Jesus Christ! Mel Gibson’s got a new film: Edge of Darkness reviewed

Resurrected as a Boston police detective, Mel Gibson returns to the screen as a single father and honest citizen seeking retribution for his child’s murder on the doorstep of his own home. So far, so Patriot but this Martin Campbell thriller quickly takes a political turn. Based on the 1980s BBC miniseries , the Cold War origins of this Edge of Darkness reworking become palpable as Craven (Mel Gibson) goes about exposing a ‘nuclear waste facility’ for what it actually is in his radioactive quest for revenge.

As he slowly transforms into what basically a UN weapons inspector with 'nothing to lose' but plenty of ammunition, the aesthetic becomes increasingly stylised despite the director’s claims to ‘realism’. As if most people stumble around with a trenchcoat, a loaded gun and a frenetic Geiger counter after they’ve been poisoned, radioactively that is. Previous to this transition, he spends his time moping about his daughter and hearing voices in a pathetic attempt to be emotive. Otherwise, it looks good, it builds tension well but at its core is just another one of Mel's angry American dad films with Ray Winstone, raincoats and radioactivity thrown in for js.

It's out tomorrow guys. We give it a 5/10 on the Geiger counter.MK

MAN SWANS: Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake reviewed

Contrary to dance pleb belief, Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake is not a ballet. First staged in Sadler’s Wells in 1995, this controversial contemporary dance has returned to its original stage as the longest running dance show in the West End.

It’s been 14 years since Matthew Bourne said goodbye to tutus, pointe shoes and ballet convention to choreograph a version of Swan Lake with male swans. However, the homoerotic undertones of the revised plot rattled the feathers of some early audience members. Some critics complained about its departure from traditional ballet while one girl from the local ballet school cried because it was distinctly lacking in the big white tutu department.

Over the years the male dancers have become iconic so their virile masculine physicality and their famous frayed trousers designed by Lez Brotherston which appeared at the end of Billy Elliot the movie are to be expected. However, what catches you off-guard is the intensity of the encounter between the Prince and the swans. The whole thing is delivered with such emotion. And not the faux opera house emotion of the heavily made-up Royal prima ballerinas either.

From the tormented Prince to his hilarious girlfriend, who, in a clever piece of satire eats Maltesers in a theatre, are surprisingly real. It has a kind of immediacy that makes it utterly unique in the world of dance. In fact, its key critique of traditional dance performances is that they lack any kind of relation to the lives of the audience, most sharply carried out in the theatre scene. A ridiculous parody of pretentious ballets it involves all of the animal kingdom dancing with exaggerated emotion and a devil who has some absurd piece of artwork dangling distractingly from his crotch- sound familiar?

The novelty of this production and the controversy surrounding it might have attracted dance-lovers in the nineties but controversy isn’t what keeps the audiences coming. In its fifteenth year it's just as funny, just as sad and just as relevant as it used to be. They certainly don’t call it a contemporary dance for nothing.

Vicarious says go see this or we're not your friend anymore.MK

Reflections of an uncle to his niece

After close to 20 years in the ad business, my uncle John Farr left the 9 to 5 job to pursue what he’s always loved most, movies. With a new multi-media enterprise, Best Movies by Farr, he now promotes outstanding film via a website that already features more than 2,000 movie recommendations. As a result, he was recruited to be a featured weekly film blogger on the Huffington Post, and also provides branded film suggestions on video to WNET’s “Reel 13” program website. He has been interviewed on Westwood One Radio, WCBS Radio, as well as Air America’s “Ron Reagan Show”, and appeared recently on CNN. In an interview for Vicarious, he spills the beans on how to break into film journalism, interviewing Paul Newman and the rise of reality TV. Check out the interview on the Huffington Post.

Vicarious: When did your love affair with movies begin?

John Farr:When I was about six, I fell in love with the Hollywood classics on old TV programs like “The 4:30 Movie” and “The Million Dollar Movie.” After that, I had to know everything about how those films were made, and about the stars…a lifelong love passion and fascination thus began.

Vicarious: Where do you find time to review 15 films a week?

John Farr: I watch two movies each night- it’s easy! Also, I always have my portable DVD player handy when travelling. From a sanity perspective, it’s also easier to watch a lot of movies when you’ve researched them for quality in advance.

Vicarious: Is there an actor or actress that you’ve most enjoyed interviewing?

John Farr: Without question, Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman. What a couple...and they complemented each other beautifully. She every inch the Southern lady, he the more unpredictable, iconoclastic type- sporting a motorcycle jacket at eighty!

Vicarious: It’s fair to say that you’ve made your name through forms of new media including YouTube, Twitter, blogging and a successful website. Would you recommend that path to budding journalists and film aficionados?

John Farr: I’d put it more emphatically than that: I can’t see how any up and coming person in these fields could succeed without new media…it represents a near revolutionary democratization in communication, which is why so much of traditional media is declining. Today, you can create your own channel to grow and build loyalty with your intended audience. It’s enormously exciting.

Vicarious: You write a regular column for the Huffington Post, how do you decide what to write?

John Farr: It might be a milestone birthday for a great actor or director, or a new film arriving on DVD that features a talent worth examining, or even something film-related I come across in the newspaper that I think warrants commentary or exploration. I think the idea of being topical still holds as a fundamental rule.

Vicarious: Is there a column that you’re most proud of and why?

John Farr: I really can’t name one, but I’m always proud when via feedback on my blog, I hear I’ve persuaded my readers to revisit a talent they haven’t considered for some time, and hopefully watch some great films they may not know or have forgotten about. That’s my ultimate goal- and greatest satisfaction.

Vicarious: You’ve achieved success with your website and columns at a more mature age, would you rather have been doing this at 21?

John Farr: Honestly, no. I would not have had the knowledge nor the confidence to do what I’m doing at 21. This pertains not just to my understanding of film itself but also the application of certain writing, speaking, and marketing techniques I picked up in my first career in advertising. These hard-won skills have contributed a lot to my effectiveness in this current endeavor, which makes me feel I didn’t totally waste my youth!

Vicarious: I've heard through the grapevine that you were on CNN recently. Spill...

John Farr: True. My Huffington Post blog arguing for a measure of leniency for director Roman Polanski drew over 700 comments, and created a firestorm of controversy which resulted in two radio interviews- one on Air America’s Ron Reagan Show, followed by a TV appearance on CNN-HL’s Joy Behar Show, debating two tough feminist lawyers. It was a gas, and I’m still around to tell the tale!

Vicarious: Can you recommend 3 Christmas movies that are worth seeing?

John Farr: “The Bishop’s Wife” (1947), “Scrooge” (1951), and “A Christmas Tale” (2008).

Vicarious: Favourite movie of all time?

John Farr: “Bringing Up Baby” (1938)- as close to a perfect screen comedy as I can think of, and strangely enough, a relative flop when first released.

Vicarious: I remember the epic movie nights at your home in New York. What are the key ingredients to a successful movie night?

John Farr: Easier to state perhaps than execute, but you want a general air of informality and a group of fun, like-minded people who really enjoy and appreciate great film.

Vicarious: If you could interview a movie star dead or alive who would it be?

John Farr: Spencer Tracy, one of the finest screen actors ever, but a complex and contained human being who never gave away his secrets. I’d love to try to penetrate those walls he erected around himself to better understand the pure and distinctive approach that made him so arresting a presence on film.

Vicarious: What do you think of the rise of reality TV, which seems to have eclipsed movie watching in recent years?

John Farr: I think reality shows are a blight on our popular culture, and a major contributor to the “dumbing down” of entertainment. Still with TV viewership declining, I suppose it’s an economic necessity. Or that’s the excuse anyway. I also dislike the voyeuristic, exploitative nature of these programs. I hope fervently they become a rather regrettable fad, passing away like an unpleasant odor. Is that opinionated enough for you?

Vicarious: You have a fondness of old movies. Has the quality of movies gotten worse in the last 20 years?

John Farr: Movies have certainly evolved, both as a business and an entertainment form, and to my mind, not for the better. I’ve always valued subtlety, originality and intelligence in film, and find these qualities too often lacking, particularly in today’s mainstream Hollywood fare.

The reasons for this are varied: increasingly, Hollywood has focused on familiar, tried-and-true formulas aimed at their best audience- young people in their teens- who are less sensitive to reviews and happily go to the multiplexes to plunk down twelve dollars on a film’s opening weekend. The studios have learned how to make money without needing to worry too much about the classic and ever-challenging fundamentals of storytelling, script, and nuanced character development. Ever notice how all the best writers are now working for HBO?

Those incredible visual effects created inside a computer, along with breakneck pacing, help mask the banality of the movie itself and the “Barbie and Ken” blandness of all those buff yet shallow young performers.

My dream- and it may be just that- is that more intelligent consumers increasingly turn away from this dreck. There will always be a certain amount of purely escapist fare in the marketplace, and some of it is fun and well-done, but Hollywood, still the financial epicenter of the movie business, can and should do better overall. I think it owes that to its audience.

CF

To see more of the interview with John Farr on Huffington Post, click here

24 hours in the life of a David David intern: An exclusive glimpse into the fashion industry

Hannah is a Textile Design student in her 3rd year at Central St.Martin’s, specialising in printed textiles. When she got an insider’s glimpse into the studio of London-based, Grimsby-born fashion designer David David this summer, we asked her to tell us all about the glitz, glamour and perspex handbags of the fashion industry.


10.30am
I arrive at the Conduit Street studio, where David Saunders works with his brother Michael. It is a creative and friendly place to work. I got a good feeling from it right from the beginning, when I applied for an internship there. The majority of fashion design studios want fashion students and so there is a limited places available for those studying textiles. Most studios never got back to my emails or CVs and although I managed to get a few interviews I was starting to lose hope! I saw David David's website and really loved his work so I called him up. He offered to interview me the following day.

11.00am
I meet my colleague Tom (who is super stylish by the way), another intern here. Tom is studying menswear design at Ravensbourne University in Kent. At the beginning of my internship I worked with him a lot, usually helping him trace and cut out garment patterns.

1.00pm
I shop for materials and collect some fabric swatches. I get to do some experimenting with inks and printing methods.I get sent to visit quite a few places including boutiques, markets, PR offices, factories and printing offices. This was great as I found out about lots of companies that would be useful to me in the future. David's designs are really colourful, geometric and quite quirky. Although his most recent Spring/Summer 2010 womenswear collection is really sophisticated, using beautiful colours. The cut of the garment is simple and the idea is to have a blank canvas onto which David can incorporate his colourful designs.

3.00pm
I am busy sewing handbags. David designed a hand bag made from laser cut pieces of perspex. It took a good couple of hours to sew them together, some re-doing as I managed to make some mistakes but the end result was great. The bags look lovely! As it got closer to London Fashion Week it got much busier, getting all the sample's ready for David David's presentation and video shoot. There was a lot of pattern cutting involved. I was nervous as there was no more room for mistakes!

5.00pm
I say bye and head off home. It was nice to work in a small studio as I got to see how David works with Michael who manages the business sides of things. It was a small group of us. I met really nice people and over all it was a great experience to see how the fashion industry works. The best bit about the internship was that it was great to finally see the collection come together at the LFW presentation. I dream about the day I’ll get to have some creative input, maybe design some print pieces for the collection. That would be just great!


David has said that the inspiration behind his Spring/Summer 2010 collection was “Japanese geometrics, vodka and coloured glass.” Based on this we really feel you ought to check it out.

MK & HJ

We want more Anish Kapoor: the Indian sculptor's Royal Academy exhibition under review

REVIEW: Forty fully-grown adults stand in the Large Weston Room of the Royal Academy of Arts staring intently at what art students describe as 'a ritual arena in which a symbollic act of repeated violence is allowed to occur.' What this means in ordinary speak is staring at the wall waiting for a cannon to fire twenty-pound shells of wax into the wall. Every twenty minutes.

We all jump as the red wax hits it at fifty miles an hour and splashes all across the carved ceiling. A member of staff informs me that they've tried to fire the gun less regularly as the already reinforced walls of the Royal Academy are starting to cave under the pressure of Anish Kapoor's Shooting into the Corner. Even larger in scale is Svayambh, an installation occupying five galleries that will make you watch a block of wax move through doorways at snail pace for up to 45 minutes depending on how stupid you are and how long it takes you to work out it isn't going to do anything more interesting anytime soon. It smells of wax and looks so gloopy you want to touch it. In fact some idiot has already left finger prints (in spite of the rules).

More true to his usual work are Yellow and Non-objects which have the clean lines and shiny surfaces that Kapoor is well known for. They too are imposing and visually thrilling. For the most part, however, the clever part isn't the geometry or the philosophical grounding of his work. It's the fact that he's made forty fully grown adults stare at the wall waiting for some wax to fly. And then he's made them realise how absurdly idiotic they've been.

The exhibition is running until 11th December. So go see it for goodness sake.

MK