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Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf?: An overwhelming study of life and illusion
21st August 2009 | 4 comments | 1 person likes this
There are many things in this world that I find truly baffling. Why are we destroying our marine habitats so that rich Japanese restaurants can sell expensive soup? Why do we demand that politicians solve all our problems for us, while secretly willing them to fail? Why do we keep expecting Guy Ritchie to make another good film? But perhaps the most baffling of all is the fact that Whose... -
Frozen River: an icy tale to warm your heart
24th July 2009 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
Yesterday evening I had an unpleasant realisation… I had completely forgotten to watch Courtney Hunt’s much lauded debut feature, Frozen River. This was, of course, unacceptable. The last ‘promising’ female screenwriter to demand the attention of the Oscars was Diablo Cody, but on the assumption that the Oscar’s couldn’t be so disastrously wrong two years in a row, I decided to head over to the Odeon Panton Street to watch... -
Harry Potter 6: two and a half bloody hours! (and something about a prince)
17th July 2009 | 6 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
I believe the definition of synergy is something along the lines of, ‘the interaction of two or more agents to produce a combined effect that is greater than the sum of their individual effects’. In which case the only positive-sounding word I can use to describe this film is… well, ‘synergistic’. I suppose it is rather like one of the miraculous potions brewed up by Professor Slughorn at Hogwarts: a... -
Henry Poole Is Here: A failed ‘Indie’ movie, but a wonderful portrait of a pathetic hero
9th July 2009 | 7 comments | 1 person likes this
I seem to have developed something of a rebellious streak with regards my choice of films recently. After so many years of watching only the most critically acclaimed cinematic milestones (and the most ‘difficult-to-pronounce-in-their-original-language’ Michael Haneke films) my experience of ‘King of California’ has opened up a whole new world of lesser-known American ‘Indie’ films.
I was going to coin a phrase there – post-‘Indie’ – but as soon as you... -
King of California: A straight-to-DVD jewel!
6th July 2009 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
“Its still the middle of nowhere… there’s just more people here.”
I am what the UK Film Council’s survey on ‘UK Audiences and Indicators of Commercial Viability’ would refer to as a film ‘aficionado’. The word sounds complimentary – perhaps it’s just the Hispanic twang – but it really means ‘devoted amateur’.
This is essentially another way of saying that I am pretentious enough to watch foreign language and art house films,... -
Network: I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!
2nd July 2009 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
“You do whatever the tube tells you! You dress like the tube, you eat like the tube, you raise your children like the tube, you even ‘think’ like the tube! This is mass madness, you maniacs! In God's name, YOU people are the real thing! WE are the illusion! So turn off your television sets. Turn them off now. Turn them off right now. Turn them off and leave them... -
Rudo y Cursi: A wolf dressed in screwball clothing
29th June 2009 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
Last night I was invited by The Script Factory to attend a special screening of ‘Rudo y Cursi’, followed by a Q&A with the film’s makers. ‘Rudo y Cursi’ is the directoral debut of ‘Y tu mamá también’ scribe Carlos Cuarón. It is also the first first film to be unveiled by the new Mexican production powerhouse, Cha Cha Cha Films.
It’s a new company but the names of the three... -
Transformers II: I want revenge on this Failure
22nd June 2009 | 6 comments | 1 person likes this
This time last week I was returning, weary and beaten, from an unbearably hot but gut-churningly exciting Download Festival. I had just enough time to wash the first few layers of grime and sweat from my beleaguered body before the phone rang with an invitation to attend the European Premiere of ‘Transformers II: Revenge of the Fallen’.
Now, I am not usually tempted by the allure of CGI spectacle, ex-Disney channel... -
Pour Elle (Anything For Her): A gripping, moody thriller with an award-worthy lead performance
18th June 2009 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
‘Anything For Her’ is the first major international outing for French director Fred Cavayé, but with a little help from lead actress Diane Kruger the film was deemed suitable for an audience outside France and so we in Blighty have been treated to a brief run at Curzon cinemas.
I cannot claim to have an enormously wide-ranging knowledge of French films, but most of the fare that has travelled across the... -
‘Sugar’: a sports drama with an embittered pang of emotional realism
9th June 2009 | 5 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
Anybody who saw Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s stunning feature debut, ‘Half Nelson’, will recall its unflinching and raw exploration of a troubled soul; anybody who didn’t see it… should. ‘Sugar’ is Boden and Fleck’s second feature, and I hope the general consensus will be that they have succeeded where promising feature debutantes so often fail. ‘Sugar’ follows the story of Miguel ‘Sugar’ Santos (Perez Soto), a young Dominican baseball player...
CONTRIBUTOR
Nicholas Deigman
Nicholas graduated in 2008 after three carefree years reading Film Studies. He has since been eking out a living as a script reader, runner, and intern around various production companies and film magazines in London. He will be tapping into the film industry that he has attached himself to like an aphid in order to bring you up-to-date news on interesting film projects.
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