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Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
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First things first: there is much to admire in Mud. But despite its considerable riches, it’s a difficult film to recommend. Mud is Jeff Nichols follow-up to the critically acclaimed Take Shelter, a film that I shamefully haven’t watched yet, despite the universal praise directed at it. In a Q&A after the film he explained that it’s a project that’s been in development for about 10 years, and it’s clearly a personal film with a hell of a lot of thought put into it.
Monday, April 29, 2013
Monday, April 29, 2013
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| This is the only screengrab I could find, and to be honest it doesn't look much like what I saw. But I'll trust the Pleasance Theatre's website on this. |
People say there’s two types of Russian plays. The first is a bunch of exploited proletariat living cheek by jowl in a doss-house, the second is a bunch of miserable snobs in a country estate picking over their emotional baggage. Maxim Gorky’s Summerfolk is very much the latter, fitting right into the template of productions of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya and The Seagull. As far as I can see, the recipe calls for a generally depressed middle-aged academic type living unhappily on a country estate, surrounded by by friends that occupy various parts of the political spectrum, a beautiful and unhappy wife, a younger woman (probably also depressed) and maybe some servants that add a wry bit of class commentary. Naturally in the third act someone will go berserk and start waving a gun around.
Monday, April 22, 2013
Monday, April 22, 2013
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This movie stars Steve Coogan, it also features Stephen Fry, Matt Lucas, David Walliams, Dara O'Briain, Chris Addison, Sarah Solemani, Simon Bird and James Lance. All are famous for being incredibly funny. So you could be forgiven for thinking that The Look of Love is a comedy. It isn't. Or, if it is, it's not a funny one. This is a very strange goose; the film has a comedy pedigree second to none, the director's previous films with Coogan, A Cock and Bull Story and Twenty Four Hour Party People are both nicely pitched comedy dramas that exploit Coogan's distinctive charm to their own ends. His TV show, The Trip, also starring Coogan was actually perfect, knowing exactly what it wanted to achieve and effortlessly succeeding. But The Look of Love is strangely passionless, a film not quite sure either what it wants to do or what it wants to say.
If I was asked to imagine an ideal night out I don’t think I’d do much better than this Saturday. I spent the evening on an enormous converted freezer ship floating in Canary Wharf watching experimental short films and bizarre cabaret acts. What more could you ask for from life?
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Sunday, April 21, 2013
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What does 15 years trapped in a room do to a man? In what ways will his mind warp to accommodate the shrinkage of his world? How far would a person go to snatch their freedom back? These weighty questions are what The Duke in Darkness explores. Set in the sixteenth century, the entirety of the play takes place in one small room of acastle. Imprisoned within are two men, the Duke of Laterraine (Michael Palmer) and his servant Gribaud (Jamie Treacher). Their captors and guards, who flit cruelly in and out of the cell at will are the Duke of Lamorre (Martin Miller), D'Aublaye (Sean Pogmore), Voulain (Jake Mann) and Marteau (Matt Fraser Holland).
It's rare that I see something that I find it hard to form a definite opinion of. This is one of those times. I'm genuinely puzzled as to whether 'Terminal: A Miracle Play with Popular Music from the End of the World' was an intelligently original take on the end of civilisation or a complete load of cobblers. Did I like it or didn't I? Do I just want to like it so much that I'm frantically trying to work out a reason? One thing I can certainly say is that they know how to sell me a cinema ticket. When the invitation popped up to this, it pushed all my buttons. How could I resist what was described as:-
"A film and live performance project exploring the politics of post-apocalyptic fiction. A theatrical staging of a morality play for end times and future folk music, it recasts eschatology, or the study of the end of history, as a foundational myth for a future society. "
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Saturday, April 20, 2013
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A performance artist doesn't have the slightest obligation to entertain an audience. At least as far as I see it, the important thing is to arouse some kind of intellectual or emotional reaction. This can range from revulsion, fear, anger right through to intentionally inflicting boredom on those around you. In retrospect, even something excruciatingly repetitive and outright annoying to watch can be a very worthwhile experience. Having said that, performances are a hell of a lot more fun to watch when they're as exciting and entertaining as what was laid on at LUPA 18.
Friday, April 19, 2013
Friday, April 19, 2013
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The third in the series is usually where superhero films come a cropper. After getting the origin story out of the way in the first film, and kicking up the action a notch in the second, the third always seems to go a bit awry. There's logical reasons for this happening: they range from the director of the first two departing, main character development running out of steam, using up all the good villains or even simply becoming a touch over-confident and throwing too much at the screen, knowing that it's your last shot with the property. So, this film has a lot of expectations to shift; even great film series tend to lose their lustre by this point. With this in mind it's important to note Iron Man 3 wears its 'threequel' status proudly - after all, when was the last time a summer blockbuster came out with an unadorned '3' attached to it?
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Thursday, April 18, 2013
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| The inside of a 3D printer |
If you want a picture of the future, imagine a line of toasters stretching off into infinity. On cue, they all pop at once, filling the air with the smell of fresh toast. At the beginning of the line a toaster designed by Thomas Edison, at the end some kind of nanotechnology intelligent CyberToaster. The difference in appearance between the two devices couldn’t be starker, yet the toast itself is pretty much the same thing. It’s this process of evolution that was the main focus of last night’s HCID (Human Computer Interaction Design) 2013 open day at City University London.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
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| Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Brendan in Brick |
From the off Rian Johnson seems like a pretty cool guy. Having noticed that The Prince Charles Cinema was screening a double feature of Brick coupled with The Maltese Falcon he got in touch with the cinema and offered to turn up and do a question and answer session. Taking a quick break from his holiday in Paris he popped up to London to chat with us about chat with us about film-making for an hour so. The Prince Charles figured that if they’re having the man himself there, they may as well make this a Johnson double feature, and swapped out The Maltese Falcon for his 2012 sci-fi thriller Looper. I’ve already talked about Looper at length here, so for the majority of this article I’ll be talking about Brick.
I consider myself to be a pretty kind, calm sort of person, yet I spent my Saturday night howling in joy in Trafalgar Square in celebration of the death of Margaret Thatcher. I’ve been repeatedly accused of being disrespectful and rude, and let’s be straight here - I am being disrespectful and rude. That’s sort of the point. Margaret Thatcher not only defined not just everything I oppose politically, but seemed to personify every aspect of humanity I despise. Disrespectful? She doesn't deserve an smidge of respect.
Friday, April 12, 2013
Friday, April 12, 2013
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| The first clue to the diabolical nature of the show is the pentagram in the logo.... |
Y’know... it’d be really easy to just spend an entire article dissecting the rancid carcass of Viva Forever!
Fun too.....
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Thursday, April 11, 2013
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Our young hero sits in a cafe sipping black coffee. He pulls out a cigarette and with an affected flourish flips it up into his mouth. He glances around, hoping someone appreciates his affected Jean Belmondo coolness. No-one notices, no-one cares. This is Masculin féminin, a portrait of a youth culture that doesn’t quite know what to do with itself other than to regurgitate pop iconography, yell political slogans and screw. As the film famously declaims: “These are the children of Marx and Coca-Cola.”
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
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If only Tom Cruise would stick to being in bad films my life would be a lot easier. A constant drip drip of stinkers like the atrocious Jack Reacher, or Rock of Ages would be easy to avoid. But oh no, he's got the arrogance to go and be in good films as well. The bastard. There's an absolute embarrassment of riches in Oblivion, the only fly in the ointment being Cruise. It's a film that succeeds despite Cruise starring in it, rather than because of his presence.
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
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They say it’s the film with the longest ever theatrical run. When you look at the other contenders, you realise they’re probably right. Star Wars ran for 44 weeks, E.T. ran for over a year, but The Rocky Horror Picture Show has been screened continuously in cinemas since 1975 - a theatrical release of about 38 years. Pretty good for a bizarro glam-rock pansexual musical that was a colossal flop when it opened.
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Sunday, April 7, 2013
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The Adventures of Prince Achmed is the oldest surviving animated feature film. But to modern eyes it looks stylishly avant-garde, an piece of animation that by its very nature was experimental, yet one that's aged fantastically. The director, Lotte Reiniger, became fascinated with the art of silhouette animation as a child, building puppet theatres to entertain her family and friends. Her childhood passion developed as she grew up, becoming enchanted with the work of Georges Méliès, leading to her attending lectures by early film-makers who rhapsodised of the infinite possibilities of film and animation. Her passion stoked, she ran off to join the Theatre of Max Reinhardt, and began creating elaborate title cards for film production companies throughout Germany.
Friday, April 5, 2013
Friday, April 5, 2013
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I spend a lot of time in the cinema. On a good week I'll go and see maybe three or four new films, spending hours upon hours in dark rooms watching unspeakably awful semi-fascist rubbish. My pale skin aches for sunlight and I've developed a vitamin D deficiency that has stunted my growth and drained the colour from my hair, leaving it a corpse-like grey. Why am I telling you this? I saw Spring Breakers last night and I can't get it out of my head. I went home from the screening and bought two tickets to see it again tonight, at midnight. This film is transcendent; a foaming, neon-dappled cocktail of blood, tits, amphetamines and gloriously, trashy, amazing pop music. Harmony Korine may as well have jabbed a spike of adrenaline straight into my softly beating heart.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Thursday, April 4, 2013
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I can't fault LAMDA for their ambition. Earthquakes in London is a three hour epic beginning in 1968 and ending in the far flung future of the year 2525 (when man is still alive). We get there through a kaleidoscope that takes in an environmental burlesque show; in utero foetuses screaming for help; hallucinogenic song and dance numbers; and bizarre schizophrenic delusions. Also somewhere along the way, the world as we know it ends. Not bad for a student production.
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
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To devote yourself to mastering a single craft takes an insane amount of discipline, dedication and perseverance. A Late Quartet shows us a tumultuous period in the life of the successful ‘Fugue String Quartet’, examining the physical and emotion toll of achieving musical perfection. The quartet consists of four outstanding actors: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Christopher Walken, Catherine Keener and Mark Ivanir. All have their quirks and issues, and all bounce off one another in increasingly destructive ways.
Remember sitting in the back seat of a car on a long, dreamy childhood holiday? You watch the scenery change bit by bit, the shadow of the car playing across the fields and idly wonder about what's to come, good or bad. Watching Thursday Till Sunday is a near exact replication of this feeling. This film, the debut of Chilean writer and director Dominga Sotomayor Castillo, places us in the back seat of a long road trip, we see the world through the eyes of the young Lucia (Santí Ahumada) as she tries to comprehend her parent's (Paola Giannini and Francisco Pérez-Bannen) deteriorating relationship.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
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It's difficult not start taking the crazy flips and contortions of the monks for granted. Everything seems so utterly natural, as if leaping through a series of backflips is as easy as breathing, a chilled out, relaxed and confident superheroism. There's an intense aura of control, grounded in a literal lifetime of training. But this isn't some display of mere physical prowess: Sutra is about artistry, exploring Shaolin with a mashup of Eastern and Western sensibilities.
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