Tuesday 27 February 2024

Poor Things (2023)

If you appreciate the work of Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Dogtooth, The Favourite) then you'll likely lap this one up too! It's a seemingly chaotic, Victorian-era, gothic, dark and bizarre romp with a feel of Frankenstein at the core.


Bella Baxter is the creation of mad scientist/doctor Godwin, having snatched up a pregnant woman who had committed suicide by plunging into the Thames. She died, but the child survived, so Dr Fruit-loop (calling himself 'God' by the way) takes the brain of the infant and puts it inside the head of the woman and what we end up with is the woman, dubbed Bella by him, for he knew not who she was, with a child's mind, outlook, behaviour and sense of adventure and discovery.

Willem Dafoe (Inside, Tom & Viv, Nightmare Alley) as the monster scientist plays it beautifully, only upstaged by the fabulous performance of Emma Stone (Magic in the Moonlight, The Favourite, Irrational Man, La La Land) as Bella. The pair of them transform into the characters required of them and are clearly having great fun depicting this off-the-wall story. They are a delight to watch (and for those wanting to see more of Stone, she certainly reveals plenty of herself)!

Yes, there's loads of sex as Bella explores being an adult, gets into all sorts of adventures, looks for her place and what she should be doing. The doctor is too past-it to consider coupling up with the young Bella, so he grooms one of his medical students, Max McCandles, played by Ramy Youssef (Mr Robot), lining him up to be her partner and eventually, husband. Bella finds him boring though and is much more turned on by the attentions of the doctor's wild lawyer, himself wanting to grab all life can offer, Duncan Wedderburn, played equally slickly by Mark Ruffalo (All the Light We Cannot See, Dark Waters).

Wedderburn whisks Bella off on a tour of Europe, having his way with her in various cities, situations and onboard boats, showing her how to make the most of her adult body, she milking the pleasure it can bring her! Eventually, the wild lawyer falls for Bella though, against his better judgement at the outset, and is most upset when she wants more than just him. More excitement with more people!

But it's not all sex and soft-porn! This is a delightful arthouse outing which is directed beautifully, the most being made of bright colours and lavish, creative, fantasy-based sets. So yes, the cinematography is perfect and the sets and costumes from a creative mind (and world). When you see the boat they are on at one point from afar, this all becomes very clear - that it's a creation of a mind going wild with design and ideas. And the who thing's a whacko idea, but clearly Lanthimos is having fun creating, in an almost Tim Burton way at times.

The film could be considered absurd, but I loved it as a reworking of the Frankenstein tale. The 2 hours and 20 minutes runtime simply flew by, the performances from pretty much all the players was great - but particularly the four leads, headed up by the impeccable Emma Stone. It's a wild ride, so strap in, get lost in it and you'll enjoy!

Sunday 25 February 2024

Miller's Girl (2024)

I won't quite flop it, but it's not far off, on first viewing. Certainly don't pay your hard-earned if you have no points or whatever to get it for free. Martin Freeman (who seems to pay an embarrassing lack of attention during accent-training) plays a failed writer, so now teacher, in an American college. Mr Miller.

Jenna Ortega's 18 year-old character Cairo (what a great name) starts to take his class and demonstrates to him that she has a special writing talent, so he singles her out for special attention. He sees nothing wrong with that. Until it gets out of hand and they're clearly falling for each other.

It's all very arty-farty throughout and we're not really ever very clear about what has happened between them, if anything, and what's an artistic projection of what she's writing about, but whatever it is, it raises concerns amongst the college's leadership, his wife, his friend and well, pretty much everyone really. So plenty of trouble ahead!

Add into the mix Cairo's tart of a friend who's trying to bed one of Mr Miller's colleague male teachers, but states that she's a lesbian, a drunk of a wife who makes him feel like an inadequate failure and we have the elements for potentially a good story and film. Sadly, it's really not.

It is, of course, nice to see the two high profile lead actors here, though sex and nudity there ain't - in case you were wondering - this film rather tries to artistically make suggestions of wrong-doing alongside some life observations about rejection, regret, failure and ambition. Sadly it gets caught up in itself trying to be something more.

It's generally nicely shot with very thoughtful camerawork, use of soft focus and close-ups - yes, very arty, the cast do well (apart from Freeman's accent) and it's, well, OK I suppose. I did find myself getting bored with it at times and wondering where it was going - and it doesn't really go anywhere. It's a short 90-minute film so perhaps if it were longer it might have been better. Don't know. Anyway, wait for it to come to streaming. It feels a bit like a direct-to-video outing to me.

Friday 16 February 2024

Laced (2023)

The film that desperately needed a twist. And it didn’t come. But it keeps you expecting one and OK if you don’t know (I’ve spoiled that for you now)! Well actually there is one small twist, I guess. But anyway, I quite liked this little thriller.

It’s quite claustrophobic and felt as though it could have easily been a stage play with the whole shoot inside one house whilst outside a snow storm is in motion.

It’s the story of Molly who is living with her husband, Charlie, who abuses her (though we don’t see any evidence of it). She’s fallen in love (before we join the story) with a woman called Victoria.

Victoria has encouraged and facilitated Molly into bumping Charlie off by poisoning him, which she tries to do. Victoria is the apparent brains behind the plan and has it all worked out regarding disposal of the body.

In the middle of all this, Charlie’s friend Austin (who is also Molly’s brother) turns up unexpectedly and finds himself in the now-getting, complicated mix. It could well have been turned into a comedy (of errors) but no, it sticks to its guns as a thriller!

Three of the four actors, particularly Dana Mackin as Molly, are very good and Kyle Butenhoff playing Charlie is also the director/writer of the yarn. Hermione Lynch as Victoria is the one out of her depth as she goes about her task in a wooden manner.

But most of it is fun and stitches together nicely as a well-paced thriller. It keeps the viewer’s attention with some suspense and gore here and there. Worth a watch. It just really needed a twist!

The End We Start From (2023)

There’s a major climate disaster here as a backdrop to a survival (and love) story involving a nameless man and woman, she at the outset, heavily pregnant with their child. Rain is the problem here and London is getting more and more flooded by the hour.

The population is trying to flee to higher ground but the armed forces have been engaged to prevent overcrowding and the resulting drain on limited (and dwindling) resources for everyone to stay alive. As we approach the birthing scene, we are offered plenty of nudity and a fairly explicit, but brief, exposure to more as the sprog comes out.

The early scenes of the film depict a quiet, isolated existence for the pair and this only changes as they try to get away from London and join his parents in rural England (presumably) somewhere. We’re not really very sure where’s where in the film - at one point we seem to end up on a Scottish-looking island, but that’s a long way from London. And there’s no mention at all of any shortage of petrol for cars. Or indeed where they’re getting their cigarettes from which seem to be in plentiful supply!

Anyway, they find the parents’ house but eventually run out of food, so have to go out looking. One thing leads to another, tragedy galore, until the three of them end up in a shelter - but in doing so, get separated. She’s allowed in with the brat, but he, not. She befriends a woman in a similar situation whilst there and they decide to trek off together and away from everyone. Eventually, getting a tip-off (from a character played by Benedict Cumberbatch) about the aforementioned island where there’s a kind of self-supporting, Kibbutz, hippy community.

A lot of the film is about trekking around - sometimes aimlessly, sometimes with a target and purpose - it’s during these scenes where we see the survival part come into play with the child needing feeding and mother scrabbling around to find food for herself. It’s all quite laid-back though and there’s often no real feel of urgency about their plight. Part of the reason for this is that she often stumbles into good fortune on her travels, which is probably a little unrealistic.

And so, there’s great potential to pick holes in the plot here but I think that rather misses the point of the film being an artistic, poignant, beautifully shot, stylised (almost) apocalyptic yarn, which often comes across in near dream-state. Even the scenes which would ordinarily end up as being 'moving' or emotional are presented differently. I think it’s supposed to be removed a bit from reality, expectation of close scrutiny and such critical questioning. More of a go-with-the-flow affair. Like the Kibbutz!

Laying all that aside, the film is totally held together by the fabulous performance of Jodie Comer (The Last Duel, Killing Eve) - she's in pretty much every scene (and we see plenty of her!), ably supported by Joel Fry (Trollied) and a bunch of other Brit names who all perform very well. It's nicely produced and shot with controlled views of the effects needed for the flooding - but more so, the rural countryside backdrop to much of the story. Recommended very much, but take the above into account and don't be expecting something that it's not.

Monday 12 February 2024

Witness for the Prosecution (1957)

This is a film by writer/director Billy Wilder (Some Like It Hot, Sabrina) taken from an Agatha Christie book of the same name, made, as I write, 67 years ago, in true Hitchcockian style! Some films of the era seem embarrassingly badly made now but this is a clear exception.

Leonard Vole has been accused of murder and is to stand trial for the crime he claims not to have committed. He appeals to famous barrister Sir Wilfrid Robarts and his team of solicitors to reveal the truth and save him from a hanging. Vole is married to a German lady, Christine, and we're served up with a flashback as to how they met in Berlin, when she was an actress/entertainer and he, just finishing duty as a soldier in WWII.

Leonard has recently befriended a charming lady, Emily, who is the victim of murder. She lives in a posh London house with her cantankerous old live-in help, Janet. Janet takes an instant disliking to Leonard, but Emily is charmed by him and enjoys his attention, having lost her husband some time back. We spend some more flashback time getting to know how the two met and a little insight into their friendship.

Turns out that Emily had recently changed her will and left a huge lump of cash to Leonard, which was previously going to Janet - so we can, by now, see the first of many complications which lead the prosecution to believe that he bumped her off, having gained her confidence, for the loot.

As usual with Agatha Christie stories, there are characters written in with comic elements and Sir Wilfrid Robarts is mainly the one here. The ageing barrister is decidedly unwell, the medics have told him to retire, he has a live-in nurse who keeps badgering him to stop smoking, drinking and generally enjoying himself but he can't resist getting involved in this, apparent, one last case. He's played by Oscar-nominated Charles Laughton very engagingly - like a Winston Churchill-a-like!

The films then turns into something of a courtroom thriller with Robarts' side-kick John Williams (Dial M for Murder) defending the man, whilst Torin Thatcher goes at them as prosecutor, Mr Myers. We spend quite a lot of time in court as the case unravels, unexpected turns of events happen, people not quite who we think they are or at least not with the agenda we think they might have, truth and lies to unpick and see through - there's plenty going on and I really shouldn't spoil anything more here - as it's such fun to be a part of the unfolding, twists and turns, heading towards the finale.

Tyrone Powers plays Vole charmingly, straight out of 1950's post-WWII England and Marlene Dietrich, his wife, who we get to hear sing, watch dance and act in amongst all the chaos, blood, alibis, mystery and thrills. The players all do very well and the 'wooden' appearance of their characters genuinely feels like it's a reflection of the era, not lousy acting! Nor should it be, with a cast like this for the day.

It's a rip-roaringly fun mystery thriller which is just shy of two hours, but those two hours fly by as the director totally engages the viewers, even all these decades later. Thoroughly recommended if you haven't seen it and can enjoy the twisty-turny. Suspect everyone of everything! It's very funny during the end credits where there's a comically threatening audio announcement that people having seen this film are not to tell any of their friends who haven't, about the outcomes - very Mouse Trap!

Saturday 10 February 2024

Night Swim (2024)

Not sure how to rate this really. It’s a bit more shallow than the family’s pool but it’s certainly watchable and kinda fun in the process. It’s largely the creation of director/writer Bryce McGuire, apparently elongated from a short (which I have not seen) to make it 98 minutes of film.

It’s about a family who have bought a house where a little girl, some decades earlier, has died/drowned/disappeared whilst swimming in the house’s pool. We get a flashback of that incident right at the start.

Jump forward to the present and our bright-eyed and bushy-tailed family are dead excited about the first house they have owned, not rented, and are straight into making use of the pool. Dad is an ex-baseball player who is injured and had to all-but retire as an athlete but as he starts swimming in the pool, he starts to get better, disproportionately quickly. He also cuts himself and after swimming, his hand shows no sign.

When the family swim at night, there are strange going-ons like images of people standing by the pool, voices, sounds, cries and all sorts of spooky stuff that brings us into the spirited, supernatural part of the tale. Yes, there’s some sort of underground lake or pool or something that the house was built on and some sort of water force clearly isn’t happy about it, and seems to need to be ‘paid back’ for the nice stuff it does, like dad’s recovery, with human sacrifice (or snatchings).

It’s all a bit daft and not really a horror, as such - more of a shot at a thriller. There are a couple of jump-scare moments and abrupt sightings of some ugly evil spirit creature that the water has conjured up, but otherwise it’s quite tame really and relies on suspense and imagination.

It’s quite an interesting idea and the cast, headed up by Kerry Condon (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul) and the (spookily enough) former sportsman Wyatt Russell do a decent enough job with the material. The two kids of the family tag along and actually the girl, played by Amélie Hoeferle, earns some acting brownie points.

The film does drag on a bit, especially when we eventually get to the supernatural bits. There are also plot holes, daft decisions made by the characters and decidedly unlikely behaviours here and there, but then it’s kinda supernatural so they can be forgiven I guess once the spooky spirit starts to get ahold of ‘em!

I think it’s worth a watch, but don’t expect OSCAR-winning anything here. It’s just a run-of-the-mill terror/thriller/spook which at times does well with the suspense for the audience especially when the family members are swimming in the pool after dark and the lights go out! All good fun.

Friday 9 February 2024

Summertime (2015)

This 2015 French film is really called 
La Belle Saison and director/writer Catherine Corsini is out to make a number of social, political, sexual orientation and prejudicial statements from an era when all these things were evolving in the early 1970's.

Young Delphine, played to perfection by Izïa Higelin (a successful musician in Europe by the way - going by just Izïa), has grown up in rural France on the family farm, loves it and her life there, but feels under pressure from the close-knit community, especially her parents, to marry a local boy with whom she has grown up through school. She works the farm hard and committedly.

Amongst this social pressure she resents and rejects, she has had a couple of close relationships with other girls. We see one in the storyline rejecting her because of that same social pressure and her, going off to cave in and marry a boy, even though she doesn't really want to.

Delphine isn't giving into that and so decides, whilst dad is still fit and healthy enough to run the farm, to go and 'find herself' by moving to Paris for a while. When she gets to the capital, she stumbles into a group of feminist activists going about their crusade and activities in order to raise the profile of their campaign. Equality for women and social respect for people who want to make choices about their lives and their bodies.

The leader of this group is the free-spirited Carole, also played beautifully by 
Cécile de France (High Tension, Russian Dolls, The French Dispatch, Chinese Puzzle), and they soon fall for each other and slowly build a personal and physical relationship. Carole's life is complicated too as she is living with her boyfriend Manuel, who is not happy about Carole's orientation swing when the truth comes out. The passion and chemistry of the two girls' relationship is explored and depicted on camera by the director in a 'no holds barred' way, with somewhat explicit nudity and sexual activity between the two leads.

Delphine's father collapses and is hospitalised, so she is now required by the family to return and work the farm in his place. He never recovers, so this depiction of family duty and responsibility remains a feature throughout the rest of the film. The desire to get away and be herself, pursuing her desires, up against traditional values and perceived responsibility to those close to her. So she goes home and does just that. However, Carole is so besotted with Delpine by now that she goes with her - and the middle part of the film depicts the pair of them sneaking around, working the farm, keeping their secret between them.

Eventually it gets out of course and the final part of the film rounds up the story as we discover what the pair do about their situation, how they scramble and fight to balance their personal desires with social expectation and duty to other people in their lives both in the village and Paris.

The backdrop might be the social turmoil and prejudice of the era, but this is very much an engaging love story as our two leads negotiate their plight. It's exceptionally moving with an intimate portrait and sprinkling of tragedy and heartbreak thrown in for good measure. We revisit the pair some years later in the end to have a peek at how the decisions they have made impacted their lives down the road.

The rural and urban landscapes are beautifully shot, the sets, dress and backdrop of the 1970's faithfully recreated with the director's eye for fine detail. It's very much not a 'tits and arse' film with the nudity and sex scenes being appropriately shot in keeping with the development of the story. It's an intelligent film which shares a snapshot of the times some of us lived through as a backdrop, whilst always being more about the evolving relationship between the two leads. Which is performed beautifully. Highly recommended.

Monday 5 February 2024

The Royal Hotel (2023)

One of Kitty Green’s pro-female films (The Assistant, Ukraine is Not a Brothel) in which Osark’s Ruth (Julia Garner - also in The Assistant) goes backpacking with her friend in Australia only to run out of money so needing to get a job.

They do so in a bar in an aggressively male-orientated outback town where the pair of them witness, and are subjected to, lots of male attention and bad behaviour, usually via booze.

It’s really slow and boring as Green drags the audience along in order to make her point. The Assistant was similarly slow, but had something much more engaging about it.

Garner and Jessica Henwick do what they can with what they have, but it’s not enough. It is clear even from this though, what a good actress Julia Garner is becoming. But this is just dour, hollow, too long and drab.

Anatomy of a Fall (2023)

A snow-covered chalet in France is the setting with husband, wife, child and dog. The woman is German and a writer and is suspected of her husband Samuel’s murder - as when he fell out of a window, she was the only one at home, they had a relationship full of friction and their son, discovering the body on his return, has a severe sight impairment.

Apart from flashbacks in which much of the truth about their situation is unpeeled for us - and time getting to know the characters - the film ends up in court as she faces the trial.

It’s full of tension and suspense as we observe the scene, the family, the likelihood of a murder, suicide or accident with those having to make the decision.

Husband has had a suspected history of at least one suicide attempt, to make matters even more tricky. It’s made even more difficult for them as they have to dance around between languages, French, where they live, English, the husband’s native language and German, hers. Subtitles, obviously, where needed away from English.

Justine Triet wrote the story/film with Sandra Huller in mind to play to lead - and Huller does a splendid job throughout. A masterclass in acting, many have said. I don’t know any of the other players, but the two and a half hour run time flew by and it's up for all sorts of awards as a piece of art.

Another Earth (2011)

This is a nice little low-budget Sci-Fi/drama/love story. A young woman (Rhoda) has been astronomy-mad forever and one day, humanity suddenly sees Earth 2.0 looming out in Earth 1.0's orbit! An identical-looking planet.

She's fascinated of course. So much so that she is peering out of her car window at it, driving, a bit tipsy after a party, and crashes into another car occupied by a family. Fatalities litter the scene. But the man of the family survives and Rhoda tries to connect with him a few years later, not revealing her identity. They start to spend time together.

In the meantime, she enters a competition to be one of the lucky people to head off to Earth 2.0 and so the story unfolds from there - which I won't spoil.

The Sci-fi bit takes a bit of a back seat really to the drama between the players, but it still lurks around most corners providing a strong backdrop to proceedings.

It's nicely played by the two leads, Brit Marling and William Mapother, as they negotiate the past, present, future, present and past! Worth a gander if you get the chance.

Primer (2004)

Blimey, this was a bit of mind-bending Sci-Fi that I tried to keep up with as it went along! Gave up in the end after it finished and watched a YouTube Video explaining it all by diagrams! Still, I expect you folk already know this one and I'm just a bit thick.


It's all to do with these four nerds who build a machine in their garage which is supposed to do something clever to do with proteins, but ends up enabling time-travel backwards. So they set about trying to exploit that for gain, but of course all is not as it seems with such scientific unknowns and experimentation. They use themselves as guinea pigs as they start playing with time warps and face the consequences.

There's a lot of hand-held camera used throughout, which is a bit Blair Witch annoying, making the thing come across as more of documentary at times. The soundtrack was not great either - I'm guessing that this was another low-budget outing. But certainly interesting for geeks, and short at 80 minutes. But if you're as dense as me, tag on another 10 minutes to head for YouTube at the end!

Friday 2 February 2024

Microsoft Surface Duo 2 Fun!

Thought I'd share a couple of snaps of how one can be set up with the Duo, with peripheral equipment (even if one doesn't have DeX or Ready4). Unbelievably, the hookup to Microsoft's Phone Link on the PC is far from rock solid (as it is with DeX), particularly with regards to flaky Bluetooth connections - a topic we'll cover in PSC soon - so other options are here and pretty good.

Firstly, the 3D Printed DuoDock, which works well (despite my USB-C port concerns) and ensures the device gets ongoing power (or connection - or in fact both, when using an adapter). These come from USA and cost (with shipping) $60. $40 if you live there.

Next, the Logitech K380 Bluetooth Keyboard which is rock solid and works beautifully with the Duo, except that I can't seem to stop the onscreen keyboard from popping up when using it as well - I'm sure I'm missing a setting somewhere. Or maybe it only works with MS's keyboard and not GBoard.

The Surface Slim Pen - this is the OG one, donated generously by long-time listener @James Cook, so huge thanks to him. It doesn't have Bluetooth like the second generation unit, but otherwise works fine. With the newer one, the buttons can be assigned to more actions instead of the 'standard' ones (erasing stuff etc.) and it reports battery state, but I don't think that's a huge problem - it's nice to try the genuine one rather than the 3rd party unit we have been using, good as that was too.


Then there's the NexDock Touch (which can't be bought any longer). The NexDock 360 is still available as well as the forthcoming NexDock XL. Just like with DeX, the keyboard works, the trackpad works and the touchscreen works (unlike Ready4 with which, none of it works)! So that certainly could be another setup to use. Pass-through audio and all. The only caveat is that (unlike DeX and Ready4) the screen aspect ratio is wrong and there are resulting black bars left and right - but I really don't think that's a big deal for anyone but purists!

Anyway, having fun with it all here. I do find one of the most interesting aspects of smartphones these days is how they can be used with other gear - and when they can't, I get bored with them more quickly!
(AmazonUK Links are my Affiliate ones, for which I get a few pennies when used. Thanks.)

Thursday 1 February 2024

PodHubUK Podcasts for the Month of January 2024

...a roundup of our month of podcasting. Links to the team, communities and podcast homes on the net at the foot, so scroll down!

Whatever Works
Episode 200 - A Double Century!
Wednesday 3rd January
Aidan and I bring you this landmark show, 8 years on, with nods to fellow founders Richard Yates and David Rich back in January 2016. So a new theme tune, but lots of the usual kind of mayhem and fun, so do join us for a small celebration as we're joined in turn by Gareth Williams and Chris Kelly.

Phones Sho
w Chat
Episode 783 - Noting the Zenfone
Saturday 6th January
Mike Robins joins Steve and I this week as we natter about all sorts of good mobile stuff, including what Mike's been using, me looking forward to the arrival of the Flip5 and Steve musing on speakers and cameras-in-phones compared to a 30x Zoom Compact or Marshall Willen!

Tech Addicts Podcast
Scratching that Twitch
Sunday 7th January
Gareth and I are back for 2024, dribbling over tech! In this show, an investigation into the sexy streamings on Twitch, the Incognito mode judgment, Nuclear container ships, an e-book reader from Onyx, Samsung AI, Motorola AI, Microsoft AI, Google AI and the Retroid Pocket 4 amongst much more!

Project
or Room
Episode 154 - Society Minus One
Wednesday 10th January
Allan, Gareth and I are back again with our first roundup of all things film, cinema and TV for 2024. Godzilla, Chicken and all sorts of Cold Prey found within The Ruins in Mexico, the Andes and Dangerous Waters is on our plate! So come and join us for a bumper-length outing!

Phones Sho
w Chat
Episode 784 - Death to Passwords and Big Phones
Saturday 13th January
It's been far too long since Jamie Holland was our guest, so Steve and I fixed that and welcomed him in for a chat about what's going on in the world of IT security and what tech he's using just now. Loads of other stuff too, including my findings with the Flip5 for a week and Steve's take on nuclear-powered phones!

Phones Show Chat
Episode 785 - Why Stop at Three NexDocks?
Saturday 20th January
Steve and I are joined this week by Mark Finlay who tells us all about the devices and services he's been using since last on, in 2020. We also natter about the Samsung Unpacked event, Ready4 and DeX, Sony and Flip phones, even The Duo - something for everyone!

Tech Addicts Podcast
It's a Ring Thing
Sunday 21st January
Gareth and I 
bring you our fortnightly roundup of techy trinkets. We caress CES by kipping on our cars, daisy-chaining pogos, Rabbiting on about the R1, Think(hybrid)Book, go retro with FiiO, climb with Casio and Ring the planet with mirrors - and fingers with Rings! Plus loads more!

Project
or Room
Episode 155 - Post Office Monsters
Thursday 25th January
Allan, Gareth and I are back again with another bumper-length look at what we've all been watching in film, cinema and TV. This time we Treat on Burt Reynolds, conduct an Autopsy on The Stranger For All Mankind and go Freelance as we Lift Crazy Eights! Loads more of course, so do get stuck in!

Phones Sho
w Chat
Episode 786 - Getting Our Geek On: Fixing the iPhone and Surface Duo 2
Saturday 27th January
Steve and I clear out the store room this week, mopping up the lingering left-overs! It's Surface Duo, Nokia and pimping the Fairphone for me whilst Steve takes the Flipping Samsung Smart Switch challenge. Plenty more besides, so do join us for an hour.

Whatever Works
Episode 201 - Trimming the Pink!
Monday 29th January
Aidan and I are back with another roundup of Whatever Works for us and you, enveloped in a plethora of pesticulance and plankfire! Lots of goodies as we hear from a man who found a pair of gloves with 7 fingers and a woman who once ate the shell of a turtle before lunch! Pod is available in the usual places, so get stuck in and enjoy. Or you will be punished.

The Podcasts
PodHubUK - Phones Show Chat - The Phones Show - Whatever Works - Chewing Gum for the Ears - Projector Room - Tech Addicts

Motorola G85

The obvious way to tackle this G85 review is as a three-way comparison. Firstly, with the phone it replaces, the G84 from the year before, b...