Top 11 Disco/ Nightclub Scenes
It is something of a cliché in films (particularly cops ‘n’ crims thrillers) to make the protagonist have to go to a nightclub in order to extract information for a seedy informer. Where nightclub scenes fall down is that they’re mostly too glamorous. Going out to a club on the weekend can be euphoric and hedonistic, but also grubby and tedious, drunkenly romantic or with an undercurrent of violence.
Please note that I have omitted house parties from the list. So no Donnie Darko’s Halloween bash or Superbad. College frat party movies are also out [e.g. National Lampoons’ Animal House] and I’ve limited it to one disco as a gangster hang-out as you could make an entire list out of them.
11. Quadrophenia (1979) Mod Dancehall. Grumpy and self-destructive mod Phil Davies recklessly dances the night away after a tough day of fighting rockers on the Brighton beaches. But he will later discover that the sequinned King of the Mods (Sting) is little more than a BELLBOY!
10. Saturday Night Fever (1977). In his pre hit-man days Vincent Vega was once the arrogant king of disco in this slice of 70s cheese. I suggest playing your own music over the Bee-Gee’s glass-shattering vocals; it improves the film a whole lot.
9. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1993) Metal Club. In order to discover the whereabouts of a stolen dolphin our rubber-faced hero goes to a club run by head-banging animal activists. This made the list purely on the utterly bizarre cameo appearance from death-metal screamers Cannibal Corpse.
8. A Clockwork Orange (1971) Moloko Milk Bar. In a 70s council estate dystopian future violent chavs waste away their time in the lap-dance lounge-come-milk bar sipping on their semi-skimmed as if it were Alco-pops.
7. Napoleon Dynamite (2004) School Prom. I couldn’t have a list without included an awkward school disco scene. This scene sums up how tedious and depressing being a teenager can be, whilst Alphaville’s “Forever Young” sets the melancholy mood.
6. Waltz With Bashir (2008). Israeli Nightclub. In this hallucinatory animated documentary the director is given leave from the Lebanon war only for him to realise that life went on as usual while he was away. This scene perfectly shows the alienation and loneliness that can be felt in a crowded room, accompanied by PiL’s post-punk classic ‘This Is Not a Love Song’.
5. The Terminator (1984) Tech-Noir. Sarah Conner enters this terribly 80s nightclub to escape the creepy future man that seems to be following her. Little does she know that he’s her protector and that the lumbering Austrian pushing through the slow-motion dancers towards her is a cyborg assassin. The tension is so well built that this scene still makes my heart leap all these years after first seeing it as an impressionable youth.
4. 24 Hour Party People (2002) The Hacienda. Nothing sums up the hedonistic, ego-centric, disco-biscuit ridden lunacy of the ‘Madchester’ scene better than the legendary Hacienda club in Michael Winterbottom’s brilliant film on the rise and fall of Factory Records.
3. The Blues Brothers (1980) Country Western Bar. It’s the newly reunited band’s first show after Jake’s release from prison and the Hicks aren’t taking well to their rhyme and blues. But when they play TV western theme tune ‘Rawhide’ the yokels serenade them with beer bottles through the chicken wire.
2. Collateral (2004) Yakuza Club. Tom Cruise gets to play ‘Nasty Tom Cruise’ and shoot up a trendy nightclub as a ruthless, shark-grey hit-man. In this scene Mann shows what a good director of action he is. Shame his next flick Miami Vice was one dull nightclub scene after another for its entire overlong duration.
1. Blade (1998) Blood Club. Raving techno vampires (usually inhabitants of the Sub Club) lure an innocent yet dunderheaded man into their underground club for a night of ‘banging tunes’ and blood-sucking. It’s only when blood starts raining down over the gyrating vamps that he beings to suspect something isn’t quite right.
3 Bad Clubbing Scenes.
3. The Matrix Reloaded (2003). With Zion about to be destroyed by metal squids, everyone decides to have a big-sweaty rave-fest. Makes sense. Excruciatingly stupid and comes off like a multi-million dollar ‘Happy Hardcore’ advert.
2. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992). Don’t get me wrong I love David Lynch but sometimes the man confuses ‘artiness’ with ‘arsiness’. In drug-fuelled timber-lodge rubbish music is played purposefully loud over even worse dialogue.
1. Basic Instinct (1991). In a film where a man has an ice-pick put through his nose and we get a glimpse of Sharon Stone’s love rug, possibly the most shocking thing on view is Michael Douglas in a green-turtle neck doing ‘dad-at-wedding’ dancing in an underground lesbian rave. Piss off granddad!
If anyone has suggestions for further best/worst lists I’d gladly take them on.
Sunday 30 November 2008
Just a brief summary of what I’ve seen and read this week.
- - -
I strongly encourage you all to see the simply fantastic and innovative “Waltz with Bashir^” [Dir: Ari Folman, 2008] before it leaves the cinemas. I know the prospect of an Israeli animated documentary won’t appeal to all tastes, but give it a go. I loved it. The basic story is as follows:
In 1982 at the age of 19 the director Ari Folman served in the First Lebanon War as part of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). The trouble is that he has absolutely no memory of the war and specifically whether he was near the scene of a Palestinian massacre at the hands of the Lebanese Christians. At this realisation Folman begins to track down old friends and soldiers in an effort to re-jog his memory.
The interviewee’s recollections and dreams are rendered through the stark, high-contrast animation. This gives the film a suitably surreal and bizarre quality, but this is possibly the best way to describe war on a subconscious level rather then with ultra-realist live action. War here is show as it must be like; a sensory overload or fever-dream. This is possibly most hallucinatory and surreal war movie since “Apocalypse Now” [Dir: Francis Ford Coppola, 1979].
* * * * *
- - -
This week I finished reading David Pearce’s “Tokyo Year Zero”. The basic plot is as follows. It’s a year since
Against this backdrop, Detective Minami is drawn into the complex and horrific case of a serial killer who murders young girls, finding that his hidden past and this case are indelibly linked.
This book starts off well enough, it’s atmospheric and the mystery is gripping. But its overlong with too many subplots and secondary characters, and so you find yourself lost and quite confused midway through the book. This was really disappointing as I have been a fan of Pearce’s distinctive writing for some time, his style is somewhat like James Ellroy.
For anyone interested I suggest his earlier fictionalised account of Brian Clough’s controversial time as manager of Leeds United in “The Damned Utd”. This is less a novel about football and more of a character study of a broken and contradictory man. I’m not a football fan but I loved it.
- - -
I also saw punk chronicler Julian Temple’s biopic documentary “Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten” [2007]. This is a fascinating portrait of the turbulent life of the man, but possibly it is a film that is more readily enjoyed by fans of The Clash. But at 2+ hours the film has too much baggage and paints a rather biased and romantic portrait of the man. Less interviews with celebrity fans like Johnny Depp and Bono and more with the people who actually knew Strummer might have corrected this problem.
The film is nowhere near as good as
^Which also features in my now obituary humorous ‘Top Ten’ Lists.
Sunday 23 November 2008
Hip Hop is Dead!
It maybe says something about my musical tastes that the two most uttered phrases in my record collection would be: “Aaaaaaaaaahhhh!” [Heavy Metal] and “Muthafucka!” [Hip Hop]. So after some positive feedback on my last list blog, I thought I would turn my attention to another musical genre.
It’s difficult to image a time when rap music wasn’t simply a way of selling trainers or hoodies to tune deaf posers. It was once the poor black man’s answer to white punk rock. In it's 'Golden Age' * it was music so angry, witty, funny and vital that it left others genres in the dust. But alas these days are long past. Mainstream hip-hop died the moment misogynistic and violent gangsters became the norm. That and simply the music just isn’t as good since the laws on music sampling were passed. This is perhaps why so many disillusioned b-boys became metal-heads.
If all you know of hip-hop is the lazy Sylvester Stallone-style mumblings of 50 Cent then I strongly suggest that you go back to the roots and get ‘oldskool’. So to all my real-hip hop heads out there; forget about what it became and bask in what it what it once was. Let your inner b-boy out and enjoy.
10. “Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai” (1999). Forest Whitaker stars as a hit-man who follows the ronin codes of the samurai and communicates with his eccentric gang-bosses with carrier pigeon. The soundtrack comes from the Wu tang chess-master the RZA.
9. “Training Day” (2001). Denzel Washington plays a gansta narcotics cop who leads rookie Ethan Hawke through the troubled gritty streets of LA. Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg do perform their best imitations of actors.
8. “Office Space” (1999). Disgruntled office workers rebel against their mind-numbing lives by slacking off and taking a baseball bat to a printer accompanied by sweary rap from the Geto Boys’. Features Gary Cole as the most petty and evil boss in cinema history.
7. “Wild Style/ Style Wars” (1982). These films capture the birth of hip-hop from the streets of the South Bronx. Wild Style captures the ‘4 pillars of hip hop’ in their early glory; MCing, DJing, break dancing and graffiti. Style Wars is the documentary that had the bigger impact.
6. “Scarface” (1983). Brain De Palma’s cartoon-violent and gloriously OTT gangster opera has been reborn as a rap classic. Egotistical gangstas everywhere see Al Pacino’s money crazed, cocaine shovelling monster Tony Montana as an icon.
5. “Awesome; I F**kin’ Shot That” (2006). Oh, this one takes me back. The Beastie Boys are captured in all their geeky punk-rap glory in this trippy, head-rush of a concert movie. I went to see them on this tour when I was 15; it still ranks as one of the best gigs I’ve ever seen.
4. “Biggie & Tupac” (2002). Nick Broomfield’s terrifying and bizarre documentary investigates the corruption within the LAPD and their connections to feared Death Row boss Suge Knight and looks into the very plausible conspiracy theory that the premier gangster rappers (once friends then bitter rivals) were killed by the police.
3. “King of New York” (1990). Christopher Walken (at his most iconic) is the violent gangland supremo and sporadic body popper who returns from prison to gain control of the local drug dealers in order to set up an inner city hospital. Features Laurence Fisherburne as a manic chicken nugget obsessed gangsta. Mad.
2. “La Haine” (1995). This is the film that dispelled the romantic myth of Paris and showed the rotting heart at the centre of the ‘City of Love’. Focusing on a day in the life of 3 friends from the forgotten estates as they deal with police brutality, racism and revenge, accompanied by a soundtrack from French hip-hop master MC Solaar.
1. “Do the Right Thing” (1989). On the hottest day of the year, tensions between the local black, Italian, Korean and Hispanic communities raise to boiling point. Powered along by Public Enemy’s booming anthem ‘Fight the Power’, Spike Lee’s best film is as angry, funny and vital as hip hop at it’s best. A simply brilliant film.
Essential Soundtrack:
Wu Tang Clan ‘Gravel Pit’ Public Enemy ‘She Watches Channel Zero’ Beastie Boys ‘Intergalactic’ Eric B & Rakim ‘Follow the Leader’ Grandmaster Flash ‘White Lines’ KRS One ‘Sound of Da Police’ LL Cool J ‘Mama Said Knock You Out’ Roots Manuva ‘Witness (1 Hope) Phi Life Cypher ‘ABC’ Anti-Pop Consortium ‘Human Shield’ Bomb the Bass ‘Bug Powder Dust’ Leftfield (feat. Afrika Bambataa) ‘Zulu Nation’ The Prodigy (feat. Kool Keith) ‘Diesel Power’ Dizzee Rascal ‘Fix Up Look Sharp’ Cypress Hill ‘Rock Superstar [Live Version] Lethal Bizzle ‘You’ll Get Wrapped’ NWA ‘Fuck tha Police’ DJ Shadow ‘Midnight in a Perfect World’ Pharoahe Monach ‘Simon Says’ West Street Mob ‘Breakdance Electric Boogie’
Keep it real,
E-Dogg
* Roughly 1987-1993
It’s difficult to image a time when rap music wasn’t simply a way of selling trainers or hoodies to tune deaf posers. It was once the poor black man’s answer to white punk rock. In it's 'Golden Age' * it was music so angry, witty, funny and vital that it left others genres in the dust. But alas these days are long past. Mainstream hip-hop died the moment misogynistic and violent gangsters became the norm. That and simply the music just isn’t as good since the laws on music sampling were passed. This is perhaps why so many disillusioned b-boys became metal-heads.
If all you know of hip-hop is the lazy Sylvester Stallone-style mumblings of 50 Cent then I strongly suggest that you go back to the roots and get ‘oldskool’. So to all my real-hip hop heads out there; forget about what it became and bask in what it what it once was. Let your inner b-boy out and enjoy.
10. “Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai” (1999). Forest Whitaker stars as a hit-man who follows the ronin codes of the samurai and communicates with his eccentric gang-bosses with carrier pigeon. The soundtrack comes from the Wu tang chess-master the RZA.
9. “Training Day” (2001). Denzel Washington plays a gansta narcotics cop who leads rookie Ethan Hawke through the troubled gritty streets of LA. Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg do perform their best imitations of actors.
8. “Office Space” (1999). Disgruntled office workers rebel against their mind-numbing lives by slacking off and taking a baseball bat to a printer accompanied by sweary rap from the Geto Boys’. Features Gary Cole as the most petty and evil boss in cinema history.
7. “Wild Style/ Style Wars” (1982). These films capture the birth of hip-hop from the streets of the South Bronx. Wild Style captures the ‘4 pillars of hip hop’ in their early glory; MCing, DJing, break dancing and graffiti. Style Wars is the documentary that had the bigger impact.
6. “Scarface” (1983). Brain De Palma’s cartoon-violent and gloriously OTT gangster opera has been reborn as a rap classic. Egotistical gangstas everywhere see Al Pacino’s money crazed, cocaine shovelling monster Tony Montana as an icon.
5. “Awesome; I F**kin’ Shot That” (2006). Oh, this one takes me back. The Beastie Boys are captured in all their geeky punk-rap glory in this trippy, head-rush of a concert movie. I went to see them on this tour when I was 15; it still ranks as one of the best gigs I’ve ever seen.
4. “Biggie & Tupac” (2002). Nick Broomfield’s terrifying and bizarre documentary investigates the corruption within the LAPD and their connections to feared Death Row boss Suge Knight and looks into the very plausible conspiracy theory that the premier gangster rappers (once friends then bitter rivals) were killed by the police.
3. “King of New York” (1990). Christopher Walken (at his most iconic) is the violent gangland supremo and sporadic body popper who returns from prison to gain control of the local drug dealers in order to set up an inner city hospital. Features Laurence Fisherburne as a manic chicken nugget obsessed gangsta. Mad.
2. “La Haine” (1995). This is the film that dispelled the romantic myth of Paris and showed the rotting heart at the centre of the ‘City of Love’. Focusing on a day in the life of 3 friends from the forgotten estates as they deal with police brutality, racism and revenge, accompanied by a soundtrack from French hip-hop master MC Solaar.
1. “Do the Right Thing” (1989). On the hottest day of the year, tensions between the local black, Italian, Korean and Hispanic communities raise to boiling point. Powered along by Public Enemy’s booming anthem ‘Fight the Power’, Spike Lee’s best film is as angry, funny and vital as hip hop at it’s best. A simply brilliant film.
Essential Soundtrack:
Wu Tang Clan ‘Gravel Pit’ Public Enemy ‘She Watches Channel Zero’ Beastie Boys ‘Intergalactic’ Eric B & Rakim ‘Follow the Leader’ Grandmaster Flash ‘White Lines’ KRS One ‘Sound of Da Police’ LL Cool J ‘Mama Said Knock You Out’ Roots Manuva ‘Witness (1 Hope) Phi Life Cypher ‘ABC’ Anti-Pop Consortium ‘Human Shield’ Bomb the Bass ‘Bug Powder Dust’ Leftfield (feat. Afrika Bambataa) ‘Zulu Nation’ The Prodigy (feat. Kool Keith) ‘Diesel Power’ Dizzee Rascal ‘Fix Up Look Sharp’ Cypress Hill ‘Rock Superstar [Live Version] Lethal Bizzle ‘You’ll Get Wrapped’ NWA ‘Fuck tha Police’ DJ Shadow ‘Midnight in a Perfect World’ Pharoahe Monach ‘Simon Says’ West Street Mob ‘Breakdance Electric Boogie’
Keep it real,
E-Dogg
* Roughly 1987-1993
Financial History- Dull? Yeah Right!
I'm just blogging to say I recently watched a fantastic new history series on Channel 4. In 'The Ascent of Money' (Mondays 8pm Ch 4) Prof Niall Ferguson explores the roots of banking and monetary systems. His argument is that behind every important historical event there is usually a financial factor at play.
Ferguson travels the globe and history(from the Ancient Aztecs and the merchants of Italy to modern day lone-shark run Shettleston) like a fiscal Dr Who to explain the evolution of the world's banking systems.
I know, on paper this sounds like the most boring Open University style documentary series ever. But give it a chance, it's quick-paced entertaining and Ferguson's presentation made this potentially dry series very enthralling indeed.
Up next another list.
Ferguson travels the globe and history(from the Ancient Aztecs and the merchants of Italy to modern day lone-shark run Shettleston) like a fiscal Dr Who to explain the evolution of the world's banking systems.
I know, on paper this sounds like the most boring Open University style documentary series ever. But give it a chance, it's quick-paced entertaining and Ferguson's presentation made this potentially dry series very enthralling indeed.
Up next another list.
Wednesday 19 November 2008
"[Squeaky voiced teen] My parent's just don't understand!"
I was thinking about Steven's blog (about the use of pop music in films) and thought are there films that different musical tastes gravitate towards?
I have a confession to make…I was a Goth! Never in my musical tastes [it was Thrash metal, The Prodigy and the golden age of hip-hop for me] or in my dress code. I certainly had a Goth attitude: woefully miserable and helplessly romantic, a Goth by proxy. But let me make this distinction clear; I was a Goth NOT an emo. Emos were are to popular, trendy and optimistic to be considered true-Goths (that and MCR are shit).
Why am I going on I hear you cry? To mark the DVD release of what has become an instant Moody Teen Classic; “The Dark Knight”# I have compiled a list of the ultimate Goth Motion Pictures.
The love for “The Dark Knight” within the suicide-prone MySpace scene can be contributed to one man. Heath Ledger’s Johnny Rotten-meets- Krusty the Clown performance as The Joker has enabled miserable teens everywhere to dress as something other than ‘The Crow’ for Halloween.
So sit back, relax and and try not to enjoy; "The Ultimate Goth Movies"
10. “Blue Velvet” (1986). Kyle MacLachlan (with ear-ring) returns home to be caught up in a bizarre sadomasochistic mystery involving psychopath Dennis Hopper. Made Roy Orbison into the stuff of nightmares.
9. “Control” (2007). Anton Corbijn’s beautifully monochrome biopic of Manchester miserablist Ian Curtis of Joy Division fame is simply fantastic.
8. “Donnie Darko” (2001). It’s the 80’s and arty but pilled up teen Donnie is visited by an apocalyptic time travelling 6ft rabbit. Features a fantastically 1980’s new wave soundtrack.
7. “Heathers” (1989). Queen of the Goths (Winona Ryder) and professional Jack Nicholson impersonator (Christian Slater) are high school lovers who decide to kill of the preppy teens who rule the school and making it look like suicide. Best line; Father at Funeral: (Sobbing loudly) 'I love my dead gay son!'.
6. “Sid & Nancy” (1986). Although more of a punk film, what self-respecting Goth couldn’t love this doomed junkie love story.
5. “The Matrix” (1999). Enjoyable sci-fi hokum in which Techo-Goth Ted Theodore Logan (Keanu Reeves) discovers that the real world is like totally bogus. Ironically Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith delivers the closest thing to a human performance of all the cast.
4. “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1992). Gary Oldman stars as the lovesick vampire king in Coppola’s baroque and erotic retelling of the classic.
3. Most of Tim Burton’s Career (1985-). Affectionate misfits wear striped black and white usually starring Johnny Depp. Tweeny-Goths wouldn’t have anything to talk about without “The Nightmare Before Christmas”.
2. “The Proposition” (2005). From the pen of the Gothfather himself Nick Cave comes this brutal and violent Australian western (surely 'Eastern'). The film is as witty, bloody and blackly humorous as the Caveman’s own songs.
1. “The Crow” (1994). The film that spawned a million trench-coat wearing teens. Murdered rocker in Cradle of Filth make up returns from the grave to exact revenge on his killers. The melancholy performance of Brandon Lee (whose death on set surly added to its cult status) is beloved by all miserable awkward teens.
Essential Soundtrack:
The Misfits; ‘Die Die My Darling’ Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds; ‘Do You Love Me?’ Siouxsie & the Banshees; ‘Spellbound’ Echo & the Bunnymen; ‘The Killing Moon’ The Jesus and Mary Chain; ‘You Trip Me Up’ Killing Joke; ‘Love Like Blood’ Joy Division; ‘Leaders of Men’ The Cure; ‘Lovecats’ The Cramps; ‘Human Fly’ I Monster; ‘Who Is She’ Sisters of Mercy; ‘Floodlands’ The Horrors; ‘Draw Japan’ Eighties Matchbox Beeline Disaster; ‘Psychosis Safari' Pixies; 'Monkey Gone to Heaven'
# The 15th best film ever made in existence according to readers of Empire.
I have a confession to make…I was a Goth! Never in my musical tastes [it was Thrash metal, The Prodigy and the golden age of hip-hop for me] or in my dress code. I certainly had a Goth attitude: woefully miserable and helplessly romantic, a Goth by proxy. But let me make this distinction clear; I was a Goth NOT an emo. Emos were are to popular, trendy and optimistic to be considered true-Goths (that and MCR are shit).
Why am I going on I hear you cry? To mark the DVD release of what has become an instant Moody Teen Classic; “The Dark Knight”# I have compiled a list of the ultimate Goth Motion Pictures.
The love for “The Dark Knight” within the suicide-prone MySpace scene can be contributed to one man. Heath Ledger’s Johnny Rotten-meets- Krusty the Clown performance as The Joker has enabled miserable teens everywhere to dress as something other than ‘The Crow’ for Halloween.
So sit back, relax and and try not to enjoy; "The Ultimate Goth Movies"
10. “Blue Velvet” (1986). Kyle MacLachlan (with ear-ring) returns home to be caught up in a bizarre sadomasochistic mystery involving psychopath Dennis Hopper. Made Roy Orbison into the stuff of nightmares.
9. “Control” (2007). Anton Corbijn’s beautifully monochrome biopic of Manchester miserablist Ian Curtis of Joy Division fame is simply fantastic.
8. “Donnie Darko” (2001). It’s the 80’s and arty but pilled up teen Donnie is visited by an apocalyptic time travelling 6ft rabbit. Features a fantastically 1980’s new wave soundtrack.
7. “Heathers” (1989). Queen of the Goths (Winona Ryder) and professional Jack Nicholson impersonator (Christian Slater) are high school lovers who decide to kill of the preppy teens who rule the school and making it look like suicide. Best line; Father at Funeral: (Sobbing loudly) 'I love my dead gay son!'.
6. “Sid & Nancy” (1986). Although more of a punk film, what self-respecting Goth couldn’t love this doomed junkie love story.
5. “The Matrix” (1999). Enjoyable sci-fi hokum in which Techo-Goth Ted Theodore Logan (Keanu Reeves) discovers that the real world is like totally bogus. Ironically Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith delivers the closest thing to a human performance of all the cast.
4. “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1992). Gary Oldman stars as the lovesick vampire king in Coppola’s baroque and erotic retelling of the classic.
3. Most of Tim Burton’s Career (1985-). Affectionate misfits wear striped black and white usually starring Johnny Depp. Tweeny-Goths wouldn’t have anything to talk about without “The Nightmare Before Christmas”.
2. “The Proposition” (2005). From the pen of the Gothfather himself Nick Cave comes this brutal and violent Australian western (surely 'Eastern'). The film is as witty, bloody and blackly humorous as the Caveman’s own songs.
1. “The Crow” (1994). The film that spawned a million trench-coat wearing teens. Murdered rocker in Cradle of Filth make up returns from the grave to exact revenge on his killers. The melancholy performance of Brandon Lee (whose death on set surly added to its cult status) is beloved by all miserable awkward teens.
Essential Soundtrack:
The Misfits; ‘Die Die My Darling’ Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds; ‘Do You Love Me?’ Siouxsie & the Banshees; ‘Spellbound’ Echo & the Bunnymen; ‘The Killing Moon’ The Jesus and Mary Chain; ‘You Trip Me Up’ Killing Joke; ‘Love Like Blood’ Joy Division; ‘Leaders of Men’ The Cure; ‘Lovecats’ The Cramps; ‘Human Fly’ I Monster; ‘Who Is She’ Sisters of Mercy; ‘Floodlands’ The Horrors; ‘Draw Japan’ Eighties Matchbox Beeline Disaster; ‘Psychosis Safari' Pixies; 'Monkey Gone to Heaven'
# The 15th best film ever made in existence according to readers of Empire.
Africa.
As maybe you know I'm a massive history buff, and after watching Richard Attenborough's "Cry Freedom" (GB 1987) my interest in Africa political history has been renewed.
Anyone else interested in the difficult and troubled history of post-independence Africa should check out Martin Meredith's "The State of Africa". The book is a simply fantastic history novel which charts country-by-country African politics since post-colonial times. It's easy to read and unlike many history books is vivid and never dull.
Mr E.
Anyone else interested in the difficult and troubled history of post-independence Africa should check out Martin Meredith's "The State of Africa". The book is a simply fantastic history novel which charts country-by-country African politics since post-colonial times. It's easy to read and unlike many history books is vivid and never dull.
* * * * *
Television's grumpiest (but almost entirely right) critic is back! Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe has returned for another series. Hooray!
Charlie Brooker [the writer of Nathan Barley (along with Chris Morris) and Brain Dead] also has a regular column in The Guardian which is quite often insightful, hilarious and savagely sarcastic. He's worth checking out.
Mr E.
Sunday 16 November 2008
CENSORSH*T!
Hello avid followers of my blog.
This weekend I was off work so I finally have something to comment upon.
On Saturday I was dragged alone to see Kevin Smith's latest muck-stirrer "Zack and Miri Make a Porno". My friend whom persuaded me into seeing the film is quite literally obsessed with Mr Smith, possibly to an unhealthy level. So my criticisms of the film will be more rational than a man who greets Smith's forthcoming films with a degree of anticipation that a resurrected Jesus would find embarrassed.
I have never been the biggest fan of Smith's work, I just don't find many of his film very funny (although Clerks* and it's sequel I do enjoy). I think Smith is a fine writer but an adequate director. Many of his films would work better as a comedy album and a motion picture.
The basic plot of Z&MMAP is as follows. Slacker Zack (Seth Rogan) has an implausibly platonic relationship with gorgeous Miri (Elizabeth Banks), they desperately need money to pay the rent and so decide to make a pornographic film.
The problem, as with all of Smith's weaker films, is that the balance between sweetness and vulgarity doesn't gel. There are a few great jokes (especially Justin Long's cameo as a gay porn star), and I did find myself chuckling along. But overall it's a rather forgettable film. It also seems as if Smith has jumped on the more successful Judd Apatow bang-wagon in his casting of Seth Rogan and various other bit-parters who featured in previous Apatow productions.
For me, sex & relationships= funny, porn= not so funny.
**out of 5.
Smith also featured in Kirby Dick's enlightening and funny documentary "This Film is Not Yet Rated". The film looks at the MPAA and film censorship in America. In the film Dick hires a private investigator to track down the elusive 'ordinary folk' who make up the MPAA and thus have control over the destiny of a film. The film focuses on why American censorship are so concerned with sexuality (with the dreaded NC-17 rating) and not with on-screen violence. It has some great interviews with film-makers who have suffered at the hands of this unregulated and secretive board. This entertaining film comes highly recommended.
On a related subject check out this article from last Friday's Guardian newspaper on the role that the CIA have played in film censorship.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/nov/14/thriller-ridley-scott
To end on a lighter note, I have possibly discovered the creepiest television theme tune every made.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wO9RzlWS5fM
Mr E.
*[Pronounced 'clarks' in this country]
This weekend I was off work so I finally have something to comment upon.
On Saturday I was dragged alone to see Kevin Smith's latest muck-stirrer "Zack and Miri Make a Porno". My friend whom persuaded me into seeing the film is quite literally obsessed with Mr Smith, possibly to an unhealthy level. So my criticisms of the film will be more rational than a man who greets Smith's forthcoming films with a degree of anticipation that a resurrected Jesus would find embarrassed.
I have never been the biggest fan of Smith's work, I just don't find many of his film very funny (although Clerks* and it's sequel I do enjoy). I think Smith is a fine writer but an adequate director. Many of his films would work better as a comedy album and a motion picture.
The basic plot of Z&MMAP is as follows. Slacker Zack (Seth Rogan) has an implausibly platonic relationship with gorgeous Miri (Elizabeth Banks), they desperately need money to pay the rent and so decide to make a pornographic film.
The problem, as with all of Smith's weaker films, is that the balance between sweetness and vulgarity doesn't gel. There are a few great jokes (especially Justin Long's cameo as a gay porn star), and I did find myself chuckling along. But overall it's a rather forgettable film. It also seems as if Smith has jumped on the more successful Judd Apatow bang-wagon in his casting of Seth Rogan and various other bit-parters who featured in previous Apatow productions.
For me, sex & relationships= funny, porn= not so funny.
**out of 5.
Smith also featured in Kirby Dick's enlightening and funny documentary "This Film is Not Yet Rated". The film looks at the MPAA and film censorship in America. In the film Dick hires a private investigator to track down the elusive 'ordinary folk' who make up the MPAA and thus have control over the destiny of a film. The film focuses on why American censorship are so concerned with sexuality (with the dreaded NC-17 rating) and not with on-screen violence. It has some great interviews with film-makers who have suffered at the hands of this unregulated and secretive board. This entertaining film comes highly recommended.
On a related subject check out this article from last Friday's Guardian newspaper on the role that the CIA have played in film censorship.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/nov/14/thriller-ridley-scott
To end on a lighter note, I have possibly discovered the creepiest television theme tune every made.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wO9RzlWS5fM
Mr E.
*[Pronounced 'clarks' in this country]
Monday 10 November 2008
No Country For Old Men
I've just finished watching The Coen Brothers' film Oscar winning "No Country For Old Men" (US 2007), I think it could possibly one of the strangest Best Picture Winners ever.
Josh Brolin plays a game hunter who discovers the aftermath of a drugs-deal gone wrong, finding a suitcase containing $2 million. When Brolin makes off with the cash psychopathic bounty hunter Anton Chigurh [Javier Bardem] relentlessly pursues him.
Tommy Lee Jones plays an aging Texan sheriff determined to track them down, horrified by the savageness of the modern world, while believing in an imaginary, nostagic America of the past(a myth that the film takes apart).
The direction is surperb; the tension is built excellently throughout and the pace never lets up. The film also plays with the conventions of the thriller in that the 3 leads never meet, there is no great final shootout. In many ways this film is quite a departure for the Coens. It's their first adaptation (from Cormac McCarthy's novel) and although known for their witty dialouge, for many sections of the film there is no talking with most being taken from the book verbattem. This is possibly their most violent film but one that doesn't play it for laughs like their previous films (no foot in the wood-chipper here). But the film remains essestially Coen; it's surreal, thrilling and with a dark humour that runs throughout.
Also of note is Roger Deakins fantastic cinematography.
This is a must-see.
Josh Brolin plays a game hunter who discovers the aftermath of a drugs-deal gone wrong, finding a suitcase containing $2 million. When Brolin makes off with the cash psychopathic bounty hunter Anton Chigurh [Javier Bardem] relentlessly pursues him.
Tommy Lee Jones plays an aging Texan sheriff determined to track them down, horrified by the savageness of the modern world, while believing in an imaginary, nostagic America of the past(a myth that the film takes apart).
The direction is surperb; the tension is built excellently throughout and the pace never lets up. The film also plays with the conventions of the thriller in that the 3 leads never meet, there is no great final shootout. In many ways this film is quite a departure for the Coens. It's their first adaptation (from Cormac McCarthy's novel) and although known for their witty dialouge, for many sections of the film there is no talking with most being taken from the book verbattem. This is possibly their most violent film but one that doesn't play it for laughs like their previous films (no foot in the wood-chipper here). But the film remains essestially Coen; it's surreal, thrilling and with a dark humour that runs throughout.
Also of note is Roger Deakins fantastic cinematography.
This is a must-see.
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