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Freaks

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Freaks (1932)

Filmed back in 1932 with a cast of real dwarves, midgets and what can only be described as 'pin heads' Freaks caused controversy at the time and would never get made today. It's a very funny film and sometimes the laughs are intentional, although most often come as a result of the wonderfully overblown 'acting'. The fate of the freaks, especially the midget Frieda, is occasionally touching, and the bizarre, grotesque ending is impossible to forget.

Posted Tuesday, May 08, 2007 4:40 PM by benjohnskinner | with 0 comments

The Painted Veil

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The Painted Veil (2006)

In The Painted Veil stuffy Ed Norton and spoiled Naomi Watts meet, get married and come to loathe one another almost instantly. Watts is coerced by her husband into leaving behind the parties and priveleges of 1920s high society for cholera-ridden China, alowing us to watch these two wholy unsympathetic characters face up to one another against a backdrop of beautiful mist-ladden scenery. (8/10)

Posted Tuesday, May 08, 2007 4:15 PM by benjohnskinner | with 0 comments

Sunshine

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Sunshine (2007)

Nothing new here, but that's not so bad. Astronauts travel into space in a claustrophobic ship and die in a variety of inventively unpleasant ways. It's moody, awe-inspiring, scary... it's Alien, Solaris, 2001, all jumbled up together. Sunshine is a visually stunning film, with decent acting and tense set-pieces, but it ends up being more horror than science fiction, and doesn't leave much to chew on once it's all over. (7/10)

Posted Tuesday, May 08, 2007 3:41 PM by benjohnskinner | with 0 comments

This is Spinal Tap

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Casablanca (1943)

This Is Spinal Tap (1984)

Waiting for Guffman (1997)

Best in Show (2000)

A Mighty Wind (2003)

There are some lines from books or from movies or from music that spread through the popular consciousness so completely that you don't even have to have read the book or seen the movie to know them. The first line of A Tale of Two Cities, the first few bars of Beethoven's Fifth, half the lines in Casablanca... Somehow I've managed to get this far through life without having seen This is Spinal Tap, yet I already knew about Nigel Tufnel and turning the amps up to 11. I was expecting to see the band wandering around lost back-stage and that the drummers would all meet an untimely fate.

It's a shame actually, because I do think this detracts somewhat from the film. I had a similar feeling when I did finally get to see Casablanca a few months back... I couldn't help but sit there counting off the well-known exchanges and waiting for the next one to turn up. Also, I've probably come to Spinal Tap a bit backwards. I initially stumbled across the 'mockumentary' films of Christopher Guest - Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, etc., and fell in love with them. They'd passed me by in the cinema so I caught up with all of them on DVD and have been showing them off to anyone who'll sit still long enough (most of my friends had never seen them either).

Anyway, I eventually realised the connection to Spinal Tap (Christopher Guest co-wrote and co-stars in TiST, although it was directed not by him but by Rob Reiner) and got round to watching it this evening. For the few who don't know, This is Spinal Tap is a mockumentary following the fortunes of the eponymous rock band fronted by Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer. Rob Reiner, playing the documentary film-maker, follows this dimwitted, egotistical trio on their tour of America as gradually their fans desert them, their record label rejects them and internal rivalries begin to tear them apart. The film is full of gags, both subtle and not-so-subtle, and just a little pathos, affectionately skewering the cookie-cutter Eighties rock group.

Christopher Guest has managed to surround himself with a group of versatile and very funny actors - much of the cast here carries over to Guest's later films - and his writing is silly and clever and believable. This is Spinal Tap is great fun, but actually I didn't think it was the best of his movies. I don't know if it was the deja vu of knowing many of the lines ahead of time, or perhaps the addition of Rob Reiner to the mix (as director and co-star), but I didn't find the film as completely engaging as Best in Show or Waiting for Guffman. These later Guest films don't put a foot wrong, every member of the cast is on top form, whereas in Spinal Tap there are a few weak links. McKean's girlfriend, the band's manager and the more peripheral band members are not particularly funny and occasionally the film loses momentum. I'll certainly recommend Spinal Tap to people, but I'll suggest watching it first before moving on to Guest's later films, which are even better.

Posted Tuesday, April 17, 2007 9:59 PM by benjohnskinner | with 0 comments

benjohnskinner Blog

Freaks

The Painted Veil

Sunshine

This is Spinal Tap

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