The Adventures of Dysfunctional Dan

The 2024 Oscars ceremony is mere hours away and I've finally finished writing my annual post about this year's Best Picture nominees. This is my sixth year doing this and once again I've seen all the nominees. Let's take a look! American Fiction Thelonius 'Monk' Ellison, played by Jeffrey Wright who is perhaps best known as Felix Leiter in the Daniel Craig Bond films, is an intelligent African-American professor and writer whose high-brow books sell poorly. Frustrated, he writes a satire of "black" books which is unexpectedly taken by the publishing world to be a serious piece of literature. It's a hilarious film with Wright having lots of fun taking on Monk's alter-ego. At the same time though it's also a clever critique of the sort of media that is consumed by white people to make them feel better about racial issues and the film points out that black people can have normal lives beyond ghettos and gangs- the film itself also tells an ord

In which I reflect on the year that was... I awoke in a cold sweat in the early hours of Boxing Day. I was staying at my Mum and Dad's for the first time since last Christmas and found my heart racing after an anxiety dream. These are not unfamiliar to me, usually some real-world based scenario that causes great anxiety and can leave me feeling unsettled for much of the day. Sometimes my brain struggles to develop original programming for dreams and so will broadcast a repeat. This dream was a replication of a dream I had exactly a year before and was based around going on teaching placement and being completely shit. Due to dream logic being non-sensical, my brain was able to fill in the gaps it had last year because said experience is now in the past rather than in the future.  As I said, anxiety dreams can leave me feeling unsettled for a fair portion of a day when they occur. Not this time. I blinked my eyes open and realised I was in my old bedroom at my Mum and Dad's hous

It's time for my list of the best films of 2023. Films eligible for this list are those that were released in cinemas or on steaming in the UK during 2023- this means there could be some films that were released in 2022 in the US and that there might be films from other lists online that are conspicuously absent here because they have yet to have a UK release (I'm looking at you Poor Things ). I've also included where you should be able to see each film should you be so inclined. 10: Pearl (Rent Online) I enjoyed Ti West's 2022 horror film X  but it turned out he secretly made a prequel at the same time. Pearl sees Mia Goth reprise her role as the villain from X. In 1918 Pearl is living on an isolated farm during the Spanish Influenza and she is desperate to escape and become a dancer. It takes cues from the Golden Age of Hollywood with inspiration like The Wizard of Oz , though Pearl's interactions with a scarecrow are somewhat different from Dorothy's. Whilst

In which I share some wildlife highlights... Over the next few weeks, I will be sharing some end-of-year posts. As you may know, I am very much into my wildlife and I have been very lucky to have had some utterly incredible wildlife encounters in 2023. To avoid this being a novel-length post I've kept it down to ten moments and they are, more or less, in chronological order.  Red Squirrels I managed to attend an event on the beautiful Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour back in April, an early morning walk before the island is usually open to the public. This in itself was great but we could stay after the walk had finished and the island was still very quiet as it had only just opened. Brownsea Island is home to one of the few populations of red squirrels in the South of England. This is our native species of squirrel that has been lost from the majority of England due to the arrival of grey squirrels from North America. Early morning in April is the peak time to see them and I heade

In which I discuss my favourite TV show... "Run!" said the man and in that moment my life changed. It was the 26th March 2005 and Doctor Who was on TV. My parents had both watched the original version of the show when they were growing up in the 70s and I'd had some vague exposure to it before but this crazy episode with walking shop dummies and a burping dustbin really caught my attention. I was hooked immediately.  I'd been into things before but never in quite the same way. The timing was rife for the early days of social media and Wi-Fi becoming more widely available meant the internet wasn't just restricted to the family computer on dial-up. I devoured every episode and my obsession grew and grew. I went back and watched the previous forty years of the show, getting to grips with the old-fashioned feel of 60s television. I read Doctor Who books, listened to Doctor Who audio plays and played (rubbish)  Doctor Who video games. I did location filming tours and v

In which I get annoyed at everyday things... Is becoming increasingly more grumpy a part of the aging process? There are lots of big things to be angry about and I certainly am angry about them, but as I go about my everyday life I find the tiny irritations really wind me up. It's time for Game of Moans, Strictly Come Groaning, The Great British Hate Off, The Despair Shop... (I could almost just do a whole list of these!) One of the most annoying things I do is go to the supermarket. By the time I arrive back home, I am filled with inexplicable rage. First of all, I have to jump in the car and drive there. I do not claim to be a good driver by any means- I'm frankly pleased if I make it to my destination without having hit anything. But my reactions are fairly good. This doesn't seem to be the case with many drivers on the road. I live in a busy town with a lot of traffic and it is so annoying when drivers fail to pull out in perfectly good gaps in the traffic.  The most an

In which I do some imagining... I thought about writing an angry piece about world events today but in the end, I settled with something much lighter. If you enjoy this experiment do give it a like wherever you saw this posted and I may well write a volume 2 at some point.  Most Sunday mornings I can be found sitting in the McDonald's near the cinema I go to having a coffee and an egg McMuffin. It's usually fairly quiet at that time but there is a steady flow of people passing through. I like to watch what's going on and imagine the stories of these people. Over the last few months, I've been constructing little vignettes about the people I see... A couple in their 50s walks across the car park, a tangible tension between them. Kevin is trying to quash the guilt after spending yesterday afternoon in Natalie from work's bed rather than on the golf course as he had claimed. He must remember to text Paul to remind him to cover if Hannah asks. Hannah meanwhile is actual