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Gravity
Gravity
Dir: Alfonso Cuarón
Run Time: 91 minutes
I kind of hope all of humanity can get in front of this film fairly urgently...that includes you if you haven't seen it yet.
P.S Will write more soon but meanwhile just drop what you're doing and find you're nearest Imax asap.
Captain Phillips
Captain Phillips
Dir: Paul Greengrass
Run Time: 134 minutes
Finding time to breathe right now is proving difficult so watching movies and blogging is obviously not high on the agenda.
That said, a trip to see Captain Phillips was squeezed in and I had high expectations.
Good...solid...moments of genius...but Oscar worthy? Hmmm there's a little too much baggage for my liking with not enough exploration of the themes, specifically the pirates back story and social situation. The first hour or so is brilliant and flies by. We are given an insight into an industry fairly touched upon in popular culture (That of international commercial shipping) and this is all explored through a cagey Captain Philips (Tom hanks) who joins up with his crew and ship to journey around the horn of Africa. We observe as he becomes more and more worried by the threat of piracy of the Somali coastline and the isolation of the ocean in and around the sea compounds this creating a formidable sense of foreboding that has you there with him the entire time. Then of course our pirates materialize in an attempt to board and steal the ship and the sequences of action that follow are again beautifully executed and provide plenty moments of jaw dropping awe. We watch with baited breath as they successfully transfer themselves from flimsy skiff to gargantuan cargo ship with relative ease whilst bearing the might and intensity of water canons and the swaying side of the vessel itself. It all comes together for great cinema as the crew watch on unarmed and petrified waiting for the inevitably hostility to come. Next follows the films real triumph in the bridge hostage scene in which the pirates seize control of the ship and hold Phillips and various members of his crew at gun point as they look to exert their authority and steer the ship home. It's no surprise it these scenes that dominate the films trailer as they are utterly gripping. With limited character emotional range at his disposal, the lead pirate played by Barkhad Abdi is superb, creating genuine tension and threat that we can only assume is highly representative of the real Captain Phillips' experience.
Then comes the downer from my perspective. After over an hour of tense and interesting hostage drama aboard the boat, Philips is kidnapped by the pirates in the ships life vessel after they fail to take control of the crew. Obviously there is only so much acting and interchange that can be successfully conveyed when confined to a 2 metre by 4 metre tank but nevertheless things start to get a bit repetitive. The pirates seem to share the same arguments over and over again whilst outside the life vessel the navy and marines assemble in pursuit to take them down and reclaim the hostage. At this point it all felt as though we had left what was an insightful and suspenseful thriller and joined up with some sort of event from The Expendables in which the inevitable gun toting, testosterone fueled US military propaganda runs away with itself. We're left to mere glimpses of Hank's cowering in the pack of the life craft with very little opportunity to get involved in the film as the operational drama outside unfolds. Interestingly enough going back to the trailer, none of this Black Ops manoeuver stuff is in there whatsoever! I guess this is a tactical move by the distributor as not to give the game away about the ships hostage situation but nevertheless it also highlights that it's not that pivotal for selling the film. I'd therefore go as far as to say the weighting of the movie is all wrong. Of course the film makers need to stay true to the original story but why not focus more on the pirates initial capture of the boat and/or their actual back story. This would have surely made the film a more worthy Oscar contender than simply letting it slip into Die Hard mode?!
Another gripe I had was the little effort that had gone into personalizing the pirates and really highlighting the circumstance that has forced them into a life of crime. References are made to gang lords and briefly to the Somalian political landscape but there are no scenes in which any of the characters really question how Somali's have found themselves in the position they're in. My honest opinion is that film makers have an obligation to attempt to properly explore the themes in which they choose to work with and here I can't help but feel as though Greengrass has given a quick nod and wink to the causes of piracy in an effort to jump back to the thrills and spills as quickly as possible.
That all said it is a good watch...it just has frustrating potential to be a bit more than that.
Riddick
Riddick
Dir: David Twohy
Run Time: 118 mins
I've watched a lot of dross this summer...a lot of weak underdeveloped sci-fi/action movies that promised a lot but ultimately delivered very little. Rather surprisingly, Riddick proved to be a fairly refreshing watch after all that.
Ok yes it's fairly formulaic and basic in a lot of respects. The 'Escape from stranded planet' plot is linear and the supporting cast of rough'n'tough mercs are as 2D as a shit SNES platformer but all that aside it has a lot of charm and character that makes it a lot of fun.
As with the previous films and games, Vin Diesel is hypnotically watchable as the universes ultimate bad ass, a lone wolf completely at one with his environment and in sync with his surroundings...and it really is as simple as that! The character is great, extremely well written and offers something not a lot of Sci-Fi/Action protagonists do these days in that he has a shred of depth that actually encourages you to empathize with him regardless of his rough nature.
The first 30 minutes of the movie are delicious as you watch Riddick acclimatize to the wasteland planet he has been dumped on. There are some gorgeous sequences as he fends off predators, puts together make shift habitats and bonds with an adopted space jackal pup. The environment is beautifully brought to life through the visual effects and the framing of some of Riddick's more contemplative moments equally helps to establish the wild isolation of his new world. What's also noticeable in comparison with previous blockbusters of the summer is the moderate to slow pace at which the first 30 minutes actually progresses...basically it doesn't! Twohy really lets you sit and sweat in Riddick's isolation allowing ten years to pass as he trains up his feral Jackal buddy in an attempt to create some company for himself. Again this felt so refreshing in comparison with say Elysium where you are given the lesser part of 15 minutes to relate to Matt Damon's character before the gears are cranked through and your into the mindless action. In fact the first 30 minutes of the film were so well paced and easy to watch that it made the rest of the film a bit of slog to get through.
Ultimately this is a film about Riddick,he's the central character and the most interesting so when our ships full of pirates turn up to take him down and we are forced to endure 40 minutes of futile chit chat about how to catch him you are left screaming to get back to the isolation of the start. Instead scenes of crude and clunky dialogue rattle past as our flat ensemble one by one get picked off until eventually Riddick is back and we can party again. That said it never really gets back to the patience and simplicity of the first act and just runs its formulaic course after that. Nevertheless Riddick's charm and broodiness combined with some innovative action sequences (The hover bike chase is great fun) provide just enough to get you over the line still nodding happy at what you've been served up.
By no means a world beater but the cool nature of Vin Diesel's much adored character makes it a fun watch. Here's hoping the now commercially reinvigorated franchise continues in a similar vain going forwards....who know maybe we'll be treated to 90 minutes of Riddick in a purely solo outing next time.
P.S Discovering Vin Diesel reveal on his personal facebook page that the relationship between him and the Jackal was inspired by the death of his own dog made that first 30 mins all the more pleasingly watchable!
Elysium
Elysium
Dir: Neil Blomkamp
Run Time: 109 mins
Elysium is very comparable with one of the utopian houses set within the movie…It’s big and impressive on the outside but within it’s soulless and empty.
Its a real shame as It showed so much potential to be a worthy successor to District 9 but fundamentally in the end it just lacks any real depth or originality. Neil Blomkamp as a director can still hold his head high as it’s by no means awful however for a film that promised to expand and explore themes of humanity and immigration in a similar way to D9 in reality it does none of that. In fact it feels very similar in size and scope to the 2012 popcorn sci-fi flick Lockout starring Guy Pearce but whilst with Lockout you came away feeling pleasantly surprised, this evokes the exact opposite and to an extent I can only put this down to the acclaim of D9.
Making direct comparison with the aforementioned, the films biggest issue is that it lacks the same wit and charm. D9 had a fantastically well written protagonist in Wikus played by Sharlto Copley that instantly makes the whole narrative more emotive. In Elysium however we are left to trudge along with a bland and 2D Matt Damon whose character is never properly established making the whole thing feel dull and boring. Most of the other performances in the film are equally flat and dis-interesting with the one exception of Sharlto Copley who does at the very least provide some bullish amusement in his more psychotic Wikus role!
The trend for Sci-Fi this year has been a disappointing one of films looking shiny and interesting before delivering very little in the way of substance. There have been a lot of great concepts out there that have gone heavily under-explored and I fear that this is only going to continue to be the case going forwards as typical audience demand for spectacle continues.
Gravity and Europa Report…we look to you to up the intellect level.
Hunger
Hunger (2008)
Dir: Steve McQueen
Running Time: 96 minutes
Not a lot of cinema visits taking place right now due to abnormally high work loads but still managing to catch up on some decent movies of yesteryear.
Been a while since I watched it but with my head well and truly in the space of creating dramatic tension right now, Hunger is well and truly worth the slice of reflective hindsight.
The movie is British director Steve McQueen's debut feature and explores the hunger strike undertaken by Northern Irish Paramilitary captives within a Belfast prison. At it's time of release it was hailed as a masterpiece of political art and breakthrough in a medium that so frequently chooses divert our attention from real issue and debate.
Refreshingly, films like Hunger give cinema real purpose and remind us what it is to be human beings with substance and spirit. Regardless of your political agenda, it's hard not to be swept away by the sheer rawness of Michael Fassbender's portrayal of republican MP Bobby Sands. The last 30 minutes of the film in particular are sensationally captivating, simply focusing on the slow wordless deterioration of Sands as he refuses to eat, endearing you to the man and aligning you with the futility of political struggle.
As is well documented, the film is all the more riveting for it's phenomenal lack of dialogue forcing the audience to digest and interpret the subtext of each scene for themselves and this only strengthens it's status as a brave cinematic tour de force.
Of course, McQueen has since followed Hunger up with the equally impressive Shame, tackling the rarely touched issue of sexual addiction and both films share similar qualities. Thoughtful shot composition, exquisitely though dialogue and impeccable performance from all principle cast.
His next venture, 12 Years A Slave is set to hit our cinema screens in October of this year. If it only gets fractionally close to capturing the humanity of the issue in the way his previous two features have done then it will undoubtedly be a must watch.
Red Riding 1974: The Year of Our Lord
Red Riding 1974: The Year of Our Lord
Dir: Julian Jarrold
Run time: 102 minutes
Gripping…I’m just very frustrated it took me the best part of four years to get round to watching part 1 of what I hope to be a consistently riveting trilogy.
Having just come off the back of the fairly lethargic The Awakening, this was a compelling breath of fresh intriguing storytelling. Whilst I accept that is a little conventional in the British drama stakes with its spoonful’s of bleakness and grimy grey cinematography, it’s easy to forgive the film for such archetypal formula when you have an intricately assembled cast delivering highly emotive suspense of this masterful caliber.
A pre-super stardom Andrew Garfield is perfectly subtle and endearing as Eddie Dunford, a headstrong reporter with a perfectly calibrated moral compass whose search for answers in the case of several murdered school girls takes him on a journey of personal discovery across the Ridings of Yorkshire. As far as protagonist arcs in British drama go, this really does hit the mark. Eddie goes from being a cocksure reporter with the swagger of Fleet Street experience to that of a deeply conflicted humanitarian with a selfless desire to unearth the truth and unveil deep seeded local corruption among the most trusted of British institutions.
It’s hard to put your finger specifically on what makes Red Riding 1974 so exceptionally different to most bland and average British cinema as like I mentioned, at its core it is essentially a gritty police drama. I think it has something to do with its overarching chilling tone and atmosphere manifested in a multitude of the films elements including the soft cinematography (Maybe a perfect example in a digital day and age of a film that’s story is very much enhanced by its choice of 16 mm celluloid.) and haunting tonal soundtrack. The Mise en scene really does come together to create a look and feel that stands it out from other modern British films of the same genre and generation.
Lastly Sean Bean, is excellent. Absolutely excellent and it’s been a long long time since I've seen him truly excel in a way such as this. In perfect command of his native Sheffield accent and the cultural tendencies that come with it, Bean delivers an emphatically powerful performance as the ruthless John Dawson, a local real estate tycoon with a corrupt stranglehold on Yorkshire politics and policing. Whilst his story is concluded somewhat hastily (Almost Lynchian in fashion), his scenes with Garfield are fantastic and offer something rarely seen in low budget British drama…an antagonist with depth and genuine purpose.
Looking forward to getting my teeth stuck into the next two films in the trilogy, 1980 and 1983 now.
The Awakening
The Awakening
Dir: Nick Murphy
Run Time: 107 Minutes
My opinion on The Awakening is best reflected in the Google search I performed when looking to research into the movie having just watched it. Whilst the main page results prioritized the usual IMDB, Wikipedia pages for the film, more interesting the image strip brought up several incredible images of a gargantuan man made statue of a giant struggling to break free from the ground.
Exploring this further, I discovered that the statue featured in the image results was that of 'The Awakening', a 33 year old aluminum art sculpture situated in Washington DC, USA and representing that of New Birth or spiritual enlightenment. It truly is a breathtaking thing!
How does this relate to 'The Awakening' the movie? it doesn't. Not in the slightest...but being so easily distracted from writing about it just about sums up what it's about...nothing really.
Florence Cathcart played by Rebecca Hall, is a sort of Scooby-Doo-esque ghost hunter who arrives at a 1920's boys boarding school to unravel the most haunting of supernatural mysteries ...although it's not really that frightening. In fact, It's actually pretty tame and just involves a dead kid running around with a slightly twisted pale face.
OK so not all horrors have to have wall to wall scares and nail biting, blood chilling nemesis at their cores but you'd expect the ones that don't to actually make some attempt at exploring something remotely interesting. The Awakening just doesn't do this and brings absolutely zero fresh to the table for a horror audience to be in anyway interested by. The whole thing just feels like a loose rip off/remake of The Others except when they picked up the components of Nicole Kidman's 2001 psychological outing and began wheelbarrowing them back to the production office, they had a whole in the bottom and 50% was left on the road which they couldn't really be arsed to go back and get.
Seriously I cant actually think of anything to say about this film! There might be one or two mild scares in there if you fancy going the distance but to be honest I think you'd get the same out of your standard episode of Jonathan Creek and at least with JC you get the odd plot twist and the chance to go to bed an hour earlier.
Oh and here's that marvelous statue in case you were wondering what it looked like...
Man of Steel
Man Of Steel
Dir: Zack Snyder
Run time: 143 minutes
It’s been a while since the relentless slog of visiting the cinema several times a week to experience virtually every Oscar nomination but nevertheless I have found the time and motivation to pop down on the odd occasion in recent times. Whilst Elysium, Riddick and Europa Report remain the only entities populating my must watch list currently, there was enough about Man of Steel to make me want to go have a sniff.
Gone off of Superhero movies in recent times, largely as a result of the constant dross that has begun to emanate from the studios and dominate British theatre screens. Spielberg opened our eyes to it with a very open interview with the BBC during the release of Lincoln, in which he proclaimed that unless audiences stop going, there is a very real chance that big budget spectacle and relentless exploding movie screens will be all that’s left of cinema in the near future. This was definitely the feeling I got with the latest Star Trek movie directed by Abrams that quite simply parked all content in a disabled parking bay outside the multiplex and chose to just bash our heads in with non-stop flashing lights and fast moving metal space objects…pointless. Cynicism aside (For a brief moment), it was Chris Nolan’s involvement as Producer on Man of Steel that made me think, there was going to be something more to this than supersonic punches to the face and torso. I doubt anyone will ever get near to the depth and richness brought to the genre by Nolan but nevertheless Man of Steel does align to a lesser extent with the Dark Knight trilogy.
The inclusion of Russell Crowe and Kevin Costner instantly brings the whole thing up in the credibility stakes significantly and both deliver solid and intriguing performances. Costner in particular steals the show in all of his shorts scenes as Super Man’s surrogate father and subsequently forces you to ask the question, where has he been for the last five years?! He’s maybe never going to get up there to the dizzy heights of Daniel Day Lewis’s chameleon like abilities but by god, Costner will never lose the ability to make an audience give a shit. So much so that you could see yourself hooked to him even if he turned up in Eastenders as a downbeat chippy with a 10 CM long character arc. The guys a master of emotions!
Back to Man of Steel and whilst the first 70 odd minutes or so are highly refreshing, with plenty of character development and exploration, unfortunately it does do the inevitable Super Hero thing and descend into mindless completely unnecessary chaos for the remainder of its lengthy duration. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not an action hater by any means but it’s this whole patronizing studio mentality of, “oh you must be getting bored now, aren't you? OK well we will crank up through the gears for you mighty quick and leave it in ‘exploding mega punch’ for the remainder of the journey.” Unlike in the Dark Knight where the films plot ebbs and flows, with the action seamlessly integrated into the telling of the story, Man of Steel is more within the Transformers/Iron man mould of how many explosions can we create within an explosion.
All in all, Man of Steel does offer some interesting stuff and is nowhere near as shallow as most marvel flicks but ultimately is let down by its inability to stick to its guns and tell a good origin story about an interesting character without compromising that endeavor by fusing vast quantities of matter and anti-matter together in a washing machine for its final act. This week it was announced at Comic Con that the Superman and Batman franchises would be fused together for the next Man of Steel outing...lets just hope this mindless super hero phase will have well and truly died by the time of its release in 2015.
World War Z
World War Z
Dir: Marc Forster
Running Time: 116 mins
Brad Pitt let off a grenade in a plane...that was about it really.
“You know those cartoons when a bunch of people get in a big fight and it’s like this big cloud of dust with arms and legs sticking out? And then one person steps out of the cloud and walks away and everyone else doesn’t know he’s left? That’s the way it feels. There’s all this chaos going on and we’re outside it all.”
Robert Levon Been describing BRMC and their music, What Can A Poor Boy Do?, Robert Cherry, 2003. (via checkthemeaning)
Ten Notes gets Kinodot Film Festival outing
Been a few years since I'd had the old Writer/Director flat cap on but I dusted it off last year to put together Ten Notes. It was essentially a simple exploration of the trigger points involved in sending someone down on their luck, over the edge.
The Kinodot film festival recently picked up the film and have actually made it available to watch for the next four days on the home page of the site.
Check it out here: http://kinodot.com/eng/Front_Row_Film_of_the_Day/id/309/
Have a watch and hope you like.
Dan
P.S Thanks to the fab cast and crew for giving everything and making it the film it is.
In what is turning out to be a prolific year for the genre, I'm still waiting for one of these Sci-Fi movies to sweep in and knock me off my astronautical magnetic suction feet.
Could it be Sebastian Cordeo's Europa Report? Let's hope so...this looks intersteller!
Star Trek: Into Nothingness...and other thoughts on JJ Abrams
Star Trek: Into Darkness
Dir - Jumping Jack Rabbit Abrams
Run Time - 133 minutes
Ok so I'm in no way a Trekkie and would barely even call myself an admirer but come on, isn't this franchise actually supposed to mean something more than just bombs in space and fists to the face? Last time I checked Star Trek was founded on tackling the contemporary issues reflected in society with enlightening philosophy and profound storytelling.
In this latest outing for the franchise, I'd go as far as to say that Abrams manages to keep the camera still for a total of 13 minutes max and even in these "character moments" he still manages to piss his usual array of silly multi-coloured lens flares over their faces. The whole move rockets forward at an utterly stupid pace,with nearly every scene featuring something either being blown up or projected through space at break neck speed. Yea I get it, It's a sci-fi/action film and it would be stupid not to expect spaceships wrestling with each other in hyperspace and human on alien on human laser battles but do we really have to be served up with endless/meaningless action every five minutes. Don't get me wrong, some of the sequences are fun with nicely conceived visuals (Chris Pine being shot out of tunnel into the vastness space stood out as a particularly good one, although it was a shame they managed to get him back.) but are modern audiences really that dumb and restless that they require relentless action in order to remain engaged. Looking around at the half empty cinema on what was the UK's busiest cinema going night of the week, I sincerely don't think this is the case somehow.
Back in the day, I had a bit of a soft spot for JJ. I got hooked on Lost back in 2005 and watched it religiously up until close, enjoying most of the journey despite the obvious simplistic failings in the final series. Then of course there was Cloverfield which whilst simplistic and basic in plot was utterly captivating in it's delivery, in fact so much so that it ended up becoming the basis of inspiration for a final year grad film project of mine! Really did love that film! Next was his attack on the Mission Impossible franchise which again I thought he handled with a unique burst of fun and freshness that was so lacking in John Woo's crappy martial arts effort. Unfortunately however since these days, there's been somewhat of a trend developing in Abrams that work that is becoming worryingly more familiar as his debut outing with Star Wars slowly approaches...the guy can't actually tell a proper story!!
There is so much more to good cinema than just set pieces and spectacle and whilst we all appreciate that every movie needs it's fair share of these in order to get the bums on seats, there ARE other elements needed in order to truly engage an audience. Unfortunately however Abrams can't do subtle, intricate or endearing. Super 8 was a classic example of a film that promised a lot in terms of narrative (Sold as Stand By Me meets ET) but of course descended rapidly into 2D underdeveloped kids running around an exploding town, chasing aliens. For me I think that was a big moment, in the sense that here was a genuine opportunity for Abrams to slow the pace down and really get his audience on side with some great kid actor performances. Nevertheless he opted for chaos and confusion and the sincerity in the story was all but lost. Jumping forwards to this latest Star Trek outing (And to some extent the last as well) and this convention is becoming somewhat scarily predictable. I wouldn't mind so much if I was handing over my bucks to see Iron Man 10 or Transformers: Metal meets Metal but here is a franchise that is actually supposed to mean something. It comes with a legacy in popular culture worth acknowledging and protecting and instead we're left with nothing but nods, winks and one line homages to the themes and philosophies that should actually be at it's very core.
All of this aside, nothing right now concerns me more than the treatment currently being planned by the Abrams team for the next Star Wars franchise. Of course there is argument to say that the overall direction offered can't get much worse than Lucas' rather wooden approach to the last trilogy however even those films carried with them a charm and visual symmetry that made for special viewing. I somehow don't think even the 20 minutes of set up allocated to the build up and excitement of Phantom Menace's pod race sequence would survive the Abrams throw a script in a washing machine approach to film making. Likewise if we are to see a return to the charm and character of the previous films, I just can't see where he is actually going to get the ability from to hold a moment. Take Han Solo's slow descent into the carbonite chamber in Empire Strikes Back for example. As Leia declares her love and Han stares emotively back, I could see Abrams citing this as the perfect opportunity for a grenade to go off in the room and all hell to break lose. We can only hope that the genius that is Michael Arndt will get the license to hold him to account for every word and moment that makes it into the final draft of his script for the next installment in the much loved sci-fi franchise.
If this is only fractionally as good as District 9, it will be a must watch...bring on August 9th.
Oblivion
Oblivion
Dir - Joseph Kosinski
Run Time - 124 Minutes
This year looks set to be a massive one for Sci-Fi. We've got JJ's latest outing with the Star Trek franchise, Vin Diesel reprising his role as the enigmatic anti-hero Riddick and of course Elysium, Neill Blomkamp's much anticipated follow up to to District 9.
Oblivion therefore looked set to be a tasty appetizer to this mouth-watering sci-fi buffet...it is however a little cheap and under-cooked shall we say.
Whilst it begins strongly with an intriguing set up and concept, similar in tone and style to last years Prometheus; like Ridley Scott's failed attempt to philosophize the Alien franchise, Oblivion really struggles to actually surmount to anything.
The plot follows Tom Cruise's character Jack Harper as he explores a post apocalyptic earth as a member of a mysterious two man 'clean up' team. Harper is handed various missions by a mother-ship floating above the earth named the Tet that he believes to be housing the remnants of man kind as they prepare to depart for a new life on one of Saturn's moons. As a set up this is of course, very reminiscent of Duncan Jones' 2009 independent Sci-Fi flick moon which features Sam Rockwell as a miner stationed on the lunar mass and forced to report back to a base he has little contact with. Unlike Moon however Oblivion is crucially lacking in sophistication and sincerity. It has great potential to really explore what it means to have a maternal connection with the planet of origin but instead descends into a cheap and soulless Terminator rip off in which Harper is merely pitted against an under-developed enemy in a string of meaningless action sequences.
Whilst Oblivion has it's plus points (It's panoramic sequences presenting a post apocalyptic earth from the sky are beautiful) it doesn't really bring anything too original to the genre which ultimately is a shame as there is a cool little concept there at it's heart trying to get out.
To conclude... never mind...and bring on Elysium which looks overwhelmingly good.
Good Will Hunting - Debut Writing
Good Will Hunting
Dir - Gus Van Sant
Run Time - 126 mins
Been a while since I last watched Good Will Hunting but being in the thick of an intense script development process right now, busted it out as a a template for how to nail a debut feature.
Whilst it's still a little hard to believe that the sophisticated and emotive writing found at the heart of GWH is 100% the first time work of Damon and Affleck, i'm still fairly convinced that the film would now have been what it is without them. It's one of those films that has an abundance of industry conspiracy theories as to who potentially guided them or doctored the final draft but the fact of the matter is when you look at the latter works of the pair (More so Affleck) you see the same tone and message of human attraction/repulsion featured consistently in the same way. Argo for example presents very similar themes of internal conflict and human spirit.
Of course, it's safe to say the debut pair weren't exactly out in the wilderness when it came to developing the script. From day one they had the likes of Kevin Smith around them and then of course the master Gus Van Sant was brought on board to refine the writing into an utterly captivating experience. Nevertheless, whilst its over fifteen years old now Good Will Hunting is founded on well conceived storytelling and superb well thought through writing that ultimately makes it a bastion of hope for an industry desperate for quick fixes right now.
Right break over, back to the grind stone...
BRMC Presents SPECTER AT THE FEAST: PART 6
Dir - Malia James
BRMC released this short film series to kick start their tour and new album launch.
Back of arm/hairs at full length...
Full Poem
About Fallout
Written by John Trudell
I flew with the eagles Until I fell from the nest I ran with the wolves then I got lost from the pack Slowly I go crazy everyday Some days run faster than others I never strayed into heaven It was hard getting past hell I travelled through and beyond The death and birth of man I am ectomy Imagine running out of imagine Mistaking authority for power Weaving life's free spirit Into patters of control I heard all that was said Until now I hear nothing at all The edge between twilight and dark The great lie lurks Prostitution of soul Anyone can do it - or not I went down some roads that stopped me dead in my tracks I am ectomy I've been the mirror to others' reflecting selves I've known love that can't help but love And I have been close to that hurting way of love I flew with the eagles Until I fell from the nest I ran with the wolves Then got lost from the pack From the earth Wind cave memories One with the sky Time of different motions Dog days dreamer Chasing the neon woven into minds From my place in line I fell out of order I've been here, I've been there I've been anywhere And I haven't been anywhere And I'll be back again I am ectomy Imagine running out of imagine Mistaking authority for power Weaving life's free spirit Into patterns of control ____________________________________________________ In the reality of many realities How we see what we see Affects the quality of our reality We are children of earth and sky DNA (Descendent Now Ancestor) Human being, physical spirit Bone flesh blood as spirit Metal mineral water as spirit We are in time and space But we are from beyond time and space The past is part of the present The future is part of the present Life and being are interwoven We are the DNA of earth, moon, planets, stars We are related to the universal Creator, created, creation Spirit and intelligence With clarity, being and human as power We are a part of the memories of evolution These memories carry knowledge These memories carry identity Beneath race, gender, class, age Beneath citizen, business, state, religion We are human beings And these memories are trying to remind us "Human beings, human beings, It's time to rise up, remember who we are!"
