The Adventures of Dysfunctional Dan

In which I discuss this year's Oscar contenders... It's become something of a tradition for me to write about the year's Best Picture nominees. Usually what happens is that I see about 80% of the nominees and one of the films I hasn't seen goes on to win the award. I'm pleased to say that's not the case this year as I've seen all ten nominees! As usual I'm going to give a brief rundown of each film and it's chances of winning.  Belfast This is a story about growing up in Belfast in the 60s and 70s inspired by director Kenneth Branagh's own childhood. It touches on the Troubles as nine-year old Buddy doesn't really understand the conflict and his Pa is pressurised to join the Protestant action. It's also just a lovely story about childhood taking in everything from a first crush to the popular culture of the time. It's not totally dissimilar to Roma which won the award a few years back and personally I loved the film and it's my to...

New Netflix film The Adam Project sees Ryan Reynolds play Adam, who travels back in time from 2050 to 2022 and meets his twelve-year-old self. It's one of those films that makes you wonder what the scenario it depicts would be like. So I've wondered and written it... 2004. The boy leans on the windowsill, carefully avoiding the cacti that are housed there, wondering what the noise was. It sounded a lot like a futuristic time-travelling jet had just landed on the playing field at the end of the street. He tried to take in another view from his parents bedroom but still nothing could be seen. Perhaps it had just been a noisy car. He picked up the controller and continued in his attempts to complete the tricky motorbike chase level on his latest PlayStation 2 game James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing.  There was a sound from downstairs. The boy listened for a moment to confirm and sure enough, there was definitely something down there. The distraction had meant that Jaws had onc...

In which I reflect on a train... My 30th birthday is rapidly approaching, a fact I'm not entirely comfortable with. There's a feeling that I should have done more by this point- I'm single, the idea of having children seems a world away and my career has yet to really go anywhere. I'm not especially maudlin about any one of these things but together they combine to leave me feeling somewhat insignificant. I recently took a train ride between Bournemouth and Winchester, the literal journey making me reflect on the journey of my life up to this point.  Before long I'm in the New Forest, essentially where I grew up. I've increasingly realised how sheltered growing up in a small town with no transport links was. This was probably a mixed blessing. I was protected from so much in that environment yet at the same time I felt stifled there and I had no experience of the wider world.  Eventually the train pulls into Winchester and I have a lovely day with my friend from...