I am writing just to outline some changes to the blog. The blog has been renamed to reflect a more casual tone in the prose of the blog, I would like to cover discourses and debates over current films as well as just offering reviews of them. Popularity of certain films will be discussed and I wish to give the notion of autuership strong application. In general though I wish to make the tone less academic and more free flowing.
Having said that there are a few films now I wish to quickly discuss to keep up us to date. many will be missed out and I shall just trust my memory to guide me. I know I have not see a better film since Paul Thomas Andersons There will Blood, I always thought that the director was headed for greatess since Boogie Nights. Andersons grasp of the technicalities of film and just always creating a scene that resonates testifies to his skill. I have seen many bad films and have been disappointed by some that I judged would be great. I was vastly underwhelmed with Burn After Reading espicially since No Country for Old Men seemed to mark a high point for the talented Coens. I am at the moment watching The Machinist, an ex girlfriends favourite film and I am appreciating it more the second time around. Christian Bale is great, truly great in the film but also the palette of the film with its blues and metallic hues brings a hyper real feeling. Besides it is also extremely eerie and suspenseful for the majority. With being so unsure of where reality lies in the film comes an extremely spooky sensation, anything seems possible and the dread increases in the viewer. In many ways the ambiguity of the vast majority of the film invites viewers to bring thier own nightmares. The ghost house must be been the most effective I have ever seen. If I had encountered that ride at my local fair during my youth I would not have slept for as long as Bale himself. Its a shame when a film like this, so dependant on atmosphere is broken by adverts. I realise now why I try as often as possible to skip films shown on television. I want to also give special mention to Eden Lake, the recent British horror film. It is nasty, brutal, and cleverly taps into contemporary fears about society, namely the uneducated, unemployed, working class teenager. In sheer pacing and execution it recalls genre greats like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The ending is nilhistic in much the same manner as Night of The Living Dead is. Its the most effective horror I can remember of recent times and perhaps more importantly considering the glut of horror comedies we have had recently, it is played straight. People disinclined toward the genre or casual fans may spurn it because of its relentless violence and insisitance on negating the happily ever after scenario. Its certainly important it ends as it does - There is room for debate about revenge and vengeance in the ending. The shot of the main antagonist teenager staring into the mirror with his shades on towards the end is haunting because of its ambiguity and because it hints in reflection at the self perpetuating nature of the violence that the film inflicts upon us. For all these reasons its a genre classic.
Finally and off subject really (as its a TV series) wanted to mention how disappointed I have been with the second season of the Inbetweeners. The first season hinted at something better than what we were actually given. At times the awkwardness of being a teenager along with the pathos that brings worked well, the charecters just needed to be given room to be written with more depth so we had greater empathy for them. They needed to be more than just caricatures. There was a tendancy in the first season for all of the friends just to be used for the butt of jokes, with little time devoted to actually fleshing out the idosyncracies of each teenager. What saved most episodes and undercut this was an under the surface sweetness that had Will making friends with the other three 'inbetweeners', the merit was in how promising the premise was. The second season should have jettisoned the unlikely premises and situations in favour of more charecter based comedy. Instead the series approach has gone the other way concentrating on packing in as many crazy happenings as possible. Also there is something mean spirited about the first two episodes of the second season, its almost as if the writers want to humiliate the four teenagers as much as possible. This would be passable perhaps if the writing wasn't so dim witted and dependant on a series of characters who have no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Spaced for example worked so well because it humiliated people we cared about and within reason. Its meant to be edgy presumably to have the mechanics at Wills workplace talking about tits to him all the time and to have the head of the sixth form finding all this funny beyond belief in the second episode of the season, it just comes across as obnoxious though. By the end of the work experience episode I had given up on the previously promising inbetweeners. The structure of the show now just seems to call for a sling as much shit as possibile approach hoping something will stick, and in consequence be funny. The creators of the inbetweeners should heed the well trodden advice that less is more, for an example they could look back to the Seinfeld episode where the whole show just revolves around the foursome waiting for a table at a chinese restaurant, nothing happens yet it is funnier and more engaging on an incomparable level. The first season of the inbetweeners coasted by on viewer nostalgia and jokes about fingering. The second season sees nostalgia gone and so the jokes about fingering have been doubled, its lazy and ultimately disappointing writing in what seemed to be such a fertile and promising world. Consequently its impossible to see where a third season will go, clearly it should have stayed at one season long. In comparison I am always happy to see a new South Park season or episode, its edgy, controvertial, and foul mouthed with a sharpness that wittly belies its crude animation technique. I also await the new series of Curb Your Enthusiasm although much as I love Larry David the format is leaning toward being somewhat tired now. The same is true of Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia, its still amusing, still funny but the older series are funnier. There is just a feeling with both these programmes that they have had their high water mark. What with the end of Deadwood (very premature in my eyes), Sopranos and the Wire perhaps we should just be glad that some quality is still being produced no matter if it is a little tired. With genuinely funny comedy series being scant at the moment I find myself hoping that Gervais will put his Hollywood ambitions aside (Ghost World was tame and predictable, nothing more than mediocre) and team up with Merchant for another innovative take on comedy.
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