It’s been almost three months since I last posted, a large gap that covers the Christmas
holidays and a major evolution in my practice. Since then I gained a commission
for a new video work, have been working on upcoming solo shows as well as the
ongoing project with isthisit?. I’ve also been thinking a lot about the future
and where I want to be in the coming years. I’ve been interviewed a few times
for different publications, and have a few ongoing exhibitions that I’m a part
of currently open. I also went to see some exhibitions before the lockdown over
Christmas, and have been watching a lot of films and TV.
For the past few months I’ve been continuing to work on several different projects,
mainly the trophy hunter series and the Amazon series. In trophy hunter news, I
have an upcoming solo show of the work in Paris, curated by Alexandre-Mario
Pastor at Galerie Polaris. Sadly it’ll be a very short show, about 3 or 4 days.
Alex is currently finishing his MA and part of his course is to organise a project
outside of the university, and he invited me to have a solo show which was
subsequently scheduled to be held at Galerie Polaris later this year. The date is
yet to be confirmed, and hopefully I’ll be able to go and install and see it.
The title is Eat The Rich, and will revolve around my ongoing series of trophy
hunter portraits, alongside several new sculptures, imagining that the world's
billionaires are being hunted down and butchered. For the exhibition I’ve been
painting new billionaires, be exhibiting 22 portraits in total, depicting the
richest people in the world. For the show I’ve moved away from just portraying
tech billionaires, and have moved onto billionaires in general. The works are
still in development, which I’m slowly painting. These are some pictures of the
billionaire portraits, all of which will be 40 x 30 cm.
Since getting the 3D printer many months ago I’ve been slowly learning how to
use it and have been making new 3D printed sculptures which will be exhibited
in the show. These works are life size 3D printed heads of several billionaires.
At the moment I’ve been 3D printing Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos,
but will be branching out to others too. I’ve been experimenting a lot with what
to do with the prints after I print them, and have been painting them with
acrylic paint. I want to preserve the 3D printing aspect of them, which the acrylic
does, as well as getting it a certain glossy, attractive texture, which I enjoy.
I’ve been painting the heads in different skin tones, making them
semi-realistic without perfectly painting them. The heads will form the main part
of several sculptures. A couple of heads will be strewn on the floor with
arrows sticking out of them, as if they’ve been shot with a bow and arrow,
either before or after being beheaded. Then I’m planning on putting a couple of
heads in different sized coolers, as if the heads are being preserved, potentially
to be eaten in the future. I’m going to continue experimenting with this. This
is a picture of a life-size Mark head, painted with a dark pink colour.
In the leadup to Christmas, and whilst I was still in the early stages of experimenting with the 3D printer, I created a series of commercial, Christmas inspired, works. The series was a set of baubles in the shape of the different billionaires, which continued my interest in tech billionaires and forms of hyper-capitalism. I was really happy with how they turned out, although now I would have probably painted them as it really adds to the work. Either way, they worked really well as baubles and I sold a bunch of them, so I was and still am super happy that these works are alive and being seen in people’s homes. At the time I was really excited when printing these, but since then I’ve scaled up my printing operation, although watching the sculptures being printed is still incredibly enticing to watch. I still have several available, priced at £40 each or £100 for the set of 3. Feel free to email or message me if interested, more pics here - www.bobbicknell-knight.com/christmas-baubles
I’ve also been working more on my series concerning Amazon and how the company treats it’s human workers. I’ve been continuing to make paintings in the series, mostly focusing on the use of yellow in the warehouses and the expansive space that people work in on a given day. I also attended a virtual tour of an Amazon warehouse, which was very interesting. I learned a lot about Amazon, but also about how they present themselves to the public.
I have also started working on the sculptures to accompany the paintings. The idea for the sculptures has slowly evolved and changed as I’ve learned more about 3D printing, as well as after researching and speaking to Amazon employees. Rather than printing objects that employees use on a daily basis, I have refined the idea to featuring body parts that are used by Amazon employees on a daily basis but will soon become not needed due to the rise of automation. For the sculptures I’ll be printing life size arms/hands, feet/legs and eyes. Within the company ‘pickers’ pick up different items and put them in their trolley. These employees walk many miles a day, using their legs to walk, their hands to ‘pick’ and their eyes to find the items on the shelf. In many Amazon warehouses the walking element of this job is slowly being erased by robots that pick up the items and bring them to the employee. There are also robots in development that pick up move around boxes, acting as the hands, as well as ones that can scan different objects, acting as the eyes.
These sculptures will be printed with an embedded SD card inside, containing interviews with a different Amazon employee for each sculpture. The object will be printed in two different types of PLA, one transparent and the other cardboard coloured. The transparent element will enable the viewer to see the SD card embedded inside, accompanied by the cardboard colour referencing how Amazon products are transported to homes around the world, and of course the large amount of cardboard that’s used in their packaging process. The embedded SD card references occurrences in the past when unpaid labourers for various companies have slipped ‘cry for help’ notes into different products. The embedded SD cards include interviews and conversations with Amazon workers detailing the working conditions within Amazon warehouses, essentially their own ‘cry for help’ note.
A video proposal of mine, the one from last year concerning Amazon warehouses, is also being commissioned which is super exciting. I originally proposed the work for an open call from Quote—Unquote, a platform based in Bucharest, was turned down, but then recently they came back to me as they’re working on a new project and now want to commission the work. So at some point in the future I’ll also be working on that too, although I think the piece will slowly evolve out of my original proposal. I think, instead of using the interviews with Amazon employees directly in the piece, I’d like to push Amazon’s treatment of human workers into the dystopic, imagining what will be happening within the company in the next 5, 10, 15 years, and how robots will continue to replace human beings within the workplace. This is the original draft image of the work.
Since November I’ve also had two of the isthisit? online shows open. The first, launched back in December, was Networked Visions with Larry Achiampong, David Blandy, Stine Deja and Mimi Ọnụọha. Networked Visions was an exhibition examining the use of algorithms and machine learning techniques, exploring the embedded bias present within these complex systems that govern our day to day lives and how the use of AI within various industries is changing how we communicate, fall in love and evolve. The works on show consider the politics of pattern recognition, DNA testing and love in the age of AI. The exhibition's name is inspired by computer vision, a field of study that seeks to develop techniques to help computers see and understand the content of digital images. The show took the form of a volatile spiders web of interconnected visual ephemera, where the artworks on show are presented alongside referential images, videos and gifs. Audience members are invited to sought through the networked rubble, discovering the overt and hidden connections between the presented artworks. You can read the full press release here -
www.isthisitisthisit.com/networked-visions
The next show was Time Out Of Joint, with work by Tamara Kametani, Maria Mahfooz and Rene Matić, which launched in January. Time Out Of Joint is an exhibition exploring the idea of the archive, considering a number of elements from within our culture and society that are far too often unconsidered and actively concealed in the present day, but will be reflected upon and studied in the near and far future. The exhibition acts as a time capsule, exhibiting several works that reflect upon various aspects of our current state of affairs. The exhibition takes its name from the 1959 novel of the same name by Philip K. Dick. Within the dystopian text the nature of reality is continually questioned and the protagonist, Ragle Gumm, experiences the world unravelling around him. Throughout the book Gumm spends most of his time living in a mentally and physically fabricated version of the year 1959, occasionally breaking out of his counterfeit world and into the actual present day, in the year 1998. The invented world eventually crumbles, exposing the harsh realities of the present, forcing Gumm to recognise and learn from his past mistakes. The works included in Time Out Of Joint consider and highlight fundamental issues that have been, and continue to be, inadvertently or otherwise ingrained within people and places, from reflecting on the pernicious nature of the white gaze to exploring the notion of borders, separation and the freedom of movement. You can still see the show by going here - www.isthisitisthisit.com/time-out-of-joint
So those have been going well, I’ve been getting nice feedback and I think I’ve brought together a group of really fantastic artists. The final exhibition in the series will be a solo show from Keiken, opening in March next month. I’ve also locked in all of the writers, who are writing about each of the shows and interviewing all of the artists too. I’ve got a busy few months ahead of me, editing together all of the texts and designing the book. I’m super excited to see it all come together.
I was also interviewed a few times over the past few months. I spoke to Matteo Bittanti, a fantastic artist and curators who focuses on game art, about my 2017 work Zo, alongside my general practice. I haven’t really been interviewed about the game side of my practice before, so it was really nice to be afforded the time to delve into that. You can read the interview here - milanmachinimafestival.org/vral-16-bob-bicknellknight
I was also interviewed by Anna Meinecke for gallerytalk, speaking about my recent video Outbreak, depicting Boris Johnson in a hospital bed. It was an interesting interview, not really art but more about me as a person, which is very different to other interviews I’ve been a part of. You can read the short interview here - www.gallerytalk.net/ist-da-jemand-bob-bicknell-knight-interview
I’ve also been in, and continue to be in, a number of group shows. I’m currently part of a group show at Elysium Gallery in Wales titled Change Makers: Ways of Protest with the Outbreak video. I was part of Southwark Park Galleries’ 36th annual open exhibition, which was online, with a few artworks. The 27th Slavonian Biennale, titled Image as a Virus, at the Museum of Fine Arts in Osijek continues until March where I’m showing one of the trophy hunter works. The exhibition at Portico Library, which opened in late November, continues until June. The show’s titled Fun & Games: Playtime, past & present, and features a painting of mine, alongside a video from my show Bit Rot and a 3D printed USB drive. I was also part of an online exhibition titled Both Sides Now 6: Viral Futures with another old work of mine There are already 35 server farms on Mars. It is the perfect temperature. So a couple of exciting group shows, which have been really fun to be a part of, although obviously less people are seeing the work because of the pandemic. It’s been fun to show some older work too, and reflecting on what kind of work I made back then, what kind of mindset I was in.
Alongside this, I’ll be a part of an online group show next month with Slop Projects with a few of my works from Bit Rot. I also have a group show in New York coming up in April, curated by Off Site Project at Anonymous Gallery. Then I also think I have another thing coming up with Daata, more info on that soon. On top of this there’s the group show in Brussels that keeps getting delayed, most probably now scheduled for June later this year, alongside my other solo show at Industra in the Czech Republic, which I’m still waiting for dates from. Also in June I’ll be part of the group show In Crystalized Time at Museum of Museums in Seattle, which has also continued to be delayed. So lots of upcoming things to be excited for.
I think that might be it for everything I’m currently working on. At the moment I’m just continuing to apply for things in an attempt to keep my head above water, keeping busy so that I always have something to do every day. It’s a big work load at the moment, and I’m a little stressed, but it feels good to be busy and working on things. I’ll now speak about the exhibitions I managed to see in early December.
I first went to Polly Morgan’s show How to Behave at Home at The Bomb Factory. She usually uses lots of taxidermied snakes within her work, and this show was no exception. I enjoyed the individual sculptures, especially the one pictured situated within a cast piece of polystyrene, but felt like the overall presentation felt a little too like a showroom. Perhaps this was the point, and it probably was, but it didn’t really sit right for me.
Next up was Trulee Hall at the Zabludowicz Collection. It was a visually enticing show, presenting a lot of her previous work and a newly commissioned opera. The work was focused a lot on breaking down boundaries and certain, particularly western, normative views around sex and nakedness. It felt very American and wasn’t really for me, but I enjoyed the experience nonetheless, simply for the extravagant sculptures and how the video of the opera moved between life video, claymation and animation. It was fun.
Alex Da Corte at Sadie Coles was fine, it felt incredibly impenetrable and full of references you may or may not understand. I like a lot of his work, but this show just felt very stale and silent, unlike a lot of his previous works and exhibitions.
Caroline Coon at J Hammond Projects was certainly an interesting peak into the past with paintings of these extravagant, overindulgent muscled figures in various states of play.
The final exhibition was Ed Atkins at Cabinet with a solo show titled Entropy of a biased coin. I think I liked the show, which was consumed by two screens, one in the main gallery space and the other in the basement. The screen upstairs was vertical, showing various objects falling down the screen with loud bangs coming from below. The work was a live simulation, so the objects were incredibly random, alongside the different times that they fell. Downstairs the screen was horizontal, showing the objects falling to the floor in a huge, ongoing pile. Visually I liked it, but in reality it’s very random and just not that interesting. I’m not a big fan of simulated artwork with the concept being ‘hey it’s a simulated artwork, how cool is that’. I’m sure it had some embedded meaning behind it, but with the press simply stating the fact that’s it’s a simulated artwork, and nothing else, illustrates that both the artist and gallery don’t really care about the audience uncovering the mystery behind the random artwork. I’m usually a big fan of Atkins’ work, but this piece didn’t sit right with me. The screen was accompanied by lots of threaded/sewn wall based works, listing seemingly random ingredients and unknown remarks. Again, who knows, I certainly don’t.
And so begins the part of this post where I talk about films, TV, video games and books. There’s a lot to get through. Let’s start with Caliphate, a distressing Swedish drama about young women who are recruited and groomed by the Islamic State, to be lured to travel to Syria and to commit acts of terrorism. It’s all very bleak, especially how the police treat and utilise a young woman wanting to escape a life of captivity.
I watched the first two seasons of Prison Break, which I did enjoy. I think the
first half of season one is obviously the best and most coherent, actively
linking to the guy’s tattoos, after that it got a little tired and very repetitive.
I’ve been told that the first two seasons are the best, and after that the
series drastically goes downhill, so I don’t think I’ll be continuing.
I re-watched The Secret of Kells, another fabulous film from the animation studio Cartoon Saloon. They specialise in creating rich narratives inspired by Irish folklore, animated in both a beautiful and simple art style. They’re truly great.
I also watched their new films, Wolfwalkers, another fantastic film focusing on demonic wolves and the English empire. They’re beautiful films, although my favourite is still probably Song of the Sea.
A short animation, If Anything Happens I Love You, was pretty bleak, illustrating the emotional toll that parents undergo when their child is killed in a school shooting. It’s very depressing.
I kind of got into Corner Gas Animated, an average animated TV show about a small town in Canada that revolves around its petrol station. It’s an animated version of a live action show that’s very popular in Canada. It’s fun, although there are far better animated TV shows, it’s just I’ve sadly watched them all.
I finally got around to watching Tenet. I definitely enjoyed it, although didn’t understand why everyone is saying that it’s incredibly complicated. The story and mechanics of the narrative is very much told to you, multiple times throughout the film. It became a little tedious towards the end, although I enjoyed the overall idea behind it. Fantastic acting from John David Washington and a really great opening scene.
I re-watched The Secret of Kells, another fabulous film from the animation studio Cartoon Saloon. They specialise in creating rich narratives inspired by Irish folklore, animated in both a beautiful and simple art style. They’re truly great.
I also watched their new films, Wolfwalkers, another fantastic film focusing on demonic wolves and the English empire. They’re beautiful films, although my favourite is still probably Song of the Sea.
A short animation, If Anything Happens I Love You, was pretty bleak, illustrating the emotional toll that parents undergo when their child is killed in a school shooting. It’s very depressing.
I kind of got into Corner Gas Animated, an average animated TV show about a small town in Canada that revolves around its petrol station. It’s an animated version of a live action show that’s very popular in Canada. It’s fun, although there are far better animated TV shows, it’s just I’ve sadly watched them all.
I finally got around to watching Tenet. I definitely enjoyed it, although didn’t understand why everyone is saying that it’s incredibly complicated. The story and mechanics of the narrative is very much told to you, multiple times throughout the film. It became a little tedious towards the end, although I enjoyed the overall idea behind it. Fantastic acting from John David Washington and a really great opening scene.
I truly loved How to with John Wilson, a show revolving around a guy with a
camera who obsessively films stuff in New York City. The premise is that each episode
he teaches you how to do something, with the plot usually spiralling out of
control, pieced together using clips from around New York to create amazing links
to an ongoing narrative. It’s truly hilarious, and is produced by Nathan Fielder,
so it has that sort of ‘let’s film someone until they start saying something wild’
kind of idea behind it. Highly recommended.
During the lead up to Christmas I watched lots of Christmas films, and had never seen Anastasia. Of course, it’s fantastic.
During the lead up to Christmas I watched lots of Christmas films, and had never seen Anastasia. Of course, it’s fantastic.
I really enjoyed Top Secret!, a fantastic comedy from 1984 parodying WW2 action spy films. It’s packed with jokes and is definitely worth a watch.
I thought Last Holiday was hilarious, Queen Latifah is diagnosed with a terminal illness so decides to quit her job working in a superstore in America and travels to Europe, spending all her money. People assume she’s a rich heiress and hilarity ensues.
I powered through the entirety of Schitt's Creek. At first I truly hated it, but slowly as I watched more you really enjoy the characters and the development that occurs over the course of the series. It was a very fun show, a solid 8 out of 10.
Happiest Season was truly awful and unpleasant to watch. Really bad, faux progressiveness, wrapped in a Christmas film.
I thought The Trial of the Chicago 7 was good, not quite as serious as it should have been, but was interesting to learn more about this event in history.
Possessor was a bit of a mind fuck, about a person who gets transported into different people’s minds to carry out assassinations. It’s really wild, and was a really fantastic watch. It was directed and written by Brandon Cronenberg, David Cronenberg’s son. It’s not quite as good as his father’s work, but it’s getting there.
Industry, a show about young bankers working in a post 2008 London, was an interesting little window and how fucked being a banker truly is. Yeah, really unpleasant to watch. It’s very well filmed and has an enticing plot line, but I’m not sure if I really want to be around these kinds of people for long periods of time.
Another terrible Christmas film, The Family Stone, was not good at all. A fairly uptight woman visits her boyfriend’s liberal family over the holidays, and they mercilessly persecute her. Not so progressive.
Four Christmases, another Christmas film, was slightly better, but not by much. I’m sure everyone knows the plots to these, so won’t go into detail. It’s all semi-comforting trash.
I kind of enjoyed The Best Man, a 1999 film focussing on delving into the history of a close group of friends, all gathering for a wedding. It was fun, pretty trashy.
The follow up to The Best Man, The Best Man Holiday, was not so great, bringing that same group of friends back together 15 years later. The first was fun, the second was dull.
I loved Soul, a Pixar animation focusing on what happens before you’re born, ruminating on where people get their different personalities from, all built around a narrative concerning a jazz pianist who feels that he is yet to succeed in life. Truly beautiful and definitely worth your time.
Wonder Woman 1984 was pretty dull and overly long, with very little action throughout. I much preferred the first film. I kind of enjoyed the ‘80’s’ aesthetic, but that wasn’t really enjoy to hold my interest throughout.
Vin Diesel in Bloodshot as a soldier re-animated as a super soldier was truly trash.
Death to 2020 by Charlie Brooker was painfully disappointing. I would have much preferred a yearly wipe than a film detailing what had happened in politics and covid over the last year, which everyone already knows about. Yeah, not funny and not good.
I felt that The Midnight Sky was another disappointment, focusing on an apocalyptic tale starring George Clooney as a lone figure in the arctic, attempting to contact astronauts in space, telling them to stay in space because the entire planet has been fucked. Yeah, it was fine, Felicity Jones is as always great.
I’m not sure whether I’ve spoken about Kim's Convenience before, but for many years I’ve been watching this show, and am currently enjoying the latest season. It revolves around the Kim family, a Korean Canadian family that runs a convenience store. It’s an incredibly consistent show, not really changing from its early episodes, which is a fantastic thing, as this show has always been great. Highly recommended viewing.
I thought Host was clever, a horror film captured as a Zoom call, continuing for exactly 57 minutes. It’s a really great descent into madness and is essential watching for anyone who has had to endure many Zoom calls over this ongoing time period.
Skyfire was total trash, Jurassic Park but the volcano version. Really terrible stuff.
I really enjoyed Dave, a comedy about a rapper in his 20s, navigating both the music scene and his life. It’s very funny and a great watch. Highly recommended.
The Vast of Night was a fun film set over one night in the 1950s with a narrative concerning alien invaders and strange radio frequencies. It’s packed full of sci-fi references, and is kind of an homage to the genre in general. It was very PG, and had lots of nice elements.
Another sci-fi, Color Out of Space, was terrible. How can Nicolas Cage be so terrible at acting in some films, but fairly okay in others?
Bacurau was an amazing Brazilian film that truly took me off guard. It’s been on my watch list for a while, and I’m so happy I saw it. It’s a mix of genres and is really amazing. I’m not going to say anything more because the surprises that occur throughout the film are fantastic to come at with no knowledge. Highly recommended.
Another great film was Beyond the Visible - Hilma Af Klint, looking at the life of the overlooked abstract painter. It’s really great in delving into Klint’s past, and the lack of care that artists, curators and institutions have had for the work over the years.
I enjoyed Freaky, a body swap film where Vince Vaughn, a middle aged serial
killer, swaps bodies with Kathryn Newton, a teenage girl. It’s very funny and definite
worth your time.
I have delved into the Danish director Anders Thomas Jensen and his fantastic catalogue of films that he’s written and directed. They’re all truly fantastic, hilarious films, always featuring the same actors (the favourite being Mads Mikkelsen of course) featuring absurd plot lines which are just amazing. I can’t stress enough how much I’ve been enjoying these films. First of was The Green Butchers, a tale of two men who start a butcher shop, and inadvertently start selling human meat. This is the most stereotypical narrative of Jensen’s films, but I guess that’s the whole point of his work, making you think that you know what you’re getting into when in reality you’re embarking on a journey into absurd hilarity. Mads Mikkelsen’s haircut is hilarious.
Next up in Jensen’s archive was Men & Chicken, about two brothers setting out to find their unknown family. Again, it’s truly absurd and really disturbing. Not quite as good as the next film, but still definitely worth the watch if you get stuck in to this director.
My favourite Jensen film, Adam’s Apples, was next on the list. It’s about a neo-Nazi who’s sentenced to community service at a church run by a devout priest. The priest, played by Mikkelsen, is painfully devout, purposefully overlooking so many bad things happening within his life, blaming them on the devil and their bidding. It’s hilarious, taking you down so many paths that I really didn’t see coming, alongside going against certain film stereotypes, which was just really great. Yeah, if you’re going to watch one of his films to get you started, watch this one. If you don’t like this one then his humour isn’t for you.
The final film of Jensen’s, Flickering Lights, was his first feature film. It was again, truly great, telling the story of four Danish criminals who steal millions of Danish krone and try to run away to Barcelona. In the process they stop to rest at an abandoned farm house in the countryside, and end up renovating it instead. It’s really fun, and definitely sets the tone for Jensen’s future films. I’m eagerly awaiting his latest film, Riders of Justice, to be released in the UK. It looks superb.
Moving onto Spree, which was fun, about an uber driver who live streams killing his passengers in a bid to be famous. It’s fun, and fairly well done.
Next was Love and Monsters, another PG film, although this time about an apocalyptic earth overrun by monsters, forcing the human beings to live underground. It was a fun, fairly light, experience that I definitely enjoyed to an extent.
I wasn’t really a fan of Peter Strickland’s new short film Cold Meridian, attempting to make a work about ASMR. Way too subtle and super dull.
Another film featuring Mads Mikkelsen, Another Round, was an enjoyable time. Four friends, who are all teachers, decide to micro dose alcohol in an attempt to spice up their working lives. It’s definitely fun, and there’s one scene where we see Mikkelsen doing some amazing dancing, but it doesn’t really do enough to speak about the dangers of micro dosing, perhaps it’s not that dangerous? Who knows, the film definitely doesn’t explore it too much.
I’m currently enjoying Mr. Mayor, a show created by Robert Carlock and Tina Fey, focused on Ted Danson as a wealthy businessman who becomes the mayor of LA. It tries to be incredibly up to date with its references, internet memes and politics, making it obviously dated from the get-go, but I’m enjoying it nonetheless. It’s very light, and nothing on a show like Parks and Rec, but is good fun.
I found Lupin to be an enjoyable action crime series about a gentleman thief in Paris stealing expensive art and antiques. Yeah, it was a solid show, although a very quick watch.
I watched the first season of Condor, a very American show about a CIA agent being hunted down by his own government. I thought it was okay, but a little bit trash at times. The acting was sometimes off, and the general plot line became very tired after the first episode. I won’t be watching season 2 anytime soon.
I enjoyed Promising Young Woman, female revenge against men who actively seek out drunken women to take advantage of, but kind of wanted more, something akin to Prevenge, the horror film that sees a pregnant widow murdering people who may have been involved in her partners death. I kind of wanted Promising Young Woman to be more of a thriller, with Carey Mulligan killing those that she encounters, although I guess that pushes this idea into unrealistic territory, whereas what’s portrayed in the film actually happens on a daily basis; women being abused by men, and there being very little to no consequences for their actions. So yeah, I guess that’s me wanting this to be fantastical, rather than portraying this painful realism.
I ran through Superstore, a very fun TV show about a department store in America, it’s employees and their lives. It’s very fun, especially in its early seasons, and I especially enjoy the moments where the camera cuts to short, generally 10 second, clips of employees and customers doing random shit that you see happening in a huge department store. I would definitely recommend it, with the current season embracing the pandemic, making fun of corporations and big business.
I started watching Small Axe, a brilliant show by Steve McQueen, inspired by real-life experiences of London’s West Indian community, set between 1969 and 1982. I’ve only watched the first episode as I’m taking it slow, really taking the time and space to watch each part, but the first was really gut-wrenching, continuing to illustrate how fucked the UK has been and continues to be with regards to police corruption and active racism. Really amazing acting from all involved, especially Letitia Wright.
I quite enjoyed Tag, a real life inspired film about a group of friends who’ve been playing tag for 20 years. It’s trash, but enjoyable trash. Jeremy Renner’s character, as the guy who has never been tagged, is really great.
I watched the first season of Unit 1, a Danish police show about a mobile task force that goes around Denmark helping local police departments with hard cases. Again, with Mads Mikkelsen, who as you might have noticed me and my partner have become obsessed with. It’s very good, although fairly dated at this point, being created in the year 2000, but it’s still very fun.
Another Danish drama, Bron/Broen or The Bridge, was a great detective show about collaboration between Denmark and Sweden. The characters were well fleshed out, and the various cases were interesting to slowly pick apart. The dynamic between the two main detectives was very enjoyable and at times darkly funny.
Another great series that I devoured, Man Seeking Woman, was hilarious. The idea of the show is a man trying to get over and build a new relationship, but each episode involves an otherworldly person or experience. These range from a wedding in hell to, a particular favourite, Hitler being alive and well and dating the guy’s ex-girlfriend. It’s really good and is truly hilarious throughout the entire series run. I would highly recommend it.
I wanted more from Synchronic, a sci-fi film about a new drug that allows people to go into the past, and was truly disappointed by Jamie Dornan’s terrible acting. Like, he’s fantastic in The Fall, but in this he is truly unpleasant and just wooden. Anthony Mackie, as always, is great, but is sadly unable to save the film from Dornan.
I enjoyed The White Tiger, although kind of wanted more about what life is like for the protagonist in the present. It was very much focused on his backstory, but didn’t really explore how his life was. Perhaps that wasn’t the point, but I felt a little lukewarm towards the end. The story focused on an Indian driver escaping poverty in New Delhi.
Polar was trash, an attempt at making John Wick but instead of Keanu Reeves and a slick plot, you have Mads Mikkelsen and a over the top, dialled to 11, comic book like approach. It felt a bit too comical for me to take seriously, becoming more comedic than serious.
The Little Things, about a police officer returning to his old department to help solve a string of murders, was a new take on the tired formula. Sadly it didn’t really help the drama, and the whole thing felt a little diluted to me. I don’t know what it was, but it didn’t really pull me in as much as I wanted I to.
I watched Lying and Stealing, a film about art heists, which was not good. I enjoyed the art references, but the plot was tired and the acting was bland.
I’m pretty sure I’ve seen Next, Nicholas Cage seeing two minutes into the future, but I found myself watching it at one point. The moments when Cage was able to manipulate what was happening by seeing into the future were fun, but overall I did not enjoy the plot or any of the characters, especially Cage.
The Dig, delving into Suffolk’s history, was really good. It detailed the true story of an archaeologist who excavates large mounds in the leadup to WW2, uncovering treasures from the Anglo-Saxon era. The film was quite thrilling, constantly making you question whether they would find anything (although everyone knows obviously that they did) and whether the archaeologist Basil Brown would actually receive credit for the find. There’s a fairly tedious and unneeded side plot about a young woman who’s married to a gay man, which feels really not needed. I’m unsure why they included this, other than illustrating how fucked it was for gay men in the past, although they don’t actually highlight this at all, and is only used as simple set dressing to accompany the narrative of the actual dig. I’m assuming that the creators of this film thought that they’d need something other than archaeology to make it exciting, but in reality the archaeology is the exciting part of the film, keeping you on the edge of your seat. So yeah, unsure what happened there, or maybe it’s just me.
I’ve been watching lots of anime too, recently engaging in Paranoia Agent, a fantastically mind bending show about a kid going around attacking people with a golden bat. You’re not sure whether this child is real, or whether it’s simply people who are experiencing too much stress in their lives, leading to self-harm or their imagination conjuring this creature. I’m almost finished with the show, and I’ve been loving it so far.
I think that’s it for film and TV, a grand total of 58 things over the past three months. I’ve also been playing a few things. Me and my partner have been slowly wading through Kentucky Route Zero, a point and click esque adventure game, about a group of people wandering through a mysterious, alien like, expanse. It’s very odd and truly random, with lots of individual beautiful elements, although I’m unsure if it all means anything or not. We’re almost finished, and I don’t think any of our questions regarding the plot will ever be answered. At first it was fairly draining, playing for long periods of time, but then we slowly realised that the game is best payed for 20 – 30 minutes at a time, otherwise you get overloaded. There’s so much text to read that it can become painfully dull if you play for too long. I’d definitely recommend it, but to take it slow otherwise you’ll ruin it for yourself. Really beautiful graphics too.
I’ve also been lightly playing the 2018 Spider-Man video game. The story is super basic, but the act of web slinging through New York City is really well crafted. If the web slinging was shit, I would have stopped playing hours ago, but because it’s so well honed you find yourself just swinging around the city at points, not worrying about missions and just having fun backflipping through the streets. It’s a lot of fun.
Alongside this I read Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid, a fantastic novel about a young Black woman who is wrongly accused of kidnapping while babysitting a white child, and the events that follow the incident. It’s a very thought provoking read, looking at ideas of race and power dynamics within the workplace. Definitely a must read.
