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Hail the new Tommy Sheridan movie genre | Kevin McKenna
3 hours ago
Our film industry should take inspiration from the Tommy Sheridan play to come up with the Scottish political thriller
One issue above all others dominated conversation in the pubs and clubs of Glasgow. It even supplanted all debate about the future status of Club 12 (formerly Rangers Fc), while Alex Salmond's spectacular bout of sartorial incontinence in Los Angeles was also soon forgotten. From Parkhead Cross in the east to Old Dumbarton Road in the west we all shook our heads in bewilderment. Just why did Scottish Opera pass up the opportunity of commissioning a work about the rise and fall of Tommy Sheridan in all of its glorious raiment? The announcement that the city's venerable King's Theatre, instead, is to stage I, Tommy in November has been greeted with astonishment by opera-goers all over the city.
The King's will assuredly do the Sheridan saga proud in its traditionally wry and couthy manner. »
- Kevin McKenna
Michael Sheen's new role: taking film and drama to poor children
6 hours ago
Welsh actor backs project to get disadvantaged pupils into cinema and drama clubs
Michael Sheen, the acclaimed film and stage actor, has spoken of his fear that disadvantaged British schoolchildren no longer have a way to discover culture.
Talking in support of a new project to tackle cultural poverty, the star has called for children from all backgrounds to be given more opportunities to see a wider range of films and take part in local drama groups. Sheen, who grew up in Wales and discovered he loved drama at school, bemoaned the lack of access to youth theatres and to the classics of cinema for many poorer children today.
"I now realise I had a huge amount of advantages when I was growing up in West Glamorgan," he said. "Not just in terms of my family, but because it was a golden era, where free cultural opportunities were available to me. »
- Vanessa Thorpe
Selma Blair interview: 'I could be living in a castle right now, with Tom Cruise'
6 hours ago
Selma Blair's own Hollywood story was one of missed chances and unhappy endings. But with two challenging new roles and a young family, she's finally found peace. She's even Charlie Sheen's therapist…
If we believe everything we see on screen, it has taken the last 15 years for Selma Blair to grow from her late teens to her early 20s. So long has she been playing the gullible ingénue, the hesitant high-school student, in films such as Cruel Intentions and Legally Blonde, it is as if time has stood still.
In reality the Hollywood actor is turning 40. When we meet, in the genteel gardens of the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles, she is celebrating her birthday in two weeks. She could still pass for 25 in a pair of crisp white shorts and natty brogues, and she says she wears "white now more than ever – it's my favourite. I would just wear napkins. »
- Jane Mulkerrins
The Last Projectionist – review
6 hours ago
A beautiful, timely, and ever-so-slightly heartbreaking documentary about the changing face of cinema in the UK, interweaving the reminiscences of stalwart projectionists (fast becoming an extinct species) with the history of Birmingham's Electric cinema – which in its time has been news theatre, bijou art-house and soft-porn palace. Affectionate and informative, the film raises important questions about the role of the multiplex, the inevitable rise of digital, and the life-affirming persistence of independent cinemas which offer something more than the supermarket experience. Bravo!
DocumentaryFilm industryMark Kermode
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- Mark Kermode
This much I know: Kyle MacLachlan
6 hours ago
The actor, 53, on having a winery, being a late bloomer, and almost becoming an opera singer
I originally wanted to be an opera singer. I studied classical voice at the University of Washington but soon realised I didn't have the instrument or the discipline. The road for opera singers is more difficult than for actors.
David Lynch plucked me from obscurity. He cast me as the lead in Dune and Blue Velvet, and people have seen me as this boy-next-door-cooking-up-something-weird-in-the-basement ever since. I was 23 when I first met him, in his bungalow on the Universal lot, and could never have predicted we would have such an enduring relationship.
"Alrighty then!" is what I like to call a Trey-ism. For a long time people would constantly stop me in the street and ask me to say it – I think it's a great tribute to the skill and humour of the writers on Sex and the City. »
- Jane Mulkerrins
Trailer trash
6 hours ago
Dexter Fletcher tells Jason Solomons about his forthcoming cockney western
Wild Bill team go west
Following the success of his directing debut, Wild Bill, former child actor Dexter Fletcher is making a full-blown western, set in Arizona. However, he tells me, Provenance will still be made up of Londoners, this time seeking their fortune in the frontier towns of the American west. "I've always loved westerns but have never been able to be in one," Dexter says. "I tried to work a lot western ideas into Wild Bill and I feel really lucky to be able to actually get to make one of my own, in real western country." BBC Films is backing the film and Mark Strong is set to star, alongside Sammy Williams, the kid in Wild Bill who also featured in Joe Cornish's Attack the Block. The rest of the cast has yet to be confirmed »
- Jason Solomons
Schwarzenegger takes on Google in battle of Venice Beach
6 hours ago
Film star and former bodybuilder speaks out against internet firm's move to bohemian enclave of Los Angeles
Venice Beach has long been known as the bohemian heart of Los Angeles. It was a place by the sea where the city's obsession with Hollywood stars gave way to a strange mix of hippies, artists and muscle-bound weightlifters pumping iron on the boardwalk; where Beat writers such as Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac haunted its bars and cafes.
Arnold Schwarzenegger first shot to fame there as a young bodybuilder, fresh from Austria, long before he became an action star and a politician. Now, however, another unusual newcomer to Venice Beach is causing a stir among its long-established alternative scene. That interloper has arrived in the form of internet search firm Google, which has snapped up some 100,000 sq ft of Venice office space for more than 500 sales and technology staff. It is also »
- Paul Harris
Where Do We Go Now? – review
6 hours ago
Building upon the rich promise of Caramel, director/writer/star Nadine Labaki conjures an ambitiously pacifying fable in which relations between Christian and Muslim men in a remote Lebanese village are strained by news of violence in the outside world. As the men square up for battle, the women conspire to maintain a fragile (and increasingly isolated) peace. Boasting vibrant performances and making splendid storytelling use of music and dance (I was reminded of Radu Mihaileanu's The Source), this bittersweet celebration of motherhood deftly blends wry satire with broad comedy while never losing sight of the tragedy of its subject matter.
World cinemaDramaMark Kermode
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- Mark Kermode
Mark Kermode's DVD round-up
6 hours ago
A Dangerous Method; The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel; Young Adult; Hunky Dory
"Experiences like this, however painful, are necessary..." With his hermetically sealed adaptation of Don DeLillo's Cosmopolis merrily – and deliberately – baffling R-Patz fans in cinemas, David Cronenberg's similarly stagey, talky psycho-drama A Dangerous Method (2011, LionsGate, 15) presents itself for further analysis from the (dis)comfort of the home-viewing couch. Based on Christopher Hampton's play, significantly entitled The Talking Cure, this dramatises the birth of psychoanalysis as a tense three-way relationship between Freud, Jung and patient-turned-lover Sabina Spielrein, whose contortive hysterics fire the attentions of both doctors.
Lacking the visceral punch of Crash, the sensuality of Eastern Promises, or the passion of A History of Violence, A Dangerous Method offers a strangely cerebral view of sexuality – cold, clinical, and notably (perversely?) lacking in eroticism. With heavyweights Viggo Mortensen and Michael Fassbender matching each other in the battle for theoretical supremacy, »
- Mark Kermode
Victim – review
6 hours ago
A trite but well-meaning urban thriller aimed at the Kidulthood market, this wears its moral heart on its sleeve as part-time thief Tyson (Ashley Chin) struggles to pay off his mother's debts and raise his teenage kid sister while escaping his gangster past. The set-ups are familiar, the characters well worn and the film-makers' message (we are all victims) writ cornily large. But co-writer Chin is an imposing screen presence of whom we may expect more in future.
ThrillerMark Kermode
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- Mark Kermode
The Rise and Fall of a White Collar Hooligan – review
6 hours ago
"Classy girls cost more than a Bacardi Breezer, Mike!" Credit card fraud drives this ("real-life") geezery-caper in which unshaven Laaaahndaan lads who enjoy naffin more than faaackin 'avin it on the terraces cook up crafty schemes over swilled pints of lager and only wind up getting faaackin shot at wiv faaackin shooters an' that, while their birds fret about whether they're even coming home for faaack's sake. At one point they go to Manchester where everyone still talks like a faaackin Laaahndannner. Only a shocking clerical error can explain the absence of Danny Dyer.
CrimeMark Kermode
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- Mark Kermode
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter – review
6 hours ago
Timur Bekmambetov's silly vampire film at least doesn't live down to expectations
It should come as no surprise to learn that Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is neither as good nor as bad as its laugh-out-loud trailer suggests. On the plus side, it's nowhere near as terrible as the all-title-no-trousers catastrophe of Cowboys & Aliens, a movie so awful that even the head of the studio that made it labelled it "crappy". On the downside, despite the Spinal Tap maxim that there's a very thin line between clever and stupid, this sometimes proves that there's an even thinner line between stupid and just plain dumb.
Adapted by screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith (author of the bestselling Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) from his own novel, this splattershot romp recasts America's 16th president as a heroic Van Helsing figure whose hatred of slavery dovetails neatly with a lust for vengeance upon the bloodsuckers who killed his mother. »
- Mark Kermode
Silent Souls – review
6 hours ago
Two men, members of the lost Merja tribe, revive ancient death rites to honour the loss of a young wife. In the ensuing road-trip, the "smoke" of bawdy memories is interspersed with flashbacks to pagan practices (tying coloured ribbons in a bride's pubic hair) and memories of bodies sensually bathed in vodka, while caged birds chirrup significantly. Shot in impressively end-of-the-world Russian locations, and boasting a straight-faced sexual frankness that veers between engaging and gross, this strange pre-Slavic requiem is full of striking visual images and fragmentary half-truths – a dour meditation on love and death that arrests and alienates in equal measure.
World cinemaDramaMark Kermode
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- Mark Kermode
The Five-Year Engagement – review
6 hours ago
The reliably effervescent Emily Blunt brings a whole lot of charm to this post-Bridesmaids romcom from producer Judd Apatow. Blunt plays an aspiring academic whose success not only postpones her marriage to (co-writer) Jason Segel's chef but also precipitates his upheaval – geographical, personal and professional. At its best when dealing with recognisable relationship tensions, and worst when grossly over-egging Segel's character disintegration, this offers plenty of chuckles – although not enough to justify the middle-aged spread of its two-hour running time. Plaudits to Rhys Ifans for a scene-stealingly slimy turn as a predatory psychologist on the prowl.
ComedyEmily BluntRomanceMark Kermode
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- Mark Kermode
Think Like a Man – review
6 hours ago
The week's second reference to the Battle of Gettysburg (see Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) comes in this quasi-narrative feature film based on a self-help book that – unlike generic stablemates Eat Pray Love or What to Expect When You're Expecting – doesn't actually make you want to kill yourself. A formulaic spin-off of Steve Harvey's bestseller peddling hackneyed gender-war cliches and laughable (but not in a good way) "insights", this nonetheless benefits from a likable cast who lend much-needed zing, almost overcoming the fatuousness of the script. Almost.
ComedyRomanceChris BrownMark Kermode
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- Mark Kermode
Lay the Favorite – review
6 hours ago
With The Grifters nothing but a memory, Stephen Frears's latest hustling tale is an oddly lacklustre and forgettable affair. Rebecca Hall is typically watchable as Beth Raymer, a wannabe-cocktail-waitress with a head for figures who is smitten by Bruce Willis's avuncular bookie, to the annoyance of his facelifted wife, played with relish by Catherine Zeta-Jones. Meanwhile Vince Vaughn coasts as an obnoxious loudmouth with bad dress sense. Apparently it's a true story, although the increasingly frenzied plotting rings rather false – albeit with a few tight-lipped laughs along the way.
ComedyDramaBruce WillisCatherine Zeta-JonesStephen FrearsRebecca HallMark Kermode
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- Mark Kermode
Chernobyl Diaries – review
6 hours ago
More sub-Blair Witch hand-held shaky-cam visuals (the lazy default setting du jour for horror) in this unscary shocker from co-writer/producer Oren Peli (Paranormal Activity) and director Brad Parker. Disposable youngsters take an extreme-tourism trip to Pripyat, a ghost-town evacuated in the wake of the Chernobyl meltdown, where they promptly discover they are not alone. Building on the "quiet quiet quiet quiet quiet quiet Bang!" formula of yore, this wastes an eerie set-up and well-chosen locations (Belgrade and Budapest), settling for volume rather than invention. There's a great idea hiding in there somewhere – shame they didn't find it. And there aren't any diaries …
HorrorMark Kermode
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- Mark Kermode
Planet of Snail – review
6 hours ago
Rarely have a screen couple oozed more sincere love and affection than Young-Chan and Soon-Ho, the Korean couple whose relationship provides the beating heart of this wonderfully life-affirming documentary. He is deaf-blind; she is no taller than his waist; they communicate through tapping fingers. And what communication it is! Whether changing a light bulb (an extraordinary act of teamwork), exploring the sensation of rain, hugging trees or writing plays about their world, these two halves of one soul seem to be living every day, every hour, every moment to the full. There's not only more joy here than the subject implies but also more profound insight into what it means to be human. An absolute gem.
DocumentaryMark Kermode
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- Mark Kermode
Cloclo – review
6 hours ago
Best known in the UK as the answer to a pub trivia question (who sang the Euro-hit that later became My Way?), pop chanteur Claude François was a French national treasure, whose death in a bizarre "bathing-while-fixing-a-lightbulb" accident in 1978 sparked mass weeping and wailing. This colourfully swoonsome biopic follows "Cloclo" from painful childhood to public adoration, ticking off career landmarks in the brash, finger-popping, broadstrokes style of the underrated Bobby Darin biopic Beyond the Sea. Jérémie Renier is magnetic in the title role: energetic, infuriating, and oddly creepy.
DramaWorld cinemaMark Kermode
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- Mark Kermode
Tax avoidance, and the secret of bad British film | Marina Hyde
19 hours ago
The abysmal Britflick was one of the mysteries of the modern age. But the whole business may have been a clever wheeze
Is there a more perfect vignette in the recent career of our rapidly oxidising prime minister than his standing next to Aung San Suu Kyi but being quizzed about Gary Barlow? Over the years, many of us will have beheld certain politicians and wondered: "Do they have any idea what plonkers they are?" One hopes the knowledge eats at them in the silent watches of the night, but the suspicion is that everything from ministerial cars to American bilaterals fools them, and they never really put themselves into perspective.
Occasionally, though, the gods of staging chuck us a bone. And the experience of standing beside the Burmese pro-democracy paragon while reporters asked about his mate from Take That must have brought home to David Cameron his essential smallness. »
- Marina Hyde
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