Now Lizzy… A rifle in the wrong hands can be you know, really dangerous.
Archive | February, 2012
From the Archives: Night Train (2007)
20 Feb
Yinan Diao’s follow-up to his 2003 directorial debut Uniform is an intricate tale of court bailiff Wu Hongyan’s (a haunting Dan Liu) lonely existence that exposes the fragility of the human condition when confronted with overwhelming feelings of isolation, desperation and crucially guilt. Diao’s chillingly heartfelt contemplation on the inherent human desire for companionship, set in the bleak industrial wasteland of western China, is an atmospheric and sometimes pessimistic affair, but is one that provides a fascinating insight into the realities of justice, modernization and love in 21st century China.
Forbidden Planet (1956)
20 Feb
And so, at last, mankind began the conquest and colonization of deep space.
The Princess Bride (1987)
18 Feb
Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.
From the Archives: Control (2007)
17 Feb
“I exist on the best terms I can.”
These chilling words uttered by Sam Riley’s Ian Curtis in the opening scene of Anton Corbijn’s black-and-white biopic are fairly indicative of the compelling journey into the psyche of the troubled Joy Division frontman that is to follow. Yet as sombre as these words may appear, Control is by no means a melancholy dirge. Corbijn manages to weave a brilliantly captivating account of Curtis’ descent from hopeful poet to self-destructive enigma, expertly combining moments of overwhelming sadness with great humor.
From the Archives: 28 Weeks Later (2007)
16 Feb
By the mid to late 1990s the genre of horror had threatened to become a cruel parody of itself. Wes Craven’s wonderfully tongue-in-cheek self-referential 1996 feature Scream typified the malaise that the genre found itself in. It wasn’t until Danny Boyle’s genre busting 2002 feature 28 Days Later that horror was taken seriously again. Dispensing with outdated zombie movie clichés, Boyle’s measured direction revived and indeed redefined the entire genre. Intelligent, sophisticated and very scary, 28 Days Later served as a lesson and a wake up call to the film industry into how horror could and should be done. As a result, films such as Saw, Wolf Creek and Hostel have all subsequently enjoyed critical and commercial success, and in the case of Saw and Hostel spawned franchises. Given the success and influence of 28 Days, it seems surprising that a sequel has taken five years to emerge.
THE LOWDOWN WEEK 5
15 FebAh mid-February, too late for awards season and too early for the summer blockbuster. So instead this week we’re left with an awkward smorgasbord of re-releases, half term fodder and studio leftovers, AKA awards friendly pics that were overlooked in the run up.
From the Archives: Factory Girl (2006)
15 Feb
Given the glut of biopics that have emerged from Hollywood in recent years, it is surprising that a character as captivating as Edie Sedgwick has been ignored for so long. Of course, Andy Warhol’s Factory crowd has been considered before in Basquiat and I Shot Andy Warhol amongst others, but Sienna Miller’s Sedgwick makes a far more compelling subject than the graffiti artist or the feminist Valerie Solanas. Perhaps it is fitting that Sedgwick has only just been afforded the biopic treatment, given society’s incessant fascination with the cult of celebrity. Sedgwick is referred to as a “poor little rich girl”, a tragic figure, a 1960’s manifestation of a Kate Moss or Paris Hilton, yet George Hickenlooper’s examination of her rapid rise and fall, from Warhol’s muse to washed out drug addict proves to be both mesmerizing and frustrating in equal measure.
crash/burn 