Eloise's Thoughts and Fancies

Last year, in case you’ve forgotten, England and France were streets ahead of the rest and England beat France in a match that was abandoned due to a power cut. Wales got stomped on by everyone. This year Wales have announced full time contracts for 12 players, additional part time contracts for a further 16. France and England are still professional outfits, no one else is. It’s probably too early this year for that to have made a huge difference to the Welsh players, but next year it should. In addition, the Irish team missed out on this year’s RWC, but the others made it into the competition, so the Irish are already looking to the next cycle, the others are building their squad for this October in New Zealand. Scotland v England While there were moments of this match that were great from a Scottish perspective if you were to watch pretty much any five minute period you might ask who let these teams play each other. England have a fully professional squad and while the Scottish w

I need to start this review with a potential trigger warning . It’s not long and it might not hit everyone but there are two scenes where Batman is observing someone. One made me feel a little uncomfortable but was tolerable. One went over the edge into voyuerism for me. I know everyone involved is consenting in the film, which is quite different to the real situation, but it still made me feel really uncomfortable. On to the review itself. Every clip you’ve seen where it’s really dark and moody is generally right. There is an opening quote “they look for me in the shadows but I am shadow.” The cinematographer seems to have taken that to heart, hardly any scenes are shot during daylight and when they are it’s heavily overcast. Given Batman and Catwoman dress in black, there’s a lot black-clad characters in the dark. However, eyes are wonderful things and I could follow the action comfortably enough. For any Batman movie, or TV show, you really have two things you have to pull off. H

The rules of this have existed for a long time. I don’t pick individuals, I pick units, so a front row, locks, etc. and I pick groups that have been together for as long as possible. When there’s a grand slam winner, I need excellent reasons NOT to pick a group from that winning team. This time I’m going to add a bit of commentary in some places though. Front Row : France - Baille, Marchand, Antonio . No one really troubled these three, their replacements are not as dominant and need to get better before the RWC. The Irish front row was the only other one in contention. Second Row : France - Woki and Willemse . The Irish ( Beirne and Henderson ) and Welsh (yes the Welsh, Beard and Rowlands ) locks made this pair wobble at lineout time. Itoje was his cheating self and had one really poor game, one mediocre game but three really quite decent ones. But for all round performance as a unit, this pair really had it all. Back Row : France - Cros, Jelonch, Aldritt . If the Welsh backro

Wales v Italy It’s fair to say that not many people expected Italy to win this. Even though they’ve been improving all through the championship, so have Wales, and Wales are in a better place than Italy aren’t they? Italy’s defence looked much sharper than we’d seen before. Was that the case or was it Welsh attacking frailties making it look good? The Italian kick and chase game looked much sharper too, without hours of analysis it’s hard to be sure exactly why. Was it that the chase was better? Were the kicks better directed? Or a better distance? Was there better communication so the chasers just knew where to go and arrived in better order? Some combination of two or more of these? The second half made it look as if it might have been improved Italian defence cramping the Welsh attack, as Wales racked up two tries and if not for a call of “on-field no try” would have got a fourth. But they could never pull away and as much as it pains me to say it, Wales' last kick from hand

At the very end of 2019 Boris Johnson won a general election. Because of the weirdness of the British electoral system compared to many others, he won a large parliamentary majority (80 seats) with “only” 43.6% of the popular vote. I say only in quotes, because this is the biggest share for decades, since before I was eligible to vote in fact. We can argue, forever, about the factors that won Johnson the vote and such a big margin. The message of “getting Brexit done” almost certainly had something to do with it. The Labour Party in disarray under a leader who had become isolated and successfully attacked as an anti-Semite (I think it’s complicated but not entirely untrue) almost certainly helped as well. But BoJo is also, in my opinion correctly, labelled as part of the right-wing populist movement that swept the electoral system in the late 20-teens. Trump, Boris and others of that ilk came to power, while Erdowan strengthened his grip. LePen ran off against Macron, the best the fa

This weekend started early, with a semi-traditional Friday night game between Wales and France, then two on the Saturday. Because France are chasing the Grand Slam, it probably started with the biggest match. Ireland might disagree, depending on results this week and next. Wales v Ireland Who says rugby needs to be high scoring to be exciting? One try and five penalties, France running out 13-9 winners and it was a match where both the Welsh and French fans were watching avidly throughout. Any smart neutrals should have been too. For Wales to transition from the side that got stuffed by Ireland to the side that, so far, has held France to by far their lowest score and only one try is impressive. To make a side that smashed the All Blacks, has run in tries for fun against everyone, bonus points in their first three 6N matches, including against Ireland, look ordinary and confused is awe inspiring. On attack things are not as rosy. But the Welsh were good enough to make chances and th

The midpoint where we sort out those who still have a chance and those that don’t. Scotland v France This was an odd match. At no point were France actually behind but from about minutes 15 to 35 Scotland were moving the ball so fast that the French defence missed tackles or made the tackles all single rather than gang tackles from a set line. Shortly before half time it felt like Scotland were in the lead. Then France scored a try with some lovely offloads that will have the Scottish defence coach tearing his hair out to remind us of the actual score. In the second half, France just kept easing away. If Jaminet had had his kicking boots on, the score should have been somewhere in the 50’s, if not 60’s. In fairness, if you look at the kicks he did score it’s clear the wind is pretty unpredictable. There are two from almost the same place, one flies straight and straight through, one looks like he’s doing frisbee tricks as it curves and bends several times but still goes through… Fr

Round two kicked off with the two matches full of real tension on the Saturday, Sunday was England v Italy, a match that we all assumed was a foregone conclusion. Wales v Scotland After last week’s performances Scotland were red hot favourites despite not having won in Cardiff for ages. But the match did not play out that way; Scotland started with a bang but Wales Wales withstood the attack and replied a well-earned penalty a few moments later, then a second a few minutes later. Scotland fought their way back into the game. And really that’s the story of the match. One side or the other would edge ahead, he other would pull themselves back into the match. But as time went by, especially as the second half went on, this tight match seemed to affect the two teams differently. It’s probably fair to say in the first half the home crowd kept Wales in it at times. In the second half though, the crowd lifted Wales and seemed to dispirit Scotland in roughly equal measure. The Scot’s started

The M6N is back and so are the crowds. But Covid is still here and affecting the coaches and the build up to the matches. It’s going to be an interesting year. On to the match reports. Ireland v Wales Wales have a side decimated by injury and filled with players who would normally be third, fourth or fifth choice. Honestly I was worried before the match they’d ship 40, so I was pleasantly surprised by the result. Ireland looked on top of their game, Wales were soundly beaten and have a lot to work on but they have positives to take out of the game - they kept scrambling and making their tackles - they completed 89% of 209 tackles which is perfectly OK, 95% of rucks and so on. Their problem was they were playing a better team, with both more cohesion as a team and much more experience of test rugby. Ireland are really at the top of their game (however boring I find it to watch) and they executed it well. We know, when they do that, they’re capable of beating the All Blacks and a wea

I suppose I should start this review with a potential trigger warning . I know of five people who have seen this film and who I’ve heard talk about it. From that group, one feels that the central relationship veers into stalker territory. However, the three of us that saw it together knew that in advance and disagreed. More on that later. Still, if that’s a really sensitive trigger for you, you’ve been warned. The central story is set in 1970’s LA and a wealthy, self-confident 15-nearly-16 year old boy meets a ten year old woman and asks her out on a not-date, honest. The film then follows their story over a shortish but not properly defined period of time. It might have been a year or two, although two of us thought it was meant to be just one summer. According to Wikipedia, all the real events we see that can be dated occur in 1973, but in odd parts and in a different order. So I think within a year is fair enough. If you’re old, like me, the soundtrack is awesome. I was eight when

Parts of this film were really well observed. One that springs very easily to mind: Kate aiming for a spliff after the opening phone call; someone knows a chunk of astronomy PhD students. At the same time there are so many lazy tropes about women scientists it’s painful, from the incredibly unflattering haircut to fact she’s the one that has hysterics and gets called up on it. Really, this paragraph is a reflection of the film as a whole: there are good ideas and terrible parts shoved together into an uncomfortable mess. There are funny jokes in here. Some are smart, some are stupid and, for me, too many are a swing and a miss. There is some good social commentary about how the various parts of the system interact with science news. It was meant to be about climate change but with the tight limit and the change in circumstances it works far better as a satire about Covid. Part of the problem, for all us but particularly with expecting politicians to handle it well, with climate chang

Season three of A Discovery of Witches is the season that diverges most dramatically from the source material, sometimes in tiny ways and sometimes in much bigger ways. Some of that, I’m fairly sure, is due to the the restrictions due to filming during Covid but mostly I don’t mind the changes, they’re either non-substantive or, when they’re hefty, they don’t alter the impact of the show as far as I’m concerned, although YMMV. Sadly, the same can’t be said of the closing scenes, which I understand why but they still landed with a whimper instead of a bang. It was nice seeing the villains get their comeuppance, which was suitably wrapped up before the end, although I can’t help feeling all of them, even the ones that had been interesting rather than just moustache twirling pantomime bad guys, were rather reduced to that as Diana evolved from an academic who was basically denying she was a witch to a spell weaver and time walker to a full on Mary-Sue. (It should be noted that she does

Having roundly castigated Chibnal for being a terrible Dr. Who writer, with justification, he produced a standalone in Eve of the Daleks that certainly ranks among the best of the Christmas/New Year specials of the NuWho era, and while I wouldn’t rank it above A Christmas Carol I appreciate the arguments of those that place it at the top of their list. The list of great NuWho episodes is much larger but this episode, along with A Christmas Carol gets onto that list for me. I hope the last two specials live up to this quality. It might be too little, too late but it would give Jodie Whittaker the send off she deserves. Given the Doctor is a Time Lord (species name so not gendered and it doesn’t change with gender), I’m surprised no one has done a time loop episode before. This one has a twist, the loop is getting shorter each time, and they have, as usual, to work out how to escape. But the story and conflicts to be solved along the way are suitably Whovian and, as the name suggests

I’m going to break a habit and rank my TV shows, 1-25, rather than just group them by excellent to terrible. While I’m not sure these rankings are definitive, in the sense that Lupin and Wynonna Earp might swap places if you ask me on another day, I’m fairly certain that It’s a Sin is always going to beat out You and The Nevers is always going to beat The Queen’s Gambit despite them both being in my top tier. I’m not sure if that’s just increase confidence, all the same caveats about wildly differing genres from previous years still apply, or something else, but this year I was able to settle on a fairly stable and happy ranking. In addition, my top three tiers really go from Chef’s Kiss to Very Good . Even in tier four they’re shows that were flawed but ok. Hell, even in tier five they’re shows that were deeply flawed but I watched - there are shows not on this list that I gave up on and so didn’t review. Without further ado, on to the list. It’s A Sin Squid Game Lupin Wyno

Promising Young Woman Dune Part One The Matrix Resurrections No Time To Die A Quiet Place Part II The Courier Kate The Suicide Squad Gunpowder Milkshake Contagion Eternals Fear Street Part One: 1994 The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf Fear Street Part Two: 1978 Anna Fear Street Part Three: 1666 Cruella Ride or Die The Unforgivable Black Widow Mulan The Prom A somewhat longer list of films this year than last as, like many others, I shifted to watching online, although six of my films were seen at the cinema and a number were seen on the iPad with friends streamed through discord. In fact, 21 films is almost back to my normal sorts of numbers in pre-pandemic years in total (25-30 was the norm), although in those years typically all or all but one would have been seen at the cinema. We have, as usual, a number of groups here, from the excellent, through the very good, to the good, the ok, the bad and the execrable. I nearly split the top group into two. Promising Young Woman ,