It really feels like, from the trailer at least, it is pro-Brexit. From IV’s review it seems to be the case. And as a pro-EU Scot I’m already tired of this film’s Little Englander vibe. I won’t go and see it, and probably would even skip it if you stuck it on in front of me.

Thank you! It sounds like an arduous film but one I might just be able to see.

Strange question, but can you tell me if there’s any self-harm? That’s the thing I can’t bear in films, particularly if bloody.

I’m reading Paul Beatty’s Booker Prize winning The Sellout and really struggling. It’s caustic and clever, but not my type of humour at all and as I’m not from the US some of the racial politics are going by me - it feels so exhausting to read. But I’m carrying on.

I’m gonna do that. I didn’t love season 2 (fantasy settings not being my thing) but the actors are generally so great, the grounded moments genuinely compelling and it’s nice to have something sweet and weird, a small defence against the big gloom of this awful year.

Some local bookshops do subscriptions - hand chosen to appeal to individual readers. I was given Mr B’s Reading Year one year, which was good (though I didn’t love everything, it certainly gave me lots to think about). You can also buy subscriptions to the entire output of some publishers for the following year which…

Reading Moby Dick to an infant seems genius to me. Will some ghost of the words stay with him through his life, until one day he sees an adaptation or reads the book himself, and feels an odd sense of comfort?

I kind of love the absurdity too. I mean - cutting off a tattoo? Why the hell not? It’s horrifying and will surely not get addressed again! All the details you mention. Random Twin Peaks Bob moment. Plus the perfect giftwrapping of a madman, and Betty not burning the mask (are we in for more tonally weird dark Betty?…

Isn’t that one of the plots of Pale Fire (kind of)?

Not me, and not a habit but a once-attempted insanity: two friends of mine attempted to drink 100 cups of coffee after watching the Futurama episode where Fry does the same. I think they made it to about 30.

I just activated the year-long unlimited cinema pass I got to the local googleplex (an early Christmas present) and the first film I went to see was Paddington 2 (despite not having seen the first). Let me tell you, that was some wholesome camp. Hugh Grant was pitch-perfect, it was all about acceptance and welcome and…

While I liked IV’s point about how Franco’s continual production of bad movies shows that directing movies is an art that needs to be learned, I would argue that the real message of Franco’s continual production of bad movies demonstrates just how much leeway a mediocre wealthy white dude has when it comes to getting…

So many of us in the greys.

I’m constantly on the lookout for shows that are just a good time (as a shield against this terrible year), so going to check out Runaways.

There were a whole load of Michael Palin travel shows that used to play every sunday or saturday morning in a big marathon when I was at university and thinking of comfort food just makes me want to revisit them.

I agree with you - kind of middling, despite good performances. AHS gets so much of its propulsion from weirdness. And Dennis O’Hare (where was he?!)

I agree with the careful framing Wes Anderson puts into his films - I think they’d be better classed as twee, with a small shake of camp into some performances. What this essay really missed (or ignored) is the queer subtext of camp. Not a single mention! FOR SHAME!

This episode the camp was too thin on the ground. High-fiving Jesus and Jim Jones aside.

Spot on review. I’ve decided to just make my home inside an Imax and live out the rest of this hell year watching this delightful film on repeat.

Oh god, you’ve just reminded me - shortly after I moved into my new (ground floor, rental) flat, I woke up some time in the small hours to bright lights outside the window and some people talking. I remember a man’s voice saying, I used to live here, and feel like I heard them come near the window. I thought they…