Pinch Punch

Rich and I had intended to do a double at Cineworld today, but after watching BlacKkKlansman (spoilers at the end of this post), we didn't feel particularly in the mood for the daft comedy we'd booked. Instead we felt like we needed a drink, so we pounced on Phil for a couple in O'Neill's and Cosy Club. Tops.

Right, so, BlacKkKlansman (turn away if you don't want this movie to be spoiled!); the film itself is excellent. I had a couple niggles but overall it was really well written with brilliant performances and a fantastic soundtrack. The movie does an amazing job of depicting just how fucking awful the klan were/are, but keeping a dash of humour throughout that stops it from being a soul crushing hate fest. Although the movie doesn't have a necessarily happy ending, it's also not as big a bummer as I was expecting, as in all the characters we like are OK etc. As such, you come out of the main part of the movie a little bit divorced from the klan, with a sort of "Things must be way better than that now" thought. Which is why, when it cuts to a bunch of footage from 2016 onwards of Trump being the absolute bellend he is, and hate groups parading around with torches, and cars ploughing into groups of protesters, it hits you like a ton of bricks. I've never watched most of that footage; selfishly, because I knew it would upset and terrify me. And it did. I've never quite felt so awful in my life; my chest went tight, my breathing was horrid, and I didn't know whether to cry or go find a Nazi to slap. I've never felt so sad, angry and terrified all at once. It's a bold way to end a movie, and certainly made me re-address my very privileged position on this sort of stuff. I know the world has been a trash fire of late, but without having really seen a lot of it, I've sort of sat in this "It can't be that bad" bubble. Suffice to say, that bubble has burst.