• Contact
  • About
  • Authors
DONATE TO BYLINES SCOTLAND
NEWSLETTER SIGN UP
  • Login
Bylines Scotland
  • Home
  • News
    • All
    • Bylines Scotland Breaking News
    • Europe
    • King Charles III
    • Queen Elizabeth II
    • Scotland
    • War in Ukraine
    • World
    Go Dharmic charity with Martin Dover

    Putting compassion into action – Coronation Champion Award winner Martin Dover leads the way.

    Police Investigation

    There’s been a murder

    Heart of NHS

    Back to the future

    Women health inequalities represented by a heart and a cardiogram

    Women’s Health in Scotland: challenges and progress

    Oil in Scotland

    Oil, Margaret Thatcher and Dinnae Mess Wi Us

    Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh

    Scotland’s Road to Devolution

    Poverty in Scotland

    Poverty in Scotland 2022

    NHS Scotland

    A Healthcare System that delivers for people?

    Scottish political calls

    Liberté, égalité, fraternité

    Trending Tags

    • Democracy
    • Devolution
    • Brexit
    • Ukraine
  • Politics
    • All
    • Council Areas
    • Europe
    • Holyrood
    • Liz Truss
    • Rest of UK
    • Tories
    • United Kingdom
    • Westminster
    • World
    UK voting system First-past-the-post

    Why is the UK still locked into an obsolete political system?

    Scottish Parliament Party seats

    People like to back the winning side.

    Post Election Blues

    Post-election blues

    Labour Anas Sarwar cartoon

    The challenge for Labour in Scotland

    Hard Labour

    Hard Labour

    Edinburgh Military Tattoo mixed with EU symbol

    Great visionaries brought us two great institutions that made life better for Scots and Scotland

    Westminster Government

    Regimes are at their most dangerous in their death throes 

    Rupert Murdoch portrait

    Why Rupert Murdoch should support Scotland’s independence.

    Demonstrator on the streets of London

    Eggs, black shirts and unsettled Britain

    Trending Tags

    • Equality
    • Johnson
    • Scottish National Party
  • Business
    • All
    • Agriculture
    • Aviation
    • Corporations
    • Energy
    • Finance
    • Fishing
    • Natural Resources
    • Shipbuilding
    • Trade
    • Transport
    • Workers
    A crane in a port

    Forth and Clyde Drowned by the Thames and Mersey

    Scotland's green Freeport's

    Green freeports – gateway to sustainability or greenwashing with a tax avoidance cherry?

    Salmon covered by sea lice

    Anyone for sea lice risotto?

    Bakkafrost Barge

    The Story of the Bakkafrost Barge Sinking

    Fish farm in Scotland

    A deeper dive into the history of Scottish fish farming

    Fish farms in a Scottish Loch

    How farmed salmon is produced – stage one

    Dead salmons

    Death in our waters

    Fish farming, Isle of Sky, Loch Ainort

    Fish Farming in Scotland 

    Offshore wind farm

    How will local communities get a fair share of record investment from offshore wind farms?

    Trending Tags

    • Health
      • All
      • Assisted dying
      • Covid
      • Influenza
      • Polio virus
      • Respiratory
      • Scientific Research
      Illustration of an antibiotic running away from bacteria depicting antibiotic resistance

      Antibiotic resistance – a major global public health threat

      Slogan Still Home from Clinically Vulnerable Families group

      Covid-19 lockdown continues for many in the UK

      Tree representing lungs

      Where are the areas in Scotland most affected by lung conditions?

      Health service

      Funding the Scottish Health Service 

      A goose surrounded by avian flu

      Who is knocking our doors? A putative new pandemic?

      A woman walking in a field with a jerrycan of water on her back, spraying water on the vegetation

      The Ethiopia Medical Project

      Healthcare word seen in a scrabble

      “Leave no one behind” – the Health Foundation’s report into health inequalities in Scotland 2023.

      Sign saying NHS Greater Galsgow & Clyde in front of a hospital building

      Concern over patients waiting in corridors for free beds at Glasgow Superhospital

      A hospital corridor with trolleys on the sides.

      Glasgow hospitals halt non-urgent operations due to pressure

      Trending Tags

      • Environment
        • All
        • Air Pollution
        • Biology
        • Climate Change
        • Wildfires
        Balblair substation

        Desecrating the glens: the relentless march of the industrial triffids

        Salmon covered by sea lice

        Anyone for sea lice risotto?

        Diagram representing circular economy

        Local Authorities, communities and the circular economy

        Bakkafrost Barge

        The Story of the Bakkafrost Barge Sinking

        Fish farm in Scotland

        A deeper dive into the history of Scottish fish farming

        Fish farms in a Scottish Loch

        How farmed salmon is produced – stage one

        Dead salmons

        Death in our waters

        Fish farming, Isle of Sky, Loch Ainort

        Fish Farming in Scotland 

        Ardnish wildfire by Leslie Barrie, CC BY-SA 2.0 Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic — CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons'

        Fire threats in the Scottish countryside

        Trending Tags

        • Opinion
        No Result
        View All Result
        • Home
        • News
          • All
          • Bylines Scotland Breaking News
          • Europe
          • King Charles III
          • Queen Elizabeth II
          • Scotland
          • War in Ukraine
          • World
          Go Dharmic charity with Martin Dover

          Putting compassion into action – Coronation Champion Award winner Martin Dover leads the way.

          Police Investigation

          There’s been a murder

          Heart of NHS

          Back to the future

          Women health inequalities represented by a heart and a cardiogram

          Women’s Health in Scotland: challenges and progress

          Oil in Scotland

          Oil, Margaret Thatcher and Dinnae Mess Wi Us

          Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh

          Scotland’s Road to Devolution

          Poverty in Scotland

          Poverty in Scotland 2022

          NHS Scotland

          A Healthcare System that delivers for people?

          Scottish political calls

          Liberté, égalité, fraternité

          Trending Tags

          • Democracy
          • Devolution
          • Brexit
          • Ukraine
        • Politics
          • All
          • Council Areas
          • Europe
          • Holyrood
          • Liz Truss
          • Rest of UK
          • Tories
          • United Kingdom
          • Westminster
          • World
          UK voting system First-past-the-post

          Why is the UK still locked into an obsolete political system?

          Scottish Parliament Party seats

          People like to back the winning side.

          Post Election Blues

          Post-election blues

          Labour Anas Sarwar cartoon

          The challenge for Labour in Scotland

          Hard Labour

          Hard Labour

          Edinburgh Military Tattoo mixed with EU symbol

          Great visionaries brought us two great institutions that made life better for Scots and Scotland

          Westminster Government

          Regimes are at their most dangerous in their death throes 

          Rupert Murdoch portrait

          Why Rupert Murdoch should support Scotland’s independence.

          Demonstrator on the streets of London

          Eggs, black shirts and unsettled Britain

          Trending Tags

          • Equality
          • Johnson
          • Scottish National Party
        • Business
          • All
          • Agriculture
          • Aviation
          • Corporations
          • Energy
          • Finance
          • Fishing
          • Natural Resources
          • Shipbuilding
          • Trade
          • Transport
          • Workers
          A crane in a port

          Forth and Clyde Drowned by the Thames and Mersey

          Scotland's green Freeport's

          Green freeports – gateway to sustainability or greenwashing with a tax avoidance cherry?

          Salmon covered by sea lice

          Anyone for sea lice risotto?

          Bakkafrost Barge

          The Story of the Bakkafrost Barge Sinking

          Fish farm in Scotland

          A deeper dive into the history of Scottish fish farming

          Fish farms in a Scottish Loch

          How farmed salmon is produced – stage one

          Dead salmons

          Death in our waters

          Fish farming, Isle of Sky, Loch Ainort

          Fish Farming in Scotland 

          Offshore wind farm

          How will local communities get a fair share of record investment from offshore wind farms?

          Trending Tags

          • Health
            • All
            • Assisted dying
            • Covid
            • Influenza
            • Polio virus
            • Respiratory
            • Scientific Research
            Illustration of an antibiotic running away from bacteria depicting antibiotic resistance

            Antibiotic resistance – a major global public health threat

            Slogan Still Home from Clinically Vulnerable Families group

            Covid-19 lockdown continues for many in the UK

            Tree representing lungs

            Where are the areas in Scotland most affected by lung conditions?

            Health service

            Funding the Scottish Health Service 

            A goose surrounded by avian flu

            Who is knocking our doors? A putative new pandemic?

            A woman walking in a field with a jerrycan of water on her back, spraying water on the vegetation

            The Ethiopia Medical Project

            Healthcare word seen in a scrabble

            “Leave no one behind” – the Health Foundation’s report into health inequalities in Scotland 2023.

            Sign saying NHS Greater Galsgow & Clyde in front of a hospital building

            Concern over patients waiting in corridors for free beds at Glasgow Superhospital

            A hospital corridor with trolleys on the sides.

            Glasgow hospitals halt non-urgent operations due to pressure

            Trending Tags

            • Environment
              • All
              • Air Pollution
              • Biology
              • Climate Change
              • Wildfires
              Balblair substation

              Desecrating the glens: the relentless march of the industrial triffids

              Salmon covered by sea lice

              Anyone for sea lice risotto?

              Diagram representing circular economy

              Local Authorities, communities and the circular economy

              Bakkafrost Barge

              The Story of the Bakkafrost Barge Sinking

              Fish farm in Scotland

              A deeper dive into the history of Scottish fish farming

              Fish farms in a Scottish Loch

              How farmed salmon is produced – stage one

              Dead salmons

              Death in our waters

              Fish farming, Isle of Sky, Loch Ainort

              Fish Farming in Scotland 

              Ardnish wildfire by Leslie Barrie, CC BY-SA 2.0 Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic — CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons'

              Fire threats in the Scottish countryside

              Trending Tags

              • Opinion
              No Result
              View All Result
              Bylines Scotland
              No Result
              View All Result
              Home Lifestyle Arts & Entertainment

              Film reviews award season

              Paul Basset watches and reviews the latest films, so you don’t have to (unless you want to, it’s completely up to you).

              Paul BassettbyPaul Bassett
              13-01-2023 07:00
              in Arts & Entertainment, Media, World
              Illustration for Arts and Entertainment

              Cartoon by Stan

              147
              VIEWS
              Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

              After the Golden Globes, the BAFTA and Oscar Awards will soon be upon us. Paul Bassett has been watching some of the main contenders.

              The Banshees of Inisherin

              Martin McDonagh has a thing for place names. His plays have Galway locales – Leeann, Inishmaan, Connemara, and Inishmore – in their titles. The hit films he’s written and directed – In Bruges (2008) and Three Billboards outside Ebbings, Missouri (2017) – continue the knack. 

              The Banshees of Inisherin, McDonagh’s latest movie, is set on a remote island off the west coast of Ireland. It shows the individual and the idiosyncratic, the world in a village. Achingly beautiful skies and seascapes contrast with dank interiors – cottages, farmhouses and pub.

              It’s as much about the banshees as Inisherin. The peculiar foursome at the heart of the tragicomic plot are memorable as characters and for the performances that bring them to life. 

              Barry Keoghan, one of Ireland’s best film actors, gives us a subtle depiction of the savvy village idiot, Dominic.

              It’s April 1923. So stunted are prospects on the island that the clever, bookish Siobhan – a beautifully measured Kerry Condon, a McDonagh regular – sets her sights on the mainland. But her brother, Padraic (Colin Farrell) has simpler ambitions: to keep his cows and beloved donkey, deliver his milk churns and go to the pub every day with Colm (Brendan Gleeson, reunited with Farrell from In Bruges).

              Musically gifted Colm, weary of fruitless drift, resolves to ditch the mundane, starting with Padraic. Gleeson, mad-eyed and moody, is wonderfully dour. You wouldn’t go drinking with dullard Padraic for the craic, but Farrell’s interpretation, a poignant mixture of humour and pathos, tugs at the heart. 

              The uncoupling of Colm and Padraic sparks a vendetta of deception, drowning, self-mutilation and a fierce inferno. 

              The lengths the pair go to beggar belief. How far can male brutality go? Does their caustic feud – five years after the First World War and two years into the Irish Free State, with Civil War reprisals raging – echo not just the mainland explosions, but also the desperate clashes of early twentieth century Ireland and beyond?

              Tar

              Lydia Tar (Cate Blanchett) is a prodigious talent – a high-profile conductor (orchestra, not bus). You expect the familiar rubric ‘based on a true story’ to appear, but she and the plot are fictional.

              Lydia leads a life of phenomenal pressure – composing, conducting, teaching and keeping her tumultuous personal life together. 

              She is imperiously at home in the top-down world of classical music. In a rare case of shared decision-making, she was elected chief conductor by the players of the Berliner Philharmonic (as happens in real life). But, with Lydia on the podium, democracy doesn’t count – she crowbars an item on to the programme (Elgar’s Cello Concerto), naming her favourite as the soloist. 

              In an interview at the start of the film, during which Lydia is addressed as “Maestro”, she claims she can stop time when she conducts. Later, her genius tainted by manipulation of the people around her, we see – ominously – a metronome being wrenched to a halt.

              Like Lydia herself, the film moves at an intense pace between encounters, both professional and personal. The imagery is rich, with alternating shifts of colour and monochrome, amplified sounds and silence, harsh backgrounds and dream sequences, reflecting the complex layers of Tar’s mercurial life.

              She wants to nail the definitive recording of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. The exquisite fourth movement was played over Visconti’s 1971 film Death in Venice. “Vergessen Sie Visconti!” Lydia commands the players. Personally, I can’t forget it – hearing it always makes me cry.

              As she strives to rise above the cracks in her relationships, her attempts to separate art from the artist come back to haunt her. During a New York masterclass, she humiliates a student who refuses to play Bach because “dead, white, male CIS composers are not my thing.” Anti-Tar protests go viral, threatening her artistic triumph. 

              Tar is a fascinating story about art, power, talent, cancel culture and love, with a blistering central performance from Blanchett. She’s scarcely off-screen and learned piano, conducting and German for the film. Her supreme attention to every detail makes her portrayal utterly convincing. It certainly puts her in contention for her third Oscar and fourth BAFTA.

              The Wizard of Oz
              Arts & Entertainment

              Scottish panto is the best!

              byPaul Bassett
              16 December 2022

              Living

              Who better than Bill Nighy to go from pinched bureaucrat to benevolent rebel? There he is, with a coterie of bowler-hatted civil servants, umbrellas tightly furled, crammed in the regular steam train commute into 1950s London. Then, his carefully routined life upturned by a terminal medical diagnosis, that ferrety face gradually breaks into a smile.

              From the story of Mr Williams (Nighy) – an epiphanous shift from desiccated widower to playful hero – Living might at first seem another take on classic British Passport to Pimlico eccentricity. 

              Not quite – the film’s contributors include Leo Tolstoy (who wrote 1886 novella), Akira Kurosawa (directed the 1952 film), Kazuo Ishiguro (he scripted this version) and Oliver Hermanus (who directed this film), with all these sources distilled into a tale of reflection, soul-searching and understanding. The camera lingers mellifluously; the palette of colours is beautiful, the soundtrack haunting and spare. 

              Mr Williams pleads the case of a group of women refused a playground, politely persisting until it happens. We’re used to seeing Nighy, in films like About Time and Love Actually, use comedy to show pathos. Here the pace is more glacial. He delicately suggests what it means to recapture a lost humanity, to forge an authentic, compassionate life – at least what’s left of it – from a sterile one. As he sways on a swing, in the snow, gently singing “Oh Rowan Tree”, he is smiling. It’s a pleasure to watch.

              Other ones to watch

              Babylon gives a 2022 picture of Hollywood in the roaring 1920s. It includes a homage to Singing in the Rain, 1952’s vision of that same decade. 

              This new take on the shift from silent films to talkies, with Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt, could not be less like the Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds classic. Everything in Babylon is excessive, including its length (three hours and ten minutes).

              We see an incontinent elephant amid cocained, naked bodies; a fight with a rattlesnake and a brown-skinned trumpeter forced to darken his face with burnt cork. But these are spectacular sketches in what can feel like Elvis – another awards contender – described by The Guardian as a film-length trailer, “a relentless, frantically flashy montage”.

              The deeper narrative of Babylon belongs to two outsiders: the trumpeter and a Mexican wannabe producer – a brilliant performance by Diego Calvo – who survive the hedonistic burn-out party. But what a party!

              The Good Nurse is a true-crime thriller, with great performances from Jessica Chastaine and Eddie Redmayne. Chastaine plays Amy, both medic and patient. Redmayne is Charlie, her colleague and helpmate – or so she hopes. 

              The shocking reason behind deaths at the New Jersey hospital creeps upon us. There’s an incidental shock for those of us still lucky to have (just about) free health care, when Amy has to pay almost $1000 for a diagnosis, never mind the treatment bills to come. To ensure these, she has to keep working, but who will keep her illness secret as well as look after her daughter? 

              The focus stays tightly on Amy’s home and the hospital – complicit in its failure to screen employees – as the police try to catch the killer. The underlying questions loom larger – not just who did it and why, but what sort of health system is so cruelly unaccountable?

              If you hate pretentious restaurants, your milk of human kindness will curdle at first sight of the private island restaurant in The Menu, run by top chef Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes). But director Mark Mylod has decided – on behalf of all us anti-foodies, maybe – that revenge is a dish best served bold.

              In a whizzed-up foam of increasingly grotesque courses, each solemnly introduced by a smug Julian, the ultra-rich guests are told that they’re about to “ingest entire ecosystems”. The bill looks likely to cost an arm-and-a-leg, at least.

              If food is theatre, this is the cruelty and absurd kind. After the breadless bread basket, the fawning diners should save themselves and leave, but only the rebel Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy) has the sense to order cheeseburger and fries – to go!

              Finally a brief mention of four other films worth catching if you haven’t already. My Old School blends the facts of Brandon Lee’s return, aged 32, as a pupil to Bearsden Academy with the fiction of Alan Cumming lip-syncing Lee’s confession. 

              Young Plato, also set around a school – a Belfast primary – is a documentary about an inspirational head teacher who uses Greek philosophy to boost the boys’ confidence. 

              Nitram has a riveting performance by Caleb Landry Jones as an unhinged young Tasmanian fired up, in part, by the Dunblane tragedy. When you learn he went on, in real life, to shoot dead 35 people, it becomes almost too disturbing.

              Finally for pure eccentricity, try Brian and Charles, the tale of a lonely inventor building a robot companion. Their daffy adventures in rural Wales are the most charming slice of whimsy you could hope for.


              Paul Bassett’s Arts and Entertainment is a regular feature of Bylines Scotland, published on the second Friday of each month. Paul returns with Arts and Entertainment on Friday 10 February.


              We need your help! The press in our country is dominated by billionaire-owned media, many offshore and avoiding paying tax. We are a citizen journalism publication but still have significant costs. If you believe in what we do, please consider subscribing to the Bylines Gazette 🙏

              Tags: CultureJournalism
              Previous Post

              Taxes don’t pay for services – so what are they for?

              Next Post

              Lasagne Vegetariana; a different take on a centuries-old dish

              Paul Bassett

              Paul Bassett

              Paul Bassett is a Glasgow writer and author of STAGE LEFT: a blog about love, theatre and ideas.

              Related Posts

              Audience in action
              Arts & Entertainment

              The Audience Is Always Right!

              byPaul Bassett
              12 May 2023
              A musician playing the saxophone
              Arts & Entertainment

              Notes from America

              byMartin Roche
              7 May 2023
              Patti Russo and Jamie Moses Lessons from the school of hard rocks
              Arts & Entertainment

              Surviving and thriving

              byPeter Cook
              17 April 2023
              Stage performance of Guys and Dolls
              Arts & Entertainment

              Scotland needs more musicals!

              byPaul Bassett
              14 April 2023
              Rupert Murdoch portrait
              Media

              Why Rupert Murdoch should support Scotland’s independence.

              byMartin Roche
              3 April 2023
              Next Post
              Cartoon by Stan

              Lasagne Vegetariana; a different take on a centuries-old dish

              PLEASE SUPPORT OUR CROWDFUNDER

              Subscribe to our newsletters
              CHOOSE YOUR NEWS
              Follow us on social media
              CHOOSE YOUR PLATFORMS
              Download our app
              ALL OF BYLINES IN ONE PLACE
              Subscribe to our gazette
              CONTRIBUTE TO OUR SUSTAINABILITY
              Make a monthly or one-off donation
              DONATE NOW
              Help us with our hosting costs
              SIGN UP TO SITEGROUND
              We are always looking for citizen journalists
              WRITE FOR US
              Volunteer as an editor, in a technical role, or on social media
              VOLUNTEER FOR US
              Something else?
              GET IN TOUCH
              Previous slide
              Next slide

              LATEST

              Go Dharmic charity with Martin Dover

              Putting compassion into action – Coronation Champion Award winner Martin Dover leads the way.

              28 May 2023
              UK voting system First-past-the-post

              Why is the UK still locked into an obsolete political system?

              27 May 2023
              Police Investigation

              There’s been a murder

              26 May 2023
              Brexit impact illustration

              Brexit Stock Take

              24 May 2023

              MOST READ

              UK voting system First-past-the-post

              Why is the UK still locked into an obsolete political system?

              27 May 2023
              Brexit impact illustration

              Brexit Stock Take

              24 May 2023
              King Charles Coronation and the United Kingdom Flag

              Coronation Chickens … coming home to roost

              29 April 2023
              Mumbai railway station crowds on both sides of the railway track (and some in the middle).. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en By Rakesh Krishna Kumar

              The World population reaches eight billion – should we be concerned?

              18 November 2022

              BROWSE BY TAGS

              Brexit Christmas ClimateChange Covid Covid19 Culture Defence Democracy Devolution election FishFarms Glasgow Halloween health History Holyrood independence IndyRef2 Johnson Journalism Labour LGBT+ Liz Truss Monarchy NATO NHS Nicola Sturgeon politics Poverty Pro-EU Public Health Putin Russia Sars-CoV-2 Scotland Security and Defence shipbuilding SNP Sunak Tories Tourism Twitter Ukraine UK Supreme Court War in Ukraine
              Bylines Scotland

              We are a not-for-profit citizen journalism publication. Our aim is to publish well-written, fact-based articles and opinion pieces on subjects that are of interest to people in Scotland and beyond.

              Bylines Scotland is a trading brand of Bylines Network Limited, which is a partner organisation to Byline Times.

              Learn more about us

              No Result
              View All Result
              • Network
              • About
              • Authors
              • Contact
              • Donate
              • Privacy

              © 2023 Bylines Scotland. Citizen Journalism | Local & Internationalist

              No Result
              View All Result
              • Home
              • News
                • Scotland
                • World
              • Politics
                • Council Areas
                • Europe
                • Holyrood
                • Rest of UK
                • Westminster
              • Business
                • Fishing
                • Trade
                • Transport
              • Health
              • Environment
                • Climate Change
              • Opinion
              • Donate
              • Newsletter sign up
              CROWDFUNDER

              © 2023 Bylines Scotland. Citizen Journalism | Local & Internationalist

              Welcome Back!

              Login to your account below

              Forgotten Password?

              Retrieve your password

              Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

              Log In