Other Doctor Lives: Riz MC ft. Aruba Red & Plan B – “All of You” (2012)

A number of Doctors have appeared in music videos, and Jodie Whittaker in particular has been in several. I love Riz Ahmed as an actor and enjoy a lot of the songs I’ve heard from him as a rapper, but I’m not feeling this one.

To start out with, the song is incredibly catchy. It has a really strong beat and a great hook. If I just heard it playing in the background somewhere, I’d think it was really cool. But I have a hard time with the lyrics. “All of You” seems to be about the rapper addressing an ex (which the credits for the music video back up,) still wanting her but keeping her at arm’s length. Even as he tears her down for things she’s done – there’s a brief suggestion that’s she’s fooled around with another guy, or at least flirted with another guy – there’s an intense sexual desire pulsing through the song.

It’s angry, thirsty, and more than a little possessive. The chorus is anchored by the words, “You can’t have all of me, / But give me all of you. / I wanna walk tall knowing that I’m owning you.” It seems like it’s more about the rapper wanting to have her, and maybe humiliate her, rather than really caring about her or wanting a genuine relationship with her. Other lines in the song include, “ ‘Cause it’s not love, it’s a war for you,” and, “You’re a heart-shaped, tart faced Rubik’s cube.”

I know that rap music gets called out a lot for misogyny, and while there are plenty of songs that deserve that criticism, it’s not an issue that’s exclusive to rap as a genre. When I really listen to the words of all sorts of songs, I get uncomfortable with the messaging. That’s true of contemporary top 40 stuff, classics from 50 years ago, and songs I loved as a teenager. I’m careful to check myself on thoughts that this is a “rap problem,” but I still recognize the issue when I see it in rap, just like I do in punk, pop, etc.

It’s disappointing, because Riz MC is definitely a very talented rapper. Again, the beat is fantastic, and there are some really incredible rhymes and lines of wordplay here. A few lines from the song that I love without caveats are, “You’re as intricately infinite as London town,” and, “Now I’m scribbling my grief on a piece of you.” But the overall theme of the song keeps me from enjoying it.

The music video leans hard into those elements that I don’t like. Jodie Whittaker is credited as Broken-Up Girlfriend, and the basic set-up is her on her way home, listening to a song her ex (Riz MC) wrote for her. She’s shown getting lost in the rhythm and getting deeply turned on by the erotic lines (and given that they’re broken up, it feels uncomfortable to be giving such a strongly-sexual song to your ex-girlfriend.) There are also interstitial shots of her, Riz MC, and the guest rappers on the track threaded throughout the video. They’re shot in close-up with limited color, undressed and staring into the camera—mostly they’re in separate shots, but when they do share the screen together, the sexual aspect focuses more on that possession/humiliation angle than on any kind of connection, like a shot of Riz MC deliberately smearing her lipstick across her face with his hand.

All this said, I’m fully aware that, as an aromantic asexual, this video is not in any way geared toward me. So there’s a possibility that I’m reading it wrong and some people might find it really sexy in a dark/exciting way. But I wasn’t feeling it. While Whittaker does exactly what’s required of her for the video, it’s not something I really enjoy seeing her in.

Accent Watch

Not applicable—there’s no dialogue.

Recommend?

In General – No. There are Riz MC tracks/videos I like a lot better than this one.

Jodie Whittaker – No.

Warnings

Some implied nudity, strong sexuality, language, and thematic elements.

Other Doctor Lives: Ashes (2012)

I saw this Jodie Whittaker film a while back but didn’t get around to writing my review until recently, so my memories aren’t as fresh as they ought to be. It’s a decent enough drama/thriller with some genuinely good twists, even if it’s not my type of film on the whole.

Frank lives in a secure ward in a nursing home, but someone has come to take him out of there. Struggling with dementia, he doesn’t recognize James, this man in front of him explaining that he’s Frank’s son. Frank’s condition makes it difficult for James to manage the situation, as Frank is fading in and out of reality but remains both stubborn and remarkably tenacious. Not everything, though, is what it seems.

The themes of an Alzheimer’s patient struggling with what’s real brings The Father to mind, and while that’s unsurprisingly a better-made film, the two movies are so different that I really wasn’t thinking of the one as I watched the other. While Ashes delves a little into what’s happening in Frank’s head, the story on the whole focuses more on the external, on Frank’s attempts to give his apparent abductor the slip and James’s efforts to keep him from running off. The full picture of what’s going on emerges by degrees, drawing on concrete flashbacks as well as fragments of Frank’s jumbled memories mixing with his present, and we come to learn just how complicated the situation is.

Plenty of older actors have gone to town playing someone with dementia, and Ray Winstone (lately Dreykov in Black Widow) goes all in on that action as Frank. It comes through that he was a formidable man in his better years, someone who left a lot of trouble in his wake, but his present state makes it hard for those in his life to get any kind of closure from him. Jim Sturgess, who I know mainly for being a whitewashing frequent flyer (in 21 and Cloud Atlas, the latter of which features him in “artistic” yellowface, ugh) plays James, a perennial screw-up who’s really gotten himself in over his head and trying to salvage it. The film also features Lesley Manville, who I remember from Phantom Thread a few years ago, and Luke Evans (who can make up these endless refrains like Gaston??)

Jodie Whittaker plays Ruth, James’s wife. It’s another bummer of a “long-suffering love interest” role for her. In this one, she has to deal with the fallout of James’s bad decisions and try to keep things afloat. He keeps letting her down, but she still keeps getting pulled back in by him. Whittaker injects the role with as much honesty as she can, but it’s a small part written very generically.

Accent Watch

I had to go back to the film on Amazon Prime and rewatch a couple of her scenes because I couldn’t even remember. Sounds like a decentish London accent to my ear.

Recommend?

In General – A tentative maybe. There’s some interesting stuff going on, and it’s a different take than the usual heartbreaking family drama about Alzheimer’s.

Jodie Whittaker – Naw. Whittaker does fine with what she’s given, but what she’s given isn’t much.

Warnings

Violence, sexual references, language, gross-out moments, and strong thematic elements.

Other Doctor Lives: Antigone (2012)

So it didn’t take me too long to get National Theatre at Home’s streaming service. I knew they were going to get me sooner or later – I’ve spent enough years longing for an easier way to watch a National Theatre Live show than driving to a movie theater 60 miles away on a Tuesday night in November – but it was learning of the existence of this production that made me snatch up a subscription now. That’s right, two Doctors for the price of one today!

After King Oedipus reaches his tragic end, his sons come to blows over the rule of Thebes and end up killing each other in the resulting civil war. Their uncle Creon, who ascends the throne, forbids anyone from allowing one of the brothers, Polynices, the honor of burial. Oedipus’s daughter Antigone, having already suffered so much loss in her life, is horrified that Polynices is denied his rest in the sight of the gods, and she’s prepared to go against her uncle’s decree on it.

While I’ve read all of Shakespeare’s tragedies, Greek tragedy isn’t something I’ve gone too far into. I remember reading Oedipus Rex in high school, and I had a vague awareness of Antigone and knew she was somehow connected to Oedipus, but I also confused what scattered details I thought I knew of her story with Medea’s. I didn’t come into this with much foreknowledge is what I’m saying.

It’s heavy, to be sure, tragedy with a capital Copious Bloodshed. But it’s also very interesting, exploring the nature of the laws of gods and men (beyond the dishonor of being refused burial, Polynices won’t be able to enter the underworld if his body isn’t laid to rest.) It also asks, what is integrity? Is Creon a man of his word by not bending in his judgment, even when his own niece is the one who stands accused, or does a man’s integrity mean nothing if he values his word higher than his family?

It’s a nice production – I wouldn’t call it outstanding, but it’s well and capably done. This being the first performance I’ve seen of a Greek tragedy, it’s neat that they get staged in a wide variety of settings too. This one is set somewhere in the 20^th century, probably the ‘60s or ‘70s, with much of the action set in and around Creon’s office and his staff serving as the chorus. In addition to our double dose of Doctors, I recognized Alfie Enoch (Harry Potter’s Dean Thomas) as one of Creon’s office staff, and I was pleased to see Luke Newberry, who I loved so much as Kieren on In the Flesh, pop up as Creon’s son/Antigone’s fiancé. On the downside, as is the all-too-unfortunate custom in theatre, the blind prophet Teiresias is played by a sighted actor; boo.

We’ll take our Doctors chronologically, starting with Christopher Eccleston. As Creon, he plays the unflinching ruler, rigid in his ideals to the point of destruction. Eccleston is commanding in the role, moving among the cast with a gravity that won’t be trifled with – I like the penny-drop moments when minor characters or members of the chorus lightly expect one reaction from him only to be hit by the brick wall of his implacability. Even though it’s Antigone’s actions that set the play in motion, Creon is actually the most central character. He’s the one with the power to change things, and Eccleston anchors much of the play as assorted characters plead Antigone’s case to him.

Which brings us to Jodie Whittaker in the title role. Like I said, Antigone is what the play is about more than who it’s about, so her role isn’t as prominent as I would’ve expected. She’s really only in about three extended scenes in the play – however, they’re all meaty and pivotal ones, and Whittaker makes the most of them. Her Antigone is pure ferocity fueled by grief and love, and she’s not about to let anything stop her. One line that I really loved was, “Our lives are short. We have too little time to waste it on men and the laws they make.” While others bargain on her behalf, she asks only that others not be pulled down with her and insists on doing what’s right, not what’s legal.

Even though the two performances are very different – Whittaker’s fiercer, Eccleston’s steadier – one thing they share is an ability to sound like they’re speaking their lines instead of reciting them. While I wouldn’t call the language here as dense as that of the average Shakespeare play, I came in knowing very little of the story and I could still easily follow the dialogue at all times.

Accent Watch

Christopher Eccleston – RP, pretty decent. I caught a few Northern-sounding vowels, but not many.

Jodie Whittaker – Northern.

Recommend?

In General – If you’re looking to take a crack at a Greek tragedy, this one is pretty good. That said, I get that tragedies aren’t for everyone, and even if they’re for you, you probably have to be in a certain mood for it. Go into this knowing that it will end well for basically no one.

Christopher Eccleston – I think so. It’s always interesting to see an actor onstage when you’re used to seeing them onscreen, and Eccleston acquits himself well – subtle, but he never gets lost in the larger action around him.

Jodie Whittaker – I would. As I’ve observed before with Whittaker’s body of work, she hasn’t been in an overadundance of projects that really give her something to work with, so I welcome any play/film/show that gives her a chance to let loose.

Warnings

Violence, strong thematic elements (including suicide and references to incest,) and an able-bodied actor playing a character with a disability.

Other Doctor Lives: The Smoke: Episode 7 (2014)

I do enjoy a good penultimate episode, and this one is pretty intense. It centers around a major call the watch is responding to, and as the characters face the danger, the issues that have grown between them are brought into greater perspective.

Kev isn’t in a good place with multiple people on the watch, due to personal conflicts that have boiled over in recent episodes. But when they’re called to the site of a multiple-car collision involving a tanker that’s leaking flammable material, Kev and the rest of the watch need to have one another’s backs and trust each other absolutely. As they desperately try to assist the injured before the tanker ignites, they’re also deathly aware that they’re in a tunnel and hundreds of motorists are caught in the backed-up traffic behind them – including Trish.

Obviously, this is a tension-filled episode. The watch has to deal with multiple ticking time bombs at once – severely-injured drivers from the accident, the leaking tanker, updates over the two-way radios on the evacuation of other motorists in the tunnel, even the overhead fans whose air circulation will feed the impending flames – and it requires everyone to be at the top of their game. While Kev and the other more prominent characters get the showiest (and foolhardiest?) displays of heroics, each firefighter on the watch is shown to play a critical role in the crisis.

I also like seeing occasional scenes back at the fire station, where other staff are listening to the chaos over the radios. Throughout the miniseries, the fire station has been portrayed as a comfy, familiar place, a space where the firefighters eat, joke, and unwind between calls, so it’s interesting to watch the support staff listen to these messages of their coworkers in danger, feeling powerless to help (I like one man leaping up and heading into the kitchen intent on making bouillabaisse, because all he can do is make them something sumptuous for when they eventually, hopefully, all return.)

Meanwhile, Trish is caught adjacent to the main action. Her situation for being there in the first place is an odd one, as she’s with people who mean a great deal to her but whom she doesn’t know very well (I won’t get into the specifics to avoid spoilers.) As such, it’s awkward and difficult, and even what seems initially to be a minor traffic delay increases the discomfort within the car. But as the situation intensifies and the danger grows, she’s bent on following Kev’s safety recommendations to the letter but feels unable to protect the people she’s with when her advice is crowded out.

I think Jodie Whittaker does a nice job here as an ordinary person thrust into an extraordinary crisis. Her personal relationships with firefighters give her a slight leg up on knowing what to do, but that doesn’t make it any easier to handle mentally or emotionally, and she wrestles not to fall apart in the face of what they’re up against. But I think in terms of acting, my favorite scenes for Trish actually come before the crisis, when she’s in the car trying to connect with these people. The go-to description that, for me, has often come to mind with this character is “self-possessed,” but in this circumstance, she’s really at a loss. Whittaker captures how much it means to Trish to get these relationships right while simultaneously fearing that she’s completely blowing it. It’s a very relatable kind of awkward, and she nails it.

One episode to go! Conclusion next week.