Transparent – TV Review

Maura (Jeffrey Tambor) is discovering her life as a woman after a lifetime living in the male body she was born in. But she is not an island; she has three children – Ali (Gaby Hoffmann), Sarah (Amy Landecker)and Josh (Jay Duplass), as well as an amazing ex-wife, Shelly (Judith Light). Each of them has their own stuff going on, and Maura needs to find out how she can come out to them, and then make her new lifestyle still including them.

It is fabulous – half hour drama (which I think I have only seen previously in the magnificent In Treatment) that cuts to the important stuff really quickly. The characters need to deal with their past as much as their present, and wow, they are all so totally messed up. The cast is fabulous – apart from those mentioned above, there is also Melora Hardin, Carrie Brownstein, Kathryn Hahn, Bradley Whitford and just so many others. And it recently won some Golden Globes. Top notch.

Transparent won Golden Globes for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Comedy or Musical (Jeffrey Tambor) and Best Television Series – Comedy or Musical

Hellboy (2004) Film Review

How have I not watched this film previously? It has everything I like in a film – action, excitement, it’s an adaptation of a comic book, it’s funny and it is absolutely stunning. What a fool I am.

The plot – sort of (it’s really quite complex). There is a portal that leads to another world that the Nazis try to open up. The Americans manage to get in the way and stuff it up for them, but a thing has escaped – a small, red boy with a tail and a bit stone arm thing and horns. Hellboy. Skip to sixty years later. Hellboy’s ‘Dad’, Trevor ‘Broom’ Bruttenholm (John Hurt) the scientist involved in raising him – is not too well. Hellboy (Rob Pearlman) is a big boy now and, with a team including a strange and quite gorgeous aqua creature man, fights other mysterious creatures and tries to stay hidden. Then the bad guys return.

Oooo, exciting, fun, racey, brilliant fun. And there is more. Rock on, Hellboy.