2019 summary

• Mister President [El Señor Presidente]

Influential proto-magical realism from Miguel Ángel Asturias, not-about-Guatemalan-dictator-Manuel Estrada Cabrera-honest! Has its moments – notably when it delves into the city’s streets and underbelly, showing the characters in the bars and in the gutters – but the central relationship between Angel Face and Camila marred my enjoyment too much. The story of the President’s closest advisor falling in love and trying to escape his old job never really achieves the depth I wanted. Angel Face remains dislikeable, neurotic and self-obsessed even as he distances himself from his former boss. His actions end up looking naive and it is hard to have any faith that he will succeed, which spoiled the drama as the end approached.

• Embassytown

Some glorious world-building, as you’d expect from China Mieville. His protagonists, I note, habitually claim to be normal and uninteresting, merely bystanders observing their far more significant colleagues. It doesn’t really ring true in Embassytown, where the protagonist Avice Benner Cho plays such a crucial role in things, and appears to hold a remarkable position in her society from all relevant perspectives. There is so much jammed in this rich, linguistically-savvy sci-fi that it’s futile to summarise it all, but what stuck with me was the casual way in which Mieville allows things to be normal and healthy that are still contentious in our society: Cho’s bisexuality and the communal upbringing of the children stand out particularly in my memory. The Ariekei are genuinely strange creations too, though the human response to them seems painfully familiar in its colonial mindset. When things descended into relationship drama and bloody, drug-addled war I did long for something like a TV series to give all the characters and the setting the depth they deserve, but the ending was very deftly balanced, demonstrating that change can be necessary for survival, and not wholly a negative thing, even if it was brought on by external forces.

• Wreck-It Ralph 2 (film)

If, standing in the customs queues at JFK airport for hours, it felt appropriate to be reading Embassytown with all its supposedly well-intentioned beaurocracy, Wreck-It Ralph 2 was more my level for the return flight. After a sweltering four hours wandering along the Highline and drinking more beer than we should have, failing to operate the subway ticket system, being unable to get wi-fi in the airport to download our boarding passes, and consequently nearly missing the plane and not knowing whether our luggage had actually made it on board…I simply absorbed whatever was on the screen in front of me. Criminal lady car racer? Cool. I mean hot. I mean…well I guess it was a pleasant surprise in the film. I don’t remember much else – it was very predictable, and less likeable than the first installment. But it killed some time on the flight and didn’t require any brain power.

• Ready or Not and Knives Out (cinema)

I didn’t see them on the same day, but they’d make an excellent double bill featuring entitled rich people getting their comeuppance. Both gleeful, funny and full of heart, true to their respective genres but still fresh and original, these two films gave us heroines worth rooting for and fantastic ensemble performances. I’ve watched Knives Out again since, and it stood up well to multiple viewings – even though a good measure of the fun on the first viewing comes from trying to work out whether or not Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc really is as oblivious as he appears so be. It’s played and paced beautifully though, so remains a delight even when you know what’s coming. The future installments will be fun, I have no doubt, but the heart of the movie is Marta, who we must root for even when it looks like she’s made a heart-breaking mistake – it would be an error to think they could repeat the formula without her. Ready or Not I only saw the once, and it’s not a genre I’d seek out as often – it’s often visceral, horror done really well, but genuinely made me cringe at some of the things Grace goes through, as, one supposes, good horror should. Yet again though, it’s funny and surprisingly earnest, cramming more characterisation in than most Hollywood ensemble pieces manage. Honestly, in an ideal world, the sequel I’d commission would involve Marta helping Grace prove herself innocent of all the stuff that happens to her new in-laws, and Grace and Marta pooling their collective inheritances to fight crime and fuck up rich people.

• The Rise of Skywalker (cinema)

Unlike the case of the Star Wars prequels, this time I did drag myself to the cinema for the third installment, and, much like Endgame, I just sort of…decided to try and enjoy it for what it was. Which was still a bit of a mess – JJ Abrams trying to reassert his take on a story he couldn’t be bothered to plot out in the first place, picking up strands from The Force Awakens in a half-hearted and rushed manner, and throwing in contradictory and unnecessary characters and bits of backstory, cherry-picking the least interesting bits of the Legendary EU to keep (why, of all the things to re-make as canon, are we doing Dathomir, Kyp Durron and cloned emperors???). When it was revealed that the Force could be used to bring the dead back to life in present Star Wars canon, I just sort of…threw my hands up, went “That’s not how the Force works!” and decided to enjoy the very gay adventures of Poe, Finn and 3PO (Poe’s absurd new backstory and ex aside). The highlight for me was, undoubtedly, the single shot of Wedge Antilles they managed to persuade Denis Lawson to return for – followed by the raising of the x-wing on Ach To, a call-back to Empire I had sort of longed for in TLJ. I decided to believe that when Kylo Ren died and Leia did whatever she did, that Leia was actually just puppetting Ren’s body around – yeah, kiss with Rey and all. I enjoyed the fact that those alien beasts were definitely just horses in wigs. I loved every minute of Lando’s presence. I thought the whole thing was a hot mess, and a waste of potential for the two wonderful new characters Abrams gave us in Rey and Finn. I am, still, interested in rewatching it some time – but these sequels are the real ‘legends’ in the Star Wars canon of my heart. They haven’t come near to replacing the EU novels for me.