The Momus Report

Steel Sinews: Sex and the Superhero

2013-12-20T15:29:00.001-08:00

This is something of a good news, bad news scenario.

First the bad news - I'm going to be shutting down The Momus Report. It's been great, but I have decided to try and focus on specific writing projects in 2014, so I need more time to do so.

The good news, however, is that this includes writing editorials on a fortnightly basis for Sequart, the first of which Steel Sinews: Sex and the Superhero, is now up. Go over and have a gander folks!

Wonder Woman indulges in domestic bondage in Sensation Comics #9

Oh and I can also be found now over on Hopscotch Friday, so why not drop along there too.

The Phantom Irishman

2013-12-16T03:04:00.000-08:00

“Oh, Ireland, it’s the sow that ate its own farrow. Tell me one Irish artist that ever produced here, just one! God, Jack Yeats couldn’t sell a painting in this country, and all the talent…oh, daddy…You know what Ireland’s biggest export is? It’s men. Men…Shaw, Joyce, Synge, they couldn’t stay here. O’Casey couldn’t stay. Why? Because O’Casey preaches the Doctrine of Joy, daddy, that’s why…Oh, the Irish know despair, by God they do!" Peter O'Toole interviewed by Gay Talese, Esquire Magazine 1963

"Throughout our history, the Irish people have always shown that nothing is impossible for us to achieve, when we really apply ourselves to a challenge or cause. Believe me, government will work with you to put in place the foundations for a secure and prosperous future for you and the next generation. I thank you for the part that you have played in Ireland’s recovery to date." Taoiseach Enda Kenny, State of the Nation Address, 15 December 2013

The death of Peter O'Toole has occasioned much fond reminiscences of his wit, his debonair charm, his drunken hellraising - and every now and then his career as an actor in films such as Lawrence of Arabia, My Favorite Year, Venus, Supergirl - yes, Supergirl, you've probably seen it, - and of course the reinvigorated critic Anton Ego in Ratatouille. His membership of the No-Oscars club, joining the likes of Orson Welles, Cary Grant and Michael Powell, is a testament to the lobbying factor in regards to whom the Academy chooses to bestow an award to.

Yet it is O'Toole's Irishness that has, and will, receive the most attention. It lent him a certain exotic character among the vanilla throng of British players treading the boards of 1950's theatre. What's more it aided his aptitude for re-invention. His celebrity survived thanks to his transformation from a matinee idol beauty who had the look of a beatific monastery novice, to a roué who could delight on talk shows years after his movie star sheen had diminished.

Ireland in turn embraced O'Toole as a favoured son, with current President Michael D. Higgins leading the tributes for him - "Ireland, and the world, has lost one of the giants of film and theatre. I was privileged to know him as a friend since 1969 ... all of us who knew him in the West will miss his warm humour and generous friendship."

However, his Irishness was something that O'Toole could cheerfully embrace or discard as he so chose. Perhaps that is the greatest talent of an actor - not to become someone new, but to be able to dismiss who you are. In this regard O'Toole had an advantage over his peers, as there is no clear record of either his birthplace, or indeed a date of birth. The child of an Irish immigrant, he would maintain a connection to his 'homeland', while cultivating the success his life in England brought. He could play the country lord with Higgins the Gaelic-speaking politician, all the while speaking with a perfect cut-glass English accent.

This is partly why I feel so sad at the news of O'Toole's death. I remember the pride people had in his stardom as an Irish actor from when I was growing up. One of the most memorable things about Neil Jordan's woeful High Spirits was the opportunity to see O'Toole on the television during the promotional campaign for the film. When my dad brought me to see Supergirl, he was eager to see what the local boy made good would do in this would-be blockbuster. John Kelly described him at the 2008 Galway Film Fleadh as the world's greatest living Irishman.

Again though, so much of his personality and success can be attributed to his living outside of the emerald isle. His understanding of Catholicism was profound due to his strong antipathy for it.

This conflict of opposites, the familiar contempt, to me is symptomatic of the experience of many Irish who have fled our home to find a living outside. This man is being celebrated as a favoured son by the same politicians in the Dáil who have so egregiously betrayed daughters and sons in this generation and the next.

Peter O'Toole was the perfect kind of Irish. He became successful elsewhere and gave Ireland the credit.

Shuffle Macabre - Satire and Humor in Zombie Films

2013-12-09T17:41:00.000-08:00

This piece comes courtesy of Dr Elisheva A. Perelman.

The zombie has long been both a useful and intriguing subject of semiotic analysis. As a key representation of such diverse tropes and metaphors as colonialism, consumerism, and epidemic disease, the zombie lends itself not only to a wide array of symbolic uses, but also a variety of academic interpretations. Yet, in the midst of it all, the subject of the zombie as humor remains beyond the pale. However, here, too, the zombie proves an effective conveyor of semiotics theory. Zombies, as they shamble towards us, carry with them the baggage of satire, not because they, themselves, are terribly humorous, but because we are.

Edgar Wright at a screening of Shaun of the Dead held at the Astor Theatre Melbourne, reading out a list of erroneous 'facts' about the film listed on IMDB. Photo courtesy of Stephanie Fargher.

As humans, and moreover as scholars, we grant zombies the power to maintain a sense of the humorous. We have utilized them to fulfill our goals in everything from George Romero’s films to Daniel Drezner’s models of international relations. And rather than maintain them solely as the terrifying threat that they also embody, we have allowed them to become the key components of satire.

This is not to diminish the intelligence or the deserved popularity of works such as Shaun of the Dead, nor is it to ignore the elements of splatstick (a portmanteau of “slapstick” and “splatter” found in the early films of Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson), but rather to show that there was never a way to avoid both the works and the commentary they engender. Rather, because human attempts at the symbolic in art tend toward two limits (neither of which need be entirely exclusive): the surreal and the satirical, it is perhaps only surprising that the nature of zombie humor as symbol has not been discussed previously.

The blackly comic zombie satire Dead Set

When utilizing a relatively new symbol, humans have the ability to mold it somewhat—this is why zombies have come to represent such disparate topics. As others have pointed out, the zombie, without the cultural baggage of the literary lineage with which the vampire entered the mid-20th century, has had a more pliable transition to the 21st century. Yet as this construction occurred, from Richard Matheson's The Last Man On Earth inspiring George Romero and beyond, elements stuck. This created not just a zombie symbol framework, but also a template with which to utilize in new tropes.

In order to identify the antagonist as “zombie,” even in a variety of genres and media, even in a variety of metaphors and tropes, aspects of recognizable zombiness needed to remain. These need not be the same through each iteration, but certain aspects of identifiable zombiness needed to be fairly obvious to a majority of the intended audience.

The characters of Shaun of the Dead are sufficiently pop-literate to disguise themselves during a zombie epidemic.

Beyond the point of familiar elements—the mindlessness, the lurching gait, the insatiable hunger—rests the surreal and the satirical. It is not a question of sublimation; neither the surreal nor the satirical transcend that upon which they depend for identity as such. Instead these appear as aspects of a spectrum, near the contemporary end, but not the sole telos. Both the surreal and the satirical, in remolding zombies, stretch their subjects to the hyperbolic, often to the extent that both the Freudian Unheimlich represented by the zombie and the recognizable human overlap, and it is within this overlap that surrealism and satire lie.

Just as zombies in the films of Romero are little more than set pieces, there to assist to convey the metaphor or trope, and crash the human drama at the end, the zombies remain tools, not of the surreal or the satirical, but to be used to these ends. They persist without true agency, even beyond the fourth wall.

Watching a zombie get a pie to the face is amusing, certainly, but it remains outside of the scope of satire. The satire, therefore, rests with the humans, and their actions within the “human drama” section of the work. This means that, despite Zack Snyder’s desire to keep his zombies scary in the remake of Dawn of the Dead, fast zombies can easily become the humorous tools, even if parodying them is more difficult.

The popularity of The Walking Dead television series has led to a number of memes
poking fun at this zombie melodrama http://www.buzzfeed.com/awesomer/greatest-dad-jokes-from-rick-grimes

Moreover, because neither surrealism nor satire rises above the original symbolic plane, these too can be remolded into new contemporary symbols, both monstrous and humorous, of aspects of the human condition. Zombies are not Hegelian so much as they are limitless, or, to be more precise, limited only by human agency.

And yet, because of the cultural baggage acquired over the course of the 20th century, zombies remained neutered. Obviously, the zombie as sexual being had very different connotations from its origin than its vampiric counterpart—pliant prey versus aggressive predator—but its modern iterations had become sexless at best and sexually repulsive at worst.

An early exemplar of the 'zom-rom-com', Bob Balaban's underrated My Boyfriend's Back.

Or did until attempts to replicate the phenomenon of Twilight, both culturally and commercially. Yet, for all its saccharine melodrama, the monsters of Twilight remain, to our human narrator, sexual beings, even when they are chaste, while Warm Bodies, with its male zombie heartthrob, remains not only a wryly humorous character, but the narrator of his own story. Which makes Warm Bodies, despite its marketing or its beating heart, less a love story than a satire, one in a number of romantic zombie comedies, parodying not the monster, but the very human emotions involved with falling in love.

Zombie satire, when paired alongside the surreal, is little more than human satire. However, the humor arises not because zombies maintain human traits, a necessity for the chilling aspects of the Unheimlich, but because humans possess the zombie, no longer sexually, yet another frightening aspect, but as symbolic tool, to wield.

Beardy And The Geek: The Gary Chaloner Interview

2013-12-03T17:10:00.000-08:00

In this month's Beardy And The Geek podcast, Ryan and I interview Gary Chaloner, who talks about The Undertaker Morton Stone, Unmasked and his work on Will Eisner's John Law.

Have a listen.

Do The Wrong Thing - Luther Season 3

2013-11-30T10:25:00.000-08:00

"It's my lucky coat!"

Over three seasons DCI John Luther has charted a course from being a good man who does the wrong thing for the right reason, to a man who comes to realize doing good might be a waste of time.

Season three's truncated run of four episodes does not allow for the same slow-build of paranoia and fear from the excellent first season, instead trusting to short, sharp shocks.

In lieu of the helter-skelter of madness and desperation from previous adventures, Luther is briefly tempted with the prospect of happiness, only for it to be snatched away. Writer Neil Cross is certainly not afraid of killing his darlings.

The first two episodes introduce the arc plot of a newly determined DCI Erin Gray (Nikki Amuka-Bird - and is someone on the Luther staff a Buck Rogers fan?) out to prove her old boss is a bent copper, having enlisted the sinister George Stark. The instantly recognizable gravelly barritone of actor David O'Hara livens up many a scene. First trying to turn Luther's loyal lieutenant against him - the conscience-stricken Justin Ripley (Warren Brown) - they then take a more direct approach at ruining any chance of happiness for their quary.

Said happiness comes in the form of Sienna Guillory's Mary Day. Only in Luther could a meet-cute occur during a car-wreck, but the show pulls it off, mainly thanks to Idris Elba essaying goofy awkwardness whenever the two are on screen together.

While these plots percolate, Luther is still faced with the same coterie of sickos and media-literate psychopaths that Cross populates this nightmarish version of a London procedural with. This time round the supporting cast are shown to be as tortured as the morally conflicted protagonist. Justin is focused on trying to live up to the example of his mentor, but finds himself coming up short. Perhaps the most interesting character evolution is that of Dermot Crowley's Martin Schenk. Introduced in the first season as a grim authority figure looking to serve up Luther's head on a plate, by the second he had become a trusted ally, having decided that this man can actually make a difference despite his bending of the rules. However, this season he is visibly worn down and shrinking from the gruesome crime scenes they encounter.

The leering face of Ned Dennehy's pervert is yet another in a flood of monsters that Luther and the gang, despite their best efforts, seem unable to stem. The second half of the season proves even more disturbing, with another good man turned bad, a vigilante who relies on the popular vote of social media to decide whether he should kill his victims. It is a story that is equal parts gripping and preposterous - a combination that Luther pulls off to great effect.

Given Elba's continuing rise to stardom - this month alone he can be found on DVD shelves with new releases of Luther as well as Pacific Rim, and in the cinema as part of Thor - there's every chance this is our last trip down into London's dark underbelly with DCI Luther. If so, the series ends on the perfect note of ambiguity. This was always a show that challenged the luxury of choice between good and bad - for what if the world around you is changing too fast to allow you to make any real choice at all? Gripping, witty, suffocatingly bleak - Luther is twenty-first century noir taken to absurd heights.

Luther Seasons 1 , 2, 3 are all available from Roadshow Entertainment.

Twice Born - DVD Review

2013-11-29T16:55:00.000-08:00

This review is courtesy of Stephanie O'Cuana, who can also be found on Hopscotch Friday.

Twice Born (Venuto al mondo) is an adaptation of Margaret Mazzantini’s novel of the same name. It stars Penelope Cruz as Gemma and Emile Hirsch as Diego, heading up a small ensemble cast that includes the author’s husband (Sergio Castellitto) and son (Pietro Castellitto), with the former also directing.

Gemma takes her son Pietro to Sarajevo during the summer, a city she fled with her son at the height of the Bosnian War. Gemma is lured back at the behest of her old friend Gojko (Adnan Haskovic), who is holding an exhibition of the artwork of her former love, and Pietro’s father, Diego. What follows is the story of how Gemma and Diego first met, fall in love and led a turbulent life together.

Twice Born is laboured and at times difficult to watch, not because of the powerful nature of the subject matter, but because I really had no idea of where it was going or why I was supposed to care. None of the characters are particularly likeable, which made it difficult to invest in their stories. Penelope Cruz’s Gemma is perpetually on edge and often withdrawn from what was going on around her, while Emile Hirsch seemed to be channelling a young Jack Black, having overplayed emotional response to the situations in which he found himself.

I have no idea why Gemma and Diego got together. Diego is obnoxious, and there is no chemistry between him and Gemma, let alone Cruz and Hirsch. Their relationship is altogether unconvincing, to the point that the scene with Jane Birkin’s adoption agent crying as she tells this unhinged couple that their application has been denied is almost unbearable. One is a former drug addict with serious emotional issues, the other wants a child to tie this man to her. It’s no bloody wonder their application was denied.

As a viewer I had very little empathy for Gemma or Diego, either together or individually. In observing their first sexual encounter I felt I was close to watching a rape scene (but that is saved for later), as there is no invitation for Diego to be in the room, constant ‘nos’ from Gemma, but she is worn down and somewhere there relents. From the get-go this left a sour taste in my mouth and I was unable to warm to either character.

This film is manipulative for its usage of the backdrop of the Bosnian War, but never actually engages with it. This was the greatest disappointment, as I anticipated a love story surviving the impossible trials of war. But this is not that film, and in fact both Gemma, as an Italian, and Diego, as an American, are arm’s length from the conflict. Their engagement with it is by means of other characters they meet.

The dialogue adds an additional burden to this film, as it is overwritten and unrealistic. I can imagine it may have read well on the page, but it does not translate well to the screen. Poor Adnan Haskovic’s Gojko has to do much of the hard work in this respect, as most of the time I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. While I appreciate his character is a poet for whom English is not his first language, I just wanted him to spit it out.

The character with the most chops is only revealed towards the end of the film, with harrowing detail about her experiences. Aska’s (Turkish actress Saadet Aksoy) story is what I was expecting from this film, however its placement, almost as an afterthought, is truly manipulative. Just as you feel the film is about to end, a curve ball is thrown, that should have come far earlier. Not only does it come too late, it comes in the meanest way possible, as having endured the supposed mental and emotional torment of Gemma and Diego’s relationship, it is only at this point that true torment is exposed. This in turn recasts the issues of Gemma and Diego as superficial and weak.

In the end, the emotional rollercoaster that is Twice Born left me frustrated and annoyed. I wanted more from a film pitched in a period of time that I was alive for, but too young to understand and so very far away from. Instead what I got was a story about two self-absorbed characters whose lives I had no reason to invest in, surrounded by a situation and characters that really could have made it a whole lot more interesting.

Twice Born is available on DVD from Madman.

Thor: The Dark World Brings Simonson/Kirby to the Big Screen

2013-11-27T01:46:00.002-08:00

Still clinging on as the Christmas school holidays approach, this latest superhero blockbuster has proved to be a pleasant surprise. Thor: The Dark World is not only a sequel to Kenneth Brannagh’s Thor, but continues to build on the momentum of The Avengers.

Leaving that aside though, the prospect of this film succeeding seemed doubtful. Branagh's film was pleasant, but unremarkable, buoyed by the charm of its cast. Then there was the loss of Patty Jenkins as director, eventually replaced by Game of Thrones's Alan Taylor.

The omens were not encouraging.

The malevolent Loki (Tom Hiddleston) has been captured following his assault on New York in The Avengers and imprisoned by his adopted father Odin (Anthony Hopkins). Meanwhile the heroic Thor (Chris Hemsworth) busies himself with the work of cleaning up his brother’s mess, while yearning to leave Asgard to be reunited with his lady love Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) on Earth.

Thankfully you do not need to be a comic fan to understand the backstory at play here. It is all sketched out quite simply. There is even expository dialogue in a scene between Hiddleston and Hopkins designed to clarify that these are not ancient Norse gods despite their names, but spacefaring aliens whom our ancestors mistook for deities (paging Erich von Däniken).

If the point was not made clear, we are also treated to fight scenes featuring ‘Dark Elves’ wielding laser rifles and light-sabre dueling Asgardians. It is all very Star Wars meets The Lord of the Rings.

As it happens, the opening prologue is far too reliant on these two sources, but never mind.

The antagonist for this picture, villainous Dark Elf Malekith (Christopher Eccleston), is first introduced in the special effects-driven prologue set on a disguised volcanic plain in Iceland. Following defeat at the hands of Thor’s grandfather Bor, he returns with his forces to kidnap Jane Foster as she has been possessed by an ancient artefact/McGuffin hidden for millennia.

This gives Thor the perfect excuse to return to Earth, just in time for all sorts of gravity defying anomalies and planet-hopping to kick off.

At its peak this film feels like a big budget episode of Tom Baker’s Doctor Who given all the discussion of planetary alignments and pseudo-science – except Baker tended not to walk around with his shirt off as much. This makes up for a slightly messy first half. Once again, the cast do wonders with making the material palatable, given several flashbacks that drag and expositional digressions.

There are some nice character moments among the explosions. Hiddleston’s Loki is quickly becoming that fascinating thing – a villain audiences love to see more of. Think of Alan Rickman’s comedic sadism in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves and this performance comes very close. On top of his abundant father issues, the script hands Loki a previously unexplored relationship with his mother Frigga (Rene Russo).

It is also a pleasure to see characters like Frigga and Jaimie Alexander’s Sif holding their own in the sword-fight scenes, giving young girls in the audience some role models to look up to in amongst all the macho posturing.

A surprise cameo from a certain Avenger, as well as a small comedic role for Ireland’s Chris O’Dowd (Moone Boy) provides light relief.

Perhaps the best aspect of the film is how it finally delivers the science fiction with a mythical flavour storytelling of Jack Kirby's original Journey Into Mystery comics and Walter Simonson's 1980s reinvigoration of the comic. Dark Elves with lasers - I'm tempted to make a Steve Gerber joke actually. Thankfully Taylor eschews any effort to make the material 'realistic' as is common with superhero adaptations, instead trusting to an audience's willingness to engage with the affably ridiculous proceedings.

Overall Thor: The Dark World is undemanding and fun, although it only really comes into its own by the halfway mark, leading to a genuinely inventive climax in London’s Greenwich.

The Day of the Doctor - "I never forget a face."

2013-11-24T22:22:00.000-08:00

It is perhaps entirely appropriate that The Day of the Doctor should prove to be whimsical and infuriating, emotionally resonant and at times very frustrating. At its core Doctor Who is a show that has survived in spite of its limitations, both budgetary and political [insert Michael Grade rant here]. However, the freewheeling concept of a shape-shifting alien who travels through time has allowed the show to escape these constraints. It is a blank canvas that, like the Doctor’s psychic paper, has convinced fans there is some grand epic story being told.

To his credit Steven Moffat, as well as his predecessor Russel T. Davies, has attempted to deliver just that. Doctor Who became a galaxy spanning epic about a lonely Time Lord and his adventures as the last survivor of a devastating war. So traumatised by the experience, he tries to recapture that sense of purpose he used to have as a younger man by helping humanity once again. Mostly it worked. Dalek and The Doctor Dances for example gave Christopher Eccleston plenty of material to chew on, conveying just how wounded by his experiences in the Time War the Doctor has become.

So it comes as something of a shock to discover that this conflict on a scale so vast to be inconceivable, that led to untold deaths across the universe with two implacable enemies threatening to destroy time itself, turns out to be the opening of James Cameron’s The Terminator!

John Hurt’s War Doctor arrives in the city of Arcadia, where armoured soldiers in gun turrets shoot down swooping Daleks and sooty-faced Gallifreyans are herded to their execution in the streets. His presence distracts the Daleks long enough for him to rescue a small number of innocents. The Time Lords, in turn, are also alarmed to learn the Doctor has returned and has stolen a weapon capable of ending the Time War – but at the cost of Gallifrey itself.

The plot therefore presents us with a version of the War Doctor who has yet to make the decision to end the war in a single brutal stroke that will continue to haunt him for centuries afterwards. The Day of the Doctor sets up this moral dilemma, then whisks Hurt’s Doctor off to join his future contemporaries played by David Tennant and Matt Smith for a fun adventure.

Zygons are rampaging across the Elizabethan countryside, pretending to be horses, hiding in works of art, looking to replace her Madge and all that. An errant Fez travelling through a rift in time lures Doctors 8.5, 10 and 11 to the same spot. Hurt’s irritation at the gormless behaviour of his future versions is a genuine treat. It feels like a joke at the expense of the Doctor's post-reboot loss of gravitas.

"I'm The Oncoming Storm, the Bringer Of Darkness, and... you are basically just a rabbit, aren't you?"

The whimsy distracts from the doom and gloom of the opening, pitched halfway between Douglas Adams’ City of Death and a Monty Python sketch (there’s even a machine that goes ‘ding’).

Moffat’s story succeeds when it becomes clear these are three time travelers enjoying one last hurrah before their imminent deaths. Hurt is about to make a decision fatal to two species and end countless lives. Tennant’s Doctor is shortly about to be contacted by the Ood that leads to his own death in The End of Time. As for Smith, well the Christmas special is just about to arrive – and a certain Scotsman is waiting in the wings.

We also finally find out what Queen Elizabeth was so annoyed about in The Shakespeare Code.

At several points – particularly during the finale, as well as *that* special cameo – The Day of the Doctor does exactly what it should. It pays tribute to the long legacy of this show, includes numerous nods to fan-service that add to the enjoyment instead of bogging down the proceedings. However, this is off-set by the disappointing depiction of the Time War – previously vaguely alluded to - and uneven transitions between tragedy and shenanigans. In addition, while Tennant and Smith are quite entertaining together on screen, they are completely outclassed by Hurt. He brings a charming sense of weariness and exasperation to a character we only catch glimpses of.

Hurt even allows the viewer to forget the glaring absence of Christopher Eccleston, giving an genuinely strong performance as the War Doctor, whose actions his succeeding future selves have desperately tried to forget. Then there is the final encounter between the Doctor and the Curator, which achieves a strongly poignant note.

So moments of high excitement and laughter, with the occasional languor, leave The Day of the Doctor slightly uneven. Then again, that’s possibly the most appropriate tribute to this wildly erratic, much beloved show.

Doctor Who - wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey

2013-11-24T15:03:00.001-08:00

The Day of the Doctor reviewed here.

“I started to think you were just a mad man with a box.”

“Amy Pond, there's something you better understand about me 'cause it's important and one day your life may depend on it...I am definitely a mad man with a box.” – The Eleventh Hour

Doctor Who is a show that is composed of many parts and influences, continually evolving and changing, much like the Doctor himself. The process of regeneration that the Time Lord undergoes that has become central to the mythology of the series was the result of First Doctor William Hartnell’s failing health. Writer Gerry Davis and producer Innes Lloyd came up with the notion of replacing the actor with a younger performer. Patrick Troughton was chosen to take over the role, setting in motion the tradition of actors coming on to Doctor Who to redefine the part each time. We are due another shortly with actor Matt Smith handing over the role to Peter Capaldi in this year’s Christmas episode .

"It's not only his face that's changed. - He doesn't even act like him." – The Power of the Daleks

It is this ability of Doctor Who to adapt as a program that has contributed to its ongoing survival. Fans down through the years each have their ‘own’ Doctor – the Doctor they grew up with – and succeeding generations of fans develop the same attachment to whichever Time Lord is currently been broadcast.

The anniversary special Day of the Doctor also featured John Hurt as a previously unknown version of the Doctor – responsible for the genocide of the Time Lord race and their implacable enemies the Daleks. If that’s not enough, this year’s Christmas episode will introduce yet another Doctor – Capaldi – whose distinctive eye-brows were briefly glimpsed at the climax to Day. 2013 is a big year for the show.

It is telling just how central regeneration, and consequently the canon of Doctor Who itself, has become for current plots. The original run on the show was less of a science fiction program than an educational fairy tale intended for children, with the Doctor a doddery old man ferrying his Companions to different time periods. While the show did evolve more science fiction themes, with the introduction of aliens such as the Daleks or the Cybermen, it also concerned itself more overtly with history in story arcs such as The Reign of Terror, The Aztecs, The Crusades and The Gunfighters. These were costume dramas that happened to change the setting with each storyline.

During Troughton’s tenure as the Doctor the show’s storylines became increasingly surreal and psychedelic - a reflection of changing cultural attitudes of the time. Indeed an internal BBC memo from 1966 described the process of regeneration in startling terms –

“The metaphysical change... is a horrifying experience - an experience in which he relives some of the most unendurable moments of his long life, including the galactic war…It is as if he has had the LSD drug and instead of experiencing the kicks, he has the hell and dank horror which can be its effect” (Doctor Who regeneration was 'modeled on LSD trips', 12 April 2010, news.bbc.co.uk)

Sixth season serial The Mind Robber is a fascinating and unusually Brechtian storyline (although Bertolt Brecht never wrote a play featuring a young lady in a tight-fitting cat-suit).

The story begins with the T.A.R.D.I.S. travelling outside of reality itself. Stranded in a white void, the Doctor, Jamie (Frazier Hines) and Zoe (Wendy Padbury) are alternatively threatened and tempted by figures of pure fantasy, including a man who can only speak lines from Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels and a comic superhero from Earth’s 21st century called The Karkus.

The Mind Robber is pure fantasy, equal parts whimsy and nightmare – such as when the Doctor accidentally rearranges Jamie’s face, with Hamish Wilson taking over the role briefly (again another example of the show adapting to external events, as Hines had fallen ill).

At other times the show has attempted to embrace space opera. Steven Moffat’s story for A Good Man Goes to War featuring the Eleventh Doctor recruiting allies to fight an army assembled to defeat him was Star Wars-esque. The Third Doctor story Frontier In Space has alien races battling in starships. Last of the Time Lords written by Russell T. Davies ends with a cute homage to the last shot of Mike Hodges’ Flash Gordon.

Pertwee’s Doctor found himself in situations that were far less madcap than previous iterations of Who. The plots used science fiction metaphors for the Cold War, with the Doctor ‘grounded’ on Earth as punishment for the shenanigans of his previous incarnation. The show would go on to continue to swing back and forth between hard sf themes and fantastical whimsy. Tom Baker’s era had a tendency to indulge in neo-gothic horror, whereas the Peter Davison/Colin Baker/Sylvester McCoy years were increasingly grim and conflict-driven.

However, Doctor Who is arguably strongest when it focuses on innocuous everyday situations or objects and makes them strange.

Take the Daleks themselves. They clearly resemble a domed rubbish bin on wheels with a toilet plunger attached to the front – yet for some reason the show transforms this unlikely creation into a genocidal monster. The Autons from Pertwee’s first adventure Spearhead From Space animate department store window models who massacre English passersby on a high street – still a chilling sequence in its audacity. The Talons of Weng Chiang features a murderous doll some eleven years before Chucky first went on a spree in Child’s Play.

Then there are the most memorable recent additions to Who, the Weeping Angels – ‘quantum-locked’ statues who feed on the potential futures of their victims. Introduced in the Tenth Doctor adventure Blink, the aliens are shown to be able to disguise themselves as ordinary statues on the sides of buildings or on streets – the episode ends with a montage of statues from around Britain, guaranteed to make children nervous walking through their home towns. Blink also features the Doctor giving the most concise summation of the show’s depiction of time travel to date –

"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but *actually* from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint - it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff."

It is a clever nod and a wink to criticism of Doctor Who not being real science fiction, choosing instead to cherry-pick science fiction concepts when the mood fits. While the show has always oscillated between fantasy and science fiction – unbelievably Davies went so far as to transform the Doctor into a sort of Christ/Peter Pan hybrid at the climax to Last of the Time Lords – perhaps the real distinction between the classic series and the revival post-Eccleston is that the show currently has more generous budgets.

Successive sets of writers and producers on Doctor Who have had to adapt to budgetary constraints to realize this strange fable about a time-travelling alien. Down through the years there have been shoddy action sequences as scenes were too expensive to shoot again. See also the occasional muffed line – although that actually helped Hartnell’s absent-minded professor persona at times. Sets looked cheap enough that they would fall down any minute and the monsters were visibly composed of household items. The Wirrn from The Ark in Space managed to be terrifying, despite being a bloke wrapped in bubble-wrap.

Peter Davison made a wry comment during his interview published in this month's Filmink that contemporary viewers “have to be incredibly understanding of the time in which it was made.” The show overcame these issues by the writers, directors and crew being admirably creative.

Now Doctor Who enjoys gorgeous set design, incredible special effects and merchandise in stores across the planet. The show so unceremoniously cancelled by the BBC in 1988 has even produced spin-offs like Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures.

So if fans are frustrated with the show today, if unfavorable comparisons are made to ‘Classic Who’, it is understandable. In the years between Hartnell’s era and McGann’s failed tv movie the show has suffered many indignities, so today’s adventures have less of an excuse for mediocrity.

What is interesting though is how Who is being written, and performed, by fans of the earlier adventures for a whole new selection of fans. Doctor Who has not been on the air for fifty years, but fans kept the legacy of the series alive with book series, comics and conventions. It is this that has led to the show becoming a global phenomenon, validating the passion of fans old and new.

Myles At The Movies - Filth

2013-11-21T14:55:00.000-08:00

Myles Loughran reviews the latest foray of Irvine Welsh's scatological writing to the screen - Filth.

Speaking of depraved filth, Myles's graphic novel Laugh Until You Spew is currently available on Amazon. Maybe it's a Scottish thing.

Filth is in Australian cinemas now.

Haganai (I don’t have many friends) Season One Collection Review

2013-11-20T17:52:00.000-08:00

This review is courtesy of Stephanie O'Cuana, who can also be found on Hopscotch Friday.

I want to understand anime. I really do. This is what led me to randomly choose a title from the Madman catalogue for review.

I’m not sure I made the right choice. I still don’t understand anime.

When the discs arrived, the cover had great big M for mature on it. While I’m more than okay with M-rated television shows, cartoons and anime, I was a little concerned to see the listing of reasons why it was rated M. Sexual violence, sexual references and animated nudity. It’s the first of these three I could potentially take issue with.

So I avoided watching it for a number of weeks…that is, until now.

Haganai is the story of Kodaka, who transfers to St Chronica’s Academy and somehow manages to immediately get all of his classmates offside through a short series of misinterpreted events. There he meets Yozora, whom he interrupts mid-conversation with her imaginary friend. What we later find out is that Kodaka and Yozora already know each other, but Kodaka doesn’t realise.

Yozora, a very angry young lady, appears not to have any real friends and so starts the extracurricular Neighbours Club. Initially it’s her intention to lure Kodaka but soon others begin to join as well.

One of the first to join is Sena, the attractive blonde daughter of the headmaster, who is the subject of the wandering eyes of her young male classmates. Like Yozora, Sena does not have any girl friends to call her own. Sena and Yozora do not get along, and appear determined never to get along. Yozora even gives Sena the nickname ‘Meat’. Sena doesn’t mind the nickname because she’s never had one before.

Then there’s Kobato, Kodaka’s younger sister who is convinced she’s some sort of vampire; Yukimura, Kodaka’s stalker who believes she is a boy; Rika, the super-intelligent scientist who has a penchant for pornography and speaks of herself in the third person; and Maria, a ten year old nun who is supposedly supervising the club, round out the membership.

The first 13 episodes follow the formation of the group, and the activities they employ to pass the time. In the beginning it’s bearable, but by the end the character of Yozora begins to really grate. She’s just awful and is persistent in her tormenting of Sena. She’s so lacking in confidence in her own life, that she feels the need to bully Sena horrendously.

Sena, poor daft Sena, doesn’t have any female friends and takes what Yozora gives out, being thankful for the attention. At least it is not boys leering at her. There are some genuinely enjoyable moments destroyed by the relationship between these two.

The final episode on this disc bothered me the most. The activity for the day is a round-robin story, involving each of the club members. It’s here that Yozora is particularly cruel, as she writes a rape scene about her ‘friend’ Sena. Portrayed on the screen as Sena being eaten by some sort of monster, it is both the idea, and having to listen to the character of Yozora dictate her words, that turns the stomach. I know teenage girls can be cruel, but I would have hoped there was a line, especially among these ‘friends’.

Interestingly, it is this same episode that is the most self-aware and self-deprecating. When it comes to her turn, Rika, who has previously spoken of her rape fantasies, writes an explicit mecha-on-mecha sex scene. It is pointed out to her that the story makes no sense, but Rika reminds everyone that nobody actually cares, just as long as there’s a sex scene in the end.

In many ways, it appears this is exactly what Haganai is about. Nobody cares about what happens in between, as long as there are some gratuitous wobbly boobie shots along the way.

Haganai is available from Madman now.

Video Game Boss Commitment

2013-11-14T23:39:00.001-08:00

So I am playing Remember Me, yet another cyberpunk future dystopian RPG.

The premise is that in the future of 2084, citizens of 'Neo-Paris' can automatically archive and restore their memories digitally (so slightly reminiscent of Black Mirror's The Entire History of You). Player character Nillin has the ability to hack these personal memory devices and edit individual experiences. She can make enemies allies, or overload them with junk data.

I love it. It's a great piece of worldbuilding, with a gripping plot and inventive futureshock thrown into the mix.

However.....a recent encounter with a Boss known as the Madame reminded me of a certain frustration I have with modern games. Often there's that one boss fight, which never seems to end. Players just keep jumping back into the fray until they wear down the health bar, or finally figure out the trick the game is trying to teach them.

In this instance, no doubt Madame is a relatively easy Boss. As she spawns wave after wave of goons to fight for her, my goal was to target her directly. I did not realize this.....for some time.

This to me is the problem of Video Game Boss Commitment. That moment when the end of the fight is tantalisingly close, but sudden death rewinds the battle to the start and you go all over again. It's frustrating, annoying, time consuming - but I will not stop until I figure out the perfect sequence of actions to win.

However, this is my favourite Boss fight in quite some time

Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which this game I believe improves on, had quite a few of these - mention the names Barrett and Yelena, and I'll start to panic all over again - as did Dragon Age II, featuring a Dragon Boss who simply will not stop.

One game I particularly resented for its Boss battles, and in fact gave up on directly because of them, was The Secret World. I have no idea how many times I tried to take on Beaumont. That smarmy git. I accept that my difficulty is purely down to my playing style, evidently all wrong for this MMO which offered so much scope for player customization (ergo, I was simply doing it wrong and it's remarkable I even made it to fight Beaumont at all).

Again this was a relatively simple fight - I've seen enough YouTube videos to convince me I simply had taken the wrong approach to The Secret World - yet it still irked me. I even complained to one of the game's writers, Christian Read, while we weren't recording for this interview for Beardy and the Geek (to which he simply shrugged noncommittally).

Remember Me has plenty to offer gamers interested in clever concepts mixed in with their button-mashing. I just wish Madame had not made such a dent in my 'productive afternoon'.

Myles At The Movies: Alpha Papa

2013-11-08T14:56:00.000-08:00

Myles Loughran reviews Alan Partridge's assault on the big screen - Alpha Papa.

Starring Steve Coogan as the deathless Radio Norfolk presenter that first appeared on Chris Morris' The Day Today, Alan Partridge finds himself in the middle of a hostage negotiation.

So it's Dog Day Afternoon in a sweater vest. Another inspired premise from the Armando Iannucci factory.

Alpha Papa is in Australian cinemas now.

Stand Up Guys and Robot Chicken DC Comics Special - DVD Round Up

2013-11-06T01:53:00.000-08:00

Two recent releases on DVD from Hopscotch Entertainment and Madman unexpectedly have something in common, namely the mining of nostalgia. Stand Up Guys fondly reminisces about the good ol' days when gangsters looked smart in suits instead of t-shirts, sports pants and Nikes, while Robot Chicken DC Comics Special rifles the merchandise stock-room of the publisher for some superhero figure action.

Stand Up Guys

Val (Al Pacino) is met outside prison gates by his old buddy Doc (Christopher Walken) after 28 years behind bars. Val is a 'stand up guy' - he did his time without complaint, refusing to name any of the other parties in a job that went very wrong. Now he wants Doc to take him out on the town to celebrate.

Walken's doleful face somehow manages to look even more sorrowful in these early scenes. Turns out Doc has been ordered to kill Val, which he continues to try to put off so he can give his friend one last night of fun.

For a film so heavy with the prospect of imminent death, either at the unfriendly end of a gun barrel or alone in a nursing home, Stand Up Guys pitches itself as a light-hearted comedy. Lucy Punch (Hot Fuzz) has some nice scenes as a bespectacled brothel madam who has taken over the family business. Then there's Pacino once again sweeping a young lady off her feet on the dance floor, for those Scent of a Woman fans out there.

What is most striking though is how Stand Up Guys can be seen as the sum of two earlier films - Elaine May's claustrophobic masterpiece Mikey and Nicky and the 1980's caper with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas Tough Guys. The first film also had two gangsters out and about looking to get drunk and laid, while a impending threat looms. The second is superficially the more similar with two classic actors playing gangsters looking back fondly on a bloodier time by describing it as having an honour code.

Overall Stand Up Guys is inoffensive and broadly amusing. Walken's delivery can always be relied upon for an unexpectedly funny moment or two and Pacino plays Val as outwardly vulgar, but with hidden romantic depths. Although derivative, it is not an unpleasant night in.

Robot Chicken DC Comics Special

The Robot Chicken boys were in Sydney recently for Graphic, working the crowd both on stage and off (turns out Seth Green is the king of the photobomb). Green and Matthew Senreich's DC Comics riff meshes their familiar sketch style, with Superman, Batman and the rest acting like.....well dicks.

The main joke of the special though is how useless everyone believes Aquaman is. Voiced by Green, the increasingly frustrated Aquaman eventually quits the heroes to offer his services to the Legion of Doom.

Yes, it's that old 'Aquaman is useless' chestnut.

What's most notable about this special - beyond the admittedly hilarious That's Bane sketch and the laundry list of impressive voice actor talent - is how much it draws on the old Superfriends cartoon and not the comic line itself.

In fact the disc's extras include a guided tour of DC's Burbank studio, with Green and Senreich geeking out over storeroom merch under the indulgent gaze of Geoff Johns. Of course since that was filmed, we now know the New York offices are soon to be closed down - with the whole operation moving across to California.

So there's another source of nostalgia, a sad reflection on the end of an era.

Beardy And The Geek: Diesel and Ink

2013-11-02T17:04:00.000-07:00

In this episode Ryan and Emmet review Gestalt's Broken Line #1 and Daniel Reed's Grubby Little Smudges of Filth.

Have a listen.

Myles At The Movies - Suck DVD

2013-11-01T07:27:00.000-07:00

Myles Loughran returns to review Suck. a rock-musical/vampire film directed by Rob Stefaniuk and starring a host of familiar rock names.

Well it is the season and all that.

Octocon 2013 Report

2013-10-30T00:34:00.000-07:00

This article comes courtesy of Carol Connolly, who can be found on Twitter here, LiveJournal and is an occasional co-host of The Momus Report podcast.

Two weeks ago I attended Octocon 2013, the annual Irish National Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention. The con took place in its regular location of The Camden Court Hotel, Dublin 2.
This year's Octocon had not one but two Guests of Honour - SF&F author Richard K. Morgan and comic book writer Gail Simone. Broken-hearted that Emmet couldn't make it this year, as part of the Opening Ceremony we lit a candle in his honour and then ritually disemboweled a toy kangaroo... ok, we didn't do that, but over the weekend many people did mention to me how much they enjoyed Emmet's panels last year.

Roisín Breathnach cosplaying Jennifer Wilde, based on the Atomic Diner comic created by Rob Curley, which is drawn by Stephen Downey, and written by Maura McHugh. Photo by James Bacon.

I've been attending Octocon since 2010, when George RR Martin was Guest of Honour, and last year even sat on a panel myself. I guess they didn't get too many written complaints because this year I was put on three Saturday panels - one of which was with Gail-seriously-what-am-I-doing-sitting-beside-her-Simone herself.

The panel in question, "Disabilities in Media", was well attended and I think went well... truthfully it's all a bit of a blur... but I do remember enough to know that my panel-mates Danielle Lavigne, Paul Shortt and the aforementioned Gail Simone were marvelous; they emphasized that writing characters with disabilities is both complex and simple - because they're people first.

I had expected my next panel, "Tumblr: A Space of One's Own", to be a bit quieter as myself and my co-panelists, Danielle Lavigne and Leeann Hamilton, were timetabled opposite Richard K Morgan's eagerly anticipated GOH reading and Q&A. But we actually got a surprisingly large number of Tumblr users who were excited to have a chance to express their love for the Tumblr community. It was a delight to be in front of such an enthusiastic audience, and hearing Tumblr-speak IRL was a wonderfully odd experience - ALL OF THE FEELS!

Lynda E. Rucker and Maura McHugh at Octocon 2013. Photo by Pádraig Ó Méalóid

My final panel was on "Best 2013 Books for Award Consideration" with Peadar Ó Guilín, Liz Bourke and Maura McHugh. We had a bit of a small audience (at one point the panelists outnumbered the audience) so we turned it into more of a round-table discussion. But we had a few last minute walk-ins and eventually the audience was double the size of the panel. Hurrah! I got to present my 2014 Hugo ballot predictions (Scott Lynch, Lauren Beukes, Brandon Sanderson, and potentially Mur Lafferty), although I somehow forgot to mention the new Neil Gaiman - oops. My fellow panelists had some great book recommendations, and I have added "The Martian" by Andy Weir and "Ancillary Justice" by Ann Leckie to my ever-expanding To-Read list.

Sunday was panel-free for me, so I got to go watch other people be awesome. The Sunday morning panels at an Irish con are usually lightly attended as the members are either hungover or, as in my case, attempting to digest the massive breakfast they ate because they paid for a Full Breakfast and by heaven they are going to get their money's worth. But when I managed to stagger into the 11am panel on "Leaving the Solar System" about 15 minutes late I was startled to find it packed full of dedicated space enthusiasts.

Lynn Moran, Gerry McEvoy and Kris Taylor struck a great balance between humour and scientific inquiry, and crowdsourced information about what people actually want from the space program - which turns out to be hi-res videos, rocks to touch, and AIs that can tweet from other planets. Next up for me was "By Loki's Mane!", which started life as a Twitter joke panel that took on a life of its own, and ended up being a fascinating panel presented by Ruth Frances Long, Deirdre Thornton, Paul Shortt, Danielle Lavigne and Susan Griffith on the Visibility of Women In Fandom. Naturally, we also took a little time to rage about Lego Friends and gender colour-coded Kinder Eggs.

I then headed in to Gail Simone's Guest of Honour panel. Gail, ably assisted by moderator Danielle Lavigne, gave us a fascinating account of her early life, how she got started in comics, and her hopes for the future of comics - more diversity, of both creators and characters.

Emmet & Carol at Octocon 2012. Photo by Stevie O'Cuana

So that was Octocon 2013. There won't be an Octocon in 2014, as the Octocon crew - and indeed, most of Irish Fandom - will be throwing their efforts into the 2014 Eurocon. Shamrokon will be held in The Burlington/Hilton Doubletree in Dublin from the 22nd to the 24th of August - conveniently the weekend after the London Worldcon. The Guests of Honour are the author of The Witcher series Andrzej Sapkowski, artist Jim Fitzpatrick, Judge Dredd writer Michael Carroll, author of The October Daye and The InCryptid serieses, Seanan McGuire (and under her pseudonym Mira Grant, The Newsflesh series), and translator Ylva Spångberg. I can't wait!

"The Film Australia needs to see" - Mystery Road

2013-10-26T17:16:00.000-07:00

Mystery Road is on release in cinemas now, thrilling audiences with its plot of Indigenous Australian cop Jay Swan stuck between two communities while trying to solve a disturbing murder case. The film features an excellent ensemble cast. Hugo Weaving, Ryan Kwanten and Jack Thompson provide support to star Aaron Pedersen (City Homicide). The soundtrack makes audacious use of the natural environment of its Wild West-by-way-of-Queensland setting.

Pedersen and director Ivan Sen clearly believe very passionately in the finished film, seeing it as a milestone in Australian cinema for its treatment of racial issues through the use of genre fiction tropes.

“I just think it’s a great Australian film,” says Pedersen. “There hasn’t been one made like this for a while. It says a lot about how creative we can be. I’ve never seen a film-maker so happy. Ivan genuinely was in the zone. There wasn’t one moment in the whole shoot when you thought the wheels were going to fall off. He knew what he was doing, he knew what we had. That just shows Australian film-making can be this innovative, this creative.”

Sen for his part is far more direct in summing up how this film compares to typical local cinematic fare:

“It doesn’t have to be some boring bloody art-house movie about taking drugs. I don’t want to watch that. That’d bore the shit out of me.”

Principally Mystery Road is a work of entertainment. It introduces a perspective on how deprived Aboriginal communities are, the entrenched disenfranchisement leading to growing issues with crime, drug-use and alcohol abuse. However, the plot-structure resembles a classic detective story.

“It’s presented in a pretty digestible way,” says Sen, “not like Snowtown, or even my last film Toomelah which was a lot rawer, I guess due to a documentary style.

“But this takes a classic Hollywood approach from the 50s and 60s, the oldschool approach, where we let the story and characters do their thing. We’re not trying to force emotion on the audience. Since Jaws, the blockbuster arena has been all about forcing emotion. That’s why the camera is very gentle and the music’s almost non-existent, allowing you to sit in the moment.”

Again it is the film’s use of sound which instantly marks it out as something different, engaged with how these events are to be presented in a distinct manner narratively and cinematically. The opening scene with the anonymous truckie who discovers the dead body of a teenage girl is particularly chilling due to the use of suggestion.

“Ivan said he’s either finding a body or dumping a body,” laughs Pedersen. “from the start he said that the soundtrack is the dialogue, the breathing and the walking; the flora and fauna; the cars, the dogs, the background noises. There is a ‘soundtrack’ there, but it’s presented in a different way.

“It allowed me to stay in the moment a lot more. I didn’t have to launch into scenes, or end scenes, with emotion. The emotion goes all the way through. It never really quite peaks. You work in a lot of other mediums you’re always selling the beginning of scenes and the end of scenes.

“What I like about this film is it feels like one big scene. In that it traverses itself through all these different characters, walking the land, heading in different directions, driving in the car. It’s gorgeous. I really love it.”

Mystery Road also features a repeated overhead shot of Jay Swan travelling in his car, isolated among the twisting streets of the government housing projects. Again Sen’s intent here was to confront the viewer with a unique take on this genre of the lone detective fighting the good fight.

“It adds to the enormity of his job”, agrees Sen. “This community seems to be going on and on and there’s this one car, looking for the needle in the haystack, driving around. He’s on his own.

“Everyone responds to the aerials. They leave an impact on their consciousness. There’s some very obvious reasons why I wanted to do that. Largely they were very natural and organic. That is how I wanted that imagery to be in the film, even from writing it.

“Those housing commission areas, they’re government built for the poor people. They don’t put a lot of creativity or effort in to how they’re built. The houses are all the same. It’s almost like a jail. And I knew once I saw that from the air it would be like that.

"It’s also got that improvisation of the pathways from the people finding their own way, making their own tracks. They won’t follow the road. You’ve got this free will, improvising its way through this rigid government-produced structure.”

“On the vacant land, there are all these criss-crossing tracks, people taking short-cuts,” explains Pedersen, “it’s like a spider web. There’s a history of these tracks. They’re worn, well worn. Generations of people have taken these paths. They don’t walk on the vacant block with the houses. You’ve got this kind of – it’s a bit like weaving.”

The significance of these recurring shots therefore, is to contrast the artistic perspective of Aboriginal culture in relation to the land.

“All the Indigenous paintings throughout history, they were always a bird’s eye view,” says Pedersen. “it’s the Indigenous way of storytelling. That image really is the old paintings in a way. It’s a bit like a street directory – water hole; trees; mountains – when you’re looking down on it, you can actually read the land off that. It’s a road map for the town. It kept people alive sometimes. You’d lay out your map and say – this is here, this is here, and this is here. That’s where you’ll get water, that’s where you’ll get food – there’ll be kangaroos out here. There’s nothing over there. It’s our own directory of this country.”

In this respect Mystery Road invites a conversation on the reality of the Indigenous Australian experience. Sen's use of cinematic technique and genre tropes reframes this debate in a novel way, making for an exciting picture.

Mystery Road is on release in the following cinemas nationwide.

New Arcade Fire album streaming online...

2013-10-24T18:57:00.000-07:00

....run, don't walk

Having already teased us courtesy of that Roman Coppola clip (Michael Cera's Spanish is impressive!), the multi-instrumentalist cohort of Arcade Fire have kindly released their latest album Reflektor for free on YouTube. Featuring an upbeat and inventive mesh of Haitian rhythms with blues rock, (bit like a garage band version of Boards of Canada), it's a must-listen.

Go have yourselves a listen.

Reflektor is available on iTunes.

Black Mirror - The Collection

2013-10-22T22:23:00.003-07:00

Shot by a security camera/

You can't watch your own image/

And also look yourself in the eye/

Black Mirror, Black Mirror, Black Mirror/

Black Mirror, Arcade Fire

Here’s a little task for you. Next time you pass a coffee shop and see a couple sitting together, make a note of how much time they spend gazing at their phones rather than each other, texting instead of talking.

How we as people process information digitally, immediately accessible in a ready-to-hand fashion courtesy of consumer-friendly technology, will clearly change how we behave. Just as the Guttenberg Press revolutionised how members of society informed and educated themselves, the trendy iPhone will no doubt be regarded as an historical milestone.

Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror, his follow-up to the critically acclaimed and razor-sharp zombie series Dead Set, questions what the possible consequences of these everyday technological advances in our lives will be. Collecting the two seasons of the series, this modern update of Roald Dahl’s Tales of the Unexpected sets its stories one second into the future.

Whether it is a device that instantly records our memories for later review, or a digital avatar running for political office, these are science fiction tales that frequently disturb due to how proximate they feel.

While the DVD boxset does not include the first season episode Fifteen Million Merits, with its grim parody of Simon Cowell-esque talent shows and starring the excellent Daniel Kaluuya from The Fades, the episodes that are included still manage to chill.

The National Anthem begins with a typical Brooker flourish familiar to fans of his acerbic column – a hostage crisis erupts when the kidnapper of a popular princess demands the Prime Minister of Britain (Rory Kinnear) have sex live on camera with a pig.

Initially the blackly comic premise raises a chuckle even as government aides sneak the occasional smirk. Then the tone gradually grows more intense as gloating members of the public share the culprit’s video link showing footage of a sobbing kidnapped royal. Her ordeal, and the humiliation of the PM, have become a nightmarish form of popular entertainment.

Brooker returns to politics with The Waldo Moment. The final episode of the second season, the script is credited to both Brooker and Chris Morris and was previously earmarked for their dark new media satire Nathan Barley. The episode feels very much of a part with that earlier collaboration (as the years pass, somehow Barley has become increasingly relevant), while enjoying an increase in budget, with the final scenes set in a future dystopia.

Waldo is a cartoon character voiced by struggling comedian Jamie Salter (Daniel Rigby). When his attack on a pompous Tory politician becomes a ratings smash, his producer Jack Napier (Jason Flemyng, simply oozing on to the screen with skin-crawling smarm) insists on taking the bit further. Waldo, he insists, will stand as an independent candidate in the upcoming local by-election for the town of Stentonford.

While Jamie agonises over how his life has been taken over by a virtual character, becoming increasingly disenchanted with both his work and politics, Jack makes it clear that he can easily be replaced as the voice of an anarchic blue bear. At which point the question becomes, what actually makes a politician a person at all? If stock phrases and a tenuously maintained ideology is all that is required, why not reduce all political activity to branding? The Waldo Moment has a note of passionate anger at its heart, much like The National Anthem, which makes it stand out.

Perhaps the weakest episode is Be Right Back, which posits a software application that resurrects the personality of a deceased loved one from their social media activity. While Hayley Atwell and Domhnall Gleeson are both excellent in the main roles, the storyline takes place over a condensed period of time that leads to plot holes. Also I couldn’t help but wonder why instead of resurrecting loved ones, this technology would not be turned towards making the Ryan Gosling ‘Hey Girl’ meme into a sex slave?

White Bear brilliantly marries the media’s fascination with child murderers – see every grotty coverage campaign from the Brady/Hindley killings to the Huntley/Carr Soham murders – to the imagery of slasher movies. Being Human’s Lenora Crichlow impresses in the main role of woman waking up in an empty house with no memory of where she is. Travelling outside to look for help, she meets only grinning, ominously silent strangers taking pictures of her with their camera phones. Then a masked killer arrives and pursues her with a shotgun.

White Bear invites the suspicion of there being a twist – it is after all a key feature of the slasher genre – but uses that expectation to deconstruct its plot.

The most gruelling episode of the collection is the third episode from season one, The Entire History of You. Recently optioned by Robert Downey Jnr to be developed into a feature, it takes the everyday usage of technology premise of the series and extrapolates it further outwards than the other storylines. Toby Kebbell (Dead Man’s Shoes) plays lawyer Liam, who uses his optical implant ‘the grain’ to obsessively review a recent job interview.

Intended to allow users to review and automatically back up every memory, users can publically display their memories on multiple devices, such as television screens, for the entertainment of others. This is referred to as a ‘re-do’. When Liam meets his wife Ffion (Broadchurch’s Jodie Whitaker) at a dinner party, he notices her speaking to a man he has never seen before. He begins to question her repeatedly about her relationship with this stranger, using ‘footage’ stored in his grain to challenge her every facial expression, reaction and spoken word.

Emotionally devastating, with a script courtesy of Jesse Armstong from The Thick of It, this acid-tongued fable uses its science fiction conceit in a manner reminiscent of Ray Bradbury’s The Veldt.

Black Mirror is a challenging series, bleakly entertaining, while exciting with the breadth of ideas and assembled acting talent. Condensed futureshock in a DVD boxset.

Black Mirror is available now from Madman.

Take a Walk Down Mystery Road

2013-10-18T20:17:00.001-07:00

From the opening moments of Mystery Road director Ivan Sen imbues an oppressive sense of tension and foreboding. The spare use of ambient sound, with the action unfolding naturally, combines to allow the film to proceed with a unhurried sense of pace, creating just the right sense of looming threat.

A truckie pulls over to the side of a desolate road in the morning dark to investigate a strange sound. As the character wanders out into the gloom, the audience becomes aware just how isolated he is. With no clear signals as to what is about to happen - is this a monster movie, a supernatural thriller, a slasher pic - the immediate impression is that Mystery Road is a film that knows exactly what it is, something new and invigorating.

The plot begins with the discovery of a teenage girl by the truckie under a bridge. As the girl comes from the local Aboriginal community, recently returned detective Jay Swan (Aaron Pedersen) is handed the case with little support from his colleagues. The message is clear - the murder of a dead Aboriginal girl is a case that should be put to bed as quickly as possible.

It is to the credit of the script too that this point is not belabored, beyond Jay's outspoken frustration with the lack of resources. Robert Mammone's Constable Roberts treats the crime scene with an offhand contempt, whereas the Sergeant (Tony Barry) casually sucks on a stick of ice-cream while delivering the bad news.

Jay's investigation leads him back to his old neighbourhood in town. With doors slamming shut in his face, few of the locals are willing to speak to him except for the affable Old Boy (Jack Charles) who paints a grim picture of what has been happening in his absence.

Young girls grown increasingly alienated by widespread poverty have turned to drinking and soliciting passing truckies. Gang activity is on the rise and Jay suspects the unusually nervous detective Johnno (Hugo Weaving) is somehow involved. Corruption and graft are everywhere. Even stranger, coroner Jim (Bruce Spence) reports that the body of the young girl was disturbed by an unusually large dog.

Mystery Road could be described as Australian film noir, given its contrasting of narrowly preserved order - Jay's copper friends know well enough to look the other way where the gangs are concerned - covering the rancid heart of the community. The other obvious point of comparison is that of the Outback Western, complete with a cowboy hat wearing Lawman coming to town to set it to rights. Noir though lends itself to a more complex morality than Westerns and Jay at heart is a pragmatist. It soon becomes clear just how personal his stake in this case is, beyond his anger at how the death of a young woman from his community has been dismissed as an unimportant event.

As a detective he has to abide by the law, while operating in some hinterland between the rule of law and reality. Repeatedly characters throw back his status as a lawman to his face, accusing him of being a race traitor. Pedersen plays the part of Jay as a man with the weight of two worlds on his shoulders, stoically trying to do the right thing by his people, while also working the system to solve the case.

The cast is stuffed to the brim with recognizable faces from Australian cinema. Sen even gets to indulge in a nod to Michael Mann's famous De Niro/Pacino scene in Heat, by having Pedersen and Weaving face off in a Chinese restaurant. The character of Johnno is fantastic, a man gone-to-seed, floating on raw, nervous energy that immediately rubs up the more solid Jay in the wrong way. It is one example of how the film succeeds as an ensemble piece, each character brought to life with sure touches of a talented cast. Jack Thompson gets a lovely scene, delivering a haunting speech hinting at the true nature of the dogs reported to be wandering in the wild.

Mystery Road is a great genre picture, featuring smart storytelling, executed with a confident use of imagery and natural sound. Currently showing at limited screenings across the country it is a must-watch film.

See You Next Time Space Cowboy - Bebop Goes Blu-Ray

2013-10-15T05:24:00.000-07:00

I think it's time we blow this scene/
Get everybody and the stuff together/
OK 3 2 1/
Let's jam!

Cowboy Bebop is fifteen years old this year and still somehow manages to feel fresh and dynamic. Its use of comedy, thrills, nods to genre mash-ups years before we'd even heard of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, as well as a fantastic music soundtrack by the Seatbelts, all combined to make this an extra-special show.

Now the first half of this classic anime series is available from Madman on blu-ray. Turn the volume up.

With its end of episode tagline - See you Space Cowboy - the show pitches itself as an Old West adventure in space. The show is not content with such a prosaic combination of influences - see also Star Wars, Roger Corman's Battle Beyond the Stars, and Gene Roddenberry's original pitch for Star Trek as 'Wagon Train to the Stars.' Bebop's score of jazz and blues and the segues from comedy to tragedy demonstrate a far richer approach to the premise.

Music is one of the key ingredients of Bebop - and the show has never sounded as good - with episodes flitting from one musical genre to the next. Jazz, blues, heavy metal, folk, all feature. The different forms of music are all improvisational, making themselves up as they go. Much like the lawmen confronted with the barbarism of the Old West and trying to make sense of it all. Bebop's score gives a sense of character to the show, indicating an awareness its many contrasting elements set it apart.

Revisiting the series on Blu-Ray it is remarkable to see how much foreshadowing the creators - writer Keiko Nobumoto and director Shinichirō Watanabe - introduced from the first episode. In short Cowboy Bebop is an epic story about a man who has managed to cheat death and due to his belief that his number could come up at any time, pushes himself into increasingly dangerous situations with a devil-may-care charm. At times it is extremely funny, but there is an underlying sadness to the show, all tied up with the traumatic past of bounty hunter protagonist Spike (voiced by Kôichi Yamadera/Steve Blum). His fellow crew members on the Bebop Jet, Faye and Radical Ed keep Spike distracted with their petty squabbles over food and money. Beneath the banter there's a constant tension due to Spike's memories of what he has lost.

If that was not grim enough, the script for the episode Jupiter Jazz: Part 2 draws compares our hero to that other doomed warrior who has seen too much - Odin!

Julia: Your eyes are different colors.
Spike: My left eye sees the past.
Julia: Then what about your right eye?

As compelling a character as Spike is - and deadly killer-cum-trickster is a pretty heady combination - the rest of the cast are also fantastic.

Jet the ex-cop who exhibits a frustrated fatherly concern for the rest of the 'crew', also happens to have a past he wants to keep hidden. His replacement cybernetic arm and a tell-tale scar over his eye hint at a violent past which he refuses to discuss. Then there's Faye who is just as damaged as Spike and also channels this trauma into exhibitionist displays. While often at odds the two seem like kindred spirits. Hints are dropped as to Faye's true past, as she tends to obfuscate any attempt by others to discover her true identity. Ed the genius hacker adolescent, who forms a close bond with 'data dog' Ein, rounds out the crew as the last to join. The character is generally played for laughs, but again there is a sense that she is extremely lonely and sees the Bebop as a kind of family for her to attach herself to.

Despite their combined skills - deadly assassins, con artists, military experience and computer savantism - the foursome are barely able to stay afloat as bounty hunters. It is not until the eighth episode featured here, Waltz for Venus, that they actually collect a bounty. The show does not deal with strict win/lose scenarios, instead trading in a whimsical distractions to keep this impromptu family busy. Living hand to mouth is challenge enough.

If it was not clear already this is an immensely smart show. From the seemingly carefree plotting, interspersed with hints as to the looming epic as the series progresses, to genre-savvy riffing on science fiction, film noir and of course - Old West shoot outs. The episode Toys In The Attic deconstructs Alien as the classic haunted house in space trope. Jupiter Jazz: Part 2 introduces an hermaphrodite character and then cuts in the same scene to a shot of a woman holding a gun between her legs. It is almost too clever at times - but always relentlessly fun.

This collection is the perfect introduction for viewers curious about the show that managed to leave Firefly in its dust years before Joss Whedon even considered his merry band of smugglers in space show. It is also the perfect gift for confirmed fans. It looks and sounds great on Blu-Ray. A definite must-buy.

Myles At The Movies - Metallica Through The Never 3D

2013-10-13T15:02:00.003-07:00

Nimród Antal's Metallica Through The Never 3D combines a narrative storyline (similar to The Clash film Rude Boy) and live-performance footage of the band in concert. Dane DeHaan (The Place Beyond the Pines) plays Trip, a young roadie sent on an urgent mission during Metallica’s set.

Edinburgh artist Myles Loughran's comic review of the film is below. Metallica Through The Never 3D is currently showing in cinemas.

Deadfall - DVD Review

2013-10-09T03:40:00.001-07:00

Today the news broke that Chopper Read has died of liver cancer. Read turned his life of crime into an unlikely source of celebrity, which in turn led to a film of his life starring Eric Bana. The eponymous film would make Bana a star, launching the Australian actor on to the world stage. He has starred in popular movie franchises, Star Trek and Hulk, worked with well-respected directors like Spielberg and Ridley Scott - but for some reason Bana does not appear to have 'arrived' yet.

He has all the makings of a star, but somehow still has not connected with audiences.

Stefan Ruzowitzky's film is a snowbound noir that touches on familiar themes from the genre. Freudian themes of repressed family resentments, dark secrets and sudden outbursts of deadly violence. A brother and sister running from a successful heist are involved in a car crash. Addison (Bana) kills an investigating police officer and orders his devoted sister Liza (Olivia Wilde) to run to safety, knowing the cops will now be on his trail. Of course a freezing cold snow storm is on its way and the siblings are alone and exposed in the wilderness.

Meanwhile a former amateur boxer turned ex-con Jay (Pacific Rim's Charlie Hunnam) just hours out of prison manages to assault his crooked manager and goes on the run. Adding some class to the proceedings, Kris Kristofferson and Sissy Spacek play his parents, patiently waiting for Jay to come home for Thanksgiving dinner. Rounding out the cast is Kate Mara, recently turning heads in House of Cards. playing cop Hanna with aspirations of joining the FBI, who has her own family drama unfolding with her crude Sheriff father.

The bodies start mounting up fast, with each character trapped in their own psychological drama. Addison encounters a disturbing family tableau that causes him to relive a traumatic moment from his past. Liza is stuck pretending to be his innocent sister and once away from him begins to introduce different personalities to seduce the gormless Jay - whom she gives a certain pet name to. The hints at an incestuous attraction between the siblings again feel like a nod to the twisted sexuality of noir.

This thriller has ambitions of psychological depth and features a strong cast. Bana even gets to chew scenery during a very unusual dinner scene. The script probably could have used an additional parse or two - for instance there's an unlikely knife fight that feels out of place - but there's an diverting Sunday afternoon's viewing here.

Deadfall is available from October 9 on DVD and Blue-Ray.

Thank You For Sharing

2013-10-08T06:56:00.000-07:00

There is a strange sense of disconnection with Thank You For Sharing. Similar to the criticism leveled at Friends, and more recently Lena Durham's Girls.

Is this really New York? It feels like it somehow is set somewhere else. Tim Robbins' guru-esque character Mike likes to sit outside in his back garden to meditate. Pink, or Alecia Moore as she goes by in this film, plays Dede who announces in her introduction that she is suffering from crippling addiction issues that are driving her to thoughts of suicide. Yet she also seems to enjoy a pleasant work life balance of traveling from a hipster hair salon to a dance hall where attendees are encouraged to just let it all hang out, man. Then there's Mark Ruffalo's Adam, whose work requires him to spend a lot of time in hotels. Whatever his work is, he boasts that he's just acquired the Postal Service as a client so no doubt we are being given to understand it's an important job. He enjoys quite a generous salary, enough to afford him a magnificently spacious apartment. Certain characters even comment on this at certain points.

Is this New York? The characters are all affluent middle class Americans with seemingly no debts and with plenty of time to talk endlessly about their feelings. I'm not even sure it's San Francisco!

Stuart Blumberg's film tackles the serious issue of sex addiction, in a manner that is intended to outline just how devastating the compulsive disorder is, while still trading in a few laughs for entertainment value. The core cast are attendees at an addiction therapy group - Mike with his apparent zen-like calm and tendency to quote pithy self-help slogans; Adam who is celebrating a momentous anniversary of five years without any uncontrolled sexual activity whatsoever (no masturbation, no internet porn, no anonymous sex - he bans the presence of televisions from any hotel room he stays in); and then there's Neil played by Josh Gad.

Sadly Gad has two hurdles to cross in this film. Firstly he comes across as a bargain-basement Jack Black for the duration of the run-time. His character fancies himself a comedian, so there's plenty of attention-seeking acting out, eye-rolling and drawled sentences, in between physical 'comedy' scenes. Carol Kane plays his mother, leading to a drawn out sequence with her inspecting his sweaty bum after a bike-ride. The other problem for Gad is that he is playing a truly despicable character, filming up women's skirts, or performing frottage with unwitting passengers on public transport. Mike and Adam are shown to have no tolerance with Neil's playacting, and his behaviour has landed him in the group after having been caught. So a moral dimension has been introduced - Neil's behaviour is clearly wrong.

Nevertheless the film's arc is to convince us that Neil is a likeable guy who can be redeemed. To get to this point, the morally stalwart Adam and Mike therefore have to take a fall. The former finally attempts to establish a genuine relationship with fitness nut Phoebe (Gwyneth Paltrow) but is unable to tell her he's a sex addict, whereas the return of Mike's son Danny (Patrick Fugit) begins to unravel the past of the seemingly benign group leader.

Neil meanwhile enters into a co-dependent friendship with Dede. They help each other cope at moments of temptation, which gives the medical doctor with a predilection for looking up skirts the skills to become more self-aware and responsible.

Where this film fails to convince is its bland switches between earnest confessionals - Ruffalo is landed with the job of delivering a speech about how sex addiction is a disease - and light comedy. Dialogue has an oddly tin-eared quality - “It’s like trying to quit crack when you have a pipe attached to your body.” It is tonally inconsistent, attempting the tragicomic stylings of say a Woody Allen film (his on form Blue Jasmine provides an all-too-recent point of comparison), instead only managing to be confused. There's an additional issue in that the roles of women in the film are cipher-esque. A unwieldy equivalency is drawn between Adam's sexual urges and Phoebe's dietary obsessions.

In fact, rather than providing a genuinely affecting insight into sex addiction, what Thank You For Sharing instead describes is the need for these characters to be dominant over others, to be secure in their own judgmental attitudes.

Mike's calm is rooted in his ability to hand out tokens of approval to participants in the group. Despite this he's one bad day away from a bottle of jack and hooking up with a stranger. Adam's strained mentorship of the irascible Neil receives a telling echo later, when he finds himself begging Phoebe for understanding. Each character exercises as much control as possible over the little areas of their life that they can (Tim Robbins does get a laugh from a scene where he shouts at Paltrow for her food portions).

It is that fear of losing control, of giving in that is the really interesting subject matter of the film. Unfortunately Adam's speech regarding disease is left unchallenged. A missed opportunity.

Thank You For Sharing is showing in cinemas now.