2nd Week of February

A lazy title. Let’s face it, we’re all feeling fairly lazy. It’s the start of the end; the grey light lasts longer, the orange Dimplex thermostat now winks instead of staring and you spend less time considering the double up option at the sock drawer. Although there’s talk of a barbeque in ‘the spring’, it’s often muted by the warm duvet of procrastination. There’s still time before the thaw and until then it’s tempting to lay down and snooze.

Nevertheless, one must keep oneself busy. I saw three films: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button whose mawkish lesson moved me unexpectedly and had me for the first time nodding at the nominations, Slumdog Millionaire whose cloying disguise failed to masquerade a pedestrian rom-com and had me back to the usual harrumphing, and finally Ché Part 1 whose delicious photography and temporal elasticity wore me out to the point of lethargy. It’s funny, I barely managed Ché, though I’d heard great reports, I winced through Slumdog, though I knew little bar the nominations and swallowed Benjamin Button like yoghurt, though I thought it was an animation about a 3D mouse. It begs the question; can’t I enjoy a film I want to see? Am I so easily duped? I project my expectation so brightly that sometimes I can barely see the film. It’s the cynic’s M.O. So what is a cynic without projection? If you’re one, never watch a film you’ve heard nothing about. It makes a mug of you.