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Oscar predictions 2025

March 1, 2025 by johnny Leave a comment

Having managed to see around half of the movies in contention, and at least read something about most of the others, here is my semi-confident forecast of how the main awards will be distributed tomorrow evening:

Best Actor
- Timothée Chalamet
Best Actress
- Mikey Madison
Best Supporting Actor
- Kieran Culkin
Best Supporting Actress
- Felicity Jones
Best Director
- Brady Corbet
Best International Feature
- I’m Still Here
Best Picture
- The Brutalist

That’s what I think will happen, and pretty much what I think should happen too; the main exception being that I would pick Nickel Boys over The Brutalist for Best Picture (and Hundreds of Beavers over both of them had it not, inexplicably, failed to gain a nomination).

Filed under Culture Tagged with Culture, Film

Manchurian Trump

March 1, 2025 by johnny Leave a comment

I wrote in a post last month that it would probably be some time before we could really make sense of the actions of the new US administration, but it turns out that I was wrong. It wasn’t hard to read the meaning of the Trump/Vance beatdown of Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday, televised live from the Oval Office to a shocked world; we are now back in an era of Great Power politics, where nations have no permanent alliances, only permanent interests, and Emperor Trump will grant no favours to those who do not cower before him.

In such circumstances even a peacenik like me doesn’t need much convincing that rearmament is a sensible policy, though obviously I’d be in favour of paying for it by taxing the rich rather than cutting aid to the poor. Strengthening ties with more reliable allies like France and Germany seems like a no-brainer too.

One question that might have to wait for history to answer is whether Trump is an active agent of Vladimir Putin, or merely a useful idiot. Perhaps he was brainwashed during his infamous Moscow trip, then sent back to infiltrate the White House and do the Kremlin’s bidding, though it does seem more likely that Putin, like the rest of us, can scarcely believe that Trump has managed to con his way into power, but isn’t going to let a lucky break like that pass him by.

Filed under Culture, Politics Tagged with Culture, Film, History, Politics

Go Birds

February 10, 2025 by johnny Leave a comment

I finally managed to come up with an accurate sports prediction, though I have to admit that backing the Eagles to beat the Chiefs wasn’t too much of a stretch, if one looked at the actual numbers rather than buying in to the “invincible Mahomes” narrative.

Filed under Culture Tagged with Culture, Sport

Superbowl LIX prediction

February 9, 2025 by johnny Leave a comment

I must admit that I rather lost interest in the NFL last month, as my adopted team stumbled towards the end of a disappointing season, but I have paid enough attention to have an opinion on who will win the final game tonight; Philadelphia.

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Longitudinal Trumpism

February 8, 2025 by johnny Leave a comment

One of my favourite quotes is Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai’s 1972 comment “It’s too early to say”, uttered in reply to a question from Richard Nixon on the significance of the French Revolution. It has subsequently been reported that, due to a translation error, Zhou was under the impression that Nixon was referring to events in Paris in 1968 rather than 1789, so he wasn’t taking quite such a long-term view as had been thought, but still, I think that the general principle that one should hold off on making judgements until sufficient time has passed is essentially sound.

I’ve been thinking of this as I’ve watched the flurry of activity that has unfolded in Washington since Donald Trump’s second inauguration last month, every day bringing news of some fresh lunacy. Is it all part of a cunning strategy, a smokescreen to distract us from the real villainy? Or is the performative cruelty and transparent grifting actually as much of a plan as Trump and his acolytes have?

I guess time will tell, though, if I ignore my own advice against giving instant opinions, I would lean towards the view that they don’t have much of a blueprint beyond pushing the boundaries until someone makes them stop, or, failing that, until reality intrudes upon their fantasies.

I suspect it may be several years before we can really make sense of it all though – perhaps whoever is running China in 2225 will feel they have enough perspective to offer a verdict.

Filed under Culture, Politics Tagged with Culture, History, Politics

David Lynch RIP

January 16, 2025 by johnny Leave a comment

Sad news today of the passing of film director David Lynch, undoubtedly one of the finest auteurs of his generation.

My first exposure to Lynch’s genius was seeing Eraserhead when I was still at school, and I’ve followed his work ever since. As I’ve noted previously, Twin Peaks was a major influence on my cultural outlook during my student days. On my initial visit to Los Angeles in the early 90s practically the first thing I did was to track down a copy of the LA Reader, so that I could cut out The Angriest Dog in the World; that comic strip, now yellowed with age, is still a prized possession. Mulholland Drive became my favourite movie the first time I saw it back in 2001, and has remained so ever since, its phantasmagorical beauty beguiling me anew with each viewing. Of all Lynch’s creations I am perhaps fondest of Rabbits, which is incomparable in its unsettling incomprehensibity.

I could go on all night with examples – Dennis Hopper as Frank in Blue Velvet, the costume design in Dune, Lynch’s masterful use of music – but for some reason I feel a sudden need for some coffee and cherry pie…

Filed under Culture Tagged with Comics, Culture, Film, Music, TV

LA aflame

January 11, 2025 by johnny Leave a comment

Even though I’m thousands of miles away I’ve been feeling very disturbed by the news from Southern California; principally, of course, due to the appalling loss of life, property, and peace of mind being endured by the residents of LA County, but also because, even to my supposedly rational mind, it seems like a terrifying omen. A bastion of progressive values literally burning to the ground is the sort of unsubtle metaphor for the times we find ourselves living in that would normally be dismissed as ridiculously blunt in a work of fiction, yet, the way things are going at the moment, it feels, if anything, like an understatement.

Filed under Culture Tagged with Culture, Psychology, Superstition

New Year optimism: 2025 edition

January 1, 2025 by johnny Leave a comment

Despite my generally curmudgeonly nature I’m not entirely immune to the cultural currents that identify this time of year, a few days after midwinter, with a new spring just about imaginable, as an opportunity for reinvention, both personal and societal, and a reason to believe that the world, and my life within it, can only get better.

I’m sure that this feeling won’t last the week, but I’ll enjoy it while I can…

Filed under Culture, Psychology Tagged with Culture, Psychology

2024: The year in review – Part 1: Culture

December 30, 2024 by johnny Leave a comment

Looking at my Tumblr I’m reassured to see that I did consume at least a little culture during the last twelve months; I’ll try to distill each category down to a top three.

Television

Despite subscribing to Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime I almost never have time for TV shows. Only Murders in the Building: Season 4 was the sole series I watched all the way through, so I guess it takes gold by default, though it was pretty funny, so it would probably have won even with competition.

Film

My favourite movie by a mile this year was ultra-violent live-action Looney Tune Hundreds of Beavers, with Perfect Days and I Saw the TV Glow also making the podium, and Werner Herzog biopic Radical Dreamer just missing out. The 50th anniversary reissue of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation was essential; his latest work Megalopolis rather less so, though it certainly had its moments.

Books

Paul Auster’s passing in April prompted me to catch up with his New York Trilogy, which turned out to be the highlight of a year when I mostly avoided more recent fiction; Jonathan Lethem’s Brooklyn Crime Novel was the exception and takes the silver. Bronze goes to non-fiction; Zeke Faux’s exposé of the crypto industry Number Go Up.

Music

I’ve listened to a lot of radio this year, mainly US college stations, which inspired me to compile a long list of new albums to get hold of, very few of which I actually got around to purchasing. Of those I did buy my top three are probably Fairweather Friend by The Umbrellas, News of the Universe by La Luz, and Manning Fireworks by MJ Lenderman, though on another day I might include Sierra Ferrell’s Trail Of Flowers, Rooting for Love by Laetitia Sadier, or This Is How Tomorrow Moves by beabadoobee. The best live shows I saw featured the aforementioned Umbrellas, Belle and Sebastian, and Jane Weaver. I even had a favourite opera – Marx in London!

That’s a brief run through the culture of 2024 as seen through my very limited lens; come back tomorrow for a look at the year in blogging.

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