After much deliberation, here’s my favourite flicks of oh nine. It’s a bizarre mix of kids films and gut-punchers; arthouse and mainstream. Full contrast ahead.
10. The Hurt Locker
Too much shaky cam but still pulls off many a tense set piece of bomb disposal and the whole thing just feels hella authentic. Review here.
9. Where The Wild Things Are
The best movie without a plot all year. Jonze and Eggars have perfectly adapted a ten page childrens book into a feature length film without artificially adding some quest for treasure or some capitalist baddie who wants to knock down the hero’s neighbourhood. They’ve miraculously managed to just enlarge the essence of what was originally there, like some fractal experiment. And created their own individual work at the same time, something Watchmen perhaps should have strived for.
Ah, another banging gig at Digital, Brighton last weekend. There’s a gallery of pics from the event HERE. The first Hospitality we did there was one of my all time fave shows. This one followed up nicely and got to meet new NHS signing Netsky for the first time. And whenever I play in Brighton I stay at the Hotel Pelirocco – the hotel equivalent of Revels. Each room is themed, from reggae to fetishism. The best one I’ve stayed in is the Pin Up Parlour dedicated to Diana Dors, trashy camp with frilly lampshades and garish gold fittings. This time I stayed in the equivalent of the coffee Revel, not my favourite. It was the Magic Room as designed by Jamie Reid, of Sex Pistols design fame. I wanted to stay in the Motown room as that’s got a record deck in it but it was already booked. Had to check my latest dubplates in the second room of the club, thanks Wah Wah 45s crew!
DJing lots lately, gigs better than ever. Actually remembered to take my new camera to Prague this past weekend and took some video of when I dropped the Show Me Love booty – compare and contrast with the V Festival footage perhaps.
I was going to cancel the landline in my studio, don’t really use it much myself. But I just can’t let it go because of the quality of the answerphone messages I get. It must be a very special number. One that must be so delightful, people go to ring their brother Dave for a drink or try to win back their favourite cleaning lady (?) but they end up calling my number instead. It just feels right to them. And then they keep ringing back, getting more and more angry that I haven’t called them to arrange a drink or to chase up their hair appointment.
Here’s a prime example…
Love that woman’s voice. You can hear the pain of the world pressing down on it. So much so she doesn’t even know her own number. And then when I don’t get back to her, she get’s all shitty. But leaves a polite ‘bye’ at the end. She eventually called at a reasonable hour and I put her out of her misery. ‘It’s not actually a hairdressers conspiracy. Tony & Guy aren’t snubbing you cos you’re too old.’
There’s so many hot tracks around right now I feel compelled to make a top ten to name check the good chaps behind the music.
1. Full Circle – Bloke4d : A new duo that have a bunch of great tunes, most quite techy but this one is just pure emotional dnb. When I heard it I got straight on to the Hospital head honchos and hopefully this will come out on the NHS.
This rather tasty poster for TRIANGLE is actually not getting used for the main promotion of the film, it’s just a little limited edition one (thanks Loidstar!).
Love the geometrical divisions of the poster that suggest triangles and the off-kilter angle of it all invokes the vertiginous nature of the whole film. As well as the doubling that goes on. I much prefer it to the main poster for the film, below, that’s all fine and dandy but doesn’t capture the spirit of TRIANGLE as well as the above one me thinks.
I was gonna say this is the best British horror film since The Descent but making such a nationalistic categorisation is pretty hard these days. The first on screen title tells us this film is funded by the National Lottery but then we hear American accents and see Florida street signs. Edgar Wright had a similar problem in trying to write a list of his favourite British films of recent years, a lot of his first choices turned out to be more American in origin than British. But here at least we have a British writer/director using mainly British money, he’s just telling his tale with an American backdrop (actually, The Descent had that same setup too, ah go figure). Regardless of national distinctions, this is still an unusual and well made horror film. But it poses quite a challenge for the marketing team and critics as the film hinges on some major twists that make it hard to talk about the film without spoiling. I feel the trailer reveals too much for one thing and would not recommend watching it if you feel at all inclined to see this film. If you want a pithy summing up of it, think The Shining meets Primer. On a boat.
Here’s a bizarre little gem I picked up in Tokyo for a fiver – a shocking pink bust of Beethoven crossed with Alex from A Clockwork Orange, note lowered head, smirk and fake eyelash.
What does one do on their birthday if on tour in Japan? Why, go to a film studio theme park and watch a live ninja show of course!
The studio is a real one, Toei, and is still making productions there, I think mainly for TV these days. But it’s a name I’ve been familiar with for years through yakuza and samurai movies so it was cool to go visit.
A selection of vintage Toei film posters at the studios.
