Inception - film review

Tired of waiting for somebody else to bring William Gibson’s Neuromancer to the big screen, Christopher Nolan has clearly turned frustration into creativity and written his own version of the story to make. However, with Inception, we aren’t dealing with the internet or the “matrix”, but with dreams. The idea is basically the same. Thieves try to break into dreams and people try to hide within them.

What I like about Inception is that it is what it is: a heist movie. It’s a tight, clean-cut sci-fi tinged thriller with no grand, reality shifting twist to second guess or new plane of amazement to attempt to wow audiences with in the final reel. All the film asks you to do is listen, concentrate and remember. If you don’t… then you’re lost.

I was surprised I enjoyed Leonardo DeCaprio for once. You completely forget you’re watching that annoying twit from Titanic and just get drawn into the world of his character. I also enjoyed the performances of 3rd Rock From The Sun’s Joseph Gordon-Levitt (now all grown up and sporting some very flattering sharp suits) and Tom Hardy (who’s throaty Brit accent is to die for and his line reading is wonderfully frank and fresh).

I was disappointed by Ellen Page, who I loved so dearly in Juno. Her purpose in this movie is to soak up exposition. She’s the “noob” character who needs things explaining. In effect, she’s our insider, we watch her and hear what she asks in order to understand the world of Inception. Unfortunately she doesn’t fit the role very well and quite often gets vocal intonations wrong whilst delivering a string of dry feed lines for the other actors/characters to play off.

The role of Cillian Murphy could have done with a little more clarity and moral definition. As the pawn in a very confusing game he is neither good nor bad, however since so much in the narrative is rested on his character’s decisions then this ambiguity leads perilously close to letting go of the viewer’s attention towards the end.

In summary, I enjoyed Inception for the complex suspense/espionage thriller that it is. Unlike The Matrix, it won’t change your perception or make you want to discuss what is real and what isn’t. Inception is clear on that: what’s real is real, when it’s not real then you can tell by the people walking on the ceiling.

4/5

Bastards, butchers and bums: Hard Target

Last night I dusted of this Jean-Claude Van Damme starring Hollywood debut from renowned action director John Woo. I was terribly worried that I’d be embarrassed by my consistent assertion over the years that it’s still the only decent film that Woo has made in America. I wasn’t really in the mood to back track and spend time re-evaluating things, but realised I might have to.

Thankfully I was pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable and well crafted the film still felt.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s a very silly film, but everybody involved in it seems to be trying their hardest to make it better than perhaps it’s budget would have allowed it to be. That’s not to say everybody takes the experience too seriously, as there’s a lot of lightness and fun in the right places, but some elements to the film are better than you would expect them to be.

Whilst Van Damme is reliably stone faced and intense as loner Chance Boudreaux his support cast really do shine and bolster the heart and soul of the action. A surprise standout is South African Arnold Vosloo (later to turn up in the Mummy series) who’s menacing demeanour is counterbalanced nicely by his cheeky bad-boy asides (not to the camera though, thank goodness). His performance is very natural and human, rather than two-dimensional and one-note.

Also on board is cinematographer Russell Carpenter who went on to lens James Cameron’s True Lies and Titanic… and you can tell that Hard Target must have helped him to get those valuable assignments. His lush oranges and blues are all in check and the waxy tone to his pallet is very rich and an interesting texture. He seems to have learnt a few things from the great Freddie Francis.

Most importantly, though, this isn’t a film that meanders. It could possibly be compared to the Liam Neeson kidnap thriller Taken for it’s tight construction. There isn’t a second wasted in Hard Target. Yes there are plot, character and emotional development scenes, but they don’t outstay their welcome or slow the pace. They are all key moments and aren’t cast aside as perfunctory. They all lay the foundations for the adventures to come.

So, why “bastards, butchers and bums”? Well, it suddenly occurred to me afterwards at how poorly men, as a gender, seem to be represented in the film. Hard Target shows a world full of destitute ex-soldiers living a rough and desperate existence, callous pornographers taking advantage on the vulnerable, malevolent and murderous businessmen who hunt for sport and crooked doctors who conceal and tamper with evidence for their own gain. Even random men in the street are unhelpful and refuse to provide sanctuary to characters being hunted to their deaths. I suppose Hart Target could be watched as a double-bill along with Once Upon A Time In America, a film thought to be let down by many critics as only portraying women as either “saints or whores”.

The balance seems to be lost in both films.

"Radio Wars" alternate version

I’ve been working on an alternate tracklisting for the Howling Bells’ second album “Radio Wars” for a while and I think I’ve finally settled on a running order.

When I first bought the album my reaction was mixed and I felt that there was a stronger, more coherent work hidden beneath a confused tracklist.

The original was:

Treasure Hunt
Cities Burning Down
It Ain't You
Nightingale
Let's Be Kids
Ms. Bell's Song
Radio Wars Theme
Golden Web
Into the Chaos
Digital Hearts
How Long
To LA (bonus extra track)

I felt that there were some weak songs that could do with being removed and some challenging songs that languished unfairly towards the end of the record. My gut instinct told me that “Radio Wars” was a little “top heavy” and that the subtle science fiction concept could be brought to the foreground with the following tracklist:

Radio Wars Theme
Treasure Hunt
To LA
It Ain’t You
How Long
Digital Hearts
Nightingale
Breaking My Back
Cities Burning Down
Into The Chaos
Ms. Bell’s Song

When I initially moved To LA to the first half of the album I didn’t realise it was meant as a “hidden track” and thought it was part of the official running order, but I’ve warmed to it as part of the piece.

Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers

So what do you do with a band that breaks up before it gets a chance to record it’s debut album? Who’s frontman has such an artistic change of heart before he realises he has a successful music career that the rest of the band decide to bugger off? Who’s early punky demo tapes are collected together post-break-up to form a seminal LP masterpiece?

I dunno, listen and enjoy them I guess :o)

The career of The Modern Lovers aka Jonathan Richman & The Modern lovers aka Jonathan Richman could be seen as one lacking in direction due to an ego-maniac of a frontman, but Jonathan Richman is a wide-eyed, childlike, gentle-giant sort who’s voice makes him sound like a cool indie rocker but who’s heart yearns for softer acoustic melodies and a peaceful existence.

The excitement of youth may have caused him to make an initial wrong step, but luckily for us that wrong step just happened to be amazing. The not-a-debut-album debut album is a fantastic Velvet Underground/The Stooges flavoured new-wave/punk classic and I’m loving the live album that I’ve found on Spotify too.

I’m not sure if I’ll get into Jonathan Richman’s Spanish styled acoustic "solo" stuff (was there ever really a band?), but I’m becoming more and more fascinated by the man: a bundle of contradictions who nobody seems to be able to define.

Here are some nice interviews with him that really reveal the sort of warm person he is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJG4bQxVIHM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7mHg0H6sy8

A few music clips:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDJShMk-r88
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJUY3q3xaWY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjFU98mEem4

Very inspiring stuff :o)

Watchmen - film review

There comes a time in many people’s lives when a sense of confusion about the nature of things overwhelms them. This might strike during childhood, teenage years, early adulthood, middle ages or beyond. It derives from that fundamental fear that in a vast, seemingly limitless universe what is the meaning and point to our lives, and why should we carry on through struggle and strife?

One point of view could be that in relation to the cosmos our lives are a pure accident. We are alive because our planet is this size, is this close to the sun and has gases around it that make it habitable. What we do with our lives, good or bad, has no real meaning. All plants and creatures are on this planet purely to serve their own regeneration, everything is about surviving to reproduce…. be it tree, flower, weed, ant, cat, dog or human, we simply are here to exist. There is no grand scheme or design to it all which will be revealed after we are gone.

The character of Dr Manhattan in Watchmen is grappling with this very point himself and, now gifted with superhuman ability, has become emotionally, morally and physically detached from humanity and Earth by the coldly logical answer. He sees misery and suffering and the prospect of more to come but cannot understand why either state really matters. On a long enough timeline everything becomes dust, why is it so important how it got there?

Watchmen has three main functions. The first is as a domestic drama involving masked heroes, vigilantes if you will, who’s glory days have come and gone. The second is as a fairly standard good versus evil popcorn pot-boiler, replete with cool gadgets and an impressive villain’s lair in which to stage a grand finale and showdown. The third is to pose that key philosophical question about he meaning of existence.

It’s worth watching on all three counts and is brave indeed for daring to provide food for thought for it’s viewers and risk a drop in ticket sales.

Unfortunately however, and I wish I didn’t have to say this, but the level of horrific violence displayed throughout does well to stop the viewer from truly empathising with it’s main protagonists... good or bad. This point may very well keep it from becoming a true classic. Then again, maybe the level of violence is, in itself, part of the philosophising that is at the heart of Watchmen.

"Humbug" - Arctic Monkeys

Eeee, something approaching a proper review from me at last....

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Who would have guessed that the gothic-tinged “Perhaps Vampires Is A Bit Strong But” from the Arctic Monkeys’ debut album would light the way for their eventual artistic embodiment. It was a song that stood out amidst a collection of urban breast-beaters and hinted at an already keen sense of moving-on…. after all, whilst we’re guessing what’ll be the next single from their recent album they’re already firing off demos of their next dozen.

Humbug is an album for lovers of a good old croon. Down go the frenzied twin guitar riffs and up go the atmospherics. Alex Turner spends much of the album with the microphone in his hand rather than a white Stratocaster and smoothly draws the listener into a world of basement bars and velvet lounges. Had the album closed with a cover of “My Way” then not many punters would be left feeling short-changed.

The corrosive scent of unrequited dance-floor lust and domestic violence that flavoured their first two albums becomes a sour mist of seedy encounters with black-market poison merchants and dominating sex fiends. The band has flung aside their modesty and embraced a more primal side….. surely not the actions of a bunch of meek indie chancers?

Humbug won’t hot your heels on the way to work, but it’ll make a good accompaniment to a rainy night on the sofa with a glass of scotch.

You said it, Frankie.

Nowhere Boy - film review

Ah ha, the human side of John Lennon at last.

My girlfriend and I escaped the cold to watch this at the Showroom cinema in Sheffield at the last minute. I think I was initially put off by watching a potential love-in to a man whose status as a genius I’ve never been particularly convinced of.

Using a solo song ("Mother") from his back-catalogue the film Nowhere Boy reminds us that this is not the story of The Beatles but of its founding member, (co...) singer, guitarist and songwriter. It’s a clever way to close matters at a point where you are expecting scenes of tawdry nightclubs in Hamburg.

Kristin Scott Thomas gives a wonderfully restrained performance as a woman constantly on the verge of boiling over and balances so many sides of a character at once that you are almost moved to stand up and applaud her by the end.

Aaron Johnson succeeds in pulling off the tricky task of portraying somebody who is outwardly fairly arrogant and dislikeable and finds some sympathy within, which kept me interested in following his story.

There is a dreadfully miscast actor as the young Paul McCartney who scowls and pouts his way through his scenes which feels at odds with the McCartney we all know. The actor would have been better off as George Harrison with a more lively and enthusiastic soul slotted into the role of Paul.

For some reason, perhaps my own deep cynicism, the scenes where the future members of The Beatles meet and begin forging their future felt quite embarrassing and are not really treated with a great deal of subtlety or originality… but then again Nowhere Boy isn’t a Beatles museum and it’s focus on domestic turmoil and tender emotions are at odds with the crowd pleasing Fab Four moments.