Bobby

June 6th 1968 - Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy has a date with destiny.

Rather than being a direct Kennedy biopic, ‘Bobby’ follows the lives of a number of guests and employees of the Ambassador Hotel in the hours leading up to Kennedy’s assassination. Written and directed by Emilio Estevez, ‘Bobby’ successfully captures the zeitgeist; the film is peppered with contemporary footage, music and photos giving the viewer an impression of what 1968 America was like. America’s hopes and fears for the future are shown on screen and vocalised by the cast.

However, having assembled a great cast, the film doesn’t do much with them other than help capture the spirit of the time. “22 lives linked by a moment the world will never forget” (as the poster claims) means that not much screen time can be given to each of them; I would have preferred for it to have concentrated more on some stories and while others were dropped. Ultimately ‘Bobby’ is a very average film; it’s not bad, but it doesn’t excel either.

2007 seems to slowly be turning into the “Year of the Ensemble Cast” with ‘Bobby’ joining ‘A Prairie Home Companion’ and ‘Babel’; that’s three in one month.

The Return Of Monkey!

Just a quick post to say how pleased I am to see the return of 'Digital Monkey'!

Having languished in the media desert for a number of years, this writer's favourite simian is back on TV and this time he's advertising PG Tips.

It's nice to see PG Tips going back to primates without resorting to dressing chimps up in human clothes - the old adverts never sat well with me!

Just watching the new advert warms my cockles... (It's also rare to see an advert that actually references failure: "when that TV thing went belly up...")

Now off to see if I can get a free mini Monkey!

"Three stirs clockwise, two stirs back, 1¾ sugars, show it the milk"

The Last King Of Scotland

Based on Giles Foden's novel, 'The Last King Of Scotland' is a fictional depiction of Uganda following Idi Amin's coup d'etat in the early 1970s.

The film's story is told from the perspective of Nicholas Garrigan - a recently qualified Scottish doctor - who is working in a mission hospital in Uganda as a way of spiting his father's plans for him to join the family practice. Following a chance encounter with Uganda's new president, Garrigan finds himself becoming Amin's personal physician and confidant. The film starts off gently with Garrigan slowly being seduced by all that the charismatic Amin has to offer him; he doesn't take much persuading to move from the sparse mission hospital (even if it does offer the charms of Gillian Anderson) to a plush private residence in Kampala.

As the film progresses, however, Garrigan is slowly drawn into and becomes complicit in the horrors that surround Amin's dictatorship; a vocalised suspicion leads to the 'disappearance' of the country's health minister. Before he realises it, Garrigan finds himself beyond the point of no return and desperate measures are needed if he is to save his own life.

The mood of the film changes almost imperceptibly, what starts off as a vibrantly colourful film slowly gets darker. Like Garrigan, the viewer is lured into the spider's web, with only the occasional glimpse that something is wrong; the true horror of Amin's regime isn't exposed until quite late into the film. This subtle change in mood is similar to that seen in Richard Loncraine's film adaptation of 'Richard III', where you only realise that Richard's army has slowly transmogrified into wearing black uniforms moments before he goes and delivers a Nuremberg-esqe speech.

The film stars Forest Whitaker and James McAvoy as Amin and Garrigan respectively, both excellent in their roles. Whitaker convincingly turns from charmer to monster (sometimes during the course of a scene). As a counterpoint, McAvoy is utterly believable as someone who slowly realises that he maybe beyond redemption; he starts off all 'bright-eyed and bushy-tailed' and ends the film a broken shadow of his former self. The performance of the film's main actors is bolstered by a uniformly impressive supporting cast, to highlight any of them would do a disservice to those that don't get mentioned.

All in all, 'The Last King Of Scotland' is an impressive 'period thriller' and recommended (albeit disturbing) viewing.

Kayu Gangsa

I first saw Kayu Gangsa as part of last year's "Drop In The Ocean Festival". Strolling into Nottingham City Council House I heard soothing music floating around the building; a real contrast to the hubbub of the Market Square. Heading into the Council House's Ballroom, I was faced by group of people playing weird and wonderful percussion instruments. Thus was my first introduction to Malayan gamelan; a form of ensemble playing from Indonesia (more about this music form can be found on Wikipedia).

This week, I was lucky enough to catch Kayu Gangsa again at the Lakeside Arts Centre in Nottingham, where they played a set of twelve pieces of music that varied from the classical Malay Court gamelan of 'Timang Burung' to 'Marian's Rambles', which was a gamelan version of four English folk tunes. This concert was a stark difference to the previous 'gig' I went to - Steven Seagal. A relaxing 100 minutes was spent letting the music wash over me, while playing the game 'What instrument is making that noise?'

If you ever get a chance to see a gamelan performance, I can't recommend it enough; it's something you have to experience rather than read about.

Steven Seagal

"From the home of the blues to a town near you"

No, you're eyes aren't deceiving you, it's that Steven Seagal, him out of the movies!

Saturday was one of the more surreal evenings of my life as I stood in a sports hall in Market Harborough Leisure Centre and watched Steven Seagal play the blues to a sell-out audience.

It would appear that as well as being an actor, producer and director, Mr. Seagal (aka "Mojo Priest") is also a musician; he has written and performed songs for some of his films (e.g. "Under Siege 2"), he has composed soundtracks for at least two of his films and released two albums ("Songs From The Crystal Cave" and "Mojo Priest").

The gig was Steven Seagal and his band Thunderbox playing a 'Delta blues' set; some interesting songs about scrambled eggs and alligator ass. The performance seemed to be the result of a weird symbiotic relationship; a fairly accomplished but nondescript band seemed to carry Steven Seagal but at the same time his name seemed to carry the band. Having said that, it was a very enjoyable gig, much better than I expected (the three pints I had before the gig may have had added to my enjoyment) and even the most cynical of audience members* were crying out for "Steven!" to come on and do an encore.

In fact the encore really sealed my enjoyment of the gig... Just as the band was about to come back on, the stage lighting failed plunging the venue into darkness. Now I can imagine a lot of bands refusing to come on and do the last number in this situation, however the band came on and did a great cover of "Wild Thing" - with lots of audience participation - lit only by flashes from cameras in the audience and a torch that a roadie had found and was used to 'spotlight' Steven Seagal.


*Here's a potted review from a 'cynical audience member':

"Actually it was pretty good.

Mr Seagal had (quite wisely) surrounded himself with a very talented R&B band, which basically allowed him to sing along whilst rattling off some blue riffs...

He's not gonna be challenging any of the blues greats with his playing, but nevertheless, he could play sufficiently well to carry it off and overall they seemed to go down a storm."

Casino Royale

Last weekend I took the opportunity to see 'Casino Royale' for a third time, pleased to say I enjoyed it as much I did first time around. Here's what I thought about it after my first viewing:

"Caught 'Casino Royale' yesterday and have to say I really enjoyed it.

Probably the best Bond for quite some time. As much as I liked Brosnan as Bond, the quality of the films he was in got worse as time went by; after a promising start with 'Goldeneye', the films deteriorated (I have previously said that 'Tomorrow Never Dies' was the last good Bond film).

Thankfully 'Casino Royale' has come along!

Before kicking off with my thoughts on the film, I'll list my top three films to start with so you what floats my boat as far as Bond films go: 'From Russia With Love', 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' and 'Goldeneye'. (The perfect Bond IMHO would have been OHMSS starring Sean Connery)

'Casino Royale' is a "wipe the slate clean" Bond - it introduces the character anew, covering his first mission as a "Double O". Having said that though, it's difficult to talk about any Bond film without referring to earlier films, but here goes... It has the feel of an early Connery movie, i.e. more reliant on plot than gadgets, one-liners or set-pieces. Granted it has all of those to some extent, it's just that the makers have turned down the "volume" on those aspects of the Bond franchise. One thing they really have turned down (praise the Lord) is the amount of CGI in the film; no silly surfing CGI waves or invisible cars in this film! (Hopefully lessons were learnt from the 'Die Another Day' debacle.) Instead the film-makers have concentrated on making Bond seem realistic and gritty; rather than have a CGI laden sequence, they instead opt for a great chase involving a Bond after a character played by a free-runner (those crazy jump from building to building guys from France). This sequence had me on the edge of my seat - A great athlete versus Bond's predatory cunning. Hats off to Martin Campbell for a great bit of directing! (Although I am a little biased as he directed 'The Edge Of Darkness' - one of my favourite things ever made - and he did a good job on 'Goldeneye'.)

Daniel Craig puts in a really credible performance. I have to admit, when I first heard he'd been cast I thought it was the worst choice ever ("Blond Bond WTF!?") especially when Clive Owen walks this Earth. However, I started warming to him when I saw the trailers and having seen the finished product I take it all back; I'll happily see him play Bond again. In fact, I'm looking forward to May 2008 already!

As for the plot, they stick pretty closely to the original novel (which is a short affair) and fill it out and modernise it quite well whilst keeping the memorable moments of the source material. For example, they've swapped Baccarat (who understands that game?) for poker. A "pleasant" surprise is that they've kept the scene with an open bottomed wicker chair - if you've read the novel you know what I'm on about!"

A Prairie Home Companion

Robert Altman’s last film is rather presciently a film about things coming to an end and death. The story – written by Garrison Keillor – concentrates on the last performance of a weekly ‘old time’ radio show which is due to close as the theatre it broadcasts from has been bought by a company and is due to be demolished.

Typically for Altman this is a ‘character piece’ more than a ‘story piece’; switching between on-stage music and off-stage drama, all moderated by Garrison Keillor’s ‘GK’. There are some great singing performances; Woody Harrelson & John C. Reilly as Dusty & Lefty perform a nice comedy number called “Bad Jokes”, while Meryl Streep & Lily Tomlin are surprisingly good as The Johnson Sisters. Off-stage the characters are a little stranger; Kevin Kline plays Guy Noir – the theatre’s security manager who comes over like a film noir private - while Virginia Madsen plays a strange woman that not everyone can see, who turns out to be an angel of death come to collect some souls.

Despite some strong performances, I found the film disappointing; I usually enjoy Keillor's mid-West tales either in print or listening to him perform them, however this particular one left me unsatisfied. It was also disappointing that it was Altman's swansong, as it doesn't compare well against his 'greats', such as "MASH" and "Gosford Park".

“Interesting Factoids”:
- The roles of Dusty & Lefty were originally slated for Tom Waits and Lyle Lovett.
- George Clooney almost played the ‘out of place’ Guy Noir.
- There is a credit for Paul Thomas Anderson, who was available as ‘stand-by’ director should Altman be unable to finish the film.

Babel

Caught a preview screening of this film yesterday courtesy of The Guardian.

It's the new film by the team that brought us 'Amores Perros' and '21 Grams'. Like the two earlier films, 'Babel' interlinks a number of seemingly disparate story lines and as the film progresses you slowly discover the links that join them together. There are four stories in this film; an American couple are involved in a life-threatening accident while abroad, a Mexican woman wants to get to her son's wedding, two Moroccan boys play around with a hunting rifle and a deaf-mute girl in Japan is trying to get over the death of her mother. As you can see from the descriptions this is a global film, but the stories are all linked.

The film is beautifully shot, taking advantage of the stark contrast in the different locations. One moment you're in the desolate Moroccan desert and the next you're in a busy Japanese cityscape. There are some moments of real directorial flair; two stand-outs scenes are the Mexican wedding and a sequence in a Japanese nightclub where you cut from being able to hear the music to having just the visuals, giving you a sense of the deaf character's point of view. Which leads me onto something I really liked about the film - Rinko Kikuchi's performance; despite not actually being deaf, I thought she was very convincing. And of the story threads in the film, this was for me the most engaging.

The biggest disappointment about the film was the device that links all the stories, it felt very tenuous and unnecessary. The stories would have worked better as separate entities, the need to join them - as per the director's previous films - I felt diminished the power of the film. The actors seemed underutilised - Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Gael García Bernal have all been better and were poorly served by the fact that they were only in smaller segments of a larger film. At least we do get to see Brad do his trademark 'frantic' (see 'Twelve Monkeys', 'Se7en', etc) at one point in the film.

Ultimately, I'm not sure if I enjoyed the film or if I think it is pretentious twaddle... A case of the whole being less than the sum of its parts.

Question: Can anyone tell me, what is the piece of music that is used during the helicopter scene?

Deep Water & Apocalypto

A good start to the year...

Deep Water

A documentary relating the events of the 1969 Sunday Times Golden Globe Race - the first solo, non-stop, round-the-world boat race - concentrating on the tragic events surrounding Donald Crowhurst, a British businessman and amateur yachtsman.

Crowhurst was woefully unprepared for the voyage, his boat the Teignmouth Electron was a custom-built (and untested) trimaran and the safety devices he planned to install weren't complete, but as a result of sponsorship deals he faced bankruptcy if he didn't launch on the race's deadline of 31st October. After setting off, he found he was travelling less then half his planned speed and estimated his odds of survival as 50/50. He ended up circling the waters off Brazil and Argentina while sending in faked reports of his position and speed. To save face, his plan was to wait until all the ships were on their return journey and to slip in behind the pack and come in last, filing a falsified log book which wouldn't be under much scrutiny as he wasn't going to win either of the race's prizes; the Golden Globe trophy for the first sailor home and £5,000 to the yacht with the quickest speed.

However, events overtook him and he ended up being the only yacht left in the race (Robin Knox-Johnston having already finished); all the other competitors having retired from the race for one reason or another. Receiving news via Morse that he would return to a hero's welcome having completed the fastest journey, Crowhurst knew that his deception would be uncovered. He drifted at sea for a number of days, slowly descending into madness before finally committing suicide.

'Deep Water' comes from the producer of 'Touching The Void' and relies in the main on archive audio and video footage interspersed with modern interviews with key people who have a personal stake in the tale such as Knox-Johnston and Crowhurst's widow and son. The film is an engrossing and sympathetic portrayal of the turmoil that Crowhurst went through; the dilemma of not wanting to let down his family and friends while facing bankruptcy if he turned back too early, the psychological pressure brought about by spending months alone at sea and his eventual suicide upon realising that he would be exposed.

Apocalypto

The latest blockbuster from Mel Gibson, despite its historical setting, is at its (bloody) heart an action-chase movie.

It is the story of one Jaguar Paw, a hunter whose idyllic lifestyle is shattered when his village is destroyed by Mayan marauders. Bound by his captors, Jaguar Paw is forced to march to a Mayan city where the females are to be sold as slaves while the males are to be sacrificed to quench the thirst of the Sun god who has brought famine and pestilence to the Mayans. At the moment when Jaguar Paw's heart is about to be wrenched still-beating from his body and his head chopped off and thrown down the temple's steps, he is 'rescued' by a solar eclipse. (You can tell this is coming as it's on the film's poster, it's just a surprise that the Mayans who were fabled for their ability to tell the time through movements of the Sun and other celestial bodies didn't see it coming!) The film then becomes one extended chase sequence as Jaguar Paw runs pell-mell back to the ruins of his village, intent on rescuing his heavily pregnant wife and young son from the cave that he lowered them into just before he was captured, while being chased by a pack of vengeful Mayans. Oh and then the conquistadors turn up...

If this plot sounds wafer thin, that's because it is! However, that doesn't stop it from being an enjoyable popcorn movie. Yes, I realise it's historically inaccurate. (Here are two things I know of that are worthy of mention: 1) The Mayan civilisation was long gone by the time the conquistadors turned up. 2) Although the Mayans participated in human sacrifice, it wasn't on the assembly-line basis that you see in the film). I should add that it's performed in the 'Mayan tongue' - which means arty style subtitles - but you don't really need to read the dialogue to know what's happening.

After the initial scene setting, the film has three distinct sections. The first is the destruction of Jaguar Paw's village, which plays out like a fight sequence from Michael Mann's 'Last Of The Mohicans', but turned up to 11. The second part, when our hero is transported to the Mayan city, has an 'Apocalypse Now' feel to it; strange encounters had en route to a final destination, complete with a scary prophecy-spouting child. The final section, with Jaguar Paw outwitting his pursuers, comes over like a loin-cloth wearing version of 'Die Hard'/'First Blood' as our hero picks off his enemies one-by-one using his finely honed hunter skills.

I went into 'Apocalypto' with very low expectations, but found myself thoroughly enjoying the film as a piece of pure escapism. Gibson as usual has directed another enjoyable action film that needs to be seen on a big screen, as the story is wrapped up by beautiful imagery and great cinematography - another way that this film is similar to 'Last Of The Mohicans'. The film is by no means flawless, for example, it starts with a quote about a civilisation having to destroy itself from within before it can be conquered from without, and I'm not sure where this central idea disappeared to amongst all the blood.

Warning: It is violent and deserves its 18 certificate, as it is pretty gruesome in places; panther maulings, human sacrifices (did I mention still-beating hearts?), Japanese movie-style blood spurts, artistic blood sprays when clubs hit heads (think of the Sony Bravia advert with the paint bombs exploding around the block of flats). You have been warned.

Film 2006

Decided to start the year by setting up a blog where I can jot down my thoughts on the films I see. May also include any DVDs, books, music, etc that I also feel worthy of a mention.

Before posting about new films I've seen, I thought I'd start of with a list of the films I enjoyed last year. In no particular order they were:

Grizzly Man - Documentary meets the darkest of humour. Parts of me suspects (hopes?) we may have been part of an elaborate joke.

United 93 - A film that was utterly moving and realistic. Had to keep reminding myself I wasn't watching a documentary.

Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - Not a great film, but I saw it three times which means I either enjoyed it or I'm a masochist! (Oh yeah, it had pirates in it!)

Thank You For Smoking - A close run with some of the other films that didn't make the cut, but I enjoyed the ensemble cast and the film's sentiments.

Miami Vice - It's a Michael Mann film, and they always have a special place in my heart.

Children Of Men - A great vision of a dystopian future. The single shot combat sequence at the end was the cherry on the icing.

The Departed - Feels strange picking a remake in a year of strong films, but the strength of all the performances ensured its place in my Top 10.

The Prestige - An engaging movie that managed to hide some of its secrets till the end, a rarity for me.

Casino Royale - Bond the way I like it; gritty, realistic, fewer gadgets and less reliance on the sort of CGI that marred 'Die Another Day'. Just hope that the franchise follows this vein.

Pan's Labyrinth - Violent and enchanting in equal measures. At times I wish I was an optimist by nature. Films that involve a twist on the fairy story always piqué my interest.

Films that almost made the list:
- A Scanner Darkly
- Inside Man
- Lady Vengeance
- Little Miss Sunshine
- Slither
- The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada