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
Saturday 30 October 2010
Thursday 28 October 2010
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 is the most honestly and nakedly romantic thing on TV in ages, precisely because of its lack of romanticism.
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'. 
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.
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 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.
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