Film: Bugonia

For tonight, was thinking film again, and thinking of The Mastermind (which Movie Roadhouse London (MRL) saw on Wednesday), a 70s art crime heist drama starring Josh O' Connor, closest showing in Genesis Cinema, where I've never been before. Funnily enough, after my terrible review of Flat Iron Denmark Street, the management offered me a free meal for two at a Flat Iron of my choice! Closest to the cinema is Flat Iron Spitalfields - so I headed there with my companion who so loves them, before the film. Given their miniscule steaks, management advised me to order several sides. Huh, at £4 a pop! So much for "reasonable prices". I actually decided to order two steaks, tonight.. they don't publish the weight on their menus, but I looked it up online and management confirmed it - their steaks weigh just over 7oz.. that's the smallest steak I've ever seen in a restaurant.. I'd easily manage two!

Blasted buses. The #47 runs from right outside my house to very near the restaurant - when it runs at all. Two of them came.. only to finish right there! By that point, I was beginning to think there was something wrong with the route - so when a #381 came, which would take me to London Bridge, where I could catch another bus to the restaurant.. and it was actually continuing, not stopping dead there.. I took it. When I got off, I thought to check.. and a #47 was due in two minutes. Behold and lo, there it was.. third bus lucky! Still, I was 20 minutes late for the booking - luckily, my companion got there first and held the table, ordering a bottle of the Sauvignon Blanc, as I asked her.

It was lovely - and crucially, cold, unlike the last time. Service was attentive - she was sure it was because of the review. Anyway, she was nervous about making it too obvious that I was having two steaks, so we didn't specify they were both for me - I wasn't greedy, I chose the flat iron cut. She wanted the aubergine side dish, but as a main - so what I agreed to do was order two side portions of it, as well as a portion of chips for myself.

They only brought one aubergine dish - so much for the manager's advice to "order several sides". We had to ask for the second. She kept one steak until I'd eaten enough of the other to slide it onto the dish with that one - the cleavers that serve as knives work well for that. For the flat iron, they pre-slice it, conveniently - and yes, of course it was gorgeous. Never said it wasn't. So was the sauce, so were the chips. And yes, I easily managed two steaks.

And then, after we'd finished the wine, I wanted a little more - we had time. So we asked for one more glass. And there was that lack of service again.. we had to ask three people, it took 20 minutes. I got my glass. And yes, we got the whole lot gratis. Doesn't make me any keener on the chain - I don't like that you can't add starters or desserts, I hate the popcorn, the service is slow. The ice cream they give you has to be eaten outside. The food is good.. but the experience is a pain.

She decided she wasn't going to a film, she needed to get home. Well, by that stage it was a bit late to go to Genesis - I thought about Rich Mix: much closer, and they were showing Bugonia, which MRL saw on Sunday. The latest weirdness from Yorgos Lanthimos, it stars Emma Stone (boy, she loves his stuff) as a hard-nosed CEO, kidnapped by Jesse Plemens (another of his regulars), who is of the opinion that she's an alien, from Andromeda, come to take over the Earth. This idea is only fuelled by the fact that his mother (Alicia Silverstone) is in a coma, seemingly caused by a reaction to a drug that Emma Stone's company produces.

It's nearly two years since I was last here, and I was only at the cinema here once before, as I recall, over six years ago! So it's perhaps understandable that I forgot the procedure - the cinema might be upstairs, but you get tickets at the ground floor box office. And once you pass the concession stands, there is only one screen on each level - so I had to go up two more levels, to Screen 3.. Oh, and the seats are the most uncomfortable I've suffered in a long time - I literally had to sit on my coat to make it bearable.

The film is funny - and one of the funniest things about it is Emma Stone's reaction to her captors, which turns from wariness to amusement to scorn. A couple of things bug me - firstly, I can just see hordes of people saying "at last! the truth has emerged - we are controlled by beings from another galaxy!". And secondly, it really drags in the middle - I dozed for a few minutes. But it's always a pleasure to see this combination of actors with this director.

Tomorrow, I'm back with Over 40 Living the Life, for the first time in a few months, to see a musical called The Coven, about a famous English witchcraft trial! Showing in The Kiln - and it's nearly two years since I've been there, too!

On Thursday, thinking of getting to Urchin - only reasonable showing time that day seems to be in the Picturehouse Hackney.

Then I'm heading back to Ireland for the weekend, on my last trip this year, my weekends are looking so busy! Probably meeting an old friend for a bite to eat, and if I can squeeze in the cinema (and why not?!), I'm thinking of Roofman, a fact-based comedy about a crook (Channing Tatum) who hides out in an unused bit of a toy store. Complications ensue when he falls for Kirsten Dunst, an employee. Peter Dinklage plays the manager. Playing in Limerick, and at the Omniplex at a more reasonable time.

On Monday, a Meetup group called London Loves Jazz is advertising a concert by Kim Cypher in Pizza Express Soho. I liked the music I heard online, and bought a ticket - but baulked at joining the group, what with the joining fee, and the intensive questionnaire, including whether I was prepared to be "an active member".. so I'm going independently. I didn't have a great experience with my last jazz group. My companion of tonight has decided to come too.

Next Tuesday, back with Up in the Cheap Seats for Kindling in the Park Theatre. It's a comedy about a group of perimenopausal women who go on a camping trip to scatter their friend's ashes. My companion is going to that too, and we'll be heading to Palmyra's Kitchen afterwards.

On the 12th, back with storytelling - Winter's Night Wonder Tales, with Alys Torrance, is back at The Palmerston. Tickets through Eventbrite.

On the 13th, I'm with yet another new Meetup walking group - Walks and Tours - for a Xmas Lights walk around Mayfair. Meeting in the Mercato Mayfair. And as it's a Thursday, I'll be lugging my laptop, ouch!

On the 14th, back with The Hideout for Keeper, directed by Osgood Perkins - details TBA, but it'll be somewhere around Leicester Square.

The 15th is another ex-colleagues meeting - or probably just another meeting with James! We haven't seen Ivan since June, and Martin since last Christmas.. Probably in The Phoenix again.

And on the 16th, back with Mandy and London Herstory Walks for Rebel Women of the South Bank.