#LastFourWatched #LetterboxdFriday
Hedda – Wow, this is good. Tessa Thompson plays the titular character in Nia da Costa's queering of Ibsen's classic, transposed to an English country house. She's in the same section of the Venn diagram as Kate Beckinsale's character in love and Friendship; manipulative, witty, cruel. Nina Hoss is stunning, as always, and Imogen Poots shows real depth. It’s a shame this has dribbled out onto Amazon Prime here in the UK, I'd have loved to have seen it on the big screen.
Ballad of a Small Player - Edward Berger’s follow-up to Conclave stars Colin Farrell as a desperate gambler in Macau. Farrell is excellent, and the film looks great, but sadly there’s something missing at the heart of this. Tilda Swinton dresses up again. Worth watching, though, and if you do, stick around for the credits.
Stiller and Meara - Ben and Amy Stiller’s doc about their parents, Jerry Stiller and Anna Meara, is a heartfelt and entertaining, if overlong, dissection of their parents’ relationship and its effect on them. Worth it for the footage of the young Stiller children absolutely butchering their violin playing on an episode of the Mike Douglas Show, which made me laugh more than anything else this year.
Passing Summer- Second viewing of Angela Schsnalec’s story of a woman’s summer. Makes the quotidian seem earth-shattering. Stunning.
