Things read and seen in 2021 #6

(Spoilers. * indicates something watched/read for the first time.) 

Movies

56. Dark Waters (USA, dir. Todd Haynes, scr. Mario Correa and Matthew Michael Carnahan, starring Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins, Bill Camp, Victor Garber, Mare Winningham, and Bill Pullman, EOne/Participant/Willi Hill/Killer Content, 2019) *

Virtual film club pick. Extremely well-made, but profoundly depressing and disturbing movie about the real-life DuPont chemical/PFOA scandal. You definitely get the feeling that American companies don't really care about the health implications when there's money to be made, and the health implications of PFOA are pretty universal. The movie perhaps spends too much time trying to get a conspiracy thriller vibe that it can't really deliver; but there are excellent performances from Mark Ruffalo as Rob Bilott, the lawyer at the centre of the case, and from Tim Robbins as his boss. The movie fakes, of course—the tension between Bilott and his wife (Anne Hathaway) seems a little too clichéd and movie-like—but this is an important movie you should see. It's also the first Todd Haynes movie I've seen since Velvet Goldmine (not that he's made a lot).

I got behind with doing this, so I am just going to list everything else.

Movies 

57. Count Me In (dir. Mark Lo, 2021) *

58. Shaun of the Dead (dir. Edgar Wright, 2004)

59. Serenity (dir. Joss Whedon, 2005)

60. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (dir. Luc Besson, 2017) *

61. Captain Marvel (dir. Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, 2019)

62. Man of Steel (dir. Zack Snyder, 2013)

63. No Time To Die (dir. Cary Joji Fukunaga, 2021) *

64. Pacific Rim (dir. Guillermo del Toro, 2013)

65. The Green Knight (dir. David Lowery, 2021) *

66. My Wife & I (dir. Bunmi Ajakaiye, 2017) *

67. Arrival (dir. Denis Villeneuve, 2016) *

68. Rocketman (dir. Dexter Fletcher, 2019) *

69. Interstellar (dir. Christopher Nolan, 2014)

70. The Martian (dir. Ridley Scott, 2016) *

71. Falling for Figaro (dir. Ben Lewin, 2020) *

72. Star Wars: The Last Jedi (dir. Rian Johnson, 2017)

73. George Harrison: Living in the Material World (dir. Martin Scorsese, 2011) *

74. Let It Be (dir. Michael Lindsay-Hogg, 1970)

75. 8 Remains (dir. Juliane Block, 2018) *

76. Once (dir. John Carney, 2007) *

77. Single All The Way (dir. Michael Mayer, 2021) *

78. Head (dir. Bob Rafelson, 1968)

79. The 6th World: An Origin Story (dir. Nanobah Becker, 2013) *

80. Wakening (dir. Danis Goulet, 2013) *

81. The Power of the Dog (dir. Jane Campion, 2021) *

82. Last Train to Christmas (dir. Julian Kemp, 2021) *

83. Happiest Season (dir. Clea DuVall, 2020) *

84. The Lady in the Van (dir. Nicholas Hytner, 2015) *

Books

6. Ursula K. Le Guin, Four Ways to Forgiveness (1995) *

7. H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds (1898)

8. John Wyndham, Day of the Triffids (1951)

9. Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere (1996)

10. Ben Aaronovitch, Rivers of London (2011)

Comics

6. Heroes Reborn: America's Mightiest Heroes (2021) (Reviewed here.) *

7. Heroes Reborn: America's Mightiest Heroes Companion Volume 1 (2021) (Reviewed here.) *

8. Heroes Reborn: America's Mightiest Heroes Companion Volume 2 (2021) (Reviewed here.) *

9. Mike Carey and Glenn Fabry, Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere (2006) (Reviewed—several years ago now—here.)

10. Ben Aaronovitch, Andrew Cartmel and Lee Sullivan, Rivers of London: Body Work (2016) *

11. Ben Aaronovitch, Andrew Cartmel and Lee Sullivan, Rivers of London: Detective Stories (2017) *

12. Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, The Wicked + The Divine: The Faust Act (Reviewed—again, quite some time ago—here.)

Virtual Theatre

15. Oedipus the King (Rickmansworth Players, 2021) *