After the local elections: where next for class politics?

Between Faiza and Leanne we're quite spoilt for choice when it comes to community based political discourse. Today was the former's first post election talk and it's safe to say that it was a little abstract as a result. Yes, it's easy enough to relate anything to the slapping that the Labour Party recently got, but Class Politics is a subject of its own.

Much was learned, and yet I had a feeling that today's talk was more of a catharsis - a sounding board to rant about where we are with respect to class in the UK. Some interesting points were made about class and its relation to the surge in populism, but to my cynical ears we were just dancing around the fact that sometimes people vote in stupid ways.

Otherwise business as usual here.

Film: Mortal Kombat II

Rewatching the first (of the modern rebooted) Mortal Kombat films made me realise it wasn't as good as I remembered it being. The main culprit was the random new character lead - never a good sign when seeking something a bit authentic. Otherwise it kind of just tread water with some (admittedly decent) fan service.

Mortal Kombat II is more of the same, although I did come away from it feeling a bit better about the franchise as a whole. There is less random non-MK stuff and more fan service - and to be honest that's all one would want from such a franchise. The fighting is decent, the jokes chuckling, the plot and characterisation... well non-existent, but you can't have it all.

Will see if I don't also look back at this as a big mistake. For now though it just about squeezes in a recommendation. 

Film: Hokum

Hokum was an above decent horror movie. The scares were good, albeit sometimes cheap. Adam Scotts's Ohm was an annoying and easily-hated spitwad who somewhat redeems himself by the end. The plot (or rather, plots), although not complete, was left open in all the right ways.

It just oozed a confidence and attention to itself that a lot of films, let alone horror films, lack in an age of low attention spans. Even the relatively non-eventful first act was watchable.

Recommended. 

Book: Dark Matter, Blake Crouch

To be honest I'm not sure why this book was on my list. I like to think I have a robust and discerning filter mechanism - mainly because I don't have the time any more to consume all the books that I want to. I guess no system is perfect and thus Dark Matter slipped made it to my reading list.

How bad a book is doesn't typically stem from a single reason. Dark Matter is badly written (both technically and creatively), has bad characters (although I was made to feel very strongly how much of a douchebag Jason was) and characterisation and treats the "multiple worlds" concept with such a lack of care and attention that I was left unusually frustrated. This wasn't just bad scifi, it was bad art, and I firmly place it amongst Twilight and The Hunger Games as one of the most awful books I've read.

The only reason I completed this book was because it was mercifully short. One to skip. 

 

The Labour Party: What Went Wrong?

Rather than being an abstract discussion about the topic at hand, today's event hosted by Faiza Shaheen was was more of a conversation with the investigative journalist Paul Holden, mainly using the case study of the think tank Labour Together as a vehicle to demonstrate some of the less robust processes that have been occurring in the Labour party of the last decade or so.

Most of what was said was in the public domain - or at the very least in Holden's hefty tome. Nevertheless everything discussed was shocking. Nothing discussed was surprising. All the while, the frustration that such concerns are niche was constantly buzzing throughout. We left the event optimistic that that might change.

In a surprise twist, the Q&A was not awful, with some decent (and mercifully short and outward facing) questions prompting some equally insightful answers.

This was my first Faiza event and I look forward to future ones. It's another positive sign that these spaces and discussions are no longer rare and intermittent - whether they become mainstream is of course something to wish for, but the fact that they exist at all should not be taken for granted.

 

Film: The Super Mario Galaxy Movie

It's not like Nintendo to fail at these things, and yet here we are. Where the first Mario movie reached a chef's kiss level of finesse, its sequel is an empty shell in comparison. 

It's hard to say what's missing. And it could be that nothing is. The plot is okay, the jokes okay. The fan-service is... well quite fantastic actually and possibly the only reason to watch this movie.

So perhaps the failure is it's own fault, and the movie just doesn't reach the heights that we know such a franchise should - a theory proven once already at least. As it stands we are left with a very plain film that you should probably labour to watch at home.

Film: Undertone

Perhaps I'm getting a bit old, but I'm of the opinion that horror movies need to be more than just a series of (even excellent) scary set pieces. This is as opposed to certain other genres - an action or fighting movie can probably still be entertaining even if the plot is non-existent. But a horror movie needs the background engagement of its audience in order for them to suspend their disbelief. Just being good art or leaving things overly implied or ambiguous harms that.

Undertone was a series of excellent scary set pieces that did very little to progress a plot. It's especially unfortunate, given how novel it otherwise was - using some great sound tricks and the limited cast to really bring out the creepies. This made the lack of any payoff even more jarring, enough to overall cause the movie to fail to reach its potential.

It was a good timepass I guess, but overall undertone is one to watch at home. 

 

Film: Project Hail Mary

The whole book vs adaptation conversation will always be a paradox. A film was never going to be as good as the book it was based on, and yet the book would never have been as good if read after watching the film. As such there is no perfect set up where you can enjoy both to the maximum, and such is the case here.

But it's more than the reasonable expectation that a lot was going to be cut out. The film itself seemed very rushed and pacey - a bit like a 2h40m extended trailer for a better film to come. As such a lot of the ingredients that made the book magic - the charm, the science, the story.

My only hope is that the film pushes more people to the book, so that they can experience the more fuller and rounded story. Whether that experience will be as good as having read the book first, well we'll never know.

Book: One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Aainst This, Omar El Akkad

Apart from being wonderfully written, brilliantly concise and amazingly clear, the real value in this book isn't how well it is put together, but as medicine for those who perhaps struggle for articulating the feelings and positions they have over current and recent world affairs. In that sense it's a bit cathartic, a welcome release valve for us to realise that, no, we are not mad nor alone.

It's a short book and I recommend everyone to read it. 

Ilford in Conversation: Women Challenging the Political Status Quo

Tonight's conversation was of particular interest to me having been moved from the host's constituency to the guest's, Faiza Shaheen's. It turns out that this didn't make much of a difference to the latter, but was of benefit to the former... leaving the redrawing of the boundaries largely an academic exercise.

But that detail aside, tonight was less explicitly about women in politics and more about political troublemaking - although given the vicinity of the two impressive figures on stage you can't help but feel that their power may have come from their chromosomes after all.

I think the main takeaway was one of inspiration and hope, reassurance that there are people who think about things and more, take action. Both were soaked in their humility as well as their struggle, and it was nice to hear first hand Faiza's historical position with Labour.

Film: Send Help

I think it's safe to say that I'll never be disappointed by Sam Raimi. That said I'm always surprised to hear that he has a new film coming out, given he's been treating us to such awesomeness since the 70s.

But I digress. Send Help is exactly what you would expect it to be, a not so straightforward bunch of set pieces asking far more than "what would an office power dynamic look like when reversed on a desert island". 

It's that subversion which elevates his films, but also the fact that they're so solid, concise and ridiculous in a good way. They never feel overwrought and end exactly when and how they need to.

Send Help was no different and so it obviously gets a recommendation from me.

Film: Primate

Maybe (definitely) I'm getting a little grumpy in my old age, but any film that has a man in a monkey suit as its main antagonist (while keeping a straight face) is destined to be pretty awful.

And turns out that Primate was pretty ridiculous. Not because of its premise and in fact had it been just another horror with, I dunno, a zombie instead it would have been quite enjoyable. It was the implementation here that failed.

So perhaps if I'm being charitable I'd describe this as a good idea that didn't quite make it. Either way this one might be one to miss. 

Book: Aurora, Kim Stanley Robinson

I've always maintained that there is Science Fiction and there is Science Fiction. Aurora can be firmly placed in the more genuine of the two buckets, appealing not to popular sentiment or in anticipation of a TV deal but setting out to tell a hard story (with hard science) answering hard human questions.

It's this "rough around the edges" feel that makes the book so great - that's not to say it is of low quality, since however abrupt the prose seems the plot, characterisation and narrative are all as polished as it gets. Indeed the real genius in the book is being both authentic while keeping its depth accessible.

Perhaps a bit over long, the story remains gripping throughout. I'm left hopeful that modern robust Science Fiction can be a thing, even if it remains rare. Recommended.

Umrah 2026

I was going to full tilt rant about how each trip to the two holy cities is less pleasant than the last, about how there are too many Muslims there now, and how the whole thing feels like a Disneyland resort what with all the selfies and content being generated.

Except that it turns out I had exactly the same thoughts the last time we visited, down to the Disneyland quip. So much for originality then, but at least the consistency in my feelings lends some robustness to them.

New this trip was us flying Wizz Air, a budget airline. This isn't my first taste of a cheap flight to Saudi - last time I flew there via Pegasus and that long haul flight destroyed me even with the stop in the middle, so the thought of a long haul 6 hour flight was a little scary. Turns out that it's not too bad - the return leg from Madinah was worse than the trip going out but we'd probably do it again in order to keep to a budget - it may even lend itself to a new model where we go for an even shorter amount of time to a single city and instead include a day trip to the other.

Otherwise the trajectory is the same: more people, more problems and more changes. Of note: all of my post-Umrah tawafs were done in outdoor footwear which was a bit of a sad indictment. To the credit of the Saudi authorities they seem to be doing okay managing the crowds, but until they do something extreme like banning smartphones I can't see any kind of reversal in the lack of etiquette shown by the great unwashed.