Films That Really Matter To Us: 28 Days Later

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Of all the Danny Boyle films to pick, I pick the one about the zombies. Why the hell do I think this film has some sort of significance!? It's bloody amazing that's why!

First of all, I'm going to get one thing straight with you. I hate scary films. I mean I get scared watching Disney's Snow White or Ice Age 2, so I'm hardly going to sit down and watch a terrifying zombie film. But because it was directed by Danny Boyle, I was drawn in. 28 Days Later is not terrifying. In fact, it's a bit tense and jumpy, but no more tense than, say, Girl, Interrupted (well that bit at the end with Angelina Jolie going a bit crazy spooked me, anyway). It's pretty gory, but we're not talking sawing your own leg off or blowing up a shark in the middle of the sea. To be honest, this film is pretty tame apart from about 15 minutes into the film and the last half hour.

Mind: blown.

28 Days Later is just a really great example of what the British film industry can do. If you don't watch the whole film, just watch from when Jim (Cillian Murphy) wakes up in the hospital to just as he enters the church. I don't care how many times I watch that film, I'm still amazed that they managed to shut of parts of central London to shoot the deserted post-apocalyptic scenes. It then becomes a zombie film for a bit, but it's got believable characters and the inevitable 'child in peril' character.

To me, it's one of those films that you expect to watch once and never want to see again, but it's such a mind blowing film that I can't actually think of anything else to write! Plus, it's got a killer soundtrack!

Films That Really Matter To Us: 24 Hour Party People

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OK this isn’t one of those must see films unless you know who Tony Wilson, Joy Division, Happy Mondays and Factory Records are. 24 Hour Party People takes its title from the song of the same name and it’s a biography of Tony Wilson’s heyday years.

24 Hour Party People is presented in a really cool way – it’s not exactly a dramatisation, but it’s not a documentary either. If you are aware of who the real Tony Wilson was, you’ll appreciate Steve Coogan’s portrayal of him. It’s played as a documentary with moments when Coogan talks directly to the audience, but there are also some really effective film moments too. Ian Curtis’ suicide is one example of this.

Control - too narrow minded?

What I love about 24 Hour Party People is that it doesn’t just focus on the doomed career of Ian Curtis. So many tv shows and now a film – Control (2007) – have documented his tragically short life, ending with suicide at just 23. However, what these films, books and shows fail to address is the fact that Joy Division was not the end for the Manchester music scene, nor Tony Wilson and Factory Records. In fact, it wasn’t even the end for Joy Division themselves, who regrouped to form the very successful band, New Order. 24 Hour Party People goes way beyond this – it goes right up until the final night of the legendary Haçienda club in 1997.

Starting with the influential Sex Pistols gig in Manchester in 1976, 24 Hour Party People shows the crazy life that Tony Wilson led and includes all the bands we’ve heard of, and some of the ones we haven’t. It’s everything I could possibly want in a film – it’s about music: how it’s made, who is influences, how it changes over time and the cultures it creates. The film makes the music the centrepiece in Tony Wilson’s story, he lived it and breathed it and this is effectively conveyed.

Steve Coogan is amazing as Tony Wilson!

24 Hour Party People has the balls to exaggerate, but they normally tell you when this is (“I definitely don’t remember this happening”, says the real Howard Devoto as he is shown sleeping with Tony Wilson’s wife), but as Tony Wilson says, “when you have to choose between the truth and the legend, print the legend!"

I can’t really put into words how amazingly chaotic this film is, yet it makes perfect sense given that it’s about a record label that was so badly run that it hardly made any money and sold records that lost them money just because they looked nice (see Blue Monday – New Order). If you’re interested in music or pop culture, this film is a must see!

Films That Really Matter To Us: Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2

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For obvious reasons, I’ve listed both these films together. Apparently they were originally meant to be one film but it would have been too long – that’s why the full credits are at the end of the second one rather than the first. Anyway, I am by no means a connoisseur of Tarrantino films, I really enjoyed Pulp Fiction, but for me, it’s all about Kill Bill. A powerful female, amazing fight scenes, diverse cultures and of course, a bit of a freaky love story is essentially what this film is about to me.

I could wax lyrical about how cool Uma Thurman is in Kill Bill. In fact, I think I will! I mean, imagine how cool she was in Pulp Fiction and then times it by a thousand and you’re not even close! OK I know a cocaine addict overdosing on heroin is not someone I should be looking up to… neither, for that matter is a incredibly violent woman who goes on the rampage, killing people for revenge but seriously, she’s really cool. I guess I just like films where a girl is kicking ass for once. I think that’s it, yeah, I just liked the fact that you had an intelligent, strong female character participating in cold blooded revenge against the people who tried to assassinate her – including her ex. I think she’s pretty justified, don’t you?

The Crazy 88 are no match for The Bride's samurai sword

When I first watched Kill Bill, one of the things I thought might put me off is the amount of graphic violence in the films. There is a lot of violence in the Kill Bill films, as you would expect – it’s a Tarrantino film, anything less than a bit of gore is unacceptable! But the fight scenes are just so cool. Take the bit near the end of the first film when ‘The Bride’ (you don’t find out her name until the second film) fights the Crazy 88 and it’s just a bloodbath, but there’s some awesome use of colour/black and white switches, and some pretty nifty stunt work too. Te first film is very violent and there is little dialogue – it mainly focuses on The Bride’s quest to kill O-Ren Ishii, one of the assassins who put her in a coma, with a bit of a quest to get the best samurai sword ever made along the way.

By the time the first film ends and she still hasn’t killed Bill, you immediately want to watch the second one. It is not disappointing. Poor old Uma still has 3 people left to kill – Buddy, Elle and, of course, Bill. The second film is not set in Japan (as most of the first one is), but is almost a western. The contrast in the 2 films is really good: O-Ren Ishii, boss of the Japanese underworld compared with Buddy who lives in a trailer somewhere in Texas. While it doesn’t have as much fighting as the first film, there is very cool fight scene between The Bride and Elle in Buddy’s trailer. However, my favourite part of the film is the flashback sequence to The Bride’s training with Pai Mei, a mysterious Chinese martial arts master. He provides some light comic relief before effortlessly demonstrating his skills to The Bride who becomes eager to learn from him.

Volume 2 has a lot more dialogue and explains the entire back story so the audience’s questions about what happened to make Bill want to kill The Bride so much and what happened to her baby. By the end of the film it’s taken you on an emotional journey that’s actually pretty intense.

I don’t think it’s really spoiling it to tell you that she does kill Bill, I’ll leave all the details out, but if you haven’t seen the two Kill Bill films, what have you been doing with your life?!

Films That Really Matter To Us: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

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If you haven't seen Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I'm not sure how much you'll understand from this post. It's definitely one of those films that you need to watch at least twice to understand it properly, and if I try and explain the film's plot, it will probably put you off, just watch it and make up your own mind!

What really makes this film amazing is that although it's not a conventional love story - the break up happens at the beginning and the Joel almost realises that he's in love with Clementine after the moment has passed, it's still ridiculously sweet. I also find the film heart-breakingly sad, because just as he realises he loves Clementine, he wipes the memory of her. I think because the ending is very ambiguous - the image of them running along the beach on a loop could be interpreted as a happy ending or is it just pointing out that their relationship is doomed to failure each time?

Kate Winslet: she's crazier than you.

Kate Winslet plays Clementine, and obviously, she's fantastic and was Oscar nominated blah blah blah, but I think the actor who makes the film is Jim Carrey, who plays Joel. I genuinely dislike most of his films because I don't funny his zany idea of comedy remotely funny, but in Eternal Sunshine, he doesn't pull one crazy face, or shout or scream or act stupid and he's actually really good. Kate Winslet takes on the extroverted character, and Carrey plays a pretty ordinary, quiet guy, overwhelmed by everything about her, which really makes a change! I think because Joel's such a likeable yet understated character, you forget it's Jim Carrey and that really isn't a bad thing.

Leaving aside my blatant dismay that Jim Carrey wasn’t nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, the story, is just ridiculously bitter-sweet. Because it starts with the break up and works its way backwards through the relationship, by the end of the film, you can't believe that Joel and Clementine ever broke up to begin with, which just makes the final memory scene in the house even more heartbreaking. When you are watching the scenes in Joel’s mind, you are very aware that they are memories that are being erased, and this just makes it so much more tragic.

Not too wacky...

The other thing I like about this film is that it's presented in a believable way - it's not totally crazy and 'out there' considering it's about a company, Lacuna Inc, which can erase specific things and people from your mind. Eternal Sunshine even deals with the ethical issues that having such technology would pose - Kirsten Dunst's character, Mary, ends up sending all the files back to the clients after she is told the memory of her affair with Lacuna's boss has been erased. Obviously the memories are presented in quite a wacky fashion - almost dream-like, particularly the part when Joel realises he doesn't want to erase Clementine any more and decides to 'hide' her (unsuccessfully) in other memories of his.


I've only even seen one other Michel Gondry film - Be Kind Rewind, and I didn't really rate it. I don't know what other people think - should I try watching a few others, or is ESOTSM a bit of a one hit wonder?

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Films That Really Matter To Us

This series is looking at films that have a special place in our hearts. Here's the list of films and links to the articles about them. Enjoy!

·     Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

·     24 Hour Party People (2002)

·     Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2 (2003 and 2004)

·     28 Days Later (2002)

·     Annie Hall (1977)

·     Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)

·     Away We Go (2009)

·     Lost In Translation (2003)

·     Juno (2006)

·     The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)

Why The Smiths are TOTALLY not depressing.

Morrissey's smiling and holding flowers: not depressing

Why do so many people hate on The Smiths because they are ‘depressing’? OK so some of their music isn’t exactly going to be included in Ministry of Sound’s next ‘Ibiza Dance Albums’ compilation, neither will it be featured in the 'Happiest Songs In The World Awards' but does that mean you can’t enjoy listening to The Smiths? If you’re just listening to the music, and not the lyrics, then you could be excused for thinking they are a bit depressing, but if you’re not listening to the lyrics, you’ve probably missed the point of listening to The Smiths in the first place.

I believe there are three kinds of Smiths songs:

1.     The hilarious songs:

Girlfriend in a Coma: funny?

Smiths fans: we just 'get' this

Some of The Smiths’ songs have hilarious lyrics. I’m not talking about listening to your iPod on the train and getting funny looks because you’re laughing so hard songs, I’m talking about funny-witty lyrics. I’m sorry but what’s not funny about ‘Vicar in a Tutu’ and ‘Shelia Take A Bow’. As for ‘Girlfriend in a Coma’, please don’t tell me that song isn’t funny because everything from the lyrics, to the relatively upbeat music, not to mention Morrissey’s brilliant delivery of the lyrics make it just that.

2.     The “I relate to that” songs:

I think the majority of Smiths songs fall into this category. Maybe it’s to do with how much you can relate to Morrissey’s lyrics, so I suppose you could argue that it’s depressing that I relate to them as much as I do. But if you are someone like me who does relate so much to the songs, you think it’s bloody uplifting that you’re not the only person on the planet who’s miserable because you’ve just found a job. Sorry, but it’s true.

3.     The depressing songs:

That's just depressing...

OK so yeah, I’m admitting that there are some depressing Smiths songs. Shock horror. There are some, but they really only make up a small amount of Smiths songs. These include (but are not limited to) ‘Never Had No One Ever’, ‘Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me’ and ‘I Know It’s Over’. They are genuinely tugging-on-your-broken-heartstrings-whilst-twisting-cut-glass-into-your-miserable-soul songs. I mean ‘I Know It’s Over’, as far as I can decipher is about someone wanting to die because they have just realised that the person they obsessed over never really had anything to do with them and was essentially all just a dream. Think of it as the depressed version of ‘Funny Little Frog’ by Belle and Sebastian.

A final closing point: the BBC ran a poll about songs to listen to when you're depressed and 'I Know It's Over' won. You're hardly going to tell a depressed person to listen to a song that's going to make them more depressed, are you?! 

Is split personality an overused plot twist?

[This contains massive plot spoilers for The Machinist, Fight Club and Secret Window]

When I watch a film where there’s two main characters and one of them is a bit dubious, at some point, I will make a guess that split personality in involved. Usually I’m wrong but the point is, I’m used to this plot twist: towards the end of the film, we realise (usually at the same time as the main character) that the character that is in some way an antagonist is actually the main character’s second personality.

Here's Johnny... Depp

When I first saw Secret Window, I was genuinely shocked that Johnny Depp’s seemingly meek character (Mort Rainey) was actually the split personality of John Turturro’s violent, menacing character (John Shooter). The plot then quickly descends into a pathetic thriller with Rainey writing “shoot her” (if you’re that unobservant, it’s a 'clever play' on the name Shooter) on all the walls in what I can only assume was a desperate attempt to turn this film into something as meaningful to cinema as The Shining. The point is, if this wasn’t the first film I’d seen where a character has split personality, I think I’d have been able to guess pretty damn quick.

Christian Bale: women love him.

The Machinist is another one of those films, but in this one, I guessed not only the glaringly obvious split personality twist, but also half of the plot. Christian Bale is a very talented actor, and probably most people know this film as ‘the one where he lost all that weight’, but it’s actually one of his best (if disturbing) performances. However, even someone with as much talent as Christian Bale couldn’t help the film’s obvious plot twist. The second personality, ‘Ivan’, played by John Sharian, is so obviously a figment of Trevor Reznik’s imagination from the first time he shows up at the factory that the film’s barely worth watching. I’ve only seen this film once, and that was enough, it just didn’t hold my attention in the way that, say, Fight Club did.

"Wait... so I'm also Brad Pitt?!"

The first time I saw Fight Club, however, I was totally amazed. They really did the plot twist well; I suppose that’s down to Brad Pitt and Edward Norton giving really good performances, as well as David Fincher’s direction. The only thing that might give it away is the way Marla Singer acts when she’s around ‘The Narrator’ – she’s sleeping with him, but he thinks she’s sleeping with Tyler Durden. When The Narrator finally realises that he and Tyler are the same person, it’s a revelation for the audience too, and the film goes to a whole new level, with The Narrator trying to stop Tyler from carrying out what is essentially a terrorist act.

Rather than the other two films, which use split personality as a way to draw sympathy from the audience before revealing the ‘monster’ underneath (Rainey has been committing the murders and Reznik has killed someone in a hit and run accident), Fight Club attached the audience to both personalities, before ultimately revealing one to be a bit of a lunatic, and the other to be the ‘sensible’ one. This means that even though the split personality twist happens with a significant proportion of the film left, the audience is still excited as to what will happen to the two characters. Personally, I think that filmmakers should stop using the split personality twist to explain away a ‘bad guy’ or unrealistic character such as John Shooter or Ivan and allow Fight Club its moment of glory!

UPDATE (26/02/2011):
I went to see Black Swan on Wednesday and guess what?! About ten minutes into the film I realised that the plot twist of the film is that Nina (Natalie Portman) is having some sort of hallucination which is basically split personality. 

To Darren Aronofsky: how the mighty have fallen! Why did you have to do that?! It's not original and it's not clever anymore! If your ridiculously predictable film wins Best Picture at the Academy Awards tomorrow, I will be very upset.

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Why We love: Radiohead’s Amnesiac

I’m one of those people who that the sun shines out of Radiohead’s behinds. I believe there are many of us. Most music critics will tell you that OK Computer is their finest recording, and many will go on to assure you that it is the finest album ever made. Sure, the album’s a masterpiece, but I don’t think it’s even their best work, let alone one of the best albums ever made. I suppose you think I’m going to be pretentious and say Kid A is my favourite (if in doubt: that’s the weird ‘experimental’ one they did after OK Computer).

The crying bear: so much better than Pedo Bear

Kid A, close, but that’s simply not pretentious enough of me. I’m going to be uber pretentious and tell you that the best Radiohead album of all time is Amnesiac. Yes, Amnesiac, the crazy sister recording to Kid A, the one that you probably don’t own and have listened to once on Spotify before declaring that you just didn’t ‘get’ it.

So now you’ve picked your jaw from your desk and re-hinged it, I’m going to tell you why.

Amnesiac flows like a dream, and compared to Kid A, it sounds like ‘experimental Radiohead’ without being too floaty and slow [hear ‘Treefingers’ to see what I mean]. If you really want, you can look at it as having a song from the different ‘eras’ of Radiohead on it. Ie there’s the guitar driven Pablo Honey/The Bends/OK Computer music, the ‘artsy fartsy’ Kid A music and then the ‘despair at the modern world’ music of Hail to the Thief and In Rainbows. There really is nothing to dislike because although these sounds are quite different, somehow, they fit well on Amnesiac.

If you want crazy time signatures, listen to ‘Pyramid Song’ and I dare you to try and tap your foot. If you want more of Radiohead’s weird ambient music, listen to ‘Like Spinning Plates’ and try and decipher Thom’s lyrics. If you want full on jazz, just listen to ‘Life in a Glasshouse’. There really is something fun for all the family on this record! Lastly, if you were in any doubt about this record, check out the amazing re-vamped version of ‘Morning Bell’: it’s loud and almost acoustic compared with the original from Kid A. I love both dearly, but Amnesiac’s version has more bite.

Baically, if you haven’t already given it a go, try Amnesiac as your next Radiohead listening venture. BUT, if you've never listened to Radiohead before, you might want to try something more accessible, like The Bends or OK Computer.

Have You Seen This Man? Woody Allen anyone?

Or: Why don’t more young people watch Woody Allen?

I saw this topic on an IMDB.com discussion board and decided to weigh in here.

To a certain generation, you say “Woody Allen” and Annie Hall (1977), Manhattan (1979) or Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) springs to their collective minds. Dianne Keaton, ‘La-Di-Dah’ and, of course, Mia Farrow will also be mentioned. However, most of my generation seem to struggle to even recollect that he voiced ‘Zee’ in Antz, let alone anything else he might have done before or since. Allen’s films are original, often hysterically funny, and if not, dramatic observations of life. If you haven’t already guessed, I am a big fan of his and I believe he is a genius.

Alvy Singer, reincarnated

But why, when you mention Annie Hall (one of his most famous films) to anyone my own age, are you greeted with a blank stare and “I’ve never heard of it”? It’s commercially available in many shops, it won many Oscars and influenced so many films since – even Channel 4’s Green Wing paid homage to it in its 5^th episode - however, I doubt many of its younger fans got the joke. IMDB.com currently list Annie Hall as number 133 on their top 250 list. Can you now understand my frustration why more people haven’t discovered Woody Allen’s work through Annie Hall?

 

Maybe it’s the fact that he plays records rather than docks his iPod in Play It Again, Sam, or that he talks about Nixon in Annie Hall that put the younger generations off. However, Woody Allen’s stock character is broadly a neurotic New Yorker, unable to function anywhere else. Yes, he plays that character in a lot of his films, but he does it really well! This sort of character is, surely, funny to any age – his erratic attempts to stay cool during a date in Play It Again, Sam (1972) or his extreme hypochondria in Hannah and Her Sisters drew hysteric laughter from me, after all.

Yup, that's Zee from Antz

OK so maybe Annie Hall and Manhattan are too ‘of their era’ to be relevant today (a point which I disagree with), but let’s look at some of Allen’s newer films. I disliked Small Time Crooks (2000), but when Woody Allen simultaneously discovered London and Scarlett Johansson in Match Point (2005) and later, Scoop (2006), you’d really think his audience would widen. Scoop has wacky and outlandish plot, but ultimately is a hilarious depiction of two New Yorkers trying to fit in to the British upper class – surely just the kind of film that British people of any age would appreciate! Lastly, of course, Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) received international praise, yet many people I know have never even heard of it, let alone seen it.

So, in my opinion, there really is no excuse for people my own age not to have at least seen one Woody Allen film that isn’t Antz. So, get moving people, get over the fact that he married his step-daughter and start with Annie Hall. See where you go from there!

Hello Blogosphere!

Welcome to Movies, Music and Soap. We've got some treats lines up for you. All kind of articles on music, film, TV and pop culture. I hope you enjoy what we have in store for you. Please feel free to get in touch - @MoviesMusicSoap on Twitter. 

If you think you have some good ideas too and would like to write for us, send us a message on Twitter and we'll get back to you. We can't promise any payment, but it will up your internet street cred. Maybe.

For the curious among you, the blog name comes from the film Fight Club. The posters often say 'mischief, mayhem, soap', which is a reference to the plot of the film. If you haven't seen it, go and watch it right now!