The Mediatwin Blog

Oscar Grouch

So - that's that. The nominations for the 84th Academy Awards have finally been announced.

I'll leave it to the professionals to wade through the rights and wrongs of the various categories - but I have a few thoughts though...

Hugely disappointed that MELANCHOLIA - one of my favourites from last year - didn't get nominated at all. Hell, even REAL STEEL and KUNG FU PANDA 2 snagged one mention apiece. DRIVE, a very impressive flick, managed to grab just a solitary nom...for sound editing. What about Albert Brooks' superb performance in that movie...or Ryan Gosling's? Trent Reznor's excellent score for THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO? Zip.

But that's the way it goes. Some you win, some you lose...most you never even get a nomination for. By the way, it was curious that Spielberg was denied a Best Director nom for WAR HORSE. I'm not a huge fan of the film but the Academy traditionally falls for Steven in this category.

Bright spots: good to see Academy love for Terrance Malick. Rooney Mara getting nominated for her sterling work in DRAGON TATTOO. RANGO's nod in the Best Animated Film category.

I'll do proper predictions closer to the time but I suspect that, come the night of February 26th, THE ARTIST will clean up. It's a good film and its retro celebration of silent movies will undoubtedly strike a chord with the Academy's voters.

And talking of looking back and the Oscars...

COMING ATTRACTIONS: Desperado (1995)

17 Jan 2012
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Trailers are the shop windows of movies. They clamour for your attention, teasing you with delights that - probably, hopefully - await you should you step over the threshold. And for most of the time, they have less than two minutes to do it in.

Take DESPERADO. This was writer/director Robert Rodriguez’s first foray in Hollywood, a hybrid remake/sequel to his self-financed EL MARIACHI. The film’s a pretty entertaining blast of Tex-Mex violence, sex, more violence and a cameo appearance from Rodriguez’s BFF, Quentin Tarantino. After seeing the trailer, you know exactly what to expect from the film:

It’s essentially a radically compressed version of the movie with all the talky stuff (and most of the smouldering looks between the leads) taken out. DESPERADO’s trailer gives the viewer a visceral rush that sells the film beautifully.Those rapid cuts timed perfectly to the music. The sheer cojones of packing in all those shots of bullets, bad guys and flying bottles of tequila.

I’ve the DVD of DESPERADO somewhere but to be honest - watching its trailer is a far more exciting proposition, amigo.

REVIEW: War Horse (2011)

13 Jan 2012
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A tender story of boy meets horse, boy loses horse, as his steed is despatched to France for service during the First World War. Steven Spielberg directing a screenplay co-written by Richard Curtis - itself adapted from Michael Morpurgo’s hugely successful children’s book and stage play. A cast showcasing some of the finest British acting talent around today.

So - er - why the long face?

Regrettably, the blame for WAR HORSE not being as effective as it could have been lies squarely with Spielberg and his directorial choices. The first third of the film, set in a pre-war farming village, sinks under a thick Hollywood glaze - Devon, as if recreated on a Hollywood backlot . No pastoral cliche is left unploughed, as Joey the foal gambols under Technicolor GONE WITH THE WIND skies to the cloying sounds of John Williams’ over-lush score.

Fortunately, the film does improve once Joey the horse is transported across the Channel and thrust into the nightmares of battle. There’s a welcome return of Spielberg’s grittier side, as the horrors of the First World War are superbly realised. One sequence - set in a battlefield’s No Man’s Land and bringing together two soldiers from different sides of the conflict - is dramatically stripped to the bone, tautly directed and is arguably the highlight of the film.

Steven Spielberg has proved himself at knowing - most of the time - exactly how to handle his audience. Whether it’s Indiana Jones chasing after Nazis, cute aliens promising “I’ll be right here” or sharks terrorising summer towns, he has masterfully demonstrated that he knows exactly which buttons he needs to push . Here, however, his manipulative tricks are clumsy and obvious. It’s the same kind of wrong-handed approach he brought to THE COLOR PURPLE and ALWAYS - suffocating the film under unnecessarily glossy visuals. At times, it feels more like somebody trying to imitate his style, rather than Spielberg himself.

Tellingly, as a contender for Oscar glory, WAR HORSE has gone from morning line favourite a few months ago to extreme long-shot. I suspect Spielberg’s next film - a biography of Abraham Lincoln - will prove more to the Academy’s taste. Still, let’s not be uncharitable - WAR HORSE isn’t a bad film and hardly destined for the knacker’s yard. It’s just that, with such a high pedigree of talent before and behind the camera, you’d expect more than what’s been trotted out.

Happy birthday to The Thin White Duke

8 Jan 2012
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Thank you, Ed “Stewpot” Stewart.

My introduction to David Bowie (who turns 65 today) came through Stewart’s Junior Choice radio show. In between plays of “Cinderella Rockefella” and “Ernie (The Fastest Milkman In The West)”, Stewart would often drop the needle on Bowie’s “The Laughing Gnome”. This novelty record from ’67 was hardly a signpost to the rest of Bowie’s career (well, perhaps LABYRINTH) but was good, childlike fun nonetheless. The NME certainly thought so. In 1990, Bowie announced that the set lists for his greatest hits Sound + Vision tour would be determined by phone votes from the public. The NME immediately launched a campaign to rig the result through its “Just Say Gnome” campaign. Regrettably, the phone vote plan was subsequently abandoned and the sight of Bowie returning to his earlier triumph never came to pass.

It’s impossible to sum up Bowie’s career and influence on rock music in just a few paragraphs. His determination to constantly reinvent himself is remarkable, challenging his audience to keep up with his chameleon-like ch-ch-changes in fashion,music and persona. Whether it’s the folky psychedelia of “Hunky Dory”, the barren sonic landscapes of “Heroes” or the pure ‘80s big beat sheen of “Let’s Dance”, Bowie created an enviable back catalogue of commercially successful and critically acclaimed singles and albums. The list of rock and pop stars that admit they were heavily influenced by him - Boy George, Ian McCulloch, Brett Anderson, Trent Reznor - is long and distinguished. It’s easy to see how closely Lady GaGa has studied Bowie’s career and modelled herself on it.

Bowie’s last proper album was 2003’s “Reality”. Since then, he’s made the occasional appearance in the media - singing with David Gilmour in 2006, playing Nikola Tesla in THE PRESTIGE - but it seems increasingly unlikely that he’ll return to music full-time. Or is it? With Bowie - you just don’t know what’s coming next. He’s reassuringly unpredictable.

There are so many great songs to choose from but this - the recently rediscovered performance of “Jean Genie” on a ’73 Top Of The Pops - is certainly one of them. Ground Control to Major Tom: happy birthday.

Oscar Grouch

COMING ATTRACTIONS: Desperado (1995)

REVIEW: War Horse (2011)

Happy birthday to The Thin White Duke

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