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The Category Is...POSE!

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POSE is an award-winning U.S TV show with a third season in the pipeline. Yet the series barely gets a mention in workplaces and dinner parties (is the silence just in the UK?). It's not enough that my partner and a few queer friends and acquaintances have watched POSE. This is a must for everybody to learn about an often ignored part of LGBTQ+ history and culture that's not whitewashed. It's also packed with great performances. So I'm going to keep promoting the hell out of POSE.  Created by Ryan Murphy, POSE is a drama centred around the New York ballroom culture in the 1980s and early 90s. Marginalised black, latin, gay and trans competitors dance and walk for trophies in multiple categories. This is an underground scene that influenced Madonna (which season 2 touches on) and is frequently referenced in Rupaul's Drag Race.  The pilot bursts open with a thrilling break-in. Ran by the glamorous and domineering Elektra (Dominique Jackson), the House of Abundance wil...

Living Deliciously: Robert Eggers' The VVitch

One of the small blessings of lockdown, has been the opportunity to watch even more films than usual. Supernatural horror has become more prominent in my viewing choices - there had always been affinity with the genre's outsiders but this time it is also a brief escape from reality. The VVitch, which premiered at the 2015 Sundance festival, had been on my list for a while.  The VVitch follows a family of 17th century English settlers who, banished from their New England colony over a religious dispute, set up a new home in an isolated clearing next to a dense forest. Tragedy begins when the baby vanishes while the adolescent daughter Thomasin (Anna Taylor-Joy) plays peek-a-boo with him. Somewhere in the forest, an elderly woman rubs herself with an ointment of bodily remains.  Secrets and paranoia suffocate the family. Thomasin increasingly receives accusations from both parents and siblings, over thefts and unholy activity, as unexplained misfortune strikes again - her verge ...