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Thoughts on Alan Clarke

Thoughts on Alan Clarke

I’ve long been meaning to write a few words on Alan Clarke, a director whose work I have formerly and shamefully overlooked with the odd exception of a long-distant, early-hours viewing of Scum. I attended the recent BFI season with high expectations that were duly met, thus encouraging me to snap up more tickets than originally bargained for and put me out of pocket for the following month’s…

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The Next Life

Nostalgia is in fashion – at least in the material sense – but memory forever precludes a unwelcome melancholic attachment. Even our fondest reflections of days past are tainted with the knowledge that these better times are gone, glimpsed through a hazy visual recollection that soon too will take its leave as our mind gradually empties itself of the clutter. Loss is a key component of memory. It…

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Film4 Frightfest Preview

This bank holiday weekend, Empire Leicester Square is once again haunted by the annual Film4 Frightfest. Five days, three screens and a few dozen premieres, debuts, sequels and rereleases – there should be plenty to keep horror aficionados safe from the holiday sunshine. It all kicks off with Thursday night’s premiere of The Dead 2: India, Howard & Jon Ford’s follow-up to the critically acclaimed…

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Film4 Frightfest – Day 1: ‘Curse of Chucky’ marks an enjoyably arch return for the killer doll

Film4 Frightfest – Day 1: ‘Curse of Chucky’ marks an enjoyably arch return for the killer doll

The Dead 2: India Written by Howard J. Ford and Jonathan Ford Directed by Howard J. Ford and Jonathan Ford United Kingdom, 2013 “You’re all adorable,” said Bobcat Goldthwait. The self-professed “dude from Police Academy” was on hand to give the introductory speech to this year’s 14th annual Film4 Frightfest, and he couldn’t help but keep informing the audience how “adorable” they all were. They…

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Film4 Frightfest – Day 2: ‘Hatchet III’ sees a fan favourite bow out in a blaze of gore

Film4 Frightfest – Day 2: ‘Hatchet III’ sees a fan favourite bow out in a blaze of gore

The Dyatlov Pass Incident Written by Vikram Weet Directed by Renny Harlin USA, 2013 The contest between scepticism and belief in the supernatural is a reliable means of drawing out a narrative before any sort of big reveal. It’s a dynamic through which the television classic The X-Files operated, featuring the passionate Fox Mulder, who worked to convince cohort Dana Scully of “the truth.” Around…

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Film4 Frightfest – Day 3: ‘Cheap Thrills’ reimagines the American Dream as a savage contest

Film4 Frightfest – Day 3: ‘Cheap Thrills’ reimagines the American Dream as a savage contest

Frankenstein’s Army Written by Richard Raaphorst, Chris W. Mitchell, and Miguel Tejada-Flores Directed by Richard Raaphorst Netherlands/USA/Czech Republic, 2013 Frankenstein’s Army is the closest thing thus far to a live-action Bioshock adaptation. The second Frightfest feature to resemble a video game – albeit in a positive light – the film forgoes the tiresome trademarks of the found-footage…

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Film4 Frightfest – Day 4: ‘Antisocial’ suffers from ubsubtle sermonising on social media

Film4 Frightfest – Day 4: ‘Antisocial’ suffers from ubsubtle sermonising on social media

Hansel and Gretel Get Baked Written by David Tillman Directed by Duane Journey USA, 2013 Not long after Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton reimagined the fairytale duo for theTwilight generation, Hansel and Gretel Get Baked offers a marginally more laidback interpretation on the fable for those more inclined towards other slacker duos like Jay and Silent Bob or Harold and Kumar. Director Duane…

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Film4 Frightfest – Day 5: ‘We Are What We Are’ and ‘Big Bad Wolves’ lay the competition to rest

Film4 Frightfest – Day 5: ‘We Are What We Are’ and ‘Big Bad Wolves’ lay the competition to rest

Banshee Chapter Written by Blair Erickson Directed by Blair Erickson, Daniel J. Healy (story) Germany/USA, 2013 “We didn’t want things jumping out at you. We wanted you to feel immersed, as if you were inside the scene.” Director Blair Erickson can only be referring to 3D; unlike many lazily post-converted blockbusters, his Banshee Chapter was filmed entirely in stereoscopic 3D, a conscious…

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Assorted Writings: SPIONE, DIARY OF A LOST GIRL, EXHIBITION Below are various writings from yesteryear that, until now, I had neglected to group into my portfolio.

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LIFF 2015 - Part 4: Carol's Magical Assassins Club

LIFF 2015 – Part 4: Carol’s Magical Assassins Club

There has been a common theme running through a good number of films on this year’s festival slate: enclosure, whether willful or forced – but mostly willful. While it is far from original to spy out four or more walls and lens one’s film with a ‘claustrophobic’ angle (this motif endures eternally), the notion of boxing oneself away from the world to observe at a safe remove has never felt more…

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LIFF 2015 - Part 3: Heaven Knows I've Green Bones

LIFF 2015 – Part 3: Heaven Knows I’ve Green Bones

At the time of writing this paragraph, Brooklyn was in the lead for LIFF’s Audience Award, though Victoria and Chuck Norris vs. Communism were in dogged pursuit. I could be wrong, but I seem to recall this award being announced before festival’s end, which would put Closing Night film Carol squarely out of the running. (Have no fear: Haynes’ film will be decorated in baubles come Christmas.) I…

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LIFF 2015 - Part 2: GOODNIGHT, EXQUISITE COMMUNIST DOG

LIFF 2015 – Part 2: GOODNIGHT, EXQUISITE COMMUNIST DOG

I should have perhaps mentioned in my previous post that, in addition to being good value for money, Leeds International Film Festival also boasts a number of free film events held around the city. One such event was a screening of Robert Wiene’s seminal German Expressionist picture The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, and with live organ accompaniment to boot! That’s in the Town Hall; but another,…

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LIFF 2015 - Part 1: Sunset Over a White Witch in a Brooklyn Taxi

LIFF 2015 – Part 1: Sunset Over a White Witch in a Brooklyn Taxi

Leeds International Festival, now in its 29th year, runs for two weeks following the hoo-ha of Bonfire night and during the first rumblings of Christmas-onset delirium. Arriving near the end of the yearly festival cycle, LIFF cherry-picks a small handful of some of the year’s most lauded offerings from bigger festival fishes, whilst making ample room for some of the more under-sung prospects and…

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Existential Reflection in The Sopranos

Existential Reflection in The Sopranos

Do not read if you have yet to see the final episode of The Sopranos! -spoilers ahead- If you perceive this to be an unusual first entry for a blog that was initially dedicated to cinema, you wouldn’t be wrong. The topic is a strange one; some would consider an entry detailing the sixth and final season of The Sopranos to be two years too late, with all  debate and dissection of the show’s final…

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London Film Festival Diary, Part 8: FOXCATCHER, EDEN, JAUJA, THE TRIBE, WINTER SLEEP

Keen followers of my filmic musings (no one) will have recently noticed one small inconsistency between the slated films in my morning tweet and those covered in the ensuing blog post. To cut a long story short, I missed out on Gregg Araki’s White Bird in a Blizzard, and I’ll lay part of the blame on an overlong Xavier Dolan Q&A made entertaining by another of his casual dismissals towards…

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London Film Festival Diary, Part 7: HORSE MONEY, LI'L QUINQUIN, MOMMY

In my previous post I touched briefly on the unique capacity of art to aid us in a greater understanding of ourselves, our home planet and its many cultures and histories. Film especially has the property of displaying certain events transpiring in a certain place, in real-time, and can take us from extreme opposing climes of both luxury and poverty with varying empathetic results. How we feel…

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London Film Festival Diary, Part 6: THE BLUE ROOM, PHOENIX

And breathe. Wednesday was the calm before the storm; in addition to restoration of Howard Hawk’s Only Angels Have Wings, there were only two new films on my slate compared to eight consecutive films across Thursday and Friday. Most people would even balk at ‘only two new films’, and those people are to be found in the real world, where ‘two films’ is a luxury one indulges in over the course of…

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