On Sunday, K. and I walked uptown for Indian buffet at Karma and a movie. Saw Pirate Radio (aka The Boat That Rocked) and quite enjoyed it. Written and directed by Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Love Actually), it was a fictional account of one the UK's pirate radio stations in the mid 60s when licensed radio stations played very little recorded music, so illegal, offshore radio stations sprang up to provide round-the-clock rock and roll to the masses.

The film is more about wacky antics and small emotional moments than plot, but that doesn't really matter because Curtis is just so damned good at creating characters that you want to watch. Of course, it was helped along by a stellar case. Bill Nighy (Love Actually) plays the station's owner. Philip Seymour Hoffman (Almost Famous) and Rhys Ifans (Danny Deckchair) play the stations rock star DJs. Nick Frost (Shawn of the Dead) and Rhys Darby (Flight of the Conchords) on board as well to keep the laughter coming. Evil is afoot in the form of Kenneth Branagh (Henry V) and Jack Davenport (Coupling) as two government officials looking for an excuse to shut down pirate radio for good. Ladies get a bit of a short shrift in the film, since women are generally forbidden on the boat except for the purposes of cooking and sex, but Talulah Riley, Katherine Parkinson, and (the always fantastic) Emma Thompson all do well with their all too brief roles.