Justified - Season 1
TV Season
Raylan Givens a talented law man with a old west mentality Gets transferred to his hometown...
This comes across as a rather silly farcical comedy with a few crude jokes and in some parts it is, but it’s actually so much more than this and a much more sensitive and heartwarming side. Yes it’s funny, mainly thanks to Joseph Gilgun and his rather inept gang of petty thieves, and his entirely inappropriate GP played wonderfully by Dominic West. Being northern myself, this is part of the reason why I found this series so enjoyable. You can almost imagine things like that happening in certain parts of the world up here. But despite the humour, this has a deeper story which works in well amongst all of the wacky exploits and chaos, and it provides a nice balance.
Unfortunately I’m still not a fan of Michelle Keegan even after watching this, and I’m afraid I found her part in the story and episodes the weakest and most boring of everything. But fortunately this didn’t ruin the rest of the show too much and it was still a rather fun and entertaining series.
The Little Book Of Feminist Saints
Manjit Thapp and Julia Pierpont
Book
This inspiring, beautifully illustrated collection honours one hundred exceptional women throughout...
biography gender studies
The Flash - Season 2
TV Season Watch
At 11, Barry Allen's life changed completely when his mother died in a freak accident and his...
The Goddess Pose: The Audacious Life of Indra Devi, the Woman Who Helped Bring Yoga to the West
Book
When the woman who would become Indra Devi was born in Russia in 1899, yoga was virtually unknown...
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration
Book
The New Jim Crow was initially published with a modest first printing and reasonable expectations...
Essays Politics
Lee (2222 KP) rated Last Christmas (2019) in Movies
Nov 16, 2019
Emilia Clarke stars as Kate (short for Katerina, her original Yugoslav name), a 26 year old who’s struggling at life right now. Her nights are filled with one-night stands and sleeping over at friends houses, dragging her suitcase behind her the next morning as she either heads to work in a Covent Garden Christmas shop or off to an audition for a West end show. She’s also currently ignoring calls from her mum (Emma Thomson), disappointing her boss (Michelle Yeoh) and coming across as selfish and not really very likeable. It’s safe to say, she’s lost her way - “Why is my life so shit?!” she exclaims after yet another disaster happens.
And then one day, Kate notices a man gazing up at a bird outside the Christmas shop and goes outside to see what he’s doing. His name is Tom (Henry Golding) and he’s handsome and charming (but a bit wooden) and despite them turning out to have zero chemistry together, they strike up a relationship - because, y’know, this is a rom-com after all. Tom takes Kate on spontaneous walks down alleyways and into nearby pocket parks, making her look up regularly so that she can appreciate the world around her. He rides a bike everywhere, doesn’t have a mobile phone and disappears for days on end. Yet his presence and friendship appear to have a positive effect on Kate, who begins to start turning her life around.
The first half of the movie is just terrible. Badly written dialogue and characters in an attempt to try and recapture some kind of Love Actually spirit, but just failing. It even tries to cram in some Brexit references and a little bit of racism to highlight the plight of immigrants. Written by Emma Thomson and directed by Paul Feig, Last Christmas is said to be inspired by the music of George Michael although, aside from its namesake, not very much of it actually ends up featuring much in the movie.
If you’ve seen the trailer, then you may well have figured out the twist that comes towards the end of the movie. If not, then you’ll probably work it out pretty early on anyway. However, I’d be lying if I said that Last Christmas didn’t manage to hit me emotionally when the time came. It also managed to invoke some warm Christmas feels and spirit too, so not quite the complete disaster it started out as.