Random reflections on my recent viewing

I just watched the swingers episode of Life on Mars; generally rather repellent atmosphere, though extremely well done. Mind you, I shouldn't have laughed at my mother for greeting virtually every appearance of Annie in civies with a cry of 'I had one of those!' (sometimes followed by 'I don't know what I was thinking'), because when Sam got the camera out for surveillance purposes, I was gratified to recognise my first SLR (inherited from my grandad, who must have bought it sometime in the early seventies. A good camera, incidentally, though rather heavy; I ought to get it out again and finally do some black and white work again, though dark room access is problematic).

I've also been catching up om the first half series of Heroes, which I completely missed. Am enjoying it very much, though Mohinder's soliloquies on Creative Evolution are really starting to get on my nerves. He's Weston from Out of the Silent Planet with better dress sense and nicer manners. And, to be fair, a more reliable moral compass in practice if not in theory. But I like him more when he's not indulging in reheated Bergsonianism...

I went to see My Blueberry Nights with some friends. Don't bother, unless (a) you fancy Jude Law or (b) you are so keen to see David Strathairn and Rachel Weisz give excellent performances as an alcoholic and his ex-wife that you can put up with an awful lot of tedium elsewhere in the film; they were the best thing in the film, but not quite enough to rescue it for me. Also, Norah Jones is awful - I'd say she should stick to singing, but she butchers "Harvest Moon", which is one of my favourite Neil Young songs.

ETA: I should note that Wikipedia says that the "Harvest Moon" cover was actually by Cassandra Wilson; I apolgise to Ms Jones, but that doesn't help the film.