Tuesday 27 November 2012

Air Doll: The Best Film Of 2009 Is Finally Out!



The great thing about film festivals is being able to watch some great films you might not have been able to see otherwise. The worst thing about film festivals is not being to watch said films ever again, should they not secure a UK release. Air Doll, presented in Cannes then at the London Film Festival was the best film I saw in 2009 (The White Ribbon what? A Prophet who?) and it never did secure a UK release. Until now. Thankfully, Matchbox Films has just released it on DVD.

Sunday 25 November 2012

Red Nights: A French Giallo in Hong-Kong



The English title of this film, Red Nights, is the dull and truncated translation of the wonderfully evocative French one,  Les Nuits Rouges du Bourreau de Jade, or The Red Nights of the Jade Executioner. Attracted by its intriguing trailer, I have finally managed to catch it, as the film has been released on DVD in the UK. And it did not disappoint, a an ultra-stylised dream in red and blue.

Monday 19 November 2012

Detention: The Post-Post Modernism Of Horror

Cinderhella in Detention

An unconspicuous title and an ugly DVD cover were not exactly the most encouraging signs for Detention, a film which made very little waves at the US box-office despite a rather subsequent budget for that type of film ($10M if IMDB is to be believed, as a comparison, Insidious was made for ten times less than that). And yet Detention turned out to be one of the maddest horror films of the recent years, not entirely convincing but with enough energy and invention to make it unmissable for fans of the genre.

Monday 12 November 2012

Hit So Hard - Hole drummer Patty Schemel's life



The gripping life story of Hole drummer, Patty Schemel and her journey through drug addiction, is one of the most entertaining documentary's I have seen for a long time. Overshadowed by Courtney Love, and the crazy drama that seems to constantly surround her, Patty was the drummer for Hole from 1992 till 1998, and  she wrote many of their songs.

Tuesday 6 November 2012

LFF 2012: The Atomic Age Of Snow White's Wall



Just as the London Film Festival 2012 was running the danger of becoming a very average edition, all of its best films came thick and fast at the end, and salvaged it. After a flurry of good, decent, disappointing, flawed films came a serie of four wildly different ones which all exceeded my expectations and restored my faith in the festival and films, three of them seen in the same day, as below.

STARBUCK - His cup runneth over...




When David Wozniak's girlfriend announces she is pregnant, forty-something slacker David gets a huge shock, as he leads a carefree life as if he was still in his early 20's. He works for his father's butcher business delivering  meat, and generally stumbling through life as fun nice guy, who can't be trusted with anything serious. He owes a lot of money to some loan sharks, who are more than happy to beat him up in an attempt to get him to pay up. Valerie (Julie Le Breton), his cop girlfriend, has decided she doesn't want him helping to raise the baby, but the sudden announcement makes David look at life with a new perspective as he decides to change his ways.

Sunday 4 November 2012

The Master Review



Director and writer Paul Thomas Anderson has a knack for creating compelling films centered around anti-heroes.  With There Will be Blood, Magnolia and Boogie Nights we are given a hoard of characters who are often unlikable though charismatic and transfixing. Anderson's work reflects an interest in the human condition and it's shadows which make his films memorable though not so perhaps their story lines. With The Master Anderson is reunited with his now regular actor Philip Seymour Hoffman. 

Saturday 3 November 2012

Spanking The Monkey In Films: An Odyssey



It will make you go blind. It will make your palms go hairy. You will lose a pint of blood every time you "do it" (crikey, a full pint!). It is making love with somebody you truly love, according to Woody Allen. Yet cinema, never one to be shy about showing cringe-worthy and tepid scenes of love making which are usually as sexy as hoovering the crumbs behind the bed of a Travelodge, is surprisingly coy when it comes to scene of love which only feature one person. So, in no particular order, I thought I would go through the most notable scenes which feature this activity I cannot name on blogger in case a housewife from Michigan takes offense and report my blog. But you all know what I am talking about *wink, wink* and no, this is no typo, I did mean wink.