Archive for the ‘british’ Category
Author: James
‘Hello, Wembley!’
As the great British actor Bill Nighy turned 60 on 12 December 2009, Cillian Donnelly takes the opportunity to examine this sadly little-seen gem, in which Nighy turns in a career-defining performance as Ray Simms, the conceited yet vulnerable former lead singer of 1970s hard rockers, Strange Fruit.
Author: James
Lords of the dance
Once again, we’re into the arena of films that are perhaps impossible to overpraise, as a completely restored print of The Red Shoes (1948) by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (‘The Archers’) begins its UK re-release.
2009 has been one of the best years in living memory for the opportunities it has offered UK audiences to rediscover classics in their rightful home, and ‘classic’ only begins to describe what this masterpiece has to offer.
Author: Colin
Something wicked this way comes…
Another outing from the seemingly ‘can’t-lose’ stable of writer-director Shane Meadows. If you enjoyed This is England (2006), and are tempted to view some of his back-catalogue, you may well heed my warning – this is a genuinely unpleasant watch.
Author: James
‘You’re a big man, but you’re in bad shape. With me, it’s a full-time job. Now behave yourself.’
Wonderful things, weekends – you have time to yourself, time to devote to paying due respect to what is simply the finest gangster film ever made. Take it away, Jack…
Mike Hodges’ seminal, Chandleresque study of society’s sickening criminal underbelly, Get Carter (1971) has endured not only as a sublime account of its time’s crimes, a marvellously grimy tale of just how far a well-dressed heavy will go to get even and a stark warning about not messing with family, but also, in much the same way as Bruce Robinson’s Withnail & I (1987), as a treasure trove of supremely quotable quotes that sum up the film’s mood and mores impeccably.
Author: Jeremy
Trouble with Harry?
Jeremy Slater‘s back with his thoughts on the latest goings-on at Hogwarts…
This may be the sixth instalment in the Harry Potter saga, with Parts I and II of the final book, The Deathly Hallows, to come in 2010 and 2011, but the heart still beats fast in David Yates’s Half-Blood Prince, with the acting from the three main cast members reaching its peak as they approach adulthood.
Author: James
Stand up, if you hate Man Utd…
Cards-on-the-table time – your reviewer loathes with a passion (some might say with every fibre of his being, at times) a certain football club variously known as Scum, Glory Hunters Central, Manure and the Evil Empire. Oh, and they also go by the name of Manchester United, for the truly (and mercifully) unenlightened.
Author: James
Mother. Wife. Criminal.
He’s never had a problem with handling difficult subjects, has our Mike Leigh – the director of Naked (1993) and Secrets & Lies (1996) turned his hand here to one of western societies’ most controversial issues, namely that of abortion and how mothers, morality and the law are expected to navigate the minefield.
Author: James
The eye of childhood
Following on from my thoughts on this year’s remake of The Last House on the Left (1972), namely that even a very-well made film of its kind (brutal rape followed by brutal revenge) asks certain questions of viewers as to what exactly they are seeking in terms of entertainment, I believe that a similar enquiry should always be levelled at any film that makes The Shoah (Holocaust) its central theme.
Author: James
Reading between the lies
Objectively assessing a film that’s drawn from Bernhard Schlink’s book about how reading changes lives, for good and ill? An interesting situation.
Given the theme of The Reader, and the frequency with which cinema been cited as a medium that is so different from print as to make comparisons invidious (but, as everyone knows, it’s the points on which they cross that make both art forms what they are), director Stephen Daldry’s well-used filmic mode of flashback to assess the emotional distance between a Germany barely a decade past the Second World War, and a society living in an almost universal sense of disillusionment and in many cases ignorance, is a fascinating device.
Author: Colin
Raking up trouble
This is one I re-watched by accident the other night (and by ‘accident’ I mean that I was too lazy even to change the channel so saw it through to the end). A horrifying movie – in the truest sense of the word – it’s nonetheless a compelling and enlightening view.
With a cast that includes Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, Pete Postlethwaite and Bill Nighy to name but four, this could have so easily been a complete luvvie-fest, devoid of any sentiment or narrative. Not so, luckily. Bolstered by some very accomplished direction by Brazilian Fernando Meirelles (Cidada de Deus (City of God) (2002)), and written for the screen in collaboration with the original author (John le Carré), this is a fully rounded story with a lot to say, and it’s very well played by all concerned.
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- James: Hello Chris, and welcome to Picturenose!
Many thanks for your comment – I thought, in fact, that... - James: Colin, good points, both on Westworld (which should really have been included, I know, I know) and otters.