#but then also paddington using an exploding sandwich!!!

[thestalwartheart]

If Paddington were promoted to Q, what gadgets would he invent for James Bond? Oh God, I hate these kinds of questions because I’m not a gadget person. A bulletproof duffel coat and exploding marmalade sandwiches sounds about right!

Ben Whishaw for The Guardian's reader interview series. (x)

[charliejrogers]

Paddington (2014)

Sometimes you watch a movie and want to be challenged. You want your head to explode. You want to get lost in a world of plot twists and double-crosses. Other times you don’t. TV more often than movies fills the role of comfort food for people looking for passive media, but let’s all take a moment to recognize the power of a good comfort movie. Sometimes your comfort movie is that dumb rom-com you’ve seen 1000 times, other times a mindless action movie of good vs. evil. Many comic book movies certainly can fall into this camp, but really any series like Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings can become comfort food whenever those fans begin to think of the characters more like old friends than avatars on a screen. And never is that more true than when a childhood friends makes their way onto the big screen.

I don’t believe I have ever read (or has someone read to me) a Paddington book. In fact, after writing that sentence I had to Google whether Paddington was a series or a single book. I’m not from the U.K. so please excuse my ignorance. It’s not that people in America don’t know Paddington he’s just not as popular here as he is across the pond. Therefore when this hit theater six years ago and I heard critics rave about it, I didn’t get it. Christ, it was even nominated for the best British film at the BAFTAs in 2015. There was Paddington, a family movie about a walking, talking bear, right next a serious drama about Stephen Hawking (The Theory of Everything) and the very adult ScarJo sci-fi film Under the Skin. Plus, think also I was at an age where I was “too cool” for kid’s stuff. I was in college, so why watch a movie that could make you happy when you could watch something that could project to others how smart you thought you were. All of this is to say that, I went into this movie without the advantage of nostalgia, something I suspected might have been boosting audiences’ and critics’ scores.

Paddington from director Paul King tells the story of one unnamed Peruvian bear who is among the last of his kind. What makes this particular species of bear so special is their uniquely high intelligence. The film starts with a black-and-white film reel documenting the journeys of the explorer who was the first among men to stumble upon this particular subset of bear, sometimes back in the early 1900s. The explorer first instinct is to hunt and kill the bear to bring back to a British museum, but he is eventually won over by the sheer intelligence of the bears. They are already master builders and have developed unique, modern-looking housing structures when the explorer first finds them, but quickly he discovers they can understand English,  can even reproduce it to some extent, and are adept at new technologies. The explorer leaves them with a phonograph and a record of him talking about how to be a proper gentleperson in London.

Fast forward some hundred years, and the original two bears the explorer essentially perfected their understanding of English based off the explorer’s record. They also know quite a bit about early 20th-century etiquette and about a hundred different ways to tell fellow Londoners that it is raining outside. And though now aged and frail, they have passed much of this knowledge onto their young nephew whose character can be summed up by the following four traits: 1) undying love for his aunt and uncle who raise him 2) utmost and strict adherence to etiquette 3) deep desire to belong to a home 4) obsession with marmelaide.

All four of those things turn out to be of vital importance when disaster strikes his home in Peru and he is forced by his aunt to seek a new home in the only other place they know: London! With only his uncle’s hat and a marmelaide sandwich on his head, the bear stows away on a freighter to London. He heads to the nearest train station as he has heard stories about how during WWI, orphaned children would show up to train stations wearing certain necklaces to signify their need for a home. The bear does just that, but the world of 1914 is very much different from the world of 2014. People don’t so much as look at the bear. If they do, they assume he’s a poor beggar, vendor of cheap goods, or just a plain con-artist. They’re too busy rushing this way and that. “In the age of technology, Britain has lost its way” the film seems to suggest. Or, more cynically, it seems to make a comment (albeit) on xenophobia and Britain’s lack of openness to immigrants, especially prominent given the distinctly colonial feel of the explorer’s documentary and his attitudes towards these “primitive” creatures.

Except, of course, this is a light-hearted family film. A fantasy film at that. For example, no one is freaked the fuck out like they would in real life by a talking bear roaming around a major metropolitan area, in some cases doing serios damage (albeit accidentally) to various property throughout town. E.T. this is not, so there’s no plotline of the government trying to snatch him up for research purposes, nor does this apparently talk place in our reality where the bear would become an instant viral internet star.

Instead, as a family film, the movie mostly focuses on the idea of “family.” The bear is eventually approached by Mary Brown (Sally Hawkins), the matriarch of the Brown family who are a well-off family who live in a cozy townhouse in a quaint London neighborhood. Mary is more empathetic to the bear’s plight than her ill-tempered husband Henry (Hugh Bonneville) who is a risk analyst who sees the bear for what he is: a risk! Still, he begrudgingly agrees to let the bear, who names himself Paddington, stay with them for one night, but then he’s off to the orphanage  institution for young souls whose parents have sadly passed on.

Mr. Brown’s not wrong about Paddington (voiced by Ben Whishaw) too. Despite his undeniably genuine nature and complete absence of my ill-will, he’s a natural klutz. His childlike innocence and curiosity finds him tinkering with things that just ought not to be tinkered leading to a movie defined by its many great misadventurous set pieces, such as when Paddington accidentally floods the Brown’s bathroom to when a pickpocket accidentally drops a wallet that he stole and Paddington begins chasing him around London in grand fashion, not understanding why the thief doesn’t want his wallet back.

More than anything, though, Mr. Brown’s hostility towards Paddington stems more from his concern for his children, specifically that his son Jonathan (Samuel Joslin) will end up being hurt either as a direct result of Paddington’s activities or will simply try more daring things inspired by Paddington’s free-wheeling and wild spirit.

What I love about the character of Mr. Brown, who truly seems to be the secondary character after the titular bear, is the way he is a true character and not a one-dimensional rule-follower. The way the film (comically) demonstrates that Henry Brown was not always Mr. Brown, but was a motorcycle-riding Wildman who was suddenly and permanently changed by fatherhood makes him an incredibly relatable character, and grounds this silly cartoon in something of a reality.

Less can be said about Mary Brown. Sally Hawkins does a wonderful job portraying her seemingly boundless kindness and love, but ultimately there’s not more to her character than just being nice and kind. Her only story arc revolves her relationship with the Browns’ daughter Judy (Madeleine Harris) who is a stereotypically moody teen who doesn’t want to introduce her boyfriend to her Mom because, as Paddington puts it, “she suffers from a terrible disease called embarrassment.”

But no one’s watching this movie to watch the Browns or learn about their characters. It’s nice that Mr.’s character is so well-established as it makes his little sacrifices and gestures to try to help Paddington so satisfying. One second he was pushing to get Paddington out of his home, the next he’s in a dress breaking into an archives to learn more about the explorer who originally visited Paddington’s aunt and uncle one hundred years prior.

This little detour to the archives relates to one of the two other sub-plots to the film. The first is how Paddington’s quest to find a new home (since Mr. Brown refuses to let him stay with his family forever) leads him to want to find the explorer (or at least the explorer’s family) since he figures they of all people would love to take in as family a bear whom their father had so loved. The second subplot (and the more hackneyed and boring plot) deals with Nicole Kidman’s Millicent, a deranged, taxidermist employee of London’s Natural History who has a nasty side hobby and collecting (and stuffing) rare animals. She hears rumors of a talking bear, she starts to hunt him. Kidman actually does a very good job leading a cartoonish seriousness to the role, but just the whole subplot feels very perfunctory, like the studio was afraid no one would want to watch a movie that didn’t have a clear bad guy. Add in a sub-plot to this sub-plot where the Browns’ sad-sack neighbor Mr. Curry (Peter Capaldi) teams up with Millicent in the hopes of being her lover, and you got my least favorite part of this movie.

Taking away the villain plot would deny the Browns the opportunity to rescue their little friend from the jaws of danger, and prevent me from seeing that tear-jerking display of love with which the film ends, so I suppose it’s worth it. With snow falling around them and love in the air, Paddington with its focus on the importance of family, is almost a Christmas movie, or at the least is a perfect movie for the holiday season.

It’s also funny for all ages. I can imagine sitting in a theater with children and hearing the little cackles of children as Paddington fights a shower head using a toilet seat lid as shield and toilet brush as sword. The film does not go for easy jokes. Its physical comedy is often elaborate, and there are plenty of jokes meant for the adults in the room that aren’t necessarily sexual in nature. For example, the Browns’ daughter is learning Chinese “for business,” which means she’s learning phrases such as “How do I get to the business center?” and “I’m being investigated for tax fraud.” But more than anything, it’s a distinctly British film in its humor, favoring throw-away lines and sight-gags over fart jokes. One of my favorites in the idea that Millicent’s office is full of taxidermied heads of exotic animals, and when she walks into her workshop on the other side of the wall, we see all the rear-ends of these same animals. Another pitch perfect moment is when a downtrodden Paddington finds himself at Buckingham Palace and having revealed the sandwich he keeps under his hat for emergencies, we find out what things the Queen’s Guard keeps under their Bearskins. It’s silly and ridiculous in a way perfect for a kid’s film.

I also love how the film gives us a view of the world through Paddington’s eyes, and I give much credit to the film’s director Paul King for translating for us through film Paddington’s essential innocence. Twice, once towards the beginning, and once at the end, the film presents us with a toy-house that is an exact replica of the Brown’s home and we can actually see the Browns walking about and interacting in this odd meta-moment as Paddington narrates their goings on and provides his interpretation of what is happening. It lends an air of frivolity to our lives. Yes, the world is sad an hard, but for those innocents, the children, it’s a world of wonder and curiosity, a dollhouse in which anything is possible.

In the end, this movie is damn near perfect comfort food. It’s family focus creates a heart-warming tale that helps tries to inspire us that, despite our splintered isolated world, the world can be a place of love and welcoming. I wish the villain weren’t such a drag, but I am happy to report that despite not having any contact with Mr. Paddington in my life previously, I fell in love with his character almost instantly and am very happy to count him among my cinematic friends and follow him on any of his next adventures.

*** 1/4 (Three and one fourth stars out of four)

[peckhampeculiar]

Hey Little Sister

Nicola Brierley is the one-woman powerhouse behind Peckham-based vintage fashion company Little Sister. The engaging entrepreneur tells how she came to open her carefully curated clothing emporium in Holdron’s Arcade  

Words Rosario Blue; Photo Lima Charlie 

Inspirational female entrepreneurs are as necessary to society as humans are in order to have a society. They not only offer hope and encourage ambition in other women, young and old, they also bring with them a quiet, yet loud and resounding (word) assurance that everything is going to be OK.

Men have been running and dominating the business world from the beginning of time, with constant celebration and minimal resistance. When you meet a female entrepreneur you know immediately that you are faced with a warrior armoured by strength, struggle, determination and ingenuity.

Nicola Brierley is one of those warriors, fighting tirelessly to balance familial and domestic duties and a growing empire in our glorious kingdom, Peckham. You most probably know Nicola as the powerhouse behind Little Sister, a vintage clothing boutique located deep in Holdron’s Arcade on Rye Lane, sandwiched between a group of fellow warriors – the extremely talented Sam of Tens Studio, Esme of Deserted Cactus and Ellinda of One organic.

Meeting Nicola, you are immediately struck by her warmth, character and a uniqueness that is truly reflective of the Little Sister brand. Nicola is a proud Peckham local who has lived here for 19 years and counting, and has used her skills in media to develop her empire.

“I started off as a camerawoman working for a television company, [a] post-production news-based company in Soho,” she says. “I met my husband and I had my little son Jonathan, who has Asperger’s syndrome, so I could no longer work in the industry because he had very extreme separation anxiety.

“I’m not a person who can kinda stay still and not be busy, so I discovered eBay, which was like my little lifeline, and I started selling vintage books. Books have always been my passion and they were a bit of a salvation for me, when I realised I had a son with disability.”

I was curious to find out how Nicola went from being a camerawoman to running a business on eBay to launching Little Sister. “I had a business called Love the Baroness and I’ve always bought secondhand and vintage clothes and people kinda liked my style,” she says.

“I sold on eBay for 10 years and was a power seller for five years, but they changed the nature of the business by introducing a 14-day return policy, which kind of killed my business, because you can’t really return vintage clothes.

“From having a business where you would probably get two to four returns a month, it became the opposite – with a majority of returns. That was not sustainable for a business like mine.

“I started doing sales at home, I did a lot of vintage fairs out and about and I met Tim [Wilson], who runs and manages the Bussey Building. He said he’d find me a space somewhere and he found me this space [Holdron’s Arcade]. Since I’ve been here, it’s like I found my special place.”

Nicola discovered her calling, but in a way that would work for her. “What I loved the most about eBay was taking photographs, writing about the clothes that I thought were amazing or crazy or silly and I could do that every day all day here. So through the shop I’ve got to know this end of Peckham and I think it’s me, it’s more me. It’s great fun.”

So why did she name the business Little Sister? “I was called Love the Baroness and it’s a bit of a mouthful,” she says. “When Tim first offered me a space I thought, ‘Ooh, Love the Baroness is a bit of a long-winded thing to go across you know, a shop.’

“I’ve got a friend called Will who is a music journalist, and he started to talk to me about Sly and The Family Stone and Little Sister, and like my heart kinda lifted and a kind of spark exploded and I thought, ‘That’s me, that’s me, I’m taking that name, I am Little Sister!’

“Although it’s a family thing, there’s something about it, everybody’s got a little sister. Even if they don’t have a little sister in their life, if you’re a man or a woman, you want that little sister in your life. I think it’s such a positive thing and it means loads of different things to different people.”

I’m in total agreement because to me, the name feels familiar, warm and welcoming, all things synonymous with the appeal of Peckham.

“I’m a local girl, I’ve been here for over 19 years and my parents lived here when I was about nine so I went to St Francis school [on Friary Road] for a couple of years. So although I’m from Paddington area originally, part of my roots are here,” Nicola says.

“I’m getting to know all of Peckham, I just love it ’cause I see my customers on the bus, I see them when I’m walking through the park, people say hello to me and I go, ‘Oh my God!’

“It’s like a real community spirit and when you actually live and work in a place, you’re seeing it evolve, you’re seeing it grow and to me that’s absolutely… you can’t buy that, I wouldn’t wanna be anywhere else.

“So you know I’m just happy being here with my people and that means all of them, all the communities. My children go to school here, I’m completely rooted in the community, I’ve been a governor in a Peckham school, so you know, it’s just a different side of me, a different facet.”

Nicola was brought up on hard work and strong family values, an ethos she has clearly passed on to her children. “I started doing a cleaning job with my grandmother when I was nine years old, she wouldn’t let any of us just sit down,” she says. “If we weren’t doing two jobs she wasn’t happy.”

She says those values, coupled with a supportive partner, are what allow her to thrive while balancing familial duties and looking after her three children. “I think the truth of the matter is I love this job, I love taking pictures and I love choosing the models,” she says.

Nicola is no stranger to modelling herself. “I was one of the first British black models who appeared on eBay. I used to do a lot of modelling for them, there were many in America but there wasn’t anybody who looked like me on eBay and I thought, ‘But why not?’”

Little Sister has three models, including Nicola herself. If you check her social media and see the diversity of her models as well as her customers, it’s clear that Little Sister is not a “one size fits all” type of business.

“I love working with Naomi and Hebe,” she says. “I love dressing them both because they’ve both got very different body shapes. That’s the way of the world and to me they’re both equally beautiful and stunning.

“I really, really enjoy talking to the women and men who come into the shop and supporting them. I can spend an hour with someone, it’s a real joy. In this little shop you might only get four customers for the day, but you’ve had such a rewarding time.

“You get to know about Peckham and there’s strange people that come in as well, but even then, they’ve got something to say, they’re all part of Peckham’s rich tapestry and rich life and that’s what I wanna reflect.”  

Although Nicola appears to be superhuman, she is bound to face challenges as an independent business. “Yeah I think that the business rates are gonna be really crippling for business because that’s gonna go up soon and that’s gonna impact on all of us, especially with Brexit coming through. I mean, we need all the help we can get.”

Is there anything more Southwark Council could do to support local businesses in Peckham? “I really wanna talk or lobby the council to give us like, designated lampposts on which we can post and put our posters up, ’cause ultimately these are all micro-economies that are bringing,” she says.

“We’re mostly local, what happens is we eat here, we live here, we buy all our stuff here, so all the money is staying in Peckham, unlike these big multinational companies where the money just goes out, they don’t pay any taxes.

“We are [keeping money in Peckham] and we’re being penalised; they don’t recognise the contribution that we’re all making to the economy and we should be celebrated. It’s only these little vintage shops, your independent coffee shops, your independent restaurants that bring the life blood.”

Nicola lives and breathes the ethos that she built Little Sister upon – you only have to meet her to see the way she interacts with her customers, whom she treats like friends she has not seen in a while.

After all, that’s how I met her. She’s the perfect example of how hard work, no matter what the obstacles, a strong family support system and solidarity through sisterhood – or as Nicola puts it, “Our united women front” – can lead to making your dream no longer a mere fantasy.

…………………..

Visit Nicola Tuesday and Wednesday (10am-4pm), Thursday and Friday (12-7pm) and Saturday (12-6pm) in Holdron’s Arcade, 135a Rye Lane. Follow her on Twitter @littlesis_rocks and Instagram and Facebook @littlesister.rocks.