Brandon Cronenberg (son of
David) has written and directed an intense and disturbing debut film looking at
society’s increasing obsession with celebrity.Getting to the sick heart of this cultural disease, Cronenberg
has created a white walled world that delivers a claustrophobic film experience
with a mesmerising central performance from Caleb Landry Jones.
Zero Dark Thirty is
a breathtakingly brutal and powerful account of the hunt for Osama Bin
Laden, charting the ten years it took to capture him. Director Kathryn
Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) employs a race-against-time narrative
focusing on the investigative team, their extreme tactics and the
ramifications of a shifting political landscape during the course of
their probing mission. The gaze is mainly on CIA agent Maya (Jessica
Chastain) and the gender politics surrounding her career defining
assignment.
Jen and Sylvia Soska’s American Mary summons the spirit of Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers with classical music, cold instruments and red scrubs along with a dark Lynchian aesthetic. There are Asian and European horror influences too, yet astonishingly the film feels personal and unique.
I don’t usually write about TV (unless it’s Alex Mack…) but
Lena Dunham’s double win at the Golden Globes has prompted me to talk about women
in comedy.
For Best Performance by an actress in a TV series (comedy or musical), Lena was up against Julia Louis-Dreyfuss who apart from bringing us
the Elaine dance in Seinfeld
now leads the cast of Veep created by Armando Iannucci and
Miss Bossy Pants herself, Tina Fey, who created and stars in 30 Rock as the
secret snuggie wearing, night cheese eating Liz Lemon.
Fey added the phrase “I want to go to there” to my every
increasing quoting vocabulary and wrote the screenplay for one of the best teen
movies ever made, Mean Girls. Lena was also
up against Zooey Deschanel for her role in New Girl and Amy Poehler for her role as Leslie Knope in Parks and Recreation who
opened the show with Tina Fey.
I’m glad Dunham won the awards and her voice is being
recognised and celebrated. Even if you place no particular importance on awards
ceremonies her acceptance speech at the Golden Globes lays thanks to all of the
women in the category and “every woman who felt there wasn’t a space for her”.
On winning the best TV series (comedy or musical) she spoke of
the cast who have shown her “the meaning of bravery and nakedness both
emotional and physical” and it can only be a positive thing to have such a
talented, humble woman being a massive part of not only the TV world but the
filmmaking one too.
Dunham also spoke of the people who supported her and helped
her find her voice and made her feel “not like a cartoon character but a person
who could express emotions”. This made me think of the ever supportive LocoFilm Festival who are championing comedy. This year they have
collaborated with Underwire Festival with a focus on women in comedyand will be celebrating with the event Working Women on 26th January. If you’re having trouble finding your
voice this could be a positive and inspiring place to start looking for it.
2012 saw John Landis’ son, Max, put his hand to
writing a screenplay with co-writer and Director Josh Trank in the
extremely impressive Chronicle. Dolly Parton danced in the dark with the ghost of Kris Kristofferson and threw bread-rolls at Queen Latifah in Joyful Noise. The Muppets made a victorious return to the big screen. We were rewarded with the uplifting Damsels in Distress
in Whit Stillman’s long awaited return to filmmaking and Joss Whedon
achieved the admirable feat of making not only the best superhero film
out this year, in Avengers Assemble, but also a love letter to horror fans in The Cabin in the Woods. They all nearly made it into my top ten (apart from Joyful Noise) but not quite.
Once again my viewing schedule has been dominated by film festivals. I reflect on the best I’ve seen.
The last week of January, usually a blue affair, was cheered up by Loco Film Festival and their screening of The Muppets,
a vibrant, victorious return with Brett McKenzie penning memorable and
lovable lyrics with a hint of Hall and Oates magic. Their discovery
screen showed stand-out dark comedy Black Pond featuring the excellent line “who eats a banana before going to bed?”
Phantasm creator Don Coscarelli returns with his first film since 2002's Bubba Ho-Tep,
and it's a masterful manifestation of special effects, animation and
humour, all mixed to make a slithering sickly platter of hellfire,
damnation and demon-fuelled trippy aesthetics.
