Since their self-titled EP was released earlier this year, Los Angeles quintet Grouplove have been riding a wave of buzz helped by support slots with bands such as Los Campesinos!. Never Trust A Happy Song is their debut attempt at bringing sunshine to your speakers, even though they’ve released this at the worst time – right at the end of the summer season.
Read the rest of this review at MusicOMH.
Centred around the legendary interviews that Sir David Frost conducted with Richard Nixon in the 1970s and based on the Broadway play of the same name, the Ron Howard-directed film Frost/Nixon showcases the story of how the conversations were organised, the mindsets of both Frost’s camp and Nixon’s camp before and during the interviews (similar to a game of chess), and the aftermath of the airing of the interviews that ultimately put a nail in the coffin of Nixon’s reputation. There are documentary style interviews conducted with some of the characters in the supporting roles but the real focus of the film is the ambitious and maverick David Frost, who has everything to lose after his own TV shows get cancelled, and the crooked yet almost frail Richard Nixon, who also has everything to win following the crushing Watergate scandal.
Michael Sheen has his Frost impersonation down to a tee, despite not looking a thing like him, and is well casted, whilst Frank Langella’s portrayal of Nixon is one that is powerful yet somehow emotive and quite sad in some ways, as the character comes to terms with the fact that the secrets he hides are too big to cover up for the rest of his life. The supporting cast, full of more famous names than I remember at the time of its release, is very competent and very well-equipped, with Sam Rockwell and Kevin Bacon the two stand-outs, both of whom play characters with completely different motives.
It’s a succinct, well made, and direct film that does not fall victim to overstaying its welcome and if you had told me that this was originally a play on Broadway then I wouldn’t have guessed and that in itself is quite an achievement.
Today me and Aino went all the way to Brixton, London to watch a film, albeit one that I’ve been anticipating for a while. Moon, directed by Duncan Jones, son of Bowie (though there is a chance you’ll already know this since every newspaper/magazine article about this film has been ramming this factoid down your throat with brute force), recently won the top prize at the Edinburgh Film Festival and is a refreshing alternative to a summer of many, many cash cow calamities.
I can’t really say too much of the plot because it is so carefully constructed but what I will say is that some of the themes and overall story details are not original and definitely owe a debt to some of the great sci-fi films of the past. I’ll give it a go anyway. It’s all about a man called Sam. On the surface, Moon is quite a simple sci-fi film – man is in space and man is very, very lonely. The only conversation to the outside world that feels even vaguely emotional to Sam is pre-recorded video messages to his wife, Tess. Or is he alone? It turns out that Sam may not be alone as he previously thought.
Sam Rockwell is well cast and his performance is solid. As the film develops, Sam’s physical condition continues to decline. It gives him the perfect chance to showcase his various skills as an actor. Technically, this is a film that ticks all the boxes – the combination of making brilliant use of a set that looks relatively sparse and a rather beautiful soundtrack to evoke emotion where so many other (and it should be said, big blockbusters) sci-fi films have failed. I must admit that I appreciated the technical side more than the acting side but the two together work very well.
If you get a chance to see Moon, you should. Talent definitely seems to run in the family where Duncan Jones is considered, even if it means going into a completely different genre of entertainment instead.
I’ve been thinking all day of how to write up my thoughts on this without giving away anything massively important, so I’m going to give it a go now, but do understand that the reason it may be short is because I don’t want to ruin it for people who are planning to go unlike some of the local newspapers that have already written reviews of the show when it toured the UK before the current West End run.
As mentioned before, I’m quite a fan of Derren Brown’s work and have been dying to see him live for a while, especially after the airing of his two previous shows – the Lawrence Olivier winning Something Wicked This Way Comes and An Evening Of Wonders. As I enter the Adelphi the stage design is not too dissimilar to his previous shows and is very true to Derren’s style – a sort of Victorian ambience. It is from there on in where trying to describe his show without giving things away is tricky. What I will say is that it is a well-constructed show that pushes all the right emotional buttons in the audience. Brown also has terrific stage presence, which helps when building a rapport between him and the audience. If you do get a chance and you live near London, make an effort to go to his show. I believe some tickets are still available.
A couple of side-notes though. Comedian Mark Watson was one of the members of the audience who went up onstage at random. I only realised this when Watson wrote about it on Twitter. I could have spoken to him outside the theatre – a great opportunity missed. Mark commented on Derren’s blog this afternoon:
I’m Mark Watson and I can promise everyone it was an absolute fluke, except in the sense that I nearly mowed a couple of people down in my desperation to catch the frisbee, as I have every time I’ve seen him. I assumed Derren didn’t know who I was. When I saw this on the blog I nearly had a heart attack, which would have been hard on my heart as it’s only just recovering from [SNIP! Possible clue as to what the show involves - Max]. As ever, an amazing show.
Secondly, those familiar with Andy Nyman (not only the creative partner of Derren Brown but also the gloriously evil TV producer in horror series Dead Set) will be delighted to know that he has a cameo in it. I had to ask him on Twitter last night to verify that it was real and he confirmed it was. I’ll leave those who have seen/will see the show to guess what the cameo is…
A couple of nights ago I finally got down to watching There Will Be Blood. I bought this film at the very end of last year during the final day fiasco at Woolworths Guildford. I managed to get a lot of money off the DVD because of the desperation to get rid of everything and I bought it, therefore, for 70p. Yes, seventy pence. Even before I had watched it I knew I had scored a bargain. Now that I have seen it, I can safely say that this was the best bargain purchase I have ever made in my life.
So what’s the plot? Well, it follows a thirty year span of the life of Daniel Plainview (played by Daniel Day-Lewis, who won an Oscar in 2008 for his performance) who starts out as a mere oil worker and then ends up as one of the wealthiest tycoons in California in the early twentieth century. It is a sprawling epic that is two and a half hours long and the fact that the first fifteen/twenty minutes of the film is with no dialogue other than the sound of oil machines working and Jonny Greenwood’s mesmerising score (more on that later) tells you how detailed this is.
The film itself to me is all about Day-Lewis as the plain evil Plainview. His character just oozes evil in the way he walks, the way he talks and his actions and words. Day-Lewis portrays him as a purely menacing person and it is incredibly captivating – easily one of the best acting performances I’ve seen for a long time. There is also the talent of Paul Dano, who plays Eli Sunday – a man who believes to have the word of God in him and sets up a church movement in the oil fields and is Plainview’s antagonist. His electric performance further confirms to me that he is a great talent and has many more great roles in him.
Paul Thomas Anderson is the director and he does a marvellous job. The film is beautifully shot and there are many other elements like the cinematography that truly make it the outstanding film it is. There is also the fantastic film score by Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead. I’ve only heard his score on CD before this film but now seeing it played out against the film confirms his monumental talent. Greenwood’s music adds so much to the film and why he was snubbed an Oscar will forever be one of the great modern film mysteries (though he did win a Kermode award deservedly).
In short, you should go and see this film as it is a masterpiece. One word of advice though – make sure you don’t have anything planned in the evening because the film, whilst amazing, drains every ounce of energy in your body.
