Not So Happy Endings

Farewell to 2023!

Recently, I finished the Netflix series Sex Education which gave me pause to reflect on how shows end well or badly. It's hard to remember one that ended well but long-term fans of Sex Education were particularly annoyed with how it finished after four seasons. 

I am guessing Covid and various strikes may have played a part but Season 4 did seem oddly paced, introducing new settings and characters and then rushing to tie everything up in the concluding episode, which was 8 rather than 10 or 12. It really did feel muddled and I felt they got rid of the wrong characters. I really missed Anwar, Olivia, Lily and Ola. So many questions: What will become of Elsie? Will Cal get surgery? Has Ruby really got over Otis? We will never know. 

But I was not that satisfied with how Grace and Frankie ended last year after eight seasons. For a start it was not so much Grace and Frankie as Grace and Frankie's kids and exes. Bud as a stand-up? Coyote searching for his ex? Not that interesting. Thank heavens for Dolly Parton's cameo. 

Fans of Killing Eve are still cursing the showrunner for how that show ended last year. I am only on Season 2 so can't get too excited or let down, but it is funny how difficult producers find it to wrap up long-running shows. 

I thought Derry Girls did OK even though I really wanted Clare to find a girlfriend and did not really buy James and Erin as a couple. 

Atypical was one of my favourite shows and I thought that ending was mixed, too. I didn't mind so much leaving Izzie and Casey's ending open but I did not buy the sudden interest of Doug in travelling with his son. Nope. 

Bringing it back to SexEd, introducing new characters in the final season can really backfire as they take attention from the main characters and don't necessarily add anything. Witness Never Have I Ever which ended this year. I loved that show but why add new love interests and rivals in the last year? I wish they had spent more time on the friends Fabiola and Ramona and less on various pointless love triangles. Sigh. 

Here is hoping for happier endings and joyful beginnings for 2024.

Dolly Parton Rockstar

 

Well, this is unexpected. Rockstar, Dolly Parton's first rock album, prompted by her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, spans 30 tracks of fist-pumping, guitar strumming, wide-legged RAWK. Plus, some power ballads. Anyway....

If you did not have Dolly warbling alongside Paul McCartney, Pat Benatar and Kid Rock on your 2023 bingo card, well, join the club. I was speechless as I listened. Mostly for all the right reasons. 

One could play a really fun game of Rock Wish List for a project like this. I would have loved to hear what Dolly could do alongside Tina Turner or a contemporary band like Idles. Hell, what about Ozzy Osbourne or Slipknot? But, no. It's a bit more safe, with a lot of her contemporaries and then a few "kids" like  Miley Cyrus. No Lil Nas X? He was all over Twitter wanting her to appear on "Old Town Road" a few years ago. Perhaps for Rockstar v. 2 if that appears. 

For this album, though, most of the superstars play quiet support to Dolly's vocals and it works well on such tracks as "Every Breath You Take" with Sting relegated to backing vocals. On "What Has Rock and Roll Ever Done for You" Dolly is clearly enjoying  her back and forth with Stevie Nicks, but the song is not up to their talents. 

When Dolly takes centre stage she really rules. "Purple Rain" is a gorgeous gospelly take on Prince's classic. Only someone like Mavis Staples could have enriched the vocal but Dolly's voice stands alone and I only wish the guitar solo had been a bit more commanding to build the power. 

"Wrecking Ball" alongside Miley Cyrus is OMFG and Dolly goes there, quoting "I Will Only Love You" for the first time on the album. Will the video recreate the original? We can only wait. 

"Satisfaction" done as a trio with Pink and Brandi Carlile is a proper stomper and quite fun. 

When Lizzo and her flute turn up for "Stairway to Heaven" we know we have truly reached peak 2023 weirdness but it works a treat. 

I love the trio of Emmylou Harris, Dolly and Sheryl Crow on "You're No Good", offering a tip of the hat to Linda Ronstadt, who also straddled country and rock back in the day. 

Simon Le Bon, Steve Perry, Rob Halford and John Fogerty offer very little on their tracks but thanks for coming. 

The truly bonkers  finale features Dolly soloing on "Free Bird" and then basically restarting the song and duetting with the corpse of Ronnie Van Zant, courtesy of his widow allowing her the use of his original vocals. 10:45 is the duration of this album closer. It's exhausting and exhilarating. 

Plus, there are B-sides and extended versions I have not heard. The mind boggles. Truly, Dolly, you are too generous. 

Honestly, this is the most fun I have had listening to an album in ages. 

BFI London Film Festival highlights

 I say highlights, but they are simply a sampling of what I saw. Not much, but how wonderful to be able to go out to the cinema again! I am cautious--I mask and distance as much as I can, and hardly anyone else does, which is disconcerting. But I was thrilled to be able to sit in a cinema seat and watch a screen. 

Actually, Curzon Soho's cinema 2 worked out well for me, because I was in the back row and on the end, in what felt like was the usher's seat. Ample legroom and nobody near me. Hurrah!

The films. Well, I only saw two features, both by celebrated auteurs but with very different outcomes. I am embarrassed to say I had never seen anything by Aki Kaurismäki before, though I know him by reputation. His latest, Fallen Leaves, is a curiously slight piece of work, at heart a two hander of lonely man and woman pursuing each other. There are other minor characters and also a dog, but really it's just those two being awkward and laconic and not much happens. The Ukraine war is on the radio as a backdrop, but I am not sure of the significance. The humour is dry and the performances were good but I was left unmoved by the thing. 

Todd Haynes' May December is a different beast, an unsettling expose of human denial, betrayal and deceit. I was a bit shaken by it. Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman are excellent as subject and actress playing subject. Their dance of power is played out as a slow burn over the film's length, with excellent support from Charles Melton as Moore's husband. I will say no more. 

As usual for the last few years, I also watched the shorts available online and found a few of note. Khabur (dir Nafis Fathollahzadeh) explores the ethnographic studies Germans made of their excavations of a site in Syria in the early 20th century. The director repurposes these to expose the assumptions of superiority and exploitation behind the works. She then gives voice to one statue as it sits in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. I found the sound mix a bit iffy, but the film is strong. 

Essex Girls  (dir Yero Timi-Biu) is a contemporary story of a girl navigating different social groups and trying to find her place in among them. Well acted and features Corinna Brown (Tara in Heartstopper!) in a supporting role. 

The other one I really liked was an animation, Boat People (dir Thao Lam and Kjell Boersma), which is the director's remembrances of leaving Vietnam with her family as a very young child. What she knew then and understands now are of course quite different. 

I hoped to get to some of the art exhibits but did not. It was good to be back. 

Fringe! Queer Arts and Film Festival

 The festival finished last week but I have taken some time to finish watching films and gather my thoughts. 

Naturally, I spent a bit of time pondering my own film, Lactasia, which made its belated UK debut. The screening was socially distanced and relaxed and was somewhat masked. It certainly was a new experience for me to see people lying on bean bags at a festival screening. We were even offered gay masks! Well, rainbow ones. I have kept one as a souvenir. 

Here is a pic of the installation I put up at Rich Mix for my screening. 

But the other films I saw ranged from the high camp of Captain Faggotron to a whole programme of witchy experimental shorts. Captain Faggotron was great fun and a distant cousin to Lactasia in its B-movie values and humour. And it was set in Berlin, which is always a delight to see on film. 

I also saw a newly digitised version of Lesbian Avengers Eat Fire Too, which is an old favourite of mine. It looked great and it's always great to spend time with these amazing activists, now seen at a distance of 30 years. I think a lot of the youngers viewers were really impressed by what they saw and some women told me they wished they had been there. I had, of course, and was wearing my Lesbian Avengers T-shirt to prove it!

I viewed several shorts programmes, including the romance-themed Queer Summer Lovin'. The standout in this programme was definitely Youssou & Malek, which was very clever and beautifully shot. The two leads had great chemistry as a young couple faces being split up by life choices. 

The end of my attendance at the festival in a live capacity was the shorts programme Enchanted Visions, which featured an array of truly baffling and bewitching films, some more abstruse than others. I am not sure I truly understood any of them, in fact, but that may have been because I was utterly exhausted by that point. 

Suffice to say it was an exciting week for me, my first live festival in three years and a chance for people to see what I have been working on for eight years, too. 

Made in East London

Tomorrow my film Lactasia gets its UK premiere at Fringe! Queer Film and Arts Festival in London. It's been a long process to get to this point, with many bumps in the road, not least Covid which delayed our post-production process by two years. 

still from Lactasia

Nonetheless, it's gratifying to finally get the chance to see the film on a proper cinema screen with an audience. And the film is very much steeped in East London, from its references, to its rehearsals, to its locations. Here I shall run through a bit of what that looks like. 

Rich Mix, the venue where the film is showing tomorrow, was the site of our rehearsals for our zombies, who stalk the film with their quest to find The Others. Two of the three zombies showed up for this meeting in September 2017, as we worked through what zombie drag queens sound like and how they move. It was great fun working through this. 

still from Lactasia

The montage sequences sprinkled throughout the film were largely shot in Shoreditch and Bethnal Green as I wandered up and down shooting interesting backdrops with a particular interest in street art such as murals and graffiti. Many of these, of course, no longer exist, as street art is usually ephemeral, unless it's Banksy's! But I felt that capturing a snap shot of how those streets looked at that moment gave the film a particular feeling of NOW. 

still from Lactasia

The climactic scenes at a goth club were shot in Bow, and I confess I have not been back since we shot there in 2019 but I assume the railway bridge is still there, quite eerie at night. 

Since our production and post process was so long, entire locations have disappeared. Some scenes were shot with the actors walking past such buildings as Mirth and Percy Ingle which have shut down. 

I have an especial fondness for a particular small alleyway in Walthamstow where our scenes of zombies trudging past a busker were soundtracked by the local sparrows in full song. I loved that sound, not quiet as the alleyway has been supplanted by blocks of flats. I hope the birds have found a new and better home. 

Elizabeth Fraser at 60

 Happy Birthday, Ms. Fraser!

Can it be 41 years since Cocteau Twins' first album, Garlands? Here's a live version of "Wax and Wane", my favourite of their early work. 

And now she has a new creative outlet courtesy of Sun's Signature with her partner Damon Reece. 

I had the pleasure of speaking to Liz back in the 1990s when she talked of lacking confidence to venture out on her own. She was working with tape loops and really enjoying herself. It's take far to long to hear her post-Cocteaus work but damn if "Underwater", which was released under her own name years back and has now been reworked for the duo, isn't a gorgeous piece of work. The irony of it having a lyric video, when for years, Liz refused to release her lyrics, is quite amusing. 

Many happy returns, madam.

RIP Sinéad

 This one is hard. Like many I have spent the last 24 hours immersed in the incredible back catalogue of Sinéad O'Connor who passed yesterday at age 56. 

"Be kind to Generation X," someone wrote on Twitter, and that is exactly how I feel. One of our own is gone and it really, really hurts. Here is one of my favourite songs by her, performed live in 1988 at a gig I should have been at!

I never met Ms. O'Connor. I'm sad to say I never interviewed her although there were near misses back in the 1990s. Many have amazing interactions to report, her humour, her sharp observations and pointy opinions to the fore. I was just a fan. 

But I can say that in my very polarized lesbian house in San Francisco, where we spanned a range from teens to 30s and from folkie to Riot Grrrl, we only agreed on one thing: we all loved Sinéad. So much so that we erected a shrine to her on one wall of our common room. I donated the poster, in which she slouched staring directly into the lens of the camera. Someone else draped fairy lights around it and a third added a home-made Irish flag. Anyone passing by the flat when the light was on could see it from across the road. That pleased me. She was our beacon. 

Slán abhaile. 

Women Make Movies Pride Month

 In line with their promotion for Women's History Month in March, Women Make Movies, the New York distributor, has offered free access to an array of its films for Pride month. 

I have so far watched four and and am on my fifth, but will concentrate on what I have finished. 

Among the highlights are Esther Newton Made Me Gay (dir Jean Carlomusto), a reflection on the life of the anthropologist who made drag queens her focus in the 1960s. Newton tells her story with a great deal of humour, though serious subjects such as lesbophobia and health issues nibble at the edges. I would have liked to see a bit more of her partner, the performance artist Holly Hughes, but the doc is quite rich with archive footage and interviews with exes, friends and a bit of academic pondering, which is the weakest aspect. 

Another writer, the poet Kitty Tsui, tells her story in Nice Chinese Girls Don't (dir Jennifer Abod), which is very much a piece to camera with a bit of archive footage. Her poems are a highlight of this short piece. 

In Love, Barbara (dir Brydie O’Connor), it falls to Hammer's widow Florrie Burke to tell the story of their relationship and the burden of curating her partner's work. She mentions "turning over the archive" but does not say to where or whom. 

It could end up at the Lesbian Herstory Archives, which gets its due in The Archivettes (dir Megan Rossman), with a range of interviewees reflecting on their time there and its evolution from Joan Nestle's apartment to its dedicated space in Brooklyn. I would have liked a bit more on what is in the archives but the film covers its changing face well. 

Tina and Ronnie

Still digesting the news of Tina Turner's passing and I can't help but think about the parallels with the life of another iconic singer, Ronnie Spector, who passed in 2022: both in the 1960s miniskirt era; both playing with family members in their acts; both involved with abusive men who controlled their careers; both escaping and finally re-emerging in the 1980s. 

Turner had a longer career arc and was able to enjoy a retirement in Switzerland with her second husband. But I see the word "survivor" attached to both and they are both worth remembering for their personal qualities as well as their music. 

I was among those teens who bought Private Dancer in the 1980s and marvelled at Turner's incredibly lived in voice, the strut in her walk in her videos. Later I dug deeper into her oeuvre and appreciated her ability to sing and dance at the same time. See "Proud Mary" for evidence. Wow!

I still have a soft spot for her duet with David Bowie on "Tonight", especially the little boogie they do and the way she throws back her head to laugh at something he says. 

Fly high, Tina. 

Dyke March at 30

Happy Birthday, Dyke March! 

I have written before about the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation on 25 April 1993. 

But, of course, the night before that was the first ever Dyke March, a smaller but by no means less thrilling affair. It remains one of the greatest experiences of my life, caught up in a sea of drumming, dancing, singing, chanting lesbian humanity, marching from Dupont Circle to the White House, watching rapt as Lesbian Avengers stood in a line and ate fire. 

This video by Lesbian Avengers captures some of the scene. I can still remember some of these people. They are total (s)heroes.

Poets In Vogue

This was a small exhibit tucked away upstairs at the Southbank, in the National Poetry Library I never knew existed. Always good to make cultural discoveries and the exhibit is well worth seeing for the thoughts it inspires and the conversations it sparks.

On show are textiles relating to a handful of women poets. My first thought on arriving was the prevalence of writers known to have mental illness--Stevie Smith, Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton for starters. The items on display are not necessarily original or even created by the writers, which confused me. Plath's skirt hangs next to a record player. But there is a large recreation of a red dress worn by Sexton. And there is a collection of shirt collars for Smith, but it's not clear if they are hers. Gwendolyn Brooks has a large typewriter with exploding forms. Hmm. 

Also of interest are the records displayed, recordings of Smith, Plath and Dame Edith Sitwell, who is given an enormous dress cum boudoir for her display. I have lived in smaller flats than this dress! Dame Edith's recordings show her to be worthy of such a display as she emotes in her best received pronunciation. One can imagine the gestures accompanying such discourse. 

And then there is Audre Lorde, represented by a vivid caftan hanging opposite Sylvia's skirt. The text reveals it was made to accommodate her asymmetrical form post-mastectomy. I wept. 

One participant easy to overlook because it is by the entrance is the display for Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, the one writer with whom I was not familiar. Only when I looked her up did I realise her fascinating story. I wish I had known about her earlier. 

BFI Flare: Warnings from History

 Willem and Frieda is a gripping watch as Stephen Fry wanders present-day Amsterdam, like an absent-minded professor intoning lessons. The city looks lovely, with its lapping canals and twinkling lights. But the story he tells is of an extraordinary band of rebels who defied the occupying Nazis via forgery and sabotage. 

The titular heroes were two creative types, struggling artist Willem Arondeus and cellist Frieda Belinfante. Both were openly gay and when called, they stepped up and became part of a forgery circle producing legal documents to allow Jews and other hunted citizens to escape. 

The climax is an attack on the Population Registry, to sabotage the Nazis matching up the forgeries with the genuine documents. This would make a brilliant film in its own right. One can only admire the guts and determination to take a stand. The attack was on 27 March 1943, so a recent anniversary. One hopes there is at least a plaque commemorating it. 

The short doc Golden Voice brings us another astonishing story, of a trans man who met his wife  when both were working as forced labour under the Khmer Rouge in 1979. The story-telling is poor, a mix of badly recorded interviews and random shots of people wandering fields, but underneath is a tale of fortitude and self confidence. 

BFI Flare: Sting in the Tail

Next up are two features that are ostensibly comedies but end up being a bit more than expected. Jess Plus None starts with a woman masturbating and ends with her at the side of the road making a decision about her future. In between Jess attends the wedding of her best friend and all hell breaks loose. Most of the action takes place on a campsite, the second film I've seen at the festival (Big Boys) to do so. Although the film is set up to see Jess confronting her ex, Sam, at the wedding, it veers off in an unexpected direction which is refreshing. The titular character does a lot of cringey things, some of them unpleasant, and it's not as funny as one might expect, but I like the way it brings uncertainty and spirituality into the mix.

Egghead and Twinkie

I spent several days watching Egghead and Twinkie, as I found it overly busy and needlessly gimmicky, but that is apparently in tune with its Generation Z aesthetic--lots of flashing animation and bright colours. At its heart it is about a friendship that is tested over a roadtrip spanning several days with the two title characters revealing secrets that test their relationship. The best character is the boba girl they meet in a diner as the film jumps back and forth in time and the duo get in and out of scrapes as they make their trip. It felt a bit glib but I enjoyed the performances and the message. It's a welcome change to see friendship foregrounded over romance and with a bit of comedy thrown in, to boot.

BFI Flare: Drifting

Drifter

The festival finishes today but I may yet review some more films after that. For today I shall cover last night's closing night film, Drifter, from Germany. While the first shot is an explicit one of a hand job, the rest of the film is a bit coy although there is an abundance of sexuality on show. Moritz, newly arrived in Berlin, has no particular plans other than with his boyfriend, who quickly drops him. Thereafter the main character wanders from scene to scene, being picked up and invited in by all and sundry. He is curiously passive, a blank canvas to be painted on over and over, as everyone seems to be attracted by his slim build, smooth skin and bland features. 

I wondered at the message of the film, as he never  seems fully immersed in anything and adopts whatever masks his peers are wearing. There is an extraordinary scene set in the wet room of a club and the performers all throw themselves into the action, but it feels a bit meh by the end. 

Of the many shorts I have watched, I was especially taken by Oisín, an Irish film centring on a single mum and her young son who is autistic. Shot in a style that makes you question reality, it is a very affecting family portrait as well as an unexpected girl meets girl story with a charismatic performance by Sarah Jane Seymour as the next door neighbour full of intentions. 

Also worth a look is I Was Never Really Here, as two young men form an attachment under the shadow of immigration decisions. It's beautifully shot on actual film!

Kitchen Sink Fantasy

Kitchen Sink Fantasy is a quirky sci fi comedy bursting with colour, as a shapeshifter goes on a quest, abetted by a Fairy Godmum. 

Life in Love: Cinthia & Robyn is either a doc or a very realist fiction film featuring a couple celebrating a birthday with the added complication that the birthday girl is an introvert. I enjoyed seeing their interactions with another couple wandering the streets. I did wonder why they broke into a property to smash cutlery but OK. 

BFI Flare: Crowdpleaser

I am still working my way slowly through the online offerings for this year's Flare, but I want to say how amazing it felt to attend in person for the first time since 2019. I had one short screening but to settle into the plush seats and see something on the big screen for the first time since January 2020 was lit. Will review that one later on. 

But Polarized is probably something that would look good on the big screen, with its wide open vistas showing acres of lush Canadian farm country. Shamim Sarif's drama follows her other films in foregrounding forbidden love, in this instance between white farmer Lisa and her employer, Palestinean emigre Dalia, who is engaged to a man. Oh, No!

No spoilers but hmmm. I wonder if they get together? The first 20 minutes are rather painful in cramming in the exposition but once it gets going, the film maintains interest as the two women grapple with their difficult families and try to be true to themselves. Kudos to the two leads Holly Deveaux and Maxine Denis for their chemistry and Deveaux also sings quite well. The ending is a bit rushed and unsatisfying but there is drama aplenty in this small town....

Home

Among the shorts viewed was Home, which I found intriguing but hard to hear in places. I was less enamoured of The Dads, which seemed oddly pleased with itself as the fathers of various LGBT kids gathered for a fishing trip to share their feelings. It seemed perfunctory and superficial to me. Grace and Sophie was amusing in its depiction of the awkward morning after, but the camerawork was all over the place with its oddly shifting focus and it distracted from the story. 

And then there's A Different Place which puts two women in one hotel room for a totally unbelievable chat about honesty before they go back to their respective lives after a night of passion. A whole other kind of crowd pleasing.

BFI Flare: Difficult Age

If the last post looked at films exploring the golden years, this one looks at films covering the teen years, that oh so difficult time of confusion, soaring hormones and parental disapproval. 

Big Boys

The US indie comedy Big Boys takes us on a camping trip with 14-year-old Jamie, his older brother, their older cousin and her hunky boyfriend Dan. Dan will prove pivotal in this, just saying. Jamie is a big lad with a high pitched voice and a very horny older brother who goads him into unfortunate escapades like stealing liquor and chatting up girls he is not really interested in. There is a lot of cringe in this film, as we watch Jamie try to be what everyone else wants him to be while secretly nurturing a crush on Dan. The film takes its time and I found myself losing patience with it several times, but the last 20 minutes are quite good and the film lingers in the mind. 

The South Korean drama XX + XY is a curiosity, a BL-inspired series that has been compressed into a film, with iffy results. The lead character, Jay, is intersex and just starting at a new school, accompanied by best friend Sera. Jay attracts the attentions of Wooram who does not know Jay's gender status and is confused when he finds himself falling for someone he thinks is a boy. In better hands this could be a whimsical comedy or serious drama, but in fact it's a bit of a mess. The lead has no chemistry with any of the possible romantic partners and a sub plot involving blackmail and humiliation is quite creepy. The ending suggests a sequel, which possibly means a season two in Korea. Maybe it works better on the small screen. 

BFI Flare: Grey Power

Jewelle: a Just Vision

The word legacy is thrown around a lot in Jewelle: A Just Vision, which I find interesting, as the writer Jewelle Gomez is still with us at 74, still working and still fighting. I am sure she would like to be appreciated now and not just in future, so it's good that Madeleine Lim made this doc. I well remember Gomez from my time in SF and her book The Gilda Stories remains a touchstone for black lesbian literature. 

Watching the doc, I found out a lot about her early life in Boston, her family origins and her interactions with a whole bunch of circles in NYC, SF and beyond. I hope a new generation discovers her now when they can still see her in action. 

The short G Flat, starring Richard Wilson, showcases a rather sadder older life, as a man struggles to adapt to his reduced circumstances and finds brief comfort in the shape of a sex worker. 

Another short, Where Do All the Old Gays Go?, looks at a range of older LGBT folk in Ireland although I was surprised to find no bisexuals among them. The lesbian couple were total couple's goals, however. 

Afterparty is a bit of a puzzle, as a man played by David Hoyle gets into a bath and is joined by party people one assumes are from his past. 

BFI Flare: 5 Films for Freedom 2023

 Hurrah! Flare is back. In fact, I should have been attending the immersive experience today but transport strikes put paid to that. I hope to get back to the festival but for now will be reviewing online material. 

So, this year's edition of 5 Films for Freedom includes dramas from Guyana, Nigeria, Cyprus and Northern Ireland, plus a comedy from South Korea. Here are my picks. 

Butch Up! ( dir Yu-Jin Lee) features a lovelorn singer who splits from her band and winds up in a new one. I found the end song quite catchy and the lyrics are filthy! Good fun. 

Buffer Zone (dir Savvas Stavrou) starts off quite solemnly, bursts into high camp with a duet across a border zone, and ends solemnly again. It's a great premise for a musical, as two soldiers gaze at each other and express repressed desires through song. 

All I Know (dir Obinna Robert Onyeri) is the best of the bunch, an intense drama in which revealing what you know about your missing friend could put him in worse danger. It feels like a proof of concept for a longer film but the ending lets it down. 

The Thing

So, by now we have all had a week to digest the furore surrounding Ariana De Bose's performance at last week's BAFTAs. Interestingly, I have not been able to find a clip of her full number, but the rap that spawned a thousand memes is easy enough to locate. 

Tasked with celebrating women, DeBose inserted a rap in her musical homage of "Sisters Are Doing it for Themselves" namechecking the female nominees in the room, including Cate Blanchett, Michelle Yeoh and Angela Bassett. Some of the rhymes seemed rather random, if harmless. 

    Blanchett Cate/You're a genius

    And Jamie Lee/You're all of us

Not so the social media reaction to the line "Angela Bassett did the thing", which led Oscar winner DeBose to deactivate Twitter. This clips sums it up well. 

But if she re-emerges, DeBose will find support from many quarters including Wanda Sykes, Adele, Lizzo and Ms. Bassett herself. Indeed, she really did The Thing. Lighten up, peeps. 

Soheila Sokhanvari: Rebel Rebel

I finally got out to see an exhibit! Since I have been lying low during the pandemic, I have rarely ventured into a gallery. But since I was meeting my old chum B., we decided to take in an exhibition. 

Rebel Rebel was a good choice. The Curve at the Barbican is a unique space which begs the visitor to take a journey. Sokhanvari has installed her paintings of a range of iconic Iranian women along its length, the small egg tempera pieces placed on a backdrop of geometric patterns recalling traditional Islamic art work. 

It's a sumptuous mix of pop art, portraiture and Iranian cultural history, as the artist places her subjects, among them directors, singers and actors, against vivid backdrops of rugs, curtains and walls all brilliantly coloured and patterned. The names were all new to me but well known in their times: Delkash was the first woman to cross dress on screen. Kobra Saeedi was an actor and writer who decried sexism and now lives in obscurity. Ramesh was a pop singer who fused genres. And many more besides.

At the end of the space is a giant mirrored screen showing some of the films of the subjects. When one reads the biographies of these amazing women it is sobering to hear how often their voices were silenced by the 1979 revolution. Some emigrated, some were imprisoned and others disappeared from view. Many died young. The triumph of the exhibit is to see them rendered as bursting with life and in full voice. 

Rebel Rebel continues until 26 February 2023 at the Barbican Centre in London.