Savage Popcorn

Filmaster: A new kid on the social networking block

ExpatPaul — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 20:05:24 GMT

Everyone is building social networks these days but one area that has been quite badly served up to now has been networks for film lovers. Flixster is probably the largest and most well-known of these networks but it has always struck me as being a nice idea poorly implemented. I also signed up to Spout some time ago, which has some nice features but nothing to really hold my attention and I have now pretty much abandoened the site. Then there is Withoutabox, a network for independent filmmakers, festivals and audiences which, again, is great for discovering new films but lacks any real social features. And it's slow. Now there's a new kid on the block. Or, to be more accurate, Filmaster is just about to move in since the site is currently at beta. But it's promising a lot.
Originally posted on:Savage Popcorn

The Notorious Bettie Page

ExpatPaul — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 12:45:56 GMT

In telling the story of pin-up icon, Bettie Page, The Notorious bettie page necessarily skips over much bit does a great job of capturing both Bettie's exhuberance and her sense of fun. Gretchen Mol is perfectly cast in the lead role and really dos bring her character to life, so much so that many of the scenes manage to raise a warm smile and a feeling of genuine fondness for the chararcters.

The film focusses primarily on the perfiod of Bettie's modelling career and, inevitably, the senate investigation that brought it to an end. The coverage of this investigation is both accurate and really does bring home the venal idiocy of those behind it.

Bettie Page is still an icon today and the revealing portrait of the paranoia that can be whipped up over a collection of photos is still relevant today.

More funny than frightening

ExpatPaul — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:17:22 GMT

Monster movies have often provided a way of talking about the concerns of the day and The Host, with it's industrial pollutuion and givernment conspiracies is no exception.

Where The Host does break with tradition is that the monster makes its appearance pretty much as soon as we're past the opening credits. But what a monster it is! If spectacular special effects are the bag that you're into, then this really is a film that you need to see.

The plot itself, however, prefers to focus on the family of one of the monster's (still living) victim and, here, it does a great job of finding a balance between comedy and tension. Although the characters are often slapstick in their behaviour, you do find yourself starting to care about them and it's this that keeps you hooked on the film.

And the ending is one of the best I've seen in a long time

Pseudo-spiritual codswallop

ExpatPaul — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:50:21 GMT

The Fountain is certainly very pretty to look at but a collection of nicely shot scenes do not, on their own, amount to a film, or make a film worth watching. The problem here is that Aranofsky is so busy beating you around the head with all of his New Age inspired symbolism that he seems to have forgotten that a film needs a script.

Although the Conquistador storyline was (for the most part) reasonably well done, I couldn’t make myself believe in the modern day versions of Tom and Izzy and I simply didn’t care about the future Tom.

Maybe Aranofsky could have got away with this if the film had had something interesting to say. But it doesn’t. What we have instead is a collection of rather uninspired platitudes about life, death, and so on being endlessly repeated without ever being expanded, extended or properly explored.

The Fountain is a slickly made, painfully self-important film, and ultimately vacuous waste of celluloid.

The Spirit of Russ Meyer lives on

ExpatPaul — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 18:26:02 GMT

Pervert! is packed with jokes, which are linked together with a series of sight gags. And breasts. Not every joke works, but they come so thick and fast that for every gag that falls flat, there are always several more on the way. And breasts.

It’s a wonderfully silly sex comedy and a glorious tribute to the exploitation films of Russ Meyer that not only understands Meyer’s sense of fun, his disregard for authority and his sly subversiveness but brings it all, fully formed, into the 21st century.

Darkly brilliant

ExpatPaul — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 18:13:44 GMT

On the face of it, this film has no likeable characters and a black humour that is often sick. But the lead characters, Durango and Dolorossa, are treated sympathetically and their characters do develop as the film progresses so that you find yourself really caring what happens and, at the end of the day, that's what matters.

Very rewatchable

ExpatPaul — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 13:10:37 GMT

I've just watched this film again and it's still as much fun as always. Packed with jokes and able to appeal to both children and adults without resorting to the sort of nudging-and-winking that seems to have become endemic post-shrek.

And Wallace and Gromit are such great characters.