Meaty music.

Bouts 2.0 - Daniel, Barry, Colin agus Niall

So my old band have a new EP out. We Tried, which is a better song than The Script’s We Cry, is the lead “single” from it. It sounds massive.

As briefly explained in this introductory tumblr post, aptly titled “EP RECORDING“, I left, there was a brief period of stagnation and mourning (I think it was about 40 minutes or so), and Barry and Daniel recruited two of my favourite people – Niall Jackson and Colin Boylan. Niall being the everyman’s stupidly solid bass man and Colin being Sunburnt Jets who occasionally dry heaves into my dreams.

The four new songs were recorded in K9 studios last month where we put together New ways of saying NO back in March 2010. Shane Cullen again proving that there’s no one better if you want a carnivorous record. By carnivorous I mean meaty guitars, raw vocals and a bloody brilliant drum sound.

I just got three meat puns into one sentence. Ba-doom-tish. I’d steak my life that there’s not many others who could do that.

Aaaaanyway, the guys are now looking to get a few months of shows and exposure behind them. I think the Late Late Toy Show or the Skibbereen County Council staff party are the ultimate goals.

Who knows, maybe they’ll wangle their way onto the CMW or NXNE bill here in Toronto. *hint*

In the mean time, they’ll also be all over your internet…

Twitter // BreakingTunes // Soundcloud // Tumblr // Bandcamp

Where’s the geocities page lads?

Related posts:

1. Gimme bouts…
2. Sunburnt Jets – retreat // out of here // blood brick
3. Cru-ou-ou-ou-el // a short post about St. Vincent and All Saints Day

That was then…

A bad photograph of St. Vincent supporting Sufjan Stevens, November 1st 2006, Dublin's Olympia theatre. Pic by wheatln2

And this is now…
[disclaimer - "Cruel" is a potential video and song of the year candidate, it will lodge itself in your consciousness]

So I talked before about my favourite ever show – Sufjan Stevens in Dublin’s Olympia theatre, November 1st – but another thing that made it such a good night was the unknown support act. A member of Sufjan’s touring band, Annie Clark, who called herself “St. Vincent”, looked as sweet as sugar but played some guitar like an animal. Since then we’ve had a bit of thing going on…

She returned to Dublin exactly a year later as support to The National. Also in Dublin’s Olympia (view my pics). Weird no? Oh and did I mention November 1st is ALL SAINTS DAY. Saint Vincent. GAH.

Annie Clark singing with Matt Berninger. November 1st 2007, Dublin's Olympia theatre. Pic by wheatln2.

She then played the sugar club with her band a few weeks later – this guy thought it was grand – and I regret to this day not asking her to marry me as she lined up at the door at the end of the night and thanked the crowd of 250-odd for coming.

But that show isn’t part of this greater narrative of weirdness. Because on November 1st 2010, Grizzly Bear played Dublin’s Vicar Street. Who do you think the support was? I don’t even need to tell you do I.

St. Vincent supports Grizzly Bear, Vicar St, November 1st 2009. photo not by me, but by flickr user alajwhelan

Anyway, this weird “you’re following me, aren’t you” thing has meant she’s always had a special place in my heart. Her first album, Marry Me, absolutely rocked my world. The second one, Actor, was too much. I think the kitchen sink is actually in there somewhere. But now this third one, Strange Mercy, is very enjoyable altogether. Perhaps we’re set for a PJ Harvey V Annie Clarke showdown for my favourite 2011 album by a polite, delectable female.

Links wot you should read

@St_Vincent Twitter
irishtimes.com – Mood swing
spin.com – St. Vincent Unplugs, Covers Tom Waits
Pitchfork.com – Interviews: St. Vincent
fuckyeahstvincent.tumblr.com/

Related posts:

1. Nine Types of Light [a post about TV on the Radio. And fun physics]
2. This one goes out to the one I love…
3. Thoughts from afar – St. Patrick’s Day 2011

You think you know Gandhi? My arse you do.

So the tenuous lead-in before the funny facts… Great South Africans was a 2004 TV show that looked to count down the country’s most important figures but was cancelled due to controversy for featuring too many apartheid figures and mis-representing what it meant to be a “great South African”. The fact you only had to have lived there for a time qualified people like Lord of the Rings scribe JRR Tolkien who was born in Bloemfontein but left when he was 3, and the focus of this piece, Mohandas Gandhi, who was born in India but worked there from 1893 to 1915.

While number one was no surprise – anyone else and there would have been uproar – the televised countdown only got down to number 11 before being cancelled. This meant the people at numbers 2-10 only got placed alphabetically…

1. Nelson Mandela, first president of post-Apartheid South Africa and joint Nobel Peace Prize winner (1918 – )
2. Christiaan Barnard, pioneering heart transplant surgeon (1922–2001)
3. F. W. de Klerk, former president and joint Nobel Peace Prize winner (1936 – )
4. Mahatma Gandhi, political activist (1869–1948)
5. Nkosi Johnson, child who died of AIDS (1989–2001)
6. Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, politician and 2nd wife of Nelson Mandela (1936 – )
7. Thabo Mbeki, second president of post-Apartheid South Africa (1942 – )
8. Gary Player, golfer (1936 – )
9. Jan Smuts, statesman (1870–1950)
10. Desmond Tutu, cleric and Nobel Peace Prize winner (1931 – )

In fairness not a bad mix of people. I just love when plaudits are decided alphabetically. “Here you go Mohandas, you get number 4 cause your second name begins with a G!”

Someone get security! I want Desmond Tutu out of here, he was beaten fair and square...

Anyway, Gandhi is a fierce interesting bloke. Looking for proof?

The facts…

1. Though we all know him as Mahatma, his real name is Mohandas! Mahatma means “Great Soul” and is just a nickname hippies and lazy journalists gave him.
2. Even better, in India he’s known as “Bapu”, which simply means “Father”. Simple answer next time someone asks you who’s the daddy. Gandhi. Mohandas Gandhi is the father. (tip of the hat to Andrew, WHO IS NOT THE FATHER).
3. Some of his writing from South Africa is a wee bit racist -
   i) “(Black people) are as a rule uncivilised — the convicts even more so. They are troublesome, very dirty and live almost like animals.”
   ii) “They’re loafers… a species of humanity almost unknown among the Indians.”
   iii) “We believe as much in the purity of race as we think they do… We believe also that the white race in South Africa should be the predominating race.”
   iv) “(Indians are) infinitely superior”.
4. Got married at the age of 13. TO AN OLDER WOMAN. The 14-year-old Kasturba. They were together for 60 years until her death in 1944 when, after an argument between father and son, it was decided they should no longer give her any penicillin. Oooooh, controversial.
5. So turns out he really liked sex. And for a man who preached celibacy and restraint for huge portions of his life, he saw quite a lot of action. With lots of different women. A biographer, Joseph Lelyveld, called him a “sexual weirdo”. He often slept with young girls for “for bodily warmth at night“. Yeah right Gandhi. Most of this only really broke to the western media following a 1987 article in the Washington Monthly – “Gandhi’s Girls“.
6. Did not like meat. Or booze. Hence the lack of a belly.
7. Gandhi was not a fighter and preferred to sit and do something about it by doing nothing about it. His birthday, October 2nd, is now called the Sit Around and Do Nothing Day International Day of Non-Violence.
8. His glasses are worth nearly two million dollars. I can relate to having valuable specs as mine broke a few months ago and I spent $3.99 on some epoxy resin to fix them as they’re priceless.
9. He was Time’s third ever “person of the year”, and the first non-American to receive the honour. Though Hitler and Stalin also joined that club by taking the prize in 1938 and 1939. Nice company to be keeping.
10. He didn’t like the idea of Israel – “Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and in-human to impose the Jews on the Arabs.” I haven’t liked the idea of Israel ever since the 1998 Eurovision song contest saw the gender-reassigned Dana International from Tel Aviv beat Ireland’s Dawn Martin.
11. If he were from Dublin his name would have been abbreviated to Gando.
12. After four failed attempts, this randy bunch of Hindu nationalists eventually killed Gandhi. They shot him three times at a prayer meeting on January 30th 1948.
13. He is no relation to Indira Gandhi, India’s prime minister for four terms between 1966 to 1984. They share a surname and a place on the list of “people who wuz assassinated”.
14. This also means he’s no relation to Indira’s son Rajiv (also assassinated, notice a pattern?) or her grandson, current Indian Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who has not yet been assassinated.
15. Ben Kingsley won an oscar for his portrayal of Gandhi in the 1982 film Gandhi. I thought he was better in Sexy Beast.
16. In the featured picture at the top of this post (this one) he is probably touching his willy.

Could do with a burger:

How the hell is this all online:

No related posts.

SEVEN films in 6 months?!

And she gets to hang out with Al Pacino and his 'surehecouldbehergrandad' girlfriend!

So a year ago at TIFF, I saw The Debt (Aug 31). It was fine, but the fact it’s taken a year to see the light of day with a general release in North America just last week tells you all you need to know. But at the time I thought the unknown red-head charged with playing the young Helen Mirren was one of the best things about it. I didn’t write that in my review, but you trust me when I say there wasn’t a whole lot else to take away from the picture. The director John Madden said he was looking for a fresh faced unknown for the role but now admits “that strategy seems to have been blown out of the water” as, by accident or design, it’s now impossible to escape Jessica Chastain.

Earlier in the summer, we were treated to her part as Brad Pitt’s other half in the dreamy subconscious journey that was Tree of Life (May 26th).

She doesn’t get a lot of dialogue (does anyone really?!), but her maternal aura provides the perfect balance to the hard, cold father played by Mr. Jolie. The film was hotly anticipated but ended up leaving a lot of people feeling cold, though almost everyone agreed on the power of the performances of Chastain, Pitt and Hunter McCracken. If only they’d hired Brett Ratner to make a real film out of it.

I went into The Help (Aug 10th) without even knowing Chastain played a part in it. When I saw her name in the closing credits I had to do a double-check to try work out who the hell she was. When you hide away that vivacious red mane you’re going to confuse people dammit!

So while enough has been written about The Help‘s performance at the box office and the subtlety and power of Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer’s very different performances, Chastain’s Celia Foote never gets many column inches.

Of the white “privileged” roles in the film, she’s actually one of the most believable with the other whities, led by Bryce Dallas Howard’s Hilly Holbrook, all straying a little too close to the caricature, eh, fence. As Foote’s story gets revealed Chastain manages to draw sympathy and humour from an extremely limited role. Let’s hope that when awards season rolls around, the bit players in The Help, like Chastain and Allison Janey, are not forgotten. Oh and can they just give them the Golden Globe for best drama ensemble now please?

Take Shelter is out over here at the tail end of the month (Sept. 30) and sees her playing opposite Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road, Boardwalk Empire). He sees weird stuff. She supports him. Or, in the words of the official blurb… “Plagued by a series of apocalyptic visions, a young husband and father questions whether to shelter his family from a coming storm, or from himself.”

The trailer and poster do not make it easy to work out if it’s going to be worthwhile, but reviews are good and hopefully with this pair of talented young bucks it’ll surprise a few people.

“I wanna be a rodeo star-turned detective! Come on, you’re meant to be my agent! Get me the roles I really want…”. And so enter Texas Killing Fields (Oct 7th). Our hero is now fighting crime. Advance screenings were set up for audiences a year ago, and so God knows what has been happening since then, but reviews were decent and the principal cast of Sam Worthington, Chloe Moretz and Jeffrey Dean Morgan are all usually worthwhile.

Plot summary says… “In the Texas bayous, a local homicide detective teams up with a cop from New York City to investigate a series of unsolved murders.” We can be hopeful though as first-time director Ami Canaan Mann has one hell of a CV. She’s nabbed experience as Robert Redford’s intern on A River Runs Through It and a screenplay credit on the Nancy Drew TV movie. The big time.

Lazy-ass Jessy is then taking almost seven weeks away from the red carpet as her next picture, Coriolanus doesn’t hit screens until December 2nd.

This is an adaptation of a Shakespearen tragedy and sees Chastain in the role of wife of war general Voldomort Ralph Fiennes and playing opposite this is Sparta! Gerard Butler. The film is Voldomort Ralph Fiennes’ first time as a director. Trailer looks veeery promising, if only they ditch that olde-style English, what hack wrote that dialogue?!

And so we come to the final link in the Chastain-chain, Al Pacino’s Wilde Salome (TBA). It premiered at Venice at the weekend and seemed to go down well. Critics haven’t been kind to Pacino in recent years due to a series of cinematic flops, but a positive turn in HBO’s You Don’t Know Jack, for which he won a multitude of awards including an Emmy and a Golden Globe, suggests the tide may be turning.

Wilde Salome is “both an intriguing exploration of Oscar Wilde’s play about the destructive use of sexuality and an intimate self-portrait of the actor/director as he over-extends himself into performing Salome on stage and shooting a film — this film — at the same time.” [Hollywood Reporter].

I saw Salome performed in Dublin’s Gate theatre a few years ago and thought it was a pretty decent adaptation with Fiona O’Shaughnessy in the title role, which is now taken on by Jessica Chastain.

There’s no information on if, and when, this will get a theatrical release but it looks like it will be the seventh (!) film on Chastain’s filmography to hit our screens in the last while. Phenomenal. Hope the agent has negotiated a good percentage cut of profits from the Jessica Chastain Film Festival.

I really am everywhere... Your cinema screen. Your dreams. Your car. Your couch. Your shower. Unlimited options for omnipresence.

I should add that because she’s so lovely to look at, I would be more than happy to see her put out a film every week. In fact I’d be delighted if she just put out. Full stop.

Further reading…

- A Star Not Quite Overnight [New York Times]
- Jessica Chastain feature [NOW magazine]
- Denouement: The Wonder of Discovering Jessica Chastain [Yahoo! Movies blogs]

Related posts:

1. Terence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” – first impressions & reviews… (woos and boos)
2. My TIFF 2010 movie schedule!

I’ll be watching you!!

Stumbled across this video today, can’t help but share. It’s all great, though no big surprise to see what they put at the top…

worth watching a bit more of the scene…

12 fun facts about R Lee Ermey

1. He broke his arm in a jeep accident while filming Full Metal Jacket. In some scenes in the movie, he does not move his left arm at all.

2. He voiced Sarge in all three Toy Story movies.

3. He is a candidate for the National Rifle Association (NRA) board of directors. And is damn good with a sniper rifle.

4. He voiced a prison warden in Spongebob Squarepants.

5. He played the janitor’s dad in Scrubs.

6. He has promoted Glock firearms, Coors Light and Tupperware.

7. He has a Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross and a National Defense Service Medal, amongst others awards.

8. He was in Apocalypse Now, Mississippi Burning, Naked Gun 33⅓ and Se7en.

9. He gets to be called “The Gunny”.

10. He reckons army tattoos are awesome.

11. He thinks Obama is a socialist who is destroying America.

12. He played Gregory House’s father in HouseS05E04, “Birthmarks”.

Ronald Lee Emery. Hates Obama. Like Tupperware.

Related posts:

1. 360°
2. Movie review: The Sunset Limited
3. Movie Review: Bridesmaids

336 films. 11 days.

Another year has rolled around. It’s been 12 months since I kinda kick-started my blog for the first time after a hiatus and wrote My TIFF 2010 movie schedule! and TIFF thoughts & 123 movie reviews.

So in case you were in any doubt, I love film festivals. While TIFF is far from perfect, when you’re dealing with something of this scale (HALF A MILLION TICKETS?!), I guess it’s easy enough to fuck up a little. So lets forgive the wacky lottery ticketing system,the number busy buuup buuup I kept getting for 90 minutes on Saturday morning and the inevitable late showings and lineups. Instead, let’s focus on what matters – the films. Because when it comes to putting together a festival program, they do pretty damn well.

This year I didn’t get my act together in time and so missed out on the 10-ticket packs, which meant I was left to fend off thousands of other enthusiastic punters on “Single Ticket Saturday”. Instead of pitching a tent for an overnight stay on King Street, I opted for the phone and email option. Took 90 minutes (should really just have set the alarm for 8am instead of 6.45am) but eventually the website started playing along and I’m delighted with the ten I got.

Picking what you want to see is a combination of a guessing game, logistical planning and plain old blind luck. Last year The King’s Speech won the audience award and didn’t lose any momentum before taking home the Best Picture oscar last February. Before the festival it hadn’t even registered on my radar and I was more excited about seeing eventual duds like The Debt and Bang Bang Club.

Anyway, onward…

The shortlist:  INTO THE ABYSS,  ELLES,  TWIXT,  SHAME,  MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE,  THE KID WITH A BIKE,  WUTHERING HEIGHTS,  JEFF WHO LIVES AT HOME,  THE DEEP BLUE SEA,  KILL LIST

/
~  INTO THE ABYSS  ~

Director: Werner Herzog | Country: USA | Year: 2011 | Language: English | Runtime: 106 minutes | Format: HDCAM

- TIFF description/tickets
- Official site
- Variety – Into the Abyss: A Tale of Death, a Tale of Life
- New York Times – A Bounty of Documentaries at Toronto Festival

“We do not know when and how we will die. Death Row inmates do. Werner Herzog embarks on a dialogue with Death Row inmates, asks questions about life and death and looks deep into these individuals, their stories, their crimes.”

What more can I saw about Werner? One of the most interesting and passionate film-makers working today, equally adept with drama or documentary. If the Bavarian beauty (trademark wheatln2) were to film himself sitting on the toilet narrating his morning bowel movement I would still pay top dollar to see it as soon as possible. I was lucky enough to see Cave of Forgotten Dreams at the festival last year and whether it was the fact it started at something like 11pm or the 3D glasses, it all swept over me like a nice dream.

Herzog’s new documentary Into the Abyss is an insight into one of my favourite things. The American prison and judiciary system. Whether it’s network television’s serialised cesspit Prison Break or Louis Theroux’s Behind Bars, I’m hooked.

~  ELLES  ~

Director: Malgoska Szumowska | Country: France/Poland/Germany | Language: French, Polish | Runtime: 96 minutes | Format: DCP (D-Cinema)

- TIFF description/tickets
- IMDB

Anne (Juliette Binoche), a well-off, Paris-based mother of two and investigative journalist for ELLE, is writing an article about student prostitution. Her meetings with two fiercely independent young women, Alicja (Joanna Kulig) and Charlotte (Anais Demoustier), are profound and unsettling, moving her to question her most intimate convictions about money, family and sex.

World premiere. Unknown (to me) Polish director. Prostitution. Elle magazine. Binoche.

Ah yes Juliette Binoche. Ever since my French teacher, shoutout to Francis Foyle, told me Juliette Binoche was the perfect woman (I was 14), I’ve kept a little corner of my brain for her. She’s now in a strange little partition populated by middle-aged actresses. She’s kept company by Catherine Keener and Julianne Moore. I imagine them spending a lot of time playing Twister.

Ahem.

~  TWIXT  ~

Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Country: USA | Language: English | Runtime: 90 minutes | Format: DCP (D-Cinema)

- TIFF description/tickets
– IMDB
- American Zoetrope official site
- The Guardian – Francis Ford Coppola’s Twixt trailer: a mishmash of a mystery
- Pitchfork – Dan Deacon to Score Francis Ford Coppola Film
- The Hollywood Reporter – Comic-Con 2011: Francis Ford Coppola Brings ‘Twixt’ to Hall H (Video)

Inspired by the gothic horror of Edgar Allen Poe, Coppola’s latest tells the tale of a burnt-out mystery writer (Val Kilmer) who gets mixed up in murder and evil in a California town.

It’s from the director of Jack, stars the girl from Super 8, the lead is the fourth best Batman and has music from Dan Deacon. The real reason I’m going to this is because some guy called Tom Waits does the voice over. He’s a musician with a gravelly drawl. Pretty sure it’s some sort of world premiere but whatevs…

~  SHAME  ~

Director: Steve McQueen | Country: UK | Language: English | Runtime: 99 minutes | Format: 35mm

- TIFF description/tickets
– IMDB
- Time – Sex and Shame in Venice: Michael Fassbender Is a Real X-Man
- Guardian – Steve McQueen’s film Shame leads UK charge to win Golden Lion in Venice
- IFC – Michael Fassbender reportedly has no shame in “Shame”

Michael Fassbender plays a New York man confronting his sexual compulsions and the self-destructive acts of his sister (Carey Mulligan). From the director of Hunger.

When Steve McQueen came along I instantly thought the dude must have big balls not to change his name to something a little less “iconic”. But after seeing Hunger, I figured you can add a strong stomach to those nads too.

I’d never really noticedMichael Fassbender before Hunger either, so to see his Bobby Sands being physically and mentally destroyed made for some of the most powerful cinema of the last decade.

So to see the two of them re-unite with Carey Mulligan also on board in a movie with lots of dirty controversial sex? Sure I could hardly pass this one up…

~  MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE  ~

Director: Sean Durkin | Country: USA | Language: English | Runtime: 103 minutes | Format: 35mm

- TIFF description/tickets
– IMDB

Haunted by painful memories and increasing paranoia, a damaged woman struggles to re-assimilate with her family after fleeing an abusive cult.

So last Januaryeveryone got terribly excited about this little Sundance, eh, hit.

“Oh look! There’s a third Olsen girl! She can actually act and doesn’t have an eating disorder!! Her movie is amaaaazing!”.

Pity it’s taken this long to see the damned movie but anywhoooo.

~  THE KID WITH A BIKE  ~
[LE GAMIN AU VELO]

Director: Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne | Country: Belgium/France/Italy | Language: French | Runtime: 87 minutes | Format: 35mm

- TIFF description/tickets
– IMDB

An 11-year-old kid, placed in a boy’s home, makes a break for freedom after his deadbeat father refuses to his calls.

This did very well at Cannes. But then it was the double (or is it quadruple if there’s two of them?!) Palme D’or winning Dardenne brothers who were never going to get a hard time from their French cousins. It’s probably still great though as it features a kid. On a bike.

~  WUTHERING HEIGHTS  ~

Director: Andrea Arnold | Country: UK | Language: English | Runtime: 128 minutes | Format: DCP (D-Cinema)

- TIFF description/tickets
– IMDB

No starched lace, no panoramic views, no sweeping score — Andrea Arnold takes Emily Brontë’s classic novel and strips it to the root of youthful passion, restoring its stark power for a contemporary audience. Following her bracing portraits of female desire in Red Road and Fish Tank, Arnold pushes even further here, portraying love as a rush of heart-stopping beauty, cruelty and impulsive acts.

Five years back, more or less just on a whim, a group of us went to see a little Scottish movie called Red Road in Dublin’s UGC. And it was great. We got a postcard on the way out of the screening and it hung on my wall for the next 3 years. First-time director Andrea Arnold had put together such a simple picture of life in depressing-as-fuck Glasgow that it was no surprise that such an unambitious film was rewarded with prized by BAFTA and the Cannes jury. The film told the story of Jackie, a Glasgow city council CCTV operator. One day she spots a man who she thought she’d never see again… I have to stop myself revealing the backstory as it’s so much better to just see it blind. Well, not actually blind. Unaware.

Fish Tank followed. It was shot in 4:3 and starred an unknown 15-year-old Katie Jarvis as Mia, a girl living with her mother on a rough east London council estate. Enter Michael Fassbender as her mother’s new boyfriend. Sparks fly.

So after two modern classics, “hopefully not third time unlucky” is what I’m thinking. To adapt a literary classic, Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, for a contemporary audience could go very badly in the wrong person’s hands.

It premieres at Venice tomorrow, I don’t think we have anything to worry about.

~  JEFF, WHO LIVES AT HOME  ~

Director: Jay & Mark Duplass | Country: USA | Language: English | Runtime: 83 minutes | Format: DCP (D-Cinema)

- TIFF description/tickets
– IMDB

When he leaves his house on a seemingly banal errand for his disgruntled mother, Jeff discovers that the universe might be sending him signals about the nature of his destiny.

This isn’t out until March of next year, in fact the little I’d heard about it during the summer suggested we wouldn’t hear a peep from the film-makers until next spring. But lo and behold turns out it’s ready for festival season. I loved Cyrus and have never seen anything else the Duplass brothers have done (I like the look of Baghead though, what a poster).

Ed Helms and Jason Segal are both at that great stage of being on TV all the time (The Office and How I Met Your Mother for the TV-o-phobes), while also fitting in plenty of movie roles too. There’s a fine line before you get annoying from over-exposure – *cough* Danny McBride *cough* – but I could do with a whole lot more of these two in my life.

~  THE DEEP BLUE SEA  ~

Director: Terence Davies | Country: UK | Language: English | Runtime: 98 minutes | Format: 35mm

- TIFF description/tickets
– IMDB

The wife of a British Judge is caught in a self-destructive love affair with a Royal Air Force pilot.

I saw Alan Stanford’s adaptation of this Terence Rattigan play in Dublin’s Gate theatre three summers ago and absolutely loved it. When I saw they were making a film out of it I wasn’t sure whether to embrace the news or not.

Of Time and the City director Terence Davies directs with Rachel Weisz, Tom Hiddlestone (recently impressed with him in Thor and Midnight in Paris) and Simon Russell Beale taking on the three lead roles. Seems they’re all taking it very seriously so let’s hope they manage to match the despair, wit and complexity of the play.

~  KILL LIST  ~

Director: Ben Wheatley | Country: UK | Language: English | Runtime: 95 minutes | Format: 35mm

- TIFF description/tickets
– IMDB

A professional killer becomes a pawn in a supernatural mystery when he accepts an assignment from some shadowy clients.

The director, Ben Wheatley, is not my brother or cousin. I wish he were though. Would make family dinners a lot more interesting.

Kill List is already on general release in the UK and Ireland and is getting rave reviews from the media and from friends. It’s screening as part of TIFF’s Midnight Madness program, which is almost a mini festival of it’s own now. Here’s what their Twitter bio says:

Nice, right? If I didn’t have a job that required me to get up at 7.30 every day I’d be tempted by their ten-ticket pack. Seeing movies with an enthusiastic late night crowd can’t be beaten, which I’ve been lucky to experience in Toronto’s Bloor Cinema (re-opening soon!) for the After Dark and Hot Docs festivals.

Anyway, I’m delighted to be seeing Kill List at midnight on a Saturday night as my festival closer.

Should be a riot.

So there we have it. Right now no Melancholia, Take This Waltz, The Artist or Tyrannosaur. If a cheap ticket showed up for any of them, who knows…

Related posts:

1. My TIFF 2010 movie schedule!
2. TIFF thoughts & 123 movie reviews
3. Movie Reviews: The High Cost of Living // Certified Copy

“It was only a fling, Summer meant nothing to me!”

So hello again blog! Sorry for ignoring you for two months…. This is what has been keeping me entertained this past while. Lots of pain, most of it financial.

No related posts.

It has been 360 days since I was in Ireland.

Me before I quit drinking back in 1995. I was so drunk back then I can only date the photo from the Cronins EOS coach in the background...

And in 3 days time I shall return! A 16 day sojourn, until Sunday July 24th. I shall do my bit to live up to the national stereotype by taking lots of deep breaths to take in the country air, drinking to excess, pretending it’s not raining and blatantly ignoring traffic signals.

What have I missed? Eh… Obama, the Queen, King Enda taking the crown in a general election, the IMF buying the country, the death of a man who tried to pretend we and he weren’t in trouble, Manchester United topping the table but not being Barca-quality, Drogheda United propping up the table but not being relegated and of course snowpocalypse.

Oh wait, I’m meant to say I missed my family, friends and our tail-less eye-less cat Lily? Oh yeah, those too I guess…

Related posts:

1. WRESTLEMAAAaaa…… satellite signal lost
2. Ryan Giggs loves yoga
3. Can Manchester United score? They always score…

retreat. retreat. retreat.

the new sunburntjets.com. Tilted slightly you don't think it's a propah webpage. There aint no iframe shit goin on here either.

So last Friday, Sunburnt Jets aka Colin Boylan aka mybrotherfromanothermother (and father) released a batch of 3 new songs. This retreat // out of here // blood brick EP follows on from his Low Flying Crow LP which was released last August.

I was delighted to be asked (or told?) to do the artwork, blurbs and a site refresh at sunburntjets.com, like I did last summer for the album release. It was nice to be involved from afar as the EP also features a few other familiar faces from the glory days of the Green Lights dynasty.

We’re not going to win the grammy for best artwork (yes grammies 87 and 88 are given out for packaging…), but I like it. Likewise the web “site” is just a web “page”, so no webby award for me. The cover shot is a photo Colin took on his recent holliers to California and Las Vegas. What he was doing down a seedy back alley in Santa Cruz I’ll never know but it made for a great shot.

Anyway I’m not going to embed a stream, video or bandcamp link here as you can just head on over to sunburntjets.com for all that. Click this rainbow-riffic pic to make all your dreams come true.

Related posts:

1. Sunburnt Jets. Comin-at-cha…

The hills are alive…

Spot the difference...

I really love The Sound of Music. Visiting the sets in Salzburg and taking the coach tour around the mountains was one of the highlights of my 2003 inter-railing experience. Most people would probably say getting sick on the streets of Krakow or trying to write their name on the Brandenburg gate would have been their favourite memory but I quite enjoyed getting to see the famous gazebo where Liezl and Rolf sang Sixteen Going on Seventeen.

What?

But imagine seeing this movie with terrifying Mia Farrow as Liesl, the eh, “lead-kid” eventually played by goody-two-shoes unknown Charmian Carr. Talk about a completely different movie…

instead of…

Anyway, I saw this audition tape online yesterday and while sometimes you can imagine how these alternative castings would have worked out (Tom Sellick in Indiana Jones, Burt Reynolds as Han Solo), this just just knocked me for six. The audition tape has been around for years but I’d missed it. Owning the 35th anniversary Collector’s Edition DVD rather than the Two-Disc 40th Anniversary Special Edition seems to be the main reason. Special people must have trumped Collectors. (And don’t get me started on the Three-Disc 45th Anniversary Blu-ray that’s now coming out… So many versions…)

Mia Farrow just completely terrifies me for some reason, presumably stemming from her part in Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby. Even now she still has something special, her brief performance in The Omen (2006 remake) is one of the few redeeming qualities in a very-flawed film.

I'm coming to get you Nigel...

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