Flavours of the Month: July 2011...

LOOKS:

Futurama - season 6 is underway and it's great to have this hilarious and intelligent show back!

Carnivale - missed it entirely the first time around, but thanks to Sky Atlantic, I've just gotten into this show. I'm only a few episodes in to it, but it's slowly pulling me in. It's a very, very, very slow-paced show, but it's also surprisingly good at luring you into it's mysterious web.

Last Man Standing - I haven't seen this Bruce Willis actioner in well over a decade, so it was a bit of a nostalgia trip to see it again (and, at last, in the correct aspect ratio).

The League of Gentlemen - I missed the boat almost entirely when it was originally airing (I had only ever seen the Christmas Special before), but I'm glad I finally hopped on board (albeit more-than-fashionably-late).

Uncle Buck - this John Hughes comedy from 1989 is a beloved flick from my early years. When I was a kid I loved the mayhem that John Candy's titular uncle caused, and especially loved his bombed-out old car. While I still love those things, being much older I appreciate it in a whole new way - and it's a surprisingly sweet and touching movie.

SOUNDS:

Ringo Deathstarr "Colour Trip" - shoegaze music from a band I've been waiting for what seems like ages to release an album (admittedly I totally forgot I was waiting for their album, as it was taking a while, so it was a nice surprise to discover that it was already out so I could hop right into it). "Do It Everytime" and "Two Girls" would have to be my favourite tracks.

Foo Fighters - live performances on the telly and their brilliant new album "Wasting Light".

M83 "Echoes" (sample), "Midnight City", and "Saturdays=Youth", "Digital Shades Vol.1" - with news that a double-album is coming soon from M83 (with a sample track that debuted on YouTube), I figured it was a good time to get the French shoegazer back into my CD auto changer.

New Order "Age Of Consent" - I can thank the end credits of Skateland for this. What a spiffing track.

Mohr Stories Podcast - a new podcast on the SModcast Network from comedian Jay Mohr, and it's bloody good fun. Episode Four was especially hilarious.

This Mortal Coil "Song To The Siren" - as heard at a haunting moment in Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones.

VIBES & FLAVOURS:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - it's a stupidly brief game (4 to 5 hours for a play through of the single player campaign), but nevertheless it's a wonderful action game experience, so it's not surprising therefore that this was my sixth play through.

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood - Assassin's Creed II kicked arse, but it wasn't without it's flaws, and it's follow-up - Brotherhood - is much the same. One thing to note - it feels overlong with padding, and the structure of a number of missions leaves a lot to be desired. Indeed there are many annoying little nuisances either within certain missions, or the game in general, that really (much like in ACII) start to spoil the whole experience. That said, you do get more of what you loved about ACII. Let's hope that they get rid of all the silly nuisances, that have so far been endemic in the franchise, in this year's Assassin's Creed Revelations.

Mark Kermode "It's Only A Movie" - my film critic of choice. I got this for Christmas, but with a stack of other books to get through, I've only just given this a look-see, and despite a couple of chunks that aren't hugely involving, the majority of the book plays well to a fellow film fanatic. Most specifically, the chapters on Kermode's event-filled trip to Russia, and his time interviewing Werner Herzog, make for fascinating reads.

The Walking Dead: Season 2 Teasers - as a huge fan of the zombie genre, The Walking Dead has been the best thing to happen to zombies since Day of the Dead, and with season two fast-approaching (it debuts in mid-October), the preview trailers have made for fervent excitement amongst us zed heads.

Double Bill Mini Musings: The League and The Lovely...

The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse:
I'm years behind-the-times with this modern British comedy classic of a series, but this month it's all been about Dyson, Gattis, Pemberton, and Shearsmith's darkly delicious vision of the warped Northern town of Royston Vasey. The film is a satisfying outing, bringing fresh territory to the series, and a sense of scale that exceeds the consistently impressive TV show. When the town of Royston Vasey begins to crumble - the titular apocalypse - it's up to Hilary Briss (the butcher), Geoff Tipps (the clumsy dolt who can't tell jokes - and who practically steals the entire film), and Herr Lipp (the innuendo-driven German tour guide) to save their town, by entering the real world to get their creators to keep writing about them. Bloody good fun.


The Lovely Bones:
Peter Jackson's adaptation of the book that concerns the aftermath of a teenage girl's murder, from both sides of the divide between life and 'the place in-between', is a visually inventive, dramatically tense, and chilling affair that will linger hauntingly in your mind afterwards. The emotional drive of the film - the torture of losing a child to murder - is keenly and tensely depicted throughout. Then throughout the flick, the visions of 'the place in-between' provide moments of wondrous melancholy, but also threat from unresolved trauma.

However, despite the impressive presentation and emotionally deep and grounded direction, there's a curious sense of lacking at the final hurdle come the film's end. Many characters feel cast aside throughout, and the closing moments of the film comes in a way that lacks a sense of closure for many of them, rather than in a way that would have more satisfactorily tied together the various plot strands. Indeed, the inevitable comeuppance is somewhat lacking in itself - you don't get the totally relieving sense of vindication that you feel you deserve as a viewer, and the execution of it doesn't pack the punch you'd expect given its foreshadowing earlier in the film. Perhaps these problems aren't so present in the original book (where they will have, naturally, spawned in the first place) - problems that have become more evident through the adaptation process.

Despite these stumbles though, The Lovely Bones is a beautifully realised vision with confident, considered direction, strong performances, a perfect sense of tension building, and a chilling balance of grim and glorious subject matter that allows the film to walk the line between drama for general audiences, and the horrific implications of the actions of truly dark individuals. Flawed, but satisfyingly haunting.