I've never liked Hallowe'en. It's got a stupid name, a stupid non-history and an even stupider gimmick. But hey, people like it and it's all... I dunno... fancy-dress-y? Personally I've never gotten on with the majority of publicly celebrated annual occasions, with the exceptions of Bonfire Night and New Years. Those two I have an appreciation for, but not the rest, especially not Hallowe'en.
This year was nightmareish. After just having finished the agonisingly long run of My Fair Lady all week at the Corn Exchange, we had 'Hallowe'en Hullabaloo' in the Newbury Marketplace just outside, which featured live (not very good) music, a wandering magician, face painting, puppet making, tomfoolery, child vomitting and eighty thousand requests for pretentious coffee.
And kids. Lots of kids.
I hate kids. With a burning passion. There are few things I detest more than having to deal with lots and lots of children, but one of them is having to deal with their parents. Eugh.
But anyway, the real funtimes of this trip down to newbury was friday/saturday. A big shout out to my belov'd friend Idge, who turned the youthful and bounding age of 34 this week and we then had party times on friday night. Now, I was working friday night from 5 until 9:30 (which then turns into 10). I get across to the Canal Bar just after I've finished and join in the revelries, with (really good) live music, lots and lots of people I know and general good times. We get turfed out of the Canal Bar around midnight, as they wish to shut, and it's left to me and Kerry to make sure that Adam (Idge's fella, who had been drinking since about 5) got from the Canal Bar to the Snooty Fox, about 2 minutes walk away. This in itself was a nigh-on Herculean task, as was the ongoing process of keeping an eye on him until half 2, but all that was eclipsed by the neccessity to get him back home at that time, for which we owe eternal thanks to Jen (whom I'm ashamed to say I was not to kind too back in our college days).
So after navigating Adam home and making sure he'd passed out in the living room, I walked Jen back to the pub, found that it had just closed up, walked her back home and then set about going out to find Wiggy, my distant cousin and Rios' colleague. Found him at about 5:00 in the morning, managed to convince him to come back to Jen's, where he slept on the sofa. I then trapsed back to Emma's, where I was staying, to partake in a particularly satisfying hour and a half's sleep. I then staggered down to Rios, in order to open up the place for 10am and cover Wiggy's shift for him, since he was in no state to do it himself! I was supposed to be working at the Corn Exchange at 7pm and to my amazement, Wiggy was there at 5 to take over. I headed over to work early in order to chill out and have a drink before I started, only to be pressed into service at 5:30 and made to go and be useful. I finished at 11:30, then proceeded back to Rios to make sure that Wiggy was okay shutting the shop. Apparently, I'm *really* helpful.
That day lasted a good 39 hours.
Man, this has been a long post.
THE SOCIAL NETWORK.
First off, I just wanna say that this is one of the top three movies of the year (the other two being Inception and Four Lions). There is no competition for this movie in terms of sheer nerd-cool, script quality or acting performances. I mean, this is two hours of nerds complaining about money and facebook... and it's AMAZING.
I think this is down to the Four Principal Genius Men of this movie. Without these four guys, this film wouldn't have been good, or even in existence, really. I'm pretty sure that producers only went for this movie because they saw the potential for these four names to be attached to this movie. They are:
1) Aaron Sorkin (Writer, also the creator of the West Wing)
2) David Fincher (Director, also did Seven and Fight Club)
3) Jesse Eisenberg (Actor, from Rodger Dodger, oh yes!)
4) Trent Reznor (Composter, frontman of Nine Inch Nails)
That's four pretty hefty names going in there, all of them seriously pull their weight for this movie, there's nothing about any of their work that I can criticise. Jesse Eisenberg is a serious rising star with a lot of potential, he's everything that Michael Cera will never be (talented, likeable, in possession of a broken voice) and he's got one hell of a career ahead of him. Fincher is an uncompromising director whose quick and ruthless visual style gives us everything we need and a hundred extra little details if you want to catch them. Reznor's just great. His inclusion of Hall of the Mountian King was inspired.
But of course, I'm a writer, so I look to the writer the most. Sorkin is one of the best working at the moment, the West Wing is still his masterpiece creation, but this is up there with it. The script for this movie is so snappy, packed and glib that it's hard to believe just how much of it he managed to pack in there. It's very fast paced, skipping over whole swathes of time in the blink of an eye in some places, but at precise, almost surgical intervals. This is one of the best scripts I've ever seen, proof that you can write a great film about any subject, no matter how trivial and irrelevant it might appear to be.
On a casting note (apart from Eisenberg), it was sheer inspired. Armie Hammer carries off the best supporting character(s) award for playing the Winklevoss twins, Garfield shows promise for Spiderman and would you believe it Justin Timberlake is actually good at this acting lark.
To sum up this movie (going back to my old method of not talking about movies I actually like), at the last scene, where Zuckerberg is sitting and refreshing his webpage, I could quite happily sit there and watch that for another half hour. I wanted more of this movie. Enough said.
Next post: Let Me In.
Sunday 31 October 2010
Tuesday 26 October 2010
Music and Travelling
So October's been something of an odd and strangely active/eventful month. Not in any serious way (the bad sense of the word 'eventful'), but it's just that I've had a great deal of places to go and things to do and people to meet up with. Odd how it sometimes seems to all get packed into one month.
I've been in (and am currently in) Newbury twice this month, once for four or so days at the second weekend and now for six days on this, the final week (and fifth weekend). I also took a quick trip up to Bath on the third weekend to see my brother's new BUST production of The Importance Of Being Ernest.
On the whole, that's one of the more satisfying shows I've seen him perform in as part of BUST, mainly because I know that he's such a huge fan of Wilde and the play in itself, so his passion for it shows through quite well. However, this is the first play I've seen of his where I'd say that he wasn't the best performance. Not to say that he didn't give a good show, but I think that Katie, one of his co-stars, who has been in plenty of good shows, stole the show out from under everyone's feet as Lady Bracknell. Good show all around, I say, I do love that play.
Tragically I missed seeing my parents the following weekend, owing to being in Plymouth, but they missed the play, so it all works out in my mind. Sort of. I was in Plymouth to see my friend Dave, whom I've known for 10 years now. It was his engagement party to his long-term girlfriend Sara. It was a quiet evening, but worth the trip and good to see them. Odd to think of Dave preparing to get married, but I suppose that the rest of the world isn't as phobic about these things as I am! Mind you, they implied that it'd probably be a while until it happens.
On the Music front, it's been a busy one as well. Anthony invited me to go and see Plan B with him, at the beginning of the month and it was a blast, which was a bit of surprise to me, since I was kinda thinking it'd just be chavs and tossers going to this show. It was, however, really good, a lot of passion up on the stage, which is what it's all about.
Plan B, however, was eclipsed by the other concert we went to this month, which was of course the GASLIGHT ANTHEM. Twice in one year, oh hells yeah! This time they came here, to Southampton and we got to meet and talk to the band after the show, in an absolutely freezing street with a bunch of fellow concert goers we didn't know after we started queueing at 4:30 that afternoon.
Well, that's about it...
METROPOLIS
(The longest cut)
Wow. Metropolis. I mean wow.
This film is the very reason that science fiction can truly exist, you know. Well, science fiction in film and television. It'll always have a place in novels and short stories, but this film... this film is *it*.
It's the story of a massive super-city, with the well-dressed and decedant elite on top and the grime-smudged workers below, toiling to built the New Tower of Babel and keep the Heart Machine of the city powered.
There's no story more classic than this, in fact you've probably seen Metropolis a dozen times without actually realising it, there is simply so much inspiration in it that legions of writers have set forth brimming with ideas from just watching this movie, of which I am one. It's not without it's detractors, however, H.G. Wells himself was not a fan, stating that it was a poor film and guilty of 'foolishness, cliche, platitude and muddlement about mechanical progress and progress in general'. Harsh words, considering who they were coming from.
But he's utterly, utterly wrong in that statement, I feel. This is a film about the darker side of society being redeemed by it's lighter virtues. The characters aren't so much three dimensional personalities, they're archetypes upon which three dimensional characters are built upon. Rotwang may be hammy and cheesy as a villian, but we wouldn't have the Mad Scientist without him, the Thin Man may be a charicature, but he's the original Sinister Henchman. It's a visually rich, highly detailed and immensely important film, in my humble opinion.
Since the discovery of an almost complete reel of the movie in an Argentian museum back in 2001, the film hasn't been this long since 1927, when Lang's original cut was screened a handful of times in Berlin (once to Joseph Goebbels, who frickin' LOVED IT). After that, the film was trounced, cut apart, mutilated and re-edited into various forms to suit the many propoganda needs that it found itself in. There are still scenes missing, but there's now so much that's been added back to it, it brought tears to my eyes to see it in almost all of it's glory.
It's 83 years old, it's 150-odd minutes long, it's completely silent and it's the source of so many cliches.
But sitting through it is a privilige, if only for the stunningly gorgeous cinematography and vast scope.
It's films like this that remind me why I like films. I was lucky enough to be stewarding for this movie at my place of work (The Newbury Corn Exchange) and I volunteered for this job without the slightest moment's hesitation. It's beauty as a piece of cinema has not diminished, nor has its message.
Next up: The Social Network
(A film actually from 2010!)
I've been in (and am currently in) Newbury twice this month, once for four or so days at the second weekend and now for six days on this, the final week (and fifth weekend). I also took a quick trip up to Bath on the third weekend to see my brother's new BUST production of The Importance Of Being Ernest.
On the whole, that's one of the more satisfying shows I've seen him perform in as part of BUST, mainly because I know that he's such a huge fan of Wilde and the play in itself, so his passion for it shows through quite well. However, this is the first play I've seen of his where I'd say that he wasn't the best performance. Not to say that he didn't give a good show, but I think that Katie, one of his co-stars, who has been in plenty of good shows, stole the show out from under everyone's feet as Lady Bracknell. Good show all around, I say, I do love that play.
Tragically I missed seeing my parents the following weekend, owing to being in Plymouth, but they missed the play, so it all works out in my mind. Sort of. I was in Plymouth to see my friend Dave, whom I've known for 10 years now. It was his engagement party to his long-term girlfriend Sara. It was a quiet evening, but worth the trip and good to see them. Odd to think of Dave preparing to get married, but I suppose that the rest of the world isn't as phobic about these things as I am! Mind you, they implied that it'd probably be a while until it happens.
On the Music front, it's been a busy one as well. Anthony invited me to go and see Plan B with him, at the beginning of the month and it was a blast, which was a bit of surprise to me, since I was kinda thinking it'd just be chavs and tossers going to this show. It was, however, really good, a lot of passion up on the stage, which is what it's all about.
Plan B, however, was eclipsed by the other concert we went to this month, which was of course the GASLIGHT ANTHEM. Twice in one year, oh hells yeah! This time they came here, to Southampton and we got to meet and talk to the band after the show, in an absolutely freezing street with a bunch of fellow concert goers we didn't know after we started queueing at 4:30 that afternoon.
Well, that's about it...
METROPOLIS
(The longest cut)
Wow. Metropolis. I mean wow.
This film is the very reason that science fiction can truly exist, you know. Well, science fiction in film and television. It'll always have a place in novels and short stories, but this film... this film is *it*.
It's the story of a massive super-city, with the well-dressed and decedant elite on top and the grime-smudged workers below, toiling to built the New Tower of Babel and keep the Heart Machine of the city powered.
There's no story more classic than this, in fact you've probably seen Metropolis a dozen times without actually realising it, there is simply so much inspiration in it that legions of writers have set forth brimming with ideas from just watching this movie, of which I am one. It's not without it's detractors, however, H.G. Wells himself was not a fan, stating that it was a poor film and guilty of 'foolishness, cliche, platitude and muddlement about mechanical progress and progress in general'. Harsh words, considering who they were coming from.
But he's utterly, utterly wrong in that statement, I feel. This is a film about the darker side of society being redeemed by it's lighter virtues. The characters aren't so much three dimensional personalities, they're archetypes upon which three dimensional characters are built upon. Rotwang may be hammy and cheesy as a villian, but we wouldn't have the Mad Scientist without him, the Thin Man may be a charicature, but he's the original Sinister Henchman. It's a visually rich, highly detailed and immensely important film, in my humble opinion.
Since the discovery of an almost complete reel of the movie in an Argentian museum back in 2001, the film hasn't been this long since 1927, when Lang's original cut was screened a handful of times in Berlin (once to Joseph Goebbels, who frickin' LOVED IT). After that, the film was trounced, cut apart, mutilated and re-edited into various forms to suit the many propoganda needs that it found itself in. There are still scenes missing, but there's now so much that's been added back to it, it brought tears to my eyes to see it in almost all of it's glory.
It's 83 years old, it's 150-odd minutes long, it's completely silent and it's the source of so many cliches.
But sitting through it is a privilige, if only for the stunningly gorgeous cinematography and vast scope.
It's films like this that remind me why I like films. I was lucky enough to be stewarding for this movie at my place of work (The Newbury Corn Exchange) and I volunteered for this job without the slightest moment's hesitation. It's beauty as a piece of cinema has not diminished, nor has its message.
Next up: The Social Network
(A film actually from 2010!)
Sunday 10 October 2010
10/10/10
So today is 10/10/10 and I was up at 10:10:10 in order to mark this historic occasion. Then I promptly went back to bed and woke up a good hour later in order to stumble on down to the Corn Exchange and begin stewarding. The review of the film that I stewarded will be up after this one, and it's a cracker, so I won't spoil it by talking about it any further.
I've just spent an... interesting... weekend in Newbury. The town can be both awesome and disappointing at the same time. Some things never change and I'm glad about that, but some things really do need to and don't seem to.
Mostly, it's me that probably needs to change. I had an experiance back in newbury this time around that I won't go too much into but relates to my inability to have relationships with women and my own issues with them all.
Ech.
Someone more intelligent than me once said that you should never sleep with someone who has more issues than you do. Man, do I have *issues*, so I would dislike to meet the person that has more and actually fancies me. Then I realised that I already knew that person and it all goes downhill from there. I don't want to sound mean, nasty or bitchy, but I ain't going there.
It's for the best if I never even think about having a girlfriend ever again, since it would save a lot of time and bollocks, but it turns out that you can't quite control your hormones as well as you'd like to think you do.
Man, I sound whiny.
To counter that:
BACK TO THE
--FUTURE--
Back to the Future. Back to the Mother-F*^&ing Future. The day I went to see this movie was the 25th Anniversary of its original release,which means that I was 1 year old when it came out. That makes me feel old, even though I'm only 26. Only. Try saying that to yourself in a class full of teenagers.
I've just spent an... interesting... weekend in Newbury. The town can be both awesome and disappointing at the same time. Some things never change and I'm glad about that, but some things really do need to and don't seem to.
Mostly, it's me that probably needs to change. I had an experiance back in newbury this time around that I won't go too much into but relates to my inability to have relationships with women and my own issues with them all.
Ech.
Someone more intelligent than me once said that you should never sleep with someone who has more issues than you do. Man, do I have *issues*, so I would dislike to meet the person that has more and actually fancies me. Then I realised that I already knew that person and it all goes downhill from there. I don't want to sound mean, nasty or bitchy, but I ain't going there.
It's for the best if I never even think about having a girlfriend ever again, since it would save a lot of time and bollocks, but it turns out that you can't quite control your hormones as well as you'd like to think you do.
Man, I sound whiny.
To counter that:
BACK TO THE
--FUTURE--
Back to the Future. Back to the Mother-F*^&ing Future. The day I went to see this movie was the 25th Anniversary of its original release,which means that I was 1 year old when it came out. That makes me feel old, even though I'm only 26. Only. Try saying that to yourself in a class full of teenagers.
Off point there, I'll admit. Now, Back to the Future is the story of Marty McFly, friends with a mad scientist for undisclosed reasons, who then goes back in time by 30 years (from 1985 to 1955) and manages to completely disrupt everything he's ever known or will know. Then he has to go fix it.
I'm sure you know the story of Back to the Future, if you don't then why the hell are you reading my blog? Get out! But for those of you who are well aware of why this film is so unbelievably brilliant, then let me tell you that seeing it on the big screen for the 25th Anniversary was one of the best experiences I've had in a very, very long time. Man, was this movie brilliant. The music is still great, the characters are still great, the effects still hold up. Man, I love this movie, it’s just so damn good!
The thing is, I didn't really appreciate it when I was younger, I just thought it was kinda cool, I didn't stop to actually consider just how well put together the whole thing is. I mean, every single plot point is talked about in the first 8 minutes of the film and it never deviates or throws any curveballs at you, the action is still tense after 25 years, the story is still astounding and not a single scene or line of dialogue is wasted, not a single word is unnecessary. Sheer Genius.
So yeah, this movie was still brilliant but you don’t need me to tell you that. Break open your DVD box and give it another watch, you know you want too.
Next up: The ONLY film that can top this.
Tuesday 5 October 2010
Two Weeks In
If you are ever told to watch 'The Night Porter' for class or for work or just by a friend... don't. Save yourself the trouble and look up a film called 'Good' instead. The Night Porter is something that we've had to look at due to it's supposed sado-masochist themes and it's questioning nature of guilt and innocence. But it's just so damn BORING. I don't know how you could make a film about a Concentration Camp survivor and former Nazi SS Officer meeting after 12 years and hating each other dull... but they managed it. Lilina Cavani, that is, and her team. Gods, it was just so long... so slow...
Onto better things, I'm now two weeks into my third year at uni and as Mike has said, it'll be over soon enough. That means worrying about jobs and homes and all that crap, but I'm sure I'll get there soon enough. I should probably mention that I've run out of Stargate to watch by now, I can't make it last that long. I'm now contemplating whether or not I should buy season 5 of Lost, season 7 of The Shield or season 1 of House (since my previous copy of season 1 got vanished somewhere and I feel I should get 1 again before I get 6). I'm allowing myself to buy one season box-set per month at the end of each month.
I feel obligated to buy The Shield since I love it so and still don't own season 7, I know too that I should finish Lost and get 5 and 6... but it's Lost... it started so good and it got so poor... so what October's choice will be is yet to be seen. It might be none of those.
I'm gonna be in Newbury as of tomorrow (or this afternoon, really), for a couple of days. Going back to work for just a bit more than the weekend, then back in time for class, where myself, Coates and Ad will have to get the rest of the class up on The Night Porter. Joyous times.
Shoot me now, please.
In other news I've found it harder and harder to actually come up with stuff to write in my blogposts, I tend to leave them for days on end, just sitting there in front of me. This one's a bit different, am simply going at it with sleep-dep in my eyes, wondering if I'm gonna get my writing done for the day or if I'm gonna double it up tomorrow or whatever. Probably going to do that, I feel that I need some serious sleep. But then, that's nothing new with me, is it.
CYRUS.
Okay, so this wasn't the film I was really expecting. This is gonna be a very short review, because I still don't really know what to say about this movie. 'Offbeat' doesn't even begin to cover it, it's just so... peculiar.
I've never been a fan of Jonah Hill or John C. Rielly, but they were both fine. They both pale in comparison to Marisa Tomei, who carries the film with grace and beauty. The Duplass Brothers (writers and directors) sure know how to pick 'em.
This movie has heart, but you have to work at it to get at it, if you know what I mean. If you're not willing to actually think about it as an audiance member, you're not going to get anything out of it, which'd be quite easy to do.
The one thing that does quite suprise me about this movie is that it was Executive Produced by Ridley and Tony Scott. The Scott Brothers?! The frickin' SCOTT BROTHERS!?! That was unexpected, it didn't seem like their kind of film, to be honest.
Next time: Guess.
Onto better things, I'm now two weeks into my third year at uni and as Mike has said, it'll be over soon enough. That means worrying about jobs and homes and all that crap, but I'm sure I'll get there soon enough. I should probably mention that I've run out of Stargate to watch by now, I can't make it last that long. I'm now contemplating whether or not I should buy season 5 of Lost, season 7 of The Shield or season 1 of House (since my previous copy of season 1 got vanished somewhere and I feel I should get 1 again before I get 6). I'm allowing myself to buy one season box-set per month at the end of each month.
I feel obligated to buy The Shield since I love it so and still don't own season 7, I know too that I should finish Lost and get 5 and 6... but it's Lost... it started so good and it got so poor... so what October's choice will be is yet to be seen. It might be none of those.
I'm gonna be in Newbury as of tomorrow (or this afternoon, really), for a couple of days. Going back to work for just a bit more than the weekend, then back in time for class, where myself, Coates and Ad will have to get the rest of the class up on The Night Porter. Joyous times.
Shoot me now, please.
In other news I've found it harder and harder to actually come up with stuff to write in my blogposts, I tend to leave them for days on end, just sitting there in front of me. This one's a bit different, am simply going at it with sleep-dep in my eyes, wondering if I'm gonna get my writing done for the day or if I'm gonna double it up tomorrow or whatever. Probably going to do that, I feel that I need some serious sleep. But then, that's nothing new with me, is it.
CYRUS.
Okay, so this wasn't the film I was really expecting. This is gonna be a very short review, because I still don't really know what to say about this movie. 'Offbeat' doesn't even begin to cover it, it's just so... peculiar.
I've never been a fan of Jonah Hill or John C. Rielly, but they were both fine. They both pale in comparison to Marisa Tomei, who carries the film with grace and beauty. The Duplass Brothers (writers and directors) sure know how to pick 'em.
This movie has heart, but you have to work at it to get at it, if you know what I mean. If you're not willing to actually think about it as an audiance member, you're not going to get anything out of it, which'd be quite easy to do.
The one thing that does quite suprise me about this movie is that it was Executive Produced by Ridley and Tony Scott. The Scott Brothers?! The frickin' SCOTT BROTHERS!?! That was unexpected, it didn't seem like their kind of film, to be honest.
Next time: Guess.
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