Went to see Flow this afternoon at a rural multiplex (in England) and could not believe the crowds of kids and parents queuing at the ticket desk, absolutely heaving and yeah they sure weren’t seeing Flow.

In all the debate about reviving film stars we don’t seem to talk about the need for them to feel beautiful and exciting to watch within the films themselves - for bringing bankable stars back they need directors that buff them up, not just pr and marketing campaigns.

The Prestige was a fantastic movie star movie but Nolan mostly makes films that show off Nolan (complimentary) rather than his actors.

Often these people know what they want and set out with singleminded ruthlessness to achieve it, and they’re stinking rich which means they hold a lot of cards. Usually they win, and standing back and assuming they’ll pull it all down themselves will never pay off.

It comes from a longstanding passivity where we don’t want to have to think of them as strong adversaries with interests counter to ours who we have to beat. It’s also a result of us buying decades of technocratic rule where “effectiveness” is the only barometer of value.

Life of Chuck also sounds quite bad which makes me resent the situation even more.

Apart from the fact even very sad people should be entitled to a platform to talk about it (obviously?!) what is with this British tendency of wanting to ban something as soon as there's a hint of moral ambiguity around it.

I enjoyed your column as always but of some fantasy films off the top of my head, I feel like at least one of: The Wizard of Oz, The Red Shoes, A Matter of Life and Death or Petite Maman might be on your wavelength?

Try not to belittle or undercut every sexy or romantic moment with a joke or by saying something vulgar - push through that feeling of exposure of vulnerability!

Also the job interview where she’s told it’ll be six weeks before the first payment

My point is, I suppose, that yes we should think about what forces are pushing men towards the far right that are within our control, but also it's always going to be mostly men in that arena because they do genuinely stand to materially benefit from the victory of the far right.

I think this is what bugs me most about the idea that men are being chased into the arms of the far right because of cancel culture when they're largely immature teenagers being lured in by the promise of running everything and never having to think about anyone but themselves.