Inception Review

Invictus

2010

Dir. Christopher Nolan

Starring. Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Cillian Murphy.

Dreams, the ultimate creative license teamed with Christopher Nolan, arguably the most innovative director of this generation, a Kubrick for the 21st century, if you will.

After the massive success of The Dark Knight, both commercially and critically, Inception was always going to have the hype to sell itself. On paper it has everything - Nolan at the helm, DiCaprio, the Hollywood "veteran", despite his age, teamed with Page and Gordon-Levitt, the queen and king of indie, topped off with an endless CGI budget. Inception has "blockbuster" written all over it, but lets get one thing straight, this isnt your average Mission Impossible or Transformers. Oh no...

I chose to see this movie away from the crowds at Leicester Square in a more humble (and half-full) theatre, just outside of Whitechapel. From start to finish, the audience around me seemed to meet Inception with a sense of sustained confusion, and when the credits rolled, a thoughtful silence seemed to overcome every spectator, myself included. But that's just the kind of film that Inception is. Without sounding snobbish, it's lightyears away from the tastes of opening day blockbuster revellers. Overlapping narratives and concepts completely caught me off guard, and I knew from then that this would be a film that can't just be viewed once.

In all, the movie had some truly breathtaking action sequences including the most accurate gunshots I have ever witnessed on film. The cityscapes within dream sequences were phenomenal and DiCaprio once again added to his CV with another fantastic performance. Any other views of mine will come after a second viewing...

8/10

A Werewolf is born...

Very exciting news to come soon regarding a new musical project. A few meetings have resulted in a melee of musicians and genre's coming together to form something chaotically beautiful. I'm excited. You should be too.

"Whip It" Review

Whip It (2010)
Director: Drew Barrymore

Starring: Ellen Page, Drew Barrymore, Alia Shawkat, Kristen Wiig


Marketing can be a funny thing at times, especially when it comes to selling independent American films this side of the channel. This has been the case on a number of occasions, none more vivid in my mind than the quote from the Synecdoche, New York region 2 sleeve describing it as, and I quote "The most hilarious film you'll see this year". Clearly us Brits can't handle wonderfully created depictions of loneliness, so the distributors tend to hide these gems under a sugar coated comedy facade.


I would be a liar if I said I wasn't swayed by the advertising associated with a film, so when it came to taking my seat at the advance screening of Whip It, it was fairly safe to say that I had my doubts about what my feelings would be two hours later. Having being marketed as a film full of "girl power" and "a tale of friendship", there was always a thought that this would be some sappy, poorly written chick flick. The theory was backed up due to my understanding that this was actually based on a "teen novel..." With the solace that Ellen Page (Hard Candy, Juno) was in the lead role and Drew Barrymore (producer - Donnie Darko, He's Just Not That Into You)not only producing but directing the feature, I had a glimmer of hope.

Bliss Cavendar (Ellen Page) is a small-town misfit, an alter-ego seemingly perfected by Page in recent times, confined to beauty pagents due to minor emotional blackmail by her mother. On a day trip to Austin, Bliss comes across the tattooed, rock'n'roll "Hurl Scouts" roller derby team promoting the next meet in the city. A curious Bliss drags along her friend Pash (Alia Shawkat) to the event and soon enough, she's witnessing the exitable fury, and the "live for the moment lifestyle" she is experiencing in Austin.

However, the double life she is leading starts to plague her and decisions have to be made. Whip It is a wonderfully crafted tale of loyalties and the boundaries people will go to just to keep their friends and family happy. Unfortunately, marketing for this film will undoubtedly mean that it will have a limited audience of mainly 12-16 year old girls, which is a great shame as this is not only a great comedy gem, using more subtle techniques rather than laugh out loud moments, but also a memorable and heart-warming story. And for those of you who arent bothered about storyline, yeah, there's a lot of fishnet clad girls beating each other up...

YOU-V-ME - The Final Show

Sorry for the delays in regular posting on the blog, its been hectic recently. I suppose i ought to mention the fantastic events of the evening of March 6th.

Sadly, this was to be the last night that You-V-Me, my band of two years, would be playing. James had made the bold decision to move to London, and unfortunately the band was a sacrifice that had to be made.

Opening the show was Sam Bennett, a close personal friend of the band from the years we had been playing, mainly due to us being on the same lineups on regular occasions. Sam played a fantastic lo-fi electro set, demonstrating his wonderful songwriting abilities across the board of genre's. Next up were Frontiers, a massive future prospect who blasted through a rocking indie set, full of confidence and precision.

After this, we took to the stage for the last time as YOU-V-ME, and generally just had a good laugh and played up to the party atmousphere inside the venue. After an hour of playing and bantering with friends and fans, it was time to leave the stage and continue the party together until the early hours. Its safe to say that it was one of the most memorable and emotional experiences in my life so far, and although the latter hours of the night were hazy, I'll look back on them fondly for many years to come.

YOU-V-ME played:

WHERES MY MONKEY/INTRO
HARPOON
ART OF DYING YOUNG
VAMPIRE KISS
GUM BLOOD
RED NEEDLE/FUTURES HAPPENING
OFF THE GRID
NARNIA
POISON IN HAND

ENORMOUS thanks to everyone who attended or came to party with us that night.
x

YOU-V-ME at The Chameleon, Nottingham

Had another great show in Nottingham on Saturday night - playing the Chameleon Arts Centre for the very first time. As a venue, it oozes a sort of D.I.Y attitude with its stylish yet scruffy decor, along with a soundsystem and P.A just too big for the size of the room. Not that this mattered of course, the sound quality both on and off stage was fantastic, and left little room for improvement.

We played this show upon invite from one of Nottinghams most promising new promoters - "Now You Form A Band" ran by Pat Lockley. Previous nights have seen upcoming talents such as Boat To Row, Shapes, Talons and our good friends Sharp Knees grace the Chameleons small, red curtained stage.

Saturday night also featured a lot of promise as we played alongside BONBONBONBONS, Nottinghams aswer to Gary Numan, Strokes/Joy Division influenced STOP EJECT and scouse precision pop wonders, INDICA RITUAL.

YOU-V-ME played:

INTRO
HARPOON
WOLFCRY
VAMPIRE KISS
THE ART OF DYING YOUNG
RED NEEDLE
POISON IN HAND
"THE NEW ONE"

You can check out video footage of fan favourite RED NEEDLE here!

So, only two more gigs to go now until the end of YOU-V-ME.

Catch us at Kasbah, Coventry on the 5th March 2010 or our final show at The Royal, Derby on the 6th March 2010 with support from Frontiers and Sam Bennett.

Thanks for reading.

Spotify Time!

Bonjour!

After a busy sunday at work, I decided to just chill out at home with a bit of music. One thing lead to another, and I've ended up putting a spotify playlist together. Just a handful of songs, some classic, some breakthrough that i'm feeling at this very moment in time...

Izzo (H.O.V.A)(Live on MTV Unplugged) - JAY-Z
Sobotka - I CONCUR
Pon De Floor - MAJOR LAZER, VYBZ KARTEL, AFROJACK
You! Me! Dancing! - LOS CAMPESINOS
Against All Odds - CHASE & STATUS ft. KANO
Bodies - ROBBIE WILLIAMS
Feeling This - BLINK-182
Just Can't Get Enough - DEPECHE MODE
Rice and Peas - TODDLA T ft. MR VERSATILE
Go West - PET SHOP BOYS
The Warning - HOT CHIP
Folds In Your Hands - PASSION PIT
One More Chance - BLOC PARTY
Make A Move - LOSTPROPHETS
Hold The Line - MAJOR LAZER, MR LEX, SANTIGOLD
L'Via, L'Viaquez - THE MARS VOLTA
Ordinary Son - UNGDOMSKULEN
Sugarfoot - BLACK JOE LEWIS & THE HONEYBEARS
Give It To Me Baby - RICK JAMES
Personal Jesus - DEPECHE MODE
(Feels Like) Heaven - FICTION FACTORY
19 - PAUL HARDCASTLE
For Tomorrow - BLUR
This Momentary - DELPHIC
Under The Sheets (Jakwob Remix) - ELLIE GOULDING
Romantic Rights - DEATH FROM ABOVE 1979
Caterwaul - ...AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD
To Fix The Gash In Your Head - A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS


Hot Chip show at Rock City, Nottingham tomorrow night - expect a review in the forthcoming days.

Au Revoir! x

"Invictus" Review

Invictus
2010
Dir. Clint Eastwood
Starring : Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon
by Jake Danvers.

Having been drawn to Invictus based almost solely on recent Golden Globe and Oscar hype, it was pretty safe to say that I was highly hopeful for something special.

With Eastwood tackling yet another sporting film after the successful Million Dollar Baby, I think it is now safe to say that he has this area pretty much nailed. Similarly to Million Dollar Baby, the action scenes involving the South African rugby team are perfectly directed and choreographed to create a fast paced, up close and personal melee, putting many other titles involving sports scenes to shame. Granted, there is a sense that the viewer would need to have a basic grasp of the Rugby Union rulebook to make real sense of what is really going on, but nevertheless, the excitement is still breathtakingly luring.

As we have found before with many films that document true events, good casting is usually the key to success. Invictus well and truly delivers in this category, with the weathered looks and grey hair of an ageing Morgan Freeman suitably fitting in his portrayal of Nelson Mandela, whilst the volatile talents of Matt Damon, delivering a superb Afrikaaner accent, allow him to shine as Springboks 1995 captain Francois Pienaar.

Freemans excellent disposition of being able to deliver almost film changing speeches once again warm him to the role of the wise and opinionated Mandela, leading us to believe that it is actually the great South African president that we are seeing on screen. The Mandela mannerisms that we have become so used to through the press and news reports are intricately exhibited by Freeman. This is the genuine article.

Along with the recent success of Neill Blomkamps District 9, Invictus has really pushed forward an observation of the Apartheid regime in South Africa to younger viewers like myself, who have admittedly, never really been taught about such an important time in the history of one of the worlds greatest nations. The subtle racial tension and mistrust in Invictus is evident, and the fairytale road to unity as the film progresses give this movie a real feel good factor, and restore the dying belief that anything is possible.

8/10

Officially a "blogger" now then...

Hello all!

Considering that I spend most of my days sitting twiddling my thumbs, I thought i'd channel some thoughts/anger/energy into writing a blog, basically covering general occurances in my life, as well as the odd film/music review to keep my brain and fingers busy.

As i'm new to this, I presume that if you are reading then you know me personally, and will have already heard that my band YOU-V-ME will unfortunately be splitting up in early march. However, we are going to be playing a final farewell gig at The Royal in Derby on Saturday March 6th 2010. Details of the show can be found here.

Other final gigs include:

Saturday 20th February - The Chameleon Arts Cafe, Nottingham
Friday 5th March - The Kasbah, Coventry
Saturday 6th March - The Royal, Derby (Final Show)

Thats all for now.x.