The A24 Project - Episode 19 - De Palma & Swiss Army Man

Brian De Palma is the subject of A24's second documentary De Palma as he shares experiences and insight into a career that has spanned over fifty years and in Swiss Army Man Paul Dano is a suicidal young man who encounters a farting corpse played by Daniel Radcliffe in one of their most original films.

In A24 Hour News, Dallas and Lee discuss the breaking news that Robert Pattinson is dropping out of The Souvenir Part II and look at the hype machine for the upcoming Midsommar.

Listen to the episode online here - https://www.thenerdparty.com/thea24project/episode-19-de-palma-swiss-army-man

Alternatively, you can download or stream The A24 Project on Apple Podcasts, GooglePlay, Spreaker and Spotify.

The A24 Project - Episode 18 - Green Room & The Lobster

What's your desert island band and if you were to be transformed into an animal what would it be?

Lee Hutchison and Dallas King look at Green Room, about a punk rock band who are forced to fight for survival after witnessing a murder at a neo-Nazi skinhead bar. The film stars the late Anton Yelchin who died tragically after the film was released, we celebrate his short but special career. We also discuss The Lobster directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, one of the most original films in the A24 catalogue, it's set in a dystopian near future, where single people, according to the laws of The City, are taken to The Hotel, where they are obliged to find a romantic partner in forty-five days or are transformed into beasts and sent off into The Woods.

In A24 Hour News, we look at the success of The Lighthouse at the Cannes Film Festival.

Listen to the episode online here - https://www.thenerdparty.com/thea24project/episode-18-green-room-the-lobster

Alternatively, you can download or stream The A24 Project on Apple Podcasts, GooglePlay, Spreaker and Spotify.

Filibuster podcast - Cinema Etiquette

When a filmgoer live tweeted Greta Gerwig's alleged reaction to I Feel Pretty, it sparked debate about who was in the wrong and how people should behave when watching a movie.

Dallas and Lee discuss their frustrations with the modern cinema experience and how they believe it can improved. They also share their favourite cinema stories and what makes it such a special place for them.

Also, just what do cinemas do with all those spoons from screenings of The Room?

What are your best and worst movie-going experiences? Where is your favourite place to watch a film?

Rampage - review

"Know your role"
This was one of the verbal smackdowns that The Rock would lay down on his opponents during his days as the most electrifying man in sports entertainment. Nowadays, it is a motto that Dwayne Johnson lives by in his career as one of the most successful box office stars of the last decade.
Now not only an actor, but a producer as well, he has an incredible knack of picking projects that entertain audiences. Even if the audience themselves don't even think they need them i.e. Jumanji Welcome To The Jungle which has just become Sony's highest grossing film EVER in the US.
Sure, there is the odd misfire (Doom, Baywatch) but for the most part, Johnson is able to deliver big, dumb action movies better than anyone else in the business.
And speaking of big and dumb, welcome to Rampage which features three supersized creatures attacking downtown Chicago following a genetic experiment gone wrong.
If the plot sounds familiar, then you were probably born in the Eighties and played the video game of the same name.
In the game, players were in control of the monsters and the aim was to destroy all the buildings before you were killed by military forces.
In the film, the story follows Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's Primatologist (just go with it) David Okoye who attempts to save his friend George (a giant Albino gorilla), who has mutated to incredible size, from the army who are determined to take him down alongside a giant wolf and crocodile.
The film wisely spends the first 15-20 minutes building the relationship between Davis and George before the proverbial rampaging begins and the special effects and motion performance from Jason Liles (under the tutelage of Terry Notary) help to convince of the friendship between the two and buy into Davis's mission to protect George from harm and save others in his way.
Johnson's character, along with Naomie Harris's biologist Kate Caldwell, are given backstories to flesh out their characters but to be perfectly honest they are unnecessary because deep, thoughtful characterisation is not why the audiences have bought a ticket.
Out of the rest of the supporting cast, Jeffery Dean Morgan's shadowy government agent who is the guy that "when science shits the bed, I'm the one they call to clean the sheets" is great value and totally gets the tone of what the movie is going for.
Unlike the sequence where Joe Manganiello's special forces team track the wolf through a forest that, if one did not know any better, was Brad Peyton filming an audition sequence for a new Predator movie.
Now Peyton and Johnson's last collaboration San Andreas came in for some criticism for not featuring a scene of The Rock stopping an earthquake by punching it in the face.
Thankfully, no such criticism here as Johnson tools up to fight the creatures mano et monstero... albeit somehow doing all this having taken a bullet to the stomach! Sadly no third act twist where Dwayne is forced to take the same genetic serum to grow to supersize to fight them head on, instead working side by side with George to take them down.
Standing next to the curiously large George, Johnson must have finally realised how Kevin Hart feels every time they appear on screen together.
There is no monkeying around in the final sequence which features more destruction than a Transformers movie and Man of Steel combined as it commits to dialling up the ridiculousness of the situation all the way up to 11 but works thanks to Johnson's character saying exactly what the audience is thinking the whole time.
It would be difficult to say that this film wants to be aping the success of previous video game adaptations because the bar is set quite low but it what it delivers is Prim(ate) Friday night entertainment.

3 stars

Tomb Raider - review

You know that thing were you get stuck on a particular part of a video game and you have to play it over and over to the point that you feel bored at its repetitiveness?
That was the experience of watching Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Tomb Raider on the big screen.
The film begins with Indiana Jones Lara Croft showing off their reckless side by ignoring orders and authority and engaging in a high-speed chase that ends up with them getting in trouble.
Meanwhile their father has gone missing while searching for the Holy Grail secret island tomb of Himiko. After finding the father's diary secret room containing all their research, they go off in search of their dad, who may have been kidnapped by Nazis an evil organisation who want the Grail Himiko's corpse for their own nefarious ends.
Upon finding the island, Indy Lara is reunited with their father who is relieved to see them and also grateful that they have not brought the diary research with them. There follows the moment where the father expresses disbelief that they have in fact brought the materials right into the hands of the Nazis evil organisation who have now located the whereabouts of the Grail tomb which they will subsequently raid with the help of Indy Lara by threatening the life of his her father.
In order to claim the Grail Himiko, Indiana Jones Lara Croft must face three challenges including the Leap from the Lion's Head cross the Chasm of Lost Souls and The Breath of God that only the penitent man will pass pray to the Face of Himiko.
Alicia Vikander does her best as Indiana Jones Lara Croft. She is certainly more relatable and believable than Angelina Jolie as the British adventurer. Her reactions to the horrors she witnesses on the island feel real and help to build her into the character that audiences are familiar with in the games.
Sadly however she is unable to escape the Oscar curse that has struck the likes of Charlize Theron (Aeon Flux) and Halle Berry (Catwoman) and what should be a fun, exciting experience but is actually as much fun as watching someone else play a video game.

2 stars

Annihilation (Netflix Originals) - review

Annihilation is a film about a team of scientists who enter "the Shimmer", an environmental disaster area of unknown origin, unsure if they will emerge from the other side.
Writer-Director Alex Garland must have felt a bit like that during the post-production process, wondering if the finished film would ever see the light of day.
The much publicised studio stories claim executives at Paramount felt the film was "too intellectual" and wanted Garland to make changes.
He refused and this resulted in them giving it a small, short theatrical run in America but giving Netflix the international rights.
Now this once again opens up the argument over the audience benefits of a non-theatrical release. 

Some are outraged that they cannot watch it on a cinema screen as the director intended. Others claim that by releasing on the streaming service, more people will watch it there than ever would in a cinematic environment.
Who is right? Well, in this particular case, both are right in some ways.
Following his Oscar-winning Ex_Machina, Garland has moved up in terms of scale from a theatrical three-way chamber piece on what it means to be human, to a much grander (wo)men on a mission story where a group of people (possibly literally) meet their maker.
Natalie Portman plays Lena, a biologist who's soldier husband (Oscar Isaac) has been missing in action for over a year. Consumed by grief, she is all but lost when one day he returns to her dazed and confused. Falling ill he is taking to a military base where she learns he is the only person to have returned from "the Shimmer". Wanting to know what happened to her husband, Lena volunteers to join a team heading in to find the source of the Phenomenon.
Inside the all-female team find plant and animal life that should not exist in nature, along with very real and dangerous threats to their existence, including each other. For the deeper they venture in to the area, the more their connection to reality starts to slip.
Annihilation is a film that was shot to be experienced on the big screen. It has some of the most stunning and visually arresting images you will see all year and some of the impact will understandably be lost if watching it on a laptop or iPhone for example. But its power is in no way diminished and the film's imagery and story will stay with audiences days after watching it.
It is certainly not a film that everyone will appreciate on an initial viewing. The trailer entices audiences in with a brief set up of the story and focuses on certain moments of action and horror but in reality the film has much more in common with films like Arrival and Under The Skin, with a hint of Event Horizon.
That is music to the ears of some film fans to be sure. Arrival and Under The Skin are both five star classics (even if Skin took a few viewings to truly appreciate) and Event Horizon is now a cult classic. However these are not instantly accessible films that found big audiences at the cinema. For Event Horizon in particular, it was the home video market where it truly came alive and that is where Annihilation has the opportunity to grow its potential fanbase.
While there will be some people who just don't get it, there will be some who find it akin to 2001: A Space Odyssey in its themes and messages about humanity. They will spread the word and build up its cult status for years to come. Potentially even organising underground guerilla screenings.
It's legacy on the science fiction genre certainly won't be annihilated. If anything, this is just the beginning!

5 stars

2017 - The Year In Review

2017 - A Year In Review

It would be easy to write up a review of the year looking at the big stories of the year but it would make for depressing reading now and no amount of "Now Wolverine can team up with the Avengers" can make up for that.

Instead this will be a bit of a statistical analysis of my year of cinema going along with my picks for the best (and worst) films of the year along with movie moments and performances.

When compiling my list of what I had watched this year, it became apparent that I will need to move with the times in 2018 as I only had kept track of films that I had seen at the cinema and not at home via Netflix, such as Gerald's Game and The Circle.

From 1st January, that will change as there are more and more original films being released via online platforms, including Duncan Jones's upcoming Mute (which will hopefully also receive a small theatrical release).

Films watched at the cinema - 142

New releases watched in 2017 - 115

Repeat viewings of new releases - 9

Classic re-issues watched on the big screen - 18

Worst Films of 2017

1. Transformers 5: The Last Knight
2. Song To Song
3. The Snowman
4. Geostorm
5. The House

Movie Moments Of The Year

1. Luke & Leia (The Last Jedi) - Don't want to go into spoilers but safe to say that when Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher are reunited on screen, it is a scene that would turn even the most hardened Sith back from the Dark Side.
2. Joi, K and Mariette (Blade Runner 2049) - The A.I. Joi melds with a replicant prostitute in order to become physical with Gosling's K and the CGI used in this scene is the most stunning that I have ever seen and blew my tiny human mind as it struggled to comprehend what it was seeing.
3. Epilogue (La La Land) - A beautiful "What If" recap of this stunning, joyous musical which simultaneously becomes the most bittersweet ending to a romance since Casablanca.
4. Spitfire vs the Bomber (Dunkirk) - The airborne dogfight cinematography is the highlight of Nolan's film but the acting and emotion cannot be overlooked during the scene where Hardy's pilot silently decides whether to fly home to safety or turn around to take on a German bomber to save more soldiers, knowing it will leave him out of fuel and probably sending him to his death.
5. The Knock On The Door (Wind River) - When Elizabeth Olsen knocks on the door of a cabin, what happened next completely threw me for a loop.
6. Post-credit Sting (Split) - One comes to expect a twist from an M. Night Shalamyan film and this was no different but when the film revealed where the story would go in the future I properly "marked out" and was astounded and delighted we would see more from the world of *redacted*
7. Bellbottoms (Baby Driver) - The opening bank robbery and resulting car chase is a tour de force of action directing and editing, with all the action set out meticulously to the soundtrack of Bellbottoms by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and sets the tone for Edgar Wright's bold, brash and brilliant Baby Driver.
8. Anything with Korg (Thor Ragnarok) - Taika Waititi's hilarious rock monster Korg was the breakout character of Thor Ragnarok. Always there to undercut the tension with a joke or two, I certainly hope to see more of Korg and Miek in the MCU.
9. Michael Stuhlbarg's monologue (Call Me By Your Name) - Stuhlbarg steals the film out from under the feet of Chalamet and Hammer right at the end with a tender, beautiful speech to his son that earns him the title of best movie parent since Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson in Easy A.
10. "Oh hai Mark" (The Disaster Artist) - Yes it was featured in the trailer but the filming of this scene in The Room is fantastic (as is the spot on recreations of scenes from the film played side by side during the end credits).

Best Performances Of The Year

1. Emily Beecham (Daphne)
2. Tom Hardy (Dunkirk)
3. James Franco (The Disaster Artist)
4. Harrison Ford (Blade Runner 2049)
5. Jessica Chastain (Miss Sloane & Molly's Game)
6. Michael Stuhlbarg (Call Me By Your Name)
7. Rafe Spall (The Ritual)
8. Mark Hamill (The Last Jedi)
9. Hugh Grant (Paddington 2)
10. Jack Black (Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle)

Most Enjoyable Cinematic Viewing Experiences

1. The Room
2. Edinburgh International Film Festival Q&As - This year I was lucky enough to host a couple of Q&As at EIFF including Daphne with a breakout performance from Emily Beecham and a packed house in Filmhouse 1 for The Beautiful Fantastic with Jeremy Irvine.
3. Raiders Of The Lost Ark with live score at Usher Hall - One of the greatest films of all-time with one of the greatest film themes of all-time played live by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. What's not to love?
4. Star Wars: The Last Jedi Midnight Screening 
5. Dunkirk on 70mm & IMAX - Flawless projection from the team at Filmhouse for the gorgeous 70mm print. Sadly there were projection issues at Glasgow IMAX but I did notice the reactions of audience members around me with one girl utterly engrossed with the dogfight scenes so much that whenever Tom Hardy appeared on screen, she moved forward to the edge of her seat. At the end when he opens the cockpit to parachute to safety she started to cheer, only to look around at other people in shock when he closed it to safely land the plane on the beach and burn it so the Germans couldn't use it. It reminded me of the power that cinema can have over people.

Top 17 Films of 2017

1. Blade Runner 2049
2. Dunkirk
3. Wind River
4. Get Out
5. The Last Jedi
6. La La Land
7. A Ghost Story
8. Baby Driver
9. Mother!
10. The Disaster Artist
11. Logan
12. T2 Trainspotting
13. Call Me By Your Name
14. Paddington 2
15. Raw
16. Kaleidoscope
17. It Comes At Night

Honorable Mention: War Of The Planet Of The Apes - Who can honestly say that in 2011, when a prequel/reboot to a Sixties sci-fi film that spawned a number of terrible sequels and remakes would produce one of the greatest film trilogies of ALL-TIME, anchored by an incredible central performance from Andy Serkis as Caesar.

Top 5: Library Scenes in Cinema

Today I start a new job as Event & Programming Officer at the City Libraries and to celebrate, here are my Top 5 scenes set in a library.

1. Ghostbusters

The opening scene in the New York Public Library perfectly sets up the movie but it is the subsequent scene in the library as the Ghostbusters encounter their first paranormal apparition that allows the audience to see the dynamics within the team of Peter, Ray and Egon.

2. The Breakfast Club

90% of this John Hughes Eighties classic is set in a library as it is where the group spend their Saturday afternoon in detention. Difficult to pick one scene out of so many but got to go with the moment they cut loose and dance around the library.

3. All The President's Men

,

An iconic shot in cinema history as the camera pulls back to reveal the enormity of the task ahead of Woodward and Bernstein as they look through the records of every book checked out by the Nixon administration.

4. Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade

Indiana Jones searches a Venetian library for a clue in the hunt for the Holy Grail where X marks the spot.

5. Stephen King's IT (1990)

When the adult Richie returns to town, he encounters Tim Curry's Pennywise within the local library. Laughs and scares come in equal measures.

Coriolanus review - No Holds Bard as Hiddleston kicks ass and takes names as Coriolanus

"You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain."

Shakespeare? Not quite. The quote actually comes from The Dark Knight but it does perfectly capture the dilemma facing the character of Caius Martius in William Shakespeare's final tragedy Coriolanus.
It is one of the Bard's lesser performed works, yet Ralph Fiennes directorial debut in 2011 managed to use the medium of film to bring its grisly battles and scenes of the angry masses to life.
For this production at the Donmar Warehouse, under Josie Rourke's direction, it has been stripped back (sometimes literally) to the bare essentials.
A brick wall becomes graffittied with messages that echo the voice of the people, the cries of the masses amplified through sound design and the battles kept off-stage save for one physical bout of hand-to-hand combat.
Rourke recognises that despite the scale and settings of his plays, Shakespeare's work is ultimately about the people and the dialogue.
The external conflicts give way to focus on the internal conflict within one man.
Caius Martius is a proud and decorated soldier, almost bred for the purpose of war by his mother. Yet while he is willing to fight and die for his city, he has a deep disdain for the politicians who govern it and the people he protects within it.
When he is elected to the senate after single-handedly taking an enemy city, a plot emerges to expose his true feelings to the people and strip him of his power (after all, who doesn't like to see a politician publically disgraced?), but it could have dangerous repercussions for Rome as hell hath no fury like a soldier scorned.
Shakespeare's plays have been performed in theatres for over 400 years and part of this longevity has been the ability to make these ancient texts accessible and appealing to new generations.
They can initially appear daunting to some but by adapting the plays to more modern settings and incarnations on stage (the National Theatre's recent runs of Hamlet and Othello for example), on film (Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing and Baz Luhrmann's Romeo & Juliet), or even making them watch it without realising (West Side Story, 10 Things I Hate About You, The Lion King), it helps to introduce new audiences to the Bard.
Another way of increasing awareness is by casting actors who are better known for their work in the world of TV and film. This year alone has seen the likes of James McAvoy, Jude Law and David Tennant take on some of the biggest roles in Shakespeare's back catalogue including Macbeth and Henry V.
Tom Hiddleston is the latest name to tackle the Bard but this is certainly not a case of mere stunt casting. Hiddleston is an experienced stage actor in his own right, winning an Olivier Award for Cymbeline, plus has a self-confessed love of Shakespeare, previously appearing in Othello at the Donmar and Prince Hal in the BBC's The Hollow Crown series.
He might be best known for being Loki of Asgard in Thor and The Avengers but he is burdened for glorious purpose on the stage once more.

Hiddleston commands the stage with a brooding, physical presence and also has a tremendous command of the Shakespearean dialogue, at ease delivering speeches to both armies of soldiers in the field of battle or politicians in the senate. The highlight comes during one of the few real monologues in the play, a spellbinding scene where Martius kneels before his enemy Aufidius and offers him his throat to spite the Romans who banished him. His Martius is not all pomp and bravado however; Hiddleston peels away the layers to reveal the sarcastic nature of his true feelings towards politics, the vulnerability at the heart of his Achilles heel, his mother, before being laid bare to the audience in a shower scene that exhibits the true cost of his many years in battle.
He is ably supported by a small yet hugely talented cast including Deborah Findlay as his mother Volumnia and Mark Gatiss as senator Menenius, who brings out the pathos of being turned away by the man he used to look on as a son and bleak future for his city for "This Coriolanus has grown from man to dragon".
The intimacy of the Donmar Warehouse space really helps to heighten the performances and even standing in the circle, you can still see Hiddleston's face begin to crack with emotion as his mother pleads with him to call off the siege of Rome.

While it is fair to say that there is not a bad seat in the (Ware)house, the problem is actually getting one as the popularity of the production meant that the entire run sold out as soon as tickets went on sale. However thanks to National Theatre Live audiences can watch the play performed and transmitted live via satellite at their local Picturehouse cinema on Thursday 30th January at 7.00pm.
Tickets can be booked here.