by Lou 1.30pm UK time

Have you seen Bridesmaids yet? No? Why not? GO. GO NOW. Grab your friends and lovers - male and female - and go.

You see, this is a film about women. About relationships between women. And it's funny - OH SO FUNNY, MY GOD - and oh hai it's not really about weddings actually (thanks Hollywood - did it go something like this: "No, we're not interested. Women aren't interesting or funny." "We'll make the title something about weddings?" "Deal" ? Or was it more of a direct: "Oooh this is too funny! People might realise that women are funny - let's call it Bridesmaids and then at least no dudes will find out" ?).

Lots has been said about whether it's feminist, anti-feminist, post-feminist... but really the key points are:

It was written by women.

For women.

About women.

In which women do the things women do in real-life but never on cinema screens.

And it was made in Hollywood.

And it's fucking hilarious.

And people love it.

And lots and lots of men are going to go see it despite the best marketing efforts to alienate them.

Oh, and Don Draper is in it.

And did I mention that one scene in particular is probably the funniest thing you'll ever see in a movie theatre?

Kristen Wiig, you are now a God.

| by Bel | 2.27pm NZ time |

Here is my review of the 7 minutes I watched of I Saw The Devil:

AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!

Here's the scene: it's nighttime, on a dark and isolated road. (ARE YOU TOTALLY FREAKING OUT ALREADY?) A woman sits in her broken down car, talking on her cellphone to her partner. He is far away and although offers to help, she says she'll wait for road service. (OK WHAT ABOUT NOW? YOU ALREADY KNOW SOMETHING REALLY BAD IS GONNA HAPPEN HUH?)

Suddenly (AAARGGHH!) a figure appears at the fogged up window. A man questions the girl and offers assistance. She thanks him but insists she is fine. You have a moment of thinking it's just a fake out and that all is well - then his eyes literally flash a glowing red in the moment he disappears from view. (AAARGGHH!!!)

The woman has to end her call and sits in silence. (SWEATY PALMS, YE GODS.) She is nervous and flicks on her headlights to illuminate the road ahead. Nothing.

THEN HER WINDOW IS SMASHED WITH A MALLET AS THE SCARY GUY HAMMERS HIS WAY INTO THE CAR AND BASHES HER SCREAMING HEAD IN.

(I kid you not.)

Yeah, so that was the end of that screening. I demanded an immediate antidote, which was served in the form of No Strings Attached.

 

This film is heaps better than you would expect. Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher both play likeable, believable characters with an excellent supporting cast. Sure, you know what's going to happen at the end, but there are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments along the way, with some emotional stuff and saucy scenes too.

One thing I loved in this film was that there was a scene where condom use was negotiated and that protected sex was portrayed as the best option in a casual relationship.

Can you imagine me yelling out joyfully "Negotiation of condom use! Awesome!"? Because I did. I also cried out "I bet you a dollar that this was written by a woman!". And guess who is a dollar richer, folks. (It's me.)

The photo above is from my favourite scene.  The all women household is having synchronised period pains. Although I wondered whether they were going overboard with a depiction of menstruation as a debilitating female condition, I decided in the end that having the male character demonstrating his consideration with delivery of snacks and a mixtape balanced it out.

Also, the line "Tea for your 'gina?" still has me cracking up.

In summary:

I Saw The Devil - not recommended in the slightest, even if you enjoyed other Korean horrors such as Old Boy or Tale of Two Sisters. (Or The Chaser, which is also ultra-violent, but I would recommend.)

No Strings Attached - recommended or even, in the rom-com category, highly recommended.

| Posted by Lou | The time is 12.11am here in London UK |

It seems I haven't mentioned any films since gushing about Oscar!Winning! The King's Speech. To get through them with speed I'm limiting myself to one sentence for synopsis, one sentence for what I thought of it...


The Social Network
A super nerd codes some website you might have heard of, then bickers over ownership, intellectual property and money in court with some rich twins. I genuinely think this film is going to fade into meh-ville with the passing of time, and I'm not just saying that because I took a sleeping tablet halfway through (I was on a plane, FYI).


Black Swan
A ballerina pushes her body and mind to the limit as she battles against an over-involved mother, creepy director, and free-spirited rival in a quest for perfection. Normally I hate films that blur the lines of what is real, but I thought this one brilliantly set a real foundation and then layered it with just the right amount of fantasy, ambiguity, genre elements, dance, themes, beauty, ugly beneath the beauty, creepiness... and basically I loved it.



True Grit
A good ol' Western with a twist in that the person seeking revenge is a girl. I thought this was really good, but was disappointed as I wanted it to be great - for me it didn't have enough Coen magic to really capture my attention.


The Fighter
A boxer has to deal with a whole lot of family shit and one hell of a set of sisters in his quest to be a champion. Whilst the previews for this film made it seem like just another dumb boxing film, it is actually really, really great and contains the best acting performance of a looong time (Christian Bale).


Animal Kingdom
A boy finds himself drawn into the fold of a helluva fucked up family crime ring. This film is the best thing I have seen on the big screen in a really long time and you are missing out if you don't do everything necessary to see it: I laughed, I cried, I gasped, I loved it.



The Town
A bank robbing gang hit a complication when their ring-leader falls for a potential witness. Whilst this is theoretically a good film, I watched it on the same day I saw Animal Kingdom and it just couldn't compete (and I thought Ben Affleck was a bit shite on the acting side of things, but a competent director).


Due Date
A kinda weird situation evolves in which a guy has to get in a car with a random weird dude and drive across country to get home in time for his wife's birth. I didn't think it was all that funny and wasn't able to fully showcase RDJ's supreme charisma, but it wasn't bad.


Get Him to the Greek
A record company pleb is given the task of getting a druggie pop star to the Greek on time. I didn't really like the film but sort of wanted to shag Russell Brand big-time.



Love and Other Drugs
A drug sales rep falls for a girl suffering from a degenerative disease, and they get it on a lot. I expected more Jake G nudity from what I had heard (maybe it was edited for the plane?), but it was actually better than advance word had led me to expect.


Fair Game
A CIA operative and her husband find themselves being targeted for revenge by their own government when he speaks out against the WMD lies. Whilst as an individual film it won't set your world on fire, it is very watchable and I hope is just one of a landslide of films that will emerge capturing the many and varied ways in which the Bush regime and their buddies (I'm talking to you Blair) fucked over the whole world as they lied their way to war.

| Posted by Lou | The time is 6.26pm here in London UK |

A busy week's film going means a collection of three film reviews: The Way Back, 127 Hours and The King's Speech. The short version is that they were all fantastic.


The Way Back

Alright, I admit it - I put alliteration ahead of the actual main focus of this film, which is not actually Colin Farrell. Though he is in it, and he is very good, and in case you're wondering no I wouldn't say no (despite his dislikeable public persona) - I mean, have you seen In Bruges? The man can act, and he's sexy. Anyway...

The Way Back covers the epic journey of a group of men who attempt to escape from a Siberian gulag by travelling 4,000 miles on foot to India. (This is captioned at the very beginning of the film, in case you're currently screeching SPOILER.) The soul-sucking horror of the gulag is ably set up (well, it was already planted in my mind from high school history), and you pretty much don't care who they are or what they have done - you want them to get the fuck out of there.

Their escape is through some absolutely stunning and utterly epic locations. If it weren't for the depths of human suffering being experienced by the characters in the foreground, this could be seen as one long travel advertisement for the Asian continent. Director Peter Weir and his team take these grand locations and create visceral and immediate scenes of hardship within them. I almost felt like the snow and ice was coming out of the screen to enshroud me, and was reaching for my water as they trek through the desert.



As for the characters, I didn't really feel like I was engaging with them as individuals (other than Farrell's delightfully psychotic Russian)... but then I suddenly found myself crying. I think the journey itself is so clear and so overtly motivated and it is all so big that I didn't really pause to think about them too much until they had already gotten under my skin. Or this can perhaps be attributed to the addition of Saoirse Ronan as a Polish girl who joins them, injecting a bit of warmth and spirit to their rag-tag bunch.

Definitely one to see at the cinema, but wrap up warmly and take a drink!


127 Hours

My initial reaction to this film can be summarised as: Holy Fuck.

**If you don't know the true life story this film is based on, stop reading now.**

The film is vibrant, entertaining, terrifying, funny, horrific, and ultimately very moving.

James Franco is perfectly cast as Aron Ralston, aka The Guy Who Cut His Own Arm Off. Within 2 minutes director Danny Boyle has set him up as a familiar type: the uber-extreme sports dude who goes out on his own to do crazy shit with little regard for his own safety. Likeable and genuine, but bat-shit crazy in pursuit of his own form of getting a life-affirming rush. As someone who has followed Franco's own bat-shit crazy career in the arts it was easy to see the appeal of this character to him.

I personally am totally and utterly mortified by the world of extreme sports, in a way where I actually felt sick from the minute Ralston jumps on his bicycle. Watching people sidle through cracks and jump off steep rock faces and fall into water just makes me cringe at the lack of safety of such situations. Yes, I'm a square. But the reasons for feeling like this are of course vindicated when Ralston finds himself wedged in an isolated crevasse with his arm as stuck as an arm can be.



As Boyle and Franco's imagining of Ralston's journey to the abyss unfolds it is hard not to feel totally emotionally involved in his plight. They focus on the little things that become Ralston's whole world: the quantity of water in his drink bottle, the attempts to use the tools at his disposal, the passing of each hour... Of course becoming emotionally involved when you know what is coming makes that nauseous feeling a little sharper... And when it comes, the moment is like a horror film - it is the first time I have ever wanted to cover my eyes and block my ears in a cinema...

In many ways Boyle's Trainspotting is a great comparison film for this - both take journeys into darkness and translate them to screen in a way that manages to entertain without shying away from the horror. If he hadn't already just picked up an Oscar (for Slumdog Millionaire) I'd be backing him for this effort.

And Franco. Franco. Oh man. He is just brilliant. Perfect. You know I love Darcy, but Franco is the one guy I would happily see rip that Oscar out of his grip. Truly an amazing performance. A normal guy, in extraordinary circumstances.

Definitely go see this. Even if you're squeamish - I am too and made it through okay. Just make sure you have a drink with you.


The King's Speech

I have been desperately looking forward to seeing this film since the instant it was released to the critic's eyes and everyone started saying "Firth" and "Oscar" in the same breath. Who would have thought that two years in a row Darcy would give us such notably magnificent film performances? I thought he could have (or even should have) won last year, and thus will be jumping for joy if he does it this time. But enough about my undying love for the all-time most iconic performance in a television period drama...

In-keeping with the visceral nature of the two aforementioned films, The King's Speech begins with one of those moments where you can't help but feel totally involved in what you are seeing. Firth's Bertie stands in front of a microphone to deliver his first speech to the people and... oh god it is so cringeful. Another moment for feeling slightly physically ill.

In a brilliant performance, Helena Bonham-Carter as The Queen Mother (or rather just Elizabeth, as she was back then) seeks help for her husband's stutter and we find ourselves in the office of Geoffrey Rush.

Now, I am definitely a fan of Rush. He is a brilliant actor, and does this very well... most of the time. But some of the time... he is just too over-the-top, too larger-than-life. Luckily Firth was giving the performance of his life (well, cinema performance of his life) as nothing less would be able to stand up to Rush.

Firth is wonderful. His Bertie is both vulnerable and strong; stiffly regal and desperately human. By the time his brother (surprisingly well cast as Guy Pearce) abdicates and Bertie is suddenly King George VI you are absolutely desperate for him to succeed.



The interpretation of the historical events of the time is quite interesting - Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson come in for particularly harsh treatment (I have no idea what they were really like), while Bertie and Elizabeth are retrospectively viewed through the filter of the wartime heroes they became for Britain. (Throughout the film I kept imagining Bonham-Carter's Elizabeth delivering the famous line: "The children won't go without me. I won't leave the King. And the King will never leave." The film stops well short of this, but it did highlight to me that she had captured the right spirit.)

I've probably made it sound rather droll, but actually it is a surprisingly entertaining film for something that is essentially about speech therapy. It is frequently laugh-out-loud funny, and also very moving. In fact, my only complaint (beyond Rush's tendency towards over-acting) is that I really couldn't take Timothy Spall seriously as Winston Churchill. Another to put on your list!

(For Pride and Prejudice fans there is even the bonus joy of seeing Mr Collins and Elizabeth in minor roles.)

| Posted by Lou | The time is 4.30pm here in London UK |

Let me get the most important thing out of the way upfront:

OhmygodHermione'sreddressarghgetmeoneimmediately! SeriouslywherecanIgetoneIwanttoweariteveryday!


Okay, please assume that I agree with Bel that their acting had improved, the tardis handbag was AWESOME, and that I appreciate that the films have grown with the audience.

But...

I just didn't dig it.

I thought the director made some really odd choices - like Ron's vision of Harry and Hermione that looked like it was inspired by an interweb search of scary fan art from the erotic realm.

I wasn't quite game to google "erotic harry potter fan art" at work

Or the dance sequence - sorry but I just found it weird and uncomfortable in the context of the film, the characters, and the audience. (Even Ruth, who loved the movie, was nervously giggling like "is this meant to be funny, or moving, or...?")

Or the deathly hallows sequence which, while beautiful, didn't seem like it belonged in a Harry Potter film. I guess these complaints add up to a general dissatisfaction with the lack of a really cohesive and distinctive style to this film - Lord of the Rings it is not.

Most of all though, I didn't feel a sense of urgency or suspense, even within the individual action sequences. I know it is extremely difficult to make a film that is essentially just foreplay... but foreplay should be better than this.

I thought the action passed by too quickly without having been woven for full clarity and effect (which made me think they had run out of time in post-production). And - crucially - I didn't get a sense of the looming menace of Voldemort.

But I'm still really excited about the last film...

| Posted by Bel | The time is 12.33pm here in Wellington NZ |


First up, has anyone else been saying "Deadly" Hallows this whole time, or was it just me? How embarrassment.

Second up, preemptive SPOILER ALERT. If you haven't finishing reading all of the last book yet, then what are you doing wasting your time here??

Me and three other adults excitedly went along with our token 10 year old to Wellington's best cinema (yes, The Embassy) on a sunny Saturday afternoon to see Harry Potter and the Deadly Deathly Hallows.

The films have definitely gotten bigger and better as they've gone along. Just as the storylines have darkened and the characters grown older, the films have managed to balance keeping pace with the fact that their audience is predominantly children who need to be able to actually view the content. However I do think this film was a bit much for the 7 year old sitting next to me, who was more interested in distracting herself by swinging her feet during the scary bits than being careful about not kicking the nice lady in the chair right by her.

The biggest joy is that the lead trio seem to actually be able to act this time round. Hermione was so painful in those early films, and Ron only enjoyable because you assume he is supposed to be a complete ham. But the kids have all grown up and so has their talent. The dialogue of the script lets them down frequently, but the chemistry is natural and perhaps what we're seeing is their real friendships shining through.

Freed from the confines of Hogwarts, this installment is much more action-packed. The chapters which dragged in the book, where our intrepid heroes do some camping, some bickering, some more camping and then a bit more annoying teenaged bickering, are dealt with in a decidedly better way in the film. I.e. Nick Cave dance sequence.


Though it does suffer from a touch of the LOTRs (jewellery that gives you the grumps? ummm deja vu, anyone?), it's the wonderful magic tricks that makes us love the Harry Potter franchise that makes up for it. People disapperate at a rapid rate, everything and anything is accio-ed, potions are flung over wounds for instant healing. Oh and my favourite, the TARDIS-like tent. I could actually get into camping if that thing was real.

My big disappointment was in not seeing enough of the characters that we've grown to love thanks to the film adaptations. Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood has been gold, and we barely got a glimpse of her and her perfectly on-trend jumpsuit, while the stunt casting of Rhys Ifans as her father seemed to be on the screen for hours. (Does anyone else recall the book stating that Xenophilius Lovegood was known for being weirdly over tanned? No? Me neither. Harrrumphf.)

The biggest scandal even than Neville Longbottom turning out pretty hot in real life or Emma Watson's post-shoot cropping of her previously contractually protected locks has been the ripping off of an Alexander McQueen design for the wedding scene.

Perhaps Fleur Delacour (or rather, costume designer Jany Temime) couldn't magic up herself any originality?

And scandalous also was the deviation from the sacred tome itself, which states that Hermione wore lilac to Fleur and Bill's wedding. Instead in the film she shows up in this number:

Shocking hot red colour? Gorgeous detailing? A-line skirt? Flattering length? Sexy neckline? Sensible shoulder straps? Yep, Lou and I will have one each, thanks. Plus that nifty clutch purse with the Undectable Extension Charm wouldn't go amiss either. Hand it over and all is forgiven for not following the book letter and line!!

Posted by Bel. The time is 11.32am here in Wellington NZ.

Christopher Nolan's new film has layer after layer of deception until you find that the light at the end of the tunnel is actually a frieght train headed right for you.

The mind-fuck of his early work Momento meets the stylish modern noir of The Dark Knight, resulting in a pyschological thriller that has enough explosions to keep it fun for the mainstream.

It is impossible to write about this film without being completely spoilerrific, so if you're planning on seeing this - and you should - then run away now. SPOILERS AHOY!

Okay, I can say a few things.

If you liked Shutter Island, you will like this film. If you liked A Scanner Darkly, you will like this film. If you liked Pi or Scanners or Flatliners, you will like this film.

Did you read A Wrinkle In Time when you were a kid? As an adult?? Yeah, you will like this movie.

It's kinda like all that weirdo mind-melt dreamscape shape-shifter time-travel you-can't be-crazy-if-you-think-you're-sane sort of thing ...meets Ocean's Eleven.

Oooooh have I said too much??

REAL BIG TIME SPOILERS AHOOOOOYYYYYY!!

Leonardo DiCaprio plays a thief. No common household burglar, but someone who can enter your mind and steal the very thoughts from within. If you found yourself getting sick of Leo's ponderous looks and guilt-stricken grimaces in Shutter Island, then you might want to give Inception a pass - as he is once again in the role of a widower with a shadowy past and a rather loose grip on reality.

Here his wife (a combination of soulmate and nemesis) is played by Marion Cotillard, whose luminous face features eyes which manage to out blue even Mr Titanic. Her performance is a fusion of fragility and furious power, sealing her as one of the rare European cross-overs to Hollywood.

His team of merry men (just the one lady, Ellen Page demonstrating there's far more to her than roller skates and fake bellies - remember how she scared us to the bone[r] in Hard Candy?) is rounded out by everyone from Ken Wantanbe to Cillian Murphy.

The stand out is Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Maybe it's the sharp suits, but this film maximises the talent he demonstrated in Brick and just how far he's come since cutting his teeth on sitcoms like Third Rock From The Sun.

Flashback:

Wow. Yeah, sorry. That was just kinda mean, huh?

The storyline may seem convoluted, but fans of sci-fi will get on board easily. And Nolan makes sure there is plenty of action for those who are finding the concepts a bit arty-farty.

There's even a bit that he just straight ripped off classic computer game (by which I mean one of two (the other was Minesweeper) we had on our computer), SkiFree. They are all skiing around in white jumpsuits and they have to dodge the trees and do jumps and - unfortunately - there is no hungry yeti, but there are lots of baddies on snowmobiles instead:

Yep. SPOILERS. Told ya.

Leo and his crew have embarked on this dangerous psychic mission in an attempt to do something they believe has never happened before: plant a thought deep inside someone's subconscious, so that they will believe it is their own thought and act upon it within their life, without ever realising they didn't think of it themselves.

(Is this not the plot of Mad Men, every single friggin week?)

They are asked by a businessman (Ken Watanabe), who promises them shitloads of cash and to Leo, the chance to have his life back - he is estranged from his children as a result of a crime which is revealed as the film unravels (or spirals tighter, depending on your point of view).

OKAY REAL SPOILERS NOW PEOPLE!!

There are two emotional climaxes of the film (as opposed to the Bourne-esque orgies of violence that occur at regular intervals). One is when it is revealed that Leo has achieved this 'inception' before, upon his own wife as they lived within a dream, and when returning to waking life, it was this that lead to her suicide and the catastrophic destruction of his life and possibly sanity.

The other is when the team's hyper-manufactured inception comes to its peak upon their mark (played by Cillian Murphy, pleased to see he's a Nolan favourite; that guy does not get enough attention). He has a heartfelt and unexpected reconciliation with his dying mogul father, which changes the path of his life - seemingly for the better, but only because Watanabe's character has paid for it to play out that way.

And why did he want it like that? There is a hurried conversation at the start of the film, about how the father-and-son corporation is a energy multi-conglomerate, dominating the market, and 'must be stopped'. Oh, okay, so another businessman is threatened by them? And initiates corporate espionage? And then what?? Why couldn't they have been planting the thought that all G20 countries would band together to solve climate change? Or that the IWC would actually end commercial whaling? Or for the World Bank to unify on eliminating the debts of third world countries?

But you know, whateeevvvver... How about that bit when everything was all upside-downy?! WHOOO!! Because, you know, it totally wouldn't have made sense for Leo to have had a paradigm shift after he came to terms with how his first inception-thingy was such a bad idea and then to go about trying to reverse the damage they were doing fulfilling the commands of another inception planting done purely for financial motivation??

(Man, I am writing a lot lately about how evil people's financial motivations are. What a hippie.)

Okay I really did write some epic SPOILERS in there so I hope you didn't read this far unless you've actually seen the movie. That'll teach you.

Inception is released nationwide in New Zealand on Thursday 22 July. Thanks to Flicks.co.nz for the preview screening.

Posted by Bel. The time is 3.47pm here in Wellington NZ.

What happens when underground art is exposed to the glare of a camera lens? Does talent shine the brightest? Or does exposure just bring out the worst of the art world: hype, greed and bloody long queues?

Exit Through The Gift Shop is not a Banksy biopic. In fact, I'm guessing all those straight-to-camera interviews, even with the shadowy lighting and distorted voice, are still not the man himself.

It is an exploration of what street art has become, thanks to Banksy. Because of Banksy, and our fascination with him. Our desire for art to be accessible and yet still edgy, to feel like an outsider and to be included. To be able to stand up and say something and to still look cool while doing it. And, you know what? To make a shitload of money too.

Thierry Guetta was a man with a video camera. All the time. He fell into the street art scene at the right time, and after a decade of film incessantly, and telling everyone he met he was making a documentary, he'd accumulated literally thousands of tapes.

[I googled to try and find a screengrab of the scenes where they show the boxes and boxes and boxes of tapes that he had, but no dice. But. Oh my god. Seriously. As someone who is by nature messy and by daily conscious decision tidy, it gave me the sweats.]

He had hours (days, weeks) of footage of every street artist you could imagine - in particular, a guy who was getting up called OBEY. Also known as Shepherd Fairey, also known as the guy who did that Obama poster and then got sued.

Eventually Fairey introduced Guetta to Banksy. Guetta nearly dies of excitement. His incoherence in describing this is one of the highlights of the film. (Imagine Inspector Clouseau crossed with Anna Paquin's Oscar acceptance speech.)

The extremely condensed version of what happens next is:

• Guetta treats Banksy like it's prom night and shows him every good wall in LA
• Banksy manages to wrangle the tapes off him after seeing a cut of the long-awaited documentary that looks more like something I made in 6th Form Media Studies
• Guetta is encouraged instead to create his own street art and maybe even put on a show
• Guetta decides his first show must be the Biggest Spectacular on Earth
• He pretty much pulls this off
• Every other street artist around kinda thinks he's a dick though

Guetta - now rebranded as Mr Brainwash - skips that whole part of an artist's career in which they might build up their portfolio/black book and skills and so on - and just takes over an enormous space in downtown Hollywood which he mortgages his house to refit as a purpose-built gallery.

He hires a legion of assistants, one of whom is seen with a heavily Post-It-ed art reference book, the annotated images of which he has been instructed to put into PhotoShop and apply effects to, before printing out and silkscreening into posters to frame. Voila! Art show a go go. With the egos to boot.

Although both Banksy and Fairey gave quotes to Guetta to use in the promotion of his debut exhibition, the film portrays them as, with hindsight, somewhat retiscent of this involvement. Is it because his five day show was extended to two months, and he sold $US1,000,000 worth of art in a week?

Or it is because his art is so goddam awful? Here's some recent Mr Brainwash stuff from a show this year. I must say I did LOL when Banksy made a comment along the lines of 'Andy Warhol repeated images until they meant something different... Thierry is just repeating them until they mean nothing at all'.

With its hero's journey of a man determined to reach the heights of those he idolises, Exit Through The Gift Shop is almost a morality tale, with a kick in the pants to those money grubbers who are in it for the wrong reasons. There's no doubt that Team Banksy is behind this film, as he is the one that comes out look like the cool cat...

The footage of Banksy in action has never been seen before, and is breath-taking. To see him (with an accomplice steadying the ladder) spray-painting his whimsical art onto the West Bank barrier is both inspirational and powerful. Full gallery of the works here at The Guardian.

Equally confrontational is his broad daylight planting of a replica Guantanamo Bay detainee in the middle of Disneyland. (Reminder: US President Barack Obama, who last year accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, made a promise to close down the Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba and has not yet done so.)

With Guetta filming all the while, Banksy simply jumps a fence and puts the orange jumpsuited, life-sized dummy in full public view of visitors to 'The Happy Place On Earth'. He then bolts it, with a change of clothes to secure his safe exit. Guetta was unaware the stunt had been planned and was apparently held for questioning for four hours; a useful accomplice or perhaps simply a decoy to the experienced man of mystery.

Let's not forget that Shepherd Fairey recently burst the bubble that Banksy is a lone ranger, after highly recognisable Banksy art went up rapidly in each of the American cities where Exit Through The Gift Shop premiered:

“To me, it doesn’t matter whether he was there... He orchestrated it. If you’re still into believing that Batman cleans up the city by himself, fine.’’

Fairey seems to be alluding that he ("he") may operate in a collective way, as does C215, Fairey himself, and numerous other graff writers and street artists. Taking this as fact, how is what Banksy does any different to Mr Brainwash's crash (and crass) attack on the street art world?

Banksy at least appears to have reconciled himself to the commercialisation of his chosen art form. In an interview this year with Time Out London, he said

"I plead not guilty to selling out. But I plead it from a bigger house than I used to live in."

Posted by Lou. The time is 11.30am here in London, UK.



If you were planning on seeing - and enjoying - Robin Hood perhaps don't read this as it contains major spoilers from start to finish... or maybe do, as it will alert you up front about the absurdities contained within.

A lot of the press surrounding Robin Hood has been around the Director Ridley Scott's claims that it is the most historically accurate yet. So you can imagine my reaction to the later part of the film suddenly turning into a laughably ridiculous plot twist in which we discover that Robin's mason father had drafted and led the movement towards creating and actioning the Magna Carta.

The Magna-fucken-Carta!

What arrogance! What audacity! What the fuck! It was also so out-of-left-field as to also entirely confuse the story arc, on top of being perhaps one of the most preposterous re-imaginings of history possible.

Okay now that that's out of my system...

One thing I will say is that the film is that it does have some great art elements - the absolute best being a sequence in which a boat sails into the Tower of London, giving us a beautiful imagining of my local hood might have looked like back in 1199.

The costumes and sets do feel quite dutifully done, and even little things like how they fire arrows feel more authentic than generally portrayed in films from the era. However I found the cinematography quite jarring with the sunlight quite overtly entering several scenes to create clunky "effect" (I don't know the word for it - those visible blurs of light as the sun comes through the trees at the angle to jar on camera), and in other scenes seeming far too stark. To me the way the film was shot did not make the most of the art direction.

Robin and his Men - who feature very little, FYI.

Bet they're sweating waiting to see if a sequel is greenlit...

So the story: overall I felt its biggest failing was a lack of heart. In its obvious comparison film Gladiator we get a strong personal story to anchor the film - Maximus' quest for revenge against Commodus. In this there is no such heart, which is quite a major fault when you are expecting people to sit through 2 hours and 20 minutes of self-important posturing.

For a start I thought they were going to make Maid Marion a strong character that we could get behind - however that was just the inherent authority of Cate Blanchett misleading me, and they have given her a disappointing role with Marion under-utilised and then ridiculously appearing in the final battle sequence (with a bunch of kids on ponies!).

All I could think during this was "Courage Merry, courage for our friends" - a quote of course from Return of the King, where Aowyn is one of the great female soldiers, and is given a hell of a part to play ("I am no man!") - in this Marion joins the battlefield merely to give Robin a glory moment, which seemed to me far from glorious and actually rather patronising with the limp way in which she carries herself. (And also undercut the supposed ending where the soldiers hail him as the victor of the battle ahead of the King - wtf? He just paused during the midst of battle to go save Marion, how does that make him the victor?)

And Robin and Marion together - fuck! It's awful! In the midst of an all-too-serious-and-self-important film we are meant to go along with ridiculous almost Shakespearean-comedy moments between the two that are actually just rather nauseous more than anything. When Robin says "I love you Marion" I wanted to hurl.

As to that self-importance: you're probably thinking I mean ol' Russey - known worldwide for his public persona of bloated self-importance that seems to rub everybody the wrong way. But of course it is actually Scott's bloated self-importance that is the hallmark of this film (he did make Kingdom of Heaven after all).

Put it this way: I like Gladiator. A lot of people think it is bloated and self-important [I do think it's bloated, btw]. Well, I thought this was bloated and self-important, so imagine how much everyone else will think it's bloated and self-important. And I just think it's really ill-advised to make your film in that tone when your leading man is known for embodying those traits himself.

As for Russell - I like him as a movie star when he does big films. I love when Maximus does his big "father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife" speech, and I love Master & Commander, and though I think this is a bit of wtf casting I was curious to see how he would pull it off. I don't think he's bad (he's certainly not laughable), but I think the lack of a strong core motivation for his character takes away the opportunity to do what he does best, which is make grand, over-the-top declarations backed-up by a whole film's worth of build.

In this film it take more than 90 minutes for a battle in which he might have any emotional investment (and it is very quickly passed over), and the "big speech" moment is utterly ridiculous as it related to the whole weird Magna Carta thing that comes out of nowhere.

Okay so I've already rambled enough, but I guess something needs to be said about the villain and the story I keep alluding to the deficiencies of: this isn't a story about Robin stealing from the poor and giving to the rich (it seems to be a set-up for a possible sequel for that). Which is of course the silly thing about the "historical accuracy" claims - Robin Hood's (mythical) role in folklore is as stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. That is it.

Anyway, so this story has Robin heading back with Richard Lionheart's army when shit happens and he ends up with Robert of Loxley's sword and has a moment of conscience in returning it to Sir Loxley, who asks him to pretend to be his son so as to keep their land in Marion (Robert of Loxley's wife)'s hands. Meanwhile John has become King, but his closest advisor Godfrey is a double-crosser, plotting with the King of France to divide John's people so that France can invade England and take it with ease. (Remember that from History books? Yeah, me neither. They were still fighting over Normandy at this stage, I do believe.)

But Godfrey thinks Robin knows too much so goes after him (Robin doesn't know anything and it's rather precarious of a story thread to try and have us think that Godfrey would bother going after him). It's actually really weak and contains not much to believe in or care about (except that those dirty French are so evil! Gasp! ... Oh wait, it's 2010, people have grown up a bit since the England vs France days). But Mark Strong is quite good as a villain. Shame he didn't have a stronger personal connection to Robin in order to build some tension.

Yeah so Robin Hood sucks, really.

Posted by Lou. The time is 3.20pm here in London, UK.

And now for everything in between...

The Good

The first ten minutes of Boy are comedy perfection. Utterly. Fucken. Hilarious. While the humour continues throughout, the film isn't purely for laughs with Taika crafting a simple and affecting story about growing up. Boy is excited by the return of his adventurer father (who is actually a complete loser who has just been released from prison), but soon has to contend with the harsh reality of this person he has surrounded in myth. While the director himself takes the role of the father, the star and heart of the film is acting newcomer James Rolleston whose Boy is engaging, lively, and fully lives up to New Zealand's tradition of producing electrifying child performances.

I was pleasantly surprised by the directing - it is spectacularly well shot, with some scenes and shot choices showing signs of cinematic genius. The reason I have put it in with "the good" rather than "the great" is that personally I felt like the story arc is still not quite yet big enough to fully fulfil the scale of cinema, but it is leaps and bounds on from his debut feature Eagle vs Shark. While obviously I am a huge supporter of New Zealand's domestic cinema and love when New Zealand's creative geniuses choose to live and work in their home country, part of me would love to see what he could do with a Hollywood budget and a script by a great writer.

*******

Drew Barrymore's directing debut Whip It! is everything you'd want it to be - full of sassy and interesting female characters, and centred around the aggressively physical roller-derby scene. Ellen Page is the perfect lead, the supporting cast come in all shapes and sizes (with Barrymore herself providing the comic relief), the "love interest" is befittingly cute-in-an-alternative-way, and all-in-all it's a bit of a middle-finger at dominant ideas of "what girls should be like" as according to mainstream American culture. Oh, and there's lots of eye-liner. High-fives Drew!

*******

I love Robert Downey Junior. I think he has made probably one of the best Hollywood comebacks ever with the Iron Man and Sherlock Holmes series. He's just so gosh-darned likeable and quirky. In fact, it's pretty criminal that it took until now for me to even see Iron Man. And as expected, it ruled (because he rules). If only they had cast an unknown instead of ol' Gwynnie in the role of Pepper Potts - she is both spectacularly unsuited to the role, and the role is beneath her status as an Oscar-winning A-lister. It distracted me hugely, especially knowing that there are so many 30-something-year-old actresses out there deserving of a break who would have taken the role and made it awesome. But other than that, I give two-thumbs-up to RDJ's Iron Man.

*******

The Disappointing

Okay it was only marginally disappointing, as I did like the film, but Baby Mama wasn't quite all I wanted it to be (unlike Whip It). This is solely because Tina Fey is fucking hilarious - in 30 Rock, on Saturday Night Live, and seemingly in real-life - but this film didn't quite showcase her comedy chops. It is a funny film however, as Amy Poehler is a riot. Fey is a successful career woman who, in her late-30s, is desperate for a baby and - unable to conceive - engages Poehler to be a surrogate. Physical comedy and witty banter ensues.

I liked the story - it seemed extremely empathetic towards a very real situation of being a woman with a ticking-down biological clock who wants a baby and doesn't have someone to be the daddy. It doesn't portray this as being a pitiable state, or present a man as being the solution. It very much centres upon two women in a comedy-double-act scenario that is traditionally seldom given to women on the big screen. There is also humour that is seldom portrayed by women (toilet humour and the like), and they do it well. And actually in writing this I'm wondering why I have put it in the disappointing section? I guess I just wanted Fey to be funnier.

*******

Up. What the...? It got so much attention, so many award nominations, such great word-of-mouth... and yet... it's so disappointing. The first half is great, don't get me wrong. I thought the opening sequence was emotive and engaging, the characterisation excellent, and watching the house be carried up into the air by a flurry of helium balloons is brilliant. But once they reach a destination it just becomes a bat-shit-crazy downer. It took something like 5 minutes from me to go from being utterly engaged to tapping my fingers and wondering what the fuck. I'd recommend hitting the stop button once the balloon has landed.

*******

The Sandra Bullock

A Certain Somebody who is married to a Certain Co-Blogger is quite a big fan of Ms Bullock, which has led to my Co-Blogger having quite a detailed knowledge of her films, which in turn piqued my curiosity enough to devote some of my in-flight film-watching time to checking out The Blind Side and Two Weeks Notice. Then coincidentally I arrived home one night to find The Proposal in the DVD player.

I don't think we're in any doubt that she won the Oscar for The Blind Side because she is a Megastar known for comedies, and Hollywood likes to reward Megastars who pleasantly surprise us by showing that they Actually Can Act. Whilst her performance is fine, take out the Megastar factor and we have a performance that would have barely garnered notice in a made-for-tv film. I guess elevating it to cinematic status is in itself worthy of reward, but overall it's just a good performance in an okay film.

I have a huge problem with this film. It addresses a stubborn form of racism, yes (the separation between white upper-middle-class lives and black communities upon whom they look down and "otherise"), and I can totally see how Bullock would be attracted to such a positive message and good intention on the part of the filmmakers. But for all the dialogue-heavy openmindedness, the actual substance of the film was discomfortingly patronising and, well, down-looking. You see, whilst Michael (the disadvantaged black teenager who Bullock's Leigh Anne adopts) says things like "I'm not dumb" and Leigh Anne says things like "I know you're not stupid" and some of the teachers say things like "he is really smart", the screenwriter and director have given us an entirely one dimensional Michael that lacks any personality, intelligence or spark, which entirely undermines the whole point of the message when set amongst the lively personalities of Leigh Anne and the white members of her family.

*******

As for the other two... well. Whilst I would give The Blind Side a pass for trying and for managing to evoke an emotional reaction (no matter how superficially), there's not much I can say about Two Weeks Notice and The Proposal, other than that both films are entirely carried by the charisma of the two leads (Bullock and Hugh Grant, and Bullock and Ryan Reynolds). Oh well actually, Reynolds' body helps in the latter also... The plots are predictable and the laughs sorely lacking. Yawn.

Posted by Lou. The time is 4.40pm here in London, UK.

Over the last few weeks I've seen a lot of films - in the cinema, on DVD, but mostly in-flight. Some were bad, some good, some great, some awful, and a few just a little bit eccentric. Too many for one post, so here are the extremes with all those from in between to follow soon.

The Great

Untouchable Girls, the feature-length documentary about New Zealand icons The Topp Twins (aka Jools and Lynda), is absolutely brilliant. The film features interviews with twins themselves and their various characters - including Camp Leader & Camp Mother (pictured left) and Ken & Ken - alongside archive footage and performances from a recent tour, all weaved together wonderfully.

The surprise of the doco is that as integral to them as their music and comedy characters is Jools and Lynda's determination to stand up for what they believe in: from Bastion Point to the '81 Springbok Tour to the fight for gay rights to the fight for woman's rights to the fight against French nuclear testing, and everything in between. Their charisma, passion, sass and utterly grounded natures makes them two of the most contagiously wonderful people on this earth, and I salute them.

******

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is one of those animated films where you sort of secretly wish you had kids so you could use them as an excuse to run straight out to the cinema on opening day to see it. The story of a machine that creates food that rains down from the sky is stunningly realised by the animation artists, and the script is clever and funny. On top of all that it has a pretty good girl character. Oh, and lots of food. Need I say more?

******

The Eccentric

Okay so it probably wasn't considered particularly eccentric in its time, but watching the 1959 adaptation of Sherlock Holmes novel The Hounds of Baskerville (starring Peter Cushing) in 2010 while halfway between Singapore and London sort of made it seem quite eccentric. The opening flashback to a ghastly murder on the moors at the hands of a Lord Fuckwad, complete with swarm of hounds, is actually quite hilarious - almost self-parodying. And of course Holmes himself is an eccentric, so add in quite a lot of prancing about on the moors, a bit Christopher Lee, and one cliche of a Spanish lady and you've got yourself 90 minutes of forgetting you're in a confined space flying far above the earth. Plus, don't you think movie posters looked better back in ye olde days?

******

I'm putting this one in the eccentric category in honour of Martin Scorsese, whose determination to make old-style films is to me an eccentric and endearing quirk within a cinema landscape that is so obsessed with fx, edginess, and the now. I would imagine that a lot of people won't like Shutter Island, and to be honest I'm not entirely sure I did, but it sucked me in and it made my film companion literally cry out in fear.

Leo - ah Leo, how I love thee - pulls in another fine performance as a Deputy Marshall who has orchestrated being assigned an investigation into a missing woman on Shutter Island, home of nothing but a high-security mental hospital. Things are not as they seem and soon spiral out of control, with plenty of blood and shocks galore. Scorsese revels in the thriller genre, complete with exaggerated musical score, dark and stormy night, and a lighthouse on sea-battered rocks. It would certainly be a fine choice for a Friday night trip to the cinema... except that Scorsese then bends the genre, layering in haunting Holocaust imagery as the Marshall's experiences of the war haunt him through his investigation. Perhaps a Sunday night then.

******

The Downright Awful

The Lovely Bones. Perhaps I should have titled this one "The Soporific". Normally I find it really difficult to sleep during flights, but despite having already had a fulfilling (drug-induced) sleep, I still fell fast asleep during this. Thanks PJ, it made the flight much easier to bear than I suspect actually watching the film would have.

PS: I chose this picture as it looks like the dude has just gotten his first glimpse of Marky Mark's hair.

******

Couples Retreat is an appalling film. That it got greenlit while so many brilliant, smart, witty scripts never get picked up is a fucking travesty. First I would like to explain why I watched it. You see, there is a certain point on long-haul flights where I can't sleep but neither can I think properly, and I sort of don't want to waste any decent films by watching them during this lull, so I usually flick to the comedy section to see what they have to offer, and inevitably there is a Vince Vaughn comedy, and even more inevitably I make the dumb decision to choose it. I don't mind Vaughn - I mean, I certainly don't actively like him as an actor, and I take his presence in a film to mean that I should never pay money to see it - and so in flight purgatory his films can be satisfactory for the situation.

But this one is just awful. I won't bore you with any more other than to say that, predictably, a bunch of middle-aged, dislikeable and unattractive men implausibly have caring, beautiful wives. Marital problems (gosh, I wonder why?) and other straining-credibility factors lead them all to a couples retreat in tropical paradise where the women take their clothes off a lot and everyone lives happily ever after. Except the viewer. Avoid with all your being. The sight of Temuera Morrison degrading himself in the role of "the native" is something that will be with you for life.

Posted by Lou. The time is 7.25pm here in London, UK.


The best adjective I can think of for A Single Man is distinguished. As you would expect from a fashion designer, Tom Ford has given us a beautiful (visually) piece of cinema. As you may not expect from a fashion designer turned first-time filmmaker, he has also given us a beautiful (emotionally) piece of cinema. This is one cross-over I hope marks a career change as it is an absolutely fantastic - and under-recognised (*coughUpInTheAircough*) - directorial debut.

Also fantastic is Colin Firth. Now, I know that you know that I love Colin Firth solely and wholeheartedly for giving us The Darcy, but please don't think this is praise rooted in a biased desire to love him in this. He is honestly better than I thought he could be. If he was George Clooney they would have already engraved his name on the Oscar a month ago. His performance is surprisingly perfect (apparently also a surprise to him based on his BAFTA acceptance speech where he confessed having almost pulled out thinking he couldn't do it), and stands out even beyond the wet shirt scene Darcy as being his career high.



Set in one day in 1962 Los Angeles, Colin [he lets me call him Colin (when we're in bed he let's me call him Darcy*)] plays an English Professor unable to come to terms with having lost his (male) partner to a car accident several months before. As he tries to navigate one last day of his numbing present his overriding sense of sentimentalism finds meaning to each and every interaction, be it with a neighbour, complete stranger, best friend, or student. It is a deep and touching story told with exquisite style and one I very much recommend you treat yourself to. (I'm saying little about it as it's both very character-driven (so there isn't much to say of plot), and it's so well-told visually that you just need to see it.)



There are two further things beyond the qualities of the film itself that that make it such a stand-out for me. When Brokeback Mountain blazed a trail just a few years ago, the hope was that soon a film could be a love story between gay men without it having to be A Thing - that the being gay wasn't the story itself. I feel like this is that film. It is specific to the fact that he is a gay man, but it is not about the fact that he is a gay man. Hurrah, and may many more follow. Secondly, from the perspective of being a heterosexual woman this film is notable for the fact that it is one of the few that capture the beauty of men, losing the heterosexual-male gaze that the majority of cinema is and has historically been shot from. Overall the film is made with close attention to aesthetics, but it is most notably cast upon the men on-screen - from Colin himself to an impossibly beautiful man you feel blessed to have cast eyes upon. Again: hurrah, and may many more follow.


*Disclaimer: Lou has never met Colin. (Though did come across his home address in the course of professional duties once. (But didn't write it down. (Honest.)))

PS: I didn't much mention the supporting cast, but have to say that I was absolutely stunned to discover that his student is played by the boy who was Marcus in About a Boy. Who'd've thunk!

***************

Colin isn't the only man I love, and Tom Ford isn't the only cross-over artist making their directorial debut. Nowhere Boy is a film about my beloved John Lennon's troubled adolescence, made by high-profile British photographer/ conceptual artist Sam Taylor-Wood. And happily, I can add to the list of things in common that A Single Man isn't the only film that twists the traditional gaze of cinema... Aaron Johnson's eyelashes, soft skin and physicality are certainly gazed upon by the sensual lens of his (heterosexual female) Director*.

The story is well known: In late-50s Liverpool John is a rebellious teddy boy living with his mother's sister "Aunt Mimi" and his beloved uncle. After the sudden death of his uncle he regains close contact with his mother Julia, who introduces him to rock-n-roll. He starts a band, meets Paul, and... well, we'd love to say that the rest is history from there, but unfortunately tragedy interrupts first.



The heart of this story - surprisingly - is the relationship of two sisters. Kristin Scott Thomas is good as Aunt Mimi, but Anne-Marie Duff is spectacular as Julia. Her Julia is a seductive figure for John, fun and tactile and out-of-control, in total contrast to the prim and ordered and controlling Aunt Mimi who wrestles against her effect on John. The filmmaker is highly sympathetic to both, squarely positioning Julia as bi-polar, and Aunt Mimi as controlling by necessity. Instead of going down the tempting and all-too-easy road of giving us a misunderstood genius, she has seen behind him to the women in his life and provided a compelling story of their struggle to reconcile their relationships to him and each other.



And yet... I didn't love it. Even though I saw this film weeks ago and even though I love John and am absolutely interested in his early-life, I've sat down several times to write a review here of the film and found myself totally uninspired. A Single Man is its perfect companion in one more way then: it showed me the distinguishing x factor that Nowhere Boy lacks. It is a good film with some good performances, but without the excellence of A Single Man that might make it more memorable and more of a quintessential portrayal of The Boy That Became John Lennon.


*They are now engaged and pregnant - another nice skew of traditional filmmaker-actor gender relations!

Posted by Bel. The time is 4.15pm here in Wellington, NZ.


Up In The Air is an okay film. Your mum will probably like it. There's no sex in it (one bottom! ooh err! (not George's, calm down)) and quite a bit of the f-word, but not much more than on most telly shows that screen after 8.30pm these days.

It's fairly competently shot, with some pretty aerial photography and nice typography. (I'm not being flippant. Typography is important to me, very important. Lou can verify this.)

I've seen better use of airport architecture in, um, pretty much every other film featuring an airport, but I guess maybe they weren't too concerned with cinematography. E.g. Sam Mendes' Away We Go had a breath-taking shot of an airplane reflected and refracted on the exterior of an airport and Wayne's World has that fantastic scene where they lie talking on the car bonnet while the jet takes off above them. Oh yes. I went there. Just put Wayne's World up above this Best Picture nominated flick.

Because this film is really not that great. Thank You for Smoking was pretty good in terms of an American's stab at satire, although ultimately it left you with a hollow feeling; a slick movie about spin, that twisted your feelings but left you with nothing to grab on to. Juno was such a step up, with a solid emotional core and an actress the lead the film in a progressive arc - although still many people couldn't connect with the jargony dialogue, distancing them from the characters.

Up In The Air suffers a worse fate: characters that are not worth caring about, in a world seemingly populated with relevant issues, but actually buffered and drifting along.

 

Ryan Bingham* (George Clooney) travels around all over America all the time. His job is to go in to workplaces and fire people on behalf of their employers. This works out great for him, because he has Commitment Issues and doesn't like his family or women or anyone apparently - even though he is portrayed as being incredibly charming and, well, George Clooneyesque.

When a young upstart (she's totes Gen Y! gross!) comes on board with a plan to do it all via video conference, the Cloonster is tres upset because he won't be able to avoid his Commitment Issues any more. But also there is a love interest on the scene. She says, "Imagine I am you but with a vagina". I would not think that would be a good pick up line, but it seem to do the trick.

There are lots of short inserts of people being made redundant. At first I thought, "Oh, wow, yes - America's slow slide into financial ruin, how pertinent" but then by the end of the film it just felt glib. It had been a movie about the elite, about those who care about luxury, about privilege. Gen Y quits her job - and there is no reaction to this being an incredibly precarious move in light of the awful economic conditions, because, no, this is not a film about the economic conditions, despite its half-hearted attempt to gesture in that direction

And to top it off, the film is a goddam 100 minute infomercial. The product placements are all so integral that we forget that the logos and the name dropping are all highly sort after, complexly negotiated and extremely expensive advertisements. We get just an embedded reference to how Hilton's something something preferred customer card is just tops, delivered by our friend George on that huge screen as we munch on another handful of popcorn.

 

I also felt the portrayal of the women in this film was pretty average-to-downright-shocking. The scene where they talk about their "perfect men" had me literally howling. Who writes this shit?? (Oh, that's right...)

This is not a Best Picture movie. If George Clooney wins Best Actor for this, I will throw myself down on the ground and hammer my fists and feet into the carpet like a hysterical wee toddler. His talent is wasted here. This is Ocean's 11 level acting for him.

And it is yet another demonstration of the bigoted, misogynistic, creaking and decrepit system that is Hollywood that both (both!) women in this film have been nominated for Best Supporting Actress, taking two of the five slots. You cannot tell me that the Academy scaled far and wide and could not find women performing better roles than these in the last year...


* Did anyone else find it weird that this character had the same name as Ryan Bingham the singer? I realise no one else had heard of him until Crazy Heart got nominated last month, but still... weird.


...


Oh look: Ryan Bingham himself finds it weird. But he got to hang out with George Clooney. And he made the rookie mistake of being drinking at the bar when they won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song. Awesome.