Motorola One/P30 Play (Revisited in 2020)

The Motorola One (known as P30 Play in the far-east) was released in Autumn 2018 running Android 8.1. It's an AndroidOne device so will stay bang-up-to-date with Google Security Patches until Autumn 2021, though it has most likely finished with major OS revisions on Android 10 after two, and won't get 11.

The leap between Android 9 and 10 was the significant one, not 10 to 11, so as far as I can see, this phone is good to be used safely and with full functionality for another year from now and beyond. I reviewed this back in spring 2019 and highlighted what a good phone it was, very well priced. People would struggle to find a new version of this now - and if they did, a battery sitting on a shelf for this long probably wouldn't be very good! But that's not the purpose of this post.

I still have this phone here and in the last week, I have made it my main device again so have come back to report how the experience is - and more importantly, highlight the issue that devices released under the AndroidOne Programme can serve their user for a good 3/4 years, close to what Apple users can expect from their devices. I continue to wonder why it is that there are not more out there - and conclude the reason to be that phone manufacturers don't want devices to last 3/4 years, but rather get more money from people replacing phones within a much shorter time-frame.

Quickly running through the specs finds us a phone which is slightly bigger in all directions than a Pixel with a plastic frame and back but Gorilla Glass flat front panel. It benefits from the usual Moto internal coating to make it splash-resistant and is Dual SIM with and additional space for a microSD Card.

The LCD panel is 720p - but hang on a minute before switching off - my late-50-year-old eyes are finding this to be perfectly adequate for general use, laying aside the battery benefits. I can't see the pixels! The brightness is very good to my eyes, on auto and when manually hiked-up. It's a 5.9" 19:9 screen which goes pretty much to the top with a small chin at the foot and a smidgeon on the sides, colours are good and saturated almost like OLED. For its day, it was excellent in these respects and for me, remains so!

The SnapDragon 625 chipset sounds woeful in 2020, but in reality, in practice, in everyday use, it's really perfectly fine for 90% of people. Of course, it's not going to stand up to the demands of gaming for long, but the target market here was never about that - and let's not forget the battery benefits of stepping down. There's 64GB of onboard storage and I have it playing nicely with my 512GB microSD Card, so storage is of little concern even though most baselines have moved onto 128GB.

There's a mono loudspeaker firing out of the bottom with Dolby-tuned Moto Audio with many options to make the sound better. This is no Razer or ROGII but it certainly is very good indeed for personal use, again, for 90% of uses for 90% of people. I've now tested this in-car and it can be heard perfectly well. The 3.5mm audio-out socket is present and although there's no fancy audio-enhancements available beyond the aforementioned Dolby, it's perfectly loud and certainly good quality enough - even better for those prepared to hook up with Bluetooth. There's even a recording FM Radio!

There's NFC for Google Pay, USB-C (not microUSB) and a very fast rear-mounted fingerprint scanner for security. The battery is a 3000mAh unit and with my 10% reading screen-on test I'm getting 1 hour 20 minutes, so about twice as long as the Pixel 3(!) and about the same as, say, the Nokia 8 Sirocco. The phone needs to be really caned through the day not to get to bedtime. There's no Qi charging of course, but there is a TurboCharging brick. There's a basic camera setup which will be fine for the 90% again, as they post to social media, not looking to make posters for bedroom walls. A 13MP f2 shooter with 2MP f2.4 backup for depth and an 8MP f2.2 Selfie.

The point of this post though is not about the specs, but the value of AndroidOne and how this can serve users going forward. We've seen Nokia now (via AndroidOne) and even Samsung promising 3-year+ updates to devices because they seem to be realising that this is the next Apple catch-up they need to assure users about going forward if they are to sell their phones. AndroidOne provides a super clean version of Android with promises of longevity and specific support ranges.

Furthermore, the UX is also a clean one - no bloat whatsoever except (what I consider to be) useful additions to the front-end with chop-chop for torch and twist-twist for camera gestures amongst some others. The best one is having access to Moto's Peek system for locked screens. As Notifications come in, they are splashed on the screen briefly and the user can interact with them by slides and long-presses, getting to the information. There's no Approach here, that seemed to come a bit later for LCD Moto devices, but a nudge or lift wakes the screen if you don't want to go right in by touching the fingerprint scanner.

The whole experience is pure and clean. The device is just the right size in the hand for one-handed use when needed and big enough for extended reading at other times. There is a whacking great big notch at the top, which does interfere with status-bar icons, but you get used to it. Two years on, with Android 10 in place and still another guaranteed year of Security updates, puts many, many other devices to shame. If you can find one, grab it!

The Hole in the Ground

This was an interesting little film which couldn't quite find its place in genre. Staged as a spooky kind of horror, but with suspense and mystery thrown in for good measure. On the face of it, a simple story until the viewer starts to understand what might be going on under the layers.

A woman and her son move to a new countryside town in Ireland following an apparent breakup with the father of the boy elsewhere. There's a scar on her head which she tries not to talk of and seems to tell lies about when asked. There's an incident on the road where they seem to drive into one person dressed in black, all very spooky, so they flee - but not before the cloaked figure locks eyes with the boy.

One night soon after they move in, the boy seems to disappear into the woods at the back of their house, in the middle of nowhere. Mum follows him and discovers a whacking great big hole in a clearing in the middle of the woods and some eerie goings-on. She goes home and finds the boy in the house. Next day there's another incident on the road where an old, apparently demented woman looks at the boy and tells mum that it is not her son.

Things go from bad to worse for mum, she starts taking happy-pills and the viewer is invited to question her mental state in relation to the whole story, pretty much. There's much more to come in terms of the hole in the ground and the behaviour of the boy and people around them. It's all very odd and we really need to decide at some point whether this is a spooky ghost-type story or it's just mum being a fruit-loop!

The atmosphere is created very nicely by director Lee Cronin, the sets are eerie, dark and moody, reflective of the tone of the film and story. Not any silly scare-jump moments to speak of but rather layered suspense with some excellent supporting music. The pair in the lead roles do very well, Seána Kerslake as mum and James Quinn Markey as the boy. Kerslake presents all the range of emotions you might expect as anxiety builds on anxiety for her - and those with smaller roles fill them admirably.

It's a neat film which might leave you thinking that if this really is a horror/spook/mystery then there are some unanswered questions at the end, but it certainly makes you think as you track what might or might not be going on. Worth a spin, for sure.

PayPal & Amazon

As many of you will know, I have no income now and am eating away at savings! One day, the bubble will burst!

Anyway, no violins (well, not yet) but I would invite you if you feel inclined to try and support me in all this podcasting, blogging and content creation I'm involved in, in our little communities.

I've set up a couple of options now - the primary one being PayPal one for hard cash(!) but also a revamped Amazon Associate Link. I'll explain...

paypal.me/tedsalmon
Can receive any amounts of cash, which I can get out of there at nil cost, so the best option for those who might feel the need to contribute, either as a one-off or regularly. You do not need a PayPal account to use this.

tinyurl.com/amazonteduk
This is set up so that if you buy anything on Amazon, I get a cut, if you go in via this link using your browser. It's not much, but it's the same price for you when buying, plus a few free shillings for me!

If you don't want to contribute, that's fine - no worries - I love what I do anyway, so will continue, even if it's from the Dole Office!

Cheers. Ted.

A Touch of Sin (Tian Zhu Ding)

This is a very interesting film which I picked up recently on Film4, so doing the rounds. It's a film full of social systems observations interspersed with acts of violence between people who, generally, are the poor folk trying to scrape a living together in modern-day China. The film is sort of split into four stories.

The first one is about a man who lives in a village and is looking for revenge on the elected officials of the village for corruption and fraud. He has no money but sees them using the funds which were raised by the selling of village resources to buy jet planes and live the life of luxury. We follow him as his anger grows and finally erupts into a plethora of revenge.

In the second, we follow a man who is discontent with the boring life in his village, his boring marriage and nothing ever happening, so he regularly hits the road to try and find excitement and danger. This often ends up in acts of violence towards those who cross him, but also even those who don't! He's happy to commit violence against those who have wealth as a reaction to his poverty and boredom.

The third part is about a woman who is involved with a married man. She wants him to leave his wife and start a new life with him. He's not so sure and there is anxiety between them on the topic which leads to an ultimatum being served by her and a resulting act of violence which comes from a rather unexpected source.

Lastly there's a young man working in a factory who is larking about one day. As a result of this, his co-worker cuts his hand badly and needs two weeks off. His boss says that it is the young man's fault and so he must pay the injured party his wages for the time he can't work. So our character does a bunk, leaves town and heads for new employment elsewhere. He takes a job in a hotel where around him clients are paying for sex with the 'massage girls' who have been recruited in large numbers. He can't stand this for long so takes a job in another factory which ultimately leads to more violence.

It's hard to get to the bottom of what's really being said here by the film's creator Jia Zhangke but I think it's about inequality, social status, unfairness of the system and a dramatisation of what lengths he thinks people might be willing to go to, to fix this. Or at least bring comfort to themselves within a hard poverty-driven environment where nothing is fair and most of it corrupt or immoral.

There's a warning on Film4 ahead of the screening about violence towards animals and sure enough, there are two or three scenes where this is depicted graphically. The incidents looked very much like they were actually filmed as-is, unlike the violence between humans, but maybe (I hope that) I'm wrong and it was just filming techniques. We know how actors act and special effects work, but maybe we're not so sure how much protection animals get in various countries around the world, making these scenes the most harrowing of the film. From what I read, the film seems to have been banned from release in China, probably for a combination of the above.

The photography is excellent throughout with dramatic sweeping long-focus but also deeply intrusive close-ups. And an intelligent mix of the two. This feels very much like a arthouse film beautifully produced. I have to admit to not knowing any of the actors involved, all of whom seem very experienced in the Chinese film scene. None of them put a foot wrong and executed their characters admirably. The stars of the show seem to have been Wu Jiang, Baoqiang Wang and Tao Zhao.

It's compelling viewing that I'm not sure that I would recommend really. There is so much to admire about lots of it, but also much which is disturbing and on the face of it maybe didn't need filming. I'm pleased that I have seen it however, and it will certainly encourage me to seek out more Chinese films.

Anomalisa (2015)

Having just recently watched I'm Thinking of Ending Things and trying to get my head round what it was all about and understanding what was going on, I thought I'd try another of Charlie Kaufman's challenges! This time it's simpler, but just as interesting and with depth.

This one is from 2015 and a short punchy stop-start animation which has been beautifully filmed with the finest of detail technically throughout. It has a style and creates a mood, not designed to be perfect but purposefully removed from reality, reflecting one of the film's central themes.

Michael Stone is an author, expert in Customer Services and depressed soul reflecting on the futility of existence, regretting previous and current decisions and detesting the boring place in which he finds himself. Think Reggie Perrin without the comedy. The story starts as he arrives to give a speech at a conference in a hotel where many of his followers, fans and supporters have flocked to hear him.

He's on the phone to the family, he's trying to look up old flames, he's trying so very hard to inject something into his mundane life. He's disillusioned, drinking too much and not really interested in anything. Then suddenly, something presents itself and he meets a girl he falls in love with, or so he thinks, who could change his life around. This was the spark of energy he had been waiting for. It's really important that he doesn't blow it and let his mental state leading up to this point get the better of him.

David Thewlis plays the voice of Michael and Jennifer Jason Leigh, the girl, Lisa. Tom Noonan voices many of the other characters and they all do that ably well. The significance of a male voice taking on most of the female characters as well as male becomes apparent later on. Well, you didn't expect it to be straight forward did you! Having said that, this is nowhere near as complex and twisted as I'm Thinking of Ending Things. Compared to that, this is simple!

There are messages through this film about people living in bubbles of isolation as they appear to be living an ordinary life. There is much sadness portrayed in our central character and also an insight into how that misery can infect those around the person. It's about people and how they interact on different levels but also about how easily one in their midst can slip away into a world of their own dissatisfaction.

It's an excellent, well observed film which I thoroughly enjoyed. Uplifting it is not, but there are pockets of fine humour to enjoy as well, thrown in for good measure. Recommended.

Detour (2013)

After watching Centigrade recently, I got the flavour of trapped/survival films and was able to track this little Indie down which is similar, at least in theme. This time it's a landslide/mud and not snow and ice and there's only one person in the car instead of two.

Jackson is on his way to a meeting when suddenly there's a deluge of mud which sweeps him, in his car, away off the road and buries both of them! He's got really limited supplies, much like the folks in Centigrade, and starts to realise that if he waits to be rescued, he'll die first.

The tension rises as the mud starts to harden and get heavier on his car. It starts to creak and groan under the strain. He must take smart and measured actions to survive and work out how on earth he is going to get himself out.

It's another short film, but with this one director/writer William Dickerson has not been brave enough to spend the whole time with Jackson, but rather relies on flashbacks, dream sequences, thoughts and memories of the life from which he has been separated. Perhaps it was easier with Centigrade to stay with the couple as there were the two of them. However, I thought Centigrade was stronger for this element, as it was for Locke, Buried and 7500, previously considered.

However, the star of the show Neil Hopkins does a good enough job. The character's a likeable chap and the audience can instantly root for him in his quest and want him to get out and survive. The question is, though, are the filmmakers brave enough to do the dirty on him or provide us with a nice cosy ending. You'll have to work a bit to get hold of this as the DVD is hard to come by. Looks like a US import only, or MusicMagpie is your friend for used.

I'm Thinking of Ending Things

This is now available on NetflixUK as I write. I watched it last night and had been looking forward to it. I think I should have read the book! I was too thick to work out what on earth was going on through most of it but thankfully there were people reviewing on IMDb who were offering analysis aiding understanding.

Surreal and mind-boggling, now understanding what was going on, I realise that I was kind of picking up on some of it, but you really need an open mind and maybe think on another level to get it, cold. At least, for me that was true. Which I didn't, enough, obviously!

I was confused enough by Charlie Kaufman's Being John Malkovich and to a lesser extent Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I'm now looking to tackle Anomalisa! At least it is interesting and different, not boring spoon-fed mindless film junk we're so often served.

David Thewlis, Jesse Plemons, Jessie Buckley and Toni Collette were excellent throughout, can't take that away from the experience, but yes, just wear a Salvador Dali hat whilst watching and try to think under the skin, where most things might not quite be what they seem!

IMDb: Full of misgivings, a young woman travels with her new boyfriend to his parents' secluded farm. Upon arriving, she comes to question everything she thought she knew about him, and herself. Based on the book by Iain Reid.

Radioactive (2019)

Most of us have some idea about the mark in history made by Marie Curie, radiography and x-rays, but I certainly didn't know much of the detail of her professional and personal life, personality traits and troubles she faced from challenges from the establishment in achieving what she did a century ago until I watched this film.

Based on the book by Lauren Redniss, it tells the story based on fact (the Marie Cure Wiki Page does seem to present similar facts and timeline of events to this film). Born Marie Sklodowska-Curie in Poland to scientific-minded atheist father and a mother who she had to watch die at a young age from TB ensured that she was interested in the understanding of science and not anything with no evidence. This theme is returned to throughout the film, particularly surrounding seance which was popular at the time and some claiming to be 'science'.

Marie moved to Paris where she could avail herself of better scientific opportunities and whilst there met Pierre Curie, another scientist. They married and had two children throughout the course of the film's timeline. The pair worked relentlessly to make their discoveries - and the film depicts the sexist way in which the establishment tried very hard to honour Pierre with the discoveries instead of Marie. We know the history of the Nobel Prize awards and these are reflected appropriately in the film, anxiety demonstrated in keeping with the above.

Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl, Die Another Day, Jack Reacher) plays Marie as mostly the unlikeable, cold, scientific, emotionless woman that she has appeared to have been for real. Tormented by her childhood memories of her mother's death, she found it near-impossible to go to a hospital, making her science and discovery even harder. Pike does all this in her stride, depicting the person admirably. Sam Riley (Control, Maleficent) plays Pierre passively which, again, from the background looks mostly like the man's temperament. They are clearly deeply in love with each other, reflected by both throughout, but mostly when family tragedy strikes.

As for the science, I think I kept up! Understanding at the atomic level distanced me, but to be fair the presentation, though technical in a few pockets, was largely made layman-friendly. The film depicts both sides of the good and bad effects of Curie's discoveries. How it has helped, and still helps, medicine and health for people to this day, but also the timeline leaps back and forward (outside of her lifetime) to also remind the audience of the negative sides and how nations and governments have used the learning for destruction.

Talking of timeline, there are times when this has been compressed and compacted - for example during Marie's two pregnancies - only really focusing on the fact that she refused to go to hospital to give birth - and that because of this one of them was nearly lost. We jump to her deathbed in 1934 now and again, then back to her childhood and spend some time in and amongst the trenches of WWI. But this is done clearly and captions keep viewers clear about where they were.

Iranian director Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis, The Voices) keeps order and ensures that the sets reflect the poverty-stricken and glum darkness of the interiors and streets of Paris from a century ago where filth was abundant and sickness prevalent. The orchestral and solo piano music behind the scenes reflects the mood beautifully, much of it slow and dark, like the sets. Photography has been experimented with as wild vignette techniques have often been employed for flashback scenes. In these dark settings, lighting was key as it was often low and brought out deep shadows, which has been executed with ambience.

Various Brit actors turn up throughout, with varying degrees of screen-time, including Simon Russell Beale, Sian Brooke, Aneurin Barnard and Katherine Parkinson. All the performances are convincing. It was hard to find fault.

I found this to be a deeply moving story at times and an education regarding the background and achievements of this scientifically-minded woman. It has been shot very nicely and the times at which the pace was slow were countered by the compression at others. As I write, it's included in Amazon Prime - and is indeed an Amazon Studios creation. Well worth watching.

#Alive (#Saraitda)

This little Korean Zombie film from newcomer director Il Cho is a cut above most of the genre. Mainly because actually it's more of a survival tale.

While the whole world outside of an inner-city apartment block complex gets zombiefied, our central character has no alternative but to stay put and hope for help coming. The chances of this dwindle as time goes on, food runs out, water supply gets cut off - though strangely the electricity survives throughout. What is he to do!

I do find Zombie films generally more funny than anything - I think it's the way that they move which is, well, just comic! But fortunately, they play second-fiddle to the survival story, which I now come back to. Eventually, after about 3 weeks, he realises that there's a girl in the flat across the quadrangle, in the same situation as him. Shin-Hye Park plays the very pretty girl who then tries to work out a survival plan with our main character played by Ah-In Yoo.

This is where the action starts as they have to firstly somehow get together, so down their flats, across the quadrangle infested with zombies, and up the other side - then what? Well, the battle begins as they slash their way to a pretty crummy ending, frankly, but we'll forgive that!

Much of the film is about high-tech, drones for practical personal use, social media and how, of course, it will all be instrumental in the survival of the species if zombies took over the planet! It's all good fun and certainly worth a watch if you get the chance!

Après Vous (After You)

A beautifully delivered romantic comedy/farce which the French just seem to do so well. A well-crafted story full of quirky and interesting characters in near-absurd situations as they unravel the ins-and-outs of ordinary life mixed up with disaster, hope, joy and fun wrapped up, of course, in a love-triangle!

Writer/Director Pierre Salvadori, who later penned the fabulous Priceless (Hors de Prix) in 2006, delivers the mix with style and class, bringing out the best from the excellent cast. Daniel Auteuil (Jean de Florette/Manon des Sources, The Widow of Saint-Pierre, Un Coeur en Hiver) is Antoine who is maître d' at a posh Paris eatery and living with his girlfriend who has designs on a wedding ring. He's late leaving for home one night and cuts through the park, where he stumbles on a stranger Louis trying to hang himself from a tree. José Garcia (Now You See Me, Bastille Day) is Louis who is suffering after a split with the woman who is clearly the love of his life.

Antoine starts to go to ludicrous lengths to get Louis back on his feet, turning his life, pretty much, over to the project! He risks everything for this man, including his own relationship, professional reputation, money and belongings. We're never quite clear why he should make such rash decisions, except, as he says, it's the decent thing to do! He can't seem to say 'no' to anyone. He tries to get Louis' love to think again, but in doing so falls for her himself, and she, him. Enter the love-triangle!

The centre of the love triangle is the flower-girl Blanche, who is played delightfully by the unknown to me but hugely experienced French actress Sandrine Kiberlain. Things go from bad to worse in a Woody Allen type way as the players dance around one absurd situation after the next, chase dreams, u-turn in cul-de-sacs and leave the audience smiling and wincing throughout!

This is just a lot of fun - a good film for a rainy bank holiday afternoon which puts many English-speaking romantic comedies to shame because, well, I say it again, the French just seem to do better than anyone else. It's full of really likeable and charming characters and actors. Nobody puts a foot wrong and the setting is so typically French throughout feeding the Paris middle-class stereotype. The only thing missing is Audrey Tautou! Don't miss it when it comes round!

Before the Fire & Hour of Lead

Before the Fire (aka The Great Silence)

IMDb: As a global pandemic engulfs Los Angeles, rising TV star Ava Boone is forced to flee the mounting chaos and return to her rural hometown. As she struggles to acclimate to a way of life she left behind long ago, her homecoming attracts a dangerous figure from her past- threatening both her and the family that serves as her only sanctuary.

This was an interesting little film written by and starring Jenna Lyng Adams which takes such a long time to get going. Counting away the first 53 minutes setting the scene and painting the background to the events of the last third in this 90 minute picture was a slow job. And then, suddenly, it comes to life and we're delivered up a feast of thrills, violence and survival behaviour from those involved which is indeed thrilling and chilling.

The lead is very watchable and those around her keep up, each displaying their eventual brand of nastiness. It does indeed turn into a survival tale and the audience ends up rooting for our likeable heroine. The inexperienced Charlie Buhler directs and does so with some interest, though she could have made more of those first 53 minutes! Worth a watch if you get the chance.

Hour of Lead (aka The Vanished)

There's been 1,001 of these films and TV shows made centred around a couple who have their child vanish, so any that come along now have to stand out from the crowd. And this one does.

Husband and wife, 10 year old daughter and family dog like camping. This time, the lakes somewhere in America is the venue in their gigantic Motorhome/RV, to enjoy the fishing and freedom. Pretty much as soon as they arrive there, the couple turn round and the daughter is no longer with them. What has happened to her?

The police roll up and as the couple get more anxious about the situation, they start to behave irrationally and one event leads to another as things get dark and thrilling. I'll say no more as it would spoil things for you. The film is a cut above though and there are interesting turns and surprises along the way.

Peter Facinelli of Twilight fame wrote and directed admirably. Some of the visuals of the lakes and surrounding area have been shot with some artistic leaning. Anne Heche (who I remember showed up everyone around her years ago in Ally McBeal playing a woman with Tourette's syndrome brilliantly) is the woman, and Thomas Jane the man. They both do very well and are convincing, though if you watch closely, their behaviour and mannerisms do paint the picture that all is maybe not quite what it seems. I really enjoyed it. If you can grab it, it's worth a watch.

Underwater Utopia

Following some recent chat on our Projector Room Podcast about underwater thrillers-with-creatures, I grabbed some suggestions from Gareth Myles and lined up a marathon soaking..!

The Rift, 1990

Deepstar Six, 1989

Leviathan, 1989

The Abyss, 1989

Much of it was all good fun but The Abyss stands head and shoulders above the other three here. The first three are, well, very 1980's in terms of acting, cheesy script and delivery. They often feel like TV Movies, an episode of Night Rider (in style and production) or even, for some reason, reminding me of an episode of Land of the Giants! Females on scientific duty with skimpy tops and no underwear, sets that look like something from Dr Who and perfect 80's BIG hairdo's even when wet!

Special mention for Leviathan, the best of the runners-up as the inventiveness of the 'creature' and science is the most interesting, regardless of the above!

All of them have huge nods to Alien and it's not surprising that such a big-budget blockbuster from a decade earlier was so much better, I guess.

All good fun! Catch 'em as they come round.

Babyteeth (2019)

This Australian film, based on a play by Rita Kalnejais, could easily have been a tear-jerking 'Love Story' special, but the way in which the central role has been grasped by Eliza Scanlen has prevented it from such an outcome and genre. Yes, it is moving and poignant, but remains intelligent and character-driven.

Scanlen (Little Women 2019) plays the lead role, Milla, dying from cancer. Daughter in a complex family of psychiatrist dad and drug-dependent mum. Actually, most of the characters in the film flirt with or embrace drug-taking in some shape or form, either as a reaction to events or life generally. She knows that her days are numbered but she, along with the family, try to make the most of the days remaining for them.

She meets a local junkie and falls for him. And he, her. He's had a chequered past and has been thrown out by his family (presumably for drug-related behaviour). He kind-of lives on the streets until bumping into Milla. His name is Moses and is played by Toby Wallace. These pair become the main leads in the story and they present their parts admirably, especially Scanlen.

The parents don't know how to play it. They have their own problems in the marriage too and verge on flings and liaisons with others around them - her an old flame music teacher and him, a pregnant woman living across the street. As I say, it is character-rich and each one of them brings something interesting to the mix whilst we mostly focus on what's going on with our leading pair.

The emphasis of the story is about how people hang onto life and how the rest of us need to do so if we don't, valuing it highly and making the most of our time. The themes continue, bringing out the importance of family relationships and bonds - and how adjustment and tolerance need to be the flexible tools employed by all in order to make the best for everyone.

Director Shannon Murphy employs a fair amount of hand-held camerawork but unlike with some, this doesn't spoil the film, rather sits comfortably as it is used in appropriate scenes and settings. The film could also have been in danger of being too slow, but it's not, because the story-line and script keeps it on its toes and the audience interested.

The film is very enjoyable because it is that rich tapestry of interesting characters held together very strongly by Scanlen's performance and role. It is moving and thought-provoking but far from gushy and soppy. A very intelligent film which I highly recommend.

Centigrade (2020)

The relatively inexperienced director Brendan Walsh brings us a claustrophobic thriller in the style of Locke, 7500, Phone Booth and Buried with pretty much the whole film being shot inside a single set. In this case, the inside of a car. Supposedly 'based on true events' or 'inspired by a true story' on further digging, it seems that it's barely based on anything true, but still. That's quite common.

A pregnant woman and her husband are in Norway on a book promotion tour. They are travelling one night in freezing rain and decide to do the sensible thing, pull over and wait until the morning before moving on. They wake up in the morning to find themselves snowed/iced into their car, trapped, can't get out.

Vincent Piazza and Genesis Rodriguez are the two players and they do a good job with the material they have. She's really annoying and they move between married-couple bickering to demonstrations of deep love and commitment to each other. I'm glad that it's not really true because the pair make some bizarre decisions in their situation. Anyway, I'll say no more on that!

The film is really slow as the time passes, but maybe that's part of the point for the audience. After about an hour, it's slowed to walking pace and I almost gave up! The last half-hour of this 90 minute film, however, brings us some events and activities which keep our interest en route to the climax.

The camerawork is pretty good in places, making the interior of this car seem much bigger than it really is - and finding interesting long-shots reflecting the anxiety and dwindling resolve of the characters. If you're going to do this, and I would suggest that yes, it is worth it, get a big carton of popcorn and make sure you're wide awake at the outset!

Whatever Works Merchandise

Whatever Works Merch!

Sorry it has taken so long folks, but in order to keep the price as low as possible we have cashed in on a friend of a friend's offer to do this low-run batching. Thanks very much to @Ian Barton for doing the running.

Don't ask why but we've ended up with an odd number of items so I'll update this thread with what's left as we go and it is of course, first come, first served. When looking at the prices and thinking it's a bit steep, just remember that this is a short-run, we don't have the benefit of thousands of numbers as you might on Amazon!

This is how it works

You email me at the usual gmail address - tedsalmon - with your order and delivery address and I'll reply with the bank details to pay into. The first come, first served thing is based on when the cash arrives in the bank.

Good ol' Ian has worked out a system whereby he can send this stuff out via Hermes and his local shop, to keep things safe, so delivery will be a couple of days or so and up to 1Kg is £2.90.

Anyone wanting anything sent out of the UK will have to negotiate with me/Ian.

We can work out postage savings on multiple orders/items on request.

We have...

29 mugs/coaster sets £11 + £2.90 = £13.90

18 Black t-shirts (M/L) £10 + £2.90 = £12.90

2 White t-shirts (M/L) £10 + £2.90 = £12.90

9 Remaining coasters (with no mug) £4 + £2.90 = £6.90

Fruit of the Loom Size Chart