Directed at mercilessly cool, wickedly tense pace by Ren...
Directed at mercilessly cool, wickedly tense pace by Ren
The Human Stain
Given short shrift by most cinema critics, Robert Benton's flawed adaptation of Philip Roth's novel is wonderfully acted by two stars who've been praised for far inferior performances. Anthony Hopkins is the professor sacked for alleged political incorrectness; Nicole Kidman the damaged younger woman with whom he enjoys "not my first love, not my great love, but my last love." Both risky and tender.
Given short shrift by most cinema critics, Robert Benton’s flawed adaptation of Philip Roth’s novel is wonderfully acted by two stars who’ve been praised for far inferior performances. Anthony Hopkins is the professor sacked for alleged political incorrectness; Nicole Kidman the damaged younger woman with whom he enjoys “not my first love, not my great love, but my last love.” Both risky and tender.
Train Of Thought
As the film world gears up for the release of Wong Kar-Wai's long-awaited 2046, it's a propitious time for his masterpiece, Chungking Express, to be reissued. When the Hong Kong movie first arrived in the West in 1996, it came with the lavish cheerleading of Quentin Tarantino. But while Wong shares a certain kinetic playfulness with QT, Chungking Express is a much more poetic, romantic film than the connection might suggest.
Wong nimbly tells the stories of two policemen whose girlfriends have just left them. One (Takeshi Kaneshiro) counts the days that have passed by buying tins of pineapple, until he falls for a gloomy drug dealer (Brigitte Lin) styled, emblematically, as a '40s femme fatale. The second (Tony Leung) compensates for his loss by talking to the household objects?bars of
soap, chiefly?rendered inconsolable by his girlfriend's departure. His object d'amour is a gamine waitress obsessed with "California Dreamin'" (Faye Wong), who insinuates herself by breaking into his apartment and subtly messing with his belongings.
Slight, oblique plots, then. But the spirit of the film is what carries it, expressed in Christopher Doyle's graceful hand-held camerawork, the engaging performances and, most of all, Wong's endearingly whimsical take on urban alienation.
Hong Kong's crowds are a permanent blurred presence, with individuals impossible to make out. But Wong's gift is to cut through the throng and find brief, touching stories of people who combat loneliness by cultivating precious eccentricities and dreams of escape.
A hip and quirky movie, perhaps, but one that's gently profound, too.
As the film world gears up for the release of Wong Kar-Wai’s long-awaited 2046, it’s a propitious time for his masterpiece, Chungking Express, to be reissued. When the Hong Kong movie first arrived in the West in 1996, it came with the lavish cheerleading of Quentin Tarantino. But while Wong shares a certain kinetic playfulness with QT, Chungking Express is a much more poetic, romantic film than the connection might suggest.
Wong nimbly tells the stories of two policemen whose girlfriends have just left them. One (Takeshi Kaneshiro) counts the days that have passed by buying tins of pineapple, until he falls for a gloomy drug dealer (Brigitte Lin) styled, emblematically, as a ’40s femme fatale. The second (Tony Leung) compensates for his loss by talking to the household objects?bars of
soap, chiefly?rendered inconsolable by his girlfriend’s departure. His object d’amour is a gamine waitress obsessed with “California Dreamin'” (Faye Wong), who insinuates herself by breaking into his apartment and subtly messing with his belongings.
Slight, oblique plots, then. But the spirit of the film is what carries it, expressed in Christopher Doyle’s graceful hand-held camerawork, the engaging performances and, most of all, Wong’s endearingly whimsical take on urban alienation.
Hong Kong’s crowds are a permanent blurred presence, with individuals impossible to make out. But Wong’s gift is to cut through the throng and find brief, touching stories of people who combat loneliness by cultivating precious eccentricities and dreams of escape.
A hip and quirky movie, perhaps, but one that’s gently profound, too.
Pépé Le Moko
A landmark in the development of the doomed anti-hero, Julien Duvivier's timeless 1936 proto-noir made an icon of Jean Gabin, playing P...
A landmark in the development of the doomed anti-hero, Julien Duvivier’s timeless 1936 proto-noir made an icon of Jean Gabin, playing P
XX – XY
Excellent, thought-provoking love triangle drama, with Mark Ruffalo for once living up to his overcooked reputation. He's entwined in a threesome at college, but years down the line all the participants have evolved... except him. About to marry, he craves a rekindling of the flame. Not wise. Writer/director Austin Chick keeps it sparky and twisting like a fish, always a jump ahead of you.
Excellent, thought-provoking love triangle drama, with Mark Ruffalo for once living up to his overcooked reputation. He’s entwined in a threesome at college, but years down the line all the participants have evolved… except him. About to marry, he craves a rekindling of the flame. Not wise. Writer/director Austin Chick keeps it sparky and twisting like a fish, always a jump ahead of you.
Battle Royale II: Requiem
Muddled straight-to-DVD sequel to the 2000 classic. As in part one, a class of schoolchildren are sent to an island to fight or die for the pleasure of their elders. But this time they're battling the survivors of the first film, who've formed a guerrilla army dedicated to overthrowing the sadistic adults responsible. After a promising start, it never recovers from the death of veteran director Kenji Fukasaku during the shoot.
Muddled straight-to-DVD sequel to the 2000 classic. As in part one, a class of schoolchildren are sent to an island to fight or die for the pleasure of their elders. But this time they’re battling the survivors of the first film, who’ve formed a guerrilla army dedicated to overthrowing the sadistic adults responsible. After a promising start, it never recovers from the death of veteran director Kenji Fukasaku during the shoot.
Cleopatra Jones
Nine out of ten people will tell you Pam Grier starred in this 1973 landmark blaxploitation 'classic'. She didn't: it's Tamara Dobson as the CIA's tough female agent, taking out drug dealers with athleticism, attitude and a healthy amount of sheer spite. The soundtrack is very cool but in truth the film's pretty rubbish: comic-book at best, lazily indulgent throughout. Bring on Foxy Brown!
Nine out of ten people will tell you Pam Grier starred in this 1973 landmark blaxploitation ‘classic’. She didn’t: it’s Tamara Dobson as the CIA’s tough female agent, taking out drug dealers with athleticism, attitude and a healthy amount of sheer spite. The soundtrack is very cool but in truth the film’s pretty rubbish: comic-book at best, lazily indulgent throughout. Bring on Foxy Brown!
The Ten Commandments: Special Edition
It's very long and extremely po-faced, and most of the performances are pretty wooden, Yul Brynner's imperious pharaoh aside. Even so, Cecil B DeMille's 1956 account of the life of Moses (Charlton Heston) still has some impressive sequences-notably the Exodus from Egypt, with 60,000 extras?and remains the definitive Biblical epic.
It’s very long and extremely po-faced, and most of the performances are pretty wooden, Yul Brynner’s imperious pharaoh aside. Even so, Cecil B DeMille’s 1956 account of the life of Moses (Charlton Heston) still has some impressive sequences-notably the Exodus from Egypt, with 60,000 extras?and remains the definitive Biblical epic.
The Missouri Breaks
Arthur Penn's smouldering anti-western tells the story of Nicholson's Montana horse-rustlers and the pursuit of them by Brando's regulator Lee Clayton. The action is rationed into short, ferocious bursts and used as a counterpoint to the director's paced dissection of power and politics on the anarchic frontier. Brando's whispering Irish accent flirts with parody, but ultimately helps to lend Clayton a compelling air of psychotic menace.
Arthur Penn’s smouldering anti-western tells the story of Nicholson’s Montana horse-rustlers and the pursuit of them by Brando’s regulator Lee Clayton. The action is rationed into short, ferocious bursts and used as a counterpoint to the director’s paced dissection of power and politics on the anarchic frontier. Brando’s whispering Irish accent flirts with parody, but ultimately helps to lend Clayton a compelling air of psychotic menace.
The Fog Of War
Errol Morris' latest Oscar-winning documentary is no Moore-style polemic but an artful interrogation of infamous US Defence Secretary Robert McNamara, who gave Morris 23 hours of filmed interviews in 2001, before 9/11 and the Iraq war, though unspoken parallels are hard to ignore. A formidable intellectual bruiser at 87, the old Cold Warrior seizes what may prove to be his last chance to make peace with history. Riveting.
Errol Morris’ latest Oscar-winning documentary is no Moore-style polemic but an artful interrogation of infamous US Defence Secretary Robert McNamara, who gave Morris 23 hours of filmed interviews in 2001, before 9/11 and the Iraq war, though unspoken parallels are hard to ignore. A formidable intellectual bruiser at 87, the old Cold Warrior seizes what may prove to be his last chance to make peace with history. Riveting.
The Barbarian Invasions
Denys Arcand reunites the Quebecois characters who made '86's The Decline Of The American Empire so witty and engaging, and despite their age, disillusion and failing health, they're as intellectually provocative as before. Yes, it's talky, but as one lies dying, his friends reminisce about days of drugs and libido, and his son finds a backbone. A moving, note-perfect Oscar-winner.
Denys Arcand reunites the Quebecois characters who made ’86’s The Decline Of The American Empire so witty and engaging, and despite their age, disillusion and failing health, they’re as intellectually provocative as before. Yes, it’s talky, but as one lies dying, his friends reminisce about days of drugs and libido, and his son finds a backbone. A moving, note-perfect Oscar-winner.
Piccadilly
Shot in 1929 by German...
Shot in 1929 by German
The Singing Detective
The memory of Dennis Potter is not well-served by this inferior feature version of the fine '80s BBC TV series that confirmed Potter as one of Britain's most original and daring screenwriting talents. Here, Robert Downey Jr takes the Michael Gambon role of Dan Dark, the chronically ill pulp fiction writer who, delirious in hospital, finds reality merging with the fantasy world of his novels.
The memory of Dennis Potter is not well-served by this inferior feature version of the fine ’80s BBC TV series that confirmed Potter as one of Britain’s most original and daring screenwriting talents. Here, Robert Downey Jr takes the Michael Gambon role of Dan Dark, the chronically ill pulp fiction writer who, delirious in hospital, finds reality merging with the fantasy world of his novels.
Gene
Recorded at the LA Troubadour in 2000?and gaps like that never bode well. Though it covers moments when the band were at their defiant best?"Olympian", "For The Dead", "Fighting Fit"?it still feels like they're going through the motions. And that's a shame as Gene always had a lot more to them than their ill-deserved reputation as Britpop fops. Worth seeing for what could have been.
Recorded at the LA Troubadour in 2000?and gaps like that never bode well. Though it covers moments when the band were at their defiant best?”Olympian”, “For The Dead”, “Fighting Fit”?it still feels like they’re going through the motions. And that’s a shame as Gene always had a lot more to them than their ill-deserved reputation as Britpop fops. Worth seeing for what could have been.
The Comeback Kid
By the time7 The Beatles landed in America in 1964, Elvis was already churning out on average three movies a year, having forsaken his R&B roots to rake in a fortune as Hollywood's highest-paid movie star of the '60s. Come 1967, the year the Fabs released Sgt Pepper, the once infallible "King Of Rock'n'Roll" could be seen in a leotard, warbling "Yoga Is As Yoga Does" in the pitiful Easy Come, Easy Go. Something had to change.
It did, in 1968, when Presley agreed to make a Christmas TV special for the NBC network. As legend has it, manager Colonel Tom Parker wanted Santa suits and "chestnuts roasting on an open fire". Thankfully the show's ambitious young producer, Steve Binder, had other ideas. The result was Elvis, a one-hour programme sponsored by Singer sewing machines in which Binder encouraged Presley to rediscover the raw, bestial talent he feared he'd destroyed by one Harum Scarum too many.
The joy of what is now known as the '68 Comeback, above and beyond the obvious jaw-agog submission to Elvis' brilliance, is the measure of how he clawed himself out of the mire into which he'd sunk. Nowhere is his renaissance more tangible than on the famed black-leather 'boxing-ring' sit-down performance (the genesis of MTV's Unplugged), where he returns to his '50s rockabilly womb flanked by his original Sun Studios-era band (disc one also allows us to indulge in the two complete sit-down shows in their swoonsome entirety). Just as mesmerising are the ostensibly ridiculous production numbers?one can only wonder what Parker must've made of the moment Elvis interrupts the tender "It Hurts Me" to coolly karate-chop a small army of thugs against a psychedelic wah-wah freak-out worthy of The Mothers Of Invention.
Like a similar two-disc polish job on 1973's Aloha From Hawaii (
), this supersize special edition arrives under the bigger umbrella of this year's 50th anniversary of 1954's debut single, "That's All Right" (and, so the Presley estate claim, by proxy the 50th birthday of rock'n'roll itself). However, it's these vivid freeze-frames of the black leather sex-god huffin' and a-sweatin' through "Tiger Man", and that of his pristine white alter ego purging mankind's sins on "If I Can Dream", that endure above all other images of Elvis. If nothing else, remember him this way.
By the time7 The Beatles landed in America in 1964, Elvis was already churning out on average three movies a year, having forsaken his R&B roots to rake in a fortune as Hollywood’s highest-paid movie star of the ’60s. Come 1967, the year the Fabs released Sgt Pepper, the once infallible “King Of Rock’n’Roll” could be seen in a leotard, warbling “Yoga Is As Yoga Does” in the pitiful Easy Come, Easy Go. Something had to change.
It did, in 1968, when Presley agreed to make a Christmas TV special for the NBC network. As legend has it, manager Colonel Tom Parker wanted Santa suits and “chestnuts roasting on an open fire”. Thankfully the show’s ambitious young producer, Steve Binder, had other ideas. The result was Elvis, a one-hour programme sponsored by Singer sewing machines in which Binder encouraged Presley to rediscover the raw, bestial talent he feared he’d destroyed by one Harum Scarum too many.
The joy of what is now known as the ’68 Comeback, above and beyond the obvious jaw-agog submission to Elvis’ brilliance, is the measure of how he clawed himself out of the mire into which he’d sunk. Nowhere is his renaissance more tangible than on the famed black-leather ‘boxing-ring’ sit-down performance (the genesis of MTV’s Unplugged), where he returns to his ’50s rockabilly womb flanked by his original Sun Studios-era band (disc one also allows us to indulge in the two complete sit-down shows in their swoonsome entirety). Just as mesmerising are the ostensibly ridiculous production numbers?one can only wonder what Parker must’ve made of the moment Elvis interrupts the tender “It Hurts Me” to coolly karate-chop a small army of thugs against a psychedelic wah-wah freak-out worthy of The Mothers Of Invention.
Like a similar two-disc polish job on 1973’s Aloha From Hawaii ( ), this supersize special edition arrives under the bigger umbrella of this year’s 50th anniversary of 1954’s debut single, “That’s All Right” (and, so the Presley estate claim, by proxy the 50th birthday of rock’n’roll itself). However, it’s these vivid freeze-frames of the black leather sex-god huffin’ and a-sweatin’ through “Tiger Man”, and that of his pristine white alter ego purging mankind’s sins on “If I Can Dream”, that endure above all other images of Elvis. If nothing else, remember him this way.
Spirits Of Punk
"We were told by our first manager that we should never consider making a video as art," remembers Thurston Moore, talking about this collection of 23 avant-promos. "We immediately fired the guy and made videos we thought would, well, at least be artful."
Just as Sonic Youth's music has negotiated ...
“We were told by our first manager that we should never consider making a video as art,” remembers Thurston Moore, talking about this collection of 23 avant-promos. “We immediately fired the guy and made videos we thought would, well, at least be artful.”
Just as Sonic Youth’s music has negotiated a successful course between major label obligations and left-field experiment, Corporate Ghost proves their videos have been equally successful hybrids. Stretching from the 11 clips made for 1990’s Geffen debut, Goo, to 2002’s gorgeous “Disconnection Notice”, this is a testament to the band’s punk spirit, their often overlooked playfulness, and their taste in collaborators. Corporate Ghost is like a showreel of early work by some of modern cinema’s greatest talents. Spike Jonze brings a bunch of his skater mates to the hipster teenage party of “100%”. Todd Haynes puts the band in wigs, big shades and tinfoil for “Disappearer”. Chlo
Heather Nova
A decade ago, Heather Nova burst forth as a kind of female Jeff Buckley. She's never quite fulfilled the promise but is a hugely popular live act. Her understated backing band are superb, but it's her soaring vocals that grab the attention at this show dating from September 2003, which concentrates mainly on material from her most recent album, Storm, and suggests she's toned down some of her earlier jagged edges.
A decade ago, Heather Nova burst forth as a kind of female Jeff Buckley. She’s never quite fulfilled the promise but is a hugely popular live act. Her understated backing band are superb, but it’s her soaring vocals that grab the attention at this show dating from September 2003, which concentrates mainly on material from her most recent album, Storm, and suggests she’s toned down some of her earlier jagged edges.
Various Artists
Mega-rock festival staged in Toronto in July 2003, where a bizarre line-up included The Isley Brothers, AC/DC, Justin Timberlake and The Rolling Stones. A voiceover drones on about how Toronto needed a "big idea" to restore its confidence after the city's SARS crisis, but this event is pretty average, and Timberlake's duet with Jagger on "Miss You" is, weirdly, the highlight.
Mega-rock festival staged in Toronto in July 2003, where a bizarre line-up included The Isley Brothers, AC/DC, Justin Timberlake and The Rolling Stones. A voiceover drones on about how Toronto needed a “big idea” to restore its confidence after the city’s SARS crisis, but this event is pretty average, and Timberlake’s duet with Jagger on “Miss You” is, weirdly, the highlight.
Peggy Lee
This frustrating compilation trawls the archives from the early '40s to the late '80s to assemble 20 of the divine Miss Lee's greatest film and TV performances. While some clips are understandably washed-out, Lee's wide-ranging voice is black-coffee-and-honey throughout. What lets the set down is the decision to cut gushing tributes from celebrity fans into the performances. That aside, fine stuff.
This frustrating compilation trawls the archives from the early ’40s to the late ’80s to assemble 20 of the divine Miss Lee’s greatest film and TV performances. While some clips are understandably washed-out, Lee’s wide-ranging voice is black-coffee-and-honey throughout. What lets the set down is the decision to cut gushing tributes from celebrity fans into the performances. That aside, fine stuff.
Billy Childish
Childish may well be a "genius" (just ask Jack White), but this DVD doesn't really do the Bard Of Chatham justice since it contains just two old gigs filmed on video. Admittedly, Thee Milkshakes twang up an impressive storm in 1984, but watching Thee Headcoats rock a crowd of about 10 in 1989 is much less gripping, even with cameos from Holly Golightly's Headcoatees. Shame.
Childish may well be a “genius” (just ask Jack White), but this DVD doesn’t really do the Bard Of Chatham justice since it contains just two old gigs filmed on video. Admittedly, Thee Milkshakes twang up an impressive storm in 1984, but watching Thee Headcoats rock a crowd of about 10 in 1989 is much less gripping, even with cameos from Holly Golightly’s Headcoatees. Shame.
