Super Cool Week of Awesomeness

On Thursday 21st July I graduated from the University of Sussex at the Brighton Dome. How damn grown up does that sound?! I think when I put on that gown and mortar board I instantly felt about five years older than I had before. It was a lovely day and incredibly surreal experience. I'm pretty sure I never want to clap anyone or anything after it though! Our Chancellor Sanjeev Bhaskar gave some brilliant speeches, mixing some thoughtful advice in with his usual humour. A major highlight of the day was the honorary degree given to the music legend that is Jeff Beck, one of the greatest guitarists of all time. I'd had no idea prior to the day that he was receiving an honorary degree and it was so cool to see him and hear his speech. When it was time for me to go up, I gave Sanjeev a hug and a handshake and was given the certificate of my degree on stage. I had to try and block out the fact that I was doing all that in front of 2000 people! Two days later it was my graduation ball which was another great experience. I love any chance to posh up and wear a suit and this was no exception. The event was again within the Brighton Dome, and they'd made the place look pretty awesome for the occasion, all poshly laid tables and lighting. We had a few professional photographs taken and then took our seats, at which point we were provided with a three course meal. Melon and brandy soaked fruits to start, pan seared chicken as a main and vanilla brulee for dessert. Afterwards, the orchestra playing made way for a live band playing pop songs, and later a DJ. So we partied the night away!

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I have been very lucky in the last week or so to be able to see two incredible screen actors in the flesh at two different stage plays - Kevin Spacey, in Sam Mendes' interpretation of Richard III, and Sir Ian McKellen, in mafia drama The Syndicate, staged at the Minerva Theatre in Chichester. Kevin Spacey is quite possibly my favourite ever actor and it was just so inspiring to see him doing his thing on the Old Vic stage, bringing something very new and very brilliant to the character of Richard, Duke of Gloucester. The staging of the play, the direction of Sam Mendes and the performances of the cast took Shakespeare's already brilliant words to a whole new level. Richard III displays as well as any Shakespeare play the shattering effects of greed and power upon the psyche of their recipient, and this production successfully highlighted this most effective of character studies. Spacey gave the role his all, and I very much hope this is not the last time I have the opportunity to see him on a stage. Seeing Sir Ian McKellen in Chichester for The Syndicate was a similarly great experience, and he displayed a similar knack for disappearing into his role; it took a matter of seconds before you managed to forget who he was and see him solely as Neopolitan crime boss Don Antonio Barracano. The Minerva is one of my favourite theatres - it isn't particularly beautiful or anything, but it's so small and intimate that the play you are watching feels so much more intense as a result. The Syndicate was no exception, with the audience feeling very much like they were sat in a room in Naples with these characters, involved in their conversations. An effective fly on the wall effect. The cast were largely very impressive, and the story was an intriguing Godfather-esque affair. The majesty and honour that characterizes the mafia family, interspersed with such brutally unaffected violence, is such that it is a wonder that it has not been committed to film and theatre more often. Chichester represents the first time The Syndicate has ever been done in the UK, and I predict it will have a successful run after this, as it moves around the country.

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I had my first ever film extra job on the 26th July, working on the production 'Now Is Good' in Brighton! The film stars Dakota Fanning, Kaya Scodelario, Paddy Considine and Olivia Williams, and follows a 17 year old leukemia sufferer Tessa (Dakota Fanning) as she looks to complete her bucket list. I had an amazing but very very tiring day - had to be up about 3.45am and on set by 5am. The first part of the shoot took place on Brighton Pier, where we all met up, were dressed by costume and provided with breakfast. We were then provided with our positions and directions on the pier as they shot a number of different scenes there with Dakota Fanning and Kaya Scodelario (Effy from Skins). We were all moved about at various points so that we each got a chance to be closer to the action (and therefore the camera!). If I do not end up in at least one shot of the finished film then it is not for the want of trying! There were at least three scenes over the course of the day in which I was right by the main actors so hopefully come the film's release sometime in 2012 you will be able to at least catch a glimpse of my arm or something. After filming had been completed on the Pier we all collected up our stuff and went on a mass pilgrimage through Brighton to Komedia, our base for the Lanes part of the shoot. Here we changed into new outfits and headed out to the Lanes, where more was filmed. This was a little bit of a logistical nightmare as the filmmakers could not shut down the street we used for filming so it was rammed with ordinary shoppers as well as all us extras, so half the time we had pretty much no idea what was going on (and neither did the shoppers)! After waiting around for a couple of hours we went back to Komedia for lunch, which they provided. We sat on long tables and ate packed lunches out of brown paper bags - it was all rather cute and school canteen-ish! After that we headed back to the street we'd been filming on earlier, and I was positioned further up the street so that I walk into shot (hopefully!) behind Dakota Fanning as she walks up the street. This was the last thing that was shot that day, so we went back to Komedia to pick up our stuff and get our pay slips signed. By then we were all rather shattered! It was a great experience, I met some really cool people and I would love to do it again asap. I will be on the lookout for any new film extra jobs coming up!

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I finally got round to seeing Terrence Malick's latest, the much-hyped The Tree of Life, yesterday. It's all about the big stuff - it seems to be, essentially, Malick's celebration of life and the universe. By interspersing scenes of the 1950's family (Mr O'Brien, as played by Brad Pitt, his wife, as played by Jessica Chastain, and their three children) with sequences detailing the creation of the universe we are provided with a quite astonishing grounding of the characters. Consider that the majority of mainstream cinema will provide some sort of background to their characters, some suggestion of how they came to be the people that they are, in the places they are, doing the things that they do. It's a vital tool in helping to create empathy. In The Tree of Life, this 'background' now takes on not just the more recent events (e.g. the character's childhoods, a previous relationship, a previous job, etc) but EVERYTHING that has come before the characters' existence in the here and now. Basically, the film tells the story of EVERYTHING that helped make these characters exist, and exist in the fashion they do; without the creation of the universe, without the dinosaurs, without everything inbetween, these people would not have come to exist in the 1950's, in that house, doing the things that they are doing. The film is continually thought-provoking like this. It doesn't attend to the needs of the casual filmgoer who may be crying out for a more linear narrative or for things to be spelt out to them - in fact, the film really does skirt the border of avant-garde at times. It will frustrate people, no doubt about that, but it is also so very worth persevering with. It features some of the very best cinematography I think I've ever seen, and paints a beautiful portrait of so many very important 'things' - life, death, love, grief, childhood, adulthood, family. It's a cinematic journey of sizeable proportions, and one that adequately reminds the viewer of the true power of the film medium. 4/5.

July 2011

3 months since I last updated this - where the hell did the time go? Each time I take ages to update this I make some grand promise that from now on it's going to be regular blog posts from me, and each time I not only break that promise but appear to stamp all over it, chop it into little pieces and set fire to it. So I'm going to avoid making such a promise this time, and I can at least console myself with the knowledge that I have a genuine excuse - the last few months have been HECTIC. Hectic by anyone's standards, let alone those of a Laid-back Luke such as myself. So allow me to attempt, over the course of this brand spanking new blog post, to address in writing some of the crazy thangs that have been taking up all my time of late.

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When I last wrote a blog post I was probably right in the middle of serious dissertation research. Well, I powered through them and ended up with two dissertations that I was really genuinely proud of - in my opinion, by far the best things I wrote while at university. I received my marks on the 1st July and got great marks for both dissertations, giving me an overall Second Class Honours, Division I degree, or a 2:1 to you and me. I was so pleased! After I managed to royally mess up my second year (probably a fair consequence of not turning up to anything) it was so satisying to be able to turn myself around this year and get down to my work. As a result I really enjoyed my third year at uni (even though it went by SO quickly!) and the researching and writing of my dissertations was arguably more pleasure than pain. My 2:1 also means that should I one day wish to return to university to take an MA (a distinct possibility), then I have the grades to do so. Anyways, so uni is all over and I'm only just starting to properly realise it. Some things I won't miss, but some things I really, really will. It hit home on 1st July when my student card became no longer valid! No more beautiful discounts - terrifying! My graduation is this Thursday, my graduation ball this Saturday, and after that it will all start to feel even more real. It's so strange no longer being a student after all these years, flung out into the big wide world, from student to unemployed all in the space of a day. So begins the grand job hunt and, alongside that, a real push to get this film career up and running! Thanks for all the good times Sussex Uni, you were pretty swell.

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From the 21st-28th June I enjoyed yet another amazing holiday with my girlfriend, this time to Praia de Oura (not far from Albufeira) in Portugal. It was probably my favourite of the three summer holidays we've been on so far (it's difficult to compare Paris to those kinds of holidays) and both of us had a great, relaxing time and a satisfying amount of sun, sand and sea. The room we stayed in was certainly the nicest of the ones we've had so far - it could've easily slept 4! We relaxed on the beach and by the pool, enjoyed many many lovely meals, took a taxi into the Old Town of Albufeira, and went on a day trip to the Aqualand water park, which was great. We had some more nasty delays on the journey home, but nothing quite as awful as last year! All in all, a brilliant holiday and we're both really hoping we can afford to go away again next year. There are still so many places to go!

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On the 1st July (a busy day!) I began to move stuff into my new flat in Southampton, where I am now living with my girlfriend. After a seriously hectic first couple of weeks sorting out, amongst other things, furniture, council tax, internet, phone line, water bill, gas and electric, TV licence, shopping, and the small matter of being without hot water for far too many days, we are finally able to relax and really begin to enjoy the experience. It's a particularly big step for myself and I'm looking forward to getting the most out of city life - it's a big contrast to what I'm used to! Location couldn't be better, as the flat is five minutes away from the train station, a few minutes from Sainsburys, five minutes from most of the good clubs and bars and ten minutes from West Quays and all the other shops. The flat itself is starting to look really nice and is nearly there in terms of things IN it. Last Tuesday we had friends (Hugh, Kieran, Wigsy, Toby, Bayliss and Lydia) round for our first night out while living together in Southampton. It was great to have people round and I got a couple of awesome flatwarming presents (by this I mean booze). We pre drank at mine and then moved onto Reflex for some wonderful 80's and 90's cheese. Hopefully it will be the first of many such nights out in the upcoming year! So we're getting all settled into the flat, FINALLY have internet after 2 weeks without (enabling me to write this!) and looking forward to a really good year ahead.
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On the 10th and 11th July I made my latest short film in Southampton with two actors, Sally Paffett and Ryan Carter. The film is called 'Whirlwind Summer Romance' and follows a young couple's relationship from its beginning to its end over the course of one long summer, taking in all the high emotions that come inbetween. The shoot worked really well- I got everything I needed, the actors were great and perhaps most importantly it was a genuinely fun shoot. I travelled back to Westbourne on Saturday to spend the day editing the short and it's pretty much done, music added and everything (thank you once again Moby Gratis!). Once it's been put onto DVDs and labelled properly I can move on with getting the film out there, submitting it to festivals around the UK. This was a real motivating factor in making this short, that of creating something that could be sent off to festivals and, potentially, be selected for at least one of them. I consider the festival circuit to be a fantastic way for any young and enthusiastic independent filmmaker to see their film careers take off, and I'm hoping this will be the same for me. I have a long list of festivals (local, national and international) to send Whirlwind off to and will start to hear in the coming months if I have been successful with any of them. In the meantime I intend to continue writing and making short films (I have a few good ideas buzzing around) in the hope that one of them will get me to where I want to be.

I'm also in the process of writing a feature film (around a third of the way through as I write this) that, with any luck, I may actually get to make next spring/summer! The script follows a group of 18 year olds as they look to spend their last summer together before heading off to uni etc, and covers all the 'shenanigans' (LOVE that word) they get up to in the process. If done right, it should be a great mix of happy and sad, providing the audience with nostaglia and memories of their own young experiences. I have a producer on board who I will hopefully be meeting and discussing ideas with in the coming weeks, and he should be integral to the process of getting a terrific cast and crew together. I aim to have finished the script by the end of this summer and hopefully running casting auditions for the film by September/October. It's all very exciting! I can't wait to really get stuck into my very first feature film. If it happens it's going to be a terrific experience, another thing to add to the CV and another film to submit to festivals. So it's full steam ahead in the film department!

Trailers

Two new trailers have caught my eye today.

Melancholia from Zentropa on Vimeo.

MELANCHOLIA - Lars Von Trier's new film is, apparently, a 'psychological drama-cum-disaster-movie'. It looks radically different from anything Von Trier has tackled before, and I can't wait to see how the great auteur works with the themes of apocalypse within the melodrama that the trailer suggests. He has managed to amass an impressive cast for the film (Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Charlotte Rampling, both Stellan and Alexander Skarsgard, John Hurt and Kiefer Sutherland) but really, if this bares any relation to other Von Trier films, then we won't know anything about the film until its release, and possibly nothing afterwards! But it's guaranteed to be an interesting watch- out on July 1st.

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CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE - This comedy/drama caught my eye because it has one of my favourite actors (Ryan Gosling), one of my favourite actresses (Julianne Moore), one of my favourite young acting talents (Emma Stone), and a guy that I loved in Anchorman (Steve Carell). It also looks like it might produce some genuine laughs and some genuine tears. We'll see!

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I watched Serenity tonight. Not Joss Whedon's best. Definitely felt like I needed to be a fan of Firefly to really 'get' it. I did get more and more into it as it went on though. And Nathan Fillion rocks. And it only cost me 99p. Aaaaaand, I love Buffy far too much to ever begrudge Joss Whedon anything. 3/5.

March/April 2011

Seeing as its been around 5012 days (possibly a slight exaggeration) since my last blog post I feel I was due to write a new one. I feel like I start every post at the moment with some sort of acknowledgement of the fact that I haven't written one in ages, so I'm gonna try and actually make it a bit more of a regular occurence now. I figure part of the problem is that each time I go to write one I feel the need to make it some long essay that takes forever to write. So from now on, it's gonna be shorter, but more regular blog posts from me!

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On the uni front, I'm all done for the Easter holidays now and trying to make the most of them. On a more scary note I am also pretty much done lesson-wise at university now! No more university seminars, EVER. Only a couple of little dissertation tutorials to attend in the week or two after the Easter hols and then that's it until my big disso deadline on the 23rd May (after which I may consume my body weight in alcohol). Dissertations are going ok - I'm well on my way with my favourite one, the vampire/Twilight one, and am hoping to get that finished to a certain extent by the end of Easter hols, which should be an achievable target. That would leave me with just under a month to start and finish my other dissertation (for the Cinema and the Real course). That one has proved more difficult - I took ages to decide on a subject, but have finally gone for themes of the real and the surreal within Lynch and Aronofsky films - but is in the planning and researching stage and should be finished on time. Suffice to say, I cannot wait for these dissertations to be done!

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Easter holidays are well under way and I am trying to fill mine with as much productiveness as possible. I feel I can't really justify having six weeks off if I don't try and make the absolute most of it. As well as of course the aforementioned dissertations, I am also trying to keep myself busy with lots more writings of various kinds. That will mean hopefully a fair few of these blog posts. I'm trying to get my CV written up to a decent standard so that I can send it off to a few places in Southampton ready for when I move there in July. Hopefully I'll be able to get something nice to tide me over for that year while I try and build up some film contacts (and some money!). I'm trying to get my film script finished (at least a 1st draft of it) by the end of April - this may be a target too far but I'm gonna give it a go! Seeing as it's an idea that's been buzzing around my head since I was about 15 I think I'd be letting myself down if I didn't ever get it down into a finished screenplay. I'm over a third of the way through it so hopefully it won't be TOO long until it's done and dusted! I'm also trying to get to the cinema as often as possible in these holidays - I saw Limitless (3/5) last week, Sucker Punch (3/5) yesterday and then at the weekend I'm going to be seeing Source Code and Route Irish. In amongst all this, the sun has been shining and I'm trying to make the most of it and my friends through these holidays. Hopefully gonna make it to the beach soon!

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Plenty more blog posts on the way!

February 2011

Well I think it may have been exactly a month today since I last wrote a blog post- too too long! I guess at least I can say that I've been keeping busy since then, so I do have some sort of excuse for my lack of blogging. Over the last month, I had plenty of ideas for what I would write about when I actually sat down to write a blog post again, but I appear to have forgotten pretty much all of it. So I'm just going to ease myself back into the world of blogging with what I like to call a 'current state of affairs' post, a consideration of all that may be whirling round my crazy head right now. It is an especially crazy head of late- but in a good way I think!


University-wise, all is going fairly well. It's all getting into scary dissertation time but I'm trying to keep on top of it. I've got two 8,000 word dissertations, both due in on the 23rd May. Which I make.... 3 months tomorrow. Shoooould be do-able. My first dissertation, the one I'm most confident on and most enjoying the planning of, is for my Sexualities and the Cinema course and revolves around the vampire as sexual metaphor. The dissertation is going to primarily deal with teen sexuality and the depiction of the vampire in the Twilight films, but will also delve into vampire mythology and stereotypes and the subversion of the vampire in contemporary cultural texts, in particular Buffy, Let The Right One In and True Blood. I would say I've done around 90% of the research for that dissertation- as the research is the main bulk of the work I would say I'm fairly happy with that at this stage. My second dissertation is for my Cinema and the Real course, a course that deals much more with complicated theories and psychology than the other one. This makes me slightly less confident with this dissertation, as it will deal with more complex research and the possibility of misunderstandings. I have, however, chosen a topic that I feel will be interesting to write about, so hopefully this will help give me the push I need to write a decent enough disso. I'm going to write about the subversion of the 'real' and Lacanian psychoanalysis in David Lynch's films, particularly Eraserhead, Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive. This one is in the very early research stages. I aim to start researching this one while also possibly making a start on my Sexualities one (which I think I can probably write fairly quickly, 8000 words or not!). Wish me luck!

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I've been trying to throw myself into university life a bit more this term and it's going pretty well. The Careers and Employability Centre arrange a lot of really useful events and I've been trying to go to as many as possible. A Careers in the Media event allowed me the chance to listen to a few Sussex graduates talk about what they did after graduating and how they built up strong media careers. The most important of these for me was Nik Powell, the chairman of BAFTA, a film producer and the director of the National Film & Television School. I got to meet him briefly and ask him a few questions, which was rather cool! I also went to an Effective CVs and Applications Writing event which was very helpful for me as I've never had to write a CV before and didn't really have any idea of how to sell myself to the world! Now hopefully I can take the information I learned and write a CV that will help to pull me above the competition. Last week I went to a Networking and Building Confidence event that proved helpful in providing suggestions for the building of contacts and the names of some useful websites and organisations. Coming up I have a Postgraduate Study in the US tomorrow (just to keep the options open!), an Effective Dissertation Researching event next week, and then another Media related event later in March in which we will be given talks by recent Sussex media graduates.

One big thing for me in the last couple of days was that I finally got off my bum and emailed the Sussex Uni newspaper, called The Badger, about doing some journalism for them. Why I didn't do it in my first year, rather than leaving it till half way through pretty much the last term of my final year I'm not too sure, but there ya go. Even though it took me a while I'm glad I did it, as I've been tasked with two articles already- a review of Never Let Me Go for tomorrow morning and an article discussing the Oscars results (Oscars are being held Sunday night) for Tuesday morning. I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into the articles, getting my name in the uni paper most weeks, and providing my CV with a much needed 'experience' boost!

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I'm trying to write my script as often as I can. Sometimes it's difficult to find the time for it, though I'm lucky in a way that my 2 hours a day of travelling, 4 days a week allows me some extra time. The train is a good place to write and a good place to think sometimes. The script's coming along OK, though I think I need to step it up a gear. I'm probably not writing nearly enough a day if I want to get it finished within the next couple of months. I think I need the personal satisfaction of actually finishing an 100 odd page screenplay, I think that'll be good for me. Aside from that, I do actually believe in this story and these characters. Once it's finished, I have at least a couple of contacts who I could potentially send the script to in order to get some industry opinions.

I could definitely do with a bit more practical filmmaking experience, though, so I hope to build this up more over the next few months. Hopefully I'll try and get a few tiny little things shot, but also I still harbour a hope to make a short film in June, after I finish uni and before I move into my new flat in Southampton, so we will see if that happens. At the moment I am scouting around various places online for camera hire, trying to work out the best and cheapest option. If I managed to get that in place then I could possibly start searching for actors for the project, and locking a decent script down. I'll also hopefully at a few points in the next couple of months be able to borrow a camera from the Media and Film Equipment Store at Sussex for a day each time and just shoot random things for practice. I've ordered a shotgun microphone from t'internet and that should be coming along soon. After that I should hopefully be able to order more equipment bit by bit, finances allowing.

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On a more social note, I have lots of exciting things coming up! 2011 is already panning out to be a fantastic year. In a few weeks' time I'm off to Paris with my girlfriend to celebrate her 21st. It should be an awesome few days, I haven't been to Paris in a long long time and I can't wait to do everything all over again, plus some cool new stuff too! I've also booked my summer holiday for June, again with my girlfriend- we're off to Portugal! Albufeira in The Algarve to be exact. I've never been to Portugal so I'm really excited. Finally on the holiday front, I'll be spending 11 days in New England, USA in October with my parents, which I'm also mega excited for. There's plenty on the non-holiday front too, but to be honest, I can't be bothered to mention it all now! I'll be back with another blog post soon as I have films to review (The Fighter, 127 Hours, True Grit, Brighton Rock) as well as plenty of other things to discuss.

24/1/11

- GOLDEN GLOBES - The Social Network was unsurprisingly named Best Film- Drama, with its director David Fincher also winning Best Director and its writer Aaron Sorkin winning Best Screenplay. I was very pleased to see The Kids Are All Right do well, winning Best Film- Musical or Comedy, and Best Actress- Musical or Comedy for Annette Bening. Best Actor and Actress went entirely as expected, with Colin Firth winning for The King's Speech and Natalie Portman for Black Swan- both were incredibly deserving winners, though. Toy Story 3 was an obvious Best Animated Feature winner, while Danish film In A Better World was a rather more surprising choice for Best Foreign Language Film. Paul Giamatti was Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for Barney's Version, Christian Bale, often badly overlooked at the awards ceremonies, won Best Supporting Actor for The Fighter, a film that also got Melissa Leo the Best Supporting Actress award. Ricky Gervais as host caused some epic-scale controversy over in the States for his actually rather amusing opening speech, which you can view here- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvHXzP2SpLA. It's actually very funny to me just how controversial this proved with many Americans, and apparently with the show's producers- you knew what you were going to get, he'd hosted before, if you don't like it why ask him back? He had the balls to stand up and say what he thought, to tease people as he would his friends, or any person off the street, and there lies the question- why should the people at the Globes be treated any differently? It's also worth checking out the Ricky Gervais interview with Piers Morgan a few days later, as Gervais actually raises some really interesting and intellectual discussion points about comedy- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlfYX9MMK0k.

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- BAFTA 2011 NOMINATIONS - Announced the other day. I'll list each of the 'main' categories and try and predict which I think will triumph in each. We'll find out how right I am on February 13th.

BEST FILM: Black Swan, Inception, The King's Speech, The Social Network, True Grit (The Social Network is going down as the favourite for the Oscars, but I can see BAFTA siding with the Brits and favouring The King's Speech in this category. It would be well deserved too)

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM: 127 Hours, Another Year, Four Lions, The King's Speech, Made In Dagenham (if The King's Speech doesn't win Best Film it will almost certainly win this. It might even both! If not, i'd like to see Mike Leigh's brilliant Another Year triumph)

OUTSTANDING BRITISH DEBUT: The Arbor, Exit Through The Gift Shop, Four Lions, Monsters, Skeletons (Very difficult to choose- some fantastic debuts there. Banksy might just about deserve it for Exit Through The Gift Shop)

DIRECTOR: 127 Hours (Danny Boyle), Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky), Inception (Christopher Nolan), The King's Speech (Tom Hooper), The Social Network (David Fincher) - (I'd give it to Aronofsky just because I'm in love with him. But I think this is probably Fincher's to lose)

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Black Swan (Mark Heyman, Andrés Heinz, John McLaughlin), The Fighter (Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson), Inception (Christopher Nolan), The Kids Are All Right (Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg), The King's Speech (David Seidler) - (Probably go to Seidler; deservingly so, too)

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: 127 Hours (Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy), The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (Rasmus Heisterberg, Nikolaj Arcel), The Social Network (Aaron Sorkin), Toy Story 3 (Michael Arndt), True Grit (Joel Coen, Ethan Coen) - (Would be shocked if Sorkin didn't walk away with this one)

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE: Biutiful, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, I Am Love, Of Gods And Men, The Secret In Their Eyes (Difficult one. The Secret In Their Eyes may have been released too early for voters to remember it. Biutiful, meanwhile, will be fresh in their memories and also has an awards-darling of a director)

ANIMATED FILM: Despicable Me, How To Train Your Dragon, Toy Story 3 (Toy Story 3, without a shadow of a doubt)

LEADING ACTOR: Javier Bardem (Biutiful), Jeff Bridges (True Grit), Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network), Colin Firth (The King's Speech), James Franco (127 Hours) - (some very strong competition, but this should be Firth's)

LEADING ACTRESS: Annette Bening, Julianne Moore (both The Kids Are All Right), Natalie Portman (Black Swan), Noomi Rapace (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo), Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit) - (Should be Portman's)

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Christian Bale (The Fighter), Andrew Garfield (The Social Network), Pete Postlethwaite (The Town), Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right), Geoffrey Rush (The King's Speech) - (between Bale and Rush)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Amy Adams (The Fighter), Helena Bonham Carter (The King's Speech), Barbara Hershey (Black Swan), Lesley Manville (Another Year), Miranda Richardson (Made In Dagenham) - (between Helena Bonham Carter and Lesley Manville for me)

ORIGINAL MUSIC: 127 Hours, Alice in Wonderland, How To Train Your Dragon, Inception, The King's Speech (I'd give it to Hans Zimmer for Inception if it was me)

CINEMATOGRAPHY: 127 Hours, Black Swan, Inception, The King's Speech, True Grit (I'd like to see Matthew Libitique get this award for Black Swan)

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I'm still kinda reeling from 3 straight days of cinema in which I got to see The King's Speech, Blue Valentine and Black Swan. I feel like I need a breather! A chance to sit back and actually think through each film- they've sort of become one big blur of awesomeness with how quickly I saw each one after the next. I thought I'd write a very quick review of each of them, though, and suffice to say that each one was a fantastic, visceral piece of cinema- well made, well acted, well shot, etc.


THE KING'S SPEECH - 5/5

Colin Firth was of course fantastic- I think, given the universal praise of his performance, I was unlikely to think otherwise! Geoffrey Rush surprised me with just HOW good he is- his performance is one of humour, sincerity and warmth, and he would be a deserving winner of Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards. Likewise, Helena Bonham Carter surprised me with her terrific performance as the Queen Mum- a very different sort of role for her, she represented well both Elizabeth's cheeky nature but also the agonising heartache of watching her husband struggle with his speech. The music throughout (by Alexandre Desplat) was superb. Strong support comes from Derek Jacobi, Guy Pearce and Timothy Spall. The screenplay by David Seidler is terrific, full of moments of touching, heartbreaking beauty but also moments of warm, delightfully British humour. I hadn't given a film five stars for a long time before this, but The King's Speech deserves every five stars, and every award, it gets.



BLUE VALENTINE - 4/5

A stunningly frank and real portrayal of the beginning and end of a relationship, this movie is almost unbearably honest, making it a hard watch but always worth persevering with. We aren't really shown the middle of the relationship, the events that begin to shift the dynamic from the happiness we see at the beginning, to the extreme sadness of the end- we are left to work this out for ourselves, and the movie is all the better for it. The soundtrack, which features the gorgeous music of Grizzly Bear, and also the voice of lead actor Ryan Gosling on 3 songs, works fantastically within the story. The film, in its frank reality, becomes intensely voyeuristic- we really feel at many stages as though these are moments that we should not be watching, that are too private and personal. It brilliantly evokes an uncomfortable, can't-look-away feeling in the audience. The real driving force of the film, however, is the performances of Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams in the lead roles. If they aren't Oscar-nominated then it is a travesty, for they lay themselves so physically and emotionally bare in these roles that their performances are almost unbelievably raw and naturalistic.



BLACK SWAN - 5/5

Now, to get it out of the way- I love Darren Aronofsky. I think he's one of the very finest filmmakers working today, and being as young as he still is, there is such an exciting future ahead of him too. Bearing this in mind, I probably view any new film he makes with some level of bias. Having said that, I think Black Swan is probably an exceptional movie with or without that bias, and Aronofsky is on fine form once again. Many people have drawn the similarities between this film and his previous feature, The Wrestler, and they are definitely there to be seen. Both portrayals of a physically destructive, under appreciated art, both portrayals of a person who seems only truly able to connect with that art- the people and things outside of it seem alien to them. Where Black Swan differs from The Wrestler, of course, is in its descent into a real psychological, fantastical hell- something which could easily slip too far into silliness and melodrama were it not anchored by Aronofsky's stylish direction and Natalie Portman's exquisite performance-of-a-lifetime as the troubled ballerina Nina. Black Swan borrows heavily from the body horror of early Cronenberg, from the psychological thriller genre, from the classic ballet movie The Red Shoes, but manages to find an originality all of its own. Clint Mansell, possibly my favourite ever soundtrack composer and a regular Aronofsky collaborator, contributes a superbly eerie score that twists and subverts Tchaikovsky's original Swan Lake music. The support from Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassell and Barbara Hershey is terrific, but the film is Portman's, and her performance must be a dead cert for the Oscars now. A delightfully twisted and dark fantasy horror of a ballet movie, full of psychosexual undertones (and overtones) and a disturbing view of the madness of both mind and body.

Ten Most Anticipated Films of 2011, etc

Well it's been about two weeks since my last post- this is mainly due to being ridiculously bogged down with uni work of late, as I once again left myself far too much to do in such a short period of time! I had 2 4,500 word essays due in, one which I wrote on the themes of temporality and 'boredom' in Andy Warhol's films, and the other on Scorsese's classic Taxi Driver, from its creation to the legacy it has had since 1976. Both went ok, and most importantly, both are now handed in! Now I have a week of 'downtime' before I start my new uni courses (the ones I will write my dissertations on- eeeeek!) for this term, and this week I intend to get some reading done, making a start on Simon Pegg's autobiography and a 100 Greatest Thrillers book that I got for Christmas. I also hope to get some serious scriptwriting done, now I'm in a more motivated and productive mode!

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After publishing my 'Review of 2010' I decided it was time to look ahead to 2011 and what should be a fantastic year for films. Here, listed below, are my ten most anticipated films of 2011. I am not judging these films on any possibility of critical, commercial or awards success, but am instead simply listing the ten films that are most on my radar for the year, films that intrigue me in some way and that I cannot wait to see. Some I know lots about and am fairly confident will be good, while others I know little about and could go either way. Of course, there are plenty of films that are not 'on my radar' and will take me by surprise this year. This list will not, I know for sure, look a lot like my 'Review of 2011' blog post will at the end of the year. But that's the beauty of looking ahead I suppose- it's all unknown. There were several films that just missed the cut, including Duncan Jones' Moon follow-up Source Code with Jake Gyllenhaal and Vera Farmiga, Joe Wright's girl-assassin flick Hanna, Jodie Foster's bizarre-looking, Mel Gibson-starring comedy The Beaver, and The King's Speech (which I think missed out because I have heard so much about it and will be seeing it next week). I also once again chickened out of ordering the ten!

- THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO - 26th December 2011

David Fincher's new film is the Hollywood remake of the hugely popular Swedish original, which was itself based on the equally popular book by Steig Larsson, the first of the Millennium Trilogy. Script by Steve Zaillian (considered to be more of a new take on the book rather than a direct remake of the Swedish film). It was recently announced that Trent Reznor is on board to contribute the music, having written a superb score for Fincher's last film, The Social Network. Rooney Mara is the girl tasked with trying to match Noomi Rapace's feisty, punky, terrific performance in the Swedish trilogy- she has big boots to fill, and it will be interesting to see how she copes with this challenge. The film will also display the acting talents of Daniel Craig, Stellan Skarsgard, Robin Wright and Christopher Plummer. Intriguingly, this remake is being filmed in Sweden, and there have been rumours that the actors will speak with Swedish accents. Whether this is true remains to be seen (personally, I can't see that working). But the original material does seem a perfect fit for Fincher and I am very interested to see how this film plays out upon its December release.

- BLACK SWAN - 21st January 2011

Written lots about this already. Has been on my radar for a very long time now, and the anticipation isn't dipping as the release date comes around. Darren Aronofsky is one of the finest directors working today, and his latest is getting all kinds of success with the critics and with various different awards from various places. Natalie Portman looks like she could be putting in a career-best performance, the trailer has hinted at a dark and rather twisted tone, and Aronofksy's regular collaborator Clint Mansell (the man behind that superb theme for Requiem For A Dream that you hear EVERYWHERE) is providing the score. Should be seeing this very soon after it comes out- can't wait!

- X-MEN: FIRST CLASS - 2nd June 2011

Very interested to see what is done with this X-Men prequel of sorts, or a 'Young X-Men' as it could be called, following the early relationship of Charles Xavier (here played by James McAvoy) and Erik Lensherr (Michael Fassbender), the two men who would become Professor X and Magneto respectively. The pedigree involved with this film is terrific, with director Matthew Vaughn and writer Jane Goldman coming into this off the back of the hugely popular Kick-Ass, McAvoy, Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence (after her superb turn in Winter's Bone), Kevin Bacon, January Jones and Nicholas Hoult providing the impressive acting talent, and of course the story being a particularly intriguing one for X-Men and comic book afficionados. The X-Men series took a downslide with X-Men 3 and Origins: Wolverine , but hopefully this new film will be closer to the superb first two instalments. We shall see!

- TRUE GRIT - 11th February 2011

The Coen Brothers very, very rarely let me down. In fact, only The Ladykillers could I say I didn't really like. Which, in the long and productive career they've had, is pretty damn good. Critics have raved about this new Coens film, a Western and adaptation of Charles Portis' novel, so far and it topped the North American box office last week. The acting talent on display is incredibly solid (I'm a huge fan of Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and Josh Brolin) and the story sounds like something the Coens will handle effortlessly. Look forward to seeing this one as soon as it comes out.

- SUCKER PUNCH - 1st April 2011

Zack Snyder's latest is one of those I mentioned that could very much go either way; it doesn't seem like we are looking at a film that could be average here, rather amazing or terrible. What it seems that it will definitely be is... crazy. Completely barmy. It seems to be Snyder's take on girl power, as a posse of institutionalized girls (led by Emily Browning's Baby Doll, and also including Abbie Cornish's Sweat Pea, Jena Malone's Rocket, Vanessa Hudgens' Blondie, and Jamie Chung's Amber) try to devise a plan to escape the facility. It is here that it descends into the chaos that the trailer hints at. And DRAGONS. On the face of it, this film looks a little like my teenage fantasy squeezed into 2 hours. And my excitement for this film has nothing to do with how Emily Browning looks in those outfits. Absolutely nothing.

- BLUE VALENTINE - 14th January 2011

Written about this one a lot too. The Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams starring indie flick has been described as one of the worst date movies ever, aiming as it does to paint a portrait of a couple very far away from happiness. The film has gained some great reviews thus far, and plenty of plaudits heading Gosling's and Williams' way. They're both fantastic actors, so I look forward to seeing how they work together. Should be seeing this next week if all goes to plan!

- HUGO CABRET - 9th December 2011

Martin Scorsese's new film looks like it will be fairly unlike anything the great man has ever done- a possibly family-friendly film in the pre-Christmas period? Genuinely intrigued as to how this will turn out. Not a lot is known about the plot- IMDb has it down as thus- 'Set in 1930s Paris, an orphan who lives in the walls of a train station is wrapped up in a mystery involving his late father and an automaton.' The cast list looks very impressive, with Chloe Moretz, Jude Law, Emily Mortimer, Ben Kingsley, Christopher Lee, Sacha Baron Cohen, Ray Winstone and Richard Griffiths all involved (but then when has Scorsese struggled to get good actors involved in his projects?), and Asa Butterfield as the titular character. How will Scorsese deal with material so unlike what he is used to? Fantastically, I can only imagine.

- RESTLESS - 11th March 2011

Gus Van Sant, a man responsible for the brilliant likes of Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho, Good Will Hunting, Elephant, Last Days and Milk, sees his new film Restless released in March. The film concerns itself with 'the story of a terminally ill teenage girl who falls for a boy who likes to attend funerals and their encounters with the ghost of a Japanese kamikaze pilot from WWII.' (IMDb) Sounds interesting, different, and stars the growing talent of Mia Wasikowska in the lead role.


- COWBOYS AND ALIENS - 12th August 2011

Not two groups of beings that you generally see combined in film. Could well make for a fantastically barmy combination, if done right by director Jon Favreau. The talent's there, with Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell and Paul Dano on board, and of course the fabulously B-movie sounding story. One to watch this summer- could be one of the more inspired blockbuster efforts.

- CONTAGION - 21st October 2011

Steven Soderbergh is an extremely prolific director (the last few years he has made two films each year), but his latest Contagion seems like one to particularly watch out for, in large part thanks to the fabulous cast he has managed to put together- Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Marion Cotillard, Kate Winslet and Jude Law all have major roles in this 'action-thriller centered on the threat posed by a deadly disease and an international team of doctors contracted by the CDC to deal with the outbreak.' (IMDb) Sounds like a film for our times, with bird flu and swine flu scares setting off worldwide paranoia.

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Reviews of a few films I've seen in the cinema of late.


THE TOURIST - 2/5

Considering Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's last film was 2006's magnificent German conspiracy thriller The Lives of Others, his English-language debut is something of a disappointment. The film takes the implausible plot turns a little too far, and the much-anticipated chemistry between Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie never quite hits the highs that it could have. The film is plenty of fun, however, two hours in which to forget about everything, sit back and enjoy the silliness of this Venice-set caper.


LONDON BOULEVARD - 3/5

Writer of The Departed William Monahan combines with producer of The Departed Graham King on this film that is remarkably similar to The Departed. Well, a British-set The Departed. And nowhere near as good as The Departed. Monahan's directorial debut, that somehow managed to go fairly unnoticed by critics and audiences, is a strong enough gangster film, full of violence, liberal use of the C-word and of course Ray Winstone (what modern gangster film would be complete without him? He does rather phone this performance in though). Colin Farrell's cockney accent takes a while to get used to, but he puts in a decent performance- the same of which can't really be said for Keira Knightley, who once again shows herself to be the queen of bland. The supporting performances are the strongest, especially from David Thewlis, Ben Chaplin and Anna Friel. The film is full of plotholes and probably takes itself more seriously than it should, but it's an entertaining enough thriller.


SOMEWHERE - 4/5

Sofia Coppola's latest is more Sofia Coppola than anything she has previously done- anyone that found Lost In Translation to be a little laborious need not bother with this, the film playing out at an almost unbearably slow pace as we begin to feel the boredom that lies within Johnny Marco's (Steven Dorff) outwardly glamorous and cool lifestyle. Audiences unready for this slow pace may well be asleep within the first half hour, but the film majorly rewards the patience of those who aren't. Marco's life is finally given some meaning when his daughter Cleo(Elle Fanning) has to stay with him for a while- he doesn't seem to see it like this, however, and fails to give Cleo the time she really deserves. This film has the subtlest beauty I have seen in a film in some time, helped by fantastically good work from Dorff and Fanning (a performance that should make her a star, if there is any justice). A lot of the people who don't understand this film are probably those who want emotion forced upon them- fine, but Somewhere is really a film for those that want to do some searching, to attempt to get inside the characters and understand their every minor facial twitch and tones of voice. If this can be managed, the film is a very rewarding experience indeed, particularly in one line that Johnny utters to Cleo above the noise of a helicopter (a nod of sorts to the whispered line at the end of Lost In Translation).
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Just a few little snippets of recent film news that has caught my eye.

NATIONAL SOCIETY OF FILM CRITICS AWARDS - The Social Network cleaned up at this year's awards ceremony, scoring Best Film, Best Actor for Jesse Eisenberg, Best Director for David Fincher, and Best Screenplay for Aaron Sorkin. Giovanna Mezzogiorno won Best Actress for her performance in Vincere, Geoffrey Rush was Best Supporting Actor for The King's Speech, and Olivia Williams Best Supporting Actress for The Ghost Writer.

NEW YORK FILM CRITICS AWARDS - Best Film was once again The Social Network, which also scored Best Director for David Fincher. Annette Bening was Best Actress for The Kids Are All Right and Colin Firth Best Actor for The King's Speech.

RISING STAR AWARDS - The five nominees for the Orange Rising Star Award at this year's BAFTAs are Gemma Arterton, Andrew Garfield, Tom Hardy, Aaron Johnson and Emma Stone. You can vote for your favourite here- http://bafta.orange.co.uk/. My vote went to Andrew Garfield!

SCORSESE AND DE NIRO TO WORK TOGETHER AGAIN - The great old team is back. Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro haven't worked together on a film since 1995, but they appear to have finally found a project they both want to work on- a film called The Irishman, based on a book by Charles Brandt (Steve Zaillian is working on the script). The story revolves around the life of Frank 'The Irishman' Sheeran, a labor union official with ties to organized crime. De Niro hasn't starred in a truly great movie in what feels like forever, but with his old pal Scorsese at the helm this may well be the boost that he needs. Great news.

BOND 23 CONFIRMED - Things are finally kicking off on the long-mooted 23rd James Bond movie, with a release date now pencilled in for November 9th 2012. Daniel Craig is back as Bond, with Sam Mendes directing.