Time again to pass over to Clash Film Editor Ben Hopkins for this month’s Film Digest…
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The Biopic: From Jesus to James Brown
Che, Frost, Nixon, Milk, Chess, B.I.G., Bronson (pictured), Button (ok, so I made that last one up) – it’s only March and yet a deluge of biopics have already swarmed to our screens with far more on the way.
Way back in the midst of time, you really had to be someone to get an Oscar-desiring film made about you; Cleopatra, Jesus, Napoleon, Henry VIII. An eclectic group they undoubtedly were, but at least they had the good grace not to demand an executive producer credit. By contrast, Beatrice Potter and Larry Flynt just don’t cut it.
The narrative appeal of the biopic is without question. Major historical characters, ordinary folk in extreme circumstances and great creative minds from the present and past all represent potentially captivating tales. Yet for every Raging Bull or Walk The Line there’s a host of made for TV stinkers and mildly more acclaimed films in which a great performance can’t mask the general tedium of the subject’s life.
But with Bronson in cinemas and the Brian Clough film The Damned United coming soon, the biopic shows no sign of abating – especially with films on Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman), Iggy Pop (Elijah Wood), Keith Moon (Mike Myers!?), Bill Hicks (Russell Crowe) and James Brown (Wesley Snipes) all on the way.
So passing over to you – who would you like to play you in a biopic of your life? And what biopics would you like made?
I’d like John Cusack to me mine, but frankly I’d be lucky to get Nick Frost. And while it’s never gonna happen, I’d love to see Christian Bale’s take on GG Allin…
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In This Month’s Magazine
Much like Nick Frost’s Ed in Shaun of the Dead, I’m very much of the opinion that The Stone Roses’ ‘Second Coming’ album is actually very good indeed. And it’s The Stone Roses who grace the cover of our current issue. Delve a little deeper and you’ll find there’s plenty of film content for your contemplation including:
> Steve McQueen talking hunger strikes, learning from our past and, erm, Ossie Ardiles in the context of his excellent film Hunger.
> Jennifer Lynch has dark, surreal drama in her genes. She sounds crazy but is in fact very nice and definitely sane. Expect the unexpected in her new film Surveillance.
> Reviews galore, including: Iron Mike sheds a tear in Tyson, the guys behind The Wire investigate Iraq, Kevin Smith delivers some “adult” romance and Cadillac Records takes a few liberties with the truth.
> Plus some striking portraits of Patti Smith from the documentary Dream of Life.
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A Fresh Batch Of Trailer Goodness
The UK release of Bill Maher’s Religulous has been long delayed, but it’s finally on the way and looks just as hilarious as did when I first saw it several months back:
Channing Tatum was simply awesome in Dito Montiel’s A Guide To Recognising Your Saints. Can the duo repeat the trick in Fighting? Or is it, as the title suggests, Fight Club light?
In my mind, Star Trek will always be the lamer cousin of Star Wars. But Eric Bana and Simon Pegg help to raise my hopes:
In my mind, Green Street will always be the lamer cousin of films that are, well, good. Green Street 2 is coming! And it seems to be set in America. Maybe there’s some unknown beef between Chivas USA and Kansas City Wizards:
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Lost Film Obscurity Of The Month: Following
Way back in the late Nineties, Christopher Nolan couldn’t call on the likes of Christian Bale and Guy Pearce or massive budgets to aid his movie making. His feature length debut was Following, made with a largely amateur cast and a budget that would struggle to finance a decent second hand car.
An intricately plotted modern neo-noir that echoes throughout most of Nolan’s subsequent releases, Following examines a young aspiring writer influenced by a charismatic stranger into carrying out a series of elaborate, conceptual burglaries.
Given the budget, it’s inevitable that some of the acting isn’t quite as accomplished as it could be, but Following would be a killer debut for anyone – let alone a film in which the crew’s work demands dictated that filming could only take place on Saturdays and in which the first or second take of each shot had to be used to save money.
Check it out:
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The Best Shorts Online
Colm Field looks at what’s happening in the shorts world…
True, You Don’t Know Me (Sean Melia) may be the usual working of an old, old formula, but the nifty camerawork and (for the medium) excellent acting make it that rarest of shorts – enjoyable, believable horror. Shorter, yet slower, Shane Meadows documentary on Bartley Gorman, the bare-knuckled King Of The Gypsies, is neither patronising nor glamorous, and will be the subject of his next feature-length project.
More frightening than Mr Gorman would be the idea of Christian comedy sketches, yet if you can withstand the moral message, Denial by Four Monks And A Nun is actually very funny. On the opposite end of the ethical spectrum is the black comedy A Fitting Tribute, a cringe-inducing yet apparently true-to-life portrayal of the journalistic ‘death knock’. It’s the best of the bunch right now, unless you can make the brilliant Oscar-nominated This Way Up when it shows at your local cinema in a new, long overdue effort to show the best of short film.
Links…
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Finally… In The Magazine Next Month
Clash is five years old, so we’re marking the occasion with the top films of the past half decade. Having eliminated such curious suggestions as Bend It Like Beckham and Sister Act 2, the final list is looking pretty damn good – but hey, you can’t please everyone so let the bitching commence.
Plus, numerous reviews including:
The Thick Of It + the big screen + complains about a garden wall = In The Loop.
Werner Herzog? Weird. Living in Antarctica? Weird. Put the two together and you’ve got Encounters At The End Of The World.
Like Breakdancing? Then you’ll lurve the reissues of Eighties cult classics Breakdance and… erm, Breakdance 2.
Live films from Wilco, Stevie Wonder and Leonard Cohen. Not, not together, doofus…
Future Shorts’ Dances With Love short film experience, the last handful of dates of which you can still spot in person (click for details). Hurrah for gay Icelandic wrestlers!
