Moore from Beth

 Allow me to explain why I am bastardising the cinema experience of sitting in silence.  1. CultPlex asked me to.  2. For financial gain.  3. For the love of film. I don't think people will believe me when I say, I genuinely did not intend for film to become my entire personality and career. I have always enjoyed film and then just over two years ago now I downloaded Letterboxd and it revolutionised my film watching experience. Watching film for me became, a sport, a social interaction, a guilty pleasure, a bit of me-time, a lifestyle. Accidentally I'd been letting film creep into my academia and comedy for a while but at this point, and especially in the last year I've hit full throttle. I've become known as the film-obsessed comedian. When I started to do comedy, I never thought that would be my USP, I thought it might be that I was loud or that I wore a nice blazer, but it's that I'm loud and wear a James Spader t-shirt. Watching films is simultaneously the t...

 1. Amy Taylor  Amy Taylor is the lead singer of punk band Amyl and the Sniffers. I first discovered Amyl and the Sniffers at Glastonbury Festival in 2022. Amy was dressed like a cave woman, but her cloth was shiny and gold with a wild, bleach blonde, mullet to match. I was immediately obsessed. Her energy seems unextinguishable on and off stage, she exudes a vibrant love of life that I can only aspire to harness a fraction of. Her outfits are always to die for and the empowerment and don't-give-a-fuck attitude they showcase fires something in my belly. She constantly advocates for women, marginalised groups, and calls out cunts when they're being cunts. From Amy I learn to be confident in my own skin, to be bold and brave with my beliefs, and to be angry. So often women are conditioned out of their anger and it is so refreshing to see a woman channel and champion theirs.  2. Sara Ahmed  Just before Christmas I finished reading Sara Ahmed's The Feminist Killjoy Hand...

2024 was the year I put a lot of time, effort, and hard work into working on myself and my mental health. I have never been very good a prioritising myself or known what me-time/self-care looks like for me. I have come to realise this year that it is watching films. Whether it be something silly and distracting or something gut wrenching and cathartic, film has become my safe space. In 2024 I managed to watch 365 films, including short films, repeats, and rewatches (because for example, I watched Secretary four times, Re-Animator four times and Bride of Re-animator five times).  Throughout the year I have kept a list of my favourite first time watches (in a rough order, don't hold me to it even though I'm publishing it in a blog!) and seeing as the list was 50 films long, I would like very much to share the top 50 with you and recommend that you watch, at least one but preferably all of them.  50. Roadworks | 1985 | Dir. Mona Hatoum I was transfixed by Roadworks at the Wom...

I haven't written in ages. I've written some comedy, but I haven't felt confident in it. I'm terrified to put pen to paper academically and I just sort of forgot this existed? I remembered that I'd started this a safe space to get my musings out without fear. I'm hoping if I write here again it'll alleviate my fears writing elsewhere. There is an elephant in the room with us though, my friends: ✨my mental health✨.  March 2023, I was rapidly approaching the end of my undergraduate degree. This is a huge adjustment for anyone, lots of decisions to be made and absolutely none of them felt like the right one and it didn't feel like I could get a firm grasp on anything. I would say I took a steady decline from here, before just over a year later my back gave way in my kitchen in what I believe to be my body's way of telling me to just stop and take a break. However, to make out I've only struggled with my mental health in the last year and half would ...

I am apprehensive to share my thoughts publicly, I'm so scared of saying the wrong thing. However, I come from a privileged position and the fear I feel will never equate to the fear some will be feeling as a result of this total fucking nightmare. So here's what I have to say:  STOP USING MY SAFETY AS AN EXUSE TO VILIFY INNOCENT HUMAN BEINGS.  I have never and will never be bothered about who is pissing and shitting in what toilet. Instead, I do have a very legitimate fear of being attacked by men, I have enough common sense though to understand that they don't need to go to the truly exhausting lengths of being recognised as a transperson to this. If a man wants to attack a woman, he will just do it, because they do, every fucking day. They don't even need the privacy of a cubicle do it, they'll do in the fucking street and no one will say anything because we have created an environment in this country where violence against women is considered the norm.  You are ...

Do you remember being a teenager? Do you get that innate sense of terror balling in your stomach when you recollect being riddled with hormones and no sense of identity?  Perhaps you've mentally blocked it out, maybe you're wishing you could start it all over from scratch and just make a different set of mistakes, or possibly you're twelve and have stumbled across a blog that's a little too mature for you...  If you are twelve, you're roughly the age I was when I was introduced to the work of Rik Mayall. I'd just started high school and it felt like everyone had a 'thing' and having that 'thing' was an act of survival. Whether it was boy bands or football teams, vampires or werewolves, I was feeling the immense pressure of transferring from an environment where everyone liked one another for playing tag and picking your nose, to one where a hierarchal structure of popularity rooted in how you looked and how you entertained yourself reigned. I tri...