w/e 2021-08-08
I guess it says something that in the past 18 months I’ve created online accounts at B&Q, Wickes and Screwfix, places I’d barely ever visited before. I’m not much of a DIYer but there are still more things to do here (that fall within our combined comfort zones) than there were in London.
Last week I failed to fix an IKEA towel rail to a plasterboard wall, although I was later relieved to discover a guy, who seems to know what he’s talking about, showing that the specific rawl plugs I was using are rubbish. After a couple of hours of watching videos and comparing the products at online stores, I did eventually manage to securely fit the fixing to the wall using better rawl plugs and the correct-sized screws.
It’s just a shame that the IKEA towel rail doesn’t seem to fit securely to the securely-fixed bracket that came with it. I don’t know.
I did discover Charlie DIYte’s videos though, which I’m quite enjoying – friendly, pragmatic, clearly-explained, and he seems like a nice guy.
I spent too much time this week trying and failing to come up with a joke that ends with the punchline “John Rawls plugs”.
§ Over the past two weeks we’ve watched both seasons of Mindhunter which has been enjoyable, and a bit more interesting than I’d expected. Like all/most cop shows I can imagine it could be a little problematic politically if I thought harder about it, and I had a vague “this could be better somehow” feeling through a lot of it. It was a shame that through the second season, as it became a bit more of a conventional “catch the killer” drama, Wendy had little to do except “be a lesbian”.
But it was interesting to watch a couple of VFX breakdowns of it afterwards – amazing how much scenery is added or changed.
We also watched Promising Young Woman which I wrote an unusually long review of on Letterboxd:
I enjoyed watching it but, given the subject matter, I found it didn’t hit nearly as hard or as deep as it could have done. Somehow everything seemed too simple, too black and white, too clear.
There was never any doubt that the men she targeted had gone too far and done the wrong thing. While some characters may have initially or superficially doubted Nina’s experience, there was never a moment where I was made to doubt what had happened, for example. When the lines of right and wrong are always painted so clearly it makes for a less complex, and less interesting, story and protagonist.
The simplicity was carried on through the visuals and audio too. Lots of the locations were furnished and decorated simply – little clutter, just enough to explain the purpose or character – and there were a lot of simple, symmetrical, static shots.
None of that’s necessarily bad. But the soundtrack also often seemed too simple and obvious, with some “This is a sad moment so here’s some Really Sad Music!” hammering the moods home.
It was OK, it just felt like there was a more interesting and thoughtful movie hidden in there somewhere.
§ I found and reported another bug in Busuu. Number five I think?
§ That’s all I’ve got, feeling a bit empty.