Monday, 22 February 2016
Thursday, 4 February 2016
Can't wait until next series of HOUSE OF CARDS? try the Evil Legals in DAMAGES (2007-12)
Slick Fincher like direction and design, taking a well known location and giving it an evil HD sheen?
Gripping violent conspiracy thriller plotlines that border on late career Brian De Palma?
Opening sequence full of stark judgmental Greek statues laid beneath a very distinctive font?
Hey HOUSE OF CARDS fans ... does the opening sequences to FX's (2007-12) legal thriller DAMAGES look familiar?
Just swap Frank Underwood's Washington for New York and the legal system for politics and you pretty much have Damages, which, although looking like an effective imitation actually pre-dates (the US) House of Cards by about five years.
I discovered Damages on Netflix at the weekend. I can only assume S3-5 are terrible because S1 was great and yet I'd never heard of it. Damages Season 1 is one long murder strewn legal conspiracy thriller told with a lot of style and a few surprises, perhaps best seen as a long Fincher like movie.
Like House of Cards but perhaps more so it forces you to sympathise with ant-hero against forces which are even worse. In HOUSE Frank Underwood has Raymond Tusk and Petrov - in DAMAGES S1 Glen Close's ruthless attourney Patty Hewes has as an arch enemy in.. Ted Danson. Yes UK viewers, , the guy from CHEERS. Perhaps this is why this show is not taken quite so seriously, a shame as Danson's Bernie Madov type embezzler, Arthur Frobisher, is a fantastic villain, subtly evil in a way that is worthy of BBCs Sherlock, a wonderfully nice and charming family guy on the surface to everyone, who is nevertheless a ruthless swine not far beneath the surface
Don't mistake me. House of Cards looks maybe slightly less original now but is still on the whole better acted written and shot than but Damages - it isn't light years ahead, and if you are that desperate for something similar you could do worse.
Ultimately the difference between the two is bigger budget, better writers, star directors and actors and a more interesting central concept (Richard III in 20th/21stC),
but for all that if you are hankering to immerse yourself in House's high power environments of vaguely sympathetic murdering bastards
(but can't quite plum the moral depths of far out depravity with HANNIBAL)
DAMAGES is a good substitute.
Monday, 1 February 2016
Thursday, 28 January 2016
Can I interest you in a forgotten Ziggy Stardust album?
The official Spiders From Mars album isn't too great
this is more like it
Slaughter on 10th Avenue, the first solo album by glam guitar deity Mick Ronson.
Well, no okay it isn't a Bowie album... and though it is his greatest backing band playing songs written by him for a them I don't think Bowie even plays on it.
But Holy Look-in, Tomorrow People Magpie it sounds like a Bowie album. Ronson actually does a fairly convincing Ziggy Stardust impression even with the vocals. It sounds like an album of a particular era as well, 1975, not an uncreative time. The lineup of musicians on this album, aside from Ronson, was the exact same used by Bowie on his 1973 covers album, Pin-Ups.
This was a time when Bowie was SO creative he could throw thunderbolts of inspiration at people like Mott The Hoople, a wasted Iggy Pop and a discarded Lou Reed and rescue them from mortality.
In Mick Ronson's case he had already been basking in this creative radiation for some time and was perhaps reaching peak exposure. Mick was the guitar god that drove the first stage of Bowies career, effectively Chief Arachnid in The Spiders From Mars. With Ziggy gone the Spiders were gifted one last album and this is it.
Sadly it was released with perhaps too much fanfare around the time Bowie himself was releasing Diamond Dogs, against which it must have looked like a cash-in.
Opens with he definitive glam rock version of Love Me Tender, and ends with a nice souful glam instrumental. Along the way it has a few bumps, (Pleasure Man is like a bad Black Sabbath experiment) and the bonus tracks it has been laboured with over the years make a slightly repetitive experience even worse as the central Slaughter riff is played over and over again. (Bonus tracks really are the curse of the album since the 90s, mushing the end to end experience with content the artist was usually correct to keep obscure.)
I'm not claiming Slaughter on 10th Avenue a classic, I'm not even claiming its up there with the albums for others that Bowie breathed on (let alone his own product from that era) but it defiantly deserves more attention. And if you are still too sad to return to Bowies own stuff it is a gentle re introduction.
STEVE JOBS (2015) seems more Aaron Sorkin and Danny Boyle than Steve Jobs, but that's what makes it great
We may not have met many people like Steve Jobs the visionary, but I'm sure you have met a few like Steve Jobs the father.
In a previous post I compared two previous dramatic screen interpretations of Steve Jobs. I didn't hate the Ashton Kutcher version (it's great propaganda) and the fantastic tv movie that preceded it is sadly incomplete now.
Which brings me to Steve Jobs (2015) which I've been approaching with some trepidation because I knew I'd have to compare it with the others and while I'm comparatively ignorant about Steve Jobs, Danny Boyle is already a historic figure in the UK (Olympics) and I'm a massive fan of Aaron Sorkin.
+ Kate Winslet
So how could I objectively cover this without the usual gush?
I'm ashamed I didn't see this at the cinema. It was in the wake of the disappointing Max Max Fury Road which I thought was over-hyped.The luke warm (UK) reviews for Steve Jobs put me off (Seeing Bowie's career as a whole has since reminded me of the worth of critical opinion). Every time I sit with others openly chatting or reading phones in a cinema I make a scene, which happens a lot these days. I don't pay £16 to half hear other people chat.. I was busy.. etc etc etc
I'm ashamed I didn't see this at the cinema because it is instantly my favourite Sorkin piece and my favourite Danny Boyle film. It also probably contains my favourite performances from Kate Winslet and Seth Rogan. Mr Fassbinder is difficult to judge. Not seen Macbeth yet.
This movie, which could work well as a stage play, knocked me for six and it is difficult to stop thinking about it nearly a day later. I actually dreamt about it last night.
There is obviously less technology than Pirates of Silicon Valley (though they both start and end with heavy references the Ridley Scott 1984 advert ) and there is less personal mush than the 2013 version, and yet somehow weaves enough of both into a great tapestry that may not be 100% realistic but really captures the drama, uniqueness and tragedy of the character in a brilliant way.
Danny Boyle could get showy but carefully steps back and allows the actors and script to be the fireworks and they explode all over the screen.
Most obvious stand out is Kate Winslett as Joanna Hoffman the Polish "work wife", actually a marketing executive.
(Please note I'm only evaluating as characters, I really don't know enough about the real people to judge)
Winslet has to be the conscience and front for a thoroughly heartless bastard for most of this movie. She has to drag Fassbinders hateful carcass across the screen for at least an hour before the script provides enough explanation for the main characters behaviour. She has to play a kind of realistic character you not often see in a movie - part of a long time platonic friendship and working relationship between a man and a woman. This is a serious acting performance in that it takes you away from the experience of watching film star Kate Winslet, yet is not showy and is convincing.
Not sure about the accent but as she says to Vulture.com...
"...her accent, is fairly complicated. She grew up largely in Armenia, spent some time in Poland, and has Russians in her family, so she has all three accents, but she’s been in America since she was a teenager, so she had American rhythms. You know, she really has this accent that goes way up and down. It’s almost impossible to copy because of just how singsongy it becomes. So I had to put it into my own register. But we were all doing accents. I mean, Michael’s Irish, and he’s playing Steve Jobs, for God’s sake."
Just noticed
Winslet won a Best Supporting Actress and Sorkin won Best Screenplay at the 73rd Golden Globes, while Fassbender and Winslet were both nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress, respectively, at the Academy Awards.
Seth Rogen, as Steve Wozniak, has to play bromance turned to near hate and gets though some tough convincing scenes - despite having to look like Fozzy Bear.
Jeff Daniels plays supposedly the villainous CEO who kicked Jobs out of Apple. Here he is mainly continuing the sympathetic boss unhinged by circumstance character in Newsroom but I'm happy with that. I'm so depressed Newsroom got cancelled I still can't bring myself to watch the final series.
And so onto Sorkin - who packs in Olympian banter, great one liners, history defining ideas and explanations with a heartbreaking human story that is extremely easy to relate to.
We may not have met many people like Steve Jobs the visionary, but I bet you have met a few like Steve Jobs the father.
 |
| Danny Boyle/Sorkin hybrid poster from here |
Which brings me to Steve Jobs (2015) which I've been approaching with some trepidation because I knew I'd have to compare it with the others and while I'm comparatively ignorant about Steve Jobs, Danny Boyle is already a historic figure in the UK (Olympics) and I'm a massive fan of Aaron Sorkin.
+ Kate Winslet
So how could I objectively cover this without the usual gush?
I'm ashamed I didn't see this at the cinema. It was in the wake of the disappointing Max Max Fury Road which I thought was over-hyped.The luke warm (UK) reviews for Steve Jobs put me off (Seeing Bowie's career as a whole has since reminded me of the worth of critical opinion). Every time I sit with others openly chatting or reading phones in a cinema I make a scene, which happens a lot these days. I don't pay £16 to half hear other people chat.. I was busy.. etc etc etc
I'm ashamed I didn't see this at the cinema because it is instantly my favourite Sorkin piece and my favourite Danny Boyle film. It also probably contains my favourite performances from Kate Winslet and Seth Rogan. Mr Fassbinder is difficult to judge. Not seen Macbeth yet.
This movie, which could work well as a stage play, knocked me for six and it is difficult to stop thinking about it nearly a day later. I actually dreamt about it last night.
There is obviously less technology than Pirates of Silicon Valley (though they both start and end with heavy references the Ridley Scott 1984 advert ) and there is less personal mush than the 2013 version, and yet somehow weaves enough of both into a great tapestry that may not be 100% realistic but really captures the drama, uniqueness and tragedy of the character in a brilliant way.
Danny Boyle could get showy but carefully steps back and allows the actors and script to be the fireworks and they explode all over the screen.
Most obvious stand out is Kate Winslett as Joanna Hoffman the Polish "work wife", actually a marketing executive.
(Please note I'm only evaluating as characters, I really don't know enough about the real people to judge)
Winslet has to be the conscience and front for a thoroughly heartless bastard for most of this movie. She has to drag Fassbinders hateful carcass across the screen for at least an hour before the script provides enough explanation for the main characters behaviour. She has to play a kind of realistic character you not often see in a movie - part of a long time platonic friendship and working relationship between a man and a woman. This is a serious acting performance in that it takes you away from the experience of watching film star Kate Winslet, yet is not showy and is convincing.
Not sure about the accent but as she says to Vulture.com...
"...her accent, is fairly complicated. She grew up largely in Armenia, spent some time in Poland, and has Russians in her family, so she has all three accents, but she’s been in America since she was a teenager, so she had American rhythms. You know, she really has this accent that goes way up and down. It’s almost impossible to copy because of just how singsongy it becomes. So I had to put it into my own register. But we were all doing accents. I mean, Michael’s Irish, and he’s playing Steve Jobs, for God’s sake."
Just noticed
Winslet won a Best Supporting Actress and Sorkin won Best Screenplay at the 73rd Golden Globes, while Fassbender and Winslet were both nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress, respectively, at the Academy Awards.
Seth Rogen, as Steve Wozniak, has to play bromance turned to near hate and gets though some tough convincing scenes - despite having to look like Fozzy Bear.
Jeff Daniels plays supposedly the villainous CEO who kicked Jobs out of Apple. Here he is mainly continuing the sympathetic boss unhinged by circumstance character in Newsroom but I'm happy with that. I'm so depressed Newsroom got cancelled I still can't bring myself to watch the final series.
And so onto Sorkin - who packs in Olympian banter, great one liners, history defining ideas and explanations with a heartbreaking human story that is extremely easy to relate to.
We may not have met many people like Steve Jobs the visionary, but I bet you have met a few like Steve Jobs the father.
Saturday, 23 January 2016
SPY (2015) could be your antidote to a grim new year
Up until now I've found Melissa McCarthy fairly funny but not hilarious... she tries too hard, the usual self deprecating attempts at humour come across as painful self pity
but.. in SPY (2015)
Add Jason Statham,, Miranda Hart and Peter Serafinowicz, Jude Law and a few others to vary the humour a bit (bat infestation at the CIA?) and the results are just.. hilarious. I enjoyed SPY more than SPECTRE.
The joke in this Bond parody is NOT that the Spy is a big woman, the joke is that the Spy is a big woman and she's eventually revealed to be a highly competent super agent - while having an unfortunate choice in friends (Miranda Hart), a potty mouth and general lack of class and self control. Melissa McCarthy's desk job agent gets her promotion to the field when her CIA boss finds footage of her in training, where she runs out of bullets in a training exercise and is so motivated she attacks targets and later the trainers with her bare hands.
Miranda Hart I would think must be big Hollywood movie star from this point and Statham will probably just be doing comedies for the rest of his film career. You'll love the way Jude Law is playing effectively a classic Fleming/Kingsman Bond and Statham is playing a Daniel Craig "Blunt instrument" 007 taken to Monty Python extremes.
Like Kingsman it is completely subversive of the Bond film (in Kingsman it is Bond as a working class kid, here it is Bond as a generously proportioned woman) and like Kingsman beyond a certain point it takes itself completely seriously. The action in both Kingsman and Spy is good enough to feature in actual Bond films, most notably there is a sensational knife vs frying pan fight in SPY.
Mostly you'll come out giggling at memories of Miranda Hart ("that sweaty Big Bird!") and Jason Statham's insane character but still what made me laugh the most was Hart and McCarthy talking Spy names
which are apparently your pets first name + street you lived in = your spy name
Hart's characters spy name works out as
"Amber Valentine"
and McCarthy reveals hers is
“Meatball Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue.”
This review was held over from last year after a bit of personal heartbreak.
2015 was truly a classic for spy films which I put in this order.
but.. in SPY (2015)
Add Jason Statham,, Miranda Hart and Peter Serafinowicz, Jude Law and a few others to vary the humour a bit (bat infestation at the CIA?) and the results are just.. hilarious. I enjoyed SPY more than SPECTRE.
The joke in this Bond parody is NOT that the Spy is a big woman, the joke is that the Spy is a big woman and she's eventually revealed to be a highly competent super agent - while having an unfortunate choice in friends (Miranda Hart), a potty mouth and general lack of class and self control. Melissa McCarthy's desk job agent gets her promotion to the field when her CIA boss finds footage of her in training, where she runs out of bullets in a training exercise and is so motivated she attacks targets and later the trainers with her bare hands.
Miranda Hart I would think must be big Hollywood movie star from this point and Statham will probably just be doing comedies for the rest of his film career. You'll love the way Jude Law is playing effectively a classic Fleming/Kingsman Bond and Statham is playing a Daniel Craig "Blunt instrument" 007 taken to Monty Python extremes.
Like Kingsman it is completely subversive of the Bond film (in Kingsman it is Bond as a working class kid, here it is Bond as a generously proportioned woman) and like Kingsman beyond a certain point it takes itself completely seriously. The action in both Kingsman and Spy is good enough to feature in actual Bond films, most notably there is a sensational knife vs frying pan fight in SPY.
Mostly you'll come out giggling at memories of Miranda Hart ("that sweaty Big Bird!") and Jason Statham's insane character but still what made me laugh the most was Hart and McCarthy talking Spy names
which are apparently your pets first name + street you lived in = your spy name
Hart's characters spy name works out as
"Amber Valentine"
and McCarthy reveals hers is
“Meatball Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue.”
This review was held over from last year after a bit of personal heartbreak.
2015 was truly a classic for spy films which I put in this order.
- Bridge of Spies
- Kingsman
- Mission Impossible Rogue Nation
- SPY
- SPECTRE
- The Man From UNCLE
not seen SPOOKS movie yet
Friday, 22 January 2016
Best of Enemies (2015) is a great intro to the classic Medium Cool (1969)
The best documentary of 2015 nicely sets up a criminally neglected movie classic from 1968.
Best of Enemies a brilliant new documentary showing how the drama of 1960s American politics
and how it's treatment in the news media feeds right back into events today. Both show the central role the media had portraying and reacting to the apparent mass break down in law and order in the United States during the Vietnam era, particularly around the violent confrontations outside the Democratic convention in Chicago in 1968.
Best of Enemies covers the red hot political confrontation taking place on TV screens as the two leading thinkers on the left and right of the political divide slowly lose their composure over a series of live televised debates. The documentary commendably stays politically neutral, further illustrating the gulf between debate then and the partisan shouting matches between intellectual pygmies we see today.
Amongst some of the footage shown in Best of Enemies are clips from a contemporary movie, almost a semi-documentary itself, Medium Cool.
Having just seen it Medium Cool has to be the best movie I'd never previously heard of. I don't know what Medium Cool is comparing itself against but from here it looks a lot more than 'medium'.
Beautifully shot against the actual settings and events being reacted to in Best of Enemies it has a great non obtrusive soundtrack played into hyper real locations. This movie is shot on the hoof, actually on location in the middle of history nearly half a century ago and yet still looks like Terence Malik's Days of Heaven (without the glacial pace). It's like standing on the street corners yourself - in fact hold your nose when your cameraman to gets tear gassed at about 1hour35. You will see blood, and it won't be fake.
It features a star performance from a young Robert Forster who I only know from The Black Hole, Jackie Brown and Breaking Bad. After Medium Cool I'm even more amazed he wasn't a major Hollywood star, here he looks like a young Brando. You'll also be able to pick out in the female lead the haunting face of Marianna Hill from her harrowing starring role in High Plans Drifter.
Negatives? If you've seen this era of movie you'll see the ending from a mile off but it oddly compliments similar material rather than detracts.
While I'm on the subject I really should have blogged my experience watching Two Lane Blacktop, a another ancient movie whose startling authenticity similarly blew me away.
You begin to wonder if all that time just watching Easy Rider over and over again was time well spent.
Best of Enemies a brilliant new documentary showing how the drama of 1960s American politics
and how it's treatment in the news media feeds right back into events today. Both show the central role the media had portraying and reacting to the apparent mass break down in law and order in the United States during the Vietnam era, particularly around the violent confrontations outside the Democratic convention in Chicago in 1968.
Best of Enemies covers the red hot political confrontation taking place on TV screens as the two leading thinkers on the left and right of the political divide slowly lose their composure over a series of live televised debates. The documentary commendably stays politically neutral, further illustrating the gulf between debate then and the partisan shouting matches between intellectual pygmies we see today.
Amongst some of the footage shown in Best of Enemies are clips from a contemporary movie, almost a semi-documentary itself, Medium Cool.
Having just seen it Medium Cool has to be the best movie I'd never previously heard of. I don't know what Medium Cool is comparing itself against but from here it looks a lot more than 'medium'.
Beautifully shot against the actual settings and events being reacted to in Best of Enemies it has a great non obtrusive soundtrack played into hyper real locations. This movie is shot on the hoof, actually on location in the middle of history nearly half a century ago and yet still looks like Terence Malik's Days of Heaven (without the glacial pace). It's like standing on the street corners yourself - in fact hold your nose when your cameraman to gets tear gassed at about 1hour35. You will see blood, and it won't be fake.
It features a star performance from a young Robert Forster who I only know from The Black Hole, Jackie Brown and Breaking Bad. After Medium Cool I'm even more amazed he wasn't a major Hollywood star, here he looks like a young Brando. You'll also be able to pick out in the female lead the haunting face of Marianna Hill from her harrowing starring role in High Plans Drifter.
Negatives? If you've seen this era of movie you'll see the ending from a mile off but it oddly compliments similar material rather than detracts.
While I'm on the subject I really should have blogged my experience watching Two Lane Blacktop, a another ancient movie whose startling authenticity similarly blew me away.
You begin to wonder if all that time just watching Easy Rider over and over again was time well spent.
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