, is some minor, insignificant preamble to somethin’ else.”

8. Dirty Dancing (1987)

Anything with Patrick Swayze is wonderful, and this is no exception. Johnny and Baby are perfect. This movie also has the best soundtrack of any movie I’ve ever watched. Fantastic love story, fantastic movie. Watch it.

Plot summary: Baby (Jennifer Grey) is one listless summer away from the Peace Corps. Hoping to enjoy her youth while it lasts, she's disappointed when her summer plans deposit her at a sleepy resort in the Catskills with her parents. Her luck turns around, however, when the resort's dance instructor, Johnny (Patrick Swayze), enlists Baby as his new partner, and the two fall in love. Baby's father forbids her from seeing Johnny, but she's determined to help him perform the last big dance of the summer.

Quotes:

“Nobody puts Baby in a corner.”

“Fight harder, huh? I don’t see you fighting so hard, Baby. I don’t see you running up to daddy telling him I’m your guy.”

“You’re right, Johnny. You can’t win no matter what you do.”

“Go back to your playpen, Baby.”

9. The Sound of Music (1965)

This is such a beautiful movie, and I love it so much. My mom and I try to watch it every Christmas as our little tradition. Julie Andrews as Maria is so wonderful, and all of the songs are so, so good. I love all of the children dearly, and oh, do I love Captain VonTrapp.

Plot summary: A tuneful, heartwarming story, it is based on the real life story of the Von Trapp Family singers, one of the world's best-known concert groups in the era immediately preceding World War II. Julie Andrews plays the role of Maria, the tomboyish postulant at an Austrian abbey who becomes a governess in the home of a widowed naval captain with seven children, and brings a new love of life and music into the home.

Quotes:

“You cry a little, and then you wait for the sun to come out. It always does.”

“God bless Louisa, Brigitta, Marta, and little Gretl. Oh, I forgot the other boy. What’s his name? Well, god bless what’s-his-name.”

“I want you to stay. I ask you to stay.”

10. Gladiator (2000)

“Are you not entertained?” I think everyone has heard that line, from this amazing movie. One of the many that has made me cry, it’s such a beautiful story. Also, gladiators. That immediately sells it for me. All of the performances by the actors are top notch as well.

Plot summary: Set in Roman times, the story of a once-powerful general forced to become a common gladiator. The emperor's son is enraged when he is passed over as heir in favour of his father's favourite general. He kills his father and arranges the murder of the general's family, and the general is sold into slavery to be trained as a gladiator - but his subsequent popularity in the arena threatens the throne.

Quotes:

“My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius. Commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, and loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance. In this life or the next.”

“What we do in life echoes in eternity.”

“Falling down is how we grow. Staying down is how we die.”

[sigmastolen]

hoo boy big finish was on a hot streak for its fourth torchwood bundle (episodes 19-24)

i already talked about how much i liked “the death of captain jack” but it’s worth saying again -- so good, so dark, so funny.  excellent cameos and easter eggs.  what a triumphant return to the franchise for james marsters and yet what a delicious defeat for john hart.  10/10 would listen again

“the last beacon” is a goddamn delight of an odd-couple buddy-cop comedy.  gdl sets up a hilarious -- if exaggerated -- dynamic between owen and ianto, the mystery is engaging, the action and horror are effective, and the dramatic scene with pat honestly moved me to tears.  the idea of being the last of one’s kind really fucks me up, honestly, it’s the same emotional trigger that gets me with rhinos and thylacines and shit.  but then it has the gentle ending and honestly, i needed that kindness after crying my eyes out, and i love it when we get to see owen have a heart -- that must have been the good doctor, the man that wanted to save every life he could, the man katie wanted to marry.  this episode is both laugh-out-loud funny and emotionally satisfying, 5/5 stars.  highlights: ianto trying to put on a “valley boy” accent, i died; ianto and owen rolling down a hill like children; the bonus tape of gareth and burn fucking around in character(-ish).

the trailer for “we always get out alive” didn’t serve it well, i think.  i was a bit put off and i delayed listening to it, but when i finally did i was transfixed.  it’s nearly 50 minutes of just gwen and rhys in a car and it is masterful.  the pervasive, creeping horror ramping up to outright terror; the sound design; the banter between gwen and rhys; the performances from eve and kai.  and how great is it that eve finally gets to show a little more range !!!  not that i don’t love her as an action hero but gwen has always been so much more than that, and this episode understands that.  it’s a wonderful, terrifying, intense bottle episode and i love it and i love gwen and rhys and i love eve and kai.  two thumbs up

“goodbye piccadilly” is also a fantastic episode of torchwood in a completely opposite way to “we always get out alive.”  it’s wall-to-wall action, gangsters, and camp, a wild, often-nude, historically-informed romp.  pc andy and norton folgate are the dream team, honestly.  even “outbreak” and “the torchwood archive” couldn’t put me off norton, he’s too much fun, and this episode showed us a bit of vulnerability as well as scheming from him.  andy, meanwhile, is earnest and long-suffering as ever, but also gets to show some hidden depths and darkness.  they’re so well-matched, and norton clearly cares for andy despite himself (and while andy is possibly the only true heterosexual in all of torchwood, norton is definitely his “if i had to pick a dude”), and tom price and samuel barnett clearly have way too much fun together.  the human characters here are diverse and great, the alien characters are also diverse and great, the homage to h.g. wells is great, and it’s a rollicking good time.  i also appreciate big finish’s dedication to calling out andy’s straight white male privilege and confidence, here and in “the empty hand” (even though that ep was not nearly as good as this one).  excellent, perfect, A+, i’ve already listened to it three times.

“instant karma” was the only lag point in this bundle and honestly it only feels that way because the rest are so superlatively strong.  this episode is firmly rooted in humanity -- human pet peeves, human character flaws, human connection, and, most of all, human monstrosity.  naoko is wonderful as always and the actors playing simon and janet do a phenomenal job -- but three different people have writing credits on this episode and it kind of feels like it when you try to focus on tosh.  she is so hurt -- by mary, by owen and gwen, by jack, by all of humanity -- at this point in s1 that it’s a perfect time for her to get in too deep with something she shouldn’t (this post-”greeks bearing gifts” period is when my own tosh-centric WIP fic is set), but i feel like this episode doesn’t know what else is going on with her emotionally and motivationally.  is it just another case?  is she trying to distract herself with something outside the team?  is she trying to restore her faith in humanity? “instant karma” doesn’t know.  that said, where tosh is out of focus, simon and janet are crystal clear and familiar.  janet is good-hearted but insecure and desperate; she’s had a rough go so she feels like she needs to take any scraps of attention she can get from a man and it’s her responsibility to accommodate his bad behavior and repair his damage.  i know this woman.  simon is the entitled guy who feels like he’s been dealt a worse hand than he deserves, therefore he’s exempt from the rules; he’s every woman-hating maladjust who negs girls at the bar then writes a reddit screed when a regular customer at his service job doesn’t smile at him; he’s every misanthropic manbaby who complains about children and the elderly being humans in spaces where they have every right to be and throws a tantrum whenever the world doesn’t go exactly how he prefers.  for all that’s he’s an amalgamation of negative male archetypes, he’s also a three-dimensional character that i found so easy to hate that it actually made me want to walk away from this story because i was getting angry at him.  it’s so satisfying for janet to be the powerful one, so satisfying for her to overcome simon, but then very disturbing for her to show more powerful than tosh at the end.  i feel like tosh, in “greeks bearing gifts” and in this story, keeps getting choices and power taken away from her, and i hate that for tosh.  so anyway, this is a good story, but i can’t call it a great one.

“deadbeat escape,” though, is a great story.  it’s another one that uses creeping horror to great effect, because we’re on edge the instant we hear bilis manger’s voice and then things just get worse.  our guest hero hywel is easy to get attached to and root for, first callous, then kinder, and his reluctance, then desperation, to see his father is extremely relatable.  the unfolding of the story even puts us briefly on manger’s side, and i love his description of himself as the time’s regulator -- not good, not evil, just doing a job -- although i’m not certain i trust it.  hywel’s despair and suicide (attempted?  is it only attempted if he did the deed, but because he’s trapped in a creepy hotel outside of normal time, he woke up alive again?) and then further despair fucked me up a lot, and manger’s closing soliloquy is delicious.  murray melvin really sank his teeth into this script and i love it.  bravo, bravissimo, standing ovation.

[fancoloredglasses]

[RERUN] The Star Wars Holiday Special (May the Farce Be With You)

[All images are owned by Lucasfilm Disney, whether they want them or not. Please don’t sue me]

Much like with Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, this review was one that I feel truly suffered due to not finding many images to work with before I knew how to screencap. It’s also the other of my reviews that one of my followers (who is one of my best friends) thought was too painful to slog through (whether it was due to the walls of text or the subject itself is anyone’s guess)

Therefore, in honor of the holiday season Life Day, I present a RERUN version of my original review (which can be found here)

You’re welcome! Now, on with the review!

Every Christmas season (yes, I know there are other holidays in December, and I would happily acknowledge them if the networks would, but I have only heard of one Hanukkah special and not one Kwanzaa special), the airwaves are flooded with holiday specials dating as far back as the mid 60s. Many are classics, others...not so much (I’m looking at you, He-Man and Pac Man!) However, there is one holiday special that lives on in infamy.

The year was 1978, A New Hope Star Wars was released a year prior and fans worldwide were looking for anything to get their fix until the promised sequel would be released in 1980. What they got was...well...this.

The major characters returned: Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, R2-D2, C-3P0, Vader (well, clips of Vader from Star Wars, though James Earl Jones did phone in a few new lines of dialogue over the old footage), although they were all regulated to cameo appearances.

[Quick note: Harrison Ford wanted nothing to do with this. Mark Hamill agreed as long as he didn’t have to sing. Carrie Fisher agreed as long as she could sing.]

No, sitting center stage were characters that were sure to at least be supporting characters in the promised sequel (...well, one on the periphery made good on that promise)

You see, someone in their infinite wisdom decided that veteran comedy actors Art Carney (Ed Norton from The Honeymooners), Bea Arthur (the star of the sitcom Maude and future Golden Girl), and Harvey Korman (regular cast member of The Carol Burnett Show, playing three roles in this production) would entice the fans of Star Wars and they would line up to get toys featuring their characters.

The show was never seen on TV again after its initial airing. Fans hated it. George Lucas disavowed its existence, stating he wanted to round up every bootleg copy so he could burn them in effigy.

I remembered enjoying it (but then, my age at this point had not reached double digits), and wondered why it didn’t return the following year. A number of years ago, one of my favorite websites, in their annual celebration of the worst holiday fare (which includes Christmas Comes to Pac-Land, Santa With Muscles, and Santa Claus Conquers the Martians) wrote a review of this program (I admit I may have stolen been inspired by a few of the jokes for this review. I regret nothing!), and I decided it couldn’t be as bad as the site claimed.

It was. Hoo-boy it was! It wasn’t 100% devoid of entertainment, though it certainly doesn’t fall into “so bad it’s good” territory.

While, as of this writing, Disney+ ain’t touching this with a ten-foot lightsaber, you can find it online via several sources. I’m using this one on YouTube.

We open to footage ripped from the movie (we will see that a lot. These guys obviously had very little budget) of the Millennium Falcon being chased by two star destroyers near a planet that looks suspiciously like Tatooine.

Han (who looks like a man who is contractually obligated to be there and just wants to get this over with) is desperately trying to get out of this production Chewie home to his family in time for something called “Life Day” (what, you thought they celebrated Christmas in a galaxy far, far away?), which is an important day in Wookie culture. In fact, it’s so important that it’s never mentioned again in any of the films or television series! Han eventually engages the hyperdrive and the Falcon speeds away and the opening credits roll.

Speaking of the opening credits, we are introduced to Chewbacca’s family for the first (and only) time...

First we have Chewie’s wife, Malla. We know she’s a female Wookie because she’s wearing lipstick.

Next up we have Chewie’s son Lumpy (dear gods I hope that’s short for something or this kid is gonna get the shit kicked out of him in Wookie school) Lumpy has the sort of voice that’s nails-on-the-chalkboard irritating. It doesn’t help that he looks like an overweight Ewok in desperate need of a haircut.

Finally, we have Chewie’s father Itchy, (I swear I’m not making that up!) an ancient Wookie with a serious underbite and an unhealthy love of porn (I wish I was making that up!)

These three are the central characters of this production, and get the majority of screen time. Anyone who has seen any Star Wars film featuring Chewbacca knows how Wookies communicate. Picture repeated conversations over 10 minutes of Wookies talking to one another...with no subtitles.

Anyway, the credits end and we open on a matte painting of a bunch of tree houses that I’m assuming is supposed to be a village on the Wookie planet of Kashyyyk.

We then switch to the inside of one (Chewie’s home...not that he’s ever there with his free-wheeling life as a smuggler keeping him away) where Malla is fixing dinner (wearing an apron. OK, I’ll give that a pass. I wouldn’t want...whatever that is she’s making getting all over my fur either)...

...while Itchy is showing infinite patience by not smacking the hell out of Lumpy (hey, it was the 70s. That kind of stuff still happened) because the kid won’t leave him alone (or shut up) Finally, (I’m assuming...remember, no subtitles) Itchy tells Lumpy to shut the fuck up and leave him alone. Malla tells Lumpy to help her fix dinner...or maybe to take out the trash (again, I’m assuming) Lumpy whines a bit (then again, he always sounds like that) before Itchy yells at him some more and he sulks off to the kitchen.

He doesn’t sulk for long because he spies...cookies? crackers?...some kind of snack and tries to sneak one, but Malla catches him and makes him take the trash out. I’m guessing Chewie must love Lumpy, because he has to be the only reason the rest of the family hasn’t thrown Lumpy over a railing to the forest below yet.

Lumpy them takes (what I’m assuming is) the trash outside and we’re treated to a horrible green-screen effect as Lumpy walks along the matte-painted rail outside his house. Maybe we’ll get lucky and he’ll fall...

Inside (where unfortunately we don’t hear the whiny scream of Lumpy falling to his death), Malla realizes Chewie isn’t home yet, so Itchy consoles her (at least I think that’s what all those growls mean...) Then Lumpy (definitely not a lot flatter) wanders in and bugs Itchy until he manages to shut Lumpy up by letting him watch a holo (even in a galaxy far, far away adults use TV to shut the kids up)

(Thanks to Robert Angelli)

Finally, Malla has enough of whatever the hell that was and (I’m assuming) tells Lumpy to do the dishes, which causes another whiny tirade from Lumpy...

...while she goes to a computer that looks outdated even by 1970s standards her highly advanced computer system to scan the area for the Millennium Falcon, but to no avail.

She and Itchy then go to another outdated computer a video communicator behind a hidden panel to contact Luke Skywalker (so Luke knows Chewie’s family too? Amazing that we don’t hear more about this in the movies...)

Luke and R2 are fixing an engine from his X-Wing (wouldn’t the Alliance base he was stationed at have a maintenance crew to do that?) They all growl at Luke, wondering where Chewie is. Luke has no clue, but tells Malla to smile (Jesus The Force, Luke! You NEVER tell a female to smile, especially one who could rip your arms off!)

Malla tries another channel, this time to a Kashyyyk trading post manned by Saun Dann (played by Art Carney), who is dealing with an Imperial guard (who obviously got issued a helmet two sizes too large) Since there’s an Imperial, Dann can’t speak plainly, but sorta-kinda tells Malla that Chewie is delayed, but is on his way. Having gotten Malla off the line, Dann offers to sell the Imperial some tiny fish, but he’s not interested. He then shows the Imperial an all-purpose comb and stain-remover. The Imperial is interested, and asks for the give-it-to-me-for-free-or-I'll-call-in-a-raid-and-summary-execution-on-you-and-your-shop discount. Dann “happily” obliges.

Meanwhile, inside the stock footage of an Imperial Star Destroyer, stock footage of Darth Vader tells his aide to go to Kashyyyk and (this is a direct quote) “search every household” for any sign of the Rebellion (I’m assuming that includes Han and Chewbacca) I don’t know about you, but I can’t see Vader saying the word “household”.

Back on Kashyyyk, (what, you thought you’d be able to get away from more Wookie dialogue with no subtitles?) Lumpy has finally finished the dishes (this sure is riveting TV!) and wanders off, leaving Malla to fix the family’s Life Day dinner, so she turns on the TV to watch a cooking show starring...

...a four-armed Harvey Korman doing his less-than-best Julia Child impersonation.

Korman Gormaanda instructs her viewers on how to make Bantha Surprise (the surprise is how much it costs to import a Bantha from Tatooine) I’m sure the writers thought this would be comedy gold, but it’s just painful to watch. And to think, just four years prior, Korman was risking an almost certain Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. (sadly, he didn’t get the nomination)

We then switch to stock footage of the Millennium Falcon being attacked by TIE fighters (only this time without Luke manning the guns) Han hopes the fighters will shoot down the Falcon so he can go home, but unfortunately they fare about as well as you’d expect Imperial forces to fare (how the hell did the Empire stay in power as long as they did when this was what typical troops were like?)

Back on Kashyyyk, The Empire has declared martial law and Imperial forces have raided Chewie’s home!

No, wait. It’s only Saun Dann, who offers hope to the family that Han and Chewie will get past the blockade (after all, he could do it...wait, wasn’t he already on Kashyyyk?) He has Life Day gifts for the family.

Malla gets a...sewing machine, I think?

Lumpy gets a...Lego set?

And Itchy gets a video with a bit of “wow! If you know what I mean” (i.e. He brought the dirty old man the family-friendly version of porn). The part of the hologram Mermeia (or, as IMDb dubbed the role “Holographic Wow”) was played by legendary singer/actress Diahann Carroll (who would go on to play Dominique Deveraux of the ABC series Dynasty, but those who watched the USA Network series White Collar will know her as Neil’s landlady June) Say what you will about the shitty writing and production values, but the bit players had star power. The Holographic Wow Mermeia sings a song before doing...whatever it is she does that makes Itchy bounce in his seat like he’s getting his hairballs off.

(Thanks to Commander FemShep)

Meanwhile, at an undisclosed Alliance...accounting office? (Well, it sure looks like Leia is working on an adding machine...) Leia and 3P0 contact Malla and asks where Chewbacca is. Needless to say, this upsets Malla (you know, I kind of get the feeling that if Chewie doesn’t die at the hands of the Empire, Malla’s gonna kill him!) Leia staggers over to the screen (you know, if I didn’t know better, I’d say Leia was either drunk off her ass or tripping balls...hopefully not Itchy’s) Leia is tired of not having subtitles to find out what Malla is saying and asks to speak to anyone who doesn’t growl. Dann comes to the screen and IDs himself as Alliance deep cover (over an open channel? Good thing the Imperial forces in this sector of the galaxy are fucking idiots) and promises to keep an eye on things until Chewie arrives.

Once again we’re treated to more stock footage as the Falcon approaches Yavin with a heavy green filter Kashyyyk, but Han realizes the Empire has the planet blockaded, so tries to phone in come up with a plan. Han manages to find a lightly-guarded section of the planet and lands, though some distance from Chewie’s village.

The Falcon’s approach is loud enough to alert the family, so they rush to greet...

(what, you thought this would be over that quickly? There’s still almost an hour to go!)

The troopers’ commander (who apparently got his helmet from the same outfitter as the last one) informs the officer in charge (who has way too much swagger for someone roped into being in this production) that there should be one more Wookie than is currently home. Dann thinks quickly and fast talks the officer a hell of a lot better than anything Han could do.

The Imperials try interrogating Lumpy, who’s having none of it, which almost starts an armed confrontation! (like Stormtroopers could hit them. I mean, they’re at point-blank range! There’s no way they’d make that shot!) Fortunately, Dann sorta-kinda defuses the situation and tries to run interference on the troops by turning on the video player he gave Malla (you mean that wasn’t a sewing machine?)

...and we’re “treated” to a very forgettable performance by Jefferson Starship (well, their band name is kinds sci-fi-ish, but who knew the band traced its roots back a long time ago?)

Eventually, the troops decide they’ve paid Carney enough grow tired of Dann’s rambling and shoo him away so they can actually do their job. Lumpy doesn’t want the troops in his room (why not? If he’s a typical kid, it’s not like the Empire tossing his room would make it look any worse) and tries to stop them, but gets thrown aside (those guys must work out!) Itchy’s family bonds win out over common sense (I mean, if the troops blast Lumpy then no one has to hear his whining again) and he tries to protect Lumpy, but gets the same treatment. The officer warns Malla to calm her family down or Bad Things will happen (like what? They’ll force the family to watch this production?)

Malla has Lumpy sit at a video player (how many of those things does this house have? Counting the communicator and computer, I’ve counted 6 so far!) and watch...

(Thanks to SWarchives)

Yes, it’s the first ever appearance of Boba Fett!

Once the troopers are done tossing Lumpy’s room, he goes up to assess the damage. Seeing it’s no worse than before, he goes to his Lego set, which is actually a do-it-yourself transmitter kit (so 7 video screens...or 8 if you count the screen explaining how to assemble the kit)

Speaking of the assembly instructions, they are given by Harvey Korman, playing a very glitchy robot.

Meanwhile, the troopers downstairs watch a program (don’t they have other “households” to search?) showing the cantina at Mos Eisley for some reason.

...where we see yet another character player my Harvey Korman (apparently he works cheap. And to think, three years prior he won his fourth straight Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in a TV Series) as Krelman, a being that looks like a volcano with hair.

...who apparently drinks through the hole in the top of his head. He has apparently decided today is the day he will woo the girl of his dreams...

...the bartender Ackmena, played by Bea Arthur. However, Ackmena is having none of it and is trying to politely brush him off (while still getting him to buy drinks...I mean, she is a businesswoman)

Eventually, the night is cut short as the Imperial official (who is the same official who announced the blockade on Kashyyyk...guess all those celebrities don’t come cheap), so Ackmena has to close the cantina...in to the tune of the Cantina Theme

(Thanks again to Robert Angelli)

I will say, I would not want a steady diet of Bea Arthur’s not-quite-melodious singing, but this somehow works for me, and is probably the second most entertaining thing in this program so far (the first being the cartoon)

Back on Kashyyyk, the Imperials get orders to return, but the officer has one of the troopers remain to catch Chewie when he comes home. After the Imperials leave, the recall order is still being heard.

It turns out Lumpy is transmitting the order from his new computer (that he somehow managed to build despite Harvey Korman’s instructions) The trooper stationed doesn’t think forging Imperial orders is that funny and smashes the computer (great, so now we have to hear Lumpy whine some more) and chases after Lumpy to either blast him or beat the shit out of him (I’d be OK with either, but given the accuracy of the average Stormtrooper, the latter might be more effective)

Fortunately(?) Han and Chewbacca show up and do to the trooper what the rest of us have been wanting anyone to do to Lumpy (throw  him over the rail to the forest far below)

Han and Chewie then go inside for a completely phoned-in and emotionless heart-felt reunion with Chewie’s family. All too soon (or not soon enough, if you’re Harrison Ford) Han needs to get back to where he stashed the Falcon, leaving Chewie to have a touching (if fairly awkward-looking...almost like Malla and Chewie had no clue how Wookies would express affection) family moment before there’s a knock on the door.

Expecting the worst, Chewie readies his bowcaster and opens the door, but it’s just Saun Dann looking to pad his paycheck a bit clean up Han’s mess by fabricating a story to the Imperial official about the trooper going rogue and giving the Empire a worse name than they already have. Somehow, the official buys this story (maybe Luke and Ben should have hired Dann instead of Han to rescue the Leia from the Death Star)

We are then...treated? to a scene that is sure be treasured annually on television for years to come: the Wookie Life Day ritual.

...which apparently involved dressing in red robes (sure, why not?) and walking through space into a white hole. I’m sure this is supposed to be symbolic of something, but I don’t speak Wookie so I have no clue.

On the other side of the white hole, the Wookies are hanging out in some sort of bog, where they are joined by Han, Luke, Leia, 3P0, and R2 (of the group, Han makes the most sense as Chewie’s family treats him as one of theirs, but the droids? They’re not even alive! How can they celebrate Life Day?) Leia still looks drugged to the gills as she sings a song to the tune of the Star Wars theme.

(Thanks to The Movie Dump)

I personally would rather hear Bea Arthur’s singing than Carrie Fisher’s.

We then are treated to a bunch of clips from Star Wars featuring Chewie, (to remind us of when these guys were awesome instead of what we’re seeing here)

...followed by the traditional Life Day meal of Bantha Surprise (imported from Tatooine) as we fade out.

Happy Life Day everyone!

[jamesginortonblog]

It's nearly unheard of that a television series inspires a nationwide law that targets international corruption, money laundering and organized crime.

But that's what happened in the UK as a result of the James Norton-fronted drama McMafia, an eight-part series currently airing in the U.S. on AMC after completing its British run in mid-February.

McMafia delves into the incredibly profitable underworld of criminal activity including sex trafficking, drug dealing and money laundering and how the tempting tentacles of corruption reach into the highest levels of finance and government through the machinations of global organized crime.

Norton plays the British-raised, Ivy League-educated Alex Godman, the scion of a connected Russian family who moved to England to legitimize themselves after some shady dealings in the old country. He runs a London-based hedge fund, is engaged to his girlfriend, played by Juliet Rylance, is a model son to his parents and a loving brother to a troubled sister. In other words, the perfect hero, until he gets drawn into a series of scary scenarios that see him evolve from proverbial choirboy to criminal.

McMafia's tales of intrigue kick into high gear with the murder of Godman's uncle Boris, who, unlike the rest of the family, is still actively involved in the Russian mob.

To avenge the killing, Godman teams up with a powerful Russian-born Israeli businessman and politician, Semiyon Kleiman (David Strathairn) to battle the crime boss behind the killing, a brutal kingpin known as Vadim. Kleiman and Godman, first introduced by Uncle Boris and after overcoming their initial suspicions of each other, develop a sort of father-son relationship and conspire to take territories, including ports in India and Croatia, where Vadim has a "free pass" to ply his illegal commerce—and thus, take him down.

Some have compared the character of Alex Godman to that of The Godfather's Michael Corleone, the once-legitimate businessman who becomes the powerful head of a massive criminal enterprise.

But unlike The Godfather films, which were based on Mario Puzo's best-selling novel, McMafia is inspired by investigative journalism. The series is based on the 2008 nonfiction book McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld by Misha Glenny, who also serves as an executive producer.

The crime drama was created by Hossein Amini and James Watkins and is a coproduction of the BBC, AMC and Cuba Pictures. The series premiered in the United Kingdom on January 1 and created a huge amount of buzz, including the aforementioned "McMafia Law," more formally known as the Unexplained Wealth Order.

It requires that rich people who come to Great Britain from elsewhere must prove the legitimacy of their wealth. If found to be acquired from illegal activity, their assets can be seized and liquidated, with the money going to law enforcement. Great Britain's National Crime Agency estimates that £90 billion a year (about $126.5 billion) is now being laundered in the UK, twice the amount of the nation's entire defense budget.

The problem is so severe that UK security minister Ben Wallace recently wrote an op-ed in The Sunnewspaper which stated, "McMafia has brought home to millions of viewers the nature of serious and organized crime in the 21st Century. Sharp suited people swan around the nation's capital while all along they head up networks that trade on the back of the misery and suffering of others. It is time the flashy McMafia mob felt the long arm of the law."

Already, two £11 million London mansions, believed to be bought with "dirty money," were seized by court order in February.

Norton's Godman is in almost every scene of McMafia, whose story unfolds in multiple picturesque international locations including Belize, Istanbul, Belgrade, London, Prague, Zagreb, Cairo, Qatar, Russia and Israel.

"Alex Godman is not necessarily always likeable, but James brought such a sense of humanity, especially in scenes with his family, that counterbalanced the coldness of the character," says Watkins, who directed all eight episodes.

"James was very brave in committing to such a withheld character. In creating the antiheroic Alex Godman, we wanted to maintain a deliberate ambiguity as to his motivations. Is he acting out of revenge or out of survival? Or, somewhere within him, seen in occasional glimpses, is there a will to power at work, a seduction by the dark side?

"James is a very attuned actor and worked forensically at finding those little micro-details. One of the wonderful things about James's performance is the very subtle way in which he lets emotion leak through the mask, especially in the last episodes as events spiral out of control."

The 32-year-old Norton is well-known in the UK after leading roles in numerous prestige productions including War & Peace, Grantchester and Happy Valley. He also co-starred in last year's reboot of the feature film Flatliners.

Norton will appear again on the big screen toplining director Agnieszka Holland's Gareth Jones as the title character, a Welsh journalist who exposed genocide in the Stalinist Soviet Union, secured access to Hitler and Goebbels and was murdered in 1935.

We caught up with Norton by phone on location for the film in Ukraine where he said he was shivering in -15°C (5°F ) weather. The conversation was anything but chilly as we explored facets of his career and the echoes of McMafia in real life.

Tell us about the evolution of your character Alex Godman on McMafia.

It was a most exciting part to play with. During 150 days, we shot out of sequence and it was a huge challenge. Most of the conversations about Alex revolved around where we were in his arc- from clean-living man and golden boy to his fiancé Rebecca, and then how he becomes a linchpin in shady deals with Mafias.

James [Watkins] and I would try to understand his motives. We wanted to leave a lot of it open, to leave muddy his motives. You can claim to understand them but there are a myriad of reasons.

We were clear about protecting his family and then making a choice as he began moving away from fortuitous, virtuous reasons to avarice. While the creators- and audiences- are realizing Alex was being sucked in, Alex didn't realize it soon enough. Suddenly he surprised himself, and he's loving it, and it's incredibly sexy and seductive.

It was a layered role. His headspace doesn't ever stop giving you revelations about his relationship with his father and fiancé, and the associated Russians with inherent criminality. But there were a lot of commentators quick to make the connection about him running away [from organized crime] and then being seduced. It was a joy to play, right until the end of the last hour.

Many of your scenes are with David Strathairn. Let's talk about his character's magnetism, and how you are drawn into his nefarious agenda and the plot to destroy Vadim.

David's a master, and the journey Alex is on is incredibly defined by his relationship with Semiyon. He becomes almost like Alex's moral compass, kind of like Rebecca. Semiyon sort of sets it up that if he wants to protect his family, he has to take on Vadim. He became a dark, sinister individual but also becomes a paternal figure. To have a relationship with Vadim—they're so different, and corrupt, but they have their allies, children, lovers and they're not stock villains.

David played it beautifully, a real character, a likeable one if not more sinister. He's a politician we all recognize, progressive and yet he's subversive and deals in human trafficking. He brought home how close these politicians are to corruption.

Off set, David was wonderful. We went walking and swimming along the Croatian coastline. He's a lover of life and I loved hanging out with him.

That sounds fun, but what are some of the most challenging and memorable scenes that you have shot in the series?

We shot in Croatia, Serbia and London in very glamorous locations but I didn't get to Mumbai. One location was a beautifully landscaped villa with a beautiful mosaic ceiling – just unbelievably extravagant in the South of France, yet nearby was extraordinary poverty. Some of the scenes, particularly with David, felt like mini pieces of theater. James gave us time to mine those scenes.

The scenes with the parents were wonderful to play, so subtle and with the human subject so rich. With Vadim, when we crossed paths in the airport lounge, it was like punctuation marks on our respective journeys. All the other storylines were leading to this. The scene's very charged, halfway through the shoot, crackling and informed.

It was wonderful, and the reason you do this, when the story and situation take on a life on their own and memories and experiences inform it. It's like a mini explosion.

With Rebecca, the first thing we shot was the apartment stuff between them in the first week. It was incredibly emotionally charged material, when she moves out after she confronts him about travel. It was a sad day, and it was harder because we didn't have the backstory. On Alex's journey, she represents where he comes from, and you suddenly remember where he was with her. The tragedy is he does set out to protect her and it's gone way too far.

The family elements are especially resonant within McMafia - and Alex is always right in the middle of everything.

The family element allows us to explore the man, seduced by the subversive and the dark side. The family is a way of seeing that component. He ends up as a gangster, but he's ultimately a family man, a good son and brother. In one of the most tragic, heartbreaking scenes he's asked to cut loose his dad, Dmitri – it's almost self-sacrifice. I have a close relationship with my own father, and that day Alex was willing to sabotage his family was difficult.

Faye Marsay, Aleksey Serebryakov, Mariya Shukshina-- we become a real family. There was a concentrated, really fun sense of unity. All of us were so invested in the warmth and affection both and off camera, and they are all such great actors. Aleksey came in with different versions, using the Stanislavski method. We Brits were far too polite.

Aleksey would come in and say, "No, we do it like this." When Dmitri says goodbye to his brother in the morgue, he paced around and genuinely threw up in the sink. It was extraordinary.

You have had key roles in a number of series including Grantchester, Happy Valley and War & Peace. What have you learned from these experiences? Is there a throughline amongst these characters?

You learn through every role, with different headspaces, time periods and genders, you get to learn and have an emotional connection. I would hate to be typecast. If there is a throughline, the characters are very switched on and inquisitive - kind of trying to work it all out or not take life for granted. They're on some quest to understand it. Maybe I am completely confused, but they're all thinking and in existential angst.

Can you tell us a little bit about your upcoming starring role in Gareth Jones with Agnieszka Holland?

Gareth knew his place, and he's on an incredible journey but also on a mission. It's a true story about a young journalist, one of the first to interview Hitler in 1932 just at the emergence of Nazi-ism. He describes being on a plane with Goebbels, and then back home to the UK where he tells the British government about the emergence of totalitarianism. They dismiss this and of course we know what happens later.

Then he takes on a mission to Stalin's USSR. He was beginning to have doubts about Communism. He decided to check out the numbers and how they're paying for planes, etc. He was on a tour, went rogue and discovered Stalin's extortion at the expense of millions of lives. At home, they accused him of lying, "fake news" and being inflammatory.

It's terrifying in 1933 when they had so much less access to communications. In Ukraine, Stalin was able to get away it and millions died [as a result of famine]. Now we are using the same language. It's a very relevant story, what is truth and what is agenda. We feel a responsibility to respect his story. It's exciting, and I'm really enjoying it.

As McMafia unfolds, what do you hope viewers take away from it?

You want the work to be entertaining as we're in the business of entertaining people. But with the last few years of Brexit, Trump and populist right-wing governments coming to power, and corporations being so powerful, corruption is no long self-contained. It's straddling everything, and we're in unknown territory.

I know in the UK they want to know what that corruption looks like. In the days of The Sopranos and The Godfather, organized crime contained an element of romanticism but did not really affect us. For a show to provide understanding of financial corruption is important, to see how a hedge fund manager facilitates a drug deal. Aside from the human-driven drama, it is also about corruption and transparency, and will hopefully bring some clarity.

With the UK McMafia Law, suddenly we are part of a much larger conversation, more pertinent and crucial. I hope for those people in the audience who are fully engaged and hungry for clarify that this is a perfect show.

[girlsbtrs]

The Five Best Songs in Movie Scenes, According to a High School Senior

Written by Jennifer Moglia. Graphic by Laura Cross. 

As a girl who was born in the 2000s, lived out my childhood in the 2010s, and turned 18 years old in the year 2021,  all forms of media have played a huge role in my experiences growing up. From movies and TV shows to all different types of music to YouTube videos and social media creators, I’ve spent a large portion of my life watching other people do things, whether it was acting, singing, playing an instrument, or even just reviewing makeup products on Vine or TikTok. 

However, one of these mediums has stood out from the rest; movies (or as the nerd in me would like to call them, “films”). As a freshman in high school, I decided to try to start watching more movies when I realized that my favorites consisted solely of Disney cartoons and the occasional cheesy rom-com. 

Over the years, I’ve practically exhausted Netflix and Hulu’s libraries, bought a ridiculous amount of DVDs, and my Letterboxd diary has just reached 200 films (shameless self-promo, you can follow me there @happilyjennifer). When watching movies, especially ones that I’ve never seen before, I always try to pay attention to the music used in each scene - not the instrumental score, but the specific songs used to highlight pivotal moments. 

The right track can make a sad scene heart-wrenching or a happy scene exhilarating, a romantic scene fairy tale-worthy or a death scene absolutely traumatic; a particular song can elevate a key scene in a film, making it that much more impactful. So, without further ado, here are my five favorite uses of songs in movie scenes, from films I’ve seen throughout my 18 years.

Honorable Mention: Heroes by David Bowie in “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”

Some might be shocked at this scene’s placement in the “honorable mention” section due to how revered it is, but that’s almost why it lands there. This film and book have both been overhyped to death as a coming-of-age staple for as long as I can remember, and for that reason, I was underwhelmed when I first read and watched it. 

However, I don’t think it should suffer because of its reputation, which is why I simply couldn’t pick a numbered spot for it. Standing alone as a scene, without any of the praise, this song and movie combination is absolutely breathtaking. 

The visual of Emma Watson’s character Sam standing up in the car with Patrick and Charlie, her arms outstretched as the trio zooms through the tunnel to the city, is a visceral experience. Charlie proclaiming that he feels “infinite” is the cherry on top - he finally feels free, free from any past trauma or current stresses or general pressures of being a teenager. 

It’s a beautiful moment, and it’s made iconic by the addition of Bowie’s hit song. The pairing of Heroes with “Perks”’ instantly recognizable “tunnel scene” is unforgettable.

5. God Only Knows by The Beach Boys in “Love Actually”

As a member of “Gen Z”, you won’t be surprised to hear that my attention span is not the best. That’s why, at times, “Love Actually” dragged a bit for me - I felt that the two-hour and 15-minute runtime was just a little much, especially with so many different stories to keep up with. 

Despite all of that, though, I think that the ending practically saves this movie. The words “one month later” flash across the screen, and we are brought to Heathrow Airport, the place that David, played by Hugh Grant, spoke of at the beginning of the film. 

We’re reminded of his opening sentiment, that whenever he’s feeling down, he thinks back to watching families reuniting at the gates in this airport, and he instantly feels better. It’s a perfect opening to a film about love, and calling back to it makes for a perfect ending. 

The viewers see each of the film’s stories wrapped up neatly with a bow, particularly helpful for people like me who practically forgot about some of the characters by the time the two-hour mark was reached. What really makes this scene one of my favorites, though, is the very end of it. 

As the lyrics “God only knows what I’d be without you” repeat and start to fade out, we are taken away from our characters and the screen now shows real families reuniting in Heathrow Airport, not actors. The clips form a collage and then, ultimately, a heart, before it all fades to black. True human connection can warm even the coldest of hearts, and this classic love song by The Beach Boys is the perfect soundtrack to these heartfelt moments.

4. Fooled Around and Fell in Love by Elvin Bishop in “Guardians of the Galaxy”

Throughout my middle school and early high school years, I knew more about Marvel movies than I did about my family or the material I was learning in school. I saw “Avengers: Age of Ultron” in theaters five times, skipped my first spring formal dance to see “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” in 3D on opening night, and even had a personalized Iron Man sweatshirt that I wore nearly every day.

The Marvel franchise that utilizes music, or at least recognizable music, the most is definitely the “Guardians of the Galaxy” series. Chris Pratt’s character Peter “Star Lord” Quill’s mother made mixtapes for him while she was still in his life, filled with pop music from the 1970s-80s that she listened to when she was younger.

Titled “Awesome Mix Volume 1”, Quill becomes attached to it as it was one of the only items he had left of his mother after they were separated. The music that she shared with him becomes a key piece of this movie as well as its sequel, from Baby Groot swaying in a flower pot to “I Want You Back” by the Jackson 5 to Star Lord completing a mission while Redbone’s “Come And Get Your Love�� plays through his headphones.

My favorite use of a classic song in a “Guardians” movie, though, is in an interaction between Quill and his love interest, Gamora. The two are bonding over their unusual relationships with their parents with Quill talking about how music connects him to his mom, pulling out his tape deck and headphones.

The dynamic between the two characters here is hilariously adorable, as Gamora explains that she doesn’t believe in music or dancing, which appalls Quill and leads to him explaining the plot of the movie “Footloose” to her, applying it to the people on her planet. He then takes off his headphones and puts them on her head, allowing her to listen to “Fooled Around and Fell in Love”, though she doesn’t quite appreciate the moment, talking over the music about how the “melody is very pleasing.”

I’m a sucker for awkwardly cute couples and the mini enemies-to-lovers storyline between Star Lord and Gamora gives me butterflies every time; I can’t help but giggle when Quill goes in for the kiss and Gamora immediately pulls a weapon on him. The use of such a well-known love song makes this moment that much sweeter.

3. Where is my Mind? by The Pixies in “Fight Club”

Yes, I realize that I’m automatically breaking the first rule of “Fight Club” by even listing it here, but I had to. This is a movie that countless people (men, countless men) had told me to watch for years, and I finally caved about a year ago out of “quarantine boredom.”

While I don’t praise this film as much as others do (men, as much as men do), I can certainly appreciate the influence that it has had on the world of film at large. There’s a lot of commentary on consumerism, violence, individualism, and the concept of masculinity packed into these two hours, even though many people (you know what these parentheses are about to say: many men) miss all of that and just watch it for the fight scenes.

The scene I chose from “Fight Club” as one of my favorites uses of a song in a film is the ending, which includes “Where is my Mind?” by The Pixies. The Narrator (Ed Norton) has just shot himself, effectively killing his alternate personality of Tyler Durden, and his love interest Marla (Helena Bonham Carter) has been kidnapped and brought to him by his Project Mayhem workers.

Marla is horrified upon finding The Narrator in the condition that he’s in and learning that he’s the one who put himself in this situation, or at least he thinks so. All he can offer to her is to say this: “I'm sorry...you met me at a very strange time in my life.” This is when the buildings start to fall.

All of the explosives planted by Project Mayhem begin to detonate, exploding and imploding as Marla and The Narrator look on, The Pixies’ hit playing softly in the background. She looks startled at first, before relaxing and allowing him to take her hand, and the two watch the city crumble to the ground with “Where is my Mind?” as the backing track; it’s masterfully done.

2. Everytime by Britney Spears in “Spring Breakers”

I want to start this section by saying that I’m fully aware that this scene shouldn’t work, let alone be beautiful, and the same could be said for this movie as a whole, but for some reason, there’s something captivating about “Spring Breakers” and the renowned “Everytime” scene. Netflix first suggested this movie to me as a freshman in high school (complete side note: Why, Netflix? What was okay about suggesting this to a 14-year-old?), and it has stuck with me for years after.

The way that “Spring Breakers” sugarcoats itself in its marketing is almost a microcosm of its themes and storyline. The neon color schemes and promos including former Disney Channel stars Selena Gomez and Vaness Hudgens hide a story of four girls on their spring break consumed by crime, drugs, and murder, and this scene exemplifies that perfectly.

After Gomez’s character Faith gets scared and goes back home, drug and arms dealer Alien (James Franco) takes Brit (Ashley Benson), Candy (Hudgens), and Cotty (Rachel Korine) to a strip club where they meet his rival, fellow drug dealer Big Arch. Alien arms the girls with shotguns and pink ski maks adorned with unicorns (hello, symbolism!), and they gather around the piano next to his pool to listen to him play.

Franco’s character begins to play Spears’ hit “Everytime”, the girls singing along, before Britney’s original version takes over, playing as a montage of the group participating in multiple armed robberies plays out on the screen in slow motion. The juxtaposition of the soft, feminine song with the violent crimes being carried out sums up this entire film in a nutshell; I strongly believe that this scene helps this film earn its title as a masterpiece.

1. Young Blood by The Naked and Famous in Disney’s “Prom” 

Giving the top spot to a movie that most people probably haven’t seen could be seen as a bold move, but I’m telling you, this movie raised me. I have such a vivid memory of seeing it in theaters with my mom when I was only eight years old, dreaming about the day that I’d get to dress up and go to my own prom; pretty crazy that ten years later, I’ll be attending my high school’s prom in a month, and I still think about this movie often.

I identified with Aimee Teegarden’s character Nova Prescott heavily when I was younger, the star student who always wanted to be the best and do the best, quickly turning into the obsessive perfectionist who doesn’t know how to have fun and let go. Thomas McDonnell’s portrayal of Jesse Richter, the bad boy with a soft side who introduces Nova to a whole new world, has always tugged at my heartstrings.

The scene in this movie that has stuck with me for a decade now comes when Nova and Jesse are starting to work together to plan and decorate for prom while also started to develop feelings for each other. Nova is stressed that another school’s theme is too similar to theirs and that they will be upstaged, to which Jesse says, “let’s see how starry their night really is.”

The pair hops onto Jesse’s motorcycle and sets off to visit the rival school. As they take the ride, indie band The Naked and Famous’ song “Young Blood” plays in the background, the upbeat chorus and “yeah yeah yeah”s perfectly framing Nova’s change of heart towards Jesse.

They sneak into the other school to check out their decor, only to be caught by the police and taken home by their parents. Nova’s father snaps at Jesse, and while the girl she was at the beginning of the movie would have agreed with her dad, she doesn’t; in fact, she defends Jesse, and apologizes to him for her parent’s behavior the next day.

In addition to being one of my favorite coming-of-age movie moments, this movie also introduced me to The Naked and Famous and the album that this song is on, “Passive Me, Aggressive You”, which has become one of my favorite records of all time (listen to Girls Like You and Punching in a Dream and you’ll be hooked). As I mentioned earlier, the right soundtrack can make a romantic scene a million times more magical, and that’s exactly what the use of Young Blood does here. 

[norton-addiction]

THE RISE OF MR JAMES NORTON

Britain’s brightest TV star on breaking into Hollywood and whether he could be the next James Bond

Mr. James Norton is not a man to be underestimated. The first time I noticed the London-born, Yorkshire-raised actor, he was playing an earnest young lover in Death Comes To Pemberley, a cosy whodunnit set in the world of Ms Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice. I had him down as a production-line fop, the kind that elite English schools crank out as reliably as the Disney Club cranks out Mouseketeers. He seemed… nice. Agreeable. The sort of teacake your granny would like.

I certainly couldn’t see him pulling off someone such as Tommy Lee Royce in Happy Valley, the most haunting TV psychopath of recent years. Or earning admiring reviews from the Russians for playing their national literary hero, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, in the all-star BBC adaptation of War & Peace. But in projects as varied as the clerical mystery Grantchester and dystopian drama Black Mirror, Mr Norton has demonstrated that enviable quality – range – and has configured his career to use it to the fullest.

“That’s the joy,” he says. “Most actors would agree that the reason why you go into the job is that there’s a hunger for experience, a general inquisitiveness. When you have a group of actors at a restaurant, everyone will try everything. It’s not just a sensory thing. It’s about wanting to suck up everything that life can offer.”

Life is offering Mr Norton, 32, a lot right now, and it couldn’t happen to a more grateful individual. His conversation is peppered with “I’m so lucky”, “It’s a privilege”, “One of the joys”, etc. His first Hollywood studio production, Flatliners, is about to hit cinemas. It’s a remake of Mr Joel Schumacher’s cult 1990 psycho horror, which starred Mr Keifer Sutherland and Ms Julia Roberts, about a group of medical students experimenting with near-death experiences. In the remake, Mr Norton stars opposite Ms Ellen Page and Mr Diego Luna. And he’s taking the lead as the son of a Russian mobster in McMafia, a BBC/AMC international co-production that stands out in the autumn TV schedules. “One of those situations where everything is in place, and all you need to do as an actor is not fuck it up,” he says.

One of the co-writers is Mr David Farr, who adapted Mr John Le Carré’s The Night Manager for BBC, which was widely seen as Mr Tom Hiddleston’s audition for the role of James Bond. So it will do Mr Norton’s chances of leapfrogging his fellow Cambridge graduate on the shortlist no harm at all. They’re both 8/1 with William Hill. “It’s nice to be in that conversation,” he says. “But I’m certainly not saying no to stuff because I’m holding out for that.”

For now, Mr Norton has asked me to meet him at the National Theatre in London. I assume he’s in rehearsals for some top-secret project (though he does confess an ambition to play Hamlet here one day), but no, he just wants to spare me an off-Tube trip to Peckham in south London, where he lives. He turns up in “vegan trainers”, made by Veja, black Levi’s and an old grey cashmere jumper, with what looks like a duelling wound on his neck but turns out to be a scar from an operation on an old rugby injury. He is profusely apologetic for being approximately five minutes late. And prays leave for another 60 seconds of my patience so he can purchase a croissant.

He’s a Type 1 diabetic and a “little munch” will ensure he doesn’t die during the course of our interview. Mr James Geoffrey Ian Norton grew up in a timeless bit of North Yorkshire and remains a country boy at heart. It is rare that he passes a body of water in which he doesn’t want to take a dip. “I love being outside, swimming in the lido or Shadwell Basin,” he says. “There’s a bridge near where my parents live where you can jump in. It’s so wholesome and English.” His dream is to have a river in his garden, so he can frolic among the trout and herons each morning. His childhood was idyllic but also instructive. Both his parents are academics, both took an equal role in domestic duties and both encouraged reasoned debates around the kitchen table. Young Mr Norton was sent to Ampleforth boarding school (posh, monastic, Catholic) and went on to study theology and philosophy at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, before a spell at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. People often assume he’s religious – the dog collar he wears for the 1950s period piece Grantchester doesn’t help – but he says his youthful interest in Christ was more one of “moral intrigue and the love of storytelling. I loved the gospel reading at mass every Sunday. But it became a relationship of intrigue rather than belief. And most of my degree was about Hinduism and Buddhism in any case.”

Still, you can see why he makes such a convincing vicar in Grantchester and why he’d want to break away from that mode. “I remember early on in my career people would say to me things like, ‘You have a very period face.’ I was like, what does that mean? They’d seen me in a couple of period dramas and imagined that would be my career.”

So he was elated when the supremely depressing Happy Valley came along. Ms Sally Wainwright’s critically lauded BBC series (now streaming on Netflix) gave him the chance to play a working-class ex-convict whose soul descends to the very depths of hell. “I will be forever grateful for that role,” he says. “To be given the opportunity to prove myself like that was just great.” He sees each role as a licence to go out and learn. “Not just from an academic point of view, but in an emotional, embodied way. The word we always use is empathy. There’s nothing more powerful than that. I’d never managed to empathise with a serial killer from any article about them, but when you’re actually inhabiting them, you have to learn to love them, however abhorrent they are.”

I guess it’s about getting to know the part of yourself that could kidnap and torture, were circumstances different. “It’s like undergoing a crude form of psychoanalysis on your own,” says Mr Norton, but confesses that it’s also kind of fun. “I’ve been wary talking about this because it could be misconstrued,” he says slowly. “But it was incredibly empowering not to care at all what people think, to go the other way and want people to be afraid of me. For someone like me, who goes around the whole time being very polite, to be allowed to spend some time not giving a fuck what people think was fucking cool.” He smiles bashfully. “I remember walking on set and seeing people’s reactions to me with a skinhead and tattoos. People started to treat me completely differently.”

He’s no method actor. He and his co-star, Ms Sarah Lancashire, tried to keep the mood light between scenes. But still, he found Tommy hard to shake off. “He’s so mistrusting of the world,” he says. “The sadness in that character was that he thought the world was so inherently hostile that the kindest thing he could do for his son was to take him away from this suffering. That’s dark.” He was haunted by “weird, dark dreams, me being horribly abusive”.

McMafia ought to draw on similarly dark currents, albeit in more glamorous circumstances. Mr Norton plays Alex, a “Michael Corleone-type Russian guy”, who ends up being pulled back into the family business (crime, extortion, money laundering) despite his efforts to escape. “His dad was a Mafia boss who was exiled by Putin, but Alex has tried to turn his back on that and set up his life properly, with a fiancée and a good job.” Mr Norton is particularly excited about this one. Mr Farr’s co-writer is Mr Hossein Amini, who created Mr Ryan Gosling’s tour de force Drive, and it’s inspired by investigative journalist Mr Misha Glenny’s book. The cast includes highly respected Russian actor Mr Aleksey Serebryakov (from Leviathan) plus a host of stars from Israel, Mexico, Brazil and Turkey. “It was such an interesting set,” says Mr Norton. “I don’t think there can have been many casts like it. And with what’s going on with Trump, Russia, the Panama Papers, all that, basically our show lifts up the curtain and shows what state-level corruption looks like. The Mafia isn’t a family with a protection racket in a city. It’s a multi-national globalised corporation where all the parts are linked. You always want to be chasing the zeitgeist. With this, for the first time in my life, I felt the zeitgeist was chasing us.”

On Flatliners, he seems a little more tentative, perhaps wary of incurring the wrath of fans of the original movie. “Everyone remembers it very fondly,” he says. But it was the first time he’d been let loose in a big studio. “The money, the toys, the stunts – Ellen and Diego had done all that before, but I was like this token Brit, running around having lots of fun.”

As for the other sides of success, he’s readjusting. Last we heard, Mr Norton was in a relationship with Ms Jessie Buckley, the English actress who played his sister in War & Peace, but when I ask about his love life he makes a complicated face and asks if we can avoid this particular subject. “Having this dream job, it compromises family, friends, relationship, because you’re always away,” he says. “I have 12 cousins and we’re all very close, but there have been a few family occasions where I’m the only one who isn’t there. And your relationships do take hits.”

He’s politically engaged, too – “As I think we all are right now” – but isn’t sure if and when to use his celebrity to promote his causes. “I must be the most boring person to follow on Twitter,” he says. He essayed a few politically themed tweets recently, but found the response a bit dismaying. “I tweeted a photo from an anti-Brexit march a few months ago, and said, ‘Let’s get behind a second referendum, there is hope!’ and I’ve never received so much hate and vitriol. And I thought, what’s the point? Well, there is a point, but maybe that’s not the right way to make it. Maybe it’s better to start a conversation, to listen rather than to shout.”

That doesn’t seem a bad idea. He’s itching to get behind the camera, he says. He has stories he’d like to tell. “I don’t want to be sanctimonious, but I’m interested in using my voice as an artist to…” He trails off – that English habit of not quite finishing his sentences – before remarking how much he admired Mr Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake, a devastating indictment of the British welfare system. But it seems his own thoughts are more to do with young men and their place in the world. He’s been reading Narcissus And Goldmund by Mr Hermann Hesse, which is about two monks taking divergent paths through the world – one as an artist, one as a thinker – at the time of the Black Death. It seems to have struck a chord.

“There’s a lot of confusion now about men’s place in the world,” says Mr Norton. “There needs to be a conversation. I’m putting together a script about how a young man deals with that confusion. We’re being pulled in different directions. I think for women, the feminist movement is a lot clearer. And we do need to redress pay inequality and, of course, men are implicated in that. But we also need to recalibrate our own position. Men whose identity is to do with being a protector and provider and full of testosterone are finding it harder.”

When it comes to redressing the gender imbalance, however, he seems more than happy to take one for the team. He is a reliable source of “phwoar”-style headlines in newspapers. “Female actors have been putting up with this tenfold for ever,” he says. “So I don’t feel male actors have a particular right to cry out about this. I don’t feel objectified, put it that way.”

[marksarmel]

What I’ve Been Consuming 04/06/20

In these times that seem like some prologue to an upcoming dystopian blockbuster movie release what is it that we are all spending our last days doing? Consuming mass amounts of media no doubt. Join me once again as I detail all the things I’ve read, watched, played, listened to or simply mused about.

Games

I downloaded Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze and it is fun! Other than that it’s still mainly Mario Kart, but I did get back to Mario Odyssey for a bit.  Also, I dusted off my PS3, literally, and played some Black Ops online with some friends. Nothings changed, I’m still terrible at it, but it was fun to hang with some friends via the PS network.

Books/Comics

Continuing my binge of all things Emily St. John Mandel I finished the Lola Quartet. This is the third of her five books. It is as enthralling as her previous books that I’ve read and though I know the hook in her writing; disparate people seemingly unconnected eventually all connect in someway, her stories are no less enjoyable. Her characters are drawn as if pulled from one of your mother’s best recipes and they feel no less real and familiar. 

I have also finished a couple of books from Marvel comics, Black Bolt TPB 1 and 2. The writing by Detroit born Saladin Ahmed is a solid tale on a character I found intriguing, but knew little about. Ahmed delivers a bingeable tale about a king that is broken down and built up again and learns the perils of those he rules over. The art by Christian Ward is solid and fluid, but suffers from an overly dark color pallet throughout. Also, he draws an absolutely hilarious Lockjaw. The first trade is a good series highly worth the read, while the follow up isn’t as revelatory as the first it is still quite interesting and adds more layers to the Black Bolt the Midnight King.

Music

In these time I’ve been falling back on many an old favorite, but some new faves have filled my ears as well. Bat For Lashes album “Lost Girls” delivers Natasha Khan’s familiar sound and shows some growth in the addition of a bit of pop to her dark mythical tales. This isn’t to say she’s abandoned what got her to the dance, but she has perhaps returned to her high school reunion older and wiser and more worldly. The opening track, “Kids in the Dark” would fit nicely in a Stranger Things montage and this song softly welcomed me tothe rest of the album. The closing track, “Mountains” starts out as an 8-bit game soundtrack before opening into a sprawling meditative anthem on lost love. 

Having said that I recently gave her 2009 album “Two Suns” a listen and found it more of a comfort to me in these times. “Daniel” was a standout track on this album for me. A pulsing driving tone permeates the track and the lyrics declare a fairy tale of love and loss.

As I said earlier I’ve fallen back on some old favorites so I’ve had the Hamilton soundtrack on many a spin on my hard drive. Its songs give a kick to some of the monotony while also pushing me to get busy on some of new piece of art. “I’m not throwing away my shot!”

“Ill Communication” by the Beastie Boys has also brought me much joy lately. 

Other standout tracks for me: Broken Arrow from Tori Amos’  “Native Invader” drips in with a trippy wah wah opening riff that sticks in your ear, “State of the Art (A.E.I.O.U.) by Jim James is a song that I just can’t get enough of and it gets a listen at least twice a day lately, another quite fine opening track is Finona Apple’s “Every Single Night”.

I also grabbed the two new Nine Inch Nails free albums, but haven’t spent much time with them.

Movies/TV

The bingeing commences at consistent pace? Perhaps. Maybe. In actuality I haven’t spent much more time watching tv than normal. Maybe. Regardless here’s what has numbed my brain and tickled my fancy. 

Still keeping up with Claire Danes’ Carrie Mathison of Homeland. It’s amazing how season three of this series makes Carrie an absolute monster so far (I’m halfway through) when she’s already proven to be batshit crazy. 

Better Call Saul is still enthralling in every single way. If you’re not watching it, you’re not even playing.

Tiger King. I watched the first episode and it was a great intro for absolute berserker ludicrousness, but I just don’t need to see it. Shoulder shrug emoji.

I have fallen off of Counterpart as it was moving at a pace that felt like I was sleepwalking. I want to get back to it, but I’m not sure if I will.

Started watching Devs and I am very very into it! Bring on Nick Offerman’s weird hair and an absolutely sinister killer Zach Grenier (Ed Norton’s boss in Fight Club).

Re-watched World War Z  under the guise of “research”. I still really dig this movie.

Dived into the Clone Wars animated series as a recommendation from a friend. It’s good background tv with great animation. Growing up with the movies makes it easy to keep up with what’s going on. Episodes are a little over 20 minutes so after a couple of hours I feel like I’ve really accomplished a lot!

Absolutely gobbled up Netflix’s Next In Fashion. If you’re a Project Runway fan then you’ll be down with this new fashion series with Tan France from Queer Eye.  Or maybe you’ll never be able to let go of the OG’s Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn. Agh! It seems you’ll miss them even more since some quick googling revealed to me that the most recent season doesn’t feature either of them. Ah, perhaps the end of days are truly upon us. Ah well, it seems we must all “Carry on”.

Westworld Season Three so far is fire! Also, I hate Aaron Paul’s hair.

Random bits. I’ve been super motivated lately and have finished two paintings in the past three weeks. I haven’t done that since college! Speaking of things not done since college, I ran 3.5 miles recently. Twice. Phew!

That’s all for now.

Please, please be safe out there. Tell your friends and family you love them. Then, tell them again. Hug your pets, wash your hands and stay 6 feet the hell away from me.

[plungermusic]

It’s warm outside, no clouds are in the sky…

Suffering from incipient rust and hunched-against-precipitation-for-hours frozen shoulders after Saturday’s drizzlathon, the return of the sun left Plunger more inclined to bask like iguanas outside the venues, but we still managed to hear a fair selection of what was on offer in the bijou line-up, much of which had an appropriately Sunday service flavour.

As hoped we did manage to encounter the Hallelujah Trails [above] again (and not just as part of Norton Money), this time with added lap style slide. This set highlighted their subversion of the genre with a bouncy-but-thoroughly-downbeat glass-half-full Nothing Any Good, the modern-twist-on-a-trad-love-waltz of It Is What It Is where a starkly honest lyric stripped the romance away from a boy meets girl story, and the quirky Discount Song with excellent picking that included an extended Blackbird tease.

The glorious sunshine and backdrop of the duck pond and poplar trees full of chirruping goldfinches were a better setting than any church for Amy Lott’s emotional solo piano set, inspired by Mississippi Gospel. An impassioned hymnic Place Of Peace, Sam Cooke’s A Change Is Gonna Come sung with a fragile optimism, Second Chance with its True Colours vibe, and the almost AOR anthem of I Believe In You preceded two classic covers: a dramatic bluesy Summertime and Gram Parsons’ alternately wistful and ballsy Dixie-tinged She. A fine set closed with her recent single the heartfelt You Give Me Hope with closing a cappella crowd participation.

Sat in the sun waiting for Kev & Kelly [below] we could hear Angel Snow’s blissful Californiana being ornamented by in-key fiddle lines from the Brother Brothers floating in the wind from the barn, as well as the Rabble Chorus (who we heard raising the roof of The Peacock stage as we arrived) getting an unscheduled open air burst on The Green.

Kev Walford & Kelly Bayfield’s third appearance, this time in The Peacock, was a chance to experience the lush harmonies up close, including a polished cover of Gretchen Peters’ On A Bus To St Cloud, with Kelly’s smooth emotional vox showing hints of Karen Carpenterish timbre, vibrato and phrasing; and, befitting the weather outside, Blessed Light, another stirring Stillsian foot-stomper with jangly troubadour guitar and fantastic grin-inducing harmonies, and a positive ear-worm of a melody.

Rachel Harrington & Friends [below] proved Plunger to be godless outsiders (or just outsiders) as both the revivalist I Don’t Want To Get Adjusted To This World with Kelly Van Camp’s fine harp accompaniment and a cover of Gillian Welch’s Orphan Girl (showcasing Rachel’s strong-yet-vulnerable voice) both drew surprisingly hefty crowd participation. Ethan Anderson (from Massy Ferguson) led Tom Waits’ Way Down In The Hole, before JD Hobson joined Rachel to add old timey high vocals and finger-picking simplicity to Mississippi John Hurt’s Louis Collins. Ethan returned for an Amazing Grace/House Of The Rising Sun mash up (at least we knew the words to that one) with more fine harmonica. A trinity of numbers brought the service to a rousing revivalist finish: the old time religion of Hank Williams’ Wealth Won’t Save Your Soul; Rachel’s own passionate unadorned rodeo gospel He Started Building My Mansion In Heaven Today, and an everyone-join-in finale of the oft-covered (by Cash, Reeves and, erm, Kanye!?) I’ll Fly Away.

The last band of the weekend The Crux were perhaps the humanist response to so much overt religion: beginning with a 40s soft shoe shuffle, with croonerish vocal and washboard percussion from Hannah Davis and gallic flavoured accomplished accordion, the 40s (and French) vibe continued with Duke Ellington’s Delta Bound, a banjo-led bluesy rag with swing accordion. Thereafter things turned more raucous, leaning closer to parody than homage, with a punky The Aristocats-meets-The-Stray-Cats romp, some abandoned skiffle with rasping vox, and riotous rockabilly, all rather overwhelming the accordion. And it was about then we decided to wander off for a last pie from the excellent Pie Company van to bid farewell to Maverick 12.

Except that wasn’t quite all. As last year, the official Maverick After Party at the picturesque White Horse Easton provided a chilled (in many ways) full stop to proceedings. Mary Anne Jenkins [below] unconsciously carried on the 40s jazz/blues thread with a slow acoustic lope cover of Billie Holiday staple My Mother’s Son-in-law and there were more bluesy flavours in Fools Don’t Stay with her youthful vocal carrying a pleasing emotional edge. On the cusp of country and back porch blues The Rooster showed a smokier drawled delivery while her breathy mournful St James Infirmary saw some added jazzy guitar noodles from Chance McCoy who also provided support on the playful rag of Six Skinny Toes.

Angel Snow’s dreamy delights should have been ideal for the idyllic twilight setting but were a little hampered by Joe Wilkins’ guitar being so quiet his swells, accents and textures were barely audible. Still, the ambient Magnetic worked just as well as the electronica-laden original with just acoustic guitar and rich stunning vocal, as did Coals And Water’s finger-picked bluesy progression and the velvety vocal of a hypnotic Window Seat. Angel’s tremulous note of needy vulnerability was perfect for the two-chord reverie of I Need You while her sweet drawl with a concealed edge on Lie Awake and the ghostly vocal and unchanging progression of a dark folky Medium evoked witchy, late-Mac vibes.

With the sun long gone behind the church tower and some pretty icy air spilling down the beer garden from the woods behind, Hannah Aldridge [below] (with Sam on drums and Gus on bass plus Chance McCoy joining in on guitar and fiddle) turned up the heat and the volume considerably with a rollicking set that the neighbours hopefully enjoyed. From a driving Rocking In The Free World-feel I Know Too Much, Hannah’s belligerent vox backed by fluid to-the-fore bass and acerbic barely-controlled guitar, through Yankee Bank, a cracking mid-paced Bandesque civil war epic with fantastic fiddle from Chance and great harmonies, to the rattling snare-driven cheating-boyfriend-dedicated Old Ghost. Jangly atmospheric guitar and pulsing bass drove Born To Be Broken’s portentous dramatic slave girl story, before kick drum sparked a double-speed, almost Skynyrdish full-tilt wig out. Cursed by booking our taxi too early again (although fair play to the lovely lady from Base Cars, we’d already ruined her quiet Sunday by dragging her out at all!) we only caught the moving unaccompanied vocal intro to Howlin’ Bones before we had to leg it…

After the excellent time we had in 2018 this year’s Maverick had big shoes to fill: unlike last year there were almost no bands we’d seen before, and loads we’d never even heard of but all (OK, nearly all) were simply great; the rain did put a crimp in Saturday a little but the main stage bands were worth getting soggy for and there was so much cracking music on offer wherever we turned we couldn’t go wrong. There’s no festival better.

[annerase-blog]

Miracle baby boy born at 24 weeks weighing just 1lb 7oz survives despite doctors 'admitting defeat' and telling his mother to switch off ventilator  By Henry Martin For Mailonline 06 Apr 2019 When Jordie-Jay was born at 24 weeks weighing just 1lbs 7oz, doctors warned it would take a miracle for him to survive. His mother Kirsty Byass, 28, was ready to turn off the premature child's life support as his prospects looked increasingly bleak and consultants 'admitted defeat'. The child's family had prepared to say their gut-wrenching final goodbyes at James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough. Jordie-Jay had been born after potentially life-threating complications with Ms Byass' pregnancy forced doctors to perform a C-section, and the child suffered with premature chronic lung disease. She had stayed in hospital for around four weeks and was put to sleep for an operation as the situation worsened - knowing her baby might not survive. Jordie-Jay was born on November 20 and did well at first, before taking a turn for the worse. Ms Byass had made the impossible decision to turn off his ventilator and let him pass away peacefully. She had agonisingly explained to her other two boys, aged 11 and 7, what was going to happen and picked out clothes for the baby to wear, before making the sombre journey to the hospital. Ms Byass, a cleaner from Norton, told Teesside Live: 'Jordie-Jay has premature chronic lung disease and the doctors said he has it so severe that they only get children like him once every two years. 'He just wasn't getting any better, the doctors kept putting me into a room and telling me there's nothing else they can do for him. 'I begged them to help him, and the truth is they were, but nothing was happening.'  She continued: 'My kids were heartbroken, the nurses said they had to take time out the room because it was heart-wrenching watching my boys so broken.' But then, Ms Byass changed her mind about turning off the child's life support, feeling she couldn't go through with it.... https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6893255/Miracle-baby-born-24-weeks-weighing-just-1lb-7oz-survives-despite-doctors-admitting-defeat.html https://www.instagram.com/p/Bv8o55blN3YHrzgA1GqsAzUeTOQ74EmAqY3wyg0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1t9yd1ni1pamx

[apathetic-revenant]

so before we left for home yesterday, I set out to collect the book-tribute I was allowed as recompense for shop-sitting. I started in the kids’ room, because I may be 23 but kids’ books are still great. fight me. 

anything interesting in here? 

I had one Dragons of Deltora book that I got from somewhere I don’t remember where and it was in the middle of the series so it made absolutely no sense to me and I retained a vague fascination with it for a long time afterwards because of that. 

naturally all the other pages are hot boys 

I am instantly fascinated by this. 

well I guess ‘murdering women because of a dying curse bestowed by dying treacherous wife’ is...technically...sort of...a step up from ‘murdering women in a fit of pique after finding out that your wife was cheating on you and deciding that no one in history had ever suffered as much as you when you found out your wife was cheating on you’. 

anyway this sounds like a wholesome romance for our youths

I can’t help but be a bit suspicious of this. do girls need their own specific fantasy stories? because Lord of the Rings worked just fine for me. 

...

I

oh boy this has potential to be fun 

it’s a little-known fact that Christopher Pike moonlighted as a YA author before becoming a starship captain. 

awwwwwwww yeah Maniac Magee. 

did you know the audiobook of this is narrated by Whoopi Goldberg? I used to get it from the library all the time. loved it.

we used to have some Outernet books. I don’t remember much about them except that they were very strange.

*cough* you keep using that word...

HELLO

so okay, I realize I’m being pedantic about an easy-reader Wonder Woman book here, but the implication this gives is that the Greek pantheon was comprised entirely of goddesses plus Hermes and Ares.

which would be awesome. 

oh I know this one, the mystery is how he managed to gain a pound after we put him on a diet. 

ahhhhhh I remember these I remember they got so dark 

oh man here’s that book I got from the take-a-book-leave-a-book shelf at my dad’s office, subsequently lost, and then spent years wondering if I’d actually just imagined it altogether.

I refuse to take science advice from a talking egg.

...good for you...?

this struck me as an odd thing to have a shelf for, but hey, it’s not my bookstore.

horse books

SO MANY HORSE BOOKS

hey who remembers this because I remember this

sure that was a kids’ movie right

oh man, where were these when I needed sources for that term paper

okay I know you’re trying to make this educational but that bat is quite a reach.

I don’t know who or what Adorable Apple Dumplin is but I have an instinctive urge to kill it with fire

man, there is a lot going on here. the teen whisperer. [extreme] godchasers. live is like driver’s ed (??? how???) the caves that time forgot, which sounds like an MST3K episode. college without compromise, which I am here to tell you is a lie. there is no college without compromise. you will compromise in college. 

okay, I’m no parent, but I feel that if your child is making any decisions about alcohol tobacco and other drugs at the age of three, you’ve done something wrong. 

...

well, I think we’re done with the kids’ section.

let’s check out the sci-fi/fantasy shelves!

uh

uhhhhhhh

right yes well I was concerned that no one could possibly write an interesting novel after James Joyce but now that I know someone wrote a book about a special man obsessed with sex and immortality I can finally put that doubt to rest.

man I should get around to reading some Andre Norton. 

I should get around to reading a lot of things.

...

I’m just gonna leave this here.

I dunno man I think if you really tried you could cram a few more cliches into this

...a wizard in bed?

oh. 

well this oughta be a trip

heeeeeeey here’s a familiar horrible cover! and in hardback too. 

I kinda want to try making a new one for it. 

okay. so. I don’t have any professional theatre experience, only college, but based on that I can tell you a few things:

-the Macbeth thing is less “a witch-haunted play famously cursed with a reputation for malevolence that haunts actors” and more like that one guy in the light booth being a troll by saying “macbeth macbeth macbeth” into the headsets before opening while everyone else goes “SHUT UP FRANK”

-no blood-filled trench atop a hill is gonna be as scary as the stage manager who just had a bunch of actors go missing

-I see your “someone died while performing a role” and raise you “that time during a production of Dr. Faustus when they realized halfway through that there was one more devil in the cast than they could account for and had to stop and spend the rest of the night praying”. 

-if anyone actually did find a dangerous version of Macbeth said to contain actual rituals of witchcraft and forbidden knowledge it would be performed immediately just to see what would happen

-’not just ritual murder but ancient pagan sacrifice’ okay so someone’s probably not being a pagan correctly 

-good on Kate for chasing down a murder suspect and all that but she had still damn well better be showing up to rehearsal on time 

anyway, on that note I think we’ll leave off with a picture of some kittens.

awww. kittens.

[gyrlversion]

Baby born at 24 weeks survives despite doctors admitting defeat

When Jordie-Jay was born at 24 weeks weighing just 1lbs 7oz, doctors warned it would take a miracle for him to survive.

His mother Kirsty Byass, 28, was ready to turn off the premature child’s life support as his prospects looked increasingly bleak and consultants ‘admitted defeat’.

The child’s family had prepared to say their gut-wrenching final goodbyes at James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough.

Jordie-Jay had been born after potentially life-threating complications with Ms Byass’ pregnancy forced doctors to perform a C-section, and the child suffered with premature chronic lung disease.

Jordie-Jay was born at 24 weeks weighing just 1lbs 7oz, and doctors warned it would take a miracle for him to survive

His mother Kirsty Byass, 28, pictured with Jordie-Jay’s father Ryan Pearce. Ms Byass was ready to turn off the premature child’s life support as his prospects looked increasingly bleak

She had stayed in hospital for around four weeks and was put to sleep for an operation as the situation worsened – knowing her baby might not survive.

Jordie-Jay was born on November 20 and did well at first, before taking a turn for the worse.

Ms Byass had made the impossible decision to turn off his ventilator and let him pass away peacefully.

She had agonisingly explained to her other two boys, aged 11 and 7, what was going to happen and picked out clothes for the baby to wear, before making the sombre journey to the hospital.

Ms Byass, a cleaner from Norton, told Teesside Live: ‘Jordie-Jay has premature chronic lung disease and the doctors said he has it so severe that they only get children like him once every two years.

Jordie-Jay was born on November 20 and did well at first, before taking a turn for the worse

The youngster was moved to end of life care and suddenly had a massive turnaround

‘He just wasn’t getting any better, the doctors kept putting me into a room and telling me there’s nothing else they can do for him.

‘I begged them to help him, and the truth is they were, but nothing was happening.’ 

She continued: ‘My kids were heartbroken, the nurses said they had to take time out the room because it was heart-wrenching watching my boys so broken.’

But then, Ms Byass changed her mind about turning off the child’s life support, feeling she couldn’t go through with it. 

A nurse said she had never seen such a recovery in her decade in the profession 

‘I couldn’t do it, we became desperate,’ she said.

‘I rang hospitals over the over side of the country, I asked for a second opinion, we researched things that could help him, I even asked them to use him as a guinea pig if it would save his life.’

The youngster was moved to end of life care and suddenly had a massive turnaround, much to the delight of Ms Byass and the child’s father, 25-year-old asbestos stripper Ryan Pearce. 

The tiny baby began making remarkable progress. A nurse said she had never seen such a recovery in her decade in the profession. 

Ms Byass said: ‘Miracles do happen.

‘I didn’t think they would happen to me, but they do.

‘Even one of the consultants said “I can’t believe it”.’

Jordie-Jay is now 132 days old and weighs 8lbs 2oz.

He still has a way to go, but Ms Byass has been left overwhelmed at the ‘miracle’ transformation.

Jordie-Jay was recently transferred to the University Hospital of North Tees, in Stockton, and it is hoped he can go home a week on Sunday.

Ms Byass added: ‘I want to say thank you to the hospital staff. It’s because of them that he’s here today.’

What is chronic lung disease? 

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is a lung condition that can cause long-term breathing problems. Babies born prematurely are more likely to get BPD, which is sometimes called chronic lung disease (CLD).  

The condition can develop in infants who need assistance breathing in their early days. Sometimes premature babies are born before their lungs are fully formed, meaning they cannot properly take in and absorb oxygen to stay alive.

The lungs also may not produce enough surfactant – a fluid that helps keep the lungs open. Children suffering with this condition are given extra oxygen, but using ventilator machines can irritate the baby’s airways and scar the fragile air sacs lining the lungs. 

Irritation and scarring makes breathing more difficult for the child, meaning it has to stay on a ventilator for longer.  

The condition most commonly occurs in babies who are born more than 10 weeks before their due dates weighing less than 2 pounds.

The post Baby born at 24 weeks survives despite doctors admitting defeat appeared first on Gyrlversion.

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[jamesginortonblog]

CLASSIC WITH A TWIST

(Vogue, March 2018 - text)

BRITISH ACTOR JAMES NORTON, STAR OF THE NEW TV SHOW MCMAFIA, UNDERCUTS HIS HEROIC GOOD LOOKS WITH AN ABILITY TO GO TO THE DARK SIDE. BY PLUM SYKES. PHOTOGRAPHED BY PAUL WETHERELL

LONDON’S ACTOR-OF-THE-MOMENT JAMES NORTON is sipping coffee in front of the fireplace in the cozy drawing room of the Covent Garden Hotel. It’s a cold winter day, and he’s just breezed in from outside, wrapped in a herringbone-tweed greatcoat under which he is dressed in brown cords, a gray cashmere sweater, and tan boots. His dark-brown hair is windswept from the weather, and he is good-looking in a classical English way — twinkling navy-blue eyes; fair skin; a generous mouth and strong jaw.

He’s so affable, so chatty, so relaxed, you wouldn’t have an inkling that he’s about to go onstage next door at the Donmar Warehouse to play a troubled medic in Amy Herzog’s Belleville. He also doesn’t bear much resemblance to his current starring television role: in the AMC show McMafia, airing this month, Norton plays the inscrutable, debonair hedge-fund manager Alex Godman, whose exiled Russian parents live in London on ill-gotten gains from their home country. They have raised and educated their son as a modem English gentleman, but he is soon drawn into the violent world of international crime to which his family is inextricably linked. With its far-flung locations from Mumbai to Monaco, action scenes (explosions, car chases, murders), and beautiful clothes (handmade shirts and Savile Row suits are apparently favored by today’s oligarchs), the show is a delicious combination of The Night Manager and The Sopranos.

The term McMafia was coined to describe a notoriously violent group of Chechen criminals who extended their power by evolving a franchise modeled on McDonald’s. Loosely based on British reporter Misha Glenny’s investigative book McMafia: Seriously Organised Crime, the show takes a hard look at the relationship between government, business, and the underworld. Clearly excited by its journalistic chops, Norton says, “People want to look behind the curtain with Trump and Putin. Finally there’s a show that allows them to see that state-level corruption.” Director James Watkins was so determined that his work be authentic that he cast Russian actors in the Russian roles and Israelis in the Israeli roles, with subtitled dialogue. “We always intended the show to have relevance,” Watkins says. “There are a lot of cliches about the Russian mafia—that it’s all bling or dark glasses and leather jackets. But the point about these people is that they’re all around us. They’re shopping in Loro Piana ”

Norton’s upbringing couldn’t have been less actory. His mother was a nurse and his father an accountant. When James was three, the family moved from London to North Yorkshire, on the edge of the bucolic Howardian Hills. He and his younger sister lived out a country childhood that was, he says, “magic. It was pre-internet, pre-mobiles; we played football on the village green, built treehouses. I lived in an Arthur Ransome novel.”

His first —unsuccessful— foray onto the stage was as Joseph in his school Nativity play, aged four. “All I did was cry because I couldn’t see my parents in the audience,” he recalls with a laugh.

At thirteen, he went to the famous boarding school Ampleforth College, run by an order of Benedictine monks. Although bullied there, he found solace in prayer. “It’s a monastic school. You wake up at the crack of dawn and pray with the mist coming off the valley You’re constantly surrounded by religious feeling.” He confesses to having been terrible at rugby, and instead concentrated on tennis and theater, where he was properly hit by the acting bug: “It was the miming competition. I mimed Gwen Stefani in No Doubt. We had one wig, one pencil skirt, and one stick of red lipstick. I remember feeling terrified; then I heard the whoop of the crowd, and by the end of the song I was strutting up and down the stage, hands in the air and loving it!”

After Ampleforth, Norton says, Cambridge University was a revelation. “I was suddenly amongst eccentrics — oddballs and artists. After the repressed environment of school, Cambridge was the place where I was who I wanted to be.” He acted in play after play, received a first-class degree in theology, and then went to drama school, leaving early in 2010 to take a role in the Royal Court Theatre’s production of Laura Wade’s tragicomic play Posh.

Recalling this, he smiles wryly. “The ‘posh’ thing has been something to contend with,” he says. “I speak with an old-school English accent because my grandparents paid my school fees. But I don’t believe in entitlement. I’m grateful to have had the education, as long as I get work and can play every variety of role.”

Typecast Norton, now 32, is not. In his short career he has portrayed Posthumus in Cymbeline and Geoffrey in The Lion in Winter (both directed by Sir Trevor Nunn) and Captain Stanhope in Journey’s End onstage. His screen work has been equally diverse: in 2014 he broke into British television as the serial killer Tommy Lee Royce in the hit crime drama Happy Valley while simultaneously starring as a charming, crime-solving young vicar in the series Grantchester. His brilliant turn in 2016 as Prince Andrei Bolkonsky in the BBC’s War and Peace, opposite Lily James, confirmed his swoon-inducing leading-man status.

For McMafia, says AMC executive Kristin Jones, “I said we had to get him for the role. He reads as someone who can hold his own in London society and the boardroom. But because of the Tommy Lee Royce role, you also believe in him as a guy who can go to the dark side. Not everyone has that edge.”

Norton doesn’t take himself’ too seriously, and his ability to step into anyone’s shoes appears almost effortless. When I ask him how he acts, he modestly replies, “I just try to sit in that person’s head. To say, ‘What’s he wanting, what’s he afraid of, what are his values in life?’ ” On set, says Watkins, Norton was “quite silly. He was forever doodling on my script and making music videos with my daughters. But that’s an important part of his process, to stay relaxed and loose between takes. Behind it all he’s classically trained, with that breadth and depth of knowledge those actors acquire in order to access pain or emotions.”

I notice the time — Norton is due onstage very soon. Doesn’t he need to go? He tells me not to worry, clearly very laid-back about the evening’s work ahead. We slip into an agreeable chitchat about his life. He lives alone in Peckham, the edgier part of South London, loves cycling around town, and is thinking of moving to New York “because I want an adventure.” He says he is single right now, and when I ask about his next project, he begins to tell me, “There’s a film after the play, maybe another series…” then breaks off, looks me in the eye, and says endearingly, “To be honest, as of next month I have absolutely no idea! But I thrive on that nomadic lifestyle.” When I mention fashion, he is soon regaling me with stories of trips to the Rose Bowl Flea Market in Pasadena, where he filled empty suitcases with clothes to sell at a vintage stall in London.

But it’s not only the actor’s life for Norton. Being a Type 1-diabetes sufferer (as are his mother and sister), he helps to raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, as well as for stroke survivors. Jubie Wigan, the well-connected British mother of a child with diabetes, who has helped raise several million dollars to fund research, says, “He does a lot of work for JDRF. He’s a really good advocate. For little girls and boys to see a very cool actor with this condition helps them realize that diabetes doesn’t have to stop you.”

Eventually it really is time for Norton to go. He stands up, throws on the greatcoat, and then says, looking very pleased, “And this coat? Got it for £2 in Russia!” He’s only 30 minutes from transforming himself —as I later see, utterly convincingly— into the play’s sinister doctor: He will soon be covered in blood, brandishing a carving knife and lying to his stage wife, played by Imogen Poots. But as he leaves, swinging a smart leather backpack behind him, it’s as though he doesn’t have a care in the world.

[jamesginortonblog]

Words by Mr Richard Godwin

Photography by Mr Mark Kean

Styling by Ms Eilidh Greig, Fashion Editor, MR PORTER

Mr James Norton is not a man to be underestimated. The first time I noticed the London-born, Yorkshire-raised actor, he was playing an earnest young lover in Death Comes To Pemberley, a cosy whodunnit set in the world of Ms Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice. I had him down as a production-line fop, the kind that elite English schools crank out as reliably as the Disney Club cranks out Mouseketeers. He seemed… nice. Agreeable. The sort of teacake your granny would like.

I certainly couldn’t see him pulling off someone such as Tommy Lee Royce in Happy Valley, the most haunting TV psychopath of recent years. Or earning admiring reviews from the Russians for playing their national literary hero, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, in the all-star BBC adaptation of War & Peace. But in projects as varied as the clerical mystery Grantchester and dystopian drama Black Mirror, Mr Norton has demonstrated that enviable quality – range – and has configured his career to use it to the fullest.

“That’s the joy,” he says. “Most actors would agree that the reason why you go into the job is that there’s a hunger for experience, a general inquisitiveness. When you have a group of actors at a restaurant, everyone will try everything. It’s not just a sensory thing. It’s about wanting to suck up everything that life can offer.”

Life is offering Mr Norton, 32, a lot right now, and it couldn’t happen to a more grateful individual. His conversation is peppered with “I’m so lucky”, “It’s a privilege”, “One of the joys”, etc. His first Hollywood studio production, Flatliners, is about to hit cinemas. It’s a remake of Mr Joel Schumacher’s cult 1990 psycho horror, which starred Mr Keifer Sutherland and Ms Julia Roberts, about a group of medical students experimenting with near-death experiences. In the remake, Mr Norton stars opposite Ms Ellen Page and Mr Diego Luna. And he’s taking the lead as the son of a Russian mobster in McMafia, a BBC/AMC international co-production that stands out in the autumn TV schedules. “One of those situations where everything is in place, and all you need to do as an actor is not fuck it up,” he says.

One of the co-writers is Mr David Farr, who adapted Mr John Le Carré’s The Night Manager for BBC, which was widely seen as Mr Tom Hiddleston’s audition for the role of James Bond. So it will do Mr Norton’s chances of leapfrogging his fellow Cambridge graduate on the shortlist no harm at all. They’re both 8/1 with William Hill. “It’s nice to be in that conversation,” he says. “But I’m certainly not saying no to stuff because I’m holding out for that.”

For now, Mr Norton has asked me to meet him at the National Theatre in London. I assume he’s in rehearsals for some top-secret project (though he does confess an ambition to play Hamlet here one day), but no, he just wants to spare me an off-Tube trip to Peckham in south London, where he lives. He turns up in “vegan trainers”, made by Veja, black Levi’s and an old grey cashmere jumper, with what looks like a duelling wound on his neck but turns out to be a scar from an operation on an old rugby injury. He is profusely apologetic for being approximately five minutes late. And prays leave for another 60 seconds of my patience so he can purchase a croissant.

He’s a Type 1 diabetic and a “little munch” will ensure he doesn’t die during the course of our interview. Mr James Geoffrey Ian Norton grew up in a timeless bit of North Yorkshire and remains a country boy at heart. It is rare that he passes a body of water in which he doesn’t want to take a dip. “I love being outside, swimming in the lido or Shadwell Basin,” he says. “There’s a bridge near where my parents live where you can jump in. It’s so wholesome and English.” His dream is to have a river in his garden, so he can frolic among the trout and herons each morning. His childhood was idyllic but also instructive. Both his parents are academics, both took an equal role in domestic duties and both encouraged reasoned debates around the kitchen table. Young Mr Norton was sent to Ampleforth boarding school (posh, monastic, Catholic) and went on to study theology and philosophy at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, before a spell at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. People often assume he’s religious – the dog collar he wears for the 1950s period piece Grantchester doesn’t help – but he says his youthful interest in Christ was more one of “moral intrigue and the love of storytelling. I loved the gospel reading at mass every Sunday. But it became a relationship of intrigue rather than belief. And most of my degree was about Hinduism and Buddhism in any case.”

Still, you can see why he makes such a convincing vicar in Grantchester and why he’d want to break away from that mode. “I remember early on in my career people would say to me things like, ‘You have a very period face.’ I was like, what does that mean? They’d seen me in a couple of period dramas and imagined that would be my career.”

So he was elated when the supremely depressing Happy Valley came along. Ms Sally Wainwright’s critically lauded BBC series (now streaming on Netflix) gave him the chance to play a working-class ex-convict whose soul descends to the very depths of hell. “I will be forever grateful for that role,” he says. “To be given the opportunity to prove myself like that was just great.” He sees each role as a licence to go out and learn. “Not just from an academic point of view, but in an emotional, embodied way. The word we always use is empathy. There’s nothing more powerful than that. I’d never managed to empathise with a serial killer from any article about them, but when you’re actually inhabiting them, you have to learn to love them, however abhorrent they are.”

I guess it’s about getting to know the part of yourself that could kidnap and torture, were circumstances different. “It’s like undergoing a crude form of psychoanalysis on your own,” says Mr Norton, but confesses that it’s also kind of fun. “I’ve been wary talking about this because it could be misconstrued,” he says slowly. “But it was incredibly empowering not to care at all what people think, to go the other way and want people to be afraid of me. For someone like me, who goes around the whole time being very polite, to be allowed to spend some time not giving a fuck what people think was fucking cool.” He smiles bashfully. “I remember walking on set and seeing people’s reactions to me with a skinhead and tattoos. People started to treat me completely differently.”

He’s no method actor. He and his co-star, Ms Sarah Lancashire, tried to keep the mood light between scenes. But still, he found Tommy hard to shake off. “He’s so mistrusting of the world,” he says. “The sadness in that character was that he thought the world was so inherently hostile that the kindest thing he could do for his son was to take him away from this suffering. That’s dark.” He was haunted by “weird, dark dreams, me being horribly abusive”.

McMafia ought to draw on similarly dark currents, albeit in more glamorous circumstances. Mr Norton plays Alex, a “Michael Corleone-type Russian guy”, who ends up being pulled back into the family business (crime, extortion, money laundering) despite his efforts to escape. “His dad was a Mafia boss who was exiled by Putin, but Alex has tried to turn his back on that and set up his life properly, with a fiancée and a good job.” Mr Norton is particularly excited about this one. Mr Farr’s co-writer is Mr Hossein Amini, who created Mr Ryan Gosling’s tour de force Drive, and it’s inspired by investigative journalist Mr Misha Glenny’s book. The cast includes highly respected Russian actor Mr Aleksey Serebryakov (from Leviathan) plus a host of stars from Israel, Mexico, Brazil and Turkey. “It was such an interesting set,” says Mr Norton. “I don’t think there can have been many casts like it. And with what’s going on with Trump, Russia, the Panama Papers, all that, basically our show lifts up the curtain and shows what state-level corruption looks like. The Mafia isn’t a family with a protection racket in a city. It’s a multi-national globalised corporation where all the parts are linked. You always want to be chasing the zeitgeist. With this, for the first time in my life, I felt the zeitgeist was chasing us.”

On Flatliners, he seems a little more tentative, perhaps wary of incurring the wrath of fans of the original movie. “Everyone remembers it very fondly,” he says. But it was the first time he’d been let loose in a big studio. “The money, the toys, the stunts – Ellen and Diego had done all that before, but I was like this token Brit, running around having lots of fun.”

As for the other sides of success, he’s readjusting. Last we heard, Mr Norton was in a relationship with Ms Jessie Buckley, the English actress who played his sister in War & Peace, but when I ask about his love life he makes a complicated face and asks if we can avoid this particular subject. “Having this dream job, it compromises family, friends, relationship, because you’re always away,” he says. “I have 12 cousins and we’re all very close, but there have been a few family occasions where I’m the only one who isn’t there. And your relationships do take hits.”

He’s politically engaged, too – “As I think we all are right now” – but isn’t sure if and when to use his celebrity to promote his causes. “I must be the most boring person to follow on Twitter,” he says. He essayed a few politically themed tweets recently, but found the response a bit dismaying. “I tweeted a photo from an anti-Brexit march a few months ago, and said, ‘Let’s get behind a second referendum, there is hope!’ and I’ve never received so much hate and vitriol. And I thought, what’s the point? Well, there is a point, but maybe that’s not the right way to make it. Maybe it’s better to start a conversation, to listen rather than to shout.”

That doesn’t seem a bad idea. He’s itching to get behind the camera, he says. He has stories he’d like to tell. “I don’t want to be sanctimonious, but I’m interested in using my voice as an artist to…” He trails off – that English habit of not quite finishing his sentences – before remarking how much he admired Mr Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake, a devastating indictment of the British welfare system. But it seems his own thoughts are more to do with young men and their place in the world. He’s been reading Narcissus And Goldmund by Mr Hermann Hesse, which is about two monks taking divergent paths through the world – one as an artist, one as a thinker – at the time of the Black Death. It seems to have struck a chord.

“There’s a lot of confusion now about men’s place in the world,” says Mr Norton. “There needs to be a conversation. I’m putting together a script about how a young man deals with that confusion. We’re being pulled in different directions. I think for women, the feminist movement is a lot clearer. And we do need to redress pay inequality and, of course, men are implicated in that. But we also need to recalibrate our own position. Men whose identity is to do with being a protector and provider and full of testosterone are finding it harder.”

When it comes to redressing the gender imbalance, however, he seems more than happy to take one for the team. He is a reliable source of “phwoar”-style headlines in newspapers. “Female actors have been putting up with this tenfold for ever,” he says. “So I don’t feel male actors have a particular right to cry out about this. I don’t feel objectified, put it that way.”

Flatliners is out on 29 September