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Villains of 2024
Dec. 31st, 2024 10:22 amNot going to waste times on the dregs swirling around the sinkhole of humanity, the Assads and Dominique Pelicots and Alice Munros. No, as is often the way, the year's imaginary villains had far more class.
I’ve raved enough about Mark Rylance’s Cromwell in The Mirror and the Light. Though this Cromwell wrings my sympathy, in reality Poor Crumb did ruthlessly fasten and unfasten laws to suit his master's purposes. He must have known that the information he gathered on Anne Boleyn was dubious, that a woman who can deny a king her body for seven years is unlikely to be a wanton throwing herself around the court the moment she's crowned. It must have occurred to him that a torture victim like Mark Smeaton would say whatever they wanted him to say. Still, Mantel's creation is magnificent and this is an immense adaptation with no bad casting and no bad writing.
As a related aside, a friend has linked to this: https://tillimint.wixsite.com/alma-mater-larp It looks like a very interesting LARP, an excellent concept, but £275 buys a lot of festival sets, a lot of plays at the Fringe, a flight to much of Europe and beyond. Prices have skyrocketed in this hobby just like everywhere else so it's not shocking as such, it's just that other things call.
Then there was The Penguin, Colin Farrell being insanely adept at his craft. This is a gangster series not a supes special, and yes, I'd say Oz Cobb is now up there with Tony Soprano et al. The problem with Batman has always been that when he’s not squaring up against super nutcases, he’s a bit ick, a troubled Tom of Finland model-in-waiting; Bruce Wayne is the guy who has everything but needs to creep out at night in leather gear to beat up much poorer men who lack his opportunities/privilege. It’s a weird thing for readers to get behind. By contrast Oswald Cobblepot was the perfect despicable capitalist cartoon, he even looked like the Mr Monopoly figure; laughable little Mr Grab It All in contrast to gorgeous Prince Have It All and Punch Down With It.
Here Oz Cobb's a big lumbering man with a quick mind and mouth. He’s a disabled disfigured narcissist, embodying the dirt roots of Gotham's nouveau riche; where Oz Cobb stands now, Bruce Wayne's ancestors probably stood. After all, despite the touted philanthropy of Wayne Enterprises, Gotham's still a mess so where did all the money go? Oz has nothing except the sharpest mind in the room. It's all he needs. This is the best origin story I remember.
There was Netflix Ripley. Hmm. This version was a beautiful cypher, Andrew Scott's melancholy eyes doing all the talking in a black and white world. I didn't understand him, then or now, in his hunt for that connection with Caravaggio and a world of...of what? Was it just greed? I never felt him truly enjoy his winning or his losing. My eyes slid off him even in his attractiveness. All I could do was beware, wonder, shrug.
These three share aspects that struck me; they all came from nothing, they all want more, they're all climbing. It's interesting to see this predisposition demonised at a time where many feel aspiration is beyond them. There's the current sharp spotlight on the effortlessly rich in the real world. Dissonance? I can't unravel it today. But I suspect that if Bruce Wayne existed, Cromwell would be working for him and we would hate both. We wouldn't even see Ripley, and we wouldn't want to see Oz Cobb.
Finishing with something less solid, there was The Heretic with Hugh Grant bimbling around in a miasma of twinkling malice and cardiganned* homeliness. Are we supposed to believe an intelligent man like Reed really believes the ancient Egyptians claimed Horus’ birthday for the 25th December? Is he a Reddit researcher or did he just watch Zeitgeist on repeat? It doesn't matter. He's enjoying himself.
*If 'verbing' nouns is bad, adjectifying them is worse and this whole sentence is a crime against English; my 2024 moment of villainy.
I’ve raved enough about Mark Rylance’s Cromwell in The Mirror and the Light. Though this Cromwell wrings my sympathy, in reality Poor Crumb did ruthlessly fasten and unfasten laws to suit his master's purposes. He must have known that the information he gathered on Anne Boleyn was dubious, that a woman who can deny a king her body for seven years is unlikely to be a wanton throwing herself around the court the moment she's crowned. It must have occurred to him that a torture victim like Mark Smeaton would say whatever they wanted him to say. Still, Mantel's creation is magnificent and this is an immense adaptation with no bad casting and no bad writing.
As a related aside, a friend has linked to this: https://tillimint.wixsite.com/alma-mater-larp It looks like a very interesting LARP, an excellent concept, but £275 buys a lot of festival sets, a lot of plays at the Fringe, a flight to much of Europe and beyond. Prices have skyrocketed in this hobby just like everywhere else so it's not shocking as such, it's just that other things call.
Then there was The Penguin, Colin Farrell being insanely adept at his craft. This is a gangster series not a supes special, and yes, I'd say Oz Cobb is now up there with Tony Soprano et al. The problem with Batman has always been that when he’s not squaring up against super nutcases, he’s a bit ick, a troubled Tom of Finland model-in-waiting; Bruce Wayne is the guy who has everything but needs to creep out at night in leather gear to beat up much poorer men who lack his opportunities/privilege. It’s a weird thing for readers to get behind. By contrast Oswald Cobblepot was the perfect despicable capitalist cartoon, he even looked like the Mr Monopoly figure; laughable little Mr Grab It All in contrast to gorgeous Prince Have It All and Punch Down With It.
Here Oz Cobb's a big lumbering man with a quick mind and mouth. He’s a disabled disfigured narcissist, embodying the dirt roots of Gotham's nouveau riche; where Oz Cobb stands now, Bruce Wayne's ancestors probably stood. After all, despite the touted philanthropy of Wayne Enterprises, Gotham's still a mess so where did all the money go? Oz has nothing except the sharpest mind in the room. It's all he needs. This is the best origin story I remember.
There was Netflix Ripley. Hmm. This version was a beautiful cypher, Andrew Scott's melancholy eyes doing all the talking in a black and white world. I didn't understand him, then or now, in his hunt for that connection with Caravaggio and a world of...of what? Was it just greed? I never felt him truly enjoy his winning or his losing. My eyes slid off him even in his attractiveness. All I could do was beware, wonder, shrug.
These three share aspects that struck me; they all came from nothing, they all want more, they're all climbing. It's interesting to see this predisposition demonised at a time where many feel aspiration is beyond them. There's the current sharp spotlight on the effortlessly rich in the real world. Dissonance? I can't unravel it today. But I suspect that if Bruce Wayne existed, Cromwell would be working for him and we would hate both. We wouldn't even see Ripley, and we wouldn't want to see Oz Cobb.
Finishing with something less solid, there was The Heretic with Hugh Grant bimbling around in a miasma of twinkling malice and cardiganned* homeliness. Are we supposed to believe an intelligent man like Reed really believes the ancient Egyptians claimed Horus’ birthday for the 25th December? Is he a Reddit researcher or did he just watch Zeitgeist on repeat? It doesn't matter. He's enjoying himself.
*If 'verbing' nouns is bad, adjectifying them is worse and this whole sentence is a crime against English; my 2024 moment of villainy.
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