Bertolucci, Brando, and Separating the Art from the Artist
Trigger warning for graphic discussion of sexual assault and rape.
The Cutprice Guignol
The Ninth Year: The Haunting of Swill House
December 3, 2016
Vikings: Season Four So Far (And What’s Yet to Come)
So, my apologies for the delay between blog posts- it was my birthday on Sunday, and, despite having very little planned, I ended up doing a lot more and seeing many more people than I had initially intended. Then I was down in London for two days, and then I had to spend quality catch-up time with the cat on my return, etc, etc.
Excuses aside, it’s time to talk about a show that I’ve been aggressively ramming down your throats for the last two years: Vikings. Yes, in case you weren’t already tired of me twatting myself silly over Travis Fimmel’s amazing lead performance as Ragnar or the show’s killer fight scenes or what have you, it’s time to talk about the second-best historical show on TV (yo, what’s up, my fellow Outlander fans?).
November 24, 2016
Arrival Delivers Classic Sci-Fi Smarts
Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends and readers! I’m not going to remotely pretend that I know anything about Thanksgiving beyond holiday episodes of the sitcoms I love, but I understand that the clue is in the name; and, therefore, I’d like to give thanks for Denis Villaneuve’s superb science-fiction movie, Arrival.
When I review movies (as you might have noticed), it tends to be because I hate them with a passion- but just once in a while, I see a film that’s so bloody good I want to run around telling everyone about it. Arrival is one of those films.
Yeah, you’ve probably seen the trailers; it’s one of the rare intersections of genre movies and blatant Oscarbait, but that’s a crossover on the Venn diagram that I am one-hundred-percent behind. I’m a huge fan of sci-fi in all mediums and all levels of intellectualism, but I think the genre really springs from big ideas. The big writers who defined the genre-Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, Arthur C. Clarke, Maragret Atwood- used it as a method through which to look at “what-if” questions, delivering philosophy and discourse wrapped up in a cool story rich with imagination. And Arrival (based on the short story Story of Your Life by Dennis Chiang) fits into this bracket.
There’s nothing wrong with a bit of fun, swashbuckling sci-fi silliness (Star Wars was my film of last year), but Arrival reminds us the genre is capable of much more than that. Louise Banks (Amy Adams) is a linguist who’s called up to help with deducing the meaning of the arrival of twelve enormous, mysterious shells all across Earth. That in and of itself is a cool idea- the focus on language and communication is fascinating and expansive, exploring some neat concepts about the way we construct language, and the sequences involving the shells (and the aliens within them) are just gorgeously put-together. Villeneuve has made a collection of weird and interesting films before this one (including the excellent Enemy, as well as Sicario)- not to mention the fact that he’ll be directing the Bladerunner sequel due out next year- and he revels in the bigger budget and striking symbolism of this story. There are a couple of truly breathtaking moments of cinema here, and Villeneuve gives them time to breathe- which, in the era of overstuffed blockbusters, is deeply satisfying. I’m sure you’ve heard plenty, too, about Amy Adams fantastic performance- hell, even Jeremy Renner, who I find quite loathsome, is very good in this.
But, despite the aliens and sci-fi wrapping, this is a very human story. The actual tale at the heart of Arrival is so beautifully well put-together that I would be a proper twat to ruin it for you here, but trust me when I tell you that it will move you. It’s heartfelt without being cheesy, powerful without being overblown; it’s what good sci-fi should be. And, in a year of some of those worst films we’ve ever seen, it’s nice to fee like we’re ending 2016 in cinema on a strong note.
November 21, 2016
Why is The Walking Dead Shit Now?
Yeah, yeah, so I rag on The Walking Dead a lot. Get over it, fangirl/boy. This is it: my Magnum Opus, the article I’ve had brewing in me (and no doubt written over the course of many drunken rants round at my friend Ellie’s house, sorry Ellie) since halfway through season four of this godforsaken show: why, and how, The Walking Dead became one of the biggest and most disappointing shows on television.
November 18, 2016
How to Get Away with Shocking Character Deaths (Or, how The Walking Dead messed up)
Fuck. Me. Spoilers, so many fucking spoilers, to come.
November 17, 2016
American Horror Story Recaps: Chapter Ten
American Horror Story has never been good at endings. Usually, they’ve got far too bloody much else going on to come up with a finale that actually satisfies and ties up all threads present in the season; even season two (which, fight me, is the best one) struggles to stick the landing after a marginally cohesive series. I guess, then, that’s where My Roanoke Nightmare differs from it’s predecessors- this week’s episode, the last of the season, is actually pretty good.
Well, of course it helps that they’re not trying to tie up too many threads and characters in the finale- most of the cast are long dead at this point, leaving only Adina Porter’s tale to bring to a close. One of the great strengths of this season has been Adina Porter’s Lee- she took a season that started out the story of Shelby and Matt, and turned it into a twisted, moving tale of one woman’s fight to keep her daughter alive-and beyond that, in her life.
After the end of Three Days in Hell, Lee is tried twice and found not guilty of he murder of the rest of the cast of the show as well as that of her husband- and, of course, this attracts the attention of AHS’s foremost journalist, Lana Winters. Sarah Paulson picks up her finest role (again, fight me) to interview Lee, and, for once, bringing back a character from a previous season doesn’t feel like blatant, boring pandering- Lee and Lana’s stories run parallel to each other, Lana having murdered her son to protect herself while Lee offers herself for death to let her daughter live. They’re both great characters, played by superb actresses, and slot neatly into this messy last episode.
Is it perfect? No, far from it, obviously- we jolt between the courtroom, a live TV interview, another found footage ghosthunting sequence, and finally a tense set of scenes as Lee tries to convince her daughter to leave the Roanoke house for good. It’s messy, but, like AHS at it’s peak, it’s held together by a scintillating lead performance from Adina Porter- there aren’t enough good things to say about her, honestly, and I will be genuinely shocked, considering Kathy Bates got an Emmy for playing a sentient head, if Adina Porter doesn’t scoop an armful of awards for this. AHS is at it’s most moving and strident when it writes stories about motherhood (I have an essay in the works about this that I’ll have out next week, if you’re interested), and Roanoke made a wise choice to close out on this historically strong aspect of the show.
So, what of the season of a whole? Well, I’ll give it this: it proved that AHS isn’t afraid of trying something a bit new. This is the first season not to revolve around a haughty femme fatale, for instance, and the messing around with the stories within stories within stories was interesting even when it really, really didn’t fucking work. It’s also the most cohesive the show’s been in- well, perhaps ever, now I think about it, with each story wrapping up relatively nicely and staying well-focused in their five-episode blocks. They ended much stronger than they started, and make no mistake that I’m not forgetting how shitty the first half of the season really was. But by relying on new and/or underused actors (Andre Holland, Lily Rabe, Adina Porter), and forcing themselves out of their usual sexy-bloody-sexy horror mould, they came up with something…different. And for a show that deals with a genre as sprawling and brilliant as horror, that’s the least I can ask for.
Thanks for following me along on this adventure- I think I picked the best season I could have to recap, and I had loads of fun doing it. I hope you enjoyed it too! You can read all the recaps under the AHS recaps tag, and find more of my TV reviews in the blog directory if you just can’t get enough.
November 13, 2016
American Horror Story Recaps: Chapter Nine
So, uh, I missed last week’s recap-sorry about that. But, in my defence, I had nothing to say about the episode that I didn’t already say about the week before’s outing- Sarah Paulson was awful and hilarious, unexpected characters died, the found footage thing is way better than the first half of the season, etc. Not to mention the actual, real, much more disturbing American Horror Story happening at the moment (bet I’m the first one to make that comparison, eh?).
November 11, 2016
Nocturnal Animals is Tom Ford’s Sophomore Slump
“Do you ever feel like your life turned into something you never intended?” sighs Amy Adams in Tom Ford’s sophomore feature, Nocturnal Animals. I can’t speak for her, but one can only hope that the dreck I saw last night wasn’t how the former fashion designer planned his movie to turn out.
November 3, 2016
A Wanker’s Literary Reaction: Wonder Woman Trailer
What’s this? Thursday and no American Horror Story recap? Nope, we’ll all have to wait, because there’s another Wonder Woman trailer that needs my attention!
October 27, 2016
American Horror Story Recaps: Chapter Seven
Can we just take a second to talk about Kathy Bates? In this episode, she’s a majestic, episode- dominating force; by turns hilarious (“they gave me a three-episode arc, but iI got five!” she maniacally gurns into the camera, her apron drenched in blood) and terrifying. Despite her strong performances in the show so far (season four being her finest, for my money), I’ve always had the nagging feeling that the show has never quite given her a role that allows her to display her full, magnetic talent; finally, somehow, in this outrageous, blood-soaked forty minutes, she’s in full flight, and it’s magnificent.
