Friday, 12 March 2010
Thursday, 11 March 2010
Hurtin'
Last night I watched The Hurt Locker.
I am a self confessed film buff and generally like to keep abreast of all things cinematic. However, this year I have not done well with this particular passion, what with a vicious amount of work to do and the end of my university career looming ahead, it feels a little like living in an Auden poem. I can only confess to seeing 7 of the 10 nominations for Best Picture and a smattering of others throughout. So I thought it about time I checked out the film that's been doing the proverbial cleaning at this year's awards ceremonies.
I have to say I went in a little apprehensive, the academy are famed for making questionable choices (need I reference the 2003 Chicago fiasco, or the 2006 Crash travesty?) Also a great friend of mine is hardly a fan, and we rarely disagree.
However, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. For the most part the film is pretty enjoyable. The narrative arc is well structured, featuring some incredible moments of tension, the bomb factory and the section in the car being a couple of highlights. The cinematography is another fairly strong point, there are some really lovely shots, standing out nicely against the majority of the erratic handheld camerawork, which in itself does a comprehensive job of maintaining the tension throughout. It's nice to see a war film that is not simply explosions and works via the successful building of tension. One of the strongest points here to my mind is the build up of the protagonist, he is incredibly flawed, your standard anti-hero, presented with all his foibles. This, although hardly revolutionary or difficult to achieve, is well done and certainly kept me interested.
Here is where the praise stops. Up to this point I have ignored the last five minutes of the film, which not only undermines EVERYTHING that's just happened over the last 2 hours of your life, but is so incredibly infuriating it made me want to punch someone in the face.
**Here be spoilers**
So, after coming back from war he has to get on with the boring day to day activities, cleaning out the gutters, having a son etc. This is all great, a really nice juxtaposition between the reckless anarchy of his bomb diffusing days and the mundanity of the everyday. Finishing shortly after this point, would have been great, showing war as damaging him irreparably, cutting of even the delights of his son. It's nothing new, or even exciting, but it would have been acceptable.
Instead what we get is a terribly scripted monologue, directed at his baby son (an incredibly cheap shot in itself) on the changing nature of love, and how there's only one love left for him: war. Cut to him walking, in slow motion, in the bomb suit, in Iraq, massive grin on his face, to a heavy metal track. End. Was it the most cliched and infuriating thing I've ever seen? Possibly. Does it ruin what up till now, has been a pretty tense look at the human issues found in conflict? Absolutely.
Also, speaking of the slow motion, this is peppered throughout the film and it awful at every single use. To cut suddenly from the jerky handheld camerawork to an incredibly staged, slow motion shot is so, so jarring and screams of Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. Couple this with the fact that they're always of explosions/bullets falling to the floor/bodies flying through the air/buildings rippling with shockwaves etc. the change in pace and style is just too much. It's as if Michael Bay suddenly came in and started dicking around when no one was looking. Almost unforgivable in undermining the film's severity.
**Spoilers done**
Now, I have no issue with this film doing well, for the most part it's great, and it's nice to see a woman finally getting the oscar nod for some (on the whole) good directing. But I seriously question whether it warrants all the hype. It was by NO means the best film of the year. To be honest it's a film I've seen countless, countless times before. The characters are nothing new, the debate between adrenaline and safety is also nothing new. The presentation of 'the other' is nothing new and bordering on racist, every single Iraqi citizen comes complete with generic foreign accent and links to terrorism. Transpose any war film to Iraq and this is the film you'd get.
Now, people have been bandying this criticism of unoriginality about a lot at the moment, particularly in the case of Avatar. Which I agree is incredibly flawed, with a storyline a good 15 years out of date, but at least it did something new. At least there was something new for me to be excited about, something to help me past the story I've seen a thousand times before. I by no means think Avatar should have won best picture, not in a thousand years. But, before everyone starts getting all excited about The Hurt Locker, just look at the criticisms leveled (often fairly) at Avatar and then see how they're even more applicable to this film. I for one am far more excited about what Avatar brought to the cinematic table than anything I got from The Hurt Locker.
Rant over.
I am a self confessed film buff and generally like to keep abreast of all things cinematic. However, this year I have not done well with this particular passion, what with a vicious amount of work to do and the end of my university career looming ahead, it feels a little like living in an Auden poem. I can only confess to seeing 7 of the 10 nominations for Best Picture and a smattering of others throughout. So I thought it about time I checked out the film that's been doing the proverbial cleaning at this year's awards ceremonies.
I have to say I went in a little apprehensive, the academy are famed for making questionable choices (need I reference the 2003 Chicago fiasco, or the 2006 Crash travesty?) Also a great friend of mine is hardly a fan, and we rarely disagree.
However, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. For the most part the film is pretty enjoyable. The narrative arc is well structured, featuring some incredible moments of tension, the bomb factory and the section in the car being a couple of highlights. The cinematography is another fairly strong point, there are some really lovely shots, standing out nicely against the majority of the erratic handheld camerawork, which in itself does a comprehensive job of maintaining the tension throughout. It's nice to see a war film that is not simply explosions and works via the successful building of tension. One of the strongest points here to my mind is the build up of the protagonist, he is incredibly flawed, your standard anti-hero, presented with all his foibles. This, although hardly revolutionary or difficult to achieve, is well done and certainly kept me interested.
Here is where the praise stops. Up to this point I have ignored the last five minutes of the film, which not only undermines EVERYTHING that's just happened over the last 2 hours of your life, but is so incredibly infuriating it made me want to punch someone in the face.
**Here be spoilers**
So, after coming back from war he has to get on with the boring day to day activities, cleaning out the gutters, having a son etc. This is all great, a really nice juxtaposition between the reckless anarchy of his bomb diffusing days and the mundanity of the everyday. Finishing shortly after this point, would have been great, showing war as damaging him irreparably, cutting of even the delights of his son. It's nothing new, or even exciting, but it would have been acceptable.
Instead what we get is a terribly scripted monologue, directed at his baby son (an incredibly cheap shot in itself) on the changing nature of love, and how there's only one love left for him: war. Cut to him walking, in slow motion, in the bomb suit, in Iraq, massive grin on his face, to a heavy metal track. End. Was it the most cliched and infuriating thing I've ever seen? Possibly. Does it ruin what up till now, has been a pretty tense look at the human issues found in conflict? Absolutely.
Also, speaking of the slow motion, this is peppered throughout the film and it awful at every single use. To cut suddenly from the jerky handheld camerawork to an incredibly staged, slow motion shot is so, so jarring and screams of Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. Couple this with the fact that they're always of explosions/bullets falling to the floor/bodies flying through the air/buildings rippling with shockwaves etc. the change in pace and style is just too much. It's as if Michael Bay suddenly came in and started dicking around when no one was looking. Almost unforgivable in undermining the film's severity.
**Spoilers done**
Now, I have no issue with this film doing well, for the most part it's great, and it's nice to see a woman finally getting the oscar nod for some (on the whole) good directing. But I seriously question whether it warrants all the hype. It was by NO means the best film of the year. To be honest it's a film I've seen countless, countless times before. The characters are nothing new, the debate between adrenaline and safety is also nothing new. The presentation of 'the other' is nothing new and bordering on racist, every single Iraqi citizen comes complete with generic foreign accent and links to terrorism. Transpose any war film to Iraq and this is the film you'd get.
Now, people have been bandying this criticism of unoriginality about a lot at the moment, particularly in the case of Avatar. Which I agree is incredibly flawed, with a storyline a good 15 years out of date, but at least it did something new. At least there was something new for me to be excited about, something to help me past the story I've seen a thousand times before. I by no means think Avatar should have won best picture, not in a thousand years. But, before everyone starts getting all excited about The Hurt Locker, just look at the criticisms leveled (often fairly) at Avatar and then see how they're even more applicable to this film. I for one am far more excited about what Avatar brought to the cinematic table than anything I got from The Hurt Locker.
Rant over.
Wednesday, 10 March 2010
Peter Van Agtmael - Grafitti
It's always interesting to see conflicts documented with new perspectives. Peter Van Agtmael manages to do this with a lot of his work. He has been jumping back and forth from the U.S to Iraq and Afghanistan since 2006. All grafitti was found on the walls of Bathrooms in Ali Al Salem Air Force Base in Kuwait.
Polly Braden
"Adventures in the valley" by Polly Braden and David Campany explores the landscape of the river Lea in east london. It's awesome.
Tuesday, 9 March 2010
Amy Key
We're lucky enough to have Amy Key read for us at our next event on the 16th of March at the Lock Tavern. She's been published under the Tall Lighthouse pilot series, which has basically showcased A LOT of brilliant poets since it started. She's been published in Magma, South Bank Poetry, Smiths Knoll, Rising and the Penned in the Margins anthology City State: The New London Poetry.
Also, she runs The Shuffle poetry night with Gale Burns and Jacqueline Saphra on the last Saturday of each month at the Poetry Cafe, Covent Garden, and it's brill, so let's all go together soon.
---------
Flirtatious State Seen Through A Hangover
The cherries were to be eaten in a cornfield at dusk.
I plump up the pillows and wallow with tonics;
waste days tongue-tying stalks into knots.
He is gymkhana, rosette and novel, but what can he give
save for daydream and stutter? He may dally sweet
in my eyes, but I know in my lips he could not dare
to kiss me.
Wanting feels like too little caviar
for breakfast. I court delusion with inventions
of frisson, e.g. late-night, suggestive, elaborate emails.
Inventive delusion of knee-shifts and come-on,
meet restorative water, go home now by taxi.
Resist the urge to foresee your first child. Even
when his eyes check in your eyes, his reflection.
--------
Also, she runs The Shuffle poetry night with Gale Burns and Jacqueline Saphra on the last Saturday of each month at the Poetry Cafe, Covent Garden, and it's brill, so let's all go together soon.
---------
Flirtatious State Seen Through A Hangover
The cherries were to be eaten in a cornfield at dusk.
I plump up the pillows and wallow with tonics;
waste days tongue-tying stalks into knots.
He is gymkhana, rosette and novel, but what can he give
save for daydream and stutter? He may dally sweet
in my eyes, but I know in my lips he could not dare
to kiss me.
Wanting feels like too little caviar
for breakfast. I court delusion with inventions
of frisson, e.g. late-night, suggestive, elaborate emails.
Inventive delusion of knee-shifts and come-on,
meet restorative water, go home now by taxi.
Resist the urge to foresee your first child. Even
when his eyes check in your eyes, his reflection.
--------
MAGIC /// Ziemowit Maj
"Every time I sit down to work, I am waiting for the magic to happen. I struggle with myself and the form to see a glimpse of that something that goes beyond shape and colour. If there's no magic, it's not worth it. The form has to convey a little bit of some obscure personal truth in a raw and simple way. That truth is not predictable and it's meaning is not neccesary clear even for myself, but it's presence or absence is always painfully obvious."
Ziemowit Maj is a London-based Polish Illustrator / pen wielder / hallucinator. He has been popular recently with bloggers all over the place, and so we are to present his submissions for the past show.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ziemowit_maj/
MAGIC /// Ashlie Chavez
23 year artist/analogue photographer living in Los Angeles. She is best know for the Symbiotic Series done with my twin sister and for my portraits of Pro and Am skateboarders. Ashlie believes in a theocratic hope for the future, and encourages the use of traditional photography methods.
http://ashliechavez.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/anarae
MAGIC /// Charlie Cameron
Currently studying BA Illustration at Camberwell with a lust for screen printing and power violence.
ORAL MAGIC
This collection of work explores the idea of the spoken word and how we can conjour up our own imagery and responses in the minds eye, this series of prints and zines celebrates of the magic of our own imagination.
Pancatantra screen prints.
The pancatantra is a book written by Vishnu Sarma, written in sanskrit, steming from an indian oral tradition, believed to be first written around 3oo bc, the storys consist of day to day animal politics.
http://theflapjackdepartment.blogspot.com/
The Ministry of Progress
Exciting exhibition from multifaceted collective Ministry of Progress. Their first collaborative escapade has its private view Thursday, and runs Friday and Saturday. Featuring Clinic patients Jemma Skidmore and Harriet Bridgewater, as well as our best bud Mr. Prendergast, ensure you sellotape your eyes securely so they don't fall out or melt, and we'll see you there on Thursday.
http://theministryofprogress.blogspot.com/
Monday, 8 March 2010
Holy Smoke!
Shout out to Holy Ghost for featuring me on their blog. They update daily with literally some of the hottest photography and illustration I have seen, and are holding an exhibition soon to showcase the cream of creatives that have slipped under the radar. Keep your eyes peeled.
Thursday, 4 March 2010
Sunday, 28 February 2010
MAGIC /// Sarai Vardi
Like magic, Sarai's work balances on the fine line between reality and
make believe.
"You'll like this, not a lot, but you'll like it" - Paul Daniels.
make believe.
"You'll like this, not a lot, but you'll like it" - Paul Daniels.
Sarai Vardy is a freelance illustrator based in Tulse Hill. She has a trojan back catalogue; if pen and ink drawings were goals, she would be about as prolific as Ian Rush circa 1993.
MAGIC /// Harriet Bridgewater
"In these collages I have made decisions about their content based around telephone conversations with my mother about magic." ///
Harriet Bridgwater has recently graduated from Falmouth with a degree in Fine Art and she is currently based in Brighton. She does all the artwork for Clinic favourites Tall Ships, and we had the pleasure of hanging out with her at their recent EP launch at the Freebutt in Brighton.
/// Modern Milk
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