A Genteel Black Hole

Ally's bookish (and other assorted) rambles

  • Project Glowing Rectangle: Flying Down to Rio

    Ally

    Day 39 of Project Glowing Rectangle, in which I try to divert some of my daily doomscrolling time back towards a more nourishing oblong: Cinema.

    Title: Flying Down to Rio
    Director: Thornton Freeland
    Writer: Cyril Hume, H.W. Hanemann, Erwin Gelsey
    Year: 1933
    Country: USA

    Format: DVD
    Length: 89 minutes
    Seen: 22 February 2026
    Rewatch

    Roger Bond (Gene Raymond) is an orchestra leader with a habit of getting fired from venues for canoodling with the customers. Despite warnings from his bandmate Fred (Fred Astaire), Roger falls for the flirtatious Brazilian heiress Belinha De Rezende (Dolores del Rio) and gets everyone fired yet again. He manages to book a new gig in Rio de Janeiro, planning to track down Belinha and continue their courtship. But the course of true love never did run smooth, and Roger discovers that Belinha is already engaged to his best friend Julio (Paul Roulien).

    Flying Down to Rio secured its place in film history by introducing the immortal pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Honestly it’s not got much else going for it! There’s some fun song and dance numbers (I particularly like Ginger’s song ‘Music Makes Me’) but those are few and far between. Most of the runtime is taken up by the rather dull, chemistry-free romance between Raymond and del Rio. There’s also some vintage casual racism and misogyny—which, while not exactly surprising, is especially hard to overlook when the actual plot is so boring. I’d only recommend this for dedicated Fred and Ginger completists!

  • Bookish Ramble: The Wee Free Men

    Ally

    Title: The Wee Free Men
    (Discworld #30, Tiffany Aching #1)
    Author: Terry Pratchett
    Year: 2003
    Country: UK

    Format: Hardback
    Pages: 310
    Read: 10 – 16 February 2026
    Reread

    Nine-year-old Tiffany Aching lives with her parents on a farm. Her duties include making the cheese and looking after her perpetually sticky little brother Wentworth. Also she’s a witch… or at least hopes to be someday, just like Granny Aching before her. One day Tiffany’s quiet, peaceful life is threatened by nightmarish creatures from another realm. Using Wentworth as bait, she fights off the first monster with nothing but an iron frying pan and righteous fury. But bigger, scarier things are coming, things too powerful for Tiffany to handle alone. Luckily she has help from a witch called Miss Tick, a talking frog that may once have been human, and a clan of tiny blue pictsies called the Nac Mac Feegle—the titular Wee Free Men. (Imagine, if you will, Braveheart crossed with Smurfs.)

    “Ye ken how to be strong, do ye?”
    “Yes, I think so.”
    “Good. D’ye ken how to be weak? Can ye bow to the gale, can ye bend to the storm?    “

    This is the thirtieth Discworld book overall, the first in the Tiffany Aching sub-series aimed at younger readers. As such it’s shorter than a standard Discworld book, the humour is moderately less bawdy (though there are still some references for Mum and Dad to stifle a smirk over), it follows a child protagonist, and it’s divided helpfully into chapters. But for me, as someone who first read it well into adulthood, it still ticks all my Discworld boxes.

    That was how it worked. No magic at all. But that time it had been magic. And it didn’t stop being magic just because you found out how it was done.

    In fact it’s one of my favourite Pratchett books! The Wee Free Men is a delightful, magical adventure told with Pratchett’s signature humour and keen insight. In some ways it’s very silly. Tiffany enters a whimsical world of dreams and, like Alice before her, finds it very annoying indeed. The Feegles—a clan of walking, talking (not to mention stealin’, fightin’ and drinkin’) Scottish stereotypes—constantly make me laugh, especially the scenes with No’-as-big-as-Medium-Sized-Jock-but-bigger-than-Wee-Jock-Jock. But the passages where Tiffany reminisces about her late Granny, trying to learn from her example as she comes into her own power as a witch, are some of the most touching moments in any Discworld book. And for longtime fans there are excellent cameos from Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg, stars of the original Discworld Witches books.

    “The thing about witchcraft,” said Mistress Weatherwax, “is that it’s not like school at all. First you get the test, and then afterwards you spend years findin’ out how you passed it. It’s a bit like life in that respect.”

    My First Sight told me this book was wonderful. My Second Thoughts have since confirmed it. Crivens, it’s a bonnie wee book!

  • Bookish Ramble: Cards on the Table

    Ally

    Title: Cards on the Table
    (Poirot #13)
    Author: Agatha Christie
    Year: 1936
    Country: UK

    Format: E-book
    Pages: 259
    Read: 1 – 9 February 2026
    Reread

    Mr Shaitana, a renowned collector of morbid curiosities, invites Hercule Poirot to an evening of dinner and bridge. Poirot is joined by three more sleuths: Superintendent Battle, Colonel Race, and mystery novelist Ariadne Oliver. There are four more guests; each one is, according to Shaitana, a murderer—each having successfully evaded detection. The party was intended merely to show off his “collection” of killers, his way of celebrating the Art of Murder. But when Shaitana himself is found dead, stabbed with a stiletto from his own collection, it’s up to Poirot and his fellow sleuths to figure out which of the four suspects is the culprit. Each of them had both motive and opportunity, but which of them actually did it?

    Cards on the Table is Christie at her streamlined best. On the surface all four suspects seem like unlikely killers, yet each one apparently got away with murder once before. Poirot’s approach is to build a psychological profile of each suspect, aided in part by a study of their bridge scores. (Side note: I’ve never played bridge and don’t know the rules, but that didn’t spoil my enjoyment of the story.) With such a small ensemble of suspects, Christie still manages to spin a gripping story full of red herrings and surprises. And there’s a pleasingly metafictional element in Christie’s self-caricature, Ariadne Oliver, providing intuitive “insights” into who would’ve dunnit if she were writing the book. Overall I’d say this is top tier Christie.

  • Project Glowing Rectangle: The Apartment

    Ally

    Day 38 of Project Glowing Rectangle, in which I try to divert some of my daily doomscrolling time back towards a more nourishing oblong: Cinema.

    Title: The Apartment
    Director: Billy Wilder
    Writer: Billy Wilder, I. A. L. Diamond
    Year: 1960
    Country: USA

    Format: 4K Blu-ray
    Length: 125 minutes
    Seen: 18 February 2026
    Rewatch

    Kubelik: Some people take, some people get took. And they know they’re getting took and there’s nothing they can do about it.

    C. C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon), aka Buddy Boy, is one of those people who gets took. He works in a huge office building as an insurance clerk, his head stuffed with numbers and statistics. Baxter often works late, not out of dedication to his job but because, despite living alone, his apartment is rarely empty. His key gets passed around the office, his apartment serving as a discreet place for married men to take their girlfriends. In return, Baxter’s superiors recommend him for promotions. When he agrees to lend the key to Mr Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray), director of personnel, Baxter finds himself quickly ascending the corporate ladder. Meanwhile he harbours a crush on Miss Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine), an elevator operator at the office. Little does he know she’s already been to his apartment…

    Baxter: The mirror… it’s broken.
    Kubelik: Yes, I know. I like it that way. Makes me look the way I feel.

    It’s safe to say The Apartment is my favourite film of all time. My band’s debut album, The Way It Crumbles, was named after a quote from the film. I rewatched it today to celebrate my 40th birthday and it made me smile, laugh and blub as much as ever! It’s a beautiful film about loneliness, human connection, and the importance of growing a spine and doing the right thing—or, as Baxter’s neighbour Dr Dreyfuss (Jack Kruschen) puts it, being a mensch.

    Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine are fantastic as Baxter and Kubelik, and the screenplay by Billy Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond is a well-oiled machine of setups and payoffs. Baxter has a habit of quoting all the other characters, picking up their verbal tics and mannerisms. This leads to so many running gags and references throughout the film, each one gaining new significance over time. Nobody quotes Baxter in return, at least not at first. But eventually Miss Kubelik starts to pick up Baxterisms and the two are drawn together, romance-wise. It’s a rather chaste romance, one that ends not with a passionate kiss but a game of cards. It feels to me like a very neurodivergent-coded romcom. I love it deeply.

  • Bookish Ramble: Arcadia

    Ally

    Title: Arcadia
    Author: Tom Stoppard
    Year: 1993
    Country: UK

    Format: Paperback
    Pages: 128
    Read: 6 – 9 February 2026
    First reading

    Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia is a dazzlingly clever play with a deeply emotional core. The setting is one room in a stately home called Sidley Park. Scenes alternate between two time periods: the early 1800s and the present. The modern scenes feature rival academics delving into Sidley Park’s history while, in the ‘period’ scenes, that very history is played out for us—often spotlighting the researchers’ misconceptions.

    The historical scenes follow Septimus Hodge, a friend of Lord Byron, as he tutors the precocious young daughter of the house, Thomasina Coverly. Thomasina’s gift for mathematics exceeds that of her tutor, or indeed any of her contemporaries, and she begins to intuit scientific theories far in advance of her era. Septimus must also dodge the wrath of visiting poet Ezra Chater, having been caught in “carnal embrace” with Mrs Chater. Meanwhile Thomasina’s mother, Lady Croom, is in talks with a landscape architect who plans to redesign the Arcadian gardens of Sidley Park in the newfangled Gothic style, complete with hermitage.

    The modern day scenes centre on the academic rivalry of Hannah Jarvis and Bernard Nightingale. Hannah is trying to uncover the identity of the mysterious Sidley Park hermit, while Bernard aims to prove his pet theory that Lord Byron fled the country after apparently killing Ezra Chater in a duel. As Hannah and Bernard research the Sidley Park archives together, aided by members of the Coverly family, unlikely relationships start to emerge.

    Thomasina: When you stir your rice pudding, Septimus, the spoonful of jam spreads itself round making red trails like the picture of a meteor in my astronomical atlas. But if you stir backwards, the jam will not come together again. Indeed, the pudding does not notice and continues to turn pink just as before. Do you think this is odd?

    My first reading barely scratched the surface of Arcadia. I loved it, but I can sense that I will love it more and understand it better when I reread it. (I had that experience recently with Stoppard’s Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead.) This is a play bristling with ideas on many subjects: History, mathematics, time, love… It’s about how much of the past is lost to us, just as our age will be to future generations. It’s an existentialist play about certain death, not of just us personally but of the universe itself; the ultimate tragedy of entropy. One day all this will be gone. But, in the end, it says we must enjoy life while we’re in it. The planets won’t keep waltzing forever but, while they are, we too must dance.

  • Project Glowing Rectangle: Sinners

    Ally

    Day 37 of Project Glowing Rectangle, in which I try to divert some of my daily doomscrolling time back towards a more nourishing oblong: Cinema.

    Title: Sinners
    Director: Ryan Coogler
    Writer: Ryan Coogler
    Year: 2025
    Country: USA

    Format: 4K Blu-ray
    Length: 138 minutes
    Seen: 13 February 2026
    First viewing

    This afternoon’s film was Sinners (2025), starring Michael B Jordan and Michael B Jordan. (Yes, sometimes I watch modern films!) Set in 1932, it follows the Smokestack twins, ‘Smoke’ and ‘Stack’, as they return home to Mississippi after seven years in Chicago. Using money stolen from the mob, the twins buy a sawmill to start a juke joint. But opening night takes a bloody turn when the transcendent power of music pierces the veil between worlds, summoning a trio of vampires.

    This is a solid piece of filmmaking. Michael B Jordan gives two excellent performances as identical twins. The scenes where he shares the screen with himself are perfectly realised; after a few minutes I stopped even thinking about what a technical feat it is. It just works! The supporting cast is also great, particularly newcomer Miles Caton as Sammie, the blues musician whose transcendent singing causes all that supernatural trouble.

    But for me the film wasn’t transcendent. Very good, yes, but I didn’t adore it like I hoped. (Also I found the alternating aspect ratios a little distracting. Do the IMAX scenes have more impact on the big screen?) Maybe I’ll get more out of it on rewatching, but my first viewing didn’t quite sink its fangs in.

  • Bookish Ramble: Planet of Exile

    Ally

    Title: Planet of Exile
    (Hainish #2)
    Author: Ursula K. Le Guin
    Year: 1966
    Country: USA

    Format: Paperback
    Pages: 100
    Read: 1 – 5 February 2026
    Reread

    My Hainish series read-through continues with Planet of Exile, first published in 1966—the same year as its predecessor, Rocannon’s World. (You can read my review of Rocannon’s World here.)

    The story takes place on Werel, a planet with a decades-long season cycle. Jakob Agat leads a group of human colonists who, centuries ago, were exiled to Werel by the League of All Worlds. Jakob and his people, despite having never seen their long-forgotten homeworld, remain staunchly separate from the local indigenous tribe, the primitive Tevarans. As a harsh, fifteen-year winter approaches—bringing with it a horde of ruthless nomadic warriors called the Gaal—cooperation between human and Tevaran camps may be their only chance of survival. But things are complicated when Jakob breaks taboo with Rolery, daughter of the Tevaran chief.

    Planet of Exile, while not yet Peak Le Guin, is a marked improvement from Rocannon’s World. Both books attempt to blend sci-fi and fantasy, but the second book succeeds where the first fails. My friend Pat (Book Chat With Pat) shared a quote in our Hainish group chat where Le Guin describes her debut novel with a colour analogy: If sci-fi is blue and fantasy is red, Rocannon’s World is purple. I would argue that Rocannon’s World doesn’t successfully blend its colours; it’s a book of blue and red stripes, awkwardly clashing. Planet of Exile, on the other hand, is properly purple.

    Le Guin’s prose here is more focused and more evocative than in her debut. The cast of characters is also more streamlined—there are just three races to keep track of, and the tension between human and Tevaran tribes is made tangible by the star-crossed romance of Jakob and Rolery. I sincerely enjoyed Planet of Exile. And it’s exciting to see Le Guin’s progression as a writer, especially knowing just how much farther she would go from here.

    The group reading experience, hosted by Gareth (Books Songs and Other Magic) also continues to delight. These past two months we’ve had some fascinating discussions, and I’m eager to continue them as we work through the rest of the Hainish series together.

  • Project Glowing Rectangle: Late Autumn

    Ally

    Day 36 of Project Glowing Rectangle, in which I try to divert some of my daily doomscrolling time back towards a more nourishing oblong: Cinema.

    Title: Late Autumn
    Director: Yasujiro Ozu
    Writer: Kogo Noda, Yasujiro Ozu
    Year: 1960
    Country: Japan

    Format: Blu-ray
    Length: 128 minutes
    Seen: 10 February 2026
    First viewing

    Late Autumn is one of Yasujiro Ozu’s last films. Setsuko Hara stars as Akiko Miwa, a widow living alone with her daughter Ayako (Yoko Tsukasa). Three old friends of the late Mr Miwa take it upon themselves to find Ayako a match, but she is hesitant to marry and leave her mother alone. Maybe the three meddling friends can solve that problem by finding a match for Akiko too…

    This feels almost like a remake of Ozu’s 1949 film Late Spring: In that film Setsuko Hara played the marriageable daughter, but here she’s the widowed parent. (Chishu Ryu, her father in the earlier film, here plays her brother.) The film balances humour, sadness and social commentary, all in Ozu’s typical, quiet and delicate style—and starring many of his favourite actors. If you’re not already an Ozu devotee, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this one as an introduction to his work. But if you’re already sold on Ozu, Late Autumn will certainly scratch that itch.

  • Project Glowing Rectangle: Only Angels Have Wings

    Ally

    Day 35 of Project Glowing Rectangle, in which I try to divert some of my daily doomscrolling time back towards a more nourishing oblong: Cinema.

    Title: Only Angels Have Wings
    Director: Howard Hawks
    Writer: Jules Furthman
    Year: 1939
    Country: USA

    Format: Blu-ray
    Length: 121 minutes
    Seen: 8 February 2026
    Rewatch

    This afternoon’s film was Only Angels Have Wings (1939), a romantic drama directed by Howard Hawks. Cary Grant stars as Geoff Carter, chief pilot of a South American airmail company. The mail route is extremely risky; pilots are frequently killed, which gives the survivors a rather jaded, fatalistic attitude. But when visiting pianist Bonnie Lee (Jean Arthur) falls for Geoff, his determination not to be tied down is put to the test.

    “I’m hard to get, Geoff. All you have to do is ask me.”

    This film didn’t make a big impression on me when I first saw it about eight years ago. But this time around I was completely sold! The cast is great, especially the central performances by Arthur and Grant. I got fully wrapped up in the will-they-won’t-they romance between Geoff and Bonnie, as well as the fates of the various pilots. The gripping aviation scenes reminded me heavily of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s 1939 memoir Wind, Sand & Stars. And there’s a prominent supporting role for a young Rita Hayworth as the woman who once broke Geoff’s heart. Yep, this is good stuff!

  • Project Glowing Rectangle: 42nd Street

    Ally

    Day 34 of Project Glowing Rectangle, in which I try to divert some of my daily doomscrolling time back towards a more nourishing oblong: Cinema.

    Title: 42nd Street
    Director: Lloyd Bacon
    Writer: Rian James, James Seymour
    (Based on the novel by Bradford Ropes)
    Year: 1933
    Country: USA

    Format: DVD
    Length: 89 minutes
    Seen: 5 February 2026
    Rewatch

    42nd Street (1933) is a backstage musical following the cast and crew of ‘Pretty Lady’, a new show preparing to open on Broadway. The leading lady, Dorothy Brock (Bebe Daniels), is having an affair with the show’s financial backer (Guy Kibbee) whilst continuing to see her old vaudeville partner (George Brent) behind his back. And despite a string of successes, director Julian Marsh (Warner Baxter) is bankrupt thanks to the Great Depression, so he’s staking everything on ‘Pretty Lady’ being a hit. Into this high-pressure environment comes Peggy Sawyer (Ruby Keeler), a wide-eyed ingenue looking for her big break.

    But the real star of the show is the legendary Hollywood choreographer Busby Berkeley. He’s responsible for the spectacular, kaleidoscopic dance routines that make 42nd Street so memorable. The musical numbers in the ‘Pretty Lady’ show-within-a-show don’t seem to make much sense or tell any kind of cohesive story… but they’re exactly the kind of spectacle I came to see.

    Also there’s legs—lots of legs—a surfeit of legs! “After three weeks, a leg ain’t nothing to me but something to stand on.” Add a wisecracking supporting role from a pre-stardom Ginger Rogers and 42nd Street is a damn good time… despite most of the songs being utterly forgettable!