Blakeson - Writer

Cardiff-based film, theatre and gig reviews, cultural ramblings, whingeing, short films, etc.

Thursday, May 31, 2018

"Solo" / "Mydidae" / "Peacekeeping"


Recent reviewing assignments included a double-bill of new short operas in the Ffresh Restaurant at the Wales Millennium Centre, “Peacekeeping” / “The Filmmaker And The Organ Trader”, which made up in musical inventiveness for what they lacked in narrative subtlety. Rather more involving was “Mydidae”, Jack Thorne’s intense drama about a troubled relationship, set entirely in a bathroom, presented by OtherLife, a company working out of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, at The Other Room – traumatic and compelling.

 
"Mydidae" (photo: Jack Willingham)

Being only a lukewarm follower of the “Star Wars” franchise, I went to see “Solo – A Star Wars Story” as a fan of sci-fi cinema generally. It’s the relatively straightforward tale of how Alden Ehrenreich’s young Han Solo develops from low-level thief to a slightly-higher-grade space pirate, picking up a surname, a furry friend, and some romantic cynicism along the way. Director Ron Howard (who replaced the “Lego Movie” team of Lord and Miller) reliably provides high-tech action and humour, and the story benefits from the absence of the mysticism and mythology of the series proper, although the shadow of The Empire is ever-present. As ever, the inevitable shoot-em-up sequences test the attention-span; but the film as a whole is more than entertaining enough.

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