On one of the hottest English days on record, a food critic piled into a tiny flat overlooking the canal by Camden for an ice cream party. The gathering featured an ice bucket full of containers of caramel, strawberry, apple cider vinegar and cherry flavours, with paper cups and tiny plastic spoons in the Roman gelateria style. A bottle of Crémant was opened. The critic confessed to skipping breakfast and lunch, concerned about the calorie implications of such an occasion.
That same week, a low-budget, 89-minute thriller directed by German independent filmmaker Uwe Boll has been generating attention. The film, released last month, stars Armie Hammer as a former US soldier turned angry vigilante against migrant violence. Elon Musk, owner of X, promoted the movie on his platform. The UnHerd article describing the film calls it artistically lacking, little more than “Right-wing slop, akin to a Dinesh D’Souza production”. The piece’s author, a brown-skinned ethnic-Iranian with the last name Mohammadi, recounted being picked up by a rude Uber driver named Mohammed and later approached suspiciously by three men, experiences he ties to what he calls “mass-migration society” and “diversity stress”.
“A food critic attended an ice cream party on a record-hot day, while a vigilante film promoted by Elon Musk sparks debate.”