‘Trance’ follows a fine art auctioneer, mixed up with a gang, who joins forces with a hypnotherapist to recover a lost painting. ‘As boundaries between desire, reality and hypnotic suggestion begin to blur the stakes rise faster than anyone could have anticipated.’ It looks pretty brutal.

Susan is a not only an innocent beauty, but a high class girl.  Her father owns a factory, and once Joe is in her family’s radar, he is seen as a threat.  You see, Joe comes from a town that is now largely piles of rubble from the war and is considered lower class.  Joe pursues Susan, partially for a possible future of gaining higher class status, but also just for lustful kicks.  But a clean cut girl like Susan is hard to get to, especially with such protective parents, and in the end will she even be what Joe really wants?

Then there is Alice, a friend Joe never meant to fall in love with.  While Susan is a wide-eyed girl, Alice is a strong, seasoned and careful woman.  She is ten years older than Joe and skeptical, (not so much of his intentions, she seems comfortable with casual sex) but of getting too serious.  Alice is a much more interesting and likeable woman than Susan.  She is smarter, more cultured with a lifetime more of experiences than girlish Susan.  Even better, she is a surprisingly modern feminist, seeing herself and her body as more than a plaything for Joe.  I did not expect these bold conversations from a film from 1959.  When Alice finally does fall completely and trust Joe, she falls hard, and losing him would tear her apart.

A film with so much lust, adultery and the idea of sex being an enjoyable act landed Room at the Top with an X rating by the ABC.  It was so racy for 1959 that film distributors were afraid to touch the film.  However, once it was released, it proved to be a big hit, both critically and financially, and ushered in a new age of adult themes in film.

At the Oscars Room at the Top was nominated for six awards, including Best Picture.  Jack Clayton was nominated for best director, Harvey for best actor and Hermione Baddeley was nominated for best supporting actress for only being in a couple short scenes, but making quite an impact.  The film won the award for best adapted screenplay and Signoret won the Oscar for lead actress.  The way she can put up walls and let them fall and become so vulnerable earned her that Oscar.

Readers, I am so happy to have finally seen Room at the Top.  It was worth the wait and such a surprise.  The acting is superb all around and the story is juicy, enticing and pulls you in so well that you end up just as crushed at the end.  This film is an amazing ride, and i really wish it was more widely available.  I got it off Amazon UK as a second hand DVD, the only one I could find.

“I own my own body and I’m not ashamed of it.”

2011  -  Certificate 18  -  USA
Rating Details: Strong sex and sex references
7.5 out of 10

I’m having a water meter fitted at home.  No longer will I pay Thames Water £36.60 a month for the few drops of H2O that I use every day.  (Apparently it has to dig up half the town to fit it, but who cares?)  No longer will I feel guilt if I wash-up, flush the toilet, have a shower or do some washing, as I’ll simply stop doing all of those things.  This will save me money and, more importantly, save the planet too.  Who would have though becoming a lazy, housework-averse, smelly slob would actually be more community-minded than keeping your whites white and your home clean?  The next time I see someone washing his or her car I’m going to go up to the criminal (and let’s face it, you can’t do much worse than destroy the whole planet), and tell them just how selfish they are.  They may as well just get a gun and start killing people.  Indeed, a clean 4×4 has a lot in common with a minigun.  In a mostly unrelated incident, the first thing I did this morning was knock an almost entirely new toilet role into the toilet, while I was using it.  I managed to knock it off the holder and in an effort to stop it falling on the floor, only managed to redirect it into the bowl instead.  (My hands were pretty full at the time.)  For the second time in about a month, I enjoyed the taboo experience of urinating onto something that’s not really meant to be treated in that way; (last time it was my mobile phone).  In a not dissimilar way, this is a film about a successful guy with an addiction to sex.  We also get to see him using a toilet in a similar fashion to me, although minus the bog role and with a ‘physical presence’ that made me feel somewhat inadequate.

This film has a story and a plot of sorts, but if you’re the sort of person who likes a story that sort of has a purpose, then you may not find it that satisfying.  On the other hand, if you like films with a vibe and an atmosphere, then you might quite enjoy it.  Depending on your world view, I guess you’ll either consider Brandon is ‘the man’ or a ‘total loser’.  (If it helps you, please feel free to insert a pair of diametrically opposed euphemisms of your choice in place of the two I’ve just used, perhaps more suited to your age and social background.)  This is actually a very good movie.  I didn’t really want to like Brandon, but somehow he manages to come across as a decent guy with two sides to his life; one a success at work and the other an uncontrollable addict that he keeps bottled up by routine and ‘rules’.  Then his somewhat messed up sister arrives on the scene.  I felt quite sorry for him actually.  This probably has a lot to do with how Michael Fassbender portrays the character, which is in a quite understated way.  The story does leave a lot of unfinished business and unanswered questions in its wake, but really, it’s the mood of the film that makes it work.  Mostly depressing (like most of what I watch), it’s a visually and emotionally entertaining portrayal of a guy with a problem, a guy with a problem that he then tries to do something about.

I really love how the music is used in this film, a mixture of mainly 80s pop, Johann Sebastian Bach and some great incidental stuff by Harry Escott.  It also seems to be part of the trigger that makes Brandon try to change his behaviour.

No cats, decapitation or chainsaws.

Recommended for perverts, obviously.

Top badass moment?  Twice in under two hours, we see Brandon make ‘meaningful’ eye contact with attractive women on the Subway.  I’ve spent hundreds of hours on the Tube and never managed that; in fact I’ve only seen it happen once between anyone.  Somehow that’s badass, or jealousy, I’m not sure which.

Shame at IMDB (7.3/10)

The poster is by freelance illustrator/designer/screenprinter Dan Mumford, who works out of Studio100 in central London and screenprint studio in Dalston. You can check out more of his work here.

Eran Creevy ups his game tenfold following his impressive micro budget debut with Shifty. Now backed by executive producer Ridley Scott, and with a considerable amount more money behind him, Creevy demonstrates what he can do when he’s playing with the big boys, in an impressive but not quite perfect classic cop chase style film.

Welcome to the Punch stars James McAvoy as Detective Max Lewinsky a man on a three-year hunt for ex criminal Jacob Sternwood (Mark Strong). After hiding in Iceland, as you do, Sternwood is forced back to London when his son gets involved in a heist gone wrong. The East End battle begins.

The opening of Welcome to the Punch shows London in an impressive light, a drawn out motorbike chase through the back drop of Canary Wharf atnight, makes London look like its had the $10 million Hollywood effect sprayed across it, and I have to say, it looks stunningly beautiful and certainly sets the tone for this fast paced, well acted and glossy film.

McAvoy is strong as the lead character, and once again shows off his versatility as a disgruntled, scarred and determined officer, focused on nothing other than to get his man. Mark Strong is a fantastic counterpart to McAvoy’s good guy, he’s understated and calm, so you can’t ever quite read him correctly, and this plays out for the audience who spend the majority of the film trying to work out if he’s a “bad guy gone good”, or if its just one big double bluff?! On the filp side, rising star Andrea Riseborough is sadly one of the more forgettable characters in this film, as one can’t help but feel that she is under-utilized throughout. She’s a supporting character, but sadly with not a huge amount to do or for us to care about, which does not bode well three quarters of the way through, and is perhaps one of the biggest shames about this film.

On the upside, however, There’s a fantastic array of dark humour throughout and the use of well known cameos such a Jason Flemyng and Jason Maza who have no more than a few minutes on screen, still throw is back to Creevy’s Shifty days and provide a warm and nostalgic reminder that this is a great British film.

Another great point about this film is that although the setting and style of delivery is very much London in feel, you can’t avoid seeing Creevy’s influences from much further afield. His love of Hong Kong cinema and John Woo can be picked up easily in the fight sequences, particularly the hotel gun shooting scene, and this is a refreshing move forward for this film, it widens the field and its homages remind us of some great films that have come before it, and that Welcome to the Punch is paying a considerable tribute to them all.

Overall, this is a strong offering from Eran Creevy. Having major acting players like Mark Strong and James McAvoy involved does take this film up a notch, but Welcome to the Punch has managed to break a number of barriers in terms of British police based film making and visually looks as stunning as a multi-million dollar Hollywood film, but maintains the level of dark British undertones and humour which helps it to stand out from the crowd. It may not be perfect, but its enjoyable and very much worth a watch.

James Bond has moved on from the days when pretty, half-naked women adorned the posters alongside the explosions and snippits of the action packed film.

How did the film conform to it’s traditions and stereotypes as well as how does the film reinvent itself?

The new films are no longer the quick witted, innuendo packed unbelievably unrealistic films we grew to love and hate since the arrival of the latest man behind Bond.

The name’s Craig. Daniel Craig.

Craig takes on a new steely, clinical persona of Bond, and shows off the new approach of the writer’s behind the latest films.
Back in the day, The Bond series was a bit of a joke and a laugh to be honest. People wouldn’t go to the cinemas for the tension and hero nature of  this beloved man. No. but for the womanising, action addicted, show-off and middle aged-man-idol that he was.
But now we see Bond with actual feelings and maybe even… wait, remorse? for what he’s done over the years (which over the last 50 years he’s done a lot), we see a deterioration in his mindset and for possible the first time at a weaker and disadvantaged position to is enemy.

In the latest installment of the film, we go at least 5-10 minutes before we see barely anything that shows it may be another Bond film (and this was the titles), this scene is filled with action, tension, and awesome stunts and you actually wonder whether you’re watching a bond film.

However, Bond wouldn’t be Bond without sticking to some traditions.
The title sequence is yet another classic that is reminiscent of every bond film. Ever.
It’s full of operatic, high volume, powerful music and that mirage effect that is virtually copyright of the bond films… Women, guns, skulls, fighting silhouettes, edgy fonts… it’ all there.
But this just shows that although Bond has been changed and reinvented so many times before, it has kept to it’s ‘roots’ and still been able to find the things we love about bond and keep them, but do away with all the rubbish ‘dad-jokes’ and cringe-worthy innuendo.

Bond’s enemies have also managed to mature a bit from the days of blowing up the moon or taking over the world through billion dollar hostage take. The new baddies of bond, although admittedly still all mental, are actually a lot more realistic and actually a little frightening if you look into it.
Admittedly no one these days ever thinks about an evil tycoon reinventing nazism and bringing it back to power. But the new threat is one we cannot actually see, but could believe.
Rumours, stories and beliefs are rife about all technology being under control by someone other than ourselves and that there are people at work who are working to change the course of certain events to their own plans. Now I don’t think that this is happening like the Illuminati or any rubbish like that, but I can see why a film would put this sort of idea as their main plot line when so many around the world are so interested.

Finally, the latest installment brings a whole new list of characters to the fray. But… we know these characters already… Q, Miss Money Penny and a male M all return but brand new and ‘reinvented’ once again.
Which shows the whole concept of the new films. They are reinvented for the modern age and audience but still keeps to it’s biggest traditions and clichés to attract it’s older audiences. Therefore (on paper) making it a much more successful film.

Yes I know it is now March, but it has taken me this long to see everything due to having to wait for the retail release or my local independent cinema to show it. The criteria for this are any films released theatrically in the UK within 2012. For my own personal criteria these were films within 2012 that had a lasting profound effect on me, in that there was some part of them that stayed with me in my mind. They had some element of originality and a very unique distinctive quality that I simply cannot describe (yes I know that sounds extremely pretentious.) For example, The Expendables 2 (Simon West) or Avengers Assemble (Joss Whedon) along with countless other blockbusters were enjoyable and tremendous fun in their own ways, but pretty much instantly forgettable text book tick-the-boxes genre pieces.

1. The Hunter (Daniel Nettheim)

2. Amour (Michael Haneke)

3. Shame (Steve McQueen)

4. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)

5. Michael (Markus Schleinzer)

6. The Kid with a Bike (Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne,)

7. Berberian Sound Studio (Peter Strickland)

8. Samsara (Ron Fricke)

9. A Royal Affair (Nicolaj Arcel)

10. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson)

Everyone’s Going To Die Movie Poster

Everyone’s Going to Die is a British film that premiered yesterday at SXSW.

I really like the poster that has hints of pop culture throughout.

Synopsis:

Two lost souls. One last chance.

Melanie’s life in a seaside town is going nowhere until she meets Ray, back in town with a shady job to do. A moment’s escape becomes a chance to save themselves, and each other.

“Everyone’s Going To Die” is a modern British story about coming home, getting by and the redemptive power of feeling you’re not alone. A story where porn hotlines rub shoulders with sexy beavers on rollerskates; where the past is laid to rest, two lives are changed and nobody, finally, is going to die.

Starring: Richard Coyle, Bronson Webb, Agyness Deyn

You may like this if you liked: Pusher (Nicolas Winding Refn, 1996), Dead Man Running (Alex De Rakoff, 2009), Sexy Beast (Jonathan Glazer, 2000)

Frank (Coyle) is a London drug pusher, in debt but good at what he does and he lives a good life. However, when deal goes very wrong he is forced to destroy the drugs but now owes the supplier, dangerous gangster Milo (Zlatko Buric) a serious amount of money. However, with no one left to turn to, he is forced to resort to extremes to acquire all this money.

I never saw the Norwegian original from 1996 and but I hope it was a damn sight better than this. Firstly, it contains hardly the most original plot and so is going to have to do something a bit different to stand out against what is quite frankly an already overcrowded genre. Unfortunately, if anything it is even worse.

Usually films of this genre contain the old cliché of a protagonist who was perhaps born into this world and is desperate to get out, or maybe they are protecting a family member. We are usually given some reason to care about a protagonist who is essentially a criminal. However here we are given simply nothing, Frank is simply a criminal living a life by pushing class A drugs. As his life begins to spiral out of control surely it is only a good thing that he may get a bullet in the head as it means there is one less criminal on the streets of London.

Without a protagonist to really care about, the whole thing feels completely pointless and empty. This is a shame as Richard Coyle (though he will always be Jeff from Coupling to me) gives an excellent performance and has the potential to be likeable if his character was actually given some redeeming features. There are also some excellently crafted individual moments and the base heavy score provided by Orbital, though a little clichéd is used very effectively.  The whole plot plays out shoddily and predictably, covering most of the clichés along the way and all the usual London underworld caricatures. There is a slight twist at the end, though slightly unexpected, as we still do not really care about the protagonist it is very hard to have any emotional reaction to it. A predictable plot can be fine, if the action is slick and there is a likeable protagonist. However, for the reasons I have just explained the whole thing feels extremely pointless despite the action sequences actually quite well crafted.

If you are after a slick British gangster film, there are plenty of superior offers out there such as Sexy Beast as despite some individually good moments, Pusher is a completely pointless and empty waste of 90 minutes of your life.

Sophie Neville with Swallow on Coniston Water, Cumbria

Nick Barton of Harbour Pictures, in collaboration with BBC Films, is planning to make a new adaptation of  Swallows and Amazons this summer. They hope it will be the new Harry Potter or Chronicles of Narnia franchise.

I joined him and his wife on the first recce to the Lake District in 2011, staying at Bank Ground Farm, sailing Swallow on Coniston Water and taking a boat trip down Lake Windermere. He has been looking for locations with his two Directors, the Guard brothers, who have been busy working on the new script written by Andrea Gibb.  Dan Stevens, who played Matthew Crawley in Downton Abbey, is to take the part of Captain Flint.

The directors, Charles and Thomas Guard,  are short-listing boys and girls aged 7-13 for the parts of the Swallows – John, Susan, Titty and Roger – and the Amazons – Nancy and Peggy Blackett.

The casting is being undertaken by Dixie Chassay Casting for Harbour Pictures. Applicants are asked to email a photo, plus their age and any queries, to: swallowsandamazons2013@gmail.com

If you want to know what it was like to be in the film made back in 1973 ~ click here: http://sophieneville.net/category/autobiography/

]]> http://brionyjane.com/2013/03/08/winterbottom-teams-up-with-coogan-for-seedy-sex-biopic/ Fri, 08 Mar 2013 00:07:36 +0000 brionyjane http://brionyjane.com/2013/03/08/winterbottom-teams-up-with-coogan-for-seedy-sex-biopic/ 24 Hour Party People is one of my all time favourite movies so it’s delightful to see that Michael Winterbottom is yet again teaming up with Steve Coogan to capture a defining time in Britain’s recent history. “The Look of Love’ is about Paul Raymond, the controversial entrepreneur ad ‘King of Soho’ who became Britain’s richest man. The film has a pretty good cast with Matt Lucas, Anna Friel, Stephen Fry, David Walliams and Imogen Poots.

The British Film Institute have been beavering away at saving, archiving and reissuing forgotten British cinema classics since 1935. I only just discovered their Youtube channel, and it’s a real treat. Browsing the themed playlists is like being at a fete jumble sale, where Victorian cat videos are squashed alongside next to bad public information adverts from the 70s, old nature programs, avant guarde films and lovingly made animations. Unlike jumble sales however, almost all of it is treasure rather than trash, so it was hard to chose these 5 favorites.

#5 - The X Rays (1897)

Cute little video, apparently made by the Victorian Michel Gondry. You can feel the excitement at all this new technology: ‘a machine that can see your bones!’ ‘a moving picture machine!’. Its nice to see people in that era just goofing around rather than sitting bolt upright in a chair and scowling.

#4 – ‘The Mystery of Marriage’ (1932)

The most hilarious WTF sex education video from the 1930s, which compares sex to… mould. Yes, actual mould. In the fine and utterly confusing tradition of showing animal or even plant mating rituals out of squeamishness of showing human ones, it then goes on to intercut footage of a man getting ready for a date with gruesome footage of a hunting spider shedding its skin. Meanwhile, the ‘Mystery of Marriage’ is not cleared up in the slightest, although the video does helpfully warn against marrying into your own family (the mould wouldn’t dream of it either, apparently).

#3 – ‘Mary’s Birthday’ (1951)

Stunning animation featuring a garden of kind, plummy-voiced fairies versus a dastardly fly spouting communist catchphrases and intent on spreading germ warfare. Amazing trippy visuals with a prim and proper McCarthyist message entirely of it’s time. Beautiful and bizarre.

#2 – ‘N or NW’ (1939)

Made by the great experimental film-maker Len Lye, this stylish film was jump-cutting 20 years before the French New Wave made it famous, and even out-classes them by a mile to boot. The most ravishing advert for the Post Office ever made.

#1 – ‘Darling, Do You Love Me?’ (1969)

Wonderfully batshit, this works both a a satire of Germaine Greer’s own media persona and of the femme fatale trope. Germaine flaps and screeches like a cross between Morticia Adams and Ari Up from the Slits as the ultimate needy girlfriend. Love the graphics in the opening sequence.

// Honorable mention:

Solarflares Burn for You (1973)

When the psychedelia of the 60′s began dissolving into paranoia and self-indulgence, this film was made. Despite some flaws it still has some interesting moments. I love the movement and colour of the tracking shot of the flowers contrasting with the static shot of the grey statue in the busy London square. Not sure about the dodgy mime though.

The film is set in England and stars a host of famous actors that are primarily known for the roles in British films. The four main actors are played by Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Billy Connolly and Pauline Collins. The interactions between these four characters are noteworthy because character relationships that last for this long are often not present in film and it is special to see such long-lasting friendships.

The stage is set for each of the members of the home to participate in an annual concert for Verdi’s birthday in which they were set to sing one of his famous operas, but this gets challenged with the arrival of Jean, who thinks it is crazy for all of them to be putting on a concert at their age. Throughout the film, her three former friends try to convince her to do it and assure her that she is still able to sing and participate.

The acting by Maggie Smith is special to see as usual, and she truly takes on an attitude that audiences are not used to seeing in her and her previous relationship with Reginald gets tested as one of the main plots of the film revolves around whether they are able to get along after such a long time. The characters played by Connolly and Collins each offer a healthy dose of humor throughout the film as well, especially with Connolly’s character Wilf where he simply speaks his mind without a filter at all, being very inappropriate at times.

Quartet is an exceptional film because, while most films that are released featuring such a cast of older actors will portray them as grandparents and often in some form of diminished capacity, this film sets itself apart in that the characters are mentally stable and even able to participate in music classes and put together an annual concert celebration each year.

While the film is about the upcoming concert and celebration of Verdi’s birthday, it is much about the characters and how they relate to each other as well. The plot-driven portion of the film is predictable, but well done and amusing throughout as well as dramatic, allowing audiences to watch and find out how the relationships between the characters will unravel.

Too often, in films such as this one aging characters will be featured and only showing the negative sides of growing old which is important to show, but the exciting and amusing side is important as well and with this aspect it shows people how there truly is an intriguing aspect to the idea of “growing” old, because as people age they are constantly acquiring new knowledge and ideas and it is important for them to be able to share that.

A wonderfully made film, with an exciting and vibrant cast that is sure to entertain audiences of any age, this film is to held in regard with some of the great films that have been released in recent years. Packed with entertainment as well as important messages in life, laughs and tears would both be welcomed in such a touching story as this one.

Upon viewing of this film, it deserves a positive review of a 5 out of 5.

Starring: Paul Brannigan, John Henshaw, Gary Maitland

You may like this if you liked: Kes (Ken Loach, 1969), This is England (Shane Meadows, 2006), Trainspotting (Danny Boyle, 1996)

Robbie (Brannigan) is a young man who has always been in trouble with the law and narrowly avoids a jail sentence after committing a horrific unprovoked attack will under the influence of heavy drugs. After becoming a father he vows that his son will never have to have the kind of life he has. The terms of his sentence are that he has to do community service, and while doing that he makes friends with Rhino, Albert and Mo. The kind hearted officer in charge, Harry takes them to a whiskey distillery where they discover that Robbie has a fantastic nose when it comes to sniffing whiskey and knowing exactly what brand it is and its value. Upon hearing that an extremely rare barrel of whiskey worth over £1million is to be auctioned they hatch a plan, using Robbie’s excellent nose, to change all their lives forever.

Ken Loach is in my opinion, along with Mike Leigh, one of Britain’s best directors at making gritty social realist dramas that truly capture real life without bordering into excessive melodrama or cheesy clichés. When I saw The Angels’ Share released there was all these quotes on it as a ‘laugh out loud comedy’, and I thought to myself; Ken loach? Laugh out loud comedy? Is he going soft in his old age?

Thankfully he is not, the whole laugh out loud comedy quotes and the style of the front cover of the DVD appear to be more a marketing ploy, which annoys me but I understand why it is done. This will get more people to see it and after all films need to make as much money as possible, however some people may find this misleading. There are some great comedic moments in the second half of the film; however the first half of the film is vintage Ken Loach.

After all, our protagonist committed a nasty crime, and Loach does not shy away from this. At the start there are some uncomfortable and uncompromising scenes which show the darker side of real life which many of us prefer to not think about, and some scenes are extremely unlikely to make it into any Glasgow tourism campaign. Once the narrative enters its second half what develops is a very uplifting and extremely watchable (perhaps a little fantastical) story. However, in a less experienced director this could easily fall into the trap of cliché and predictable cheesiness, thankfully Loach is too old and wise to let this happen.

The main four characters are all played by unknowns and are all excellent and extremely likeable, which certainly plays a part as to why The Angels’ Share is so watchable. The protagonist Robbie is a potentially unlikeable character, but Paul Brannigan makes him likeable despite his obvious flaws, through his performance we despise his situation but not his character. Gary Maitland and William Ruane provide the excellent comic relief and John Henshaw provides genuine heart as the probation officer in charge. Despite the four main characters obvious flaws I did find myself routing for them, and this along with the films brutally honest depictions of their situations makes the film very engaging and involving. There is definitely a message here that there is good in everyone but they just need to be given the opportunity to prove it, but as I have already stated this is achieved by avoiding the usual clichés.

In summary, The Angels’ Share is an extremely honest, heartfelt and genuinely entertaining watch that manages to avoid the usual clichés and predictability if in the hands of lesser directors. Thoroughly recommended.

Starring: Alice Lowe, Steve Oram, Sara Stewart

You may like this if you like: Shaun of the Dead (Edgar Wright, 2004). Four Lions (Chris Morris, 2010), In Bruges (Martin McDonagh, 2008)

Sightseers tells the story of Tina (Lowe) a repressed midlander who still lives with her mum and has never come to terms for her part in the accidental death of her mum’s dog, Poppy. Her new boyfriend Chris (Oram) has decided to take her away on a caravan holiday tour of the north of England on what he describes as ‘an erotic odyssey’. However, due to other tourists acting in ways to annoy them, events take a slightly dark and murderous route.

Ben Wheatley’s previous film Kill List got consistently really good reviews, but I was not to keen on it myself. Sightseers received very similar applause so I was very sceptical but decided I should see it, and I must confess I was pleasantly surprised. Firstly it is nothing like Kill List (thank God!), the only similarity is in only that the occasional gore is very realistic and unashamedly brutal, but that is to its credit. This is most definitely one of the most strikingly original films I have seen for a while; also I must confess that I am finding it very hard to review.

This is a frequent issue I have, but on all the posters are quotes claiming that this film is ‘laugh out loud’ funny, though there are indeed some very funny moments. I personally felt that the humour was much more subtle and quintessentially British, but to be described as ‘laugh out loud’ may be a little misleading. This is probably more down to those clever people in marketing whose job it is to get bums on seats. I get that, but this may lead to some feeling disappointed as it can be misleading and lead to false expectations. A classic example of this is the American DVD cover of the Cuban film Strawberries and Chocolate (Tomas Gutierrez Alea, 1993) but trust me, you do not want to get me started on that!

Sightseers is very much a black comedy in that both the violence is brutal and the actual story itself is very dark. I do not want to give too much away, but apart from the very first killing, all others are not accidents. I must confess that at first I struggled to figure out where the film was going and actually understand the two protagonist’s mindsets. After a while, the film does become very watchable and strangely compelling.

One of the reasons that this is very watchable is that of the performances of Lowe and Oram (who also wrote the script), their deadpan style and natural chemistry is very effective and their characters are very compelling to watch. Though there are some very dark and deluded thoughts and ideologies inside their minds, they are very likeable (the midlands accents are a very effective part of this).

A lot of credit here has to go to Ben Wheatley; he somehow manages to juggle the funny with the sinister in a very effective way. It is clear he is always very much in control of his film and he uses some very effective cinematic techniques without there ever being a feeling of style over substance. The film itself does feel very cinematic with very effective use of British scenery as well as non-diagetic music in the right places.

In summary, Sightseers is an extremely original and entertaining experience. Not as funny as the marketing people try to let on, but the mixture of sinister and funny is handled expertly and effectively by Wheatley and there will not be another film like this for a while.

In our Media lesson, we are doing a question which needs us to have two case studies about the distribution of film. The first will be Skyfall, as chosen by our teacher and the second, I will choose, which I am planning to use a much more independent, less mainstream film. These case studies will be the same as I am hoping to use in my exam as well others including film companies and music.

Skyfall

“Skyfall is the twenty-third James Bond film produced by Eon Productions. It was distributed by MGM and Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2012. It features Daniel Craig’s third performance as James Bond, and Javier Bardem as Raoul Silva, the film’s antagonist. The film was directed by Sam Mendes and written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan.”

en.Wikipedia.org

Skyfall has earned $1.1 billion worldwide, and is the highest-grossing film worldwide for Sony Pictures and the seventh-highest-grossing film of all time. On its opening weekend, it earned $80.6 million from 25 markets. In the UK the film grossed £20.1 million on its opening weekend, making it the second-highest Friday-to-Sunday debut ever behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2. It also achieved the second-highest IMAX debut ever behind The Dark Knight Rises.  The film set a record for the highest seven-day gross with £37.2 million, surpassing previous record holder Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (£35.7 million).
By 9 November 2012 the film had earned over £57 million to surpass The Dark Knight Rises as the highest-grossing film of 2012, and the highest-grossing James Bond film of all time in the UK. After 40 days of release the total UK gross stood at £94.28 million, making Skyfall the highest-grossing film in the UK, surpassing the £94.03 million of Avatar. By 30 December 2012, it became the first film to gross more than £100 million ($161.6 million) in the UK.
It has been claimed that Skyfall is the most successful British film ever.

I Give It A Year

I gave this film 6/10. This film was billed as ‘the next big British Comedy’, but quite frankly for me it fell flat. They seemed to be trying to tick so many ‘Hey this is funny’ boxes that they forgot to actually be funny. There were a couple of moments when I did chuckle but it was only a vague edge of a laugh, no real solid laughs. This film is bound to be compared to films like Four Weddings and Love Actually. Both are British comedies that got it right, this just misses the mark so many times. If you like Romcoms this is one for DVD but wouldn’t waste the money on a cinema visit.

This Is 40

I gave this film 8/10. This was a fun and funny look at turning 40. I think what I enjoyed about this and what made it (for me) so funny is how realistic it is. I can totally see these being situations that would happen. We all know people who have refused to admit they’re turning 40, or who have decided they need to make ‘lifestyle’ changes that ended up making them miserable rather than happy. I laughed a lot. Really enjoyed this one. If you miss it at the cinema grab it on DVD.

I hope you enjoyed these reviews, and that I maybe inspired you to see these films.

Have you seen these films? Did you enjoy them? Do you agree/disagree with my reviews? Was there something in any of them you feel I maybe missed?

A stark contrast to this first gritty, bleak, and obscenity-strewn album, Drew’s next release – The Defamation of Strickland Banks – is a soul-inspired concept story of an alter-ego artist who is wrongly convicted and sent to prison.

As if these two stylistically and tonally contrasting records didn’t showcase Plan B’s talent enough, he has also proven his worth in the film industry – both behind and in front of the lens.

He has starred in two Noel Clarke films: Adulthood and 4,3,2,1; and has turned in memorable performances in the Michael Caine vehicle, Harry Brown, and most recently, the big screen remake of The Sweeney, alongside Ray Winstone.

Drew is a natural talent in front of the camera, and he is also beginning to prove his abilities as a director too.

Ill Manors is the story of the dangerous, crime infested back-streets of modern London. It’s played-out through the experiences  of four drug dealers, one drug-user, two prostitutes, and Drew himself as narrator.

These characters are all trying to either thrive on or escape from this seedy side of life, and as their paths cross and intertwine, their fortunes ebb and flow.

Similar to ‘Strickland Banks’ before it, Plan B’s third major record release, which shares this film’s title, plays intermittently throughout the film. Each track narrates the individual characters’ journey, and as they unfold, we are brought ever closer to their plights.

At first, the soundtrack feels a little too disconnected from the on-screen action. The seamless, almost diegetic fade-in/out of music we have become accustomed to in mainstream films is instead replaced by sudden introductions and sharp endings as Plan B spits out his angry words. Especially with the first couple of tracks, this musical narration offers little more than the contributory equivalent of a finger following words as you read.

After a few tracks and around half an hour into the film, the music begins to embed itself into the growing stories, becoming part of the natural progression of these tales. From this point onwards the soundtrack becomes acceptable, and at times, even integral, both for the quality from its lyricist and its relevance to the film’s aesthetic. It’s worth noting, when appreciated separately from the film, the album Ill Manors is as prolific as both of its two predecessors.

In hindsight, Ill Manors could almost be viewed as one long music video. Albeit a very technically proficient and visually arresting one.

The film stars a variety of familiar faces and new talents, and the effective and well-suited cast is headed up by the always watchable, ever burgeoning talent – Riz Ahmed.

Most of the actors play characters who happily reside on the wrong side of the law, and most of them are not shy when it comes to using violence and profanities to wield power and persuasion. But these strong character traits are almost requisites for this new sub-genre of British realism.

The most shocking elements are in fact the morals, or lack of them to be precise, from almost all of the characters – and most of the time. From pimping out girls in fast-food shops at midnight, to selling babies and grooming young girls – no crime is left unattempted and all are shrugged off with ease by the offenders.

Ben Drew is a jack of many trades, and he’s becoming a master of all of them. Rap artist, musician, singer, actor and now, director. But above all, he is a storyteller. With Ill Manors, he speaks of issues which are all around us, everyday. They are overflowing from the back streets into the public conscience. But where most of us are happy to read about them at arms length, or prefer to see them in the form of a colourful graph or pie chart in the daily paper,  with Ill Manors, Drew recreates some of these everyday horrors, and rather than coat them with a Hollywood gloss, he displays them to us in their true form – shocking, grimy, disgusting, immoral and criminal – sometimes all of these at the same time.

Ill Manors is a sharp, gritty film with a strong pulse, and splashes of real creativity and artistry throughout. It takes on some of the most poignant and current issues our capital, and indeed our society, have been burdened with in the 21st Century, and shows us the destructive power of mis-education, mis-guidance, and mis-treatment – which is rife on our streets, if only we cared to look.

69/82

This week’s screening is Get Carter, a landmark British film and one of Michael Caine’s most iconic roles (alongside Ebenezer Scrooge in Muppet’s Christmas Carol!)

Caine is the cold-blooded hit man on the hunt for his brother’s killers, and judging by the trailer below he doesn’t have to many qualms about creating a few corpses of his own in trying to find them.

Cold and gritty, Get Carter is credited with sounding the death knell for the swinging sixties and ushering in the bleaker, tougher decade of the 1970s.

The Write Up will be posted on Wednesday 6 March. Stop by then to give us your thoughts; in the meantime tweet us @GossamerFC

2003  -  Certificate: 18  -  UK
Rating Details:  Strong sex
6 out of 10

I’m not a fan of February.  In fact it’s only good point is that it’s shorter than any other month.  It’s so screwed up it can’t even decide exactly how long it wants to be.  Who in their right mind trusts a unit of time that doesn’t know how long it is?  Imagine if seconds or years behaved in such a cavalier way?  If the Government was to stop wasting time deciding whether to hold a referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU and instead focused on something important, like a referendum to decide whether we should get rid of a month or two of the year, then I already know how I’m voting.  Most of the bad things that have happened in my life have happened in February; (or okay, if not actually in February then not far from it).  It’s a long way from Christmas but it’s still winter, which by February has always more than outlived it’s welcome.  (Not that I’d ever welcome it anyway, but like a crappy, Top 40 R&B pop song, it will just hang about and basically piss everyone off with its banality and generally annoying, ill-informed and unwelcome outlook).  I thought I knew everything bad there was to know about February, but this year it has plumbed new depths of aggravatingness.  Yesterday I found out that a meeting I was expecting to go to next Monday (25th) is actually on Monday 25th March, not February.  Normally lasting exactly four weeks, this evil, psychotic month deliberately targets and harasses busy, top executives (like myself) with its diary-bending weirdness.  Fortunately, in this case I manage to outsmart the little twerp; (and when was the last time you heard anyone use that word)?  Today I had to go to a meeting in Winchester.  I was there with quite a bit of time to spare, (thanks to the inconveniently timetabled trains).  You can probably work out what comes next.  So anyway, I’ve got to go to a meeting in Winchester next month, in exactly four weeks’ time…  This film is set in 1968, in the Spring, so not in February at all.  That’s one of its few good points.

What a load of outrageous twaddle this film is.  Even the ‘backwards credits’ at the end just screamed out pretentious.  It’s some nonsense about three, young students in Paris, at the time of the Protests.  I didn’t like any of them and I hated the whole vibe of the film.  Their stupid, hollow, ‘mummy and daddy will give us money when we need it’ baby-boomer, irresponsible and uninformed approach to everything, bugged the hell out of me.  They should have all gone down the French equivalent of the Job Centre so they could contribute something useful to society, not piss their good fortune up the wall in an orgy of self-centred hedonism and childish games.  Considering it’s people of their age that are mostly in positions of power now, this film explains quite a lot about the mess we’re in.  (Wow, what a great rant; I’ll be voting Conservative at this rate!)  In a technical sense the movie is actually very good and Eva Green is certainly easy on the eyes.  The fact that I disliked the main characters also suggests that it was doing its job.  I guess if you’re not too shocked by the outrageous behaviour of the three of them, it’s not a bad film.  But I despised them.  Even Theo’s ‘action hero’ scene with the petrol bomb didn’t impress me one bit.  It felt more like he was acting out a part in a film in his head than actually doing it for the right reasons.  So I’m afraid he scored “nul points” on the Anarchists’ Official Scorecard.  If ever a movie needed a chainsaw wielding psycho to sort things out, this was it.

The music used in the film works really well.  A clever mixture of late 60s garage, classical and theatre scores, by both original and more contemporary artists, sets the film up nicely and makes a big difference to the atmosphere, both in feel and historically.  I doubt there’re many movies that include music by both Jimi Hendrix and Edith Piaf.

No cats, chainsaws or decapitations.

Recommended for boring students that like to discuss ‘stuff’ a lot.  Not recommend for watching with your parents.

Top badass moment?  When the guy turns up 20 seconds after the start of the movie and blows away the three main characters with a Minigun.  Pretentious prats.  Sadly this doesn’t actually happen, not even in the uncut version, but it would sure have improved things.

The Dreamers at IMDB (7.1/10)

Short Drama

Sam is on the road and he writes a letter to his mother back home.

This film was written, shot, edited and screened in under 4 days as part of Filmonik Halloween KinoKabaret 2012. The final score was then completed afterward and added to the cut.

Starring

Joseph Stacey, Gabi Herrett, John Grey

Music by Dave Kavanagh, Sound recording by NoiseBoy Studios, Mix by Phil McDuff

The 9 minute film was written by stand-up comedian Jay Cowle and tells the story of his quest to find out who is, having lost his identity while being dumped by his long-term girlfriend. The film is told through a series of comical and fantastical flashbacks that ride a thin line between reality and imagination. Directed by acclaimed up and coming director Stuart Laws, whose previous short film “Chubby Bunny” wowed audiences at The London Short Film Festival, and shot by the mercurial Canadian Anton McCrae it is a film with a strong identity and funny, naturalistic performances.

THE STORY BEHIND THE FILM
by Jay Cowle (Writer)

In the January 28, 2013 edition of The New Yorker (p. 81), he reviewed Michael Apted’s 56 Up, and commented thus about the British subjects of Apted’s astonishing historical “follow them through life” documentary series”:

In all, these men and women don’t seem to have the seething ambitions and the restlessness of so many Americans.  They don’t expect to get rich, somehow, next year.  They may be happier than we are but they’re also less colorful.

Three sentences.  A very good summary of the American character, particularly from the viewpoint of this American expatriate living in Sydney, Australia.  Well, most of the Americans I know definitely do NOT seem very happy (at least compared to Australians), but they sure are more colourful.  (Different spelling of “colourful” this time purposeful.)

9 Songs was an experimental failure from prolific British director Michael Winterbottom. It depicts the relationship between Matt and Lisa over the course of a year. Punctuated by nine songs performed by eight different acts, it is a soundtrack in search of a film.

Poorly drawn characters and a lack of any real drama make the film dull. Matt and Lisa are just not that interesting. His work as a scientific researcher takes him to Antarctica, its barren ice world presenting beautiful images that contrast with the concert scenes, where the songs feature, and the intimate domestic settings, where the sex features. Matt’s narration frames the story. The physical experience of being with Lisa, how her skin felt, how she tasted, dominates his memory of their relationship.

Whatever else might have made Lisa so appealing is unclear. An American in London, she takes cocaine and dances, showing her “fun” side, but she complains about the male company a friend keeps. She begins to lose interest in Matt, finding a female dancer at a club more titillating than her boyfriend and finding more pleasure with her dildo. She bickers with Matt about sugar in her tea.

Minimal dialogue and an absence of substantive dramatic events may heighten realism, but Hitchcock’s dictum is worth remembering: drama is life with the dull bits left out.

Scenes of explicit non-simulated sex make the film notable. Cunnilingus, fellatio, female masturbation and penetrative vaginal sex are among the graphic acts on display. Actor Kieran O’Brien ejaculates on-screen, the first time the British censors permitted such a scene to be seen in British cinemas.

How well the sex scenes relate to the songs is an open question. Perhaps Winterbottom was comparing the approach to contemporary music that takes live performance as such music at its best, or most authentic, and an approach to sex scenes that shows everything “live”, not simulated, as it were. If so, the film amounts to an interesting notion poorly executed.

Winterbottom’s better films raise expectations that 9 Songs fails to meet.

Songs are by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Von Bondies, Super Furry Animals, Elbow, Primal Scream, Franz Ferdinand and Michael Nyman.