The Day of the Jackal (1973) - Revisited, Thoughts

I've taken a fresh look at this now, decades later, since watching the end of the recent TV show The Day of the Jackal (2024) which, although a great thriller, ends up being a bit daft really, James Bond style.

I was wrong about the original Jackal not taking risks though - he did. He wasn't as clinical as I'd remembered. Bedding the posh lady in the hotel and back at her estate, for one thing. And lots of the plot/getaways in the film relied on delays in information exchange by the French authorities (a sign of the older times, I guess).

It's a really cracking thriller though, edge-of-the-seat stuff, every bit as good as I remembered. The Jackal is so cool, calm, collected (mostly) in a Simon Templar (The Saint) kind of way! It's thrilling, chilling, comic in places, beautifully shot, scripted, acted by all. There's very little really to not like. If I'm nit-picking, however...

It was a bit spoiled by many of the French officials being played by frightfully British actors, not even trying not to sound frightfully British! Ha. Anyway, each of these productions had their own pros/cons. The recent TV show showed how utterly ruthless the character can be, but also, unlike the original, susceptible to the trappings, loyalties and demands of a family around him.

Speaking of Bond, I do wonder why Edward Fox wasn't in the running to play him at some point. Perhaps he was. Bond Maestro Gareth Myles tells me that he played M in Never Say Never Again (1983). Anyway, the recent TV show is a real cracker but don't forget the original film here, based on the Frederick Forsyth character/novel of the same name, and perhaps revisit it like I did. I doubt you'd regret it.

Black Christmas (1974)

This film put Olivia Hussey centre-stage and has become something of a cult horror classic, it seems. I'd never heard of it! It's currently on Tubi (with adverts) or Amazon Prime (pay). It's a cracking little thriller, dark, comic too, but very suspenseful in places, especially towards the end. Olivia has most of the screen time and holds the story together nicely.

There is use of hand-held camera, but it's done here when appropriate (not all over the place, as in recent filmmaking). It's used to get the audience inside the head of the serial killer and when we're not there, it's not used. Much better.

Anyway, it's a kind of teen-slasher but it's classy, well-shot, well written and has sniffs of all sorts of other stuff going on, including Hitchcock's Psycho. It's about a group of girls, around xmas, living in a student house run by some sort of Housemother, who start to get nasty phone calls from someone, our serial killer, just after he bumps one of them off. Then another call follows the next bumping-off and so on! It's all very claustrophobic mostly set inside the large house with all sorts of dark corners, staircases and corridors!

Shot in 1974 there's some great glimpses of faces I knew from other films and TV like Margot Kidder (think Lois Lane), John Saxon (Enter the Dragon), Keir Dullea (2001: A Space Odyssey) and plenty more. Our Projector Room Podcasts's Gareth Myles would be all over the 70s/80s links here! It's all very 'dated' of course, in terms of fashion (though not language!), but it feels like it stands the test of time as it's so well done, gripping often, very well shot with artful use of camera and position and lighting/shadow/colour to add tension - and roving shallow-focus aplenty.

I guess it's been done, copied, nodded-to and emulated loads since, with the likes of Halloween, for example, but this holds its place firmly as it grabs the audience. The time flew whilst watching and I won't give away any further details here of plot, so you can enjoy for yourself. Olivia Hussey's performance is flawless as the central character, fighting her own problems of being pregnant, not sure what to do, under pressure from boyfriend, in amongst all the murderous mayhem.

It's not just about her though, as the other characters have been beautifully written and each have quirks of their own as the story develops and we get to know them. The pacing of the film is quite superb. Who, if anyone, will survive? Who is the killer? It's a really classy act and I recommend you watch it before it disappears from Mubi!

Motorola Edge 50 Neo - My Best Phone of 2024

Laying aside any previously published lists of phones that has seen the most time with my SIM Card during the year, chatted about on Phones Show Chat Audio Podcast, I'm picking this one as my overall best buy of the year, much like the Edge 30 Neo was two years back - but this time, it's even better. Here's why...

First things first - here's a link to my nitty-gritty review of the Motorola Edge 50 Neo from October and another for the Motorola Edge 30 Neo, from November 2022 - as I say, my best pick phone of 2022. Even if you don't know me, listen to our podcast or read what I write on my blog and in our Phones Show Chat MeWe Group, you'll have got the impression by now that I really like what Motorola does with Android. I am an official Motorola MOTOvator (which means that they send me stuff to review) but even if I wasn't, I'd be spending my own cash on Moto gear too. And do!

As good as the Edge 30 Neo was in 2022, when the Motorola Edge 50 Neo landed this year, it felt like Motorola had 'arrived'. The boxes that were not ticked, the stuff we'd whined about being not so good over the years, (very nearly all) fixed - and the whole Moto 'thing' was a, well, 'thing' at last! Not since the demise of the Moto Mods had I been so encouraged. I'll get to the highlights of that shortly. In the middle of these two was Moto's 2023 Edge 40 Neo, with which, Moto seemed to change emphasis a bit, dropping some key features and making it bigger. It was a good phone but in the recent 'Neo' line, it felt a bit of an outlier.

1. Software Update Commitment

First and foremost, this, along with the Motorola ThinkPhone25, represented something of a turning point with the firm's commitment to software updates. Some of the flagships had previously got up to 3 Android updates and 4 years of security, but these two devices were the first to come with a commitment of 5 Android OS updates and the same for Security. So in the case of the Neo which arrived on Android 14, it will be updated to Android 19 and get Google Security patches until August 2029. This has been a long time coming and represents the first clear highlight here.

2. Always on Display

If you discount the Razr 50 Ultra (Razr+ in the USA), this is also the first Motorola phone to get a 'proper' AoD. They've dabbled with Peek Display for many years (which was very good) but have finally arrived with this feature. There's not much control over it, like you'd get with a Samsung/Good Lock setup, but at least it's here - and it's fairly attractive. There's a big 'hollow' clock and underneath it the day, date and weather icons. Towards the foot of the screen there is a row of Notification icons (which behave much like Peek did), a fingerprint scanner and battery percentage readout. When a notification comes in, the 'hollow' clock fills itself in so you can see the difference. So that's a big and developed feature.

3. IP6/8 and MIL-STD-810

Yes indeed - instead of 'nano-coated' internal components or 'splash resistance', the phone has a formal rating for both of these compliances, so reassurance for the user. This has been done before by Moto, but not in this mid-range up to now.

4. Design, Size, Panel, Colour

Yes, a big tick for all of these. A range of interesting Pantone colours with a kind of grippy 'silicone polymer' back (for those who don't want to use the supplied - at least in this market) case. I have the red one and think it's by far the best. Poinciana! The phone has gone back down to 6.36" instead of last year's 6.55" and it really is dinky in the hand, very similar to the Pixel 9 in height/width. Like most recent Moto phones it really feels nicely designed, too, with that sloping camera island. The front panel is flat, too, with a P-OLED, bright, colourful, vibrant.

5. 68W TurboCharging, Battery and Qi

Now this is not the 125W charging of this year's Moto flagships, but it's perfectly fast enough, 0-100% in under 40 minutes. And wireless is back too after being missed on last year's Neo. It's 15W, so again not the 50W of the bigger brothers, but perfectly good for overnight charges. The battery is 4,310mAh which is not the biggest, but in my tests and ongoing use here, performs superbly well, like a Pixel 8/9, given the following efficiency with chipset.

6. Decent Chipset, Storage and RAM

The Dimensity 7300 is perfectly good for almost all users with the added benefit of sipping at the battery. In tests here, it's surprisingly quick and consistent in use, even with middling-to-high gaming demands. The 8GB RAM is perfectly good, even for running the Smart Connect stuff. There's 256GB Storage supplied - and in some regions, 512GB so again, no complaints.

7. Smart Connect

Yes, what Moto used to call 'Ready For', the full suite for when connecting wirelessly with PC or telly. There's no HDMI-Out support so cabling up is not supported, but when the latency is this unnoticable over the air, I'm beginning to wonder about the need for a cable - at least in my domestic situation's network.

8. AI and HelloUI

Some of this AI has crept in too - with Magic Canvas wallpaper - so some teasers of what is possibly coming later, all within an envelope of the latest HelloUI and re-worked front-end, making an already-decent 'launcher' with bunch of handy Moto tools into a prettier, polished-up and more useful one, whilst sticking largely to a 'vanilla' flavour of Android.

9. Audio Options

The phone has decently loud and qualitative stereo speakers and Bluetooth, for getting the sound out to connected equipment, is top-notch as we'd expect these days. No complaints here. Solid.

10. Security

It has access to the Motorola Security suite of apps and services, a home-baked solution added to what Google supply, much like Samsung have done with Knox. It seems to work well, is fairly unobtrusive and gets the job done quietly. There's face unlock which works really well and an optical, under-glass fingerprint scanner which, again, works decently well-enough.

11. Cameras

The phone even has a 3x Zoom camera on the secondary shooter and a faster-than-most f1.4 aperture on the main 50MP unit. Close-up shots with the wide-angle lens are excellent with the auto-focus in attendance and even the Selfie is 32MP. I have no complaints, again, for the average demands of the average user in the photography department.

What could be better

Well, it's probably nit-picking time here but the Gorilla Glass 3 on the front panel could have been a higher-rated version, I guess it could have a 3.5mm audio-out socket and perhaps a microSD Card facility. It could have an UltraSonic (or capacitive) fingerprint scanner. There could be a 68W TurboPower charger in the box (though I understand that in some regions there is). It could also come with no bloat - especially that annoying MotoApps thing which, after every update needs to be disabled again as they try to push a bunch of absurd games onto users.

My Best Phone of 2024

Taking all of the above into account though, I do declare this my phone of the year - especially when you consider that it started out in the summer at £399 in the UK and can now, at year-end, be found fairly widely at £329 or less. For that price, for what you get - feature-for-feature as depicted in this appraisal - it simply can't be beaten in my view. You can get cheaper phones, of course, with some of the features - but nothing that I can see out there with all of this in one package. Especially for the person who doesn't want a whacking big phone!

Look Away (2018)

This is a thriller/mystery/horror/fantasy/drama (take your pick!) about a painfully shy 17 year old girl in rich-kid America as she negotiates life with her lack of confidence, generally being downtrodden by most around her, especially bullied at school - and by her overpowering, controlling father. However, help is at hand in order to wrench her out of her troubles by a confident version of her who lives in the mirror!

The reveals show us in the end why her dad's like he is, how there's a doppelganger of her in the mirror, why her mother has nightmares about the time that she gave birth to the girl, called Maria, and goes some way to explain why Airam, the girl in the mirror, is there. She pops up one day to shock Maria when Maria finds a ultrasound photo of her mum's stomach, early on in the film so not a spoiler, with what appears to be two humans in the womb.

India Eisley plays Maria/Airam very neatly indeed within the mad plotline/story, a creation of writer/director Assaf Bernstein, in what is largely a one-woman show. The rest of the cast tag along but with nowhere near as much screen time as her. Mira Sorvino (Mighty Aphrodite) plays depressed mum and Jason Isaacs (Harry Potter) the plastic surgeon dad, very capably both - and Penelope Mitchell (The Vampire Diaries) as the closest thing Maria has to a friend, Lily.

Downtrodden Maria's life is falling apart then, and Airam offers her, from the other side of the mirror, a switch (a bit like The Substance, I guess) in order to sort it out for her. She has to go through something of a ritual in order to execute the switch, which needs to be done again if they're ever going to switch back, after Airam helps Maria out. No points for guessing the plotline there, then! Especially if you've seen The Substance.

The film then turns into something of a revenge story as Airam, on behalf of Maria, sets out to right the wrongs which have been done to her. She ends up being ruthless in the task, no holds barred - which is where things switch toward the gruesome/slasher/horror. Once the backstory comes out about the origins of the birth event, there's even more work for Airam to do, whilst Maria is stuck in the mirror wishing by now that she'd never agreed to it! You can imagine! There's plenty of nudity thrown in as India Eisley bares all (as Airam) and some of the cast around her too, as she gets naughtier and naughtier in her quest to help Maria! Some might be concerned about this as the character (not actress) is supposed to be under 18.

It's a dark and well-paced thriller, decidedly far-fetched, of course, but the reveals are well-placed in the running time, 1 hour and 45 minutes, as we head towards the conclusion. I wasn't clock-watching. India Eisley is convincing in the lead roles which keeps the attention between disrobings! I guess it could be described as supernatural, but it's certainly not ghostly/creepy in that sense - more like a thriller - and there's no silly jump-scares. I enjoyed it and you can too via various streaming services.

Project Silence (2024)

Project Silence in this (obviously fictional!) thriller refers to a secret scheme that the South Korean government cooked up as a counter-terrorism measure. The idea was that they train dogs (and implant chips in them to control their behaviour) making them nasty, vicious creatures designed to take no prisoners. Sometimes the creatures don't work out as they should and have to be disposed of. This is where our story begins, one densely foggy morning on a road bridge outside Seoul.

Drivers of cars going too fast in the fog, some purposely, cause complete chaos as there's a pile-up of hundreds of cars crashing into each other, quite well created for the film, in the middle of which is the military truck taking the wonky dogs for putting down. But they're still alive. Obviously nobody thought to put them down before transporting the bodies instead! They break out of the truck they are in - of course they do - and begin to run amuck, attacking, maiming and killing everything in their paths!

There's a political backdrop to the story too as the government minister in charge of the project has elections looming and can't afford to let the cat (or in this case dog) out of the bag in case his party don't get re-elected - as they predict a public outcry regarding the very existence of Project Silence. One of the (uninformed) departmental bods happens to also be on the bridge with his daughter as they have family stuff going on - she wanting to go abroad to study, he can't afford to send her, nasty minister (his boss) offering to pay for it (pretty much) as long as he toes the line, doesn't spill the beans to the public and keeps all the people on the bridge quiet too.

If that's not complicated enough, we also have the technical research chappie who, of course, made the project with innocent intentions, but had it grasped from him by the military for what it ended up being. Well, he's also on the bridge in another vehicle. Oh yes, and there's an annoying chappie who worked in a filling station who is owed money by our under-minister, so he's in pursuit to get it back. So also on the bridge!

Eventually, the inevitable happens - the bridge starts to collapse after a series of chaotic attempts at escape and rescue with the loopy dogs centre-stage - and the minister with one eye on the elections ends up thinking that the best way out of this might well be to let (or help) the bridge (to) collapse, killing all the dogs and witnesses to the programme. He has already cut off cellular connectivity to stop the media getting hold of the truth!

So that's about it really. We then follow our bunch of a dozen 'survivors' for the rest of the film, narrow escape after narrow escape, ideas and plans to get off the bridge before it collapses whilst not getting marmalised by the dogs between them - the smartest one coming from the chappie's daughter. Lots of chaos and mayhem, some, but not too much gore and tearing apart of people in the dogs' way, all under the cover of dense fog, so quite dark mostly, ensuring that the CGI used for the dogs can be a tad more forgiving. It's not bad actually - I'd give the dogs a good 80% plus for looking realistically convincing.

The acting by the cast is decent enough, led by Lee Sun-kyun (Parasite) and Kim Su-an and it's been nicely-enough directed by Kim Tae-gon. It's not particularly tense or suspenseful, though it does have its moments. Mostly we're stuck right into this enjoying it for what it is - a far-fetched yarn, something of a disaster movie which will end in one of two ways. I'm sure you can guess which! Well worth a look if you can find it somewhere. Good fun thriller.

Hijack 1971 (2024)

This Korean hostage-taking/hijack drama is based on a true story, but it apparently takes some creative liberties for dramatic purposes. While the core elements of the hijacking and the pilot's actions are factual, some characters and events have been fictionalised.

We join the story in 1969 when a South Korean military pilot is removed from service following an incident when he failed to shoot down a passenger airliner as it was heading from South to North Korea, apparently hijacked, caring more for the wellbeing of the people onboard than following orders and considering the longer-term implications of North Korea and impact on extended families involved of not doing so.

We then jump forward two years to 1971 and our man has got a job as a commercial pilot and is operating as First Officer on the flight in question under the watch of the aircraft's captain. Some way into the flight, a man pops up with some home-made looking grenade/bombs and threatens to bring the plane down, killing them all, unless they fly him to North Korea so that he can defect - and he thinks, get rich. The back-story of the lone hijacker is apparently in question, but for our purposes it's rooted in the dubious activities at the time of the South Korean authorities, treating people's families as potential spies if they, or anyone they knew, had been in North Korea for any reason.

So anyway, the hijacker is now in control of the plane and we join the various members of the crew and passengers as they do what they can, obviously frightened for their lives, tense and anxious, to work towards overpowering him. The hijacker punishes anyone who is seen by him to be scheming against his action/plan which brings more tension and anxiety to the proceedings. And it does this part of the film very well. It's edge-of-the-seat stuff and the 1 hour 40 minute run time well, flies!

What's not so convincing is much of the 'special' effects of the plane in flight and backdrop which is, at times, almost laughably poor! But OK - it's clearly a low-budget outing and because the rest of it is pretty gripping, these scenes can be overlooked. The drama, suspense and tension are handled really well by the director and cast members. The secondary story about our pilot putting people before everything else and paying a huge price, is played out well as we see him put himself into risky situations time and again.

As usual with these kinds of dramas, knowing that it was a true story, well, even mostly true, adds great interest and enthusiasm to digest what's brought to the screen. There are plenty of stunts inside the cabin to watch and, again, these have been shot well. So, full of action, but also moving, especially during the end credits when we get real footage of the aftermath in Korea of the plane, the outcomes and information about our key pilot chappie. Well worth a watch, now streaming on a few services.

Heretic (2024)

It's an unsettling psychological thriller. Keep on your toes! Two mormon girls, driven to scoop new converts at (almost) any cost, get their comeuppance when they call on the sinister but suave Hugh Grant as Mr Reed in his quirky house full of passageways, traps and surprises!

All's going well as he engages with them about their belief and starts to challenge them, delving into where their faith runs out and what the meaning of belief and reality really is. He starts to play persuasive mind games and physical games, trapping them further and further towards anxiety, panic, paranoia - and mistrust in what they thought were their truths.

The film explores the historic basis of religion, and how people are obsessed, and as we venture further in and the games get more complex and shocking, trying to work out where the line is between reality and what might be presented as illusion. Grant is clearly having great fun with the role as he slips effortlessly between being charming into disturbing, sinister and manipulative!

There's loads of tension throughout as the story starts off dialogue-based, word-play and questions aplenty but then starts to build in the sinister edge, heading towards it's gripping, but fun, finale. I'm sure, like me, the running time will fly - no clock watching here!

Apart from Grant's very nice performance, the two girls do a good job, Sophie Thatcher and Cloe East, able to express initially confidence and later shock, vulnerability and horror! The horrific stuff serves to add a super haunting, eerie atmosphere, shot nicely in terms of imagery alongside supportive sounds and music.

It's an unsettling film but certainly worth a watch, great entertainment and might serve to get religious people questioning the stuff they blindly believe in. Or perhaps not, actually - more likely think it's just silly! Now streaming on a couple of platforms for you to use your vouchers/points on - or go to the cinema!

Touch (2024)

An incredibly moving film from Baltasar Kormákur behind the lens and holding the pen. It's a story set in two eras, 50 years apart. The early 1970's London and present day Japan. It follows the path of Kristófer who back in the day is a student in London, having relocated from his native Iceland. He's politically active and mixed up in the communism banter kicking about at the time and we see him with a group of other students attending a rally/protest or two.

This is all soon left behind, however, as he gets fed up with his studies and decides instead to get a job, opportunistically, in a Japanese restaurant in London - as he happens to be passing and sees a Wanted sign. He heads on in, nails the job, gets on very well with the Japanese family who run it and starts off as Chief Dishwasher! As he gets his feet under the table, he moves up, learns to speak and write Japanese along with the culinary art of cooking/preparing their style of food.

Then we get introduced to Miko, the owner's daughter and it becomes clear, even though she has a boyfriend (who her dad disapproves of), that they have fallen for each other. So we enter the phase of the film which is very much a classic love story with the introduction of different cultural values, approaches to relationships, generational differences and so on, in a climate where in the West at least, young people are expecting to be more free from tradition, conservatism and to make their own decisions/choices.

Part of the film is also about foodie stuff, for sure - there's some great photography (colourful too) going on from the kitchen with sumptuous food being prepared and presented - but that's not the primary hit here. It's much more about the two in love and the modern day Kristófer heading off to Japan to find Miko. Yes, there's a tragic element to the flashback to earlier times in which Miko, her dad and everyone else, just disappear one day. Gone. There are a couple of poignant moments ahead of that, which Kristófer tries to piece together as he's left completely alone.

Distraught, but with no clues as to where to turn (particularly in the pre-internet age and easy communication opportunities), two lives are formed. Kristófer marries, but the narrative clearly demonstrates that he's never happy in that, his wife dies, they have a daughter (who hounds him in the present) and we, the viewer, don't really know what's happened to Miko until very late on.

The backdrop of the present is also the outbreak of the Covid pandemic, so the start of this decade, as masks are being worn, travel restricted and lockdowns about to be executed. Present day Kristófer finds himself in Japan however, with the goal of seeking out his long-lost love and trying to find out what happened to her and her family back in the day. I won't spoil any outcomes relating to that.

There's also a theme running through the film about Hiroshima and the impact of that on the Japanese family, Miko's mum and why they all ended up in London. There's also yet another theme going on about ageing, memory loss, dementia and the impact on humans of the passing of time. As you can see, there's fairly intricate threading going on, but not so much as to lose the audience. The seamless leaps between present day and 1970's is clear because of how the main characters look and have aged, not through any obvious captioning or other method.

The first thing that struck me about the film was the lovely music - mostly stinged orchestral, which is just delightful. It supports the emotional aspects of the story, the chemistry between the two of them and ends of being decidedly moving - though far from soppy. It's been handled beautifully. It's also acted superbly by the whole cast, none of whom I knew I'm afraid - and many seemingly fairly inexperienced. Highly recommended film.

Aporia (2023)

This is a tidy little kind-of time-travel sci-fi/drama/fantasy. Not quite sure where to place it amongst all that, but it has certainly bits of it all! It’s all a bit far-fetched but very nicely presented, with a kind-of low-budget/Indie-feel, headed up by director Jared Moshe.

We join the story eight months after Sophie’s husband Mal has been killed in a drink-drive incident. She and their daughter are struggling to get along together without him, their lives full of grief and difficulties. Before he died, Mal had a good friend Jabir, and because they were a pair of boffin-nerds interested in physics and science, had a plan to build a time machine!

This was no ordinary time machine though - rather than transporting people into the past or future, it became able to send a packet of energy to a specific location at a specific time, to kind-of explode! Don't ask me to explain any more about the science! Jabir, seeing the state that Sophie was in and her crumbling relationship with her and Mal’s daughter, Riley, continues to work on the machine without Mal being around.

When Jabir finally thinks that he has something of a working theoretical model, he talks to Sophie about it and explores the possibility of sending back a packet of energy to eliminate the drunk-driver before he mows down Mal. She laughs it off initially, but as he says to her in the end - what has she got to lose! She visits the house of the drunk-driver and sees that he’s a nasty man who is abusive towards his family and still a drunk. In the end, she agrees, on the basis that the world (and his family) can do without such a bad person, replacing it with a good one - she getting Mal back and to restore her family.

I’ll stop with the plot there as anything else would be a giveaway. Needless to say, not everything is quite as it seems. Consequences of changing the past, even tiny bits of it - like removing one person - have far-reaching effects which had not been thought through or realised. Scientific experimentation - testing the theories by just getting on and trying it out!

There’s much fallout following the event, which is certainly thought-provoking and interesting to follow through with the very good cast. The three main players, Judy Greer (The Village), Edi Gathegi (For All Mankind) and Payman Maadi (A Separation) do an excellent and convincing job, turning on the drama, emotion and anxiety when called upon to do so in this evolving and ultimately complex plotline. For some (like me) it might be a case of keeping up at the back! It’s an enjoyable sci-fi romp and well worth a look, now streaming on limited platforms.

Aniara (2019)

Aniara is a book-length Swedish sci-fi poem (1956) by Harry Martinson on which this film is based. I haven't read the book/poem but according to Wikipedia it narrates the tragedy of a large passenger spacecraft (Aniara) carrying a cargo of colonists escaping destruction on Earth, veering off course, leaving the Solar System and entering into an existential struggle. The style is symbolic, sweeping and innovative for its time, with creative use of neologisms to suggest the science fictional setting.

I'm sure that, given the above, much of the artistic and scientific depth will have been lost on me, so I shall just give a brief summary of what I thought, what I enjoyed, approaching it without knowing or understanding that backdrop! It is indeed a story of a huge number of people on a huge spaceship leaving the earth behind as we are given glimpses of how earth has been destroyed at some future date, not specified. The human race needs to find a new home. So our huge spaceship, stacked full of people, is supposed to be on a 3-week long trip to Mars, but something goes wrong, the captain has to ditch the fuel and the spaceship is meandering off into no-man's-land.

There's some lovely imagery created with a relatively meagre budget - the 'lifts' taking people from earth to the Aniara for example - most of the special effects do look pretty low-budget, but also somehow good/interesting. I have read that the film's sets were not made/created by the filmmakers but unused shopping centres, car-parks and cross-channel ferries were used instead, thus cost-saving. And when you know that, you can see it very clearly.

We follow some of the staff/crew mainly, and in particular one lady who is in charge of MIMA, a bizarre 'service' which enables people to lay flat on the floor with their head in a foam-looking face protector whilst above and around them, MIMA creates images in their minds of calming, lovely scenes back on earth before is had been destroyed, reading their minds, personalising it for each individual. So typically waterfalls and isolated lakes etc.

Our crew members are depicted as a typical cross-channel ferry crew or airliner staff, pretty much bored of the routine of shuttling people from the earth, just a job, novelty and fascination worn off. Even during the 'lift' service from earth up to the ship, fascinating as it would be, they are not even bothering to look out of the window, just sleeping.

Lost in space, I'm not quite sure why they couldn't be rescued and communicate with earth, but perhaps it's to do with the sheer size and numbers. Perhaps there was only one of these spaceships. Anyway, the captain tells the travellers about the catastrophe and says that they are going to slingshot around a planet and get back on course, but that the process will take 2 years. Shock/horror - nobody can believe it - but they just have to accept it. They're growing some algae in a farm on the ship which appears to be likely to feed everyone, on a basic level, pretty much indefinitely. And strangely, the alcohol doesn't seem to run out very quickly!

Our MIMA lady shares a cabin with another crew member who is clearly depressed, negative and nihilistic about mankind, life, the universe and pointlessness of existence. Furthermore, she has inside-knowledge (which she shares via the bottom of a bottle of spirits) about the fact that the people have been lied to about the 2 years and it's going to be nothing of the sort - they are lost, hopelessly drifting in space forever. MIMA gets overloaded with people's negative thoughts and creates a secondary catastrophe of its own ending up with people resorting to bizarre behaviours, creating cults, shedding clothing, repopulating with each other openly and more as they all despair, realising, one-by-one, the hopelessness of their situation and existence.

There's so much to unpack here that I don't stand a chance really covering anything like all of it. Best to watch it and/or read the book/poem and make up your own mind about what it's saying about the insignificance of human existence, hopelessness, meaning, the frailty of planet earth, the infinite, bleak nature of space in terms of human acceptance/understanding and do hang about for the finale as we're exposed to a powerful and soul-stirring conclusion. Yes, there are scientific inconsistencies, but lay that aside and get stuck into it as-is. It's subtitled (or I guess you might find dubbing) and available now via various streaming services. Well worth a mind-bending watch.

PodHubUK Podcasts for the Month of November 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!

Phones Show Chat
Episode 826 - Special Edition Incoming
Saturday 2nd November
Steve and I are here with a catchup show during which we unusually talk about quite a bit about recent tech news, run through the highlights of my HMD Skyline review, nerd-out on potential ROM-baking action, consider alternative cases - and a bunch more besides!

Whatever Works
Episode 215 - Sicilian Sausages!
Monday 4th November
Aidan and I are back with another compendium of compelling content, curtly cheap as chips, to compromise your comprehension! (He says, keeping away from the letter S!) We scoff a Phal with a Spork, cook some 8-year old eggs, alarm ourselves with volume issues, drill our porcelain pushbikes at Esso and loads more chaos like that! Do join us for an hour, available now in the usual places 🤩

Phones Show Chat
Episode 827 - New York Pixel Decision
Sunday 10th November
Steve and I welcome Andy Hagon back for a natter for an hour about all things mobile phone - and find out what he's been using and thinking, about the latest tech. Mike Warner drops in (virtually!) to explain again about Google's soft/firmware Play elements, I have a look at the budget Moto G85 and Steve's (mostly) loving the Nokia N93 in Bygone Beauties.

Projector Room
Episode 174 - An Alien Substance
Wednesday 13th November
Gareth, Allan and I are back again with a look at the stuff we've been watching blended with your stuff too. We Blitz the Living Dead, Kidnap Spiders on the 3rd Rock as we focus on William Shatner, p...p...pick up The Penguin as he Wolfs around with The Substance and even end up as Aliens in the Romulus lab. Loads of fun as always, so do join us!

Phones Show Chat
Episode 828 - Samsung and Apple Realisations
Sunday 17th November
Steve and I are joined this week by Zachary Kew-Denniss so we find out what he's been up to in the last 2 years, since he last chatted with us. Mostly Android/Samsung but has dabbled for a month with iOS. I'm looking forward to more Samsung stuff arriving and Steve's busy sorting out the Surface Duo with Android 15. Loads more, as always so do join us for a while.

Whatever Works
Episode 216 - Single Jingle Mingle!
Monday 18th November
Aidan and I are back once more with our fortnightly hour of trinkets, linklets and sprinklets for your delight and trauma! From Scarlett Socks and Oral Orbitkeys, Nappa bags and Turtle Wax to CrossCountry Casio, Cats and coffee - it's all here and oodles more! Available now in the usual places, so do join us! Whatever Worked, Works!

Phones Show Chat
Episode 829 - The Pixel 9 Pro Fold Arises
Sunday 24th November
Steve and I are joined this week by Shane Craig, so as you'd imagine, we delve into all things folding/flipping, new and old. We chat about Google's plans for Android/ChromeOS, Desktop Modes, new and old, and oodles more! Available now from the usual places. Stay Nerdy, My Friends!

Projector Room
Episode 175 - The Jackal and the Joker
Wednesday 27th November
Gareth, Allan and I are back again with another of our fortnightly roundups of all things film, cinema and TV. This time we get Exposed to an Indecent Proposal, Say Nothing (much) about Gladiator II, Flopalopolis with Megalopolis and become the only podcast in the world to speak warmy of Joker: Folie à Deux! Loads of other chat and banter as usual, so do join us!

The Podcasts

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

The MeWe Community Groups (follow the links to join up)
Phones Show Chat & The Phones Show - Whatever Works - Chewing Gum for the Ears - Projector Room - PSC Photos - PSC Videos - PSC Classifieds - Tech Addicts

The Team
Ted Salmon - Steve Litchfield - Aidan Bell - Gareth Myles - Allan Gildea