Life Is A Candid Cabaret, Old Chum

According to Google Image Search, this is a cabaret performer.

I love the idea of cabaret. For me it calls to mind images of underground bars in 1940s Berlin, all vulgar glamour and dirty opulence. Having never set foot inside the venue at Oran Mor before, I was rather excited at how much the low stone ceilings, dim lights and intimately small setting looked so similar to my dream. I'd heard nothing but good things about the MA Musical Theatre students' annual Candid Cabaret, and having seen a few minutes of their shows in the cafe bar, was rather quite excited to see the full repertoire.

After falling asleep halfway through Russel Crowe mangling the English/Oirish accent as Robin Hood, I needed something exciting. After lugging all the gear into Gerrie's van and lugging myself into a taxi (I'd spent the night before in the Eurohostel; it's not great for a quality night's sleep). There didn't seem to be much to be done, since all the performances were on the same stage we pretty much just had to set up the cameras and only really worry about changing tapes in between each act. Simples! As this was my first night filming, I sure as hell wasn't going to get stuck on audience cam, and made sure I got myself a cushy number with the wide-shot camera. My mum, auntie, cousins, nan and boyfriend were all coming to see the show and I wanted to at least look like I knew what I was doing....

The show kicked off on time, after a slight panic over having to go outside and give a ticket to the Ross who turned up at 7:29....honestly, he should know that I have a tendency to cause huge panic over small things! The first act came on and, although it took me a while to kind of get used to what was going on, I thoroughly enjoyed and found it really funny and well put-together. Unfortunately, some random girl (she may have been associated with us in some way, I don't know) came over 10 minutes in claiming there was no feed from my camera, before running off knocking into it and causing me to unknowingly shoot the rafters for 10 minutes, whilst chasing some imaginary girl and trying to scramble backstage to find Gerrie. Thankfully Flick was on hand to assist, so I managed to get her to find him and could return to my camera...which I found myself being oddly protective of; had it not been such a quiet, intimate venue I'd have been wailing "watch the camera!" like a demon banshee, rather than hissing it Lord Voldemort-style at anyone who DARED to try and squeeze past.

Once I got myself sorted with a pair of earphones and all feed problems were solved, I could get on with enjoying the show. Being on the wide-shot camera meant I wasn't constantly having to move around or zoom in and out, so could enjoy the show without too much distraction. Good thing too, at some points I was trying to hold in laughter so much that the camera would shake a little bit. I was thoroughly impressed by the quality of the performances; even from first-year students. The comedy was funny, the songs were catchy and you could tell every performer had put alot of work and love into their acts. I worried a bit about what my wee nan would make of the mostly risque subject matter, but even she was hooting away at songs like "You're A Skanky Whore". Having not know what to expect, there wasn't really much I could tell the family about before coming but they absolutely loved it. The Ross even went so far as to describe it as "like Glee, but actually good".

Sadly, it was all over too quickly and the place cleared out quickly enough for us to make a fast de-rig. Luckily this time, it was because I had to make it from the West End back to Cumbernauld, and not because I didn't like the show. Phew! Everything seemed to go without a hitch and all of the audience, cast and crew had a ball. I'll definitely be reserving myself a wee ticket for next year, as I think filming the event is a first-year only job.

Oh, and special mention to my dear momma, who when one performer said "let's hear it for the lighting and sound guys!", shouted back "AND THE CAMERA CREW TOO!". You gotta love 'em.

Who's Afraid Of Creepy-Crawlies?

When it comes to films, the worst thing someone can say to me is "you don't wanna watch it". Whether it be scary, violent, disturbed or just plain bizarre, it's something childlike in me that makes me want it even more. And so, since Harry...err.. 'treated' us to a sneak preview of the trailer, I have been desperate to see the latest in gross, torturous body-horror... The Human Centipede.
I'd never heard of it it until seeing the trailer, which seemed to give everyone else the serious heebie-jeebies. So, I decided to read more about it. The big drive of the advertising campaign is that it's "100% medically accurate", which after seeing it, I can kind of believe. Everything in it was so clinical and calculated, despite not seeing any of the actual operation. I like body-horror films like David Cronenberg's The Fly, which the director Tom Six cites as an inspiration for this creepy crawlie nightmare. Japanese horror is also included as a 'reference' and like I said in class, I can definitely see aspects of Takeshi Miike's Audition in this film- one shot in particular struck me as being lifted straight out of Audition, and not just because it involved a Japanese guy.
For the uninitiated, I'll sum it up as briefly and as..um..nicely?...as I can..

Two American tourists, Lynsay and Jenny, are in Germany as part of their 'European road trip'. In film terms then, they are exactly the kind of fodder ripe for some torture. And wouldn't you know, on their way to a club one night they find themselves with a flat tyre in the middle of the woods. After hours of waiting and wandering, they stumble upon the home of temperamental surgeon Dr. Heiter- a world-renowned surgeon with great success in the separation of conjoined twins. However, the good doctor has been planning a 'reversal' of sorts- rather than separate 2 humans, he wants to join them together. Having already performed the operation on his dogs, he wants to go 'live', and the two girls are exactly what he needs. Adding a Japanese tourist- who literally cannot speak a word of English- to this whole sorry mess completes the final link in Heiter's twisted triptych.

He explains to the unlucky trio how he will severe the ligaments in their knees, forcing them to crawl, before connecting them using their digestive systems, mouths and...uh...well, the 'opposite' end. (I've had trouble with using this word before, but you know what one I mean). I initially thought the film would be more centred on the operation, but you don't actually see that much of it. Aside from some mild tooth-removal, and a rear-end Chelsea smile, very little of the procedure is actually shown on screen. In fact, the emphasis seems to be more on sadistic humour than gross-out explicit horror. As such, there's a far more 'human' element to the film; rather than just being a slash-happy Hostel rip-off, the emphasis is placed on how the 'patients' cope after the procedure. The operation seems to be more of a plot device to get to the aftermath, rather than the focal point.

Nonetheless, the film tries hard to deliver on its premise, and overall it's pretty successful. Although it's undoubtedly uneasy viewing, and really quite disturbing, the premise is at least original. I like that alot of the emphasis is placed on the characters' rehabilitation as a 'human insect', despite falling short on the gore. There are a few genius touches to it, such as making Japanese tourist Akihiro Kitamura the 'head' of the beast. He can't speak English, and the doctor apparently doesn't speak Japanese, so when he demands to know what is going on, there's no way for him to be understood. The doctor speaks English, cruelly teasing the girls, who can understand him, but are..."unable"...to answer back. The contiued close-ups on their eyes convey real desparation and futility. When Kitamura realises the situation is a lost cause, his words are even more traumatic because of the language barrier- he doesn't know what he's been involved in or why, and no one knows what he believes he died for.

There are some other scenes which fold to whatever strange sense of 'conformity' this film has, and shows us something erring on the disgusting side- once scene in particular which demonstrates the 'feeding' system of the centipede is definitely not one for the squeamish. Although largely covered in bandages, it's the eyes of the characters which give away the sense of degradation and acceptance at the same time.

OK, so it's not exactly light-hearted family entertainment, but when the premise is so bold and exploitative, why not treat the film's actual content the same? I couldn't shake off the niggling feeling that this would have more than lived up to its premise if it were part of the French Extreme wave. In saying that, for a mainstream audience it's probably sick and disturbing enough... I just couldn't help but feeling a little short-changed. Still, it's well worth a watch for all fans of horror and the grotesquely named 'torture porn' genre; despite its apparent shortcomings it is an effectively creepy body horror.

I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that The Human Centipede (Final Sequence), which promises a 12-person chain, will live up to expectations!

"Not As Bad As Some Westerns"

Urgh, even Mrs Mallory's face is mega-irritating....

OK, I hate to jump aboard the cliche train, but I have to agree with the rest of the class. I. Did Not. Hate. Stagecoachh. Aaahhhh. It took alot for me to say that, believe me. I dunno why I have such an aversion to the genre. The only 'Western' that I'll admit to really loving is The Proposition, and I didn't realise it was a Western I was going to see. I knew it was written by Nick Cave, that was enough for me.

But yeah, after much debacle over trying to arrange screenings and share the DVD, I decided just to watch Stagecoach on Youtube. Which meant having to watch it in a series of ten-minute videos. I didn't actually find it too irritating after a while; in fact each scene ended on a 'hook' which did actually make me want to find out what was coming. I appreciated it from a writer's point of view, especially after the classed with Richard...we've been having it drummed into us all year, whether it be film or television writing, that you have to have a hook to keep your audience intrigued. Otherwise, what's the point? What reason is there to keep watching, if there's nothing making you want to?

In this sense, Stagecoach was very much a character-driven screenplay, and the characters, although obviously contrived to be clashing archetypes, all complement each other well. They were all from different social classes, and were fairly typical of Western stereotypes- the alcoholic doctor, the respectable soldier's wife, the prostitute, the crooked banker, John Wayne... The difference was, it wasn't just white people in white hats shooting 'savages' in headdresses. Essentially it's a 'road movie', probably among one of the first. I love road movies, like Easy Riders, Fear & Loathing and Thelma & Louise, which is probably why I didn't mind Stagecoach too much. I really don't like Westerns because mostly, they seem to show white people taking over an area, chasing out the natives and calling them 'savages' and taking every opportunity to have a shoot-out.. it's very 'masculine', and smacks a little of big boys and their toys. Yaaawwwnn... I remember my grandad being a big fan of the old classics like She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, and them ALWAYS being on, so maybe I just inadvertently OD'd on them when I was a kid.

I liked how the majority of the film is about the intereaction of the characters, particularly the burgeoning romance between prostitute Dallas and The Ringo Kid (played by, surprise surprise, The Duke). He falls for her from the beginning, referring to her as a 'lady' when the others in the coach won't even offer her a drink of water. I liked how the other male characters began to gravitate towards her and treat her as a human being. One character I never warmed towards was Mrs Mallory, who barely even acknowledged all Dallas's attempts to help her when she went into labour. She was a really boring, bland character and not even that nice in doing so.
Of course, there's the obligatory chase sequence between the Geronimo and the coach, but even this is filmed largerly from the perspective of the characters in the stage coach, rather than say, the cavalry. It's an impressively shot sequence; I appreciated it more after reading online about the difficulties involved with sound recording in Westerns. They hadn't made the transition from silent to sound particularly well, and John Ford was told he'd be committing career suicide. It's testament to the willingness and vision of early film makers, which I don't think there's enough of now.

Since we see and learn so much about the characters, it heightens the tension in the chase sequence, and adds to the excitement of 'who'll live or die'. I found myself actually wanting to see whether the coach would make its destination, and what would happen to the characters when they got there. Would Dallas and Ringo ride off into the sunset, or would he be taken back to jail? Is Mrs Mallory's husband alive? While they may not all be particularly sympathetic or likeable, they are un doubtedly involving. I can quite honestly say, had we not been asked to blog about this film, I'd never have watched it. I doubt there's many more films of the genre which would involve me in the same way and spend so much time on character exposition, but it was a good example of early film making that worked when really, it shouldn't have. Its year of release was 1939, considered by many to be the greatest year in cinema history (whatever, I still say it's 1994), so it's undoubtedly impressive that it managed to stand out even among such competition.

Election Coverage, Or Lack Thereof..

Well, it's finally almost over: after weeks of debates, public appearances, baby-kissing and old-lady-offending, Election Night 2010 is finally upon us. Unfortunately, this year, despite the party I'd probably have voted for being seen as the dark horse of the race, I'm not registered to vote. I voted in the last election, when I was 18, back when the Lib Dems were led by jolly alcoholic Charles Kennedy and not taken too seriously. This year however, it's become a tightly run three-horse race, with reports exclaiming the possibility of a 'hung parliament'.

Admittedly, I've skimmed through alot of the political coverage in the papers. And by 'papers', I mean the Metro. Mostly for something to read on the many, many bus journeys to and from town. Having been brought up mostly with a Labour government, I've always been brought up to think that you just don't vote Conservative. But it seems this year that the new breed of Tory has emerged, one which is 'down with the people'. In the last few weeks we've seen David Cameron be filmed going around factories in the north of England, mixing amongst the 'real people' who he's trying to convince that the Tories are a party for the people. In fact, everywhere we look there's one of the Big Three grinning from the pages of newspapers and from televison screens.

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I was initially worried about having to write about the election coverage, as I haven't actually watched any of it. This is the first year that there has been a televised live debate with all three leaders: Gordon Brown (Labour), Nick Clegg (Lib Dems) and David Cameron (Conservative), and it gained a respectable average viewing figure of 9.4 million (peak figures vary from 10.3 million to 11m), and yet I don't remember seeing much in the way of advertising. Perhaps I just wasn't paying attention, but it didn't seem to be much of a 'big deal'. Undoubtedly there seems to be alot more interest in the general election this year, although it seems to have turned into a posh-boys' slanging match, with the three party leaders criticising each others' policies which aren't so far removed from their own. Sure, I'd have liked to have the chance to be able to go and vote, but I think in the end, apathy got the better of me. I found it all a bit nauseating, and I'll be glad when the whole experience is over!

RDJr+Comic Books+AC/DC = Hmm...

And now for something on a much lighter tone, and back to the original point of having this blog in the first place!

Literally every time I've spoken to someone or switched on a TV lately, it seems the whole country is in the grip of Iron Man fever. It's quite surprising, considering the original film was an adaptation of perhaps a lesser-known comic, and was primarily seen as an underdog. Up against Chris Nolan's gritty adaptations of the Batman series, and the violent, R-rated Watchmen movie, it seemed that Joel Schumacher Cartoony Style of Comic Book Film had suffered a severe backlash from which it could never bounce back. So when narcissistic, self-important, flamboyant tycoon Tony Stark made the leap to the big screen it was a huge surprise.

The first Iron Man film was important also, in that it made a bonafide superstar out of Robert Downey Jr. It's no secret that literally everyone and their mum is in love with him, but his career always seemed to be in the shadows of his drunken, drug-crazed wildchild image. (I had to use everyone and their mum because, despite being a tired old cliche, it's true. Me and my mum both love him). Thankfully, he's now sobered up his act and emerged as the genuine star he always threatened to be. Jon Favreau, too, found himself at the helm of the biggest surprise success stories of all the comic adaptations; not bad for someone better remembered as Monica's millionaire boyfriend in Friends who wanted to be a UFC fighter.

So, what were we to expect second time around? Obviously the success of the first film meant a bigger budget, bigger cast and even bigger explosions. Oh, and an even more bad-ass Iron Man suit. I LITERALLY couldn't wait. Ross and I had planned to go see it in IMAX, but one Saturday night later and we were a bit bleary-eyed and unable to move to get into town on time. We eventually made it into town for the 10:50 pm showing, and I was shocked to find that even at that time on a Sunday, the screen was about 3/4 full.

There's always a danger in franchises such as these, that the directors are over-eager to take it in a much 'darker' direction. Yeah, it's good to see a little bit of depth, and Batman Forever/ Batman & Robin proved that too much neon is never a good thing. But sometimes the dark, brooding tone gets in the way of the fun. After all, I don't want to read a comic book to be depressed and mope-y, and I don't want to feel the same from watching a film! Thankfully, this time around, Favreau et al opted to go for "bigger and ballsier", rather than "meaner and moodier". Tony Stark is a character who does nothing by half, who is flashy and ostentatious and is probably the only person who could get away with dressing cheerleaders in itty-bitty Iron Man costumes and fly onto the stage. It might be big and dumb, but damn, is it fun!

Of course, the bigger and better tag doesn't just apply to the budget and the special effects. The cast has been beefed up to; from Mickey Rourke as the growling, deranged physicist Whiplash, out for revenge for his father's exile, to Scarlett Johansson sexing up the screen in a PVC catsuit, to Sam Rockwell, as fast-talking, smarmy weapons expert Justin Hammer, there were so many new faces and interweaving storylines that at times it seemed a little bit over-busy, but everyone played their parts brilliantly. I had high hopes after the post-credit scene with Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury, which gave us a tantalising lead in to the sequel, and hinted at the prospect of The Avengers. I won't give anything away, but DO NOT leave the cinema when the credits come up in Iron Man 2... there's another cheeky wee surprise waiting at the end. (Although I'm not sure if I'll be able to handle seeing RDJ AND Edward Norton [as Bruce Banner]on screen at the same time, without the aid of a respirator and someone to fan me...)

Of course, with all these new characters, plot devices and of course, the obligatory love interest between Stark and Pepper Potts (Gwyneth 'how boring d'ya reckon her dinner parties are?' Paltrow) that it tends to feel a little bit over-stuffed. The fights between Iron Man, sidekick James Rhodes (who has an Iron Man suit of his own) and Justin Hammer's military drones are slick and impressive, but after a while the clanging of metal feels a bit impersonal. Mercifully, everything moves along swiftly and we don't see too much of Tony in the suit, and more of him as a person. The multiple storylines play off each other well though, despite it often feeling like the film is just a plot device to drive the audience to go and see Thor.

Thankfully this doesn't seem to affect the performances at all, and RDJr seems to be the human embodiment of 'charisma'. At the same time, there are some moments when we see a chink in the armour, and he underplays the Tony Stark Brand brilliantly. The patter between him and Pepper is snappy, and they talk over the end of one another's sentences. To me, this makes it feel more like they're real people having a real argument, and not just some stilted, scripted lovers' tiff. I've been in love with Scarlett Johansson since seeing Lost In Translation in the cinema, and she does a fine job of pouting in a catsuit and beating up bad guys- which is really all the role requires of her. There's no allusion to her being the 'Black Widow' though, so I can only imagine they're saving this for a later film... most infuriating!

Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell play off each other brilliantly, and make great complementary villains. The one big problem I did have though, was Jon Favreau's director's cameo now bumped up to a supporting role. I didn't see any need for it, except to get himself in on the action. After all it's his film, he's allowed to, but it felt like an unnecessary ego trip. Hopefully next time he'll just go back to chaffeuring, and leave the ass-kicking to the real heroes.

As much fun as it is, I felt a bit cheated by the Big Final Battle...it seemed to be over too quickly. Also, there was only one moment in the film when I felt Tony was in real danger. At the Monaco Grand Prix, we first see Whiplash, electrical whips fizzing and crackling with potential danger, cutting cars in half as he skips menacingly towards Team Stark's racecar. After that, Ol' Mick seemed to get a bit sidelined into 'working in the lab', and Tony is once again free to zip around town and hang out in giant doughnuts, worry-free.
The film is littered with Marvel in-jokes too, including an appearance from Captain America's shield. It makes the whole thing feel frustratingly incomplete, but hey, it's a whole mess of fun and everyone is clearly having a blast. In fact, I'm going back to see it next week, when I'm sure I'll forget all my negativity for 2 hours and get swept up on the Tony Stark Rollercoaster all over again... As for Mickey Rourke, well, as insanely weird as he is, I'm watching Angel Heart to remind myself that he was once good-looking, but can't quite get Whiplash's dodgy highlights out of my head. Such a pity!

I Had Alot Of Trouble Remembering.

It seemed like the holidays were never going to end. My promise of all the shifts I could physically work fell a bit flat, and given that most of my friends have 'real' jobs I really didn't have that much to do during the day. Lying in til midday before making a trip to check my bank balance (which I'd stretch out to last about 3 hours) left me craving structure and bored out of my tiny mind... too much to even blog! By the time Sunday night rolled around, I was itching to get back into the swing of things, but all those late nights and late rises had gotten me into a pattern of bad sleep and an inability to, y'know, shake myself alive, so I was pretty chuffed that Monday was a nice, easy 2pm start.

We had a few classes with Barbara in the last weeks of term 2, talking about drama at the BBC. Drama series, I mean, not handbags at dawn drama. We kicked off the new term by looking at kids' shows, something I'd never taken into consideration before, let alone thought of it as a career. I'm pretty much hampered by my dislike of children and the fact that I find it difficult to censor myself. (I imagine if I ever ended up working with kids I'd try too hard to be 'cool', and open with a joke..."what's the number one cause of paedophilia?"* or something equally inappropriate).

Anyway, poor taste aside, it was an interesting wee class and we were sent off with the assignment of coming up with a kids' TV show of our own. Oddly, I didn't actually find it as hard as I did coming up with film premises for Richard... All I did was think of something I'd liked to have seen when I was a young 'un. The idea we came up with was all about teaching kids about art, film, history,etc by having them actually go 'inside it'...like, one example episode was about Vincent Van Gogh and the idea of a pupil going into the painting and meeting the artist. Nothing dazzlingly original in terms of format, but it seemed to go down OK considering!

The next day saw the return of Techie Tuesdays...kind of. With Ray off on paternity leave, we were led by ex-graduate Dave, which left me feeling a lil bit behind... It's always the same withe me and anything practical when the teacher really knows what they're talking about. I hear words, I understand their individual meanings, but collectively it makes zero sense to me. I spent a full term in college doing the same with Photography, I think I know what I'm doing and plunder on ahead, but it's usually....not entirely right. There's usually one vital step missing. In this instance, I forgot to lock off the focus barrel on the lens. So if anyone was going to zoom or indeed move the camera, the focus would go all askew. Braw! Still, it felt good to be getting to grips with the cameras again- it's been so long since we had a tech class I was starting to worry that my sieve-like brain would have forgotten all but how to 'click' a camera into place on the tripod.

The afternoon saw us pitch our kiddy TV ideas to Barbara and delve a bit deeper into the frightening (for me) world of children's TV. Although considering the huge potential audience for children's television, it's definitely worth thinking about. It was strange having to plan the show exactly as you would an adult TV show, in terms of channel and time of day it'd be broadcast. In some ways, I found coming up with the idea easier because it's easier to understand what kids want... or what their parents want them to watch. There was also the challenge of trying to think up spin-offs, e.g online content, merchandising, etc... basically anything which would hold the attention of the fickle young audience and encourage them to spend their parents' hard-earned cash. What was difficult though, was trying to make them seem 'educational' enough that parents would actually want their children to go online and buy tie-in merchandise... such is the challenge of trying to appeal to an audience which is arguably the most easily influenced, but also reliant on someone else's disposable income. Damn!

Wednesday saw us once more pitch our idea for our TPA/DFTV collaboration, our own take on the 'University Lip-Dub'. We (Murray and myself, along Iain and Rosie from TPA) had already made our pitch before, to Adam and Ros Maddison, but this time it was higher still....the DEAN OF DRAMA. Eeekkk! A hasty morning meeting was arranged between me and Murray, since we had to re-write the whole ruddy thing (we weren't including the music school in the project anymore, and since the whole first pitch was about "One Academy" it needed a bit of...err..updating). Also, Iain was off so it was up to the two of us to try and win over Mr Hodgart with our flashy Powerpoint presentation, into giving us loads of money and permission to shut down the Academy for the day. And we did it all without once getting overly pally and referring to him as 'Shug'.

After that, it was nice to have a wee wind-down as we trooped back to AGOS 9 for Television & Society with Andy. Only this week, we had a visit from the equality and diversity officer, who told us there were no 'wrong' answers in a political correctness survey, but that some of our answers were wrong. Huh.....? We watched clips from old, old (1970s) British sitcoms It Ain't Half Hot, Mum and Love Thy Neighbour. The way in which jolly old British family racism is shamelessly played for laughs was quite nauseating- mostly because it wasn't very funny, rather than it being offensive. I couldn't believe one of the 'Indian' characters in Ain't Half Hot was actually a white actor 'blacked up'...presumably there aren't enough real Indian actors out there in Bollywood, eh? Or was it all part of the joke...? Either way, it was truly terrible.



We had a cancellation on Thursday afternoon, meaning our one and only class was in the morning- not too shabby, eh? We continued our History of Cinema with Andy, looking at ways in which film makers tried to keep audiences in the cinemas following the birth of the suburbs. With people moving out of the cities, and into the comfort of their own homes, they could easily watch their newly-available, mass-produced televisions, rather than drag their entire family back into the city. So, what to do??? Well, the only answer, it seemed, was to create eye-catching posters which people would remember.

One film maker, William Castle, went one step further, and became his own publicist. His (apparently dreadful) self-financed feature, Macabre, offered a life insurance payout of $1000 to anyone who 'died of fright' while watching- which had the audiences intrigued. (although not those with pre-existing heart conditions, shockingly they weren't covered). With each new film, Castle introduced bigger and..is better the word here? OK, for alliteration's sake, better gimmicks to entice the masses back into their theatres. Tricks such as 'smell-o-vision', in which certain scents were pumped into the theatre when on screen, and 'illusion-o' (a kind of predecessor of 3D cinema... basically the glasses with one red lens and one green)were shamelessly employed to trick the audiences into believing they were part of an experience they couldn't get at home. Ultimately, the shclocky tactics couldn't last, although they did seem pretty successful in arousing intrigue in the trickery, rather than the movies themselves.

Considering the current decline in cinema audiences, and the rise in more and more pictures being released in 3D, it makes Castle's ambitious gimmicks seem far less outlandish...and scarily relevant to the state of cinema today.

Friday morning arrived and we had an extra-early screening- something which the more 'fragile' among us weren't entirely grateful for, but as it turned out I was pleasantly surprised by our morning film. The Best Years of Our Lives (1947) is just 10 minutes shy of being 3 hours long, but my attention was held for every minute. I actually started writing about it here, but I couldn't find any way of summarising this film into a paragraph or two...so it's been given its own blog, where I can really do it justice!


After lunch, we had a huuuuge shock to the system- A FRIDAY AFTERNOON CLASS. We had screenings in the afternoon for part of the first term, but since then it's been a cheeky wee 12 o'clock finish, regular as clockwork. Luckily, we had more from Adam on Mobile&Web Content, a subject which I've found really interesting. It's not like conventional film-making, and the whole concept seems a bit huge to get my head around at the moment, especially since everything's so new- so new, in fact, that maybe new technologies are merely being 'talked about' and 'trialled'. To be at the forefront of something so innovative sounds really exciting.... whether or not I'll be saying that when I come up short with project ideas, I dunno, but for now I'm most intrigued....!

Sooooo, yeah, that was pretty much your by-the-numbers reflective week blog. Nothing terribly new, nothing too taxing, just a nice, easy week of getting back into the groove. Apparently this is the 'calm before the storm', and the workload this term is about to snowball, so I'm not complaining too much... Like Andy said, next term is a whole new year, it'll all be about 'real work' and we won't be the fresh-faced newbies anymore...sob!

*"sexy weans"

Not-So-Superman Kicks Serious.... Butt

I really have to give myself a right shake when it comes to blogging over the holidays. It seems to fall by the wayside quite a bit. Ironically enough, I've been working alot of night shifts, so mostly I just sit on the computer, watch DVDs or take full advantage of my unlimited cinema card, passing time before I have to go sell my life for minimum wage.
Soooo, with our impending return to the Academy almost upon us, I decided it was about time to get writing again...especially after my lack of blogging over the Christmas holidays meant I had to write an epically long make-up effort to compensate.

I decided for once to follow up on the hype and actually go and see a film which was receiving rave reviews from...well, everyone. That, and posters for it were plastered all over Cineworld in the week or so prior to its release. Not exactly subliminal, but hey, I figured it'd be worth checking out. I've made no secret of my love for comic-book adaptations in the past, but the last effort I saw in the cinema really soured it for me... I won't say much more about it, except this- if you love Frank Miller, DON'T watch The Spirit. I've never seen so many walkouts during a film, and I was seriously close to smashing up both of my copies of Sin City, so gutted was I.



Happily, there were no such problems with Kick-Ass. I first saw the trailer for it last year, and was immediately hooked. I haven't read the comic, but I liked the premise- what if an ordinary high school kid, no different from anyone else, decided to become a crime fighting vigilante? After all, if Bruce Wayne did it, it can't be that difficult, right........?

Current wunderkind Aaron Johnson is Dave Lizewski, a regular teenager who's not popular, has zero luck with the ladies and isn't even smart enough to be a nerd. What he does have are his comic books and, after being mugged, he decides to take matters into his own hands, don a...erm...scuba suit and take on the bad guys himself. After a video of his first fight makes it onto YouTube, he becomes an overnight sensation, and teams up with 11-year-old mini-assassin Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz) and her ex-cop father, Big Daddy (Nicholas Cage, the coolest he's been in years) to take on crime boss Frank Damico (Bad Guy of The Month Mark Strong). Unfortunately, d'Amico is not one to let a mere teenager get in his way, and he employs his son Chris (Christopher Mintz-Plasse/McLovin) to lure Kick Ass by pretending to team up with him as Red Mist.



It's a hilarious overblown adventure, genuinely violent but also hugely entertaining. It helps breathe new life into a tired genre, currently enjoying revival following a disappointing late 1990s. It's a gleefully silly and deranged as Chris Nolan's Batman is po-faced and seeeerious. Usually anything which plays to heavily on so-hot-right-now trends makes me cringe- references to Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, iPhones, etc really date films and seem like an embarrassing attempt to appear 'in touch' with the yoof audience. In relation to this film though, it's used in quite a novel way that's actually pretty funny. Nicholas Cage erases all memories of the awful Ghost Rider and channels the old-school Adam West Batman, while Aaron Johnson pulls off an American accent with aplomb and plenty of nerdy charm.
The real star here though, is Chloe Moretz as Hit Girl. She single-handedly assassinates men twice her size all the while qupping more expletives and killer one-liners than most grown-ups. Her rampage of vengeance in the final act actually got an applause from the audience, and while much has been made of her dropping the 'C-Bomb', (and it is truly funny), it'd be derivative to her awesome performance to focus on it too much. Maybe because I over-use it myself and don't really understand what's taboo about it... hmm!

While my cinema going may have flagged slightly over the holidays, I'm definitely glad this was the one film I went to see. It's great fun, fast paced, quick witted and giddily violent in all the right places. Sure, its reliance on 'modern' references might not stand up in years to come but who cares about that when you're enjoying yourself this much? A great one for any kid who's ever dreamed of becoming a superhero... and for those big kids of us who always clung to the hope that it could really happen.