📆Review - Billy Liar (1963), dir. John Schlesinger💷

Thoughts tending to ambitions 

*Spoliers*

Billy Liar is a kitchen-sinky type movie starring Tom Courtenay as the title character. During the film, Billy imagines himself as a general of the fictional country of Ambrosia which is fighting a war. These fantasies are getting in the way of his life. At the start of the film, we are introduced to Billy awake in bed, already late for work. Instead of rushing to the job, Billy is saluting and  we are shown the adoring crowd and military parade. 

These disruptive behaviour is similar to what Eli Somer calls "Maladaptive daydreaming". The folks who suffer from MD suffer from complex, detailed, daydreams  often with themselves as great figure. 

Maladaptive daydreaming limits Billy's life by the end of the film, when instead of running away to London with the only girl who seems to get him, he returns home to dwell in fantasy. The film shows Ambrosia's army marching back with Billy as he returns home. 

These kind of lifestyle problems destroy people's lives, and society is only just beginning to look into it now. But this marvellous, little film had it all figured out over 50 years ago.

⚰Review - "Death Register" by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa😕

The depressing sort of morbid.

Yeah, it is good.

Although it is not so much a story, but more of the recollection of the death of Akutagawa's mother, infant sister and father. A short forth section covers Akutagawa's visit to a graveyard and the discomfort associated with that otherwise uninteresting place. 

Each section is fascinating; his mothers mental decay is described with blunt, honest brushstrokes. The opening line "My mother was a madwoman" hides nothing. It places Akutagawa at a distance from his mother, similar to the distance he would have with each of his departed family members. 

The story is filled with brilliant little details to fill the ugly reality it describes. Any author can write that somebody died, but Akutagawa gave details to the world he presented, grounding each death with heavy flakes of reality. 

"...gold teeth mixed in with the tiny white shards of bone at the crematorium."

"...I used to get remnants of her clothes to put on my rubber doll."

"I dozed off now and then... I would wake to find the long funeral procession still winding its way through the streets of Tokyo in the autumn sunlight."

(This last detail from his mothers funeral provides a contrasted with with father's funeral where "a great big Spring moon was shining down on the hearse.")

🇺🇸Review - "The Undefeated" (2016) - Dir. Stephen K. Bannon🌨

When Bannon was a feminist

This is a bad documentary. 

It is the life story of Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin until 2011. Everything else is wrong about this film too. Especially the title 'The Undefeated' isn't spin; it is a lie. Even The narrative argues that she was defeated. No attempt is made to justify why this film is called the undefeated.

Actually it seems no attempted was made to justify anything creative done in the film which is made with interviews played over stock footage. Compared to some other right-wing populist films (Brexit - The Movie) which are trying to convince people of their policy positions, this film's merchandise is cliche. The movie has a structure like my old secondary school assignments, rushed together to so something can be handed in, content and quality ignored.

But this is kinda why it is interesting. Some of the cliches ("They didn't see us coming") used are the same when Bannon was part of a team manufacturing populism during 2016 Presidential race. But some of the cliches used back in 2011 are the opposite of the ones used in 2016. 

'The Undefeated' is superficially feminist. The narrative the film puts forward is that male establishment (the boys in the playground) disliked the strong, female politician which the film argues Palin was. Apart from her 'conservatism', the major reason her establishment critics dislike her is because she is a woman, the film argues. A Montage  of comedians making jokes (not including Tina Faye) about Palin opens the film and places that argument a the head of the 2 hour onslaught. 

Avoid this film.