This week, we are riding that blue wave all the way to the Americas.
In film, Irish director Martin McDonagh turns his playwright gaze to the story of the CIA’s interference in Chile following the election of Salvador Allende. With John Malkovich at the peak of his powers, this tale of two men (a classic McDonagh set up), and the tussle between the elder’s regret and the younger’s frustrated ambition, this film is well worth your time.
In more earnest and joyous American matters (we’re allowing it this week after the midterms result) is Daniel Mason’s latest novel, Country People, a novel as crisp and delightful as the early New England fall it depicts.
Stay tuned for next week, where we will bring two fresh music reviews, a spin on a short Russian classic and four film reviews. Most exciting, though, you will hear everything … of what we thought of You Can See Everything, the doco bending brains the world over, just as Nathan Fielder intended.
Book review: Country People
Daniel Mason’s novels are underrated to a degree I think almost verges on criminal. I have pressed copies of North Woods, his 2023 bestseller, into the hands of multiple friends and have a 100 per cent strike rate: it is that good. The premise can seem a little dry: the story of a single house in the New England woods, told over the 400 years of its ex…
Film review: Wild Horse Nine
The world of Martin McDonagh is populated by old men facing their mortality, swimming in a sea of regret. And next to them is often a younger version of themselves, full of sprite and ideological oomph, that holds the key to the old men’s peace. So it was in