Frankie S

First visit to Kelty, and what a miserable experience that was. A cold, wet day and the football on offer was dismal to say the least. We actually started ok, pressing quite well and generally having the edge in the first 45 minutes, albeit with only one meaningful chance to show for our efforts: the Kelty keeper making a decent save from Kabia after a good cross from Lewis Gibson. Apart from that, we created very little, with almost no discernible quality or creativity in evidence in the final third. 19QOS19’s pre match assessment of Murray as a ghost seemed generous though, as it’s unlikely that Jacob Marley would have been quite so ineffective in the first half. Possession was invariably surrendered when Murray received the ball. I was amazed to see Murray stay on during the first raft of substitutions, although with a few (arguable) exceptions it was hard to make much of a case for many of the starting XI remaining on the field as the match progressed. I thought Todd and Cochrane did ok, but that was about the extent of the positives. Brydon started quite well, looking strong and combative in the first period, but had a poor second half. I think there’s a player in there though. The new keeper is certainly vocal enough and has a presence about him, but hard to judge him on this match, as he didn’t have a lot to do other than pick the ball out of the net 3 times. The second half was one of the most dismal performances I’ve seen from a Queens team…..well, since the opening match debacle against Clyde. Despite few, if any, of the starting eleven excelling, the substitutions actually managed to weaken the team, attesting to the utter paucity of talent available in our large but incredibly shallow squad. I wish Bartley well, but he really has a job on his hands. I’ve seen many poor Queens teams over the years, but even the worst of them tended to have one or two redeeming qualities and one or two stand out individuals. I can’t think of a single player in the current squad that I regard as being anything more than a bog standard journeyman, at best. I know there are those that sing Paton’s praises, but he couldn’t lace the boots of our best strikers over the years. Lewis Gibson has potential, and may well achieve something in the game, even if he didn’t have his best game today, but there are few others that you can imagine ever cutting it at a higher level. It really is an absolute disgrace that a full time team are sitting (deservedly) fourth bottom (just above third bottom on goal difference) of the first division more than two thirds of the way through the season. We need a massive clear out of the dross in the summer, as this squad has more dead wood than a petrified forest.

#14 To Leslie (Michael Morris, 2022) Amazon Prime 9 This downbeat low budget film, follows single mother, and resident of a small town in West Taxas, Leslie Rowland, in the years after she won the local lottery (then squandering the proceeds during her descent into alcoholism) is in every respects a highly promising debut film from filmmaker Michael Morris. It’s an unsentimental tale told well, with excellent performances from the entire cast, including the always reliable duo Marc Maron and Alison Janney. However, the most notable aspect isn’t that it’s a solid work from a first-time director: the film is elevated enormously by the astonishing performance by Andrea Riseborough in the lead role. Riseborough starred in two of my favourite horror films of recent years, ‘Mandy’ and ‘Possessor’, and while she’s superb in both, nothing quite prepares you for the brilliance of her performance here, which quite righty has resulted in an Academy Award nomination in the Best Actress category, irrespective of the controversy which has surrounded her nomination after numerous Hollywood stars lobbied the Academy for her inclusion. Her work speaks for itself. It’s a gritty unglamorous role that requires extraordinary commitment, and she is utterly convincing throughout. This film confirms beyond any doubt that Riseborough is one of the most prodigious acting talents working in the film industry today. I’m looking forward to seeing her in ‘Lee’, the forthcoming biopic of Lee Miller’s extraordinary life, though I wish Riseborough rather than Kate Winslet was playing the title role. #15 The Daytrippers (Greg Mottola, 1996) Criterion Channel 8 Greg Mattola’s feature debut is a gentle, bittersweet comedy with a witty, finely-honed script. The film is perfectly cast, and Hope Davis, Parker Posey, Pat McNamara, Anne Meara and Stanley Tucci are all great, but Liev Schreiber steals the show as a pompous aspiring author with more than a hint of Frasier Crane about him. Set over the course of 24 hours in New York City, this is like ‘After Hours’-lite, and if it never comes close to emulating the dark comedic brilliance of Martin Scorsese’s film, this highly enjoyable movie is engagingly quirky, and has an unexpected twist in its tail. #16 The Dark Corner (Henry Hathaway, 1946) Criterion Channel 6.5 This is an efficient, if relatively undistinguished, film noir from Henry Hathaway, who was better known for his Westerns, though he did direct a few notable noirs, including the excellent ‘Kiss of Death’ and the very good ‘Call Northside 777’, both of which I saw last year. ‘The Dark Corner’ isn’t as good as either of those, and it lacks the star power of ‘Kiss of Death’’s Richard Widmark, Colleen Gray and Victor Mature, or ‘Northside’s James Stewart and Richard Conte, though Lucille Ball is quite good as a loyal secretary who helps her private investigator boss (played by Mark Stevens) out of a fix, and film noir regular William Bendix provides solid support. #17 Man Hunt (Fritz Lang, 1941) Criterion Channel 7 This Fritz Lang propaganda film from 1941 is an interesting companion piece to the superior ‘Ministry of Fear’, which he directed a few years later, in 1944. It’s an enjoyable thriller in which British big game hunter Captain Alan Thorndike (Walter Pidgeon) stalks Adolf Hitler just before the war starts, and then goes on the run after his apparent assassination plot is foiled. Returning to London, he gets involved with young woman called Jerry (played by Lang regular Joan Bennett) as he attempts to evade the ubiquitous German spies masquerading as Londoners, who inexplicably seem to outnumber the local populace. The only Brits we encounter are a few members of the aristocracy, and a group of Pearly Kings and Queens, which gives you a fair idea of the film’s lack of engagement with anything resembling reality. Nonetheless, it’s a highly enjoyable adventure story, and Lang and cinematographer Alan C. Miller bring some lovely expressionist touches to the project, lending the film the atmosphere of a superior film noir, even if the story is pure hokum.

#9 The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) Disney+ 9 I loved Martin McDonagh’s debut feature ‘In Bruges’, but was relatively cool on his next two films (‘Seven Psychopaths’ and ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’), but I’m delighted to say that ‘The Banshees of Inisherin’ is a real return to form. Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, who made such a great double act in ‘In Bruges’ are reunited here, and their rapport is better than ever. It’s an improbable tale of a petty feud between two lifelong friends who live on a remote island set off the west coast of Ireland, but McDonagh’s script is superb, the cinematography is gorgeous and the entire cast is first class. The film starts off as a gentle comedy, but things get progressively darker as the feud escalates. Quite simply, this is a delight from start to finish. #10 Barbarian (Zach Cregger, 2022) Disney+ 6 ‘Barbarian’, the debut film from American comedian and actor Zach Creggar, has been greeted with glowing reviews, so I was looking forward to it. It starts off promisingly, with the protagonist Tess (played by Georgina Campbell) checking into an Air BnB only to discover that it’s already occupied by (an apparently nice) young man named Keith (Bill Skarsgård). It’s very watchable and indisputably well-made nonsense, but like a lot of recent horror films, it’s simply trying to be too clever for its own good. #11 Resurrection (Andrew Semans, 2022) 8 This is a very strange film. It’s a psychological horror film with a premise so bizarre that it reminded me of Andrzej Żuławski’s 1981 film ‘Possession’, another film that makes no sense by any conventional standards, but is nonetheless so unremittingly creepy and unsettling that it scares the hell out of you anyway. ‘Resurrection’ succeeds by taking its absurd premise seriously, suffusing the film within such tension and existential dread, that it practically compels you to buy into the implausible central conceit (which for most of the film’s duration is wisely shrouded in ambiguity). It doesn’t hurt that the excellent Rebecca Hall, who is carving out a niche for herself in superior horror films (see also ‘The Night House’) is superb here, and Tim Roth also does great work as her creepy ex-boyfriend, though Hall’s stellar performance as a successful career woman disintegrating into obsession and madness overshadows everything else. It’s a solid 9/10 effort all the way through, until the final stretch, where much of the film’s mystery dissolves, as it embraces rather more conventional horror tropes. I wish it had ended on a more ambiguous note, as the tantalising, ominous build up and the committed performances of the leads certainly earned it. #12 Tár (Todd Field, 2022) Vue cinema 9 This very long but engrossing film takes an elliptical approach towards dealing with some fairly weighty topics (cancel culture, abuse of power within cultural institutions, #MeToo, inter-generational conflicts), and has been unfairly criticised in some quarters (IMO) for presenting a complex, layered portrait of an essentially unsympathetic protagonist - the conductor Lydia Tár. The film leaves little doubt that Tár is a monstrously manipulative character, even as it showcases her tenacity and brilliance, so I think the suggestion that Field should have nailed his colours rather more firmly to the mast, to signal which side of the culture wars he’s really on, are misguided. One thing about the film that’s beyond contention is that Cate Blanchett is sensational in the lead role. The film starts sedately, but slowly transforms into a beguilingly surreal work. Bizarrely, it plays like a (highbrow) super-villain origin story. I look forward to the next chapter in the Tár Cinematic Universe. #13 Spiral (Darren Lynn Bouseman, 2022) Netflix 4 Unlucky number 13. This spinoff of the ‘Saw’ franchise is as bad as you might expect. I’m not sure why I watched it. I suspect my never-ending frustration with the depressingly shallow selection of films available on Netflix boiled over momentarily, and rather than do something better instead, I pressed ‘play’ impulsively on my remote. In mitigation, it was almost certainly a Pavlovian response to seeing the names Chris Rock and Samuel L. Jackson (both of whom I usually like) on the cast list. Rock is quite good here, but he’s got very thin material to work with. It’s a police procedural horror film, though it’s not remotely in the same class as the best examples of the genre, such as ‘Cure’ or ‘The Wailing’, or David Fincher’s ‘Se7en’ and ‘Zodiac’. Overall though, it’s a by-the-numbers cash grab masquerading as a movie.

Hard lines on the application. I didn’t apply for the job, they approached me, presumably after a recommendation. I know a couple of people who’ve written for the show for a while. I was hesitant to accept at first as I’m generally quite busy with other commitments, but as work was much quieter than usual during lockdown, it seemed like too good an opportunity to miss. I don’t write general knowledge questions, only specialist stuff within my fields of interest (mainly the arts, film etc.), if that’s not giving the game away.

#5 Beast (Michael Pearce, 2017) Amazon Prime 9 Superb psychological thriller set on Jersey, where a troubled girl Moll (brilliantly played by Jessie Buckley) gets involved with charismatic outsider Pascal (Johnny Flynn) as a series of unsolved murders take place on the island. Both leads are excellent, and first time director Pearce skilfully ratchets up the tension as the film twists and turns its way towards its powerful conclusion. #6 Enys Men (Mark Jenkin, 2022) + Q&A with director - GFT, Glasgow 8 Jenkin follows his outstanding breakthrough film ‘Bait’ with the folk horror-influenced ‘Enys Men’ set on a remote Cornish island. I really liked this too, with the sound design (skilfully assembled by Jenkin after the shoot) particularly impressive. The immersive sound and minimalist electronic score give the film much of its eerie atmosphere, although like ‘Bait’, the resolutely lo-fi grainy visuals (although in vibrant colour here in contrast to ‘Bait’s austere monochrome) complement the sound perfectly, lending it the feel of a lost TV ghost story from the ‘70s. Jenkin has clearly been influenced by a number of other filmmakers, including Nicolas Roeg, Peter Strickland and David Lynch (whose own brilliant soundscapes must surely have been an inspiration), but he has his own distinctive voice and sensibility. My only (minor) criticism is that ‘Enys Men’ is a much more impressionistic film than ‘Bait’ and lacks its narrative cohesion, but nonetheless it’s still a hugely impressive and compelling work. Jenkin was an entertaining interviewee in the Q&A after the film, providing fascinating insights into his inspirations and the technical aspects of making the film. He has quickly established himself as one of the most singular talents at work in the British film industry today. #7 The Feast (Lee Haven Jones, 2021) Apple TV 6 Interesting if not entirely effective Welsh folk horror film. I was expecting to enjoy this, and the fact that it’s in the Welsh language intrigued me, promising an authenticity that it ultimately failed to deliver. Unlike Mark Jenkin’s films, which are rooted in Cornish traditions and the Cornish landscape, with a keen sense of history, and a lo-fi retro sensibility that lends his projects a feeling of timelessness, The Feast’ aspires to a much slicker aesthetic, fusing its folk horror premise with gory modern slasher film tropes that largely undermine the film’s ostensibly traditionalist roots. #8 Men (Alex Garland, 2022) Amazon Prime 7 I really enjoyed Alex Garland’s debut film ‘Ex Machina’, but was much less keen on ‘Annihilation’, so my expectations were modest for this one. The film starts strongly, with a traumatic event serving as the prologue, reminiscent of the openings to ‘Don’t Look Now’ and ‘Antichrist’, and like the former, ‘Men’ is a psychological horror film suffused in grief and guilt. Garland builds and sustains an intensely uneasy atmosphere, and in the early stages I was completely on board, but while Rory Kinnear is a fine actor, I wasn’t sold on the gimmick of him playing all the men who reside in the creepy countryside village that Harper Marlowe (the reliably excellent Jessie Buckley) retreats to for a period of recuperation following a harrowing, life-changing experience. At times, this plays like an elongated episode of ‘Inside Number 9’, with Kinnear exuding the same sort of arch thespian schtick as Shearsmith and Pemberton, and it’s obvious from the outset that all his characters are ‘wrong ‘uns’’. The avowedly feminist message of the film is laudable, but the conflation of all the male characters, rendered as interchangeable caricature villains, does it a disservice. The ending, like the prologue, is quite effective and unexpectedly chilling, but en route to its conclusion the film takes detours into comedy, folk horror and body horror, with consequently jarring tonal shifts. Ultimately, ‘Men’ is a messy collision of ideas, tones and styles. I suspect there’s a much better film lurking somewhere within the wreckage of this one, but despite my reservations, it makes for creepy and rather uncomfortable viewing, and it lingers unsettlingly afterwards.

Thanks for thinking of me. Never say never, but during lockdown, while my regular job was put on ice, I picked up a part-time job writing questions for a fairly well-known TV quiz show, and I’ve kept it on as a sideline after resuming my regular job, so my free time is quite limited these days. Much of the free time I do have, I spend watching movies (another lockdown habit that I find hard to break). Keep on meaning to drop in to have a go at some of the questions though, to see if they’ve improved any!

Too Old to Die Young is, along with Twin Peaks: The Return, one of my favourite ever TV shows. Almost no-one has seen it (it’s buried deep on Amazon Prime, and the streaming service did nothing to promote it) and some of those who started it, gave up early (it’s one of the most extreme examples of ‘slow TV’ ever made). It’s certainly worth sticking with it, as it unfurls at its own pace, leisurely but deadly, like a King cobra. Episode 5 ‘The Fool’ is probably the nastiest, darkest TV episode I’ve ever seen, and the slow motion car chase where the protagonist (played by Miles Teller) chases a pair of depraved pornographers, accompanied by the soundtrack of Barry Manilow’s ‘Mandy’ is a moment of unexpected genius. It’s a needle drop that just shouldn’t work, but it does, beautifully. Cliff Martinez’s pulsing electronic score for TOtDY is as sleek and effective as his scores for ‘Drive’ and ‘Only God Forgives’, and overall it’s an amazingly assured exercise in long-form TV. I’d love to see a second series, but, sadly, it’s never going to happen. Looking forward to immersing myself in Copenhagen Cowboy in due course though.

#1 Cure (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1997) Criterion Collection blu-ray 9 Excellent Japanese psychological horror film from director Kiyoshi Kurosawa. I was intrigued enough to buy the blu-ray after reading an interview with ‘Parasite’ director Bong Joon-ho, in which he described ‘Cure’ as one of the greatest films ever made. While I don’t rate it quite that highly, Kurosawa skilfully suffuses this police procedural with a sustained atmosphere of dread. I suspect this film was an influence on South Korean director Na Hong-Jin’s excellent 2016 film ‘The Wailing’, one of the best horror films I saw last year, and, even at this early stage, I expect ‘Cure’ to be one of my highlights of 2023. #2 Bait (Mark Jenkin, 2019) BFI Player 8 Hugely promising breakthrough film from Mark Jenkin, which explores the culture clash in a Cornish fishing village as the community’s traditional way of life comes under threat from the tourists who descend during the summer months. Jenkin cleverly converts his micro budget into an asset, and the roughness of the 16mm monochrome film stock works exceptionally well, lending the rugged Cornish landscape and the stoic locals a mythic quality. I’m greatly looking forward to Jenkin’s upcoming folk horror film ‘Enys Men’, which is also set in Cornwall. #3 Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund, 2022) Amazon Prime 6 I greatly enjoyed Östlund’s ‘Force Majeure’, but this (Palme d’Or-winning) film isn’t (IMO) in the same class. It‘s one of a number of voguish recent films (see ‘The Menu’) that attack the privileged, but it lacks the potency to land a decisive blow on a soft target. The film is split into three chapters, and the middle segment, set on a luxury yacht, with the ever-reliable Woody Harrelson excelling as the drunken ship’s captain, a socialist who holds his rich passengers in contempt, is by far the best. Overall though, it’s a disappointingly crude and overlong farce, punctuated with occasional amusing moments. #4 The Menu (Mark Mylod, 2022) Vue Cinema, Omni Centre, Edinburgh 5 Heavy-handed satire masquerading as a horror film. Presumably the intention is to satirise the pretensions of the high class restaurant industry and its customers, but whenever a deft incision is required, the director’s instrument of choice tends to be a sledgehammer rather than a scalpel. Mylod honed his directorial skills on one of my favourite TV series (‘Succession’) and one of my least favourite (the irredeemably crass ‘Entourage’), neither of which are renowned for their subtlety, and it’s hard to care very much about the fates of the patrons of celebrity chef Julian Slowick (Ralph Fiennes)’s exclusive restaurant (conveniently situated on a remote island) as they’re such crudely-drawn caricatures (the sycophantic foodie, the ageing film star who is hitting on his young P.A., the parasitic food critic & cynical magazine editor, the nouveau-riche new tech brats etc). Rather like chef Slowick’s amuse-bouche, ‘The Menu’ is an insubstantial confection, offering little in the way of nourishment.

Movie Watch 2022 I only managed to see 115 films in 2022, well down from a total of 149 films in 2021 and 171 films in 2020. Regrettably, at least in part due to work commitments, I only saw 11 films in the cinema in 2022, compared to 14 in 2021, and even more regrettably one of those cinemas (The Filmhouse) has now closed. Support your local cinemas, particularly the independents. There were some great discoveries amongst the films I watched over the last 12 months, but it was by no means a vintage year. I’ll try to do better in 2023 - particularly by going to the cinema more, and I resolve to start making inroads into my large pile of unwatched blu-rays / dvds. Going forward, I plan to jump on the bandwagon and list / review all the films I watch in 2023. In the meantime, these are my favourite 75 films that I saw in 2022 (a slightly arbitrary number - I’d rather have made it 100, but I couldn’t really make a case for having seen 100 good films last year). 1-Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini, 1957) Criterion Collection blu-ray 2-The Virgin Spring (Ingmar Bergman, 1960) Criterion Collection blu-ray 3-Leave Her to Heaven (John M. Stahl, 1945) Criterion Collection blu-ray 4-Pig (Michael Sarnoski, 2021) Amazon Prime 5-The Card Counter (Paul Schrader, 2021) Amazon Prime 6-Rose Plays Julie (Joe Lawlor, Christine Malloy, 2019) Amazon Prime 7-Hard to be a God (Aleksei German, Aleksei German Jr. 2014) Amazon Prime 8-Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021) Edinburgh Filmhouse 9-The Worst Person in the World (Joachim Trier, 2021) Mubi 10-Shadow of a Doubt (Alfred Hitchcock, 1943) Universal 4K disc 11-The Northman (Robert Eggers, 2022) BA in flight entertainment 12-Bad Day at Black Rock (John Sturges, 1955) Criterion Channel 13-Speak No Evil (Christian Tafdrup, 2022) Shudder via Amazon Prime 14-Witness for the Prosecution (Billy Wilder, 1957) BBC2 15-Searching for Sugar Man (Malik Bendjelloul, 2012) Amazon Prime 16-The Endless (Justin Benson, Aaron Murhead, 2017) Arrow Blu-ray 17-Katalin Varga (Peter Strickland, 2009) Mubi 18-Gwen (William McGregor, 2018) Amazon Prime 19-Code Unknown (Michael Haneke, 2000) Criterion Channel 20-Breaking the Waves (Lars von Trier, 1996) Mubi 21-The Invitation (Karyn Kusama, 2015) Amazon Prime 22-The Wailing (Na Hong-jin, 2016) Amazon Prime 23-La Llorona (Jayro Bustamante, 2020) Amazon Prime 24-Beyond the Black Rainbow (Panos Cosmatos, 2010) YouTube 25-The Empty Man (David Prior, 2020) Amazon Prime 26-Everything Everywhere All At Once (Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert, 2022) Amazon Prime 27-November (Rainer Sanet, 2017) Amazon Prime 28-Funny Games (Michael Haneke, 1997) Mubi 29-Mister John (Joe Lawlor, Christine Malloy, 2013) Mubi 30-Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched (Kier-La Janisse) Severin blu-ray 31-The Batman (Matt Reeves, 2022) Everyman Cinema, Edinburgh 32-Cry of the City (Robert Siodmak, 1948) BFI blu-ray 33-Pontypool (Bruce McDonald, 2008) Shudder via Amazon Prime 34-Stray Dog (Akira Kurosawa, 1949) Criterion Channel 35-Dogman (Matteo Garrone, 2018) Mubi 36-Reprise (Joachim Trier, 2006) Mubi 37-The Prowler (Joseph Losey, 1951) YouTube 38-Oslo, August 31st (Joachim Trier, 2011) Mubi 39-Palm Springs (Max Barbakow, 2020) Amazon Prime 40-The Black Godfather (Reginald Hudlin, 2019) Netflix 41-Café Society (Woody Allen, 2016) Amazon Prime 42-Force Majeure (Ruben Östlund, 2014) Amazon Prime 43-Magnificent Obsession (Douglas Sirk, 1954) Criterion Channel 44-I Walk Around Moscow (Georgiy Daneliya, 1963) YouTube 45-All Quiet on the Western Front (Edward Berger, 2022) Netflix 46-Titane (Julia Ducournau, 2020) Mubi 47-The Piano Teacher (Michael Haneke, 2001) Criterion Channel 48-Wattstax (Mel Stuart, 1973) Criterion Channel 49-Blonde (Andrew Dominik, 2022) Netflix 50-Where are you, João Gilberto? (Georges Gachot, 2018) Mubi 51-Call Northside 777 (Henry Hathaway, 1948) Criterion Channel 52-Faya Dayi (Jessica Beshir, 2021) Mubi 53-The Curse of the Cat People (Gunther V. Fritsch, Robert Wise, 1944) BBC2 54-Oxide Ghosts: The Brass Eye Tapes (Michael Cumming, 2017) Cameo Cinema, Edinburgh 55-Elvis (Baz Luhrmann, 2022) Vue Cinema, Ocean Terminal 56-The House of the Devil (Ti West, 2009) Amazon Prime 57-Inmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejo (Brett Harvey, 2020) Sky Documentaries 58-Minions: The Rise of Gru (Kyle Balda, 2022) Century XD, Union Square, San Francisco 59-Lynch / Oz (Alexandre O. Philippe, 2022) BFI Player 60-The Most Dangerous Game (Irving Pichel, Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1932) YouTube 61-Lamb (Valdimar Jóhannsson, 2021) Mubi 62-Prey (Dan Trachtenberg, 2022) Amazon Prime 63-House of Bamboo (Samuel Fuller, 1955) Criterion Channel 64-Mulberry St (Abel Ferrara, 2010) YouTube 65-The Oak Room (Cody Callahan, 2020) Amazon Prime 66-The Night House (David Bruckner, 2021) Disney+ 67-The Last Duel (Ridley Scott, 2022) BA in flight entertainment 68-Ad Astra (James Gray, 2019) Amazon Prime 69-Eyes of Fire (Avery Crounse, 1983) Severin blu-ray 70-The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (Tom Gormican, 2022) American Airlines in flight entertainment 71-Censor (Prano Bailey-Bond, 2021) Mubi 72-Existenz (David Cronenberg, 1999) Amazon Prime 73-The Red House (Delmer Daves, 1947) YouTube 74-Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg, 2022) Amazon Prime 75-Quincy (Alan Hicks, Rachida Jones, 2018) Netflix

My top 10 might be different tomorrow - there are just too many contenders to pick from - so I’ve mentioned some near misses, and I’ve probably forgotten quite a few. 1-Badlands (Terrence Malick) 2-Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola) 3-Last Year at Marienbad (Alain Resnais) 4-L’Eclisse (Michelangelo Antonioni) 5-The Cranes Are Flying (Mikhail Kalatozov) 6-The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo) 7-Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (David Lynch) 8-Sweet Smell of Success (Alexander Mackendrick) 9-Mulholland Dr. (David Lynch) 10-Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock) Honorable mentions: Cleo from 5 to 7 (Agnes Varda), The Fire Within (Louis Malle), I Vitteloni (Federico Fellini), La Strada (Federico Fellini), L’Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni), La Notte (Michelangelo Antonioni), Soy Cuba (Mikhaïl Kalatazov), Come and See (Elem Klimov), The Ascent (Larisa Shepitko), Hard to be a God (Aleksei German), Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky), Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur), In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray), Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (Paul Schrader), Le Samourai (Jean-Pierre Melville), The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton), Nightmare Alley (Edmund Goulding), King of New York (Abel Ferrara), Don’t Look Now (Nicolas Roeg), Eureka (Nicolas Roeg), Los Angeles Plays Itself (Thom Anderson), Rocco and His Brothers (Luchino Visconti), Le Notti Blanche (Luchino Visconti), The American Friend (Wim Wenders), Ripley’s Game (Liliana Cavani), Shadow of a Doubt (Alfred Hitchcock), Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese), Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese), The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola), Blade Runner (Ridley Scott), Elevator to the Gallows (Louis Malle), Carlito’s Way (Brian DePalma), The Seventh Victim (Mark Robson), Le Doulos (Jean-Pierre Melville), Suspiria (Dario Argento), Lost Highway (David Lynch), Blue Velvet (David Lynch), Orpheus (Jean Cocteau), Fitzcarraldo (Werner Herzog), Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Werner Herzog), Nosferatu (F.W. Murnau), High and Low (Akira Kurosawa), The Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa), Pale Flower (Masahiro Shinoda), Monsieur Hire (Patrice Leconte), Panique (Julien Duvivier), Pepe Le Moko (Julien Duvivier), L’Appartement (Gilles Mimouni), Il Sorpasso (Dino Risi), Wild Strawberrries (Ingmar Bergman), Persona (Ingmar Bergman), Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren), Manhattan (Woody Allen), Do The Right Thing (Spike Lee), Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick), Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone), Plein Soleil (René Clément), Blast of Silence (Allen Barron), Touch of Evil (Orson Welles), A History of Violence (David Cronenberg)… and a few recent (mainly horror) films that, while they might not quite make my top 50 (or even top 100) on merit, show such promise that I’m confident their directors will do something remarkable soon - The Witch, The Lighthouse, The Northman (Robert Eggers), Hereditary, Midsommar (Ari Aster), Possessor (Brandon Cronenberg), Saint Maud (Rose Glass), Mandy (Panos Cosmatos).

I said during Covid that I’d be broadly in favour of paying more income tax if it was ring-fenced for the NHS, which Swinney has assured us will be the case (let’s hope so). There’s no doubt though that middle earners are being squeezed hard up here compared to our English counterparts. The higher rate threshold has been frozen for years in Scotland, and it’s not just an additional 1%, taking us up to 42% v 40% in England: Scots taxpayers will pay an effective rate of 54% (42% income tax and 12% NIC) on earnings between £43,663 and £50,271 compared to an effective rate of 32% for our counterparts south of the border (20% income tax and 12% NIC), a 22% difference in that band, which is a huge disparity. 43k might represent a large salary in some areas, but in areas of the Central Belt such as Edinburgh, where property prices have always been sky high, and mortgages correspondingly more burdensome, 43k spreads rather thinner than elsewhere. It’s certainly a bold move, and Scotland’s increasingly ageing population and relatively high level of welfare dependancy clearly requires a higher tax burden, though it certainly won’t make us any more competitive in the jobs marketplace.

Yes, I’d have ‘L’Eclisse’, ‘La Notte’ and ‘Red Desert’ all in my top 100 too alongside ‘L’Avventura’. I love ‘Rocco and His Brothers’, a neorealist classic. Other Viscontis I really enjoyed were ‘Ossessione’ and ‘Le Notte Bianchi’. And classic Fellini films like ‘Nights of Cabiria’ and ‘La Strada’ are conspicuous by their absence, as well as my personal favourite, ‘I Vitteloni’. I haven’t seen ‘Stromboli’ or ‘Rome Open City’ yet - IIRC Scorsese raved about the latter in ‘My Voyage to Italy.’ ‘Aguirre, Wrath of God’, and ‘Fitzcarraldo’ are the Herzogs I’d have in my 100 Best Films list, both absolute classics.

The elevation of Chantal Akerman’s 3 hr 21 min experimental art film ‘23 quai de Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles’ to the top of the list has certainly proved controversial. No-one saw that coming. It’s was 36th in 2012. The pre-poll rumours were all about ‘Vertigo’ being dethroned, with Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ the favourite to top the poll, but hardly anyone was seriously discussing the Akerman film. I’ve not seen it yet, so can’t comment on its merits, but it’s by all accounts a divisive, difficult film, an early example of ‘slow cinema’, which makes little concession towards audience expectations or ‘entertainment’. I’m quite pleased at some of the results, as personal favourites like Agnes Varda’s ‘Cleo from 5 to 7’, Maya Deren’s surrealist short ‘Meshes of the Afternoon’ (which clearly influenced David Lynch), Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘Apocalypse Now’, Lynch’s ‘Mulholland Dr.’ and Spike Lee’s ‘Do The Right Thing’ all placed prominently. There are a few anomalies - ‘The Godfather’ placed at 12, but ‘The Godfather Part II’, which many consider superior, didn’t place in the top 100. There is clearly some recency bias at work too - there seems no good reason for ‘My Neighbour Totoro’ to finish above Japanese classic ‘Ugetsu’ other than familiarity with the former (and presumably unfamiliarity with the latter) among younger critics. Similarly, for all its merits, ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’ is by no conceivable metric the 30th best film of all time. I rather enjoyed Claire Denis’ ‘Beau Travail’, but it’s elevation from 78th in 2012 to 7th in 2022 seems like an inexplicably steep elevation. And, laudable though it is in some respects, ‘Get Out’ is clearly not one of the best 100 films of all time (I like Jordan Peele, but he’s yet to make a great film IMO). FWIW, although I love ‘Mulholland Dr.’, its canonisation (it finished 8th) amongst the critical community does seem a little curious as I don’t think it’s Lynch’s best film (‘Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me’, critically reviled upon its release, takes that mantle IMO). Another example of critical orthodoxy is the continuing delusion that ‘Some Like It Hot’ is Billy Wilder’s best film. There are some glaring omissions - ‘L’Avventura’ is far too low at 72=, and Antonioni generally seems to have gone out of favour (‘L’Eclisse’ and ‘La Notte’ are notably absent). I’m not a Godard fan, but he’s probably under-represented, and it’s astonishing that Alain Resnais’ ‘Last Year at Marienbad’ didn’t even make the top 100. It’s fair to say there has been a backlash against white European directors this time round, perhaps understandably. And ‘Raging Bull’ was for many years regarded as Scorsese’s masterpiece, but has now dropped out of the list entirely. On the upside, it’s great to see the promotion of a whole host of excellent women directors, (I’ve been working my way through Agnes Varda’s filmography recently thanks to the great Criterion box set ‘The Complete Films of Agnes Varda’, and what a pleasure that has been), and while I think, for example, Céline Sciammi has made better films than ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’, it’s great that filmmakers like her, Varda, Maya Deren, Claire Denis, Chantal Akerman et al are finally getting more recognition.

Good performance from Queens today, and Lewis Gibson was a revelation, he has to start from now on. Should have been more convincing than the 3-0 scoreline, which flattered FC Edinburgh, but Murray’s penalty (one of the worst I’ve ever seen) would have been a decent conversion if he’d been playing at Murrayfield - he leaned back and skied it way over the bar. FC Edinburgh never really threatened, apart from a brief period when they upped the tempo in the middle of the second half when they were already 2-0 down. The header that hit the bar was never going in, just skimmed the top of the bar on the way over, other than that it was as comfortable an afternoon as the defence will have this season. Their penalty ‘claim’ was never a pen in a million years. I’m not sure what it says that a side as limited as FC Edinburgh (they have very little about them) are lying second in the table, other than the standard of the First Division is fairly dismal and that we’ve hugely underachieved so far this term. Lewis Gibson was superb, but his goal was clearly an attempted cross which just evaded everyone and went in, though it was a dangerous whipped cross into a good area. In the second half he put in some fantastic balls into the box, including an absolute peach of a in-curling cross to the far post from a deep position, that Paton got on the end of for the second goal. He also set up Connelly with a smart quick pass for the third. Hard to believe he’s only 17, there’s little doubt that he’s a star of the future, perhaps a generational talent for Queens. He’ll obviously have his ups and downs as he’s still very young, but would like to see Willie keep faith in him as he’s a real talent, which is not something that can be said for many of the current squad. Lewis got a well-deserved standing ovation when he was subbed towards the end. I thought the much-maligned Cochrane played well, apart from a silly booking for a tug on an Edinburgh shirt in an area where there was no real threat, and Quitongo was also impressive, using his pace to good effect. Wilson absolutely bossed the middle of the park, and he is quite clearly a hugely important player for us, giving us much needed physicality and presence. Encouraging performance overall, even if Edinburgh are in a false position in the league, but, sorry to say, Reilly looks done and offered very little. Paton always gives maximum effort, but is not a finisher as we know. Glad to see Connelly come on and get a goal. But today was all about Lewis Gibson. Deservedly man of the match. What an exciting talent we have in this boy.

To avoid being someone who just snipes from the sidelines offering nothing constructive, I’ll happily arrange for one of my businesses to sponsor and cover a proportion of the costs of a new recruit to handle social media at the club. DM me if this is of interest.

We made a last minute decision to travel down to Dumfries today, despite the rail strike, as my son was keen to attend the first match of the new league season. Even before today’s trip, I was far from convinced that the squad we’ve assembled has the quality or the depth to contend for the title, but my son was much more optimistic (he’s young enough not to be scarred by the past). However, the collision between unrealistically high expectations and the hard evidence of our collective shortcomings was more traumatic than even I could have imagined. A few impressions: I managed to purchase tickets online en route to the game, and promptly received the QR codes, so no issues there, or at the turnstiles. Seems like a decent ticketing system. That’s the the good news. All of it. 45 minutes before kick-off until half past two, we were checking Queens official twitter updates for the starting lineups, hitting refresh continually until we gave up and downloaded the Sky Sports app, which duly gave us the teams. Lack of volunteers seems to be the problem. Any other business would employ someone to look after social media, but football clubs seem to rely on people donating their services for nothing. If only we had some spare cash in the bank to pay people (at least) minimum wage to do jobs that desperately need done… My son wanted some chips before the game started, so I went to the catering kiosk with my card at the ready, only to be greeted with a ‘cash only’ sign. In the modern post-pandemic world, almost no-one uses cash anymore. Just how hard can it be to get a card machine (and/or functional wi-fi if that’s the problem)? Most businesses are in the process of phasing out cash entirely, so demanding ‘cash only’ seems antediluvian to say the least. The artificial pitch looked as barren and hostile a surface as ever - I can’t imagine Messrs Armstrong and Aldrin were greeted by a much less hospitable surface on their arrival on the Moon. In my attempts to gain some online info about the match, I spotted stadium announcer Alex’s Facebook update that part of the main stand had been closed due to the discovery of a wasps’ nest. Fairly soon, I’m sure we can look forward to the closure of the entire antiquated fire hazard for good. Before the match, a Clyde supporter had asked me where to go to gain admission to the ‘Clyde end’, as if such a thing existed. Fan segregation is clearly optional at Palmerston, with absolutely no attempt at enforcement. We had a group of Clyde fans sitting directly behind us in the middle of the ‘new’ stand, albeit without colours on show, as an increasingly steady flow of their (often well-lubricated and increasingly mouthy) contingent passed back and forward for chips and refreshments all game, in addition to their forcibly-ejected colleague. Wasting an afternoon watching that match was bad enough without having to spend the entire duration in the company of Clyde’s brightest and best. As far as the game goes, Queens were beyond dismal. I can’t think of a single positive thing to say about that performance. In the run up to the new season, as some were waxing lyrical about the quality of our squad and our chances of promotion, I remained unconvinced that retaining a hefty contingent of last season’s failures, supplemented by a few mostly uninspiring signings, was going to be sufficient to place us firmly in the promotion mix, even taking into account the drop in standard, but I could never have imagined we’d be quite this bad. I would hesitate to call this a ‘wake-up call’, as I doubt the majority of these Rip Van Winkles could be woken from their slumbers by a category 5 hurricane - if anything it’s a sharp dose of reality puncturing unrealistic expectations. The defence was atrocious; the midfield anonymous; the diminutive forward line lacked presence, pace and power, and the whole team looked lightweight and lost. Clyde were stronger, sharper, more physical and harder working. I thought at half time that things could only improve in the second half, as the first period was the most abject performance I’ve seen from a Queens team in years, falling below even last season’s dismally low standards, but the second, apart from a brief spell of urgency just after the restart, was almost as bad, compounded by Connelly’s daft sending off. Outmuscled, outfought and outplayed, all afternoon long. Let’s hope Wilson, Reilly and Ruth (and Todd) make a difference when they come back from injury, but as I said a few weeks ago, I suspect we’re at least 2-3 key signings away from having a team and a squad that can compete at the top end of this league. Let’s hope the board are thinking about investing some of that Rangers windfall in the playing pool, otherwise it’s going to be a very long and difficult season. It was a thoroughly deflating experience being at Palmerston today, with the last remnant of pre-match optimism evaporating well before half time. The distinct impression I got today, and that I’ve had for a while, is that Queens are a team and a club in freefall, and sadly I doubt we’ve reached the bottom yet.

Made the trip down from Edinburgh for the start of the new season, more in hope than expectation, as usual. Even with lowish expectations, that was a dreadful first half performance. Clyde have absolutely bossed this game and should be 3 or 4-1 up at the interval. Hard to say anything positive about Queens, from the diminutive attack that we keep pumping speculative long balls up to, the ineffective midfield to the slow and immobile defence that the Clyde attack seem have the beating off every time they come forward. I thought D. McKay and McKenna in particular had very poor halves. I’m working on the assumption that things can’t get much worse in the second half, only because the first half performance set such a low standard that the only way is up. Might be a tad optimistic.

Agree on Evans and Sole. Evans bowls consistently short and just gets smashed all over the park. None of our ‘pace’ bowlers have the pace required to trouble international batsmen. I don’t mind Sharif, but (as with with Sole) too many loose balls got unceremoniously dispatched into Portgower Place yesterday (there were some absolutely colossal sixes from NZ). His body language seemed quite negative, as if he was lacking confidence and going through the motions. I don’t think there’s much self belief in the bowling attack. They don’t expect to take early wickets, rarely bowl anyone out in any form of the game, and have a perennial weakness in wrapping up the tail on the rare occasions when they do make early inroads, usually against weaker opposition. I agree Watt and Greaves are decent economical slows, but we need some wicket-taking threat at the top of an innings. Davey always strikes me as a bit of a trundler, but he’s undeniably effective, and Wheal has rarely set the heather alight for us when he’s been available, but is still a considerable upgrade on most of our quicks, which frankly wouldn’t be difficult. I think the batting unit has potential though. Munsey is as naturally gifted as anyone we’ve had since Ryan Watson, and I like Berrington, MacLeod, Leask, Greaves et al. Even Sharif can bat a bit lower down the order. As you say though, it rarely fires collectively, and we always seem to underachieve on the world stage (getting beaten by Namibia at the T20 World Cup last year, then dispatching them comfortably in the recent CWC Div 2 matches is par for the course for Scotland sadly). We’re a mile behind the Afghans and the Irish (who always rise to the occasion on the big stage, and even when in a transitional phase like now always seem to find a new big performer from somewhere - Tector being the latest). I still think Ireland are fairly rank at T20 though, and that’s one form of the game where we might actually have the edge.

I was at The Grange today. Absolutely outclassed by what looked like a (largely) second string NZ side. As Craigiemack says, our bowling is absolutely hopeless and has been for years. Definitely no sign of improvement in that area. Makes you yearn for the days of Paul Hoffmann and Craig Wright. At least Hoffmann could consistently bowl at the top of off stump and make the batsmen work for their runs. These days our so called ‘pace’ bowlers either bowl far too short or offer up friendly full tosses for the opposing batsmen to skelp over the boundary. Sole was abysmal, going for 72 in 4 overs is criminal. How Berrington thought it was a good idea to entrust him with the final over when he was going for 18 an over off his first 3 was beyond me. Munsey, MacLeod, Greaves and Leask are decent batsmen in this form of the game - they can clear the boundary at least - but we never looked like getting anywhere close to 225 despite a decent start. I’d forgotten how annoying some of the twats that frequent the cricket at The Grange can be. One Hooray Henry English merchant banker type was squealing ‘catch it’ every time a Scottish batsman hit a shot. He got a few disapproving looks when Allen ran in from the boundary to catch Munsey as he was bellowing ‘catch it’ for about the twentieth time, then tried to justify it by saying it was ‘a splendid catch’, despite being an absolute dolly. Just before I left, another posh English bloke who ‘didn’t really follow cricket’ was patronising his Scottish colleague, revealing that he was surprised Scotland had made it to the 18 over mark without being bowled out. Back on Friday and Sunday, hoping for some improvement and closer contests.

Although I can’t stand Rangers, I had a lot of time for Andy Goram. He was a brilliant keeper, a talented cricketer (a sport at which he also represented Scotland), and a real character, and took the ‘there’s only two Andy Gorams’ (and similar) shouts with good humour. I remember when Queens beat Brechin in the final of the Challenge Cup in Oct 2002, I was on my way home from the game, when my mobile rang. I didn’t recognise the number, and when I answered it it was the man himself, clearly in the dressing room or at the back of the team bus with a few cold refreshments at hand, saying ‘…… mate, we’ve won the bloody cup!’ By way of explanation, I was friendly with a member of the Queens’ backroom team at the time, even though I’d never met Goram himself. He seemed genuinely just as delighted as he would doubtless have been whenever he won a trophy with Rangers, which in itself is a testament to the man. R.I.P. Andy Goram.

I’m in agreement with qos_75 (who seems to be from my neck of the woods) - last year’s squad was the worst I’ve seen representing Queens in recent seasons, and given some of the motley collections of journeymen, randoms from English non-league football that blew into Palmerston for a pre-season trial and ended up with a contract, callow youths, has-beens and never-will-bes that were haphazardly thrown together at the last minute for some of our recent campaigns, that’s an astonishing achievement. Having said that, the squad from the Covid-curtailed 2019-20 season was almost as bad. The likes of Dobbie, Brownlie, Holt, Bakhtaoui and McCrorie gives 2019-20 the edge in quality over last season’s team for me. The strikers last term were a particularly dismal collection of imposters, but there were very few goals coming from anywhere in the team, with the midfield seemingly abdicating responsibility for getting on the scoresheet, or indeed for creating anything much at all. The 2020-21 team had much more collective firepower, as 38 goals from 27 games attested (compared to a pathetic 36 from 36 in 2021-22) and with the pace of Isaiah Jones and Dapo Mebude, allied to the respectable goal tallies of Shields and Obileye, we often looked like we’d score a few (the 4-2 win at Arbroath in March 2021 springs to mind - we could have had half a dozen that day, as well as great 3-2 wins at Dundee and Hearts). Even James Maxwell chipped in with a few from left back that season. I’d contend that if Jones hadn’t got injured in that match at Arbroath, we would have been strong candidates for the promotion playoffs. By contrast, I can barely think of a single exciting attacking performance in 2021-22 - we just didn’t have sufficient pace, skill, guile or goals in the team to threaten to blow anyone away. I streamed more or less every game last season, home and away, but towards the end of the season felt like it was a complete waste of time, as we carried absolutely no threat in attacking areas, and the deficiencies of our hapless strikers (Soares-Junior, Roy and Cameron really were useless, they made me pine for the likes of Derek Holmes) were never going to be compensated for by a shot-shy midfield, (with the notable exception of the excellent Lee Connelly). It’s not often that I can barely be bothered to watch Queens, but last season was a real chore at times, so lacking were we in creativity or cutting edge. To be fair, the defence wasn’t quite as catastrophically bad as it has been in the past (and FWIW I quite liked the much-maligned Robert Nditi), but given we couldn’t score in the proverbial bordello, any mistakes at the back were likely to prove costlier than in a team with even a semblance of an attacking threat. There are a few players that we’ve retained that I’m happy about (Connelly, Cochrane, McKay, Todd) but to be honest, I wouldn’t have shed a tear had we jettisoned almost the entire squad at the end of the last campaign. More or less starting again from scratch every season over the last few years has been one of the chief contributing factors to losing our Championship status, but if ever a clear out was deserved, then it was this summer. I also don’t subscribe to the view that we were a team transformed after Gibson took over - there was a brief glimpse of the almost obligatory ‘new manger bounce’, but we then contrived to lose six in a row in March and early April, including meek surrenders to a poor Hamilton team (who had our number all last season) and the gutless 5-1 capitulation at Arbroath, and of course the failure to see off a poor Ayr United team at Palmerston in the penultimate match of the campaign. I genuinely think the first division last season was the poorest standard it’s been in the last decade at least, and Inverness getting blown away by a poor St Johnstone team in the play-offs, and the lofty finishing position of a well-coached but far from stellar Arbroath side, support that, not to mention the utterly shambolic campaigns mounted by Hamilton, Morton, Ayr United and Dunfermline, all of whom finished above us in the table. Gibson’s approach to the transfer market this summer has been refreshing in the sense that he has made a lot of signings early on, so we won’t have to rely on scrambling around the bargain basement and the loan markets for whatever’s left as we struggle to fill the bench in the Premier Cup campaign, as has generally been the case in recent seasons. However, playing Devil’s advocate for a moment, it’s been a fairly conservative approach in that we have re-signed a lot of last season’s flops, and we’ve recruited a bunch of former players (Reilly, Murray, Wilson), which isn’t always a successful strategy. I’m hopeful that some players who looked a little out of their depth in the Championship (e.g. Paton) might prosper in League One, though that’s hope rather than expectation talking. I’m not sure Reilly has done an awful lot in recent seasons, and his scoring record since he left St Mirren in 2018 has hardly been prolific, wherever he’s been. He’s another one where hope trumps expectancy, but surely he’ll grab a few in League One. Murray I didn’t particularly rate last time round, so neither hope nor expectancy comes into play there, but I hope he’s improved since his last spell at the club. Wilson is a decent signing, and there are one or two others that look promising, albeit a couple seem to be downgrades on their direct equivalents from last season, which is concerning. Delighted that Lee Connelly has re-signed. I expect an outstanding season from him, and I think Harry Cochrane has the quality to stand out next term. I hope Michael Ruth proves to be a good acquisition, because I still don’t see an awful lot of goals in that team, though presumably we’ll be more prolific than last season, playing at a level lower. I think it’s reasonable to predict that we’ll have enough to be in contention for the play off positions, and it wouldn’t surprise me if we finished third or fourth, but think we’re 2 or 3 key players away from a title challenge as it stands.

A six figure loss is anything from 100k to 999.99k. Assuming it is a six figure loss as predicted, I would suspect it would be much closer to the former figure than the latter. Given the board’s reputation for relatively prudent financial management (a virtue in most businesses, the flipside is that in football it can be seen as penny-pinching), there’s absolutely no chance we’ve spent the majority of that £1 million by now. If there’s one thing our risk averse board could be expected to do reasonably well, it’s navigate the club steadily and carefully through a crisis, so I presume their stewardship of the club through the Covid crisis was fairly exemplary. Football clubs got bailed out to a degree that other businesses didn’t. The Covid windfalls bestowed upon Championship clubs makes most of us in the business sector green with envy. I wish my four businesses (whose combined turnover comfortably exceeds that of Queen of the South) had received a million quid in Covid grants - lucky if they received a quarter of that, and despite being at the cutting edge of the sectors worst affected by Covid, we’ve largely preserved our pre-Covid cash at bank holdings / current assets position due to a combination of furlough, Covid grants and careful stewardship through challenging times. As a shareholder, I suspect the next set of accounts will make rather less traumatic viewing than many anticipate - much less horrific than the x-rated rubbish we’ve had to endure on the park this season at any rate. Shareholder funds at Queens increased from just over 1.4 million to >2.1 million in the year to end of May 2021, a huge increase that relatively few businesses could conceivably have replicated in the Covid era. The amount owed to creditors was relatively negligible given the strength of the balance sheet / exceedingly healthy current assets position. And I’ve yet to be persuaded that the bunch of losers that masqueraded as a football team in Queen of the South colours this season were anything other than the bargain basement selection of cut price journeyman that they looked. In football you generally get what you pay for.

It’s been clear for a while that Lynch has a new project brewing, and while we may or may not see any evidence of it at Cannes, I’d expect we’ll see something new from him in the not too distant future. I recently rewatched Lynch’s entire filmography (all 10 films in a week), and my ranking is as follows: 1-Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me 10 I loved this when it first came out, despite the backlash from the Twin Peaks devotees who were expecting a continuation of the quirky coffee and cherry pie kitsch-fest that the TV series had become. It’s one of the best horror films of its era, and all the more terrifying for the horrors being rooted in the evil than men do, rather than confined to the supernatural realm. Sheryl Lee is simply magnificent as Laura Palmer, and she should have been nominated for an Oscar. The film crackles with a demonic intensity from start to finish, with Lynch confounding expectations at every turn, from the downbeat and disorienting Deer Meadow opening to the terrifying ending. This film grows in my estimation with each viewing. 2-Mulholland Dr. 10 This is such a rich and mysterious film. It discloses more of itself with each viewing, but never quite reveals all its secrets. Brings to mind Churchill’s famous quote - ‘It’s a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma, but perhaps there is a key…’ 3-Blue Velvet 9 One of the best films of the ‘80s. Dennis Hopper’s Frank Booth is (for my money) one of the most terrifying villains in cinema history, and Dean Stockwell’s suave creep Ben is almost as memorable. Great work also from Isabella Rossellini, Laura Dern and Kyle MacLachlan. At times the saccharine sentimentality that Lynch uses as a counterpoint to the evil that lurks behind Lumberton’s facade can be cloying, but this film is so darkly subversive that it would be shocking even if released today. 4-Eraserhead 9 I saw this back in the late ‘70s at a midnight showing at Calton Studios in Edinburgh, and it was like nothing I’d ever seen before. I knew then that I’d follow Lynch’s subsequent career closely. Nonetheless I didn’t rewatch it for over 40 years. It seemed forbiddingly inaccessible, and despite leaving a lingering impression, I wasn’t sure that I enjoyed it all that much. Having rewatched it twice in the last 12 months, I missed the humour first time round. It’s much funnier than I remember, but no less strange. 5-Lost Highway 8.5 I’ve often thought this dark, terrifying neo-noir was my favourite Lynch film, and Robert Blake’s Mystery Man gives Frank Booth a run for his money as the scariest villain in Lynch’s canon. Blake’s malevolent performance resonates even more resoundingly after the subsequent sordid events that unfolded in his personal life. Watching it again, my main gripe is the ‘off the peg’ rock cred that the film seems to aspire to, with cameos by Marilyn Manson and Henry Rollins, and music by David Bowie, NIN, Rammstein, Lou Reed etc. giving it the flavour a celebrity rock ‘n’ roll Lynch fan convention. The soundtrack selections are often far too ‘on the nose’ (uncharacteristically so for Lynch), but I love ex-Bad Seed Barry’s Adamson’s ‘Something Wicked This Way Comes’, which provides the background music to Fred Madison’s unforgettable initial meeting with The Mystery Man at the Hollywood party. I wish Adamson and Badalamenti had composed the entire soundtrack between them. 6-The Elephant Man 8.5 One of Lynch’s more accessible works, this is a wonderful film (which looks stunning in Studio Canal’s beautiful 4K edition) with an excellent performance by John Hurt in the title role. 7-The Straight Story 8 I didn’t really love this first time round, when I saw it in the cinema at the time of release, but I enjoyed it much more on a second viewing. It has a poignant central performance from Richard Farnsworth, who was dying from terminal cancer when it was filmed, and it’s a gentle, humane story, told with compassion and empathy, not qualities you’d always associate with Lynch (though they’re very much in evidence in The Elephant Man too) 8-Wild at Heart 7 This is a film with great moments, without being a great film. Nicolas Cage is the most Nicolas Cage he’s ever been, and that’s both a good thing and a very bad thing, and Laura Dern hams it up too, with the result that the protagonists (Sailor and Lula) are consistently annoying throughout. Willem Dafoe is superb as the sleazy Bobby Peru; Harry Dean Stanton is (as always) excellent as Johnnie Farragut; and there’s a fantastic supporting cast of memorably sinister minor characters, including W. Morgan Sheppard as Mr Reindeer, J.E. Freeman as Marcellus Santos, and Grace Zabriskie as Juana Durango. This is one of those films in which the cameos are way better than the leads (there are so many minor characters you wish had bigger parts - Crispin Glover’s Cousin Dell for instance). Wild at Heart Is definitely lesser Lynch, but the good bits are very good indeed. 9-Inland Empire 4 The first couple of times I saw this, I thought it was a dense, challenging and captivating work, even though it looked terrible. The lo-res digital video Lynch used to film this makes it looks amateurish, and ugly - hugely disappointing after its captivatingly stylish predecessor Mulholland Dr. Watching IE for a third time recently, I’ve changed my opinion: it’s a complete mess, and not just aesthetically. There are a few good scenes and ideas here and there, and a lot of self-indulgent meandering passages, and it all adds up to a fairly punishing three hours. Grace Zabriskie’s ‘neighbour from Hell’ turn at the beginning is great though. 10-Dune 2 I’ve tried several times, but I just can’t finish this. Lynch’s directorial low point. There are so many questionable artistic choices in this film that a lengthy post mortem is warranted, but the fact that Sting is in it, and isn’t even the worst thing about it, is all you need to know. I’m not a fan of the material by any means, but I much preferred Denis Villeneuve’s version.

Thought we were back in lockdown when I went to my local coffee and sandwich shop in Leith for my lunch today. Greeted by a long queue of socially-distanced customers fully masked up standing outside the shop, waiting their turn until the solitary individual inside bought up half the cake selection. Then one out/one in until (about 20 mins later) I eventually got served. I was the first person to have the temerity to make an incursion into the shop while another customer was inside, and given that even during the height of restrictions they were letting two people inside at a time it didn’t seem like an unreasonable thing to do, despite the disapproving looks of a few in the queue. The spare member of staff standing about with no-one to serve eventually gesticulated through the window to the queue outside that it was actually permissible to cross the threshold while other people were in the premises, to little avail, as fully-masked individuals continued to navigate tentatively around outside the shop, giving folk as much room as oil tankers negotiating a safe turning circle around each-other. I’m sure there will be those who will say that this is just indicative of a more caring and respectful post-pandemic society, but I’d guesstimate this particular business did about 50% of their normal pre-pandemic levels even in this apparently ‘restriction free’ / ‘light touch restrictions’ mode that passes for the new normal in Scotland, with lots of people just taking one look at the queue and going elsewhere. The shop-owner told me they were giving up the lease in the summer, so I guess the new normal is nothing like the old normal (though the perennial tram works in Leith that predated and will certainly outlast the pandemic won’t have helped either). Scot Gov’s relentless ‘safety first’ rhetoric seems to have reduced a substantial proportion of the population to a state of docile servility. Given the relentlessly negative messaging emanating from the government it’s no surprise that consumer confidence is still rock bottom in Scotland. The few folk I know who haven’t had Covid still seem to be living in a state of irrational fear about contracting it. Meanwhile the rest of my friends and colleagues, who mainly have kids of school or college age, and / or work in public service industries, have had it at least once, (or as in my household, twice - my son picked up both Delta and Omicron at school, as did my daughter at Uni) and are just getting back on with things wondering when or indeed if this ‘safety first’ pantomime and the ‘care more’ charade is ever going to stop.

Ditto. Our daughter has moved out to go to Uni, so we have a spare room. My wife, son and I (and our daughter) were in full agreement that we should apply to join the Homes for Ukraine sponsorship scheme. We’re happy to accommodate an adult plus child / children (it’s a decent-sized room). We went for the 6-9 months option initially, but will almost certainly be happy to extend. I’ve also applied to the UKVI (UK Visas and Immigration) business sponsorship scheme to enable my business to employ people from outside the U.K.