Letter from Spain #72
My take on Sinners & Frankenstein.
This week, I’m just going to update my thoughts on the Best Picture category of the Oscars.
Since last week’s post, I’ve watched Frankenstein and Sinners - which means I’ve now seen six of the 10 movies nominated for the top award. Four to go, including Hamnet, which could sway everything.
Firstly, I really do admire anyone who can write, direct and get a film produced - let alone have it nominated for any award - so my opinion about any film is just my opinion (obviously). But for what it’s worth, here’s my view on Frankenstein …
Well, Frankenstein is not my type of genre.
I’m not a fan of fantasy (or sci-fi). Years ago, I walked out of one of those Lord of the Rings or Hobbit jobs after 30 minutes, leaving one of my sons to enjoy it with all his friends on his birthday while I spent the time in a nearby bar. Same thing happened (same bar, too) with a different son and one of the Harry Potter films. Goblins, elves, gremlins, hairy wizards … not my thing.
I’ve never seen any of the Star Wars movies because I have no interest in them at all - and I always loathed Dr.Who and Star Trek on TV as a kid. I’m not a spaceship or ‘time travel’ fan - but that’s not to say I dislike the ‘unknown’ or ‘supernatural’ genre.
I loved Close Encounters of the Third Kind - and Aliens (because my talented brother-in-law is Lieutenant Gorman) - and I also like it when this genre doesn’t take itself seriously. I loved ET, for example.
But Frankenstein … ?
I don’t know what to say. It took me two nights to watch it on Netflix. I had to force myself to continue with it on the second night. It started okay … the opening scenes were very good … but then I just thought that it got very … silly. And too Disney-ish. I laughed at a couple of moments that weren’t supposed to be funny at all.
Should it get the Best Picture Award at the Oscars? No. Should Jacob Elordi get an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role? No, I don’t think so - not being up against Sean Penn or Stellan Skarsgard in One Battle after Another and Sentimental Value.
What I did end up enjoying - more than the film itself - was the 40-minute documentary on Netflix about the making of Frankenstein, which I was prompted to watch immediately after. That was fascinating. My guess is that the movie will probably get its awards for Costume Design, and probably Make Up / Hair.
Okay, here we go … Sinners.
WTF?
I know I’m late to this party. Sinners landed in theatres across the USA last Easter and soon became the highest grossing original film in the past 15 years, and the 10th-highest-grossing R-rated film of all time. It’s already made over $370m for Warner Bros at the box-office alone, and on a $90m budget.
I sat down to watch it in good faith. I really did. We even invited a couple of friends round to make it a ‘movie night’. Tapas, wine, log fire, phones on silent … no talking if possible until after the movie (but that was impossible in the end).
I’d heard a lot about the film beforehand and was open to being challenged, provoked, unsettled, even enlightened. Instead, I emerged two hours and 17 minutes later, thinking: what a load of crap.
I freely admit that I might be the problem. You’re probably thinking the same by now. I can hear you mumbling as you unsubscribe from me here on Substack: ‘He’s just an old fart who’s never seen Star Wars and walked out of The Hobbit and Harry Potter on his poor sons’ birthdays …’
Sinners might be one of the highest grossing original films of all time, but it’s also one of the most over-praised and over-hyped movies of all time. In my opinion.
I’m not saying Hollywood has lost the plot. Warner Bros obviously hasn’t. Not if they can take that risk and make that profit.
Set in the Deep South during the Great Depression, Sinners follows the Smokestack Twins, both played by Michael B. Jordan, the Black Panther director Ryan Coogler’s frequent collaborator. Great talent combined … but either something went wildly over my head (it’s possible), or I’m out of touch. Or both.
How is it possible that this film has been nominated for 16 Oscars? Seriously?
I’ve got nothing against horror or vampire movies. In my hometown here, we have the annual Sitges Film Festival dedicated mainly to that genre … but I’ve walked out of some better films that Sinners over the years.
Sinners is a vampire movie.
The critics claim Sinners uses its vampires as a ‘cultural metaphor’, allowing the movie to explore several ‘historical themes’.
No, Sinners is just a vampire movie.
Sinners is also mediocre, at best. It’s a mediocre vampire movie, in which - without really spoiling anything - you have to wait until the last third of the film for any of the gory vampire bits. And that is probably the only thing that’s really clever about it - because it doesn’t stick to the rules of one particular genre. In that sense, it’s bold and original. For the first half, it is pretty much a realistic period adventure. Then it gets weird. Some of the characters’ eyeballs go red and then the biting starts and the blood squirts from their necks and it becomes a crazy bloodbath. But why? What’s the story? You tell me.
There are some good scenes - and there’s some great music, for sure - but it’s not worthy of 16 Oscar nominations. 16?
‘At a time when Black heritage and culture are once again under intense political assault’, Sinners provoked ‘zeitgeist-y discourse around Black history, cultural erasure and entertainment industry politics’ according to The Guardian. Yeah, right …
I don’t only watch movies for entertainment, or to be taken to another world for a couple of hours. But I don’t always need a history lesson or sermon, either … and especially not from a vampire flick.
All these deep complex metaphors that they claim Sinners is about … ‘tackling real-world issues’ … ‘portraying immigrant culture through spiritual liberation, religion and colonialism, where biblical symbolism shows vampirism as a metaphor for inherent exploitation and blues music through resistance and resurrection’ … give me a break.
It’s a mediocre vampire movie that has made tons of dosh at the box-office. Best of luck to it … congratulations to all concerned … but it is not a ‘masterpiece’.
It is not ‘one of the best films of this generation’ (box-office aside), or ‘the best of the decade’, or a film that ‘defines this era’.
So … from what I have seen so far, this is my Best Picture list order updated:
One Battle After Another
Marty Supreme
Sentimental Value
Train Dreams
Sinners
Frankenstein
Still to watch: Bugonia, F1, Hamnet and The Secret Agent before 16 March.
For those who are interested …
The Madrid Connection - Research & Images
After The Barcelona Connection was published in April 2023, I started to post images and notes in this Substack blog about my research for the novel, especially about Salvador Dalí and many of the locations that appear in the book - from Nîmes to Barcelona, with Figueres, Cadaqués, Púbol, La Bisbal and even Girona airport in between. Links to all those posts can be found below.
I am now doing the same with The Madrid Connection - just for those who might be interested!
Past posts on research and images for the book:
Letter from Spain #71 - Prologue, and the ‘Prado by Night’.
Letter from Spain #70 - time spent in the Prado Museum ‘casing the joint’.
In my next post I’ll put some notes and images that relate to Chapter 1 that takes place in the Casa del Campo and then also in the streets surrounding the Italian Embassy in Madrid.
A bit about me: on and off, I have worked in the media in Spain for some 30 years (click here for more info). Currently, in addition to writing my books set in Spain and developing them for the screen (see below), I also chat briefly on most Wednesday mornings to Giles Brown on Talk Radio Europe about the latest news from Spain.
Books, Reviews, Research, News & Events
On Friday 17 April at 8pm I am going to be presenting The Madrid Connection in the wonderful Secret Kingdoms Bookshop in Madrid, alongside Ann Bateson. It’s a free event (with refreshments), but as places are limited the bookshop requests you buy a €3 voucher redeemable at the event. Please come along if you are in Madrid at that time - it would be great to see you there! Here’s a link to reserve a place, or click on the image below.
The Madrid Connection
Published on 26 Nov 2025, The Madrid Connection is a standalone crime-thriller, but also a sequel to The Barcelona Connection (see below).
Here’s the back cover blurb from The Madrid Connection:
Of all the paintings in all the galleries in all of Madrid.
They chose a Caravaggio.
And they chose last night.
On the night Madrid hosts the Champions League Final, disaster erupts at the Prado Museum: a guard is murdered and a Caravaggio is stolen.
British art detective Benjamin Blake, hoping for a quiet few days in the city on a low-key assignment, instead finds himself dragged into the chaos he swore to avoid.
Suddenly he’s the investigation’s uninvited headache – and possibly its key.
Rival mafias begin circling. The Asians want him gone. The Italians want him alive – at least for now.
As the cultural bureaucrats drag him into the case to deflect from their own failings, Madrid’s homicide chief – choking on his own lies – wants him nowhere near the case, let alone the truth.
Across the city, journalist Elena Carmona is in Madrid on a separate assignment, digging into the poison of racism in football – an evil that opens into a far wider conspiracy.
Trafficking, exploitation and revenge run beneath the pitch and deep into the criminal underworld, drawing her straight towards the same mafias now circling the stolen Caravaggio.
As her investigation crashes straight into Benjamin’s, they find themselves at the centre of something far darker than either imagined.
Art, money, football, murder, mafia – Madrid was never going to keep them apart.
The Madrid Connection is a fast, gripping and darkly funny page-turner - the perfect sequel to The Barcelona Connection.
The Barcelona Connection - Research & development for the screen
‘The Barcelona Connection’ is in development for the screen, and I hope I will be able to post further news about this here in due course.
Research: In my weekly ‘Letter from Spain’ from #7 right up to #42, I included notes about all the research I carried out for The Barcelona Connection. Many of the posts include photos and descriptions of locations that appear in the book, from Nîmes, Figueres, Cadaqués, La Bisbal d’Empordà and, of course, many areas of Barcelona. There are also posts about Salvador Dalí’s Hallucinogenic Toreador and ‘The Face’, the Dalí Museum in Figueres, the Picasso Museum and MNAC in Barcelona, even Girona Airport and nearby motorway service station - as well as the G20 Spouse Party, museum visits and ‘art attacks’. I hope the notes about the research are of interest … and I hope you might buy, read and take The Barcelona Connection with you to some of the locations that appear in the book! If you do, please send me a photo and I’ll post it here …
The Barcelona Connection - Book & Reviews
A murder. A kidnapping. A lost Salvador Dalí painting. Just 36 hours to resolve all three. Every crime scene is a work of art …
Benjamin Blake is no ordinary detective. Specialising in the criminal underworld of stolen and forged art, things don’t always go the right way for Benjamin. But when they don’t, he has a stubborn determination to put them right.
Within hours of being sent to Barcelona to authenticate a possible Salvador Dalí painting, Benjamin is left stranded without his cell phone at a service station alongside a bloody corpse in the early hours of the morning, after being savagely attacked with his hire car stolen, together with the painting.
Helped and hindered by the fiery Elena Carmona, pursued by a psychopathic hitman, Benjamin becomes the prime suspect in a politically motivated kidnap and murder. All this on the eve of Barcelona hosting a G20 summit and UN climate change conference, with the police in hot pursuit fearing a wider terrorist threat.
From Nîmes in the South of France, across the border to the sweltering humidity of Girona, Barcelona, Figueres and Cadaqués, The Barcelona Connection is a fast-paced, gripping page-turner sprinkled with black comedy, blending the real with the surreal, art crime and mistaken identity … and where the clues at the crime scene might just be the mirror image of a long-lost work of art …
If you can’t locate a copy of The Barcelona Connection in your local store, it can be ordered from any bookshop simply by giving the ISBNnumber: 978-1-7393326-1-7.
It is also available in print or as an eBook via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or you can also click here to choose where else to order your copy from.
Click here for the latest reviews on Amazon and on Goodreads.
A review by Michael Eaude of The Barcelona Connection was published in the October 2023 edition of Catalonia Today.
‘Short, fast-moving scenes and the deft joining of two completely different plots … the novel is not just breathlessly rapid and action-packed, but overflows with humour and satire.’
‘The excellent plotting, the local knowledge, the surreal humour, the political satire and the speed of events … it’s an admirable and very readable crime novel.’
A review by Dominic Begg of The Barcelona Connection was published in La Revista, a publication of the British-Spanish Society.
‘The Barcelona Connection is a fast-moving page-turner with a helter-skelter plot.’
‘The background to this thriller is realistic and familiar to those who know Barcelona well. It’s a world of cynical, ambitious politicians; civil servants promoted via enchufe; friction between Spanish and Catalan investigators; disruptive anti-capitalist activists; bumbling US dignitaries and security guards; the continuing influence of old supporters of Franco; the soulless 21st century, exemplified by apartment hotels seemingly without human staff-members …’
Here’s a link to a review of the book by Eve Schnitzer published by the Spain in English online newspaper.
‘Tim Parfitt very cleverly weaves together two parallel though quite different stories, set against the background of a contemporary Barcelona that is even busier than usual with major international meetings.’
‘Two plot lines interweave, with some highly ironic as well as suspenseful results … this book has a lot to offer the reader, from pure entertainment to solid information and, possibly, a fuller understanding of the complexities of Spain and Catalonia in particular.’
Here’s the link to an article I was asked to write for The Art Newspaper about my research on Salvador Dalí.
A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid - Book & Reviews
Eighteen years since it was originally published, ‘A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid’ has been re-issued with a new introduction, new cover and five extra chapters that were cut from the original book.
It is available in print and as an eBook worldwide, in both formats. You can also order the new paperback or digital edition via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or the digital version on Apple, Kobo, Smashwords, or on many other platforms by clicking here.
If you’ve never read the book, I hope you will now acquire a copy and laugh out loud. If you did read and enjoy the original edition, I think you’ll love this new edition with additional chapters! More details about the book and links to many reviews are below.
As with previous posts showing images and locations that form part of the research I carried out for The Barcelona Connection novel (above), I am also planning to publish an archive of photos here of Madrid that relate to many chapters in ‘A Load of Bull’ - although it will take time! In Letter from Spain #52, I cover Chapter 1 - the Centro Colón aparthotel (entrance) Watch this space for further images …
A LOAD OF BULL - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid
The hilarious true story of an Englishman sent to Madrid to help launch Spanish Vogue …
In the late eighties Tim Parfitt blagged his way into a job at Condé Nast in London and from there into a six week stint in Madrid to help launch Spanish Vogue. Six weeks turned into nine years, and helping out turned into running the company. Along the way, Tim Parfitt discovered the real ‘real’ Spain. He never saw a Costa and he certainly never bought an olive grove. Instead, he discovered a booming city in hedonistic reaction to years of fascism, where sleep was something you only did at work and where five hour lunches invariably involved a course of bull’s testicles.
Tim Parfitt’s rise from unwanted guest to paparazzi-pursued mover in Spain’s glamorous social scene is a hilarious comedy of errors. Frothing with a language designed to make foreigners dribble, hospitalised by tapa-induced flatulence and constantly frustrated by the unapproachable beauty of the women parading through the Vogue offices, he nevertheless falls in love with a city, a country and its people - despite the fact he hasn’t a clue what they’re on about.
You can click here for all the reviews of A Load of Bull on Amazon, as well as on Goodreads.
Links to newspaper and magazine reviews:
‘A hugely entertaining memoir ... frequently laugh-out-loud funny.’ (The Daily Express)
‘Parfitt is no ordinary Englishman … his light touch and neat line in self-deprecating humour perfectly suits this entertaining urban spin on the old tale of Brits having fun under the Spanish sun.’ (The Sunday Times)
‘A love letter to Madrid ... brilliantly captures a truly eccentric and hedonistic place.’ (The Daily Mirror)
‘Often hilarious ... a side-splittingly funny travel memoir.’ (BBC Online)
‘Vivid yet affectionate … fascinating, escapist stuff.’ (OK! Magazine)
‘Magnificent ... brilliant and moving, hilarious and truthful.’ (La Vanguardia)
‘Don’t miss it … Madrid through the eyes of an Englishman.’ (Vogue España)
Spanish edition
A Load of Bull was also published in Spanish under the title, Mucho Toro - las tribulaciones de un inglés en la movida. Click here or on image below for the current eBook version.
Contact Details
You can email me at: tim.parfitt@hotmail.co.uk