Our movie guru gives his take on Allelujah and the first episode of the sixth season of Black Mirror.
This week, I watched Allelujah on Blu-Ray, which was released in cinemas back in March. Based on an Alan Bennett play, this is a passionate love letter penned to the NHS, with a weird plot twist in its final act which threatens to undermine the whole thing and ruin the recip.
The casting is first class, and my highlight was David Bradley as the sarcastic, cantankerous dad of Colin Coleman (Russell Tovey), a Government consultant type brought in to close down the ageing Wakefield hospital (The Bethlehem) in which the story is set.
Dame Judi Dench sets about filming on an iPad she is given by a documentary crew who are tasked with making a fly-on-the-wall film about 'the Beth', but she is underused, often fading into the background.
There are some pleasingly wry, witty flourishes from Bennett's fountain pen peppered through the script, and plenty of acerbic commentary on so-called 'levelling up', budget cuts, the north/south divide, and the reality of northern towns being far removed from the Westminster bubble. The plot twist undoes much of this good work, though.
Gosh, the twist...being honest, it just didn't fit in tonally with the rest of the film a all. It felt a bit like someone had taped over the final 20 minutes of an old VHS tape with another movie.
The cast almost saved it, though. Jennifer Saunders, Bally Gill, and Derek Jacobi all put in stellar performances. The whole thing just didn't entirely hang together, sadly, and didn't set the pulses of cinemagoers racing when it was released early in 2023. Alas, a bit of a damp squib really.
Meanwhile, I've just watched the first episode of Black Mirror (Season 6), written by the acerbic and wild pen of Charlie Brooker.
Netflix, on which the show has been hosted since 2016, morphs into the remarkably similar 'Streamberry', as Joan sits down with her rather dull boyfriend to find something to watch, only to discover a big budget series called "Joan Is Awful", based on her life.
She is played in the series by Salma Hayek, and her life begins to quickly unravel, as she realises the terms and conditions she once clicked 'agree' on without reading make it all entirely legal. It's her life, on screen. Indiscreet comments, thoughts of cheating with her ex, firing an employee in her job...the unvarnished lot.
This is a chilling warning to us all that we ought to be a bit more mindful when clicking 'I agree'. Hayek is cracking fun in this episode, and look out for a memorable church scene that will definitely put ou off ordering a Whopper any time soon.
I'm looking forward to viewing the rest of the episodes ; I loved the Miley Cyrus hologram one back in 2019's Season 5. Brooker is clearly tapping into fear of AI, and probably with good reason.
Back to the cinema this week, and Greatest Days, No Hard Feelings, The Flash and The Boogeyman are all planned (if I can fit them in!).
You can listen to Alex every weekday from 6am to 11am on Tameside Radio 103.6FM.
