accies1874

Looking forward to seeing how Shonklund does and what new thing Clarke has in store for us. Hopefully Patterson can make us (me) trust him a bit more in these kinds of games too.

It would mean that one would come back to life. Lucky for Kate Middleton.

The first match thread of what will be a big year for the national team. I'm really interested to see how we line up for this one. I'm expecting it to be a full-strength 11, but there are questions regarding the goalkeeper, how we cope with McGregor's absence and how we respond to recent disappointments. I'd probably go something like: Gunn Porteous Hendry Tierney Patterson McTominay Gilmour Ferguson Robertson McGinn Dykes Not sure about that LCM spot or even the 3-5-2, so all alternative ideas are welcome (even the bad ones).

23. Banel & Adama - Cinema Like one of my favourites from last year, Godland, Banel & Adama is an interesting look into nature and religion, specifically in relation to agency. Banel is a woman who's in her second arranged marriage, this time to Adama, the man next in line to be chief of their remote Senegalese village and brother of her previous husband. They are told that they need to have a kid together to stave off the 'apocalyptic' drought they're currently experiencing, but they both just want to abscond to isolation together. Faith is perceived by some of the villagers as a comfort that you can control nature through your actions (punishment or rewards depending on your actions), but that illusion of choice is turned on its head as it railroads Adama and especially Banel into a life they don't want to live. Fear is apparent throughout, as well as the question of what it would mean if there were an actual purpose to life. It's pretty decent, though I doubt I'll remember it in a couple of days. 24. Four Daughters - Cinema A documentary that occupies a strange space between real-life observations and storytelling and recreations of some of the real-life storytelling. It's about two of the four daughters being radicalised by ISIS, but that's very much the narrative climax, so much of the runtime is devoted to understanding how they were led to radicalisation. Due to the strange form - using actors to stand in for the missing daughters as well as an actor for the mum of the family - it means that there's a strange non-linearity to it all as the remaining family members are allowed to 'revisit' traumatic memories and reflect on their choices, which is especially true for the mother. It actually reminded me of We Need to Talk About Kevin in a lot of ways, though I think that's the gold standard for the Regretful Parent genre. My main issue with Four Daughters was that I just couldn't see past its form. I couldn't always track the authenticity of it, which was especially frustrating in the more emotional scenes as I was thinking more than I was feeling. That wasn't always the case - there's undoubtedly some saddening moments - but I was confused more than anything else.

He's obviously not a terrible player or anything, but I do understand why Man United fans get annoyed at him. He's not a great passer from midfield, can take way too long on the ball, sometimes doesn't look like he's in control of his limbs (either while dribbling or as a target man), has the well-documented issues in buildup. I think it's testament to his mentality and ability to squeeze the most out of what he does have that he's managed to overcome those issues and have a career at a high level for so long. Man United may be a mid-CL/upper-EL team now, but that's a higher level than pretty much any other Scottish player has consistently performed at in recent years. He's been terrific for Scotland lately, but it's easy to forget the criticism he was getting before this great run of form. I'm sure if you look back at the match threads from Faroe Islands (A) and Czech Republic (Euros) then you'd see folk slagging him off for his performances in midfield. He is an unconventional player - one arguably playing in the wrong era - so it's easy to see why fans of a dysfunctional club find it hard to take to him.

22. Showing Up - Cinema This had been on my radar for around a year now (made some people's Best of the Year So Far midway through last year) but just seemed to take forever to release in the UK. I thought that it would be consigned to streaming, and it seems that it is currently available to rent digitally, but I'm glad I saw it in the cinema as - like with Kelly Reichardt's last film, First Cow - I reckon my mind would've wandered watching it at home. This is another sleepy film from her, though unlike with First Cow I didn't actually fall asleep during this one (I was tired!). The characters are very naturalistic, the interactions are given a lot of room to breathe, the camerawork is patient, there is very little to the plot and the limited score is touchingly simplistic. It's really just a slice of life film. I think what I liked about it was the response I had to the cast of characters and how they reflected Lizzy's struggles as a down-on-her-luck artist, as well as the depiction of art's place in the world. She is a repressed character, embodied perfectly through a performance from Michelle Williams that always simmers but never explodes, which the film taps into by showing how she responds as an NPC (for want of a better term) surrounded by main characters. She finds it difficult to express herself emotionally through 'normal' means, so she needs to channel those emotions in different ways such as her sculpting and when she learns to love a pigeon. That story with the pigeon was what I found most interesting. It was nice watching someone learn to love a living creature, especially as they both occupy a similar place in the world, which is reflected in Lizzy's and the pigeon's treatment by Jo - Lizzy's landlord, neighbour and fellow artist - who has a sort of removed but inwardly knowing quirkiness that is very easy to hate. The way some of the images contrasted their conjoining apartments stood out in my mind more than the rest of the film's visuals. Something that doesn't take much prominence in the film but stood out to me were the few moments spent observing the students at the art college. It made me consider that they all had stories going on that were as mundane as Lizzy's, but art provides them with the opportunity to find their own wee corner of the world. Creating something and sharing the fruits of your labour to the world is a good thing in amongst all of life's mundanities, even if a lot of pain goes into that creative process. The pigeon can be viewed as a metaphor for the creative process, though the creative process is intrinsically linked to emotional processing so it could also be linked to that. It comes together nicely. It can sometimes be hard to get a proper read on something so sleepy and vibesy, but it succeeded for me in terms of being a touching character study. A lot of folk will hate it, though, so it's a hard one to recommend.

Not sure if this is a joke based on her role in last year's film Reality...

Thanks all, it's much appreciated. Hopefully things can start moving in the right direction soon.

It's always funny seeing the squads for the 'home nations.' Northern Ireland have a standout player for one of the Premier League's top teams, a bunch of guys I've never heard of, and a bunch of ex-SPFL marks including an old Accies goalkeeper.

20. Origin - Cinema This is a dramatisation of the writing of the book Caste. It starts out with an author played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor looking into the murder of a young black man but turns into an exploration of segregated societies. Its structure is quite strange and non-linear, as the first chunk of the film is more conventional as it sets the scene and establishes the characters in typical movie ways, but then it essentially becomes what I'd imagine is a narration of the book it's based on. The early stages serve to humanise the author and give credence to her passion about the subject matter, and there are some brilliantly fraught discussions about discrimination, but it didn't entirely work for me when it came to the final act which felt more akin to a documentary recreation than a film. This shouldn't be all that surprising given that Ava Duvernay directed the brilliant documentary, 13th, but the style took me out of the film due to it being a bit too maudlin which almost felt like an attempt to separate it from being a documentary. That said, there are some striking images to go along with that, presented in cinematography that ties into the interconnectedness of the past and present - a key part of Origin. It's worth watching to learn more about its subject matter and I do think that a dramatisation was worthwhile, just that it could've been executed more smoothly. At 140 minutes it very rarely drags and at points even resembles a (sombre) globetrotting thriller. 21. Perfect Days - Cinema Sometimes a film just hit perfectly when you're feeling a certain way and this was certainly the case for me when I watched Perfect Days. It's very serene at points with peaceful journeys through Tokyo seen through the eyes of Hirayama as he cleans toilets around the city, being friendly without making friends, and finding beauty in the world despite working an unglamorous job. That touched me a lot, particularly his detached game of noughts and crosses. However, it never lets go of the question about his mind behind his smiling eyes and what has happened in his life to lead to where we find him. There are Eraserhead-esque interjections of creepy black and white imagery to contrast the tender tone. Has he always been happy with his lot despite his standing in society, or have there been experiences which have taught him to try and appreciate life for what it is? I thought that the final shot reflected an earlier one which either gives an insight into his mindset or depicts the toll that the understated journey of the film has taken on him. It's very sleepy but has the kind of development that I only really appreciated as it ended. Hirayama is a very endearing character who speaks very little - something I'm always a fan of - and it's not as if the characters around him fill in the blanks with explanatory dialogue, though there are a couple of lines that I found to cut through the silence brilliantly. It's mostly told through Koji Yakusho's performance, the set design and natural character traits. The soundtrack is key too (I loved it and am listening to it while writing this) and comes from his old cassettes which again alludes to a previous life which informs his current one. I'm far from a Wim Wenders aficionado, but when I saw The American Friend for the first time I was blown away by his ability to control my eyes through the composition of his shots with expert uses of colour and movement within the frame and movement of the camera itself. While that wasn't a standout quality of Perfect Days, this film does have another element that I found so brilliant about The American Friend (and also Wings of Desire): its sense of place. Tokyo's Skytree features prominently and there are a lot of repeating locations that Wenders manages to find beauty in while also providing a familiarity that puts you in Hirayama's shoes. The routine of the film draws you in and then packs a punch when it's interrupted.

Decided to bite the bullet and get a doctor's appointment. Not sure what I'm hoping to come from it, but this has probably been the lowest I've felt and I know I need to do something to change it.

Two hours later and I'm the only person to have liked this. Barry Ferguson's Hat is wasted on you all.

Three I saw last week: 17. Tummy Monster - Cinema (Glasgow Film Festival) This is an absolute romp that takes place almost entirely in a Glaswegian tattoo parlour. From the off, it sets up so much of what's to come by opening with the tattoo artist, Tales (played by Lorn Macdonald, who I'll get to soon), sleeping in his shop before getting woken in the middle of the night by a call from a celebrity looking to get a tattoo. Tales does the tattoo, he gets paid, asks for a selfie and that's when shit goes down. The opening moments are more intriguing than they are tense as the film deliberately withholds a lot of information. The late night callers are mysterious, somewhat otherworldly Americans who are in direct contrast to the down-on-his-luck Glaswegian. That initially makes for a fun dynamic, but it's only the start of something that I found to be baffling, hilarious and interestingly ubiquitous. The most baffling thing about it is that probably 70% of Orlando Norman's lines as the celebrity are "rub your tummy or I'll think you're an asshole" yet that facilitates character work that I found to be incredibly engaging. Tales is a brilliantly written character whose flaws make him authentic - you've met him or you are him - and these flaws are the crux of the film's themes, so I was fully on board with exploring them. He's a depiction of the need for validation, the fear of ageing, a lack of fulfilment, the relationships we have with our idols, and the lengths of human resolve. These are pretty big ideas for a film about a man rubbing his tummy for hours on end. I am being slightly facetious as while that is the core of the plot, there are different threads that either precede the story beginning or occur off-screen, however you feel all of it through Lorn Macdonald's performance. I found him to be a hilarious comic presence, but that comedy comes from a darker turmoil (the aforementioned themes) which is depicted in the comedy. It's the funniest new release I've seen in a while and he's the main reason for that. I also appreciated hearing a Scottish performer actually speaking how he does irl, as opposed to the overly enunciated stuff we tend to get. The comedy is found in the film's plotting too, as pretty much every plot revelation is equally surprising and frustrating, so you eagerly await Macdonald's reaction to them. That just makes it all the more entertaining. I do have a couple of slight complaints about the script. One is that it reached a great flow with the "rub your tummy" stuff early on which kept me smiling, but it interrupted that flow at one point and took a while to finds its rhythm again which made the repetition as annoying as it sounds (which wasn't the case for so much of the 85ish-minute runtime). It's like Sideshow Bob stepping on the rakes, only if they went back to that same sequence after cutting to Homer watching TV. Another is that a nice moment occurs between the two leads around 2/3rds of the way through which was a great and necessary moment of levity to let a hectic film settle down, however that got undone immediately and we were back at square one. It made some thematic sense, but I found it to be jarring in its execution, almost like the scene was in the wrong place or they tried to squeeze it in somewhere. Those shouldn't overshadow what I found to be a real treat of a low/no-budget film though. It squeezed everything out of that budget to present a stylish look and some impressively immersive moments of sound. Someone in front of me was checking over his shoulder at one point as he thought the noise was coming from across the screening, which is a good way to draw the audience into a confined setting. Check it out! 18. The Soul Eater - Cinema (Fright Fest) Children go missing in a sleepy small village and two investigators need to set aside their differences to solve the case. There's a useless police force, there are haunting pasts, there's a sanitorium, and there might be paranormal activity afoot. It's very generic and I got that feeling very early on. Even the cinematography is pretty flat and lacks the atmospheric lighting to sell the tense and creepy moments, though that lighting did sometimes make the aftermath of the film's graphic violence more impactful as it felt authentic. Whether that's deliberate or not, I don't know, but it resulted in an aesthetic struggle between the violent moments and the tenser moments. It looks made for television and it feels made for television. Things pick up a bit in the third act with some left-field decisions, but that wasn't anywhere near enough to make the preceding 70ish minutes worth it for me. 19. Edge of Summer - Cinema (Glasgow Film Festival) I'm gonna be a massive hypocrite here, but I don't care. The reason I chose to see this was because I'm really fond of this kind-of-genre of British holiday films set in the country or a small village that tend to focus on someone coming of age. Make Up, The Scouting Book for Boys, Beast, Bait and undoubtedly others that I can't remember off the top of my head. So why did I like this and not The Soul Eater? To be honest I don't have a definitive answer for what separates them, though I think it's something to do with the characters resembling people more than genre conventions. It focuses on a boy and a girl in rural England, both of whom are suffering the turmoil caused by an absent parent. This loneliness sparks a fragile connection between them as they try to cope without their fathers in ways you'd expect of a child. That results in a narrative that stays ambiguous between metaphor and reality, and the flow of each of their arcs was really nicely done. Yes, it's a bit typical of a coming of age film, but I loved the depiction of seeing through the lies and accepting the pain of the truth and how that can help you move forward.

Has anyone noticed a recent decline in picture quality on BBC Scotland from a Virgin Media box? It's made football unwatchable lately.

I didn't think we'd see Christie deeper in these games, but there's a much greater chance now with McGregor out as Christie's role for Bournemouth is more similar to McGregor's for Scotland. I still worry about him being pretty loose in possession in deeper areas and reckon he'd need to play alongside Gilmour who's our best buildup player.

He's named four goalkeepers a few times before, albeit once was to cover for Zander Clark getting married during an international break. I don't really see a problem with it as it's not like it's using up an outfielder's spot. It's clearly the best squad available and will hopefully be the one that goes to the Euros (with Hickey and McGregor instead of Kelly, Ralston + two of the defenders).

Schindler's List Jurassic Park Saving Private Ryan Jaws The Fabelmans

We have plenty of options who can replicate some aspects of McGregor's game, but there's no one capable of doing all of them. It'll be interesting to see if we switch our midfield shape up to compensate for his absence, though that might be counterintuitive from the point of view of building towards the Euros.

While I didn't love Oppenheimer as much as other folk, it's still cool seeing Nolan getting his Oscar. It was his Batman films that taught me, at least on the surface, how a director and creative vision can shape a film. In that time of my life (around 2015-2018, ages 16-19), I saw the most films that had the biggest impact on me and Christopher Nolan was a huge part of that.

I think you've named everyone in contention, other than perhaps Liam Kelly as third choice goalkeeper (I don't want it either). I'd be surprised if the March squad is anything other than all of the available players named above, then the Euros will be about whittling them down again.

Liverpool's lineup actually looks considerably weaker than City's on paper, but the fact it's at Anfield scuppers any chance of an away win.

The closest I've come to seeing a fight on a plane was on the Wonky Sheep flight to Georgia last November when some steaming loudmouth kept calling out all of the bald Scotland fans for their lack of hair (despite him only having about three patches of it). One of the passengers had enough of it which resulted in a shouting match between various voices across the plane, all directed at the loudmouth, but it all fizzled out by the time everyone got off. The majority of the flight were in the same hotel and shared buses to it, but I was both relieved and disappointed I didn't get to see if the shenanigans carried into the night.

Apparently it's light blue

They really could've done with him last night

Three film festival picks and an animated Netflix one. Buckle up... 13. I Don't Know Who You Are - Cinema (Glasgow Film Festival) I didn't think much of this, despite it containing some ideas that are always worth exploring. A man gets raped on his way home from a party and is concerned he might have contracted HIV, only he can't afford to pay for his medication. You can imagine the themes present - stigmas, commoditising survival - but my issue was that it presents interesting scenarios but doesn't do a great job of selling them. There's too much telling and not enough showing, the lead is fairly one-note and doesn't authentically sell the emotion of the scenarios, and the editing often couldn't keep up with the closeup-heavy cinematography. There's a style present from first-time director M.H. Murray, as he values performances, tries to create an oppressive atmosphere and appreciates silence - they were just a bit lacklustre for me. That said, there's a really nice visual metaphor for art through pain which will stick in my mind. The score is sparsely used, but it very much takes centre stage when it is utilised and reminded me of the brilliant If Beale Street Could Talk score. Another more general and less flattering comparison would be with another great film, Never Really Sometimes Always, in terms of depicting someone's fight against stigmas and the healthcare system, but I Don't Know Who You Are didn't pack the stealthy and naturalistic punches that that film did. 14. Orion and the Dark - Netflix I've been rewatching some Charlie Kaufman-scripted films recently, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that he had a new one on Netflix. I was also confused that it was an animated kids film given his recurring themes of existentialism and isolation, however the opening voice-over settled me down as I realised that I was getting his take on a kids film rather than some weird outlier among his filmography. While I appreciated that, I couldn't help but wonder what a kid would make of this. Orion is a typical Charlie Kaufman protagonist - isolated, neurotic, despondent and all-too-aware of those traits and not afraid to tell the audience about them - only he's a kid. It just about passes for a child - his fears are bullies and the dark as opposed to death and a lack of fulfilment - but there are enough overt lines about the human condition that it might not work for a younger audience. I liked that it explored some of these things through the eyes of a child, as: a) it allows for a lighter take on them, and b) it's always interesting to consider what becomes of a certain kind of child and what a certain kind of adult used to be like. It's hard to separate Kaufman from his protagonists considering the consistency found in their characteristics, so I suppose this is a case of him exploring his childhood and, given the nick of Charlie Kaufman's mind, presumably wishing that he confronted his fears just like Orion does. I think there's even a reference to that at one point. Another way I could see kids getting turned off by this is the framing device of adult Orion telling the film's story to his daughter Hypatia. That's certainly not a turn-off in theory, but it does mean that the narrative is regularly interrupted by sudden shifts in logic which could make it a bit confusing - I certainly found it confusing at points. That said, this structure allows for some nice moments between Orion and his daughter. I haven't really spoken about the story yet. It's about a young boy called Orion who confronts his fear of the dark by meeting Dark itself who takes the form of a magical monster. They go on a journey through 24 hours spreading darkness across the land along with other night-time elements - Insomnia, Quiet, Dreams, Sleep and Unexplained Noises. Due to it being a visualisation of a bedtime story, there are some big set-pieces to go along with the fantastical elements, and the art style is usually pleasant to look at, seemingly blending hand-drawn backgrounds with digital animation, though I could be wrong about that. It's bright and colourful, though the former sort of undermines the importance of darkness in certain scenes. All in all, I did quite like it, but unlike Kaufman's other work, I'm not the target audience, so it's hard to say how well it works as a kids movie. They might not be on board with the chloroform joke, but they also might not be distracted by how similar the final act is to The Simpsons episode, 'Scuse Me While I Miss the Sky. 15. The Teachers' Lounge - Cinema (Glasgow Film Festival) I patched the Accies game for this and I don't think you can often say that watching a film is a more stressful experience than going to the football... yet here we are. This is just brilliant. It's set exclusively in a school that has played host to some recent thefts, but ultimately the film is about everything other than the thefts. At its heart is a wonderful main character, Ms Nowak, who tries her best to just be a good teacher while the fabric of school society burns around her. What makes her and the film so compelling is that she is a good teacher and she does try her best, but even justifiable decisions result in the drama snowballing at a ridiculous pace. Leonie Benesch's performance is top drawer. She needs to carry so much internalisation without letting that boil to the surface, but it's clear from her performance that it's always on the brink of boiling over. She gets moments to let loose or offer biting asides, but she also needs to be an emotional support as well as an authority figure. Despite the school having the typical immature behaviour from both teachers and pupils, the main players in the story are all just about as sympathetic as Ms Nowak. Their behaviour is a natural consequence of the situations they find themselves in, sparking horrible moral dilemmas that make you question the concept of right and wrong and delve into the individual personalities that make up both a classroom and the wider school. That's an accurate depiction of the life of a teacher; all of the different balancing acts you need to perform while still teaching maths to children, and I appreciated how much character and thematic stuff was established within the confines of typical classroom stuff. It's excellent as both a character study and a commentary on being a teacher. These moral dilemmas are only a part of what makes it so stressful too. The camerawork is almost always handheld and shakily observes the numerous frantic interactions, or it tracks Ms Nowak as she makes her way to a frantic interaction. There are small sounds that play a huge part in the tension by just making you feel ill at ease, there are overlapping and argumentative lines of dialogue, and characters wait in scenes they shouldn't wait in or try to force their way into them. These are sure-fire ways to naturally make your film an uncomfortable experience. It manages to explore just about everything you'd want a film of its ilk to explore and it does so in an engaging, stressful and interesting way. If you get the opportunity to see it, don't pass that up. 16. The Vourdalak - Cinema (Glasgow Film Festival) A French gothic film about a man who finds himself lost at a mysterious family's house in the middle of the countryside where some weird shit goes down. That weird shit mostly comes from the family patriarch who returns transformed from battle into the titular Vourdalak, essentially a vampire but also not a vampire for reasons I'm not quite sure about. He resembles Nosferatu only less... alive, helped by the fact that the Vourdalak is depicted using a puppet rather than makeup. That choice contributes to the overall tone of the film, shot in a really beautiful atmospheric way. Super 16mm, soft focus, really misty exteriors and dark interiors. Like one of my faves from last year, Enys Men, these retro choices and the isolated, creepy setting give off the impression that you're watching the contents of an old film canister discovered in the middle of nowhere. Kacey Mottet Klein's lead performance as the outsider is pitched perfectly within the style of the film. He's often the audience's vehicle to observe the weirdness of the family, but he has an awkward presence that means his reactions can be strangely funny. He got some big laughs from the audience I was in. I could've done with it being a bit scarier so that it left more of an impact on me, but, as it is, I'm just left admiring so many aspects of the film.