Films.

Delicatessen

Amelie is one of my top 3 films. And this is made by the same director, Jean-Pierre Jeunet.
It's a black comedy set in some apocalyptic 1950's or 1960's France. It is stylish, but dirty, well-acted but with quirks, and has fantastic little touches, like Amelie that make you love it. It's a film about cannibalism. And it's a love story. And those two fit together quite well in a film suprisingly.

This film is hard to describe, much like Amelie, and anyway a description or synopsis would not do it justice. Here is one scene from the film, which was the Trailer for American audiences:

La Haine

This film also has a connection to Amelie as Nino, the guy who is obsessed with Passport size photos, is the director of this film. Its filmed in black and white, and from the mid-90's, and follows 3 youths from France, a French-Jew, a French-African and a French-Arab, who live in one of the projects, and who are constantly hassled and hassling the police. The film starts the day after a semi-big riot, and one of their friends has been hospitilized by the police, and a policeman's gun has gone missing in the melee. It follows these boys as they steadily from one rough area to the next, intimidating locals and scuffling with skinheads. The film is really aggressive, and Vincent Cassels (bad guy in Oceans 12 and Derailed) character Vinz is especially disturbing. Really cool film and very well made.

I noticed loads of annoying things with the subtitles though, which have nothing to do with the quality of the film. Quite often a couple of characters break into rhyme or rap, trying to be cool or insult people, but often the subtitles come off as lame, and you know fine well thats not what they are actually saying. Also, one character is nicknamed Asterix in the film, and you can hear them call him Asterix about 10 times quite clearly, but the subtitles change it to Snoopy, making the scenes more accesible to an American audience. (If you don't know, Asterix is a French Gaul cartoon character, who has been the subject of many films. And Snoopy is Charlie Brown's crappy wee depressed dog.)

American Splendor

I watched the first half of this film about 3 years ago, but for some reason i didn't finish it. It's a great wee film, and a better biopic than most of the ones you see, employing a similar tactic to 24 hour party people, which i have also reviewed, to give us the narrative. The film gives us Harvey Peckar's life story, showing us in detail his life as a file clerk and a comic book writer, and also introducing us to some of his comic book characters who are real-life friends and colleagues of his. Another Paul Giamatti film, and yeah, he is one of my favourite actors.

Watch this film if only to see Toby Radloff (him up there to the right). A great film character.

Running.

It's sore. Really sore. And when its cold outside when you finish you get a wheezy kind of cough. Well in Lewis you do anyway.

Yeah, i went for a run. To try and compensate for years of sitting down. It didn't work, i think i have to do years of running to compensate for years of sitting down. Thats probably how it works.

Anyway, i'm going to Glasgow this weekend to watch Scotland v Lithuania, and to chillax (yes i can say that word, because it's my blog).

Then i'm back home for 2 weeks, and then moving back down to Glasgow for 4th year in Uni.

And then i've got to plan a way to finance all the gigs and champions league games i am going to go to, and also find a way to get my dissertation written before February.

Anyway, here is a nice wee video. Feist. On the Letterman show. I hate David Letterman. He really annoys me.

BBC Rapal TV Recording

Rapal (a Gaelic word meaning Noise) is a Gaelic TV Show which is shown on Scottish BBC TV which features up and coming music acts from around Scotland and the UK. The show had many decent indie acts last year and is back this year again for a second series. If you ever saw the Music show, which was also on BBC Scotland, but in English, it follows much the same format. I popped along to Stornoway last night to see the second night of recording for the new series.

There were 4 bands on the bill; Strike the Colours, Potential Strangers, Radio Luxembourg and Amy Macdonald.

It was filmed in a TV studio, with a crowd of 60 or 70 who got free tickets there to watch.

Strike the Colours were on first, a band who i am already a fan of, and 90% of the reason for me going. They played 4 songs although they played each song twice, like every other band, for purposes of camera angles and the like. I had missed out on them performing in Stornoway a few weeks earlier as i was in Glasgow, damn you Glasgow, but i saw them last night and they were fantastic. I had seem them before earlier in the year, when they were supporting Malcolm Middleton in Glasgow, but last night they were really on form. Jenny Reeve, the lead singer, was on good form, telling stories and really interacting with the audience. They were very well received.

Next were a local band, with the lead singer (and songwriter) coming from the
birthplace of my father, the Isle of Scalpay. They were Potential Strangers, and he, the lead singer, is Donald Mackinnon, a very talented songwriter who i've known for years. They played 2 songs (twice) and were really good with the audience, telling jokes and telling what the songs were about and why they were written. The first song they played was pretty good, a Gaelic song called Liath, which means Grey in English, but the second song they played got a very very good reception from the audience, oh oh Helen. Very catchy. And humorous. Plus they had a cellist and a violin player. Extra bonus points from me.

The third band was Radio Luxembourg, a welsh pop/rock (i think) band who sang songs which had both Welsh and English lyrics. They were pretty good too, playing 5 songs, but their first one was my favourite. They didn't say what it was called, and i couldn't quite make sure but it was either "my grandmother showed me how to die" or "my grandmother showed me how to lie". Either way that family has problems. They were catchy, upbeat and had a good sound. They had good banter with the crowd, and had a good all round attitude. They sounded like a cross between the Zutons and Franz Ferdinand.

The last act was Amy Macdonald, who has been topping the charts in Scotland, and coming close to the top in the UK charts. She sang excellently, and her songs are pretty decent pop songs, but she had no enthusiasm to make it fun for the audience and played a very unvaried set. All the other bands throughout the night were swapping the instruments or had a "different" kind of set-up but hers was a pretty rigid set up (drummer, bass guitarist, lead guitarist, lead singer) and they did not change instruments or add any new sounds for any of the 5 songs she did (3 of them which they did twice). This led to most of the audience getting bored of her and some began to leave before her set was over even though she was the star attraction. She spoke only two words (thank and you) to the audience before her last song and barely smiled throughout.
She does have decent songs, and a decent rock sound, but i wouldn't pay to watch her perform like that.

AND HER BAND WAS SO FAKE. I'm guessing she didn't grow up with those guys. The drummer was a Tommy Lee wannabe/look-a-like, even down to the braces he had clipped to his trousers, and the charisma and personality this guy possessed was entirely in the tatoos he had on his arms, if they were even real! You could tell they (Amy's band) were just a record industry generic rock trio, who would be banded about from rock pop act to rock pop act. They really added nothing but competent instrument playing.

I really hated the drummer. I felt like he was the kind of person who would in 6 months, when Amy Macdonald-mania was over, peel of his Henna tatoos and become a backing dancer for some pop group created by Simon Fuller, then 6 months later, change his image again and become an R'n'B boyband singer, then 6 months later, whatever. Its not versatility, its fickleness.

She was hugely uninspiring. Rant over.

The night was good though, and i really enjoyed 3 of the acts, and Amy Macdonald was pretty good, just some things really really annoyed me about it. I shall tell you about when Rapal is on TV when i hear.

Here you can find the bands:

Strike the Colours: www.strikethecolours.com/ and www.myspace.com/strikethecolours

Potential Strangers: www.myspace.com/potentialstranger
Radio Luxembourg: www.myspace.com/radiolux
Amy Macdonald: www.amymacdonald.co.uk/ and www.myspace.com/amymacdonald

And also a link to the Rapal homepage, where you can watch last years sets online, and where you will be able to see this years too, when they are good and ready:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/alba/radio/rapal/

AND EVEN MORE MOVIES!

Annie Hall

Honestly? Pretty pretty average. I don't think the comedic aspects of it have stood up to the test of time. Is something that was original 30 years ago still original today? No. And originality was 90% of the charm of this film to begin with i think. The jokes are lame by my standards, and there was no scene that made me laugh, which confused me as this film was on the AFI top ten comedies list. Hugely disappointing comedy, decent drama, but no better than decent.

Oldboy

Phenomenal film. Equals Kill Bill, and possibly surpasses it as my favourite revenge film. A South Korean film from 2003 which only just missed out on the Palm D'or (which was won by Fahrenheit 9/11!!??!!) about a man who at the beginning of the film is inexplicably kidnapped and held as a prisoner in something resembling a hotel room for 15 years, without explanation to him or to the viewer. During the 15 years he was fed and had a tv and bathroom, but had no contact with the outside world or any other persons, and both as a way to help him survive and as a means to fight his captors/enemies he trains himself to fight by shadowboxing. He is set free after 15 years without reason or explanation and proceeds to found out who it was who imprisoned him and why. The fight scenes are as good as Kill Bill, but surprisingly more western (more like Die Hard fighting!!!) and the way the story unravels is great, flashing forwards, backwards and twisting in all directions. Brilliantly filmed and acted.

Serpico

Directed by Sidney Lumet, this film has a similar look to Dog Day Afternoon, a film he directed two years later, which also had Al Pacino in the lead role, and which was also based on a true story. Good film, not as good as Dog Day Afternoon, but interesting in that it tells the story of Frank Serpico, the brave New York cop who risked his career and life to turn in his corrupt co-workers, through the medium of film.

24 Hour Party People

Good film, which may have served me better if i had had a better knowledge of 80's and early 90's Manchester/MADchester music, and the scene. Steve Coogan plays the recently departed Tony Wilson, and basically tells his story, although through it, Coogan tells us other peoples story, like Joy Division, and New Order and the Happy Mondays, by speaking directly to the camera on a regular basis. This is an interesting style, and kind of makes me wonder why Tony Wilson didn't just play himself. But Steve Coogan is brilliant in this film, and during Tony Wilsons journalistic endeavours a little Alan Partridge seeps out, which can't be a bad thing in a film. Little bit of a deflated ending though, although seeing as it is a true story it can't be the filmmakers fault, can it?

Babel

Disappointing in comparison to Alejandro Inarritu's other films, this is still a pretty good film, with an interesting concept, in that one bullet affects so many people around the world. I liked the performances, and the story was ok, but the thing that annoyed me (spoiler! WRITTEN IN WHITE, HIGHLIGHT IT TO READ IT) of all that happened, the Americans were eventually the people who got off without any real difficulty in the end, the Mexican woman was fired, deported and had her life ruined, the Japanese characters who had just got over the grief of losing their wife and mother were made to go through it all again, and the Morrocan families that were shown were torn apart, killed, arrested or beaten. The American tourists were very annoying, as were the American children, and they all apparently got off scott-free! That annoyed me. I'm not an American-hater or anything but it annoyed me that a Mexican director would basically cater for an American audience and bow to Hollywood.That is all. It's a decent film though.

Brick

This is a pretty awesome film. Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt (3rd rock from the moon) as the main character, this film noir sleuth story is a hark back to the old days, with a young and contemporary cast. Set in an American highschool, and examing the different cliques and the crime underworld which is present, this is one man/boys attempt to solve the murder of his ex-girlfriend. The deeper he goes, the darker the surroundings, and the more dangerous things get. Great story, fantastically made, and brilliantly acted. I really enjoyed this film, and the way the characters spoke, and the way they interacted were oddly compelling, in that they seemed a little out of place in what in a way is a teen film. Gordon-Levitt is especially good in this film.

Glengarry in Glen Ross.

This is a funny parody trailer of Glengarry Glen Ross.

Some more movies i have watched recently...

Requiem for a Dream

THE MOST REALISTIC FILM EVER TO DO WITH DRUGS. Not that i would know, but the way this film, instead of partly glamourising drugs, like films like Trainspotting, shows the grim affects of the reliance of drugs, through a series of connected characters. Great performances, resulting in an Oscar nomination for Ellen Burstyn, and equally good performances from Jared Leto, Marlon Wayans and Jennifer Connelly make the film scarier than any horror film i've ever seen. Should be mandatory viewing in schools. Aronofsky has made a film better than Pi. That must be applauded.

Glengarry Glen Ross

The best acting, and possibly the best acting ensemble that i have ever seen in one film. Called, by the actors, "Death of a F*****G Salesman", which is pretty accurate, this film, which oddly reminds me a little of Reservoir Dogs without the violence, is all about the trials and tribulations of salesmen who work for a very aggresive and competitive company. Jack Lemmon gives possibly his best performance, Pacino and Kevin Spacey REALLY stand-out, Ed Harris, Jonathan Pryce and Alan Arkin are terrific in support but Alec Baldwin, and his one marvelous scene are what make this movie what it is. ABC - ALWAYS BE CLOSING. Love it.

Good Will Hunting

Good film for what it is, considering it was written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, and some very good acting, by both of them and Robin Williams, and the almost always good Stellan Skarsgard, but the ending seems a little tacked on and nice. Good premise, and funny moments, but it seems to tail off towards the end, and i could not watch the "It's not your fault" scene without squirming. It just seems to emotional compared to the rest of the film, but sickly emotional. Decent is all i can say.

Dazed and Confused

This on the other hand, unlike Good Will Hunting, was not given awards and critical praise on its release, and is basically a teen film, about underage drinking, smoking pot, and teen romance, but this film has more meaningful characters and relatable situations than 96.98% of films you'll see in your life. AND BEN AFFLECK IS EXCELLENT IN IT! Most of the performances are great, with some really really funny moments, and you really believe this could be a normal bunch of kids who aren't acting. Quentin Tarantino names it as one of his favourites, and so should you.

Adaptation

One of the best films i have ever seen.

I would consider Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Being John Malkovich to be up their too, and is it any coincidence that they were all written by the same man? I think not.

Charlie Kaufman writes a semi-autobiographical and fully fictional story about the characters Charlie Kaufman (played by Nicholas Cage) and Donald Kaufman (played by Nicholas Cage), who are twin brothers, and who both write film screenplays, although to varying degrees of success. Supposedly filmed around the time of the filming of Being John Malkovich, this film looks at 2 stories. The first one is Charlie Kaufman, and his problems about writing a screenplay about a book about a man who steals/collects Orchids. And the second is the story about the man who steals orchids, and his relationship with the journalist who wrote the original book.

Not wanting to ruin the ending i don't want to explain anything any further, but this is a FANTASTIC film. With great performances all around. Think about the film when you finish. It might seem like a weird/shocking ending, but it makes perfect sense.

The United States of Leland

Similar kind of film to Half-Nelson, and not only because Ryan Gosling is in the lead role, but also similar to Todd Solondz films, with suburban families and a great ensemble of actors. Ryan Gosling's character, like Half-Nelson, is smart, likeable, makes you think, and is hopelessly destroying his life, but unlike in Half-Nelson, where the lead character is a drug addict, here he murders an autistic boy for an unknown reason at the very beginning of the film. The film is basically about the question "WHY?". Each character has a "WHY?" about them and the film, though maybe resulting in ambiguous answers, explains things. Don Cheadle, Kevin Spacey and about 6 other lesser known actors all give good performances, and you feel sorry and resent each and every one of them in equal amounts.