Making The Numbers, Al's Own Style

Obviously I've mention just how OCD/Anally Retentive I am about the whole posting thing and when to post and how many in a month and blaah blaah blaah.... well screw that, to be completely honest. I am who I am and apparently people like that about me, so in order to make up for what I'm calling 'The September Gulch', I'm doing one a day until we hit October and am then going to six a month until the end of the year. Next year, I'm going to do four a month and that's gonna be it.

I work out how many blog posts I do these days based on how many films I see and I do tend to see a lot of them. Back in Southampton I had a couple of friends who worked at Cineworld and they used to be kind enough to let me in with buying a coke. Now that I'm working back up at home, I get to see the films we show in Screen One of the Corn Exchange (best cinema screen in Newbury and it isn't in the Vue) as long as I steward for them, which entails checking people's tickets and selling sweets.

But I get to see the film, which is awesome. Obviously back in Cineworld the films shown were much more mainstream, so I saw a lot more of the blockbusters and stuff, while in the Corn Exchange we focus on showing a lot more arthouse stuff, which is why you may have noted the shift in my reviewing to that sort of film. It's not because I've started wearing a beret and thinking myself better than going out to the Vue every week, it's just because it's what's put in front of me.

Since I don't have all the money in the world, it's neccessary to pick and choose when I go to the big cinema and when I don't, which leads to me being very reserved about big films. Actually had to pay to see Conan and that sucked, so I'm trying to be more wary about what I want to go see.

BEGINNERS.

Now this really wasn't the film people were expecting. They saw a bright, cheerful poster that declared the film was about Love, they saw Ewan McGregor standing there with a big smile on his face and thought 'hey, a romcom that looks a bit more intelligent, let's go see that'. And that is definately not the film they got, leaving a noticable number of our audience at the Corn Exchange rather disappointed in what they saw.

It's not a bad film, but much like Hanna a few months ago, I think it takes itself far too seriously. Christopher Plummer gives an astounding performance and the movie most certainly makes you rethink all you knew about homosexual life. McGregor and Laurent both give good shows, but are overshadowed by Plummer and Goran Visnjic (thank you IMDb for correct spelling there) and their exploration of homosexuality.

The film is thoughtful and provoking in it's own, quiet way, but there's too much artistic lavish placed on Oliver's view of the world, which can be quite pretentious and alienating to the people that have to sit and watch it. His art is a central theme and how he sees the world is quite interesting, until about the third time he launches into 'this is 2003' and then you just want it to go away, because by that point the film should have ended.

In fact there were about three points roughly half an hour/twenty minutes from the end where the film could have ended and it'd probably have been better for it. But that's just me. All in all, it's worth a watch, but don't get surprised if you feel that it's talking down to you, because it is. The dog, however, is easily the best character.

Next up: Poetry.