Spoilers

I'm a big geek, there's no getting around it. I don't admittadly go to Star Trek conventions, nor do I know the age Spiderman first started producing web fluid or what year Patrick Stewart lost his hair.

But I do love films, and I am looking forward to The Dark Knight Rises as much as the next person should be. The third and final in the Christopher Nolan/Christian Bale Batman trilogy, this is going to be huge. Not that I give a shit but this is also going to make a ton of cash, The Dark Knight grossed £500 million world wide; the going is good.

Like the Dark Knight, this new one also has a very clever ad campaign, including a 'leaked' CIA document, as a clue to the plot (it's possible not every member of the viewing public has heard of this).

But with all these adverts floating around, what is a fan to do? How could we ever enter the cinema not knowing most of the details of the plot? And wouldn't that leech some of the fun out of the um, what's it called, the Story?

I've watched the trailer and it looks fantastic, including Tom Hardy, Marrian Coultard being stunning, and Anne Hathaway looking sexier than ever as Cat Woman, and Garry Oldman eqquiped with gun and moustache in the fight against crime.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yh6SriAjdE


How will I ever resist the leaked first 6 minutes of the film? Or what else? The middle part of the film released as a taster? Christian Bale might blurt out the ending as a way of getting rid of an obnoxious fan trying to squirm his way into a showbiz party. I already know Christian Bale has a beard at some point during the film, and Gary Oldman has his trademark tache, what other facial hair developments will be spoilt for me?

Well this is my test, I will resist any of this over saturated campaign and go into the cinema without knowing every little part of the film. This may just mean that i have to get out more, there are after all no spoilers for a social life. Anything could happen.... right?

Kicks Review

Kicks (Lindy Heymman, 2009).

A great film from director Lindy Heymman, centering on the friendship between two teenage girls in Liverpool and their search for fame, or something bigger than themselves.

Nicole (played incredibly well by Kerry Hayes) is harbouring an obsessive crush on star footballer Lee (Jamie Doyle), with nothing else in her life to interest her. She sees nothing else except him, her family being practically invisible-both emotionally and physically.
When she bumps into fellow fan Jasmine (Nichola Burley) they form a close bond. After they learn that the good looking celebrity is planning to move to another club, their shared obsession turns from something innocent into something warped and dangerous.

Kicks is a sad, knowing, heart wrenching exploration of the cult of celebrity. As the story takes unexpected turns, it starts to feel almost fabalistic, and could be about any young love-oblivious to the outside world. Within everything there is hope though, and what's interesting is that at the center is a touching friendship between the girls. Jasmine is the older of the two, and although equally naive, holds a different kind of motivation. Where Nicole holds what she thinks is true love for Lee, Jasmine is driven by the urge for fame. When Nicole tells her that her problem is she doesn't have a real heart, 'just a cash register', she replies 'nah, mine would be one of those flash new card machines'. What they share is a friendship that gives each of them hope and confidence, it's just that neither of them seems to actually realise this. All each of them sees is the object of their affections.

Each actor gives a complex performence, no one person is portrayed as anything close to simple. Kerry Hayes in particular is excellent-innocent and naive, yet dangerous. Once your eyes are on her it's hard to look away. The cinematography is beautiful; in its late night colours and early dawns, Liverpool's vastness looks almost mythical. Everything is damaged and run down but stunning, like a metaphor for the bittersweet highs and lows of young life.

A compassionate and knowing tale of friendship, obsession, being young and growing up.

NME weekender

I somehow found myself at the NME weekender in camber sands last weekend backstage chatting to Eightees Matchbox, who were supporting babyshambles .

Nice guys, although me and my friend Nat ( who was on the guest list) might have felt slightly too ego-fied by the whole back stage pass. Eightees matchbox b line disaster, to use their full name were good kind of like a mix of rock and roll, with punk and a bit of grunge, the seriousness of the Doors mixed with edgy, Elvis style vocals.

Check out their myspace.

Babyshambles were less good(although we only heard them from back stage) and one of their songs sounded too much like 'She's Lost Control'. Anyway we didn't have a massive urge to meet Pete Doherty afterward.

Awesome night all the same, I'd pay next time, if I had to.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Tired Pony

The great new video from Tired Pony, featuring Gary Lightbody from Snow Patrol, Peter Buck (REM), Richard Colburn (Belle and Sebastian) and also featuring Zooey Deschanel ( She & Him, and star of the brilliant 500 Days of Summer).

Video features star of This is England, Joseph Gilgun.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxaGJNihf28

Diamonds in the Rough

It can sometimes, well often (unless you have the energy to actually go out after work), be dispiriting to switch on the television in England. Chances are you'll flip around the chanels before ending up staring at Jamie Oliver squashing tomatoes, not quite knowing who or where you are.
It's all the more exciting when something genuinely good comes around, that you can actually feel is an event, that you would actually rather stay in for, and you can talk to random strangers about in the following days.

Recently there has been:

Him and Her (writer: Stefan Golaszewski)

Him and Her is the most honestly and nakedly romantic thing on TV in ages, precisely because of its lack of romanticism.

One of those sitcoms about essentially nothing, the success rests on the shoulders of stars Russel Tovey and Sarah Solemani as 20 something couple Steve and Becky. They are unemployed, avoid responsibility, and mostly spend their whole lives at home in their realistically messy flat. The drama mostly revolves around things such as whther Steve will make Becky toast, being late for a party, or how Becky could have never heard of Candle in The Wind.

It is consciously against the mythical way relationships are often portrayed in the media, instead showing real life intimacy and the messiness that comes with it.

This is England 86 (written and directed by Shane Meadows and Jack Thorne)

It would be fair to be sceptical of this return to the characters of the masterpiece This is England, by writer and director Shane Meadows, set three years after the film.

It picks up on main character Shaun, who has now drifted apart from the gang he became part of. Woody and Lol are set to be married, but Woody is weighed down by the responsibilities that lie ahead. Soon Shaun becomes drawn back into the gang, and Woody gets cold feet at the wedding, setting a fateful chain of events that change everyones' lives forever.

What's interesting is that Shaun, although important, doesn't play center stage, the story more involved with the rest of the characters and their relationships. Lol's background in particular is explored and her attempt to escape her past. If racial prejudice and the reasons behind it were the focus of the film, then abusive relationships and and familial abuse are here. Rage and violence, and masculinity are further explored, and the hopes, joys, dissapointments of growing up, just as in the film, face our characters.

Ultimately succesful, profoundly moving, a worthy addition to Meadow's semi autobiographical story. Roll on This is England 1990'.

Sherlock (Stephen Moffat)

Who would have thought updating Sherlock Holmes to the modern world would somehow work so well. Benedict Cumberbatch made the role his own, capturing Holmes' otherwordly genuis and disconnection from the rest of us lower beings, he puts forward the interesting idea that Holmes is essentially a sociopath.

Martin Freeman was equally excellent as Watson, here an army doctor who has recently returned from Afghanistan. Freeman adds a slightly sad edge to the character, who is suffering from post traumatic stress after his return, can't cope with his situation and finds relief in the adventures with his new eccentric flat mate. He should do well in his performance as Bilbo Baggins in the new Hobbit.

Stephen Moffat, also writer of the new and current version of Dr Who, mixes drama and great character work with gripping, ripping yarns. His embrace of modern technology like texting and the internet, and issues such as terrorism, make it all more relevant. An exciting, engrossing series.

Great TV, with art and creativity winning out, proving that there's no reason the small screen can't match up to the silver screen.

Rock Stars and Cigarettes

On my way into work this morning, half asleep on auto pilot, my baggy eyes were caught by the shop's display for the new John Lennon biopic, Nowhere Boy.



It wasn't the film istelf that caught my eye, not that I'm not interested in how a humble boy called John became a real life deity. (despite my self loathing sarcasm the film turned out to be really rather good, a heartfelt drama that somehow managed to ground the characters on a human level), but the image used to sell the newest 'rock star biopic' around.



The poster shows Aaron Johnson (John) swaggering along the streets of Liverpool, guitar on his back, cigarette hanging from his mouth.

It was almost the same as the photo above, except in the poster he had his hands in his pockets, (I mean surely that will just make the smoking harder). It reminded of the poster for Control.

What is it about complicated genuises and smoking? Ian Curtis, John Lennon, Bob Dylan, all obsessively smoking their way through cinematic depictions of their lives.

What's more important, their art or their images? 'I'm not There' is an interesting film, since it uses different actors, including Heath Ledger, Richard Gere and Cate Blanchett, to portray different iconic images, even ideas, of Bob Dylan.

At times it didn't even seem to necessarily be about him, so much as the art he gave to the world, and the way people see him. ANYWAY, as unhealthy as smoking is, it has always looked cool. And without it, you might not know that Ian Curtis (star of the film Control) is also cool.