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Reviews
The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015)
Real World
An honest and warm exposition of humans struggling to navigate our way through the overwhelming sensual environment in which we exist. We really do struggle with these things and for good reason - there are real deviants amongst us and it can go badly wrong. Nevertheless we quietly stretch the rules and mostly enjoy our experiences - such is reality. The account poses some uncomfortable challenges for us - the reality that female sexuality is every bit as rampant as male, once nature takes over. The legal age of consent balanced against the right of the individual to control their own sexual experiences. Age gaps. Indiscretion and breach of trust/loyalty. These sorts of issues are all dealt with in a warm and honest fashion which will ring true to many of us. I thought it was a lovely film :-)
The Scandalous Lady W (2015)
Pleasantly surprised
I was just looking for something available to fill a late evening via BBC iplayer and went for this - and now I'm off to bed feeling very happy. No need for me to repeat what has already been written in the higher scoring reviews, just to say they reflect my thoughts. However I was surprised by the couple of very low scoring reviews, so after reading them and being fed some doubts about the accuracy or integrity of the film I did some checking. Possibly the language/ dialect used may be slightly different to that of the time but the translation appears to be accurate i.e. the story is accurate. Also there are some comparison pictures of the actress and the real Lady W which are amazingly very close in likeness. Whilst viewing this drama I noticed nothing that made me think it was poor or cut price and have since found nothing false or inferior about the story or film. Therefore I can highly recommend this production which I found as good as any I have seen from the BBC and an enjoyable insight to early modern England and the evolution of gender relations. Worth paying my licence fee for :-)
Planet Oil (2015)
Fascinating history of the impact of oil on our world
I find myself loving everything this guy makes, but this is my best to date. It's not a science documentary - you'll need to watch an Open University program if you want details on the chemistry and engineering involved! This program gives you a thorough insight into oils massive role in our exponential rise to power and problems on this little planet. Follow this up with Adam Curtis's 'Bitter Lake' documentary (BBC) to get a more detailed understanding of the post WW2 phase leading to the current Jihadi situation. You'll have all the info you need to cut through confusing mess of politics and 'spin' so far offered to us. Knowledge is power :-)
History Cold Case (2010)
An amazing series that each start with a set of skeletal remains and proceeds to reconstruct the actual person and their life. Sometimes with horrifying truths.
In this series a small team of 2 eminent forensic anthropologists, an expert on bone analysis, and an expert on facial reconstruction take skeletons from a variety of UK sources and reconstruct them. Not only physically BUT far more interestingly as real persons with history extracted from thorough research of (sometimes surprisingly) available records. The impressive thing here is that it features the lives of ordinary, but nevertheless interesting persons. Because of the forensically interesting nature of their remains this is often a very sad journey revealing the hardship of their (often short) lives with obvious pain and suffering. After slowly unravelling the likely cause of death, place of origin (sometimes surprising!), diets, likely or even actual lives, we finally reach the climax in the form of the real face of the person staring at you. If like me you are a bit obsessive about people and their fortunes this is a very earthy moment and although I am not religious it is a kind of spiritual experience. The purpose here is not to encourage 'freak show' voyeurism but to enable us to experience the real feel of lives in circumstances that we would otherwise never hope to understand, and without need of dramatisation or CGI. That isn't intended as a dig against feature film as I absolutely love good film from any source. This sort of programme just adds another dimension to our understanding and experience. Hey, maybe a film or two could be made on the back of one of these real lives?