Noise Vibration And Harshness

A few things I have been watching, listening to, reading, or playing. Mostly older but a couple new-ish things:

Girls - Really up and down in quality, with the exception of Adam Driver. Worth it for Adam alone, though. C-

Devs - Probably Alex Garland’s best work. Nice to see some great photography of the Bay Area. A

Nathan for You - A shame I wasn’t up on this earlier. I haven’t laughed that hard since Review. A+

What If aka The F Word - A really solid romcom. Great script, good performances. Slightly too twee for most audiences but right up my street. B

Diamantino - A kaleidoscope of topics and aesthetic choices that still delivers emotionally. Shot up near the top of my 2019 best of list. A

Prometheus and Alien: Covenant - Watched these for Alien Day. Prometheus didn’t really land for me, which I think was pretty much the critical consensus. Convenant did, though. It was a great synthesis of what made the first two series entries work plus DAVID. C and B-

Fetch the Bolt Cutters - There are already multiple waves of backlash and counter-backlash to this album, so I don’t think it will win any converts but it adds 20% to the Fiona Apple discography and that is surely a good thing. A

Voxtrot - Still a great band! A+

My Brilliant Friend - A nice balance to the violent masculine energy of the Knausgård books. I already have the next three books on deck and am excited to start the HBO series as well. A

Normal People - Quite painful revisiting some of those years. The BBC show looks good. B