May 2006
4 posts
2 tags
Black Swan Green
David Mitchell is a fabulous writer, and Black Swan Green is much less showy and more personal than his other works (Cloud Atlas, number9dream, Ghostwritten) but no less intricate. If you grew up in the 80s you may be swept away by the nostagia oozing from every page, sometimes a little gratuitously, and anyone who was ever adolescent will identify with the timeless tales of school life. I can...
May 28th
2 tags
The Animal Factory
Directed by Steve Buscemi (2000) There’s no doubt that one-expects certain things from a ‘prison drama’: rape, unrelenting violence, back-stabbing (literally and figuratively), and so on. The Animal Factory offers little to none of this, and as such it initially feels like a slightly disappointing experience. There’s another aspect of by-numbers prison dramas that is well represented in this...
May 27th
2 tags
Hostel
Directed by Eli Roth (2005) I really enjoyed Hostel. Maybe enjoyed is the wrong word … actually, maybe not. The gore and general grimness of the movie didn’t really bother me that much – I’ve seen much worse in films by a man who makes a wonderful cameo in Eli Roth’s film, the great Takashi Miike – and unlike most films of this genre there was actually a genuinely interesting...
May 8th
2 tags
Initial D: Driftracer
Directed by Wai Keung Lau, Siu Fai Mak (2005) Initial D is the story of Takumi (played by Taiwanese heart-throb Jay Chou), a teenage tofu delivery driver who’s regular delviery route up and down a mountain inadvertantly moulds him into a downhill ‘racing god’ — despite the fact that he drives his father’s battered, old and rather unfashionable Toyota AE86. The irony...
May 3rd