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Surveillance
The Constant Gardener
(dir. Fernando Meirelles)
Quality spy offering from the John le Carré novel, swapping his cold war agents for just-as-cold corporate bureaucrats and civil servants working abroad in Kenya.
Think I was expecting more of an English Patient level romance here, pitching a relationship against the sweep of history etc. It does a bit of that, with slightly wet minister Ralph (rafe) Fiennes somehow swinging fiesty activist Rachel Weisz and getting her to head out to Africa with him and his plants.
What's handled really well is the way that Fiennes is slowly forced into action, trying to work out if Weisz has been doing the dirty on him, and also finding out who his friends in the Foreign Office really are. Bill Nighy's got a solid cameo doing his thing well, and Danny Huston (who i loved in the underrated Ivan's XTC) is also shaping up to be a decent character actor.
The anger against corporate indifference/callousness towards the price of African life is succinct, without spilling into preachiness - feels like a real, rather than movie evil. Good use of the landscapes - both Kenya and London, looking totally grey compared to the African colours. Interesting to have a non-uk director like Meirelles who did City Of God etc shooting London.
Overall, it's slow, but not dull if you're in the mood. The only duff note is a teenage hacker who does one of those movie tech bits: "yeah, just like crack into the mirror server and wah wah wah" which should get him a job at CTU any day now…
24th Feb 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 4 star reviewsThe Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
After Chopper, it seemed like director Andrew Dominick failed to impress Hollywood, and was probably freelancing on Neighbours. Nope, he was just having meetings in L.A. and waiting until he could line up the right cast and make The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. A film seemingly titled to let people know this is a serious western.
I'm not saying that Chopper wasn't an excellent film, but this is just more evidence that you don't need much of a CV to hook the big fish...
24th Feb 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
wicker's world
following on from sunday's free darko, the guardian's giving away a copy of 70s spooky scottish locals thriller the wicker man on saturday…
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23rd Feb 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
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Michael Jackson Glove
The Michael Jackson single glove is a custom handmade item, each of the stones are individually sewn on, no 2 gloves are identical. Each glove is a unique item in its own right. This particular example is even more unique as it has 3 fastners sewn into the wrist area other than 1 which is normally associated with the glove.
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22nd Feb 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
More Maps
I love maps and I love satellites.
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More Google Highlights
More Google Images
iPod Subway Maps
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22nd Feb 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
the drum is everything
nice piece on early drum machines on records by sly stone and jj cale etc, taken from Strange Sounds: Offbeat Instruments and Sonic Experiments in Pop by Mark Brend.
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22nd Feb 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
roses coming up
frankly, i'll believe it when i see it, but guns n roses (aka axl and some guy with a bucket on his head) (or has he kicked him out too now?) are scheduled to headline this summer's download festival, with metallica.
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22nd Feb 2006 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
The New World
(dir. Terrence Malick)
As the first European settlers land in Virginia and begin to build the Jamestown colony, a native princess (Q'Orianka Kilcher) falls in love with rogueish adventurer - Captain Smith (Colin Farrell). As the two civilizations begin to understand each other, tensions mount and different mentalities drive them apart.
Anybody who has seen Terrence Malick's previous films will have a good idea what to expect here; long, slow shots of nature, extensive use of music to set the pace, disjointed, montage style editing and fairly minimal dialogue. You're either going to like that or you're not - and while I would rate The Thin Red Line as one of my personal favourites, I must admit that this one took me a while to sink into.
The initial tension of the European's arrival was handled well, but it was clear from the start that this film had been reduced in length and scope from what it could have been. Several name actors were spotted, but they often had little dialogue. Or none at all in the case of Ben Chaplin. The romance between Smith and Pocahontas popped up pretty quickly from nowhere, and then he was off. Considering this was only Terrence Mallick's second film in 7 years he could have benefited by giving himself a little extra time and space.
Things paid off nicely later, and the film found it's feet with the introduction of Christian Bale's character John Rolfe. He bridged the gap between the two cultures, and the narrative that developed was undoubtedly built strongly upon the previous scenes.
The contrast between nature and man, and then the almost alien contact between the two worlds of men form the heart of this unconventional film. The mood and atmosphere created in this film is amazing. Forget about convention and what you think you should be seeing and just relax and enjoy the ride.
Apparently the DVD will be 'extended'.
21st Feb 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 3.5 star reviews
countdown
number 5 in rough trade's counter culture series is out: £9.99 for 2cds w 50 tracks from the fall, clap your hands, herbert, king creosote, the pipettes etc etc
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21st Feb 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Syriana
(dir. Stephen Gaghan)
A beefed-up George Clooney plays a CIA agent worrying his bosses back in Washington with his rogue memo action. Matt Damon's a clean-cut oil consultant slowly getting his hands dirty out in the field. Jeffrey Wright's chasing a paper trail filled with dodgy Texan oil barons all wanting to keep controlling the oil and make sure the petrodollars are coming back to them and not floating off to China or the middle east.
Like Traffic (some of the same team worked on this), Crash, Magnolia etc, this is a film that jumps from one set of characters to another, building a global picture of an amoral industry. It works best as a mood piece, but it's pretty slow, and doesn't quite kick into the level of other studies of corporate corruption like The Insider for example. Still, it's good to see a film actually discussing the oil problem, and getting angry about the madness. Clooney's solid as ever, and the Texan oil cabal guys get some suitably pal-of-Bush style rants.
20th Feb 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 3 star reviewsHidden (Cache)
(dir. Michael Haneke)
We’re all under constant surveillance, so why not add another level to the panopticon by watching Cache/Hidden..? In the grand tradition of Rear Window, The Conversation, Blow-Up, and Lost Highway, Michael Haneke’s latest film gleefully undermines the viewer’s understanding of what s/he is looking at (and why), and its opening shot is even bolder than the slow zoom that starts The Conversation. (I do love a director’s who’s not afraid just to leave the camera running.) About halfway through the film, I was still wondering ‘Where on earth is this going?’, and I’m happy to say that the final reel provides no answers. The glorious opening shot is, moreover, outdone by an even braver closing scene, in which a fleck of sense briefly emerges from meaningless bustle, only to disappear again. Is this a film about celebrity, surveillance, the war on terror, the turmoils of family life, France’s colonial past, memory, generational conflict, guilt, film itself, or all of the above? The answer is hidden.
PS: Don’t see the film at Cardiff’s Chapter Arts Centre, though, or you’ll have to first sit through a four-minute short starring Rhys Ifans and a Mars Bar. (I’ve conveniently repressed the name of the piece, I’m afraid, but it might have been Siocled – Welsh for ‘chocolate’.) The only good thing to come out of this experience was the realization that I can now definitively answer the questions ‘What is the most annoying film ever made?’ and ‘What were the longest four minutes of your life?’
20th Feb 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 4 star reviewsgame 6
trailer up for a new film written by don delillo, game 6 - baseball, writers etc - ticking all his boxes… plus a yo la tengo soundtrack
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20th Feb 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Gone Darko
Free Donnie Darko DVD with The Sunday Times yesterday. Nice.
Sure, it steals the best bits of the 80's (i.e. the Cobra Kai's skeleton costumes) and re-forms them into a pretentious load of claptrap, but it's still quite entertaining. And it has a great website.
20th Feb 2006 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Big Shot
Will it never end? Now even Billy Joel is jumping on the musicals bandwagon... although he doesn't have the charismatic sales presence of Robert De Niro to get bums on seats.
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19th Feb 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
scanner
another trailer up for richard linklater's take on a scanner darkly, looking forward to this one
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18th Feb 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
so close
coldplay are bravely soldiering on and are not going to split.
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17th Feb 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
ultimate beer?
could this rival the asahi black bottle experience?
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16th Feb 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
new monkey magic
new version of the monkey king legend out in asia, should be coming to uk later this year
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born from an egg on a mountain top
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16th Feb 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Brakes
Give Blood
I've been reassessing the Brakes album Give Blood on the back of Clap Your Hands' recent acceptance into chimp rotation. The good news is, I was hasty in dismissing them so early. It's a mixed bag sounding a bit like Pavement, a bit like Galaxie 500 in places, a bit like Clap Your Hands, and even a bit like Operation Ivy - but still retaining something quite English... she was earning 10 grand, p.a.
It's not a heavy concept album, but it is just a bit like a bunch of guys playing fun songs and having a good time.
15th Feb 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 3.5 star reviews
Idle Playboys
Chimp neighbour Dan Keiran was spotted in the Observer recently, debating life without air travel. He's also recommended Michael Smith's book The Giro Playboy, which I've been enjoying as a mid 90's Hoxton version of Generation X.
UPDATE: It seems I was a bit hasty with my 'mid-90's' it's more like 2002. A little late in the game some might say.
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14th Feb 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
bah homburg
just in case you've been wondering what geoffrey rush was wearing on his head in his various films, here's a very handy site to help…
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the cinematic hats of geoffrey rush
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14th Feb 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Houston, We Have A Problem.
Routine chimpomatic surveillance has turned up a weird glitch in Google Earth. Check out the satellite data and you can see that the buildings have different perspectives, heading up and out in un-natural directions.... but you can't see any joins.
13th Feb 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Heroes
We've got a new little gimmick on our front page today. Heroes - mostly from the 80's so far. We'll be adding more as and when.
Enjoy.
UPDATE: Added a load more, not so punk anymore.
10th Feb 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
The National Tour
The National are playing London again on May 31st, at the Scala. Already breaking my no-bands-every-time-they-play resolution.
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10th Feb 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Foo-Tang Clan
Foo Fighters playing in Hyde Park on June 17th, supported by Queens of the Stone Age (Dave Grohl on drums ayone?) and Motorhead.
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10th Feb 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
bada back
march 12. little teaser trailer up to keep you going, check out Moltisanti's def poem as well.
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def chrissie
moltisanti pour homme
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9th Feb 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
this is planet earth
ba ba ba ba-bah… saw a preview of the new epic new HD bbc series planet earth this morning: totally awesome. like blue planet but mainly above water. snow leopards in vertical chases down mountains, miles and miles of caves with insane 5 metre high crystal formations, bat caves where the entire food chain is based on bat shit, etc etc. great photography, super sharp, and the mighty david attenborough saying things like "here… is a carpet… of cockroaches." plus he was sitting 2 metres away from c71, all v surreal for a hungover chimp.
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9th Feb 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Songs Ahoy!
Jason Molina of Songs:Ohia and Magnolia Electric Company, plus guests
Wednesday April 5
The Luminaire
311 Kilburn High Road
London NW6 7JR
www.theluminaire.co.uk
Details to be found at www.knom.co.uk
Tickets can be bought right now at www.wegottickets.com/event/9064.
8th Feb 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Tie-In
Nice article on 1001 ways to tie your laces over at Sound Theory.
8th Feb 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
The B.O.B. Pollard
GBV's Robert Pollard has a new solo album out - From A Compound Eye. Listen to it all here, or read about it here. If you buy the LP you get a free mp3 version too. Handy.
8th Feb 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Spartan
(dir. David Mamet)
A Secret Service agent (Val Kilmer) is called in to lead the investigation into the inadvertent kidnapping of the President's daughter by white slave traders.
Playing out like a high-brow, super-condensed, 100 minute version of an entire series of 24 (it's not that hard, drop the Presidential sub-plot, Kim Bauer and most of the explanatory dialogue), this super taught thriller from David Mamet was a refreshing take on the action/adventure genre. Val Kilmer makes an enigmatic lead, generally dishing out ("don't make me zero you out") or even totally dispensing with Mamet's snappy dialogue and just getting on with the job at hand. Characters pop up and go with little introduction and we only ever hear what is heard by the men in the field... but that feeling of being on the inside only adds to the immediacy of the situations the Ice Man finds himself in. The riviting pace and atmosphere make this one not to be missed.
"I am dangerous" Grr.
7th Feb 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 4 star reviews
attic alien
following on from bigfoot below, was wondering where all the alien news had got to, until i came across this
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7th Feb 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
notice the arms
about time. here's some new bigfoot footage (or bigfootage as the bigfoot field researchers organisation really should call it…)
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in no way is this a man in a furry suit
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7th Feb 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Jackson to compose the Pope's prayers
no, this is not from the onion…
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i'm pope, i'm pope, you know it
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7th Feb 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
ice ice baby
insanely bad trailer for basic instinct II: risk addiction… yes, she's got an ice pick and she's not afraid to use it. what happened to sharon stone? looks like a french and saunders parody, or maybe it'll be the new showgirls.
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your instinct should be to avoid…
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7th Feb 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Austin City Limits
It's only in the jackass Real Player format, but there's a sneak peak from My Morning Jacket's upcoming performance on PBS's Austin City Limits here. Love the logo.
6th Feb 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Crockett & Tubbs
Nicely updated, with a bit of Jay-Z smoothing over the cracks, Miami Vice is back in town.
6th Feb 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
invisible 1,000 light-year-wide bricks of dark matter
report on dark matter here… love the fact that they call their very large telescope in Chile "the Very Large Telescope"
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6th Feb 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
The Dream Is Alive
A sneaky firmware update to Apple's Airport Express now allows you to stream music to multiple speakers around you house (at last), or to a set of speakers and the computer's built in set.... a perfect fix for the two-room-party-music-clash-scenario.
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3rd Feb 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
rip smash hits
seems the kids just don't want to cut out lyrics and stick them on their walls anymore.
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3rd Feb 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
devil and daniel johnston
trailer up for the doc on indie favourite, daniel johnston
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3rd Feb 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
guitar man
myspace page up for c71 jamming pal will hodgkinson and his guitar man book, out on march 20
2nd Feb 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
=VU=
a few of the weezer crew are playing the velvet underground in a new edie sedgwick biopic according to this pitchfork item
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1st Feb 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet