Only God Forgives

Went to see Only God Forgives this evening - my goodness, what a film. It's sure not going to be for everyone - the Gosling fangirls in the row in front were baffled - but if you're a lover of the art of film, you will love this, because it's basically an exercise in pure cinema. I can put it no better than The Guardian's film critic, who, giving the film one of its few positive reviews, said "each scene is executed with pure formal brilliance". You could write the plot on the back of a postage stamp, but this is not about the plot. Dark, mysterious, extremely minimalist, incredibly stylized and exceedingly violent, it has the fingerprints of David Lynch all over it. It also reminded me of Blade Runner, for some weird reason. At times, it even feels a bit like a spaghetti western mysteriously transposed to Bangkok. It's almost worth seeing for Kristin Scott Thomas's searing performance alone, as Gosling's monstrous, domineering mother. Vithaya Pansringarm, previously unknown in the West, is also superb as the chillingly impassive antagonist. Naturally, the lighting, design, and cinematography (by Larry Smith, who shot Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut) are all impeccable. Cliff Martinez's roiling electronic score provides the film with a lot of its atmosphere and is also highly to be commended. All in all, love it or hate it, this is not a film you will forget in a hurry. Two bloody thumbs up.

Superhero Fing

Mark arrives in New York, naive and full of enthusiasm, to study drama, and falls for Stephanie, a gorgeous waitress wiser than her years, who seems to hide an enigmatic secret. After a shocking incident at the theatre, Mark encounters Stephanie once again and is drawn into a strange and dangerous world of costumed vigilantes with mysterious powers, that will change his life irrevocably. As dread forces converge on the city, will his romance with Stephanie survive - and will he?

(c) John D. Buchanan 2013

Implant

In a future where cybernetic technologies are strictly regulated by the state, The Church of Might is a powerful lobbying group, able to use its privileged status as a religious organization to provide nanotech implants to its congregation. With two of the church's most powerful leaders standing for re-election, a trio of its  senior figures - a beautiful heiress, an artistic loner and a reformed career criminal - agree to put aside their enmities, forming an uneasy alliance with the aim of unseating the pair. As a high-stakes, cut-throat game of political power plays, manipulation and double-dealing ensues where nothing - not even murder - is off the cards, the lines are blurred, all bets are off and it's anyone's guess just how far the three will go to achieve their aims - and whether, ultimately, they can even trust one another.

(c) John D. Buchanan 2013

Imagination working overtime

Dreamt up a couple more mad blockbusters while on holiday so I'm going to post the synopses here today. Look out for others coming in the near future. If you fancy making a movie based on any of these, get in touch!

Marcel Fengler - "Fokus"

Marcel Fengler is a resident DJ at Berghain, the Berlin club that has come to embody 21st-century techno, and this is his debut album for the club's in-house label Ostgut Ton. Those expecting a monolithic platter of the label's usual nosebleed techno will be disappointed, however. That said, this is a really good album that incorporates all sorts of electronic music styles. Yes, there is techno, but the influence of minimal, house, ambient, dub and even acid are all apparent. It's a much lighter, warmer, more inviting album than we usually get from the label, which in this case is a really good thing. Two thumbs up.

Sweet Bird of Youth

Went to the Old Vic the other night to see Tennessee Williams' late shocker Sweet Bird of Youth, starring none other than Sex and the City's Kim Cattrall as Alexandra del Lago. I'd never seen this before, though I've seen a couple other of Williams' classics. I'd forgotten just what melodramatic and over-the-top potboilers they are, and this one is no exception - indeed it might even be one of his most extreme. It's really good, though, and very funny, with some superbly caustic one-liners and moments of almost slapstick comedy. The whole thing actually teeters on the edge of farce, but is prevented from going there by the wonderfully dank, humid, Southern Gothic atmosphere that Williams does so well. I'm aware of Kim Cattrall's reputation as an actress but I'm not sure I've ever actually seen her in anything before. Here she is a revelation, brilliantly portraying a used-up, broken woman who's only kept going by the memories of her past glories.  Playing opposite her is young American Seth Numrich, who has really divided the critics. I thought he was great. All the principals were good, in fact - this kind of stuff works best if you really ham it up, and they fair chew up the scenery. The production design, music and sound are all excellent too and really help to enhance the atmosphere of the piece. Well worth catching. Two thumbs up.

RIP Sussie Ahlburg

I was shocked and very saddened to read in the paper this evening about the death of Sussie Ahlburg, a wonderfully talented photographer who inexplicably drowned earlier this week, aged just 50, in the Hampstead Ladies' Pond. Ahlburg was primarily a portrait photographer, and shot many beautiful album covers and promotional images for major-label classical musicians. I first became aware of her work when I saw the stunning and radiant portraits she shot of my friend, the pianist Christina Lawrie. After that, working with classical music, I started to see her work everywhere and became a great admirer of it. Her portraits have a wonderful sense of intrigue, and often wit, with a masterful use of light. Her death at such a relatively young age has robbed the world of photography of a major talent.