Books, Films, and Other Distractions

Population 436 (2006)

2008-08-31T11:31:00.005+01:00

Canada/USA
Feature Film
Director: Michelle MacLaren
Writer: Michael Kingston
Cinematographer: Thomas Burstyn
Composer: Glenn Buhr
Cast: Jeremy Sisto, Fred Durst, Charlotte Sullivan, David Fox, R.H. Thomson, Frank Adamson, Peter Outerbridge, Reva Timbers, Arne McPherson

MacLaren’s feature debut often feels like an (overly) extended episode of The X Files, which isn’t really a surprise as the Canadian director formerly worked on the show. But unfortunately, little else about this production is particularly surprising either, which for a horror/mystery film is quite a handicap. Numerology, religious superstition, murder, ritual suicide, and non-consensual cranial surgery combine to form a rather predictable narrative that follows a census taker (Jeremy Sisto) who is assigned to the small town of Rockwell Falls, a town that has had the same population (436) for more than a hundred years. Needless to say, he finds more than he bargained for.

Travels with My Aunt (1969)

2008-08-31T10:21:00.004+01:00

UK
Novel
Author: Graham Greene

Greene’s slight, light-hearted though fairly entertaining novel, a tale of unlikely adventure and unlikely adventurers, detrimentally lacks the inner conflict and emotional turmoil that afflicts the protagonists of his best work. Where the humour in say Our Man In Havana (1958) is grounded in reality, here it often drifts into whimsy and inconsequentiality. That’s not to say that the novel is necessarily a poor one. Novels about female septuagenarian smugglers who have had a string of lovers of all races, nationalities and creeds, amongst them war criminals and drug dealers, is inherently entertaining. Said old woman is the titular aunt, Augusta, an adventurous old woman with a chequered past. The requisite nephew, Henry Pulling, a retired bank manager, is a much less exciting character. The travels of the title that Henry takes with Augusta lead them to France, Italy, Turkey, Argentina and Paraguay, and a number of adventures ensue along the way.

Millions (2004)

2008-08-28T17:11:00.004+01:00

UK
Feature Film
Director: Danny Boyle
Writer: Frank Cottrell Boyce
Cinematographer: Anthony Dod Mantle
Composer: John Murphy
Cast: Alex Etel, Lewis McGibbon, James Nesbitt, Daisy Donovan, Christopher Fulford, Pearce Quigley, Jane Hogarth

Boyle’s first foray into family entertainment, much of it filmed in my home town, Widnes, often feels like a feature length advertisement for charitable organisations, which, as far as advertisements go, are amongst the most palatable. And as condescending as it sometimes feels, one must forgive the filmmakers, as the film’s anti-greed message is a most welcome antidote to the greed-is-good Hollywood films that are normally pushed onto our children. The film follows two young brothers who find a bag full of money just a few days before the UK’s conversion to the Euro. The kind hearted Damian (the excellent Alex Etel) wants to give the money to the poor, which isn’t as easy as he thinks. The more cynical Anthony (Lewis McGibbon) wants to spend the money on material pleasures. Saints, criminals, bureaucrats and other assorted adults do their best to prevent them from achieving their goals.

Keane (2004)

2008-08-27T07:49:00.005+01:00

USA
Feature Film
Writer/Director: Lodge Kerrigan
Cinematographer: John Foster
Cast: Damian Lewis, Abigail Breslin, Amy Ryan, Tina Holmes

The far from prolific Kerrigan’s third feature, a spare, harrowing and ultimately devastatingly moving portrayal of grief and/or mental illness, proves to be a brave and unapologetic exploration of difficult subject matter. The film opens with William Keane (a phenomenal Damian Lewis) frantically accosting commuters at a bus-station with a photograph of a young girl, (evidently, his daughter who was abducted at some earlier time.) His subsequent actions begin to cast doubt in our minds as to whether his daughter ever existed. He drinks heavily, takes drugs, has unprotected sex with a stranger (Tina Holmes), talks to himself and succumbs to paranoid rants. When he befriends a young mother (Amy Ryan) and her daughter (Abigail Breslin), we are forced to question his motives further. A difficult film, but a hugely rewarding one.

Jake's Progress (1995)

2008-08-26T18:44:00.005+01:00

UK
Television Mini-Series
Director: Robin Lefevre
Writer: Alan Bleasdale
Cinematographer: Arthur Smith
Composers: Richard Harvey, Elvis Costello
Cast: Robert Lindsay, Julie Walters, Barclay Wright, David Ryall, Dorothy Tutin, Amanda Mealing, David Ross, Andrew Schofield, Samantha Beckinsale

For once, political commentary takes a back seat to a more focused examination of the human condition. It’s still there, of course, after all this is Alan Bleasdale, but it’s definitely not the main focus. Not that he has ever allowed politics to overshadow the human drama anyway, but still… Jamie Diadoni (Robert Lindsay, excellent as ever) has been unemployed for a number of years, and has become something of a househusband whilst his wife Julie (the foul-mouthedly excellent Julie Walters) works as a care nurse. Everything changes when Julie falls pregnant again, much to the chagrin of everyone and in particular seven year-old Jake (the incredible Barclay Wright), who doesn’t fancy sharing his beloved daddy with anyone. Sacrifice and compromise follow, and, what with this being an Alan Bleasdale drama, a number of wickedly funny and outlandish plot developments unfold. Highly entertaining.

G.B.H. (1991)

2008-08-25T12:24:00.006+01:00

UK
Television Mini-Series
Director: Robert Young
Writer: Alan Bleasdale
Cinematographer: Peter Jessop
Composer: Richard Harvey, Elvis Costello
Cast: Robert Lindsay, Michael Palin, Lindsay Duncan, Julie Walters, Philip Whitchurch, Andrew Schofield, Tom Georgeson, Dearbhla Molloy, Peter-Hugo Daly, David Ross, Jane Danson, Alan Igbon, Stephen Hall

This Alan Bleasdale masterpiece feels like The Angry Silence (1960) remade by way of Dickens and Fawlty Towers with a dash of Monty Python and a dollop of All the President’s Men (1976). It’s also quite, quite brilliant. Boys From the Blackstuff (1982) remains his magnum opus, but this ten hour mini-series from Channel Four, a powerful, funny, and often moving examination of political skulduggery, comes close to matching it. A bevy of beautifully drawn characters orbit around Michael Murray (Robert Lindsay), a brash leftist councillor with a skeleton in his closet, and Jim Nelson (Michael Palin), an anxious yet principled headmaster, whose lives collide and change irreparably. The performances are all good, but Lindsay, Palin and Whitchurch are particularly excellent.

Passport to Pimlico (1949)

2008-08-24T09:31:00.003+01:00

UK
Feature Film
Director: Henry Cornelius
Writer: T.E.B. Clarke
Cinematographer: Lionel Banes
Composer: Georges Auric
Cast: Stanley Holloway, Betty Warren, Barbara Murray, Paul Dupuis, John Slater, Jane Hylton, Philip Stainton, Margaret Rutherford, Basil Radford, Naunton Wayne

This charming Ealing comedy, both a celebration of, and an attack against Britishness, manages to be both whimsical and, antithetically, realist in its depiction of the lives of ordinary people in post-war London. The story kicks into life when an unexploded German bomb is accidentally set off by youthful tomfoolery. The explosion reveals a collection of hidden treasure and documents that state that the area is part of Burgundy. “Blimey, I’m a foreigner!” The residents of Burgundy soon cotton on to the advantages of this situation: licensing laws, betting laws, rationing - pah! “this is Burgundy!” Or at least, at first they appear to be advantages. Before they know it, word has spread and Burgundy has become a spiv’s paradise. A panicked British Government strives to remedy the embarrassing situation. What results is a celebration of idiosyncrasy and an attack against bureaucracy, two peculiarly British traits. Hugely entertaining.

Be Big! (1931)

2008-08-23T13:22:00.005+01:00

USA
Short Film
Director: James Parrott
Writer: H.M. Walker
Cinematographer: Art Lloyd
Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Anita Garvin, Isabelle Keith

One of Laurel and Hardy’s weakest vehicles, Be Big! begins with Stan and Ollie getting ready to take their wives to Atlantic City. Ollie gets a phone call from someone at the club - they are throwing a party in his and Stan’s honour! Cue Ollie’s trademark yelps as he feigns illness in an attempt to get out of their trip. He suggests that the wives go without them. And so the boys are left alone. So far so good: both for Stan and Ollie and for us the viewer. What follows is perhaps the duo’s most tedious set-piece: They are getting ready in order to go to the club, when they realise that they are wearing each other’s boots. Cue a scene, that feels like it lasts for several hours despite the entire film only lasting for 30 minutes, that consists of Stan trying to remove Ollie’s boots (well, his own boots really.) Occasionally funny, but generally tedious.

Stripes (1981)

2008-08-23T13:01:00.005+01:00

USA
Feature Film
Director: Ivan Reitman
Writers: Len Blum, Daniel Goldberg, Harold Ramis
Cinematographer: Bill Butler
Composer: Elmer Bernstein
Cast: Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Warren Oates, P.J. Soles, Sean Young, John Candy, John Larroquette, John Voldstad, John Diehl

This mildly diverting Army comedy starts well: John Winger (Bill Murray), in the opening 15 minutes of the film, loses his job, his girlfriend, his apartment, and his car, drops his pizza, smashes two windows, abuses a snotty old woman and decides to join the army. If the film had ended there it would have been a cracking short film, unfortunately it doesn’t. Winger and his friend Russell (Harold Ramis) join the army, blunder through basic training, invade Czechoslovakia, become heroes and get the girls. But it’s not as amusing as it sounds. There are laughs, but they are few and far between. And after the hilarious opening much of what follows is quite tedious

28 Weeks Later (2007)

2008-08-22T12:02:00.005+01:00

UK/Spain
Feature Film
Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Writers: Rowan Joffe, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, Enrique López Lavigne, Jesús Olmo
Cinematographer: Enrique Chediak
Composer: John Murphy
Cast: Robert Carlyle, Catherine McCormack, Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner, Harold Perrineau, Idris Elba, Imogen Poots, Mackintosh Muggleton

Fresnadillo’s Romero-like sequel to 28 Days Later (2002) combines political allegory with visceral thrills to produce a film worthy of its predecessor. Much like Romero’s Day of the Dead (1985), society isn’t undone by its enemy, so much as it is by itself, by those that are supposed to be protecting it. 28 weeks have passed since the outbreak of the rage virus. Britain has been evacuated. The infected have starved to death. The US military has declared the virus dead. And so begins the rebuilding, the cleaning-up and the repopulation of London, now a fortified, militarised zone. All goes well until there is a new outbreak of the virus which forces civilians to, not only evade the rampaging infected, but also the US military who are determined to defeat the virus by any means necessary. Will anyone survive?

The Day of the Locust (1975)

2008-08-21T07:28:00.004+01:00

USA
Feature Film
Director: John Schlesinger
Writers: Waldo Salt, Nathanael West
Cinematographer: Conrad L. Hall
Composer: John Barry
Cast: William Atherton, Karen Black, Donald Sutherland, Burgess Meredith, Bo Hopkins, Pepe Serna, Bo Hopkins, Billy Barty, Jackie Earle Haley

In some respects Schlesinger’s film is a disappointing adaptation of West’s novel, but in others it is a great triumph. The casting of Karen Black, excellent though she was, who at the time was in her mid 30s, as the 17 year old Faye Greener was a huge misstep. Having a grown woman play the part completely alters everyone’s motivations. Characters are generally softer, more likeable, less desperate. Schlesinger has still managed to portray the seedy and violent flipside of the Hollywood dream; but it is less seedy and less violent than West’s vision. Where this matches, or perhaps even surpasses, the original is in its finale - a violent, apocalyptic vision of society’s collapse embodied in mob violence and rioting, that is amongst the most powerful and disturbing scenes in cinema history. A simultaneously disappointing and brilliant film.

The Day of the Locust (1939)

2008-08-20T20:47:00.004+01:00

USA
Novel
Author: Nathanael West

A scathingly brilliant portrait of the broken dreams that litter the streets of Los Angeles, and a metaphor for society’s impending self-implosion. West guides us through a world in which beautiful 17 year old platinum-blonde prostitutes rub shoulders with impoverished Mexicans, handsome cowboys, emotionally unstable accountants, angry dwarves, and talented artists. His is a world in which violence is common place, in which media coverage of violent crime has whetted the appetites of the public, in which the mention of cock fights doesn’t even raise an eyebrow. West prophesises melt-down. His main character, Tod Hackett, is painting a picture entitled “The Burning of Los Angeles.” His characters casually drink and fight. He describes a cock fight in unflinching, gruesome detail. Everything builds towards the remarkable finale that erupts in mob violence. Masterful.

Bananas (1971)

2008-08-20T13:20:00.003+01:00

USA
Feature Film
Director: Woody Allen
Writers: Woody Allen, Mickey Rose
Cinematographer: Andrew M. Costikyan
Composer: Marvin Hamlisch
Cast: Woody Allen, Louise Lasser, Carlos Montalbán, Nati Abascal, Jacobo Morales, Miguel Ángel Suárez, David Ortiz, René Enríquez, Jack Axelrod

Perhaps the best of Allen’s early funny ones, Bananas follows Fielding Mellish (Woody Allen), a products tester for a large multi-national company, who falls for the radical left-wing activist, Nancy (Allen’s second wife Louise Lasser), and ends up, after a kidnapping, an attempted murder, a revolution, a counter-revolution and a ridiculously large lunch order, ends up as the president of San Marcos (a tiny, fictional Latin American country.) The most consistently funny of Allen’s early films, it takes satirical jabs at American foreign policy, irresponsible journalism and political naivety amongst many other things, and contain some of his most memorable set-pieces, not the least of which is a court case in which Mellish declares “I object, your honour! This trial is a travesty. It's a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham.” Hugely entertaining.

University Procession on Degree Day, Birmingham (1901)

2008-08-19T15:51:00.009+01:00

UK
Short Documentary
Producers: Sagar Mitchell, James Kenyon

A procession of the graduates of Birmingham university in 1901, including numerous women and one non-white face. Of mild curiosity value.

Morecambe Church Lads' Parade at Drill (1901)

2008-08-19T15:38:00.009+01:00

UK
Short Documentary
Producers: Sagar Mitchell, James Kenyon

The Morecambe Church Lads exercise in front of the camera. A boy in the front row repeatedly loses his hat, much to the amusement of his friends. Fascinatingly captures the smiles, laughs, innocence and imperfections of a group of young boys who have long since left this mortal coil.

Special March Past of St. Joseph's Scholars and Special Parade of St. Matthew's Pupils, Blackburn (1905)

2008-08-19T15:25:00.010+01:00

UK
Short Documentary
Producers: Sagar Mitchell, James Kenyon

A group of Blackburn school children march past a static camera. The same children then wave at the camera as it pans across them. Finally, The children file past the camera in the street whilst holding hands. The boys and girls are always separate. Of mild curiosity value.

Audley Range School, Blackburn (c 1904)

2008-08-19T15:12:00.010+01:00

UK
Short Documentary
Producers: Sagar Mitchell, James Kenyon

A group of Blackburn school children exercise gently. Of mild curiosity value.

Waterland (1983)

2008-08-19T14:35:00.010+01:00

UK
Novel
Author: Graham Swift

And so it begins - ‘ And don’t forget,’ my father would say, as if he expected me at any moment to up and leave to seek my fortune in the wide world, ‘whatever you learn about people, however bad they turn out, each one of them was once a tiny baby sucking his mother’s milk…’ - at the end, looking back. Tom Crick, history teacher, storyteller, Fenlander, narrates us through the story of his life, and his parents’ lives, and their parents’ lives, and… Epic, thoroughly detailed, masterful, compelling, brilliant; we are gripped from that baby’s first nibble. He paints a picture of this flat, desperate place - the Fens - of growing up, of adolescent sexual curiosity, of jealousy of murder, of incest. And further back he goes, to the dawn of time, and back again; back and forth, forth and back. He dips in and out of his life, and his ancestors' lives, contrasting the phlegmatic ambitionless Cricks with the ceaseless aspirations of the Atkinsons. And then they meet, two contrasting families, and he is begotten. A masterpiece.

Trainspotting (1993)

2008-08-19T14:26:00.008+01:00

UK
Novel
Author: Irvine Welsh

A person without hope is little more than an animal. With no ability to see the future, the present is all that there is. There are no rules. The word consequence is not in their vocabulary. Theft, violence, drugs (legal and illegal), casual sex; when there is no tomorrow, anything goes. Irvine Welsh’s first novel, set in Leith, Edinburgh, explores these hopeless lives in all their grimy detail. Marketed as a novel, Trainspotting is essentially a collection of short stories, each loosely connected by location and common character. The majority of the stories are narrated by one or other of the myriad of troubled characters that inhabit Welsh’s world. With that in mind, the author has written these vignettes in an Edinburgh variety of Scots, which may cause problems to the untrained ear (eye.) Grimly funny.

Those Were the Days (1934)

2008-08-19T14:16:00.007+01:00

UK
Feature Film
Director: Thomas Bentley
Writer: Jack Jordan, Frank Launder, Frank Miller, Frederick A. Thompson, Arthur Wing Pinero
Cast: Will Hay, Iris Hoey, Angela Baddeley, Claud Allister, George Graves, John Mills, Jane Carr

The plot is driven by a wife’s (Iris Hoey) deception concerning her age towards her second husband the magistrate Brutus Poskett (Will Hay). When they met, she shaved six years off her age and as a result also had to shave six years off her son (John Mills). The son, Bobby, is a worldly-wise young man of 21, who must pretend to be 15 around his step-father. This rather silly premise somehow leads all and sundry to the local music hall, and before you know it the magistrate is sentencing his own wife to seven days in prison. The farce plot is punctuated by several music hall acts that are of neither use nor ornament; whilst being generally dull and occasionally offensive, they also manage to ruin the pacing of the main plot. A good farce requires a quick, snappy pace, and this certainly doesn’t have one. The film isn’t a complete loss though: the performances are generally good and some of the dialogue is excellent (particularly anything coming out of the mouths of the two terribly posh army officers.) Generally disappointing, though.

The Return (2003)

2008-08-19T13:57:00.006+01:00

Russia
Feature Film
Original Title: Возвращение
Director: Andrei Zvyagintsev
Writer: Vladimir Moiseyenko, Aleksandr Novototsky
Cinematographer: Mikhail Krichman
Composer: Andrei Dergachyov
Cast: Vladimir Garin, Ivan Dobronravov, Konstantin Lavronenko, Natalya Vdovina

Andrei Zvyagintsev‘s enigmatic, allegorical debut film, set against a bleak and desolate landscape, beautifully photographed by Mikhail Krichman with a palette of greys and blues, revolves around a father’s (Konstantin Lavronenko) return home after an absence of twelve years, and the subsequent road trip he takes with his two sons. The eldest son, Andrei (Vladimir Garin) hangs on his every word, but the youngest son, Ivan (the remarkable Ivan Dobronravov) is more wary. A beautiful and moving exploration of familial relationships, conflict and fear.

Stalag 17 (1953)

2008-08-19T13:46:00.007+01:00

USA
Feature Film
Director: Billy Wilder
Writer: Billy Wilder, Edwin Blum, Donald Bevan, Edmund Trzcinski
Cinematographer: Ernest Laszlo
Cast: William Holden, Don Taylor, Otto Preminger, Robert Strauss, Harvey Lembeck, Richard Erdman, Peter Graves, Neville Brand, Sig Ruman, Michael Moore, Peter Baldwin

Billy Wilder’s WWII prisoner-of-war comedy follows Sefton’s (William Holden) attempts to clear his name after being wrongly accused of colluding with the enemy. Self-obsessed, materialistic, with seldom a thought for anyone but himself, Sefton is the type of man that has coffee and eggs for breakfast, whilst those around him have to make do with a ladle of washing-up water. Unsurprisingly he is not the most popular resident of Stalag 17. So when an escape attempt goes tragically wrong, leaving two American prisoners dead, a mole is suspected and suspicion points towards Sefton. Not one of Wilder’s best, but entertaining nonetheless.

Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (1963)

2008-08-19T11:59:00.007+01:00

USA
Short Story Collection
Author: J. D. Salinger

Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters (1955) and Seymour: An Introduction (1959), are a pair of long short stories written by Salinger about the Glass family. The former ostensibly about Buddy Glass, and the latter about Seymour Glass, but quite often it appears that the opposite is true. Although, really, both stories are about the relationship between the two brothers, Buddy and Seymour, or more precisely, Buddy’s recollections of their relationship. The first story is fairly typical of Salinger’s work, particularly his Glass family saga, in that it is tightly written, unfolds over a short space of time, and consists of human interactions (with a playwright’s ear for dialogue.) The second story on the other hand, is quite a departure; it takes the form of a stream of consciousness portrait of Seymour by his brother Buddy, and has a diary-like informality that is quite striking, and eventually rather moving.

Perfect Strangers (2001)

2008-08-19T11:32:00.008+01:00

UK
Television Mini-Series
Writer/Director: Stephen Poliakoff
Cinematographer: Cinders Forshaw
Composer: Adrian Johnston
Cast: Michael Gambon, Lindsay Duncan, Matthew Macfadyen, Claire Skinner, Toby Stephens, Jill Baker, Timothy Spall

Stephen Poliakoff’s mildly disappointing if entertaining mini-series revolves around a family reunion at a swanky London hotel; a propertied, monied and distinguished family. Family dinners, family trees, slide shows, any excuse to tell another yarn. We are treated to story after story: a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Jewish girl evades the Nazis; feral children live wild in the woods during the war; a favourite child becomes mentally ill, secret loves are discovered. And then in the present; cousins kiss and Jack Hawkins movies are watched, secrets are spilled and lies are rebuffed, and sins are (maybe?) atoned for.

Overtaken (2003)

2008-08-19T11:24:00.007+01:00

UK
Novel
Author: Alexei Sayle

Can People change? What shapes one’s personality? Who are we when everything and everyone else is stripped away? Sayle’s exploration of the effects of tragedy, and the subjectivity of pain and suffering, and of guilt and responsibility is narrated by Kevin, a property developer in his early 30s from Liverpool. His business dealings are successful, he has a close-nit group of friends with whom he enjoys the arts: plays, art galleries, films, books, avant-garde circuses. His evenings and weekends are filled with activity. They even take holidays and weekend breaks together. He exists only as part of this group. Then tragedy strikes. Grimly funny and surprisingly insightful, a delight.

No One Belongs Here More Than You (2007)

2008-08-19T11:10:00.008+01:00

USA
Short Story Collection
Author: Miranda July

Miranda July’s first collection of short stories bares in common with all her work, a focus on human interactions, the need that people have to connect with other people, and the difficulties that this often entails. The stories involve shared patio rosters, swimming lessons for the elderly held in the teacher’s living room, a middle-age woman’s obsession with Prince William, a paedophile’s homosexual relationship with his Hispanic workmate via his imaginary teenage sister, pre-teen lesbian sex, nudie booths, a secretary to a fake accountant, and a father passing on sexual techniques to his daughter. Although these are not everyday occurrences, the emotions involved are. The more bizarre and unusual the story, the more it highlights the commonality of human experience and emotion. It is not often that one feels empathy with a paedophile, yet July’s deeply human writing achieves this. A funny, insightful and moving masterpiece.

Man with a Movie Camera (1929)

2008-08-19T11:02:00.008+01:00

Soviet Union
Feature Documentary
Original Title: Chelovek s kino-apparatom
Writer/Director: Dziga Vertov
Cinematographer: Mikhail Kaufman
Cast: Mikhail Kaufman

Vertov’s documentary paints a picture of a day in the life of the Soviet Union. A city is awakening. We are greeted with people beginning their day: they wash and dress and leave for work, busses leave the station, cars, carts and trams jostle for space on the busy streets, performers perform, workers work, and machines grind. We are given neither inter-titles nor time to dwell on the images; the cutting is fast. Form seems to be more important than content. We are shown a portrait of a city, yet the experience is more musical, more abstract, more akin to fiction than document. A dazzling experience.

Skins - Series 1 (2007)

2008-08-19T08:15:00.007+01:00

UK
Television Series
Creators: Jamie Brittain, Bryan Elsley

Cast: Nicholas Hoult, Mike Bailey, April Pearson, Hannah Murray, Dev Patel, Joseph Dempsie, Mitch Hewer, Larissa Wilson, Daniel Kaluuya, Siwan Morris, Kaya Scodelario

Channel 4’s yoof comedy-drama, exploring the lives a group of 16 and 17 year old friends from Bristol, teenagers, who for once, actually look like teenagers, is a surprisingly entertaining and accomplished show. The humour, similar to another Channel 4 show, Teachers, often defies logic, but is grounded somewhat by the more dramatic moments. Each episode focuses on one particular character, with the other charcters being peripheral to the week’s storyline. This provides the show's greatest strength: We see certain characters in the background of stories and make an opinion about them, often a negative one, then when they get their own episode our pre-conceptions are often subverted, and we get a glimpse of the real person, of the private person. Frequently laugh-out-loud funny, often insightful, occasionally moving, and thoroughly entertaining.

Interiors (1978)

2008-08-18T13:51:00.008+01:00

USA
Feature Film
Writer/Director: Woody Allen
Cinematographer: Gordon Willis
Cast: Kristin Griffith, Mary Beth Hurt, Richard Jordan, Diane Keaton, E.G. Marshall, Geraldine Page, Maureen Stapleton, Sam Waterston

Allen’s much maligned first foray into straight drama, an examination of a wealthy, artistic family and their complicated and troubled relationships, is something of a masterpiece, and as an examination of existential angst is about as effective as American cinema has produced. The performances are all, without exception, excellent, with Geraldine Page and Maureen Stapleton being particularly brilliant. And the mise-en-scène is bold and adventurous and perfectly captures Allen’s beautifully drawn characters. A beautiful and moving masterpiece.

Dead Creatures (2001)

2008-08-18T13:23:00.008+01:00

UK
Feature Film
Writer/Director/Composer: Andrew Parkinson
Cinematographer: Jason Shepherd
Cast: Beverley Wilson, Antonia Beamish, Brendan Gregory, Anna Swift, Bart Ruspoli, Fiona Carr, Eva Fontaine

David Parkinson’s leisurely paced low-budget second feature, a thought provoking, challenging, humourless, slightly grim, and above all else, tremendously well-made anti-horror film, is, for want of a better term, a zombie film. Although, I’m sure that pedants and horror movie buffs alike will frown upon the term. Because, these “zombies” are, and here’s the problem, very much alive. They drink, they smoke, they socialise, they have sex, they make small talk. At first glance they appear to be very much boringly normal. Of course, anyone who feasts on the flesh of a human being is anything but normal.

City Lights (1931)

2008-08-18T12:49:00.007+01:00

USA
Feature Film
Writer/Director/Composer: Charles Chaplin
Cinematographer: Gordon Pollock, Roland Totheroh
Cast: Charles Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill, Harry Myers, Al Ernest Garcia, Hank Mann

Chaplin plays a kind hearted tramp who enters the lives of two entirely disparate people: The first, a beautiful, blind street vendor who sells flowers and lives modestly, is kind hearted and dreams of romance. The second, an almost-perennially drunk millionaire, whom we first meet as he attempts to commit suicide, but is foiled by the little tramp, is a member of the idle rich. When drunk, he is your best friend; when sober, he looks at you like you are something that he has trodden in. With the millionaire, the tramp indulges in wild-partying and drunk-driving; whilst with the blind girl he is happy to sit and listen to music and ball wool. The performances are top notch, the slapstick well-timed and there are a number of extremely funny gags and sequences, but it does become a little sentimental at times.

Barcelona Plates (2000)

2008-08-18T12:39:00.008+01:00

UK
Short Story Collection
Author: Alexei Sayle

Alexei Sayle’s first collection of short stories, written in a style that mirrors his angry, ranting, incredulous Liverpudlian persona, has enough ideas, observations, surprises and laughs to tickle the fancy of most readers. The weaker stories seem to be written just for the purpose of delivering their, admittedly often brilliant, punch lines; whilst the better stories, still building to a big finish, with beautifully drawn charcters, amount to much more. The most entertaining story, is perhaps, The Minister For Death, in which a 72 year-old Liverpudlian discovers the joys of killing and becomes a hit-man for the Chechen Mafia, and is both ridiculous and funny and constantly surprising; it mixes social and political comment with outlandish humour. Patchily entertaining.

Auf Wiedersehen, Pet - The Special (2004)

2008-08-18T12:22:00.006+01:00

UK
Television Series
Cast: Jimmy Nail, Timothy Spall, Tim Healy, Kevin Whately, Christopher Fairbank, Noel Clarke, Branka Katic, Alexander Hanson, Pornchai Tipol

Auf Wiedersehen, Pet has now travelled about as far from its origins as it possibly could (geographically and artistically.) Any pretence of social commentary has long-since vanished, but it has just about managed to maintain its entertainment value. This final instalment, now without the recently deceased Pat Roach as well as Gary Holton who died during the second series, revolves around the kidnapping of Barry (Timothy Spall) by dispossessed Laosan villagers, and the subsequent rescue attempt. The increasing incredulity the Auf Pet team’s adventures is now, perhaps, one of its minor joys.

Auf Wiedersehen, Pet - Series 4 (2004)

2008-08-18T12:15:00.005+01:00

UK
Television Series
Cast: Jimmy Nail, Timothy Spall, Tim Healy, Kevin Whately, Pat Roach, Christopher Fairbank, Noel Clarke, Sandra James-Young, Caroline Harker, Alexander Hanson, Josefina Gabrielle, Javier Alcina

A notable improvement on the third series, despite being even more outlandish and less-credible than before. The boys are now working in Cuba redeveloping the British ambassador’s house. The plot involves Spies, Manchester United shirts, hamster roulette and ballerinas, and is seldom credible but always entertaining. It is also the most visually striking of the four series.

Auf Wiedersehen, Pet - Series 3 (2002)

2008-08-18T12:07:00.006+01:00

UK
Television Series
Cast: Jimmy Nail, Timothy Spall, Tim Healy, Kevin Whately, Pat Roach, Christopher Fairbank, Noel Clarke, Bill Nighy, Branka Katic, Dragan Micanovic, Michael Angelis, John Kazek, Gordon Tootoosis, Emily Bruni

The action of this third series revolves around the taking down of the Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge and its re-erection on an Indian reservation in Arizona. Long gone is the social commentary and gallows humour of the first series. Also nowhere to be seen is the leisurely pace of the first two series. There was, perhaps, a potentially entertaining series here if it had been allowed a little more room to breathe; but, too much happens in too short a space of time; with a run of 13 episodes, like the first two series, then who knows? There is also something of a condescending air to a lot of it, but, of course, there are also some cracking one-liners. Disappointing.

Auf Wiedersehen, Pet - Series 2 (1986)

2008-08-18T11:55:00.005+01:00

UK
Television Series
Cast: Jimmy Nail, Timothy Spall, Tim Healy, Kevin Whately, Pat Roach, Gary Holton, Christopher Fairbank, Julia Tobin, Val McLane, Bill Paterson, Lesley Saint-John, Melanie Hill, Bryan Pringle, James Booth

This second series, transposed from Düsseldorf to Wolverhampton, Derbyshire and Spain, lacks the gritty, mundane reality of the first series. Everything is much broader, more expansive. Plots are packed and sensational and are dotted with gangsters and prison breaks and showdowns. It lacks the credibility of the first series, but what it lacks in credibility it makes up for in pure entertainment with the more outlandish elements being grounded somewhat by the still excellent dialogue. The biggest weakness of this second series, though, is its depiction of the idle-rich, most of whom come across as little more than caricatures.

Auf Wiedersehen, Pet - Series 1 (1983)

2008-08-18T11:36:00.006+01:00

UK
Television Series
Cast: Jimmy Nail, Timothy Spall, Tim Healy, Kevin Whately, Pat Roach, Gary Holton, Christopher Fairbank, Michael Sheard, Peter Birch, Brigitte Kahn, Caroline Hutchison, Julia Tobin, Su Elliot, Michael Elphick

1982. Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister. Unemployment had topped 3 million, and accounted for about 15% of the populace of most northern towns. There was an economic recession. Industry was being “restructured”. Things looked bleak. Cue Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais to brighten up our lives. But they didn’t do it by escaping from the realities of the time, on the contrary, they mined those desperate days for all their blackly comic worth, and consequently highlighted the plight of the working man. Much like Alan Bleasdale did with Boys from the Blackstuff (1982), Clement and La Frenais mixed gallows humour with human drama to paint a picture of the state of the nation, but on this occasion, they did it whilst setting the action in Germany. Desperately, brilliantly, funny.

Artemis 81 (1981)

2008-08-18T08:52:00.007+01:00

UK
Television Film
Director: Alastair Reid
Writer: David Rudkin
Composer: Dave Greenslade
Cast: Hywel Bennett, Roland Curram, Dan O'Herlihy, Dinah Stabb, Sting

This often baffling, frequently brilliant, and constantly compelling BBC production depicts a battle of some sort between Good and Evil. The Good represented by Helith (Sting), and the Evil by Asrael (Roland Curram) and his semi-willing pawn Von Drachenfels (Dan O'Herlihy). Our guide through this tale is the science-fiction novelist, Gideon (Hywell Bennett). And it is Gideon, along with his friend Gwen (Dinah Stabb), that add a human face to the proceedings. In fact, just as humanity is careering towards some impending apocalypse, Gideon and Gwen are themselves on a voyage towards some sort of emotional growth. One of a kind.

The Flipside of Dominick Hide (1980)

2008-08-18T08:26:00.007+01:00

UK
Television Film
Director: Alan Gibson
Writer: Alan Gibson, Jeremy Paul
Cast: Peter Firth, Caroline Langrishe, Pippa Guard, Patrick Magee, Trevor Ray, Sylvia Coleridge, Jean Trend, Timothy Davies

Alan Gibson and Jeremy Paul’s delightful comedy-drama follows time-traveller Dominick Hide (Peter Firth), who is tired of his sanitised, empty life and craves more. When we first encounter him, he is returning from one of his missions (his duty is to monitor the 1980 London traffic system.) He is shown in close-up revealing his melancholy and disconsolate face. He has had enough of watching, he wants to interact. And so he does, and off he goes in search of his great-great-grandfather who is also called Dominick Hide (Dominick Hide tries to find Dominick Hide!) Funny and plausible. Followed by Another Flip for Dominick (1982).

Another Flip for Dominick (1982)

2008-08-18T08:05:00.009+01:00

UK
Television Film
Director: Alan Gibson
Writer: Alan Gibson, Jeremy Paul
Cast: Peter Firth, Caroline Langrishe, Pippa Guard, Patrick Magee, Sylvia Coleridge, Ron Berglas

Alan Gibson and Jeremy Paul’s sequel to the cracking time travel comedy-drama The Flipside of Dominick Hide (1980). Although inferior to its predecessor and as such something of a disappointment, it is anything but the disaster that it might have been. Its trouble, I think, is that it has tried to cram too much in to its brief running time, and as such has lost the relaxed ambling pace of the first film. Where the original film managed so elegantly, to balance science-fiction with human drama, here it is often an ugly mix. The film also lacks the humour of the first film, which was often quite delightful. But of course, time travel ethics and love-pentagons are inherently entertaining.

Andrei Rublev (1969)

2008-08-17T17:51:00.009+01:00

Soviet Union
Feature Film
Original Title: Андрей Рублёв
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
Writer: Andrei Tarkovsky, Andrei Konchalovsky
Cinematographer: Vadim Yusov
Composer: Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov
Cast: Anatoli Solonitsyn, Ivan Lapikov, Nikolai Grinko, Nikolai Sergeyev, Irma Raush, Nikolai Burlyayev, Yuri Nazarov

Ostensibly the film is about the monk and religious icon painter, Andrei Rublev (Anatoli Solonitsyn), whom we follow through eight chapters of his life in 15th century Russia, in some of which he only figures peripherally. But, I think, the real subject is the relationship between art, faith and life, and the way that they jostle with each other for prominence. Visually, the film is utterly stunning. Vadim Yusov’s sumptuous Sovscope black and white photography beautifully captures the contrast between the ordered, spotless and decorative world of churches and cathedrals, and the gritty and earthy surroundings. The roaming, inquisitive camera almost becomes a character in itself, just managing to stay on the right side of the line between arresting and ostentatious. A beautiful and moving masterpiece.

Adam Elliot's Family Trilogy (1996-1999)

2008-08-17T17:39:00.007+01:00

Australia
Animated Short Film Trilogy
Writer/Director/Animator: Adam Elliot
Narrator: William McInnes

Claymator Adam Elliot’s semi-autobiographical short film trilogy, each one painting a portrait of a different family member, Uncle (1996), Cousin (1998), and Brother (1999), heralded the arrival of a fantastic new talent. Elliot’s style of animation is extremely economical, with hardly any movement within the frame, and the camera itself never moving at all. What movement there is is created by the editing. We cut from a wide-shot of the cousin to a close-up of a jar of toe-nails and back again, creating just enough kineticism to keep pace with the narrative. The colour scheme is largely made-up of greys and blacks, with an occasional burst of muted colour, which perfectly matches the sad tales and the beautiful melancholia of William McInnes’s outstanding narration. A masterpiece.

Brother (1999)

2008-08-17T17:31:00.007+01:00

Australia
Animated Short Film
Writer/Director/Animator: Adam Elliot
Narrator: William McInnes

The final part of Adam Elliot’s family trilogy, which collectively is a masterpiece, is the most ambitious, incorporating several different characters into the one tale. We are introduced to the mother, who cuts old people’s hair and sells pies at the footie; the alcoholic crippled father who used to be an acrobat; the big-headed neighbour with a dislike for prostitutes and accountants; and of course, the brother, a mischievous child with severe asthma and one blacked-out lens on his glasses. Adam and his brother enjoy kicking the football at their father’s undies, and watching cartoons on a Saturday morning. Delightful.

Cousin (1998)

2008-08-17T17:24:00.004+01:00

Australia
Short Film
Writer/Director/Animator: Adam Elliot
Narrator: William McInnes

The eponymous relative is Adam Elliot’s cousin, and childhood friend, who suffers from cerebral palsy. Their liquorice smelling, cake-baking, toe-nail collecting, one-armed cricket playing, super-hero costume wearing childhood friendship is cruelly ended by tragedy, when the cousin’s parents are killed in a car crash, and he is taken to live in a group-home in another state. The second part of claymator Elliot’s family trilogy, packed with humour and pathos, is a delight.

Uncle (1996)

2008-08-17T17:13:00.008+01:00

Australia
Short Film
Writer/Director/Animator: Adam Elliot
Narrator: William McInnes

Australian animator Adam Elliot’s first foray into the art of claymation is about an eccentric and loving man, who paints smiley faces with his food and dresses up as Father Christmas every year, whose life-force gradually drains away after a series of personal losses: His wife commits suicide, which he manages to deal with, but when his faithful dog Reg is run over by a skateboard he goes into terminal decline and ends his days in a nursing home. A melancholy delight.

9 Songs (2004)

2008-08-17T12:30:00.005+01:00

UK
Feature Film
Writer/Director: Michael Winterbottom
Cinematographer: Marcel Zyskind
Cast: Kieran O'Brien, Margo Stilley

Michael Winterbottom’s notorious film, a celebration of sex, drugs and rock n’ roll (and not a lot else,) is quite a disaster. The dialogue, seemingly improvised, is quite atrocious (although, depressingly believable.) Kieran O'Brien’s performance is fine considering the material, but Margo Stilley is almost unwatchable. The graphic sex scenes, penetration and all, are filmed in an admirably low-key manner, but as a result are decidedly dull. The film’s one saving grace is the concert footage that punctuates the bonking and drug taking. Shot from low-angles within the crowd, the footage really gives one the feeling of being at the concert, and avoids the cheesy clichés of most concert footage. Still, it’s not really worth sitting through the rest of it, though.

The Beach (1996)

2008-08-17T11:20:00.008+01:00

UK
Novel
Author: Alex Garland

Alex Garland’s compelling, if slightly disappointing, debut novel follows a group of young Europeans to a hidden lagoon on a remote island off Thailand. We are witness to a burgeoning commune, its inhabitants fish, garden and smoke marijuana (a lot of marijuana.) We assume that these people come from privileged backgrounds (how else could they traverse the globe unencumbered with responsibility?) They are also incredibly shallow, (the aforementioned dope smoking, the playing of video games, etc.), and this is where the novel falls down. It is narrated in the first person by one of said people. Where a distanced third person narration may have been able to shed some light on the proceedings, add a little poetry, we are left with the ramblings of a seldom insightful young man. Having said that, it does provide some occasionally thrilling entertainment, and the gruesome ending holds quite some power.