Enter the Void - Gaspar Noe

While this film is visually spectacular it was far too long for me. I like long films, but the plot doesn't seem to justify the length. Just not enough happens. Technically its brilliant, the shots are really creative and I love how they weren't afraid to have the camera on for more than 30 seconds at a time sometimes. Really short shots annoy me, especially in martial arts films, which this isn't.

The film is about a young man selling hallucinogenic drugs in Tokyo. His sister works in a strip club and together they are earning pretty good money. At the beginning he is shot and killed by police while going to sell some LSD to a friend in a club called "The Void."



To use a cliche this film is really trippy. The audio is doctored to create lag at certain points and things seem to leave trails when the camera moves. If only it was happier... I appreciate that sometimes film makers just want to make something really really fucking miserable with absolutely no possibility of hope or reconciliation at the end. But I suppose the title of the film sums it up well. It has that feeling at the end that everything goes full circle, it obsesses visually over sex and death, in some ways its a very typical film about hallucinogenic drugs.



It is 2 hours 45 mins long and I found it difficult by the end but its still worth watching just for the technical genius and really tasteful use of CGI. Borrow it or steal or something, probably not a good idea to buy your folks it for christmas though.

Enter the Void - IMDB

Decklyn - Twenty Twelve

I said a while back that I'm bored of dubstep. This is a two track album that sounds great through good speakers, the nice thing is you can download it in a variety of high quality formats. So no shit mp3 quality if you dont want it.

Its fairly standard dubstep really, but its really well produced, composed and refined. And free. :)
Starting to restore my faith in this genre that seems to be getting killed by a generic dubstep sound emerging and too many bad remixes of popular songs.

http://vandalism.20twelvedubstep.com/album/decklyn-tt008

The Trip

"The Trip" is a new series on BBC 2 starring and written by Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon.
Its made to look as though its a road journal following Steve on a trip around the north of Englands best restraunts. Its mainly about the way they interact with each other as two comedians. I think the idea is they are playing augmented versions of themselves which must be a challenge as an actor as the show seems to deal with issues around relative success in TV and film and the need to be taken seriously as a person while being a comic. I dont quite get it at the moment, but it is extremely funny so I intend on watching the rest of it. Its probably worth it just for the Michael Caine impressions.

Mean Streets - Martin Scorzese

First off Mean Streets, written and directed by Martin Scorzese is an original and great gangster film unlike any I've seen. Its different to Goodfellas as it follows the underdogs in a semi organised crime syndicate. Second off, it has Robert DeNero in a role that seems more intense than any other I've seen him in (other than Taxi Driver which in my opinion is off the chart.) Jonny Boy defies any sort of authority, an original anarchist without saying anything of the sort. Unlike Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver he's full on all the time instead of building up a slow steady rage then unleashing it all at once, he's also different to Joe Pesci in Goodfellas in that he does listen to his peers, especially in his conversations with Charlie which expose him in a more vulnerable light nearly every time. I suppose his name Jonny Boy sums it up as his actions are often childish and impulsive. Although Harvey Keitel gets more screen time I ended up feeling for Jonny Boy more than anyone.
Its not a funny film at all but Martin Scorzese's humour comes through in the sequence of shots often enough, especially in regards to Charlies relationship with Rita which keep undermining his hard man persona. I cant say much more I reckon if youre reading this and havnt seen it you should just fucking watch it. Now I'm going to return to my Scorzese binge.

Hows that for fast art

Spray Paint Artist

Jaaaaam

Jam is a Tv series by producer actor and writer Chris Morris. Better known for his recent film Four Lions and for his work on the Panorama spoof Brass Eye.

Jam is a series of dark comic sketches with some really interesting visual post production over an ambient sound track. The actors lip synched their lines which adds to the unsettling nature of the sketches. I revisited this after a few years and its just as good as it always was.

There are loads great of ideas in here for anyone interested in writing comedy or producing film. Find it and watch it its great. :)

Jaaaaam - IMDB