Bomb disposal scenes are a surefire shortcut to suspense. Doom-laden while at the same time full of hope; engrossing but maddeningly tense. The pared-down simplicity of the narrative – after all, there are only two possible endings when a bomb is within inches of your protagonist – is easy for audiences to grasp and even [...]
Archive for the ‘Watching’ Category
Trailer of the Week: The Hurt Locker
Posted in Watching, tagged jeremy renner, kathryn bigelow, the hurt locker, trailer of the week on July 3, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Home by Yann Arthus Bertrand
Posted in Watching, acclimatizing, tagged climate change, home, yann arthus-bertrand on June 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
This is an incredibly beautiful film.
You can see it, all 90 minutes of it, on youtube, for free.
It took 2 and a half years to make, with 500 hours of footage filmed across 54 countries.
It may make you cry.
In 50 years, in a single lifetime, the earth has been more radically changed than by all [...]
Trailer of the Week: Terminator Salvation
Posted in Watching, tagged christian bale, terminator salvation, trailer of the week on May 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Sometimes trailers don’t do justice to a film. Other times, they showcase a certain magic that the actual movie sadly never attains. I have a feeling that might be the case with Terminator: Salvation, which has been notching up some pretty miserable reviews since it was released on May 21st in the US.
Stephanie Zacharek in [...]
Trailer of the Week: Coraline
Posted in Watching, tagged coraline, neil gaiman, stop motion animation, the uncanny, trailer of the week on April 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
If this wasn’t stop motion I might actually find it too scary to see. Then again I am a bit of a wimp when it comes to the uncanny, even when featured in a children’s film, and this one looks so full of Freudian dissonance it practically redefines das unheimliche.
Coraline is a little girl whose [...]
Presidential Pets
Posted in Watching, tagged bo, feller truman, obama pet, portuguese water dog on April 14, 2009 | 1 Comment »
The news we’ve all been waiting for.
Bo, the portuguese water dog, has finally landed at the White House.
If the shot on the left isn’t enough to sate your understandable curiosity, the Guardian has a mini-gallery collating all available photos of the fluffy hound. All five photos! Including one when he was just six and a [...]
In the Valley of Elah
Posted in Watching, tagged david and goliath, in the valley of elah, iraq war films, paul haggis, tommy lee jones on March 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
We all know the story of David and Goliath. David was the brave messenger boy who used a tiny catapult to defeat a giant that no-one else dared fight.
The place where the fight occurred is probably less familiar. According to 1 Samuel 17:
Saul and the Israelites assembled and camped in the Valley of Elah and [...]
Coal and the Coens
Posted in Watching, acclimatizing, tagged clean coal, coen brothers, this is reality on February 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Joel and Ethan Coen have made a fun little film about clean coal. Enjoyable. Watch it here:
Trailer of the week: State of Play
Posted in Watching, tagged paul abbott, russell crowe, state of play, state of play bbc, trailer of the week on February 23, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Much as I like this poster, I need you not to see the film without first watching the original tv series. It’s for your own good, trust me.
David Yates directed the six part thriller for the BBC back in 2003, from a script by the legendary Paul Abbott, the writer of Cracker, Shameless and Clocking [...]
Kubrick competition winner!
Posted in Watching, tagged best film of 2008, BFI, gomorrah, kubrick competition on February 20, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Thankyou to everyone who entered the competition for tickets to the BFI’s Kubrick season!
I’ve got to say it was an absolute pleasure to read every single entry and I thought I’d post excerpts from the best below, since they highlight some pretty interesting films and even if you didn’t enter, you might get an idea [...]
Kubrick tickets, a little treat just for you
Posted in Watching, tagged BFI, BFI Kubrick season, british film institute, free cinema tickets, stanley kubrick on January 29, 2009 | 1 Comment »
The British Film Institute is running a season of Stanley Kubrick films to mark the fact that it’s ten years since he died.
To my great excitement, I’ve got 2 free tickets to see any film featured in the season, just for YOU.
That’s right. You get to go to the lovely BFI building which sits [...]
Trailer of the week: Watchmen
Posted in Watching, tagged alan moore, heroes and superheroes, trailer of the week, watchmen on January 25, 2009 | 1 Comment »
I saw the first trailer for this last year and wasn’t particularly excited. But at that point I knew nothing about Watchmen (I know, apologies to all comic-enthusiasts). I think I then filed it away in my brain alongside Night Watch and subsequently came to think of them as one and the same. Oops.
Thank goodness, [...]
Trailer of the week: Gran Torino
Posted in Watching, tagged clint eastwood, clint eastwood and sergio leone, gran torino on January 21, 2009 | 1 Comment »
For seven years at the start of his career, Clint Eastwood played a cattle drover in the CBS television series Rawhide. Between 1959 and 1965, he completed a total of 217 episodes, more than any other actor in the entire series. Maybe that record stint is a lesson in patience.
Almost half a century later, he’s [...]
So many films, so little time
Posted in Watching, tagged frost/nixon, milk, rachel getting married, trailer of the week on January 20, 2009 | 1 Comment »
On Friday a cluster of films come out that have each been trailers of the week: Milk, Frost/Nixon and Rachel Getting Married.
A cause for celebration but simultaneously, a teeny bit frustrating; why did they have to schedule them all at once? Couldn’t the distributors have sprinkled the good stuff more evenly through those arid weeks [...]
Trailer of the Week: Revolutionary Road
Posted in Watching, tagged kate winslet and leonardo dicaprio, revolutionary road, richard yates, sam mendes, trailer of the week on January 12, 2009 | 2 Comments »
One of the best trailers I’ve seen in ages. No dialogue for 53 seconds, and then only a sparse two lines. Cat Power’s jangly, mournful Sea of Love getting stuck like an old-fashioned record; signalling breakdown and fracture better than any scripted voiceover. Everything else left to our imagination, unlike almost every other trailer you [...]
The colour of tragedy in Waltz with Bashir
Posted in Thinking, Watching, tagged ari folman, tragedy, waltz with bashir on December 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
When was the last time you noticed colour in a film?
Perhaps it’s been a while, because rather like perfect dialogue or sound design, the best use of colour is often characterized by it’s very unobtrusiveness.
In such cases, the cinematographer wants to nurture the illusion that you’re watching reality in all its winter grays and mud [...]
Picturing Iraq
Posted in Watching, tagged iraq photo essay, the frontline club, time magazine, yuri koyzrev on November 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The Frontline Club, a hub for independent journalists in London, today announced the winner of its 2008 award: the Russian photographer Yuri Kozyrev, “for his exceptional coverage of the Iraq war.”
Even as the conflict has faded from the headlines amid global financial meltdown and hopes that the “surge” of 2007 had established the foundations for [...]
Coalfinger
Posted in Watching, tagged coalfinger, david mitchell, e.on, greenpeace, kingsnorth, quantum of solace on November 8, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Last night I saw Quantum of Solace. I’d been warned that the latest Bond movie consisted of sheer action devoid of narrative substance, but as light entertainment it turned out to be suprisingly enjoyable. I’m learning that with action movies it’s all about low expectations.
Anyway, David Mitchell – the dark-haired one from Peep Show [...]
As Aladdin would say, a whole new world
Posted in Watching, tagged alexandra matzke, obama election night pictures, obama michelle, zillycakes on November 5, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Waking up this morning felt like Christmas Day, when you open your eyes to find Santa has left the exact present you wanted under the tree. I don’t really have anything else to say, except that pictures seem to tell the story best today.
Photographer Ivy Dawned says:
The Obama campaign had dozens and [...]
Trailer of the Week: Wendy and Lucy
Posted in Watching, tagged kelly reichardt, michelle williams, trailer of the week, wendy and lucy on November 2, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The first glimpses of Michelle Williams’ stricken, timid beauty in this trailer make it look like a film that is sure to beget tears.
It also seems to be a truly independent movie; shot in twenty days, highly textured with an unfamiliar, meditative rhythm. The kind of film that evokes such an authentic landscape you come [...]
Trailer of the Week: Twilight
Posted in Watching, tagged robert pattinson, stephanie meyer, trailer of the week, twilight on October 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Could there be a Dracula Global PR company somewhere, and if so, are its staff working overtime? Because there’s a slew of vampire-driven entertainment coming out, and the common theme is that vampires aren’t all bad. Evidently some of them are still nasty old blood-suckers, but then there are the ones who are apparently just [...]
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