June 10, 2009
Although he is probably getting truck loads of cash for doing Terminator, I feel Christian Bale`s career is going in the wrong direction. I am sorry to say but since he starred in Rescue Dawn, he is turning into Nick Cage. Two batman films and a terminator. What has happened to the gritty realism of the performances he gave in Harsh Times and The Machinest or his comic excellence in American Psycho? These were memerable roles. Shame.
June 7, 2009
I recently finished reading Manufacturing Consent by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky. If you manage to breakthrough the barage of information and references, its a very insightful book. It pinpoints circumstaces where the U.S. media acted in cohorts with the U.S. government to sensationalize atrocities carried out in enemy states and to compound atrocities which take place in states where the U.S. may have a political interest. One of the examples they use to justify this is the amount of editorials amd column inches given to the murder of a priest in Communist Poland to that of the murder of a priest in El Salvador. In The New York Times, there was 78 articles written about the murdered polish priest compared to only 16 about the Preist murdered in EL Salvador. Herman and Chomsky argue that the reason behind this is that at the time the U.S. government wanted to garner support against all things Communist, The New York Times assisted in this by giving detailed desriptions of the way the priest murdered in Poland was killed. The reporting of the murder of Priest Oscar Romero in El Salvador was unclear and untruthful, this was mainly down to the U.S. government favouring the military rule thatt was in El Salvador that was butchering its citizens. Romero spoke out about this and was killed for doing so. He was shot while giving mass.
Seeing as I am unemployed, I have decided to keep an eye on the media`s reporting of world events. The first story that grabbed my attention was this one Fatal Clashes Erupt In Peru. I first saw this story on Channel 4 news tonight. It said that indiginous indians had clashed with police over the governments plans to let gloabal conglomorates start drilling for oil in the Amazon Rainforest, the Indian population that live in the jungle claim ownership of the land but this didnt stop the Peruvian Government selling off the resources of the land to oil companies. Apparently 9 police have been killed, the number of indigenous indians killed varies from which source you get it from. This is a key characteristic of journalists that Iwas thought in college, they can`t count. This story is quite simiar to what is going on with that shell to sea malrky. I shall compare and contrast the reporting of this story from different sources and hopefully sniff out some funny business. I shall either discover that the media in some cases is being unscrupulous in its repoting of this event or that I have wasted another Sunday night.
June 7, 2009
The release of the movie adaptation of Cormac McCarthy`s The Road is nearly upon us. Having read the book and enjoyed it (not nearly as much as some people though), I am quite looking forward to this. When I read the book, I pictured everything happening at night for some reason, I also thought the road they travelled on would be completely vacant of objects. There are boats laid strewn accross it in the trailer, I am glad of this, my interpretation of the book would have been far bleaker, probably not very enjoyable to watch.
I always thought that if I was ever in an apocalyptic situation were it was a free for all, that I would fair quite well and that my talents would really shine. For instance if there was a loaf of bread, due to my age, size, sex etc, I feel I would be in a good position to lay claim to the coveted loaf of bread in question. I could definatly wrestle the bread from the elderly, children, a high percentage of women, quakers, really effeminate homosexuals like the dude from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Which in turn would make me quite a catch for the ladies, imagine Scarlett Johanson falling at my feet in awe of me after witnessing me pulverize a couple of pensioners over a can of coke.
RVV from http://nickthinks.wordpress.com/ told me when he was reading The Road he thought Godspeed You! Black Emperor`s “Dead Flag Blues” was a suitable soundtrack to go with the book and I concur.
Blood Meridian is the next book on my reading list, apparently Tommy Lee Jones owns the filming rights to it. Although I have heard that it would be very hard to transfer the book to screen, well, I will know soon.
Viggo Mortenson and Charlize Theron star in The Road and I have no idea when it is going to be released.
May 29, 2009
Horrible taste of shit in my mouth. I suppose there is never good taste of shit to be had in your mouth. I raise myself. Beer bottles congregate around my bed like tiny people surrounding a giant like in that ol` book….eh. I will sort it out tomorrw or maybe not. The sun tears a strip accross my wall through a narrow opening in my window, the heat belches in as I wipe sweat from my brow. Stick on Bitches Brew on the stereo… ahh Miles. Open the door, cat pissed outside my bedroom again, he must like me the most. Should really do some laundry, it will keep. Too early for beer, perhaps a bit of wake and bake. Gulliver…yeah, Gulliver…Think it`s going to be a pretty good weekend.
May 29, 2009
I think my alarm towards Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans may have be justified. I had to watch this trailer twice, after seeing who I thought was Xzibit, I then tried to convince myself that it wasn`t him. It was.
May 25, 2009
I watched Little Dieter Needs To Fly today, it got me thinking. I was very impressed, it`s a great movie. Filled with Herzogisms, the protagonist, Dieter is incredibly likeable, the story is exciting. They go to Laos and recreate the journey Dieter made, it`s a good film. Why did Herzog bother making Rescue Dawn? It`s an ok movie on its own but it is a cheap Hollywood immitation of Little Dieter. The reason I mention this is the The Man, The myth, The legend, the seeker of the “Ecstatic Truth” is in the process of remaking Abel Fererrar`s Bad Lieutenant. On hearing this I smiled to myself and thought, that might be interesting. I then discovered Nick Cage is going to take on Harvey Keitels role. Ahhhhhh for fuck sake………Why bother?….Nick Cage….National Treasure…..Pulling over a couple of young girls that were driving too fast and then wacking off while sleazing on them…It doesn`t sit right with me…Why not Joachim Phoenix or someone equally haggard?…..It`s set in New Orleans which could be ok….I suppose…..but Nick Cage….really?…..that Oliver stone heap of World Trade shit….I have often wondered why Stone didn`t go even more over the top with that and raise John Waynes fleshless withered frame from the grave and have it take the lead, he is selling himself/credibility short….I`m digressing……Little Dieter Needs To Fly……. watch it…….Herzog says he has never seen Ferrerar`s version….If that is true, how did he know it was worth remaking? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABVLuwcpWN8 Ignore everything I have just written except the stuff about World Trade Centre. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans is going to be epic….How could it not be?
May 11, 2009
It`s not that I dislike Vincet Gallo, I out and out detest him. Having suffered immeasurably as I sat through two of his directorial efforts, I feel no guilt in saying that the man is the most horrific of bastards that I have had the ill fortune of knowing about. The revulsion I feel towards him is that which I usually reserve for former employers, ex-girlfriends and bankers.
I will start off with the lesser of the two evils, Buffalo 66. An over rated yarn about a dude (Gallo) who is released from prison and seeks revenge on the Bookie that put him in there. At some stage he kidnaps a girl (Christina Ricci) and forces her to pretend that she is either his wife of girlfriend, I can`t really remember. There is a horribly long scene in which there are many shots of Gallo lying on a bed with Ricci, he`s curled up at the edge of it, vulnerable, it is the kind of self indulgence I have come to associate with Gallo. The viewer is meant to feel sympathy for this tragic figure but all I thought was “You`re a cock, mate.”
The film picks up ever so slightly when the couple visit his parents, played by Angelica Huston and Ben Gazzara who starred in John Cassavettes ‘The Killing of A Chinese Bookie’ a far superior film to this heap of shit.
Although I have seen the movie twice, the rest of the story is a bit of blur for me, this may be down to the fact that it was so chronically boring that it was forced out of my memory or else the simple fact that nothing really happened. I have nothing against films or books for that matter with a loose narative but this was completely void of content. It is the cinematic equivalent of a cardboard box. I know Mickey Rourke plays some part in the final scene but again, what his role is escapes me.
The Brown Bunny, where the fuck do I start? I remember hearing about this film when it was shown at Cannes, I`m pretty sure it got torn apart there. Chloe Sevigny, great actress, was going out with Gallo at the time this film was being made. One of the things I had heard about this film was that there was a graphic sex scene in it. I admit when I saw a copy of The Brown Bunny in the video store, my curiosity got the better of me. I rented it out and took it home.
Again, a lot of what happened in the movie escapes me, there was zero plot! Gallo`s character drove around a lot and didn`t say anything. He drove over to a meet up with a few ex-girlfriends and didn`t say anything. On meeting the ex-girlfriends he continued in his usual creepy, awkward attempt at being vulnerable.
One scene which lasted an eternity, had Gallo drive his van out to the desert. This driving scene wasn`t edited down. No, i spent twenty minutes or there abouts watching him drive, I think he had the radio on. On arriving at the desert, in no rush at all, he opened the back of the van and very slowly took a motorbike out of the back. He then spent about five minutes giving the motorbike a once over. Then he jumped on it and drove off, the camera staying on him until he disappeared into the horizon. What kind of asshole would put someone through that kind of shit. There was nothing deep, insightful or enetertaining about it. All I thought was that I hope he crashes.
The final scene, the moneyshot! For some reason or another (it`s not important to the no story), Gallo goes to a house and in this house is Chloe Sevigny. From what I remember they say very little to each other. She`s sitting on a bed he is standing up. Gallo then takes his cock out and rams it down het throat. He then proceeds to thrust it deeper and deeper than her throat while mumbling, “why did you suck his cock?” I have know idea what bearing this profound statement had on the scenes that preceeded this one. As I watched Gallo fuck Sevigny`s head, two things came to mind. Firstly I was reminded of when my brother was very young and he started choking on a bit of roast beef, he survived. And the second thing that came to mind was, Wow, this dude has ruined his girlfriends career. Nice Guy.
I have seen some rubbish in my life but the tedium of this monstrosity is second to none. I don`t think there is anyone in the world that can do wrist slashingly boring quite like Gallo, he owns this genre. He is master of this niche.
April 22, 2009
This clip reminded me of something I read in the Times about the Gardai getting new powers to spy on people. 1984, It`s happening, even in shit Ireland.
April 3, 2009
I have finally seen it. For some reason in the back of my mind I was expecting to be let down. That it wouldn`t hold up to Gummo or Julien Donkey Boy. Mister Lonely is a beautifully made film. It is Korines most accessable movie to date but it still posseses the directers unique style.
The film is about a Michael Jackson impersonator that lives in Paris, whilst performing at an old folks home he meets a Marilyn Monroe impersonator. She brings him to a commune of impersonators were he meets the pope, the queen, Charlie Chaplin, the Three Stooges and Abe Lincoln amongst others. There is a hilarious sub plot in which Werner Herzog plays a Priest/Pilot. Whilst flying over a village to drop food aid, the plane swerves and a nun falls out of the plane, as she hurtles though the air it comes down to her belief as to whether she will survive.
This film is a visual banquet and Harmony Korine`s use of music is unparalled. There are scenes that just grab you, were you completely forget where you are, I was talking to a friend about music you can get lost in, well this is a film that you can get lost in. I have had many heated debates with friends over the quality of Korines work, this film only strengthens my stance on him, it may well strengthen the stance of his critics too.
Due to the collapse of the Tartan distribution company, this film still has not been released in the U.K. and Ireland. If you come across it definatly watch it, probably best to watch it alone.
There is alson an excellent book called Writers on Artists which has an indepth profile on Korine`s work as well as other artists.
March 30, 2009
A friend gave me the Crystal Stilts album on friday, I have listened to it so much over the last three days that I am starting to get sick of it, thats not to say it`s not excellent. It is. They remind me of Tony Coca Cola and The Roosters from the movie Driller Killer. The vocals seem to echo out of sync over the surf rock melodies, giving the listner the impression that the band dont care what you think. Theyre really good, just don`t listen to them continuously for three days.
