Russell Brand isn’t the best thing about Forgetting Sarah Marshall*, but he is very good in it. And interestingly what is so good about Brand in thsi film is that he is so gosh darned nice. Which has made me think about the Brand brand over here if you will, and how he has turned from a likeable TV host into a very divisive celebrity in two years. And perhaps the secret of his success in Marshall (and lack of success in St Trinians and most of his other projects between this and Big Brothers Big Mouth) all boils down to the difference between what he is and what we want him to be.
Brand’s schtick is being the erudite dandy. The juxtaposition between his look, his language and the way he uses his language creates a comic persona. Which was absolutely perfect on a strange phone in show like Big Brothers Big Mouth, a show where people ring up about the minutiae of a pretty unimportant reality TV show and this conversation is spun out into half an hour. A DAY. … read on …
huntin for images of BRANES in pulp culture i came across THIS via boingboing: “In November 2006 Till Nowak created the image SALAD. For this image he created 12 digital vegetable models in 3ds max using photographic references. They were combined to become a tribute to the fantastic biomechanical creations of H.R. Giger and the vegetable portraits of Giuseppe Arcimboldo.”
I really enjoyed The Last Mistress, Catherine Breillat’s filmed version of d’Aurevilly’s novel. Look who am I kidding. d’Aurevilly means nothing to me, and I’ve never been a huge fan of Breillat’s sex comedies (such as the not that aptly named Sex Is Comedy). I’m here for Asia Argento, Dario’s daughter who is far and away one of the most unpredictably watchable screen presences of the moment. So whilst The Last Mistress may seem to be a pretty standard period costume drama, Argento being in it was more than enough to drag me along. And not only was I right to pick that, but the reason for it being any good at all is all down to Argento herself.
The key scene in The Last Mistress takes place just after a duel takes place. … read on …
Spanish horror movie [REC] is the second horror film this year to use the video-camera conceit. YOU ARE THERE as our cameraman films all the horror that befalls him, and who thoughtfully considers more about getting a good shot than getting away from the baddies. Still [REC] probably predates Cloverfield so its real antecedent is The Blair Witch Project. I always wondered what happened to the cheapo film revolution Blair Witch was supposed to usher in. I always assumed that the movie companies were so annoyed by TBWP’s ignoring the proper finances and procedures of movie making the studio way that they killed all further stabs at this kind of guerrilla film-making. Or maybe it just took eight years for people to make one which was any good, both of which had significantly more money.
Indeed when you look at the similarities between Blair Witch, Cloverfield and [REC], the genre tricks of the camcorder film come into shaky autofocus. … read on …
There are, and indeed have been, many reasons to criticise the film Jumper. Most have centred around it not being all that good. Which is I suppose a fair criticism and one which tries to level out some form of objectivity in a notoriously subjective discipline. The catch all sum of its flaws (listed below) does create a cloud of stinkiness which results in you leaving the film feeling that things were not as they should be. The plus point is the film is over in 88 minutes, which really is going to make it safe from being in the bottom ten next year. But here are a few of its flaws:
-Unsympathetic lead character
-Unmotivated bad guy
-Confusing special effects
-Jamie Bell bizarre accent
-An Expedia eye view of the world
-Bizarre unfleshed out parental plot (for not demanded sequel) … read on …
belatedly reviewing lust, caution, the element i most woke up to was probably the mah jongg, a game my family played a little when i was a teen — we had a very strange set made not of ivory-bamboo or fake plastic equivalent but some curious crumbly black brick composite
as a game it has several evocative elements: problem being their evocativeness is often add-on orientalism introduced into the western version of the game; chinese mah jongg (as we saw in the film) is a fast-played social gambling game; i imagine ang lee had layered in certain plot/atmosphere/subtext elements which will have been lost on all non-players (not that i spotted any) (not that i really consider myself a player, tho i do sorta kinda remember the rules) … read on …
Follow up to last nights Lollards. It is difficult to describe the horror of something visual on the radio. My dislike for the Randy Newman penned, Sarah MacLachlin sung “When Somebody Loved Me” from Toy Story 2 is less about the song itself, but rather its role in the film. So here is an in context clip for you:
In particular look at the deathlike glassy mask on Jessie’s face when Emily is playing with her on the horse.CREEPY! Now clearly I have more ontological issues with this than the average eight year-old kid, but nevertheless even taken as it is within the film the subtext of this song is appalling. … read on …
So let us round up some of the “problems” people have with Cloverfield, bearing in mind that it is a MONSTER MOVIE set in New York. The Camera Battery wouldn’t last that long.
Maybe he had spares. Maybe he picked up spares in the shop. Maybe its a really good DV camera.
ITS JUST A FILM, GET OVER IT.
How could you walk up from Spring Street to 59th Street on the subway tracks and not come across a train.
Dudes, people will be using the trains to evacuate, and probably cancelling the trips back into a monster ravaged New York.
Also ITS JUST A FILM, GET OVER IT. … read on …
It surprised me to realize that I have seen most of Susanne Bier’s recent films - considering I don’t see an awful lot of Dutch movies. Nevertheless Brothers and After The Wedding had marked her out as a serious talent, and so I was tentatively looking forward to Things We Lost in The Fire. Tentatively because it has being marked as a “recovering from grief” film coupled with a “rehab” film. And neither of these Hallmark movie of the week subjects really appeal to me. My tentativity was mildly justified.
There is a sequence in the middle of What We Lost In The Fire where the eldest daughter of murdered David Duchovny asked Benicio Del Toro’s recovering smack habit the following: “Do you ever feel like you’re living in a movie?”… read on …
General impressions of 2007 though was that it was a pretty good year for US film. Hence a lot of people saying it was a high water mark for the decade. Not sure if I quite agree, but certainly the bog standard quality of the films I saw last year seemed that little bit more competent and indeed interesting. Films like Control, Superbad and Hot Fuzz which I saw with people and could have really quite long pub conversations about - which didn’t make the top ten. There just seemed to be a few more risks being taken, and that little bit more fun being had. Which I think this top five underlines. … read on …
There are, and indeed have been, many reasons to criticise the film Jumper. Most have centred around it not being all that good. Which is I suppose a fair criticism and one which tries to level out some form of objectivity in a notoriously subjective discipline. The catch all sum of its flaws (listed below) does create a cloud of stinkiness which results in you leaving the film feeling that things were not as they should be. The plus point is the film is over in 88 minutes, which really is going to make it safe from being in the bottom ten next year. But here are a few of its flaws:
It surprised me to realize that I have seen most of Susanne Bier’s recent films - considering I don’t see an awful lot of Dutch movies. Nevertheless Brothers and After The Wedding had marked her out as a serious talent, and so I was tentatively looking forward to Things We Lost in The Fire. Tentatively because it has being marked as a “recovering from grief” film coupled with a “rehab” film. And neither of these Hallmark movie of the week subjects really appeal to me. My tentativity was mildly justified.
Site powered by