Saturday 29 March 2014

Seen & heard: March

Seen...
Three equally stylised but extremely different new films this month, plus an oldie-but-goodie and a great stage show.


1. The new film by Spike Jonze, Her, is also very lovely to look at and full of stylish touches, but I found it said rather more: about modern life and love, about loneliness, about relationships ending and beginning. I really enjoyed it, and thought Scarlett Johansson was brilliant as the voice of Samantha.

2. Still with Johansson, unfortunately the best I can say about Under The Skin is that her performance was good, considering what she was given to work with. I found it stunningly boring and although to begin with I thought perhaps the only redeeming feature of this film would be the fact that it reveresed the usual trope of a predatory male stalking women victims, but no. Ultimately it's the female body which is most violated in Under The Skin.

3. I have a confession to make: I'm not the biggest Wes Anderson fan.  I know, I know, that's practically enough to get me excommunicated from the cool club but still, I find his films rather reliant on style over substance.  And true to form, The Grand Budapest Hotel was lovely to look at and had some rather nifty visual jokes, and I liked it fine but I can't imagine wanting to rewatch it in years to come.

4. Can you believe that The Boy had never seen Juno? After becoming rather tired of me referring to Ellen Page as "my girlfriend Ellen Page," he decided to see what the fuss was about and we watched it during a cosy night in. I think it must have been about my tenth viewing and I still love it as much as ever, and still get weepy over the lovely final scene with Page and Michael Cera.

5. Curve in Leicester currently have a barn-storming stage version of Hairspray.  Slowly but surely - a cinema date to watch Les Miserables here, a trip to see Hairspray there - I am making sure The Boy becomes as much a fan of jazz hands and musical theatre as I am.

Heard...

I'm rather enamoured of Belfast quartet Wonder Villains at the moment.  Chiming Britpop-era guitars, pretty harmonies and a rather wonderful keytar in the video to new single Marshall all combined to make me fall a bit in love with them.  They remind me of being 18 and listening to bands like Kenickie and Bis, and that's always a good thing.

9 comments:

  1. Oh shame about Under the Skin, I was looking forward to it! I'll give it a watch still and see what I think anyway. I kind of agree about Wes Anderson films too! x

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    1. Well, T loved it so don't take my word for it. Maybe I'm just a heathen. And yay for non-devotees of Wes Anderson! I loved Moonrise Kingdom and like Darjeeling and Grand Budapest but otherwise... really not.

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  2. Glad you finally educated him on Juno, that's a must-see. I hate to say it but I agree with you about Wes Anderson movies. I get bored sometimes, it's like looking at a pretty picture in a museum for two hours. It's like IGET IT, the aesthetic is CHARMING now give me some intellectual stimulation already.

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    1. "It's like looking at a pretty picture in a museum for two hours" - SO MUCH THIS! Yes, it's very lovely to look at and yes, it's been beautifully assembled and styled and put together, but.... it's always lacking something.

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  3. I feel the same about Wes Anderson. I have enjoyed some of his films but I think they're pretty samey and the plots are a bit thin. He's just too hipster for me ;)

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    1. Yep, I agree. It's the thin-ness of the plots that gets me, I think that's why Moonrise Kingdom was a favourite - because stuff actually happens.

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  4. With you on Wes Anderson being style over substance. Love Juno. Hated Under the Skin. Made notes after Her because it got me thinking about so many different things. Ah, you just wrote my film reviews for me!

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    1. I am starting to think that maybe all the cool people dislike Wes Anderson. Look at the evidence: you, Nova, Hannah, Laura, me...! Five awesome women cannot be wrong.

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  5. I LOVE Wonder Villains at the moment. LOVE them.

    I am really keen to go and see Her and this makes me even more :)

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