Goldie's Fab Four #8

The Father, Obey Robots, March In March, Nocebo

The Father

Dementia was among the cocktail of ailments that killed my Dad few years ago, so I wasn’t ready for this movie when it was released in 2020. I finally got around to watching it this week and…well, what a film.

Anthony Hopkins Oscar-winning turn as ‘Anthony’ must rank as the finest performance of a stellar career, and the writing in the clip shown here (“I Am Losing All My Leaves”) has a poetic, Shakespearian quality.

So far, so heartbreaking; but this isn’t simply the story of an old man whose mind has become unmoored from reality. Director Florian Zeller fashions this dismal experience into a dark psychological thriller in which Anthony’s confusion about his surroundings is mirrored by our own uncertainty about what is really going on.

Does he really have dementia? Or is he being gaslit by manipulative members of his family?

Ironically, given the subject matter, this is a truly memorable film.

March In March

My football club WBA is in a mess, with an absentee owner who ‘borrows’ money that never seems to return. What can you do about it? There’s no evidence of anything illegal having happened, but we suspect that without a change at the top, some kind of financial crisis is inevitable.

Many supporters simply shrug their shoulders, and try to focus on the the football, dreaming of a return to the Premier League which would, in theory, make our financial woes disappear.

Personally, I think it would simply postpone a day of reckoning, and this weekend around 4,000 of us joined in the “March In March” to show our opposition to the Baggies Board before the match against Huddersfield.

I’ll be honest, the idea of thousands of footy fans marching together has overtones that I don’t feel entirely comfortable with, but this was an even tempered gathering that politely - but firmly - made its point. Kudos to Ali Jones and Action for Albion for their excellent organisation.

Will controlling shareholder Guochuan Lai give a damn, thousands of miles away in China? Who knows, but I’ve always argued that this is as much about us as it is him - a collective declaration that as football supporters (as Albion supporters) we don’t accept being messed with.

Obey Robots

This is a great story. Apart from the occasional gig or short tour with his old band Neds Atomic Dustin, guitarist ‘Rat’ has spent the last 20 years happily working in IT ‘somewhere in the Midlands’, with music as very much a side hustle.

He’s chatting to his mate Miles Hunt after some old Neds tracks were remixed, and happens to mention that he’s written a few songs that would be ideally suited to a female collaborator - somebody like Laura Kidd aka Penfriend, who he’s seen on Youtube.

‘Oh I know her’ says Miles and puts the pair in touch. But it’s lockdown, the couple ca’t easily meet up so - in the modern fashion - they end up swapping files instead. They talk about releasing an album, too - which, handily enough, Kidd can release through her own label which, legend has it, she runs from her bedroom in Bristol.

Before you know it, their debut release has crashed into the Top 5 in the ‘proper’ charts - a of talent over hype, of ‘indie’ over mainstream. And the best of it is, it sounds great too.

You can hear my Brum Radio special with Rat here

Nocebo

This thriller about a clothes designer experiencing a psychological meltdown has only received average reviews, but I found it properly unsettling.

Eva Green puts in a strong performance in the lead role, alongside Mark Strong and Chai Fonacier, as the horrors of fast fashion are slowly brought home to roost.

Great use of sound, too, to amplify the chilling mood.