Recognition

So it was to my complete surprise and astounded bewliderment that I recieved an email yesterday from a chap called Nathan Grimm, who stated that he loved my blog. Now, while I do believe that such bizarre happenings as a man I've never met reading my rantings, the even more amazing thing is that Mr. Grimm isn't just a passer by, he actually represents a website that has now linked my blog as being 'of note to potential art students'.

I'm of note? Are you serious?

Apparently so, here's the link:

http://www.guidetoartschools.com/tips-and-tools/student-artist-blogs

I'm number 7 on that list of blogs that should be of interest to student artists or writers. Now, the first thing that actually crossed my mind when reading this piece of corrospondence wasn't 'I should check this out' or 'I should email him back to make sure he hasn't recently escaped from a looney farm' it was in fact 'Damn, I should blog about this'. So here I am, tapping away now that I've thought of something to say.

So, for those few of you that will actually be tempted by that link and actually read my blog (welcome all four of you), I guess I should tell you a bit about myself.

I go by Xan on this site and quite a few others but my friends day to day call me Al (my name is Alastair, which is the Gaelic translation of the name Greek name Alexander, which can be shortened to Xander and then again to Xan), I live in Southampton, a port city on the southern coast of Great Britain, I'm a student at Southampton Solent University in my third and final year of studying Screenwriting, which is the art of writing for film and television. My that was a long sentence. Now that I've remembered what a full stop is, I can carry on.

It's my goal someday to write for the BBC or to be able to sell a science fiction script to some appropriate channel in the States. I'm aware of just how ridiculously difficult it is to fulfill these goals, however, and I don't delude myself into thinking it'll be easy, so it'll probably be off to some advertising or marketing department for me after I'm done at university. I have a passion for films and television shows, but I won't pretend to be any kind of real expert on them, I have a fan's perspective tied with a sense of pretentious elitism and that works for me.

Every month I try to make between 2 and 6 blog entries, but I'm thinking about making it weekly, especially if I've been in some way 'noticed'. Attached to each of these blog entries is a film review of a movie I went to go see in the cinema a couple of weeks before, so my reviews are never really current, which is just as well, because I wouldn't want my opinion to sway anyone else's. I am in Scotland at the moment, staying with my parents, but that's just for a week or so during my vast summer holiday time. Also, I have a near crippling addiction to Stargate SG1.

So that's me, I hope that doesn't read like it's a profile on a dating site (because I'm tired of filling those in), but if it urges you to read on then... what's wrong with you?

So on with the film review, which is the end of the blog really, so see you later, if you decide to stick around (there's no reward). But we're all in for a treat this week:

INCEPTION.

So. Inception. The big one. The film of the year, as people will say. This is it, this is something that none of us can avoid or deny. Inception.

Where the hell do I start?!

I saw this movie three times in the cinema, putting it ahead of Four Lions (my top British film of the year) and Iron Man 2. That should mean something alone.

Mind you, this is a pretty British movie, Chris Nolan is the writer and director and it's got Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy and Pete Postlethwaite in it.

But... it's full of flaws.

Basically, the first third of the movie is purely exposition, there's so much backstory, setting up, technical explanation that the whole first third of the movie seemed pretty contrived to start off with, with so much detail being thrown around. It's pretty hard to keep track of sometimes, and it takes a fair bit of getting used to, but by the time you've picked it all up it works together pretty smoothly.

Second flaw is Ellen Page. Now, I've been perfectly fine with this young actress's performance in the past, she was fine in X-Men 3 and she was great in Juno. This... this wasn't the film for her. She was wooden, stiff, not at all convincing and I seriously felt that her role could have been better performed by someone wearing a t-shirt that said 'Audiance Surrogate' on the front. Leo Dicaprio wasn't massively hot either.

As for third flaw... okay, sod it, I can't talk flaws anymore. So many other things to rant about. This film, despite those things I've mentioned, is truly:

AMAZING.

It's gorgeous, it's virtually seamless and so complicated that idiots will stay away. Thank fuck for that, because they don't deserve this movie.

The sheer idea of delving into people's dreams as a method of personal infiltration, exploring their fears and imaginations, seeing their memories play out in front of them with the surreal knowledge that we all contain things in our mind that can kill and hate... it's sublime. The premise alone is Oscar-worthy and I suspect a nomination for next season. Also the seamless CGI stays in the background, where CGI belongs.

The acting varies in this movie. I've already stated my feelings on Ms. Page, while Dicaprio gives an adequate performance that isn't massively stirring, but provides the level of skill that I've come to expect from him. However, the real gems of this movie are it's supporting cast. Tom Hardy, Dileep Rao, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt all give stirling performances.

That's Gordon-Levitt of Third Rock.

Third Mo-Foing Rock from the Sun!

The real star is of course Marion Cotillard, whose sheer presence could dominate any cast she was put in. Her flawless performance is haunting, terrifying, sinister and electrifying all within one breath. The use of her character as a relic of Cobb's dark side, as the Lady of the Underworld (or Limbo) as anything she wanted to be, was inspired.

So overall, this film is the film that film fans have suffered to get. We've had Clash of the Titans, Transformers 2, X-Men Origins Wolverine, the entire Star Wars Prequal Trilogy, The fourth Indiana Jones film that DOESN'T EXIST... all these things we have sat and we have endured. All of these terrible films... and we have been finally rewarded.

It has descended from the heavens, borne upon the wings of our angel, Nolan. Friends, artists, geeks, film fans... we've EARNED this movie.

Next time: The A-Team.