Uncultured Critic

DVD Review: Coriolanus

2012-05-30T22:29:00.000+01:00

After the enormous success of The Deathly Hallows, Ralph Fiennes made the leap from one beloved British author's oeuvre (albeit a franchise) to another. Taking on a little known Shakespearean tragedy in Coriolanus, Finnes' ambitious directorial debut takes the form of a modern-day adaptation not at all reminiscent of Baz Luhrmann.

Penned by John Logan (Gladiator, The Aviator), Fiennes himself co-stars opposite Gerard Butler, Brian Cox, and the ubiquitous Jessica Chastain to bring the bard's all but forgotten soldiers and sworn enemies to all their vengeful, back-stabbing glory in "a place that calls itself Rome".

Its measured language throughout brings a sense of stability and pace to what is otherwise visually similar to most middle eastern war footage of the current day. Using TV footage that is at once surprisingly prescient and strangely familiar to draw out allegory, it's a solid if somewhat inaccessible work bringing bard to screen in all its deprivation and none of its grandeur.

A darkly refreshing early summer DVD.

Coriolanus is released on DVD in the UK on 4 June.

Read more: Disgrace Book Review; Wild Bill Review.

Book Review: Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee

2012-05-28T10:30:00.000+01:00

If not for book club, I don't think I'd have ever picked up another J.M. Coetzee book.

In my first year at uni we read Waiting for the Barbarians. I'm not sure that I ever finished it but I remember there being a sort-of treacle-like, entrapping quality about his writing that I didn't enjoy. With book club being book club, though, I set that aside and gave his dark world another shot.

Coetzee digs deep into his themes of sexual shame and rape in this short book, but never in a particularly direct or shocking manner. His brooding, male, 50-something protagonist, David, is something of a womaniser, though not in the Nick Cave, Bunny Munro sense. There's a pervading sense of patriarchy to his conquests which, rather than political, feel uncomfortably fatherly in a literal way.

Outside of the sexual undertones and overtones, there's still a little slack around his brooding male protagonist. His actions feel realistic and rightly oblivious at times, and although narrated in third person there is often a feeling on the part of the reader, a nagging to look beyond his point of view. Like an unreliable narrator in third person, we never glimpse upon the minds of other characters. There are some beautiful sections in which he is writing an opera that intertwines with his story of romance, but as a metaphor for the entire book I didn't feel that it worked.

Coetzee's female characters aren't particularly well-drawn, sounding like overly philosophical academics rather than living, breathing, human women. While this adds to the sense of David's alienation from women and amplifies his inability to get close to them, their words are stilted with mathematic precision that comes out sounding illogical. But I suppose that's all part of the intention.

Generally though, the frequent bursts of poetic prose befitting of his protagonist's interests elevate Coetzee's prose above the standard broody middle-aged male fare that I had expected and into more literary territory. Laid against the backdrop of apartheid South Africa, there's lots more to learn for the uninitiated (like myself), but this definitely proved itself to be a worthwhile read. The more I think about it, the more I feel I get it.

Read more mini book reviews on the Uncultured Critic 52 Books page. You can also follow me on Goodreads.

Read more: World Book Night 2012; Salmon Fishing in the Yemen Film Review (Podcast).

Books Blogging

2012-05-25T10:30:00.000+01:00

I know things have been quiet around here, but I've secretly been working on my books page.

Head over to the 52 Books page to see mini-reviews of everything I've been reading so far in 2012.

What have you been reading lately?

World Book Night 2012

2012-04-23T19:09:00.000+01:00

"A million reasons to read a book."

If you are a book lover, World Book Night's tagline is impossible to ignore.

This year, like last, 20,000 givers are hitting the streets today armed with 24 copies of their book of choice to give away to non- or sometime-readers to encourage them to read and to share their love of reading. It's also Shakespeare's birthday and Unesco International Day of the Book.

Last year I was initially unsuccessful in my giver application, but became a reserve giver when one of my local libraries found itself with a spare box of Alan Bennett's A Life Like Other People's. (Which, incidentally, was the book I'd chosen in the first place.) My friend Holly, who had plumped for Stuart: A Life Backwards by Alexander Masters, and I took to the streets of Glasgow to bestow copies of our chosen books upon unsuspecting diners.

This year I decided to do the same thing, selecting The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak, but receiving my second choice, Roald Dahl's debut short story collection, Someone Like You. (No, it has nothing to do with the Adele song, and yes, I've been asked!)

Giving people freebies is a curious experience. While studying abroad, I was involved with the local, student-run cinema, where we had a series of second-run films each quarter. One night we were screening The Golden Compass, and someone had called the distributor to ask for some goodies. Boy, did they deliver. We had the video game in every format, copies of the book, playing cards, cuddly toys, and even lead-containing statues of polar bears. Handing freebies out as people entered, they were uptight and weirded out by the transaction. As soon as someone stood on the stage to announce a raffle and threw some toys into the crowd, though, the mood changed considerably.

World Book Night can probably seem like a cult to some. Strangers with heaping bags approach you and ask about whether you've heard of their odd cause, thrusting paperbacks and demanding nothing in return but that you give them a chance and read them. Today I encountered a couple of upturned noses and plain "no"s, a snigger of sheer bemusement, and plenty of smiles. One man was teaching English to a Polish group and said they might come in handy. One woman had read Dahl to her kids and was curious to find out what he had in store for the over-18s. Overall, though, the bemusement and disbelief becomes part of the charm of giving away some free books to unsuspecting customers. I even bumped into a fellow giver, whose blog you can find at http://www.alwaysreading.net/!

Have you taken part in World Book Night? If you have any stories please do share them, or let me know about which books you've given away or lent enthusiastically.

If you'd like to learn more, go to http://worldbooknight.org or follow @WorldBookNight.

Radio Reviews: Marley & Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

2012-04-20T10:30:00.000+01:00

This week on the BBC Movié Cafe: Kevin Macdonald's epic Bob Marley documentary, Marley, and Ewan Macgregor in the adaptation of Paul Torday's best-selling novel Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.

Listen to Jamie Dunn and I review both films with the ever-brilliant Janice Forsyth.

The show is available to stream here until Thursday, and you can download the podcast anytime over here.

Marley and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen are out in UK cinemas now.

Review: Wild Bill

2012-03-19T10:30:00.000Z

Treading the line between gritty social realism and slick gangster action, Wild Bill brings drugs, guns and family drama to Stratford, London. This directorial debut from actor Dexter Fletcher follows 'Wild' Bill Hayward (Charlie Creed-Miles) upon his return to the East End after eight-years in prison. Arriving at his former home, he finds his wife has eloped abroad, leaving his two young sons, Jimmy and Dean, 15 and 11 years old, to fend for themselves.

What follows is smarter than your average working-class family drama as the contentious relationship between father and sons escalates – lashed together as they are in a case of social work intervention. Bill must play dad while Dean attempts to rebuild his life and Jimmy diverges onto the trail his father formerly blazed. Muted, oaky tones and crisp shadows give cinematic depth to a realistic yet classically dramatic storyline. Fletcher successfully weaves a tale of redemption without traversing into schmaltz – a Hollywood home for low-income family drama.

Wild Bill is released in UK cinemas on Friday 23 March. Read my interview with Dexter Fletcher.

Radio Reviews: Bel Ami & The Decoy Bride

2012-03-09T10:25:00.002Z

A disappointing week for film begins today with the poorly received John Carter 3D (he is ugly, but he is beautiful...), along with R-Patz in bodice-ripper Bel Ami and rom-com The Decoy Bride starring David Tennant and Kelly MacDonald.

Listen in to the Movie Café online or by downloading the podcast to hear me review them (and do my Kelly MacDonald impression) alongside Janice Forsyth and Alistair Harkness.

Apologies for the dearth of content around here - but I'm almost done editing my book! Regular programming shall resume shortly.

Bel Ami and The Decoy Bride arrive in UK cinemas today, Friday 9 March. The Decoy Bride is available on DVD from Monday 12 March, and you can buy it here.

Glasgow Film Festival Review: Beats, Rhymes & Life

2012-02-24T11:00:00.000Z

Beats Rhymes and Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest brings the story behind the titular hip-hop band - Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, and Jarobi White to the big screen this year's Glasgow Music and Film Festival. Taking its title from the band's first album, the film traces the band's meteoric rise to fame within the hip-hop community. The band takes us back to their former hang-outs, illustrating the music scene of the late 80s and early 90s as they go. In its best moments, the film is a Behind the Music style mash-up of interviews and music video footage, but digs deeper into the psyches of its subjects. Quest's chilled out sounds soon clash with strains of disagreement as Phife's diabetes and artistic differences caused a rift between band members. Beats, Rhymes and Life gets caught up in its own life-based dramas but redeems itself with consistently engaging characters and cool jams.

Beats, Rhymes & Life screens at Glasgow Film Festival this Saturday 25 February at 10.45pm. Book tickets here.

Glasgow Film Festival Review: Bonsái

2012-02-23T11:00:00.002Z

Chilean directing talent Cristián Jiménez brings his second feature to Glasgow Film Festival this week. One for the bookish, Bonsái's protagonist is more of a leader-on than a leading man. Julio, using his cultural smarts (namely, the dubious claim of having read Marcel Proust) to woo his student girlfriend Emilia. Years later, under the guise of transcribing his local hero's novel, he uses their relationship as inspiration to write, be it under an elaborate rouse.

Despite channeling a mumblecore vibe, charm-free, statuesque young actors may speak of unmeasured still waters. Not knowing how deep they run will only get you so far, and Julio's mumbling and bumbling is curious but not much more, and quickly wears as the film's non-linear narrative shuffles through time like the worn pages of a well-thumbed paperback. But if you're looking for a touch of solipsism without picking up Proust, Bonsái is a good start.

Bonsái screens again at Glasgow Film Festival today, 23 February at 8.45pm. Book tickets here.

A Few Words In Praise of RPatz

2012-02-22T13:10:00.000Z

Cedric Diggory, Edward Cullen, and now Georges Duroy, 25 year-old heart-throb Robert Pattinson - affectionately known as R-Patz - steps into another role for the ladies in the screen adaptation of Guy de Maupassant's Bel Ami. Stepping out of the sparkling vampiric skin of the chaste Edward Cullen and into the dapper facade of a man a little more attuned to the ladies' needs, Pattinson's already setting hearts alight in Glasgow as frenzied fans of the actor have been demanding news of his arrival since the GFF programme was revealed.

Fans of Pattinson are known for their own particular brand of fervour - one that sees them snooping outside his parents' estate, riled all the more by news he isn't home. Critics have censured Twilight for its celebration of self versus other -- for dedicated fans, no is all the more likely to mean yes. One thing is certain, the audience will sparkle at the film's Glasgow FIlm Festival release tonight.

If the (albeit 2D) presence of Mr Pattinson isn't enough to make you want to lock up your daughters, Bel Ami is set to encourage further arduous swoons at this week's screenings - and not only from the teenagers - as his character Georges Duroy beds Paris' finest, played by the likes of Christina Ricci, Uma Thurman, and Kristin Scott Thomas. Ooo la la!

As Pattinson casts off the burden of sullen Cullen, forging ahead as Twilight fans breathlessly await the final chapter later this year, Bel Ami becomes an interesting next move. Although Water For Elephants put him in a new leading man position, its focus on forbidden love and dark debarring forces failed to preclude a good long mope. Instead, Bel Ami and an upcoming project with David Cronenberg - who has already pronounced Pattinson as the best actor he's ever worked with - seem certain to turn our vampire into a warm-blooded movie star of great repute.

Bel Ami screens at Glasgow Festival tonight, 22 February at 6.15pm and tomorrow 23 February at 5pm. Buy tickets here.

Bel Ami is released in UK cinemas on Friday 9 March.

Interview: Dexter Fletcher debuts Wild Bill at GFF

2012-02-21T10:30:00.002Z

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels star Dexter Fletcher made his way to Glasgow FIlm Festival for the first time last month to screen Wild Bill. This impressive directorial debut is everything but the kitchen sink, a tale of life on the breadline that's imbued with a western edge.

Honing in on a low-income family in East London, the film begins as “Wild” Bill (Charlie Creed-Miles) is released from prison and returns home to find his estranged 15- and 11-year-old sons have been abandoned by their mother. Sound like Ken Loach territory so far? Think again. “I didn’t want the film to start feeling like it was brow-beating anyone," says Fletcher by phone ahead of his film's Scottish debut at the Glasgow Film Festival. "There are social issues in the film and I do my best to deal with them, but at the same time I’m trying to leave it open so as to observe it rather than making a big laboured point about it. There’s a realism about that – it’s not so much about the massive emotional effects [of poverty], it’s about how people in life invariably get on with it.”

As well as taking an alternative view on social issues, the western elements of Wild Bill take the film further from the doldrums of the kitchen sink and into more cinematic territory. “I looked at a lot of westerns in terms of how I wanted to frame [the film],” says Fletcher. “Even though I’m telling a small, contained story set in a council estate, I wanted to give the film scope, and these westerns felt like a good place to look. It always spoke to me, it kept that sense of drama, giving drama to something that otherwise could’ve felt quite small and kitchen sink-y. It was about paying homage to those films that I love and, at the same time, retaining this sense of scope of the big city out there.”

It’s a technique that raises the bar for gritty local films bringing universal issues into the mix and, as Fletcher says, “you could make this film anywhere.” The film is dedicated to his father, and it’s easy to see why. “My issues are tied up in that film – my dad and mum were together for 50 years, and we all lived very nicely in a nice house in the suburbs of London, but I still have issues with my dad. I still felt that I couldn’t do enough to please him and a lot of the issues [in the film] are about me trying to communicate with my father.”

The father/son relationship is another factor that distances the film from its presumed genre. “I want people to know that it’s a festival film, that it’s not about horrible gangsters dealing drugs and beating each other up! To me, it’s more than that. I needed to make something that I felt had humour and heart and hope in it. The festival circuit is a great place to show that.”

Wild Bill is released in UK cinemas on Friday 23 March. Read my review.

Image by Stuart Crawford.

Glasgow Film Festival Review: Finisterrae

2012-02-20T11:00:00.002Z

Crossing the Line, the new strand at this year's Glasgow Film Festival, brings experimental and avant-garde films to the Glasgow, exploring the crossover between cinema and visual art. Finnisterrae is, in many ways, an excellent introduction to experimental filmmaking, blending stunning vistas with an unusual, almost farcical storyline of two ghosts in limbo. Tired of being spirits, they ask oracles and whimsical beings how to become living creatures, resolving to take a journey to Finistarrae - the end of the world. At once weird and wonderful, gently creepy, but remarkably structured, it's a slow and philosophical pilgrimage that invokes odd recollections of Silent Running and Monty Python. Some segues into visual art – a dream of naked dancing ghosts and a self-conscious insert of 80s Catalan visual art – feel forced, but these are balanced with beautifully wacky run-ins with creatures of the netherworld. Above all, the striking image of white-cloaked beings staring into the camera with their jet-black eyes makes Finisterrae an innately compulsive watch.

Glasgow Film Festival runs until Sunday 26 February.

Glasgow Film Festival Celebrates 100 Years of Gene Kelly

2012-02-16T11:00:00.000Z

As a wise woman named Jeanine Basinger once said, "You give your heart to Fred Astaire but you save your body for Gene Kelly." And save itself Glasgow Film Festival did, right up until this year: the centenary of Mr Kelly's birth. The MGM man with the superstar gene will be honoured as the subject of the festival's 2012 retrospective.

One of the greatest all-round talents of his time, he tap danced his way across tinseltown in roller skates, sang in the rain, and left his American heart in Paris. "Gene Kelly led a one-man revolution in Hollywood that changed the screen musical forever," explains Glasgow Film Festival co-director, Allan Hunter. "He really pushed the boundaries of what was possible and created a uniquely American art form that dazzled the world.

“His work has withstood the toughest test of all – the test of time. The films in the retrospective are as joyous and captivating now as the day they were first shown. Audiences are in for a treat with a rare chance to see them in all their glory on a big screen."

Nominated for the Best Actor gong at the 1945 Academy Awards for Anchors Aweigh (20 Feb), Kelly won a special Oscar in 1951 for An American in Paris (19 Feb) recognising his 'brilliant achievements in the art of choreography on film.' The Glasgow retrospective includes both titles, along with On the Town (23 Feb).

Scots favourite Brigadoon will be screened on 24 Feb, followed on 25 Feb where you can see it again at St Andrews in the Square along with a very special event: the Gene Kelly Ceilidh. Don't miss your chance to celebrate a couple of his worthy co-stars, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Connor, in the pièce de résistance of this year's retrospective: a special 60th anniversary screening of Kelly's immortal classic, Singin’ in the Rain (18 Feb, 1.30pm). Come on with the films, I've a smile on my face…

Bombay Beach Review & Exclusive Clip

2012-01-30T17:03:00.000Z

After an outstanding festival journey, a Tribeca World Documentary Award, and praise from Alec Baldwin, music video director Alma Har'el's debut feature Bombay Beach finally reaches cinema screens across the country. The documentary tells the lyrical story of California's forgotten residents, the of low-income citizens of Salton Sea. Music from Beirut's Zach Condon intermingle with ethereal dance sequences and choreographed scenes scattered amongst real-life events. At once carefully composed and fly-on-the-wall, Har'el's distinctive approach is that of a hybrid documentary, as she plays with the desert light to draw us in to the inner-workings of the locals' dark pasts and family lives. The story tells itself, making plenty of room an artistic flair and injection of sound that elevate the film from a simple documentary to an artistic exploration. Given the colourful flourishes and strains of Beirut, it's so engrossing you could watch Har'el film a toilet flush if it looked and sounded this pleasant.

Watch an exclusive clip from the film:

Bombay Beach is released in UK cinemas on 3 February 2012. Find a list of UK screenings on the official website, and more info on Facebook and Twitter.

The film is also available to buy on DVD in the USA, here.

The Oscar Equation & The Descendants

2012-01-26T10:30:00.003Z

They nominated what?!

The Oscar Nominations were announced on Monday, among them Alexander Payne's Golden Globe-winner The Descendants. I'll be reviewing The Descendants on air, followed by a discussion of the Academy Award nominees on the BBC Movie Café alongside Janice Forsyth and - as is now our regular custom - Mr Paul Gallagher.

You can listen live from 1.15pm on BBC Radio Scotland or online. If you miss it, it'll be free to stream later in the day.

BBC Movie Café is now also available to download as a podcast, so no excuses!

BRB, editing.

2012-01-19T22:09:00.000Z

The whole point of editing well is to have the reader exclaim not, "What a wonderfully edited book!" but, rather, "What a wonderful writer!"

— Michael Kandel

Book Review: Anna & the French Kiss

2012-01-11T10:30:00.002Z

For some reason, my first book of the year always ends up being a relatively new Young Adult novel that I've inexplicably overlooked. 2012 is no exception.

As writing a synopsis that doesn't sound trite seems impossible, here's the official one:

Anna was looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. So she's less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris—until she meets Étienne St. Clair. Smart, charming, beautiful, Étienne has it all... including a serious girlfriend.

Oohh, tricky!

Penned by first-time novelist Stephanie Perkins, Anna and the French Kiss is charming enough but fairly standard YA fare. Stock characters, predictably complicated private lives and love triangles are nothing new, but Perkins injects humour and charm into a concept which could've been dangerously close to encroaching upon Maureen Johnson's trademarks.

A fun set of characters and light dialogue keeps things moving at an amicable pace, highlighted by high school hijinks and a little sight-seeing. The relationship between Anna and Etienne is excellently drawn without feeling drawn-out. However, some character traits feel like final draft additions. Anna's allegedly all-consuming love of film is spotty through out, and her and clean freak tendencies often a convenient excuse to end a subplot. Overall, though, there's enough charm and colour to keep this excellent first whack at a first novel above par.

Book #1: ★★★★★

Read More: AVisit From the Goon Squad with Book Talk (Podcast); Link Lust #1

DVD Review: The Guard

2012-01-10T11:30:00.001Z

John Michael McDonagh – forever cursed to be billed as brother to In Bruges' writer-director Michael – tries his hand at directing in this scalding debut. Starring Brendan Gleeson as foul-mouthed, small-town Garda Sergeant Gerry Boyle, Irish humour mixes with dark overtones create this wise-cracking black comedy. Don Cheadle co-stars as uptight FBI agent Wendell Everett sent to get to the bottom of a high profile drug trafficking scheme off the coast of Galway. A trio of mis-matched gangsters, including Londoner Mark Strong, run rings around the Garda in a cat-and-mouse game along winding country roads and a perishing coast.

Like Gleeson, it's a little flabby around the middle but its rough-and-ready approach creates a medley of ridiculousness that somehow hits the right notes. Despite some over-stretching, its dialogue pays off. High-brow references and small-town idiosyncrasies clash in rib-tickling fashion, leaving us to ponder whether The Guard's subjects are really mother-effing dumb, or really mother-effing smart.

The Guard is released on DVD in the UK on Monday 16 January.

Read more: Gary Tank Commander; Silent Running Blu-Ray Review.

Book Talk Podcast: A Visit From the Goon Squad

2012-01-06T10:30:00.003Z

There's a distinct Goon theme going on here this week...

I've teamed up with the Scottish Book Trust to take part in their monthly Book Talk podcast.

Each month host Paul Gallagher invites 2 people along to discuss a new book. I was lucky enough to be invited along to record January's edition, which features myself and the insightful Lee Randall discussing Jennifer Egan's A Visit From the Goon Squad alongside Paul.

You can listen to the podcast here, download it from iTunes here, and keep up with Book Talk at http://scottishbooktrust.com/booktalk.

Book Talk is also running a competition to win the 3 books which feature in the January, February and March podcasts: A Visit From the Goon Squad, The Death of Lomond Friel, and Boxer Beetle. Click over here to enter. Good luck!

A Visit From the Goon Squad is out now. You can buy it over here.

Read more: Goon Review.

Review: Goon

2012-01-05T10:30:00.002Z

Superbad co-writer Evan Goldberg and Jay Baruchel team up for a dumb comedy on ice - and that's exactly what you can expect. Seann William Scott stars as loveable meathead Doug who, with a low-region IQ and fists of fury, is everyone's best friend -- until you cross his friends. After an altercation at a local hockey game, he's picked up by the team manager to be an 'enforcer': not a hockey player, but a fighter.

Jay Baruchel keeps proceedings light and the tone extraordinarily low with his effervescent Irish Yank, whose twin loves of hockey and crude sex jokes come together on his amateur TV show Hot Ice. Why an intelligent comedy actor would write himself such a part is baffling and, as can be expected, his string of effusive expletives fail to garner laughs. Only one character gets a shorter shrift with Alison Pill as Doug's love interest. She's given little to work with, bemoaning her lack of self-respect and slowly falling for Doug's innocent sweetness.

Although Goon clocks in at a lean 90 minutes, it doesn't endear itself til somewhere in the second act, while the third falls apart altogether, shedding sub-plots as it reaches its bloody conclusion. Uncomfortably crass and violent at turns, Goon hits the right notes just frequently enough for a one-time watch.

Goon is released in UK cinemas tomorrow, Friday 6 January.

Read more: Link Lust #1.

Link Lust #1

2012-01-04T10:30:00.007Z

I wondered what Guybrush had been up to since he defeated LeChuck...

The other day my friends and I had a conversation about how people present themselves on the internet. My man observed that, "It's almost like taste is the new talent. People are revered for putting together images or even links in ways we find compelling."

It's true, and it's something I've always been envious about -- more than I've ever actually tried it.

As a junkie of words and images (or, as I'm loathe to call it, but secretly hope to be one day considered by my peers, a "culture vulture"), gathering stories, harvesting links, and secretly hoarding away unread tabs like nuts for the winter is part of my routine. I've decided to share it.

Quotable Queen Miss Piggy and her Guide to Life, and other life lessons via The Paris Review Blog's Emma Straub.
Ellipsis podcast from former Rocketboomer Ella Morton - particularly this episode with Alice for the iPad designer Chris Stevens - is compelling listening for creatives.
Byliner ebooks and Kindle Singles have captured my curiosity. Any recommendations?
I've always battle the New Year blues by reading the archives of those who inspire me. Rachel Hills' Musings of an Inappropriate Woman and Susan Orlean's Free Range are good places to start.
If you're a vlogbrothers fan (which, by the way, you ought to be); Hank has a new channel called SciShow. Perfect for SISNs (secret internet science nerds) and science n00bs.
2011: The Cinescape

Rewind by Levi Beamish -- like Eternal Sunshine in miniature

What are you reading / watching / clicking compulsively this New Year week?

DVD Review: Hearts of Darkness

2012-01-03T10:30:00.000Z

That's right. It's back. Again.

Deriving its name from the book that gave Apocalypse Now its story, Hearts of Darkness is perhaps the world's best-known "The Making of..." documentary. Narrated by Francis Ford Coppola's wife, Eleanor, it's the source for much of the lore about the interminable production of the flamboyant director's Vietnam War Film to end all Vietnam War Films. Hearts of Darkness follows the 238 day, $20 million shoot, faithfully recording its legendary mishaps: from replacing its original lead (Harvey Keitel) two weeks in, through sets destroyed by monsoon rains and helicopters borrowed from the Filipino army recalled to fight rebels in the middle of filming; to the nightly, frenzied script re-writes. All these fed a media storm back home, so that it was probably no wonder Kramer vs Kramer won the Oscar for Best Picture – everyone must have been sick of hearing about the Apocalypse out East. All said, this 90 minutes of self-indulgence makes it a cinephile favourite.

Hearts of Darkness is available to buy on DVD from Monday 9 January. (It's also part of the Apocalypse Now Blu-Ray box set released back in May.)

Read more: Apocalypse Now Blu-Ray Review.

Film 2012

2012-01-02T10:30:00.001Z

Oh, hello. How are you?

I know the walls of Uncultured Critic have been a little bare this festive season. Things got a little crazy between graduating from my MLitt (in Film Journalism, no less); getting married and, well, the holiday movie slow-down.

So here's an update...
My Top 10 of the Year ambivalence shows no signs of stopping, but some of the films I particularly enjoyed this year include Drive, Source Code, Another Earth, and Bridesmaids.

After setting myself the 52 Book Challenge (up from 50 in previous years), I failed spectacularly but managed a respectable 42. Of which my favourites were The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides, The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan, and The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. For Christmas I received F. Scott Fitzgerald collection The Crack-Up and Susan Orlean's Rin Tin Tin: The Life and Legend - both of which I'm looking forward to reading and reviewing.

If you're interested in catching up on my work outside of Uncultured Critic...
Three books I contributed to as part of the World Film Locations series are now available to purchase: London, Los Angeles, and Dublin. I'm currently editing the Glasgow volume, which will be in print by the end of the year!

The BBC Movie Café is now available to download as a podcast -- and I urge you to do so. I'll be back on later this month with more reviews.

The Skinny got a lovely redesign this year - most of my reviews are reposted here, but there's loads more from my colleagues over there, too.

The Big Picture Magazine is also on the verge of a rebirth, but until then you can download the latest issue here, which includes an essay I wrote about the cinema of John Hughes.

How about you?
How have you enjoyed your year in film, books, and beyond? Is there anything you'd like to see on Uncultured Critic in the New Year? Give me a shout in the comments, on Twitter, or shoot me an email.

But before you go...
Check out the best of Cinema 2011:

Read more: Rich Hall's Continental Drifters; Inside the New York Times with Andrew Rossi

Review: Puss in Boots 3D

2011-12-01T10:30:00.004Z

Shrek's killer kitty spins off into his own fairytale franchise in Dreamworks' Puss in Boots. Antonio Banderas lends his dulcet tones to the feline hero who is tasked with settling a score by finding a trio of legendary magic beans, currently held hostage by Jack and Jill. Once a certain feminine feline (Kitty Softpaws, voiced by Salma Hayek) leads Puss back to his tricksy schoolyard friend Humpty Dumpty (Zach Galiafianakis), the trio take off to discover what they can find in the castle above the beanstalk.

With an excellent, not-too-starry voice cast and brisk pace, Puss in Boots takes us into an alternate fairytale world with Spanish flavour. Co-opting recognisable characters makes for a simple, somewhat lazy script that's perfect for kids. Paired with ever-useless 3D, a much-needed handful of old movie gags and innuendo are thrown in, serving to plug any gaps in the adult laugh track. Prescriptive holiday animation for hijas, mijos, and little amigos.

Puss in Boots is released in UK cinemas on Friday 9 December.

Rich Hall's Continental Drifters

2011-11-24T11:00:00.003Z

Comedian Rich Hall hits the road as he takes us on his personal journey through the road movie, which, from the earliest days of American cinema has been synonymous with American culture. With his customary wit and intelligence, Rich takes us through films such as Bonnie and Clyde, The Grapes of Wrath, Thelma and Louise, Vanishing Point, Five Easy Pieces and even The Wizard of Oz. He explores what makes a road movie and how the American social, economic and political landscape has defined the genre. -- BBC

Rich Hall returned to the BBC with the latest in his series of films about the movies this week with the eagerly anticipated Continental Drifters. Taking on the American road movie in what my man has dubbed the comedian's, "pre-packaged American culture to be consumed by Brits," Hall's new dissertation follows the same formula as his How The West Was Lost and The Dirty South, albeit with some further refinements.

Beginning with an introduction to the road movie and his somewhat arbitrary definition, Hall argues that a true road movie is not only about a pair of characters going from a to b, but that they are in some way disenfranchised. A selection of key films are up for discussion from Easy Rider to Thelma and Louise and The Grapes of Wrath to Dumb and Dumber. Unlike Hall's earlier forays into film culture, Continental Drifters is less bogged down by constant music video style reel of clips, giving him room to consider and argue the merits of each film and how it fits into the historic and cultural milieu. And, as with all retroactive genres (I'm looking at you, film noir), this link is easy to delineate but endlessly fascinating to watch as it's laid bare. Eisenhower's roads highway project is intrinsically linked with noir films of the road, and the resulting motel culture lent itself to the disenfranchised drifters and grifters that followed.

There's even room for a Gonzo style rant where, in true Hall style, he finds a moment between motels and remakes to insert a rant about Star Wars. I especially enjoyed Hall's inclusion of The Grapes of Wrath - novel and movie versions - and On the Road as major contributors to the Road movie trend.

As we move into another era of shifting cultural values and a new wave of disenfranchised voices, the road movie - which, in Hall's opinion, has been practically dead since the 70s - seems particularly prevalent. Whether the road movie has any place in Occupy culture remains to be seen -- but it seems the road movie has disappeared in its own fashion: it died... or, if Hall's expectant ending suggests, after a sojourn in Australia and Europe, it simply went home.

Rich Hall's Continental Drifters is available to watch on BBC iPlayer until Monday 29 November.

Read more: Rich Hall's How the West Was Lost; Rich Hall's The Dirty South.