Film: Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma

Back to London, yay, and today, I decided on film again - and decided I might as well (finally, given that The Hideout saw it ages ago) head to Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, starring Gillian Anderson, whose only showing this evening was supposed to be in the Cinema in the Arches, at Battersea Power Station.

Well, I checked last night - and lo, Curzon Aldgate, a lot closer to me (and with which I have a membership..) was showing it late tonight. I booked to eat beforehand at Cote St. Katherine Docks, between me and it. Still stayed ridiculously late, walked there, arrived 25 minutes early, but they took me. Debated whether to eat outside, but it was a teensy bit cold - mind you, it was a teensy bit warm inside! Never mind, I was well fed. For dessert, I had a dessert wine (half bottle), which caused my waiter no end of amusement. ;-) I assured her I'd had it before,, and yes, it was lovely..

Walked to the cinema, was a little late for the trailers, but hey. I'd gotten this as a free ticket with membership, which was cool. Hardly anyone in the screen..

Now, I liked this a lot more than I intended. I hated the director's previous offering, I Saw the TV Glow - but this, I thought, had much more structure. A young filmmaker, with an obsession with the Camp Miasma franchise, comes to the set with a view to making a new film on the theme, only to meet one of the film's stars (Gillian Anderson)! As she introduces her to what it was really like to be in the film, she gets drawn deeper and deeper in.. and learns what it truly means to be a part of this film..

Is it gory? Yes and no.. there's a lot of blood, but the kills are so stylised as to be ridiculous. Mainly, however, I was seriously impressed with how the film examined this young woman's obsession with the film series, and identified with Gillian Anderson's character, as the "last girl", the one who isn't killed. Serious issues are considered, about gender identity and homosexuality. And we can only speculate about the main character's motives in becoming a permanent part of the set, like Gillian Anderson.. Honestly, this could provoke a thesis on the psychology of the characters. I'm not going to write it here. But I do recommend it, and am glad I saw it.

Tomorrow, no fewer than three Meetup groups (none of which I want to join) are headed to the Science Museum late for Star Trek's 60th anniversary! Well, there's nothing to stop me going on my own - I booked a timeslot late enough to allow me to grab something to eat. HOWEVER, on Saturday, Movie Roadhouse London advertised the UK premiere of Le Pays d' Arto (In the Land of Arto) for that evening, in which a woman travels to Armenia to source her husband's death certificate, only to discover he wasn't whom she thought at all.. showing in the Institute of Contemporary Arts, where I haven't been in nearly a year! Which makes this the first of six consecutive days of Meetups for me!

On Wednesday, I'm back with Up in the Cheap Seats (UITCS) for Darkling, a play about an ecological disaster, set in Bhopal and playing in the Bush Theatre.

On Thursday, back with London Social & Cultural Meetups to see Pressure in the Vue Wood Green. Dying to see this, as it stars Andrew Scott (my favourite actor, although I don't think his 'tache in this suits him) as Capt. James Stagg, the meteorologist tasked with predicting the weather for the proposed D-Day landing. I saw the stage version of this back in 2018, would you believe, at the Park with UITCS.. and have remembered it ever since as one of the best plays I've ever seen. He disagrees with Eisenhower, you see, predicting terrible, stormy conditions on the day originally chosen (fun fact, they got a lot of their data from Ireland) - and really has to fight his corner. (He's played by Brendan Fraser in the film.) Damian Lewis plays Gen. Montgomery. And we're headed for drinks beforehand.

And on Friday (so long waiting for this..), flying to Aberdeen for another London Museums A-Z Dracula event, yay! An early flight from Heathrow is an unpleasant thing to be doing, but it does mean we'll have most of the day up there..  the idea being that we'll be staying in the Kilmarnock Arms Hotel in Cruden Bay, where Bram Stoker started writing Dracula! (The hotel is now full for Friday night.) Now, as it happens, I'm co-hosting, JW is hosting.. and we're the only two on the trip! at time of writing. So, I guess we'll be hosting each other.. anyway, looking up public transport options to Cruden Bay, I discovered that public transport is a palaver, so I'm hiring a car - feasible with just the two of us. I'd rather not trust to Uber, or even taxis, in what seems to be quite a remote area. It'll be me driving, as he's still learning - which is fine, won't be the first time I've driven in Scotland. I found a great deal with Planet Rental Cars. It'll also be handy, given that he's ordering a kilt, and needs to swing by there..

As to activities, well, nothing to do with the area at all, but The Uprising, a film about the Peasants' Revolt and starring Andrew Garfield and Jamie Bell, is out that weekend and we both want to see it, so we'll be doing that in Aberdeen.. also in Cruden Bay is Slains Castle, which is rumoured to have provided inspiration for Dracula - will want photos of that, at least. Supposed to be generally creepy. Also, JW apparently has ancestry in the area, so I suppose that'll come up.. and there's a lovely, long beach. The hotel was in touch with him today (funny, not me!) to say if he wanted to have dinner there on Saturday, he'd better book - so we agreed on a time. I think. Anyway, we're flying back on Sunday.