On my old blog I used to (I may have done it about two or three years running) always write up a list of films I was looking forward to over the coming year, and then review the previous year's list of most anticipated films and see if they lived up to my own, personal hype. I'm going to continue that centuries old tradition here for the sake of clinging onto the past. But I shall divvy it up into two posts, the first will review my 'Most Anticipated Films of 2008' and the second shall be my all new list of films. So, without furtherado let's jump in the way back machine and see what I was looking forward to at the end of 2007...
1. Blindness (dir. Fernando Meirelles)
My most anticipated film ended up being the last film I saw at the cinema in 2008, and though it was a well made, brilliantly acted film that stuck very closely to Jose Saramago's masterwork of a novel, it just lacked enough of an impact to really make it feel essential; and where many people spoke of it being too bleak I didn't feel it was quite bleak enough! It sits in the same category as 'Children of Men' but has nowhere near the wallop of that masterpiece.
2. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (dir. Steven Spielberg)
A huge dissapointment. I do want to give it one last spin on DVD before putting the final nail on my opinion; this was the first Indy film I saw at the cinema and was a garish, poorly plotted, muddled and CG-saturated affair that had a tiny handful of good bits, but was generally quite embarassing.
3. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (dir. Julian Schnabel)
An incredible, visceral, beautiful, emotive film that keeps growing in my conciousness as a truly special movie that I want to point other people towards and Mathieu Almaric deserved much more recognition than he got for an amazing performance; amazing in how much he conveys doing so little.
4. There Will Be Blood (dir. P.T. Anderson)
Anderson evolved as a director with this, I am curious as to his next move; but this is a film that shall last.
5. Persepolis (dir. Vincent Paronnaud, Marjane Satrapi)
This got nudged aside at the last minute by Waltz With Bashir for the 'coveted' title of best animated film of the year, but it's still a fascinating, individual and personal tale brilliantly told and drawn.
6. The Dark Knight (dir. Christopher Nolan)
Highly enjoyable with some great performance, but really I felt like this was a strange mash-up of 'Batman Returns' and 'Heat' and whilst that seemed to be what many people wanted, it wasn't quite the mind-blowing experience many others thought it to be.
7. Teeth (dir. Mitchell Lichtenstein)
I've been harping on about this being 'the modern Heathers', it's a exploitational tale told in a smart, restrained and often surreal way. It's blackly comic, bold and confrontational, with scenes shifting style at will. It sparked a small whimper of debate, but I think it will have legs on DVD.
8. Be Kind Rewind (dir. Michel Gondry)
A very uneven film, yet highly watchable thanks to Mos Def's charismatic leading turn and Gondry's lo-fi visual kinetics. A bit of fluff inbetween, I expect, better work from Gondry.
9. Son of Rambow (dir. Garth Jennings)
Absolutely charming love-letter to the 80s, cinema, childhood and the power of the imagination with some of the best child performances in a while and some delightfully barmy sequences; Will Proudfoot's first bonkers imagining post-Rambo always makes me grin like a loon. Garth Jennings really captured the flighty, crazy logic of a young boy's imagination.
10. No Country For Old Men / Burn After Reading (dir. The Coen Brothers)
No Country... was a great, stark thriller very similar to the Coen's earliest film, Blood Simple. Burn After Reading was a messy, misjudged, awkward, starry 'comedy' more akin to recent dissapointments like Intolerable Cruelty.
11. Tropic Thunder (dir. Ben Stiller)
A bit of a mess, only Downey Jr. really seemed to get a hook on his character and the film ran with that in the marketting department. Otherwise it has moments, but isn't as inspired overall as Zoolander.
12. Jumper (dir. Doug Liman)
Much like the first X-Men film this feels very incomplete, I wouldn't object to a sequel as there was a story just starting to take shape here. Hayden Christensen wasn't unbearable, but the film was stolen by Jamie Bell's far superior co-jumper.
13. Wall-E (dir. Andrew Stanton)
A great film, but not quite the incendiary re-shaping of the way we perceive animation that I was expecting... the satire, similar in ways to Mike Judge's Idiocracy was a nice, dark touch in a surprisingly sweet film.
14. Synedoche, New York (dir. Charlie Kaufman)
Released in 2009.
15. The Happening (dir. M. Night Shyamalan)
My word, this was a terrible film. I look forward to renting this with some friends, drinking a lot, eating pizzas and hopefully laughing our heads off. Because watching this in the cinema was a painful, baffling experience.
16. Inkheart (dir. Iain Softley)
A very book bound movie, adapted, as it was, from a novel; this doesn't managed to reshape its source material into a compelling film, but does have a good share of ideas and a really great performance by Paul Bettany.
17. Where the Wild Things Are (dir. Spike Jonze)
Released in 2009 (hopefully)!
18. Hellboy 2: The Golden Army (dir. Guillermo Del Toro)
Upped the monster quota and had some grander, better set-pieces that the first film, this kind of fudged it in the emotional and story stakes with some real gaping plot-holes and some awkward character arcs.
19. Dante 01 (dir. Marc Caro)
This went straight to video and I still haven't got around to watching it...
20. Coraline (dir. Henry Selick)
Released in 2009.
Monday 19 January 2009
Saturday 17 January 2009
Seat 13 - Issue One
Back in October I started thinking, very seriously, about putting together a film magazine. I e-mailed some people I thought might write for it, I also spoke to a gallery about getting cover art from one of their artists, and the response I got from everyone was so positive that the magazine move forward at quite a rapid pace.
Things got a little delayed, which, in the end, turned out to be beneficial. I found a couple of additional contributions that I really like, and started e-mailing a couple of printers. The cost of doing a professional print-run though seemed a little steep, so I thought about tackling all the printing myself. After printing out two and a bit issues I realised that I'd be spending a small fortune on ink so went to my local photocopiers and got twenty issues (bar the cover which I am still printing myself) done there. It was around this time that I started to think; I hope I can sell some advertising space in issue two!
I'm really proud of the magazine, I love how its all turned out, I'm really pleased with the quality of the articles and contributions, I am so thankful to everyone who has contributed to this first issue and I look forward to collaborating with them again on future issues. But, there's that whole tricky business of trying to sell something that is home-made and the cynicism that you can face as a result. My instinct was to charge £2 an issue, but, after a friend had a look at a draft copy we agreed that £1 was probably more realistic in a way... though, from a recouping costs point if view, not so!
What I hope with this first issue is that I can get a small audience that will want to read the next issue, this first issue is special in that I don't think issue two will be advert free, I don't think issue two will have the same paper for the cover and maybe I will go to a printers for the whole affair. This has been a real learning experience, I wish I had the resources to keep producing the magazine to a similar level, but I know now I've got to find that middle-ground between ambition and finances.
Tuesday 6 January 2009
Records Of The Year 2008
Following on from my favourite films of 2008, I now present to you my favourite records of the year, this time in alphabetical order by artist (with links to my original reviews where appropriate):Beck - Modern Guilt
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
Colourmusic - f, monday, orange, february, venus, lunatic, 1 or 13
Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip - Angles
Alex Dingley - I Lost My Honey In The Grass
Flight of the Conchords - Flight of the Conchords
Fredrick Stanley Star - Heaviside Layer
Hedluv - Cosmic Sounds
Joan As Police Woman - To Survive
Kate Goes - Happy Dancing EP
Elspeth Anne Macrae - Wood Closet Songs EP
Stephen Malkmus - Real Emotional Trash
Rivulets - You Are My Home
Shearwater - Rook
Threatmantics - Upbeat Love
The Voluntary Butler Scheme - Tomatoes, Pepper, Garlic + Mushrooms EP
The Weather In Sweden - I Break The Ice, I Broke Your Heart
James Yorkston - When The Haar Rolls In
Thursday 1 January 2009
Films of the Year 2008
Well, 2008 is now done and dusted, and so I shall be posting my 'Best Of' lists. I'm going to start with my favourite films that I saw at the cinema over the past 365 days, feel free to comment, complain or compliment my choices!1. The Fall
The second feature from music video and commercials director Tarsem, after the visually stunning yet in-all-other-aspects flawed 'The Cell', is an absolutely amazing film that completely surprised me in its spectacle and heart. It is a story about storytelling in much the same way as 'The Princess Bride' yet the story being told is an escape for both characters; a little girl (best child performance I have ever seen) with a broken arm and a stunt-man suffering serious depression. In its fantasy sequences it is a work of art, pushing its visuals as far as it pushes the emotions, and in its reality sequences it is tender, dark and heart-breaking stuff. I truly hope this film finds an audience on DVD because it is one of the best films I have ever seen.
2. Die Welle
Critics seem to be giving 'Die Welle' a hard time in a similar way to 'The Fall', for all its effect this film has been criticised for the archetypes it presents, but, for me, I found that to be a huge part of its power. The impetus for this film is a real experiment conducted by a teacher in his class asking the question about whether another dictatorship could arise in modern Germany, and his class seem sure that it couldn't and he goes farther than he expected in proving them wrong. The use of highly identifiable, almost American teen movie, archetypes here is what made the film so affecting, in some ways this is a John Hughes movie gone very, very wrong! But, more seriously, it is a troubling and provactive drama brilliantly acted by a great ensemble.
3. The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly
Another true story, this one tells of Jean-Dominique Bauby who suffered a stroke and had to live with an almost totally paralyzed body at the age of 43. Thanks to a nurse he managed to dictate his story, his thoughts and feelings, by the blinking of one eyelid and what he produced, and what director Julian Schnabel (Basquiat, another over-looked masterwork) has adapted here is a truly human, beautiful and uplifting story.
4. In Bruges
I never would have thought a 'gangster' movie would have made my top 5, but this is not another bog-standard Guy Ritchie clone. Taking the dark comedy to wonderful, sweary, violent and offensive heights this is the surprisingly touching, and laugh-out-loud hilarious tale of two hitmen (Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, both excellent) sent to the quiet Belgian town of Bruges to lay low, they don't quite succeed.
5. There Will Be Blood
There's probably not much more I can say about this film than has been said already, such was the awards frenzy around it and, in particular, Daniel Day Lewis's monumental performance. But this film truly marked Paul Thomas Anderson (Magnolia, Boogie Nights) as a truly great and incredibly versatile director, Lord knows how he's going to follow this!?
6. Wanted
A Matrix-lite action movie starring James MacAvoy and Angelina Jolie from the director of Nightwatch? Here's another film I never expected to make my top 10, but 'Wanted' did what so few action movies of current times have done; be fun. A great throwback to 80s action cinema but with 21st century flourishes, this is unashamedly over-the-top, violent and often funny with a charismatic lead turn from MacAvoy and great support, especially from Morgan Freeman. It's not going to change the world, but it's one of the best beer and pizza films in ages.
7. Waltz With Bashir
Visually stunning, this animated documentary seemed to be just a curiosity, but it is one of the best examinations of the effect of war on a soldier and the existential crisis that can follow since the work of Kurt Vonnegut and Joseph Heller.
8. Teeth
Even moreso than 'Wanted' I would say this film is not going to be for everyone! This tale of the vagina dentata seems to switch genre with every scene and is held together by the wonderful performance of Jess Weixler. But this film is one of the finest and edgiest dark teen comedies since 'Heathers'.
9. Son Of Rambow
A great family movie which is both a love-letter to the 80s as it is a celebration of the kind of family-movies the British Children's Film Workshop used to produce on an almost weekly basis! With two wonderful child performances (with this, The Fall, Eden Lake, Somer's Town, I think 2008 may have been an amazing year for young actors) and so much warmth, wit and heart this film will hopefully live a long life as a film for all generations, or at least, all those who fondly remember Rambo!
10. The Orphanage
Another great child performance here from Simon Princep, as the son who goes missing and causes a truly spooky and chilling journey to take place in this throwback to good old haunted house horrors, but with an intelligence often missing from similar efforts. Beyond all of that though 'The Orphanage' makes this top ten by being really, really, really scary and not just relying on cheap shocks - well, there is one scene that will make you jump, laugh it off and then really jump!
11. Man On Wire
Another documentary that is a brilliant study of artistic passion and ambition, building towards a dazzling, vertigo-inducing and magical piece of performance art on a tiny wire stretched between the World Trade Centre towers. An excellently told story that paints a funny, stunning and occasionally sad portrait of obsession.
12. The Mist
Another film I think will grow and grow on home cinema formats. This is the first time that Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile) has adapted a Stephen King horror story and he does so in uncompromising fashion, making the key choice that in all 'scary' situations it's other people you have to fear the most rather than whatever supernatural creature may be trying to eat you! With an excellent cast and a dark heart this is a modern horror classic akin to John Carpenter's 'The Thing'.
13. Slumdog Millionaire
Danny Boyle genres hops again, after sci-fi (Sunshine) and zombies (28 Days Later), by going Bollywood with this touching, heart-warming, funny, sad and beautiful tale of a young man who finds himself going from India's slums to the last question on 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire'. He is interrogated by the police as to how he's 'cheated' his way into this position and he relates his life story to them, explaining how each question has had some relevance in his journey.
14. Persepolis
Adaptation of the graphic novel about an outspoken young girl growing up during the Islamic revolution, similar to Art Spiegelman's graphic novel 'Maus', this features Marjane Satrapi's family telling a range of tales about survival and support, and Marjane relating her own up-rooted sense of self in a strange time to be a young girl and a teenager. Beautifully animated and respectfully told, this is a truly unique film.
15. Wall-E
Not quite the incredible experience I was expecting, nevertheless, Pixar manage to make another dazzling animated feature that surprises by managing to be one of the year's finest romances (between two robots) and a very dark satire on the future of the human-race. Above all this is funny and heart-warming, though I personally still wished that the entire film was a silent movie and that they had used live-action actors for the humans all the way through.
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