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DISPATCHES FROM THE SOFA, WITH BRIAN DONALDSON
■ Lena Dunham might be brave, daft, naïve, mining some dark undercurrents of a fractious soul or a combination of all the above, but her role as creator, director, executive producer and main star of Girls (Sky Atlantic, Mon 22 Oct, 10pm) will result in questions being asked aplenty. The fact that there is some rough fuckbuddy sex bordering on horrendous abuse is one thing; that it is all inflicted on her own character, Hannah, is a dissertation in itself. This show was a multi-Emmy nominee in the comedy category and won one (for casting, which is as good as winning nothing) but there is barely a titter to be raised for a couple of episodes, before it gets into some kind of stride. Given one character’s total obsession with Sex and the City, you immediately start second-guessing which of the Girls quartet matches up to Samantha and co. While Carrie sat cross-legged on her bed in jim-jams, chirpily firing up her laptop with bon mots de New York relationships before her deadline hits, Hannah is mostly naked and Googling the diseases you can catch from sex with shoddy condoms.
But matching like for like is ultimately a distracting and pointless exercise given that this is really Bridesmaids meets Juno hanging out with Gossip Girl. Eventually the awfulness of everyone in the show fizzles out marginally as some semblance of humanity flickers through. But Lena/Hannah really needs to dump her Mr Pig.
Tipping point?
As artists revolt and the Scottish Government steps in, the attacks on Creative Scotland continue
T he stormy relationship between artists and Creative Scotland has picked up pace with 100 of Scotland’s leading artists writing an open letter to the agency’s chairman, Sir Sandy Crombie.
The letter, from 9 October, laid out the reasons that artists believe the organisation is ‘damaged at the heart’. Those who put their name to the letter include Scotland’s national poet Liz Lochhead, crime writer Ian Rankin, playwright and artist John Byrne, artist David Shrigley, writer and artist Alasdair Gray, theatremaker David Greig, actor Tam Dean Burn as well as eminent Scottish figures from the music world James MacMillan and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. An online petition has also been set up so more artists can add their name to the list. The group asked for Creative Scotland to consider the following points: ‘genuinely acknowledge the scale of the problem; affirm the value of stable two to three year funding for small arts organisations; end the use of business-speak and obfuscating jargon in official communication; revisit CS policies with an eye to social and cultural as well
as commercial values; collaborate with artists to re-design over-complicated funding forms and processes; ensure that funding decisions are taken by people with artform expertise; establish an effective system of dealing with complaints as swiftly as possible.’
Sir Sandy responded with his own letter saying he hoped the artists ‘will trust and accept that we have a strong desire to perform as an organisation for the people of Scotland’, and offered to meet as many of the signatories as possible to listen to ‘concerns’ stating they would examine ‘thoroughly every point raised with us’. Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop has also stated that she takes the situation ‘very seriously’, while adding: ‘The government does not interfere in Creative Scotland’s artistic decisions.’
There are plans for open meetings where artists can discuss their concerns further to take place at the end of October.
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ReviewofReviews WE SAID:
‘There are some terrific performances, though if anything irritates, it’s the rather “Hollywood ending” that takes quite a few liberties with actual events. A shame, because until this final reel, this is one truly taut experience.’ THE LIST THEY SAID: ‘This is pitched as a patriotic, Hollywood-saves- the-day yarn, a juicy slab of dangling Oscar bait. But
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ON GENERAL RELEASE WED 7 NOV
Girls just want to have fun? 8 THE LIST 18 Oct–15 Nov 2012
there’s a danger that its chest-beating could drown out the strength in its subtleties.’ THE GUARDIAN ‘The film makes a beautiful job of juggling laughs and real drama.’ EMPIRE
‘White-knuckle tense and less self-congratulatory than it sounds, Ben Affleck’s unexpectedly comedic third feature has the vital elements to delight adult auds.’ VARIETY