Up In The Air (15)

Up In The Air stars George Clooney as Ryan Bingham working for an Omaha-based company who specialise in 'Career Transition Councelling'. In other words, he's employed to fire people and travels from state to state giving the bad news to hundreds of people every week. He flies 320 days of the year and on top of having an unhealthy number of frequent flyer miles, has perfected the art of his capsule life; his relationships with his family and friends are non-existent, his 'home' is a flat with little to none of his possessions in and he doesn't even want this to change. When his company hires young chancer Natalie Keener (a great Anna Kendrick last seen in as Jessica in the 'Twilight' films) who wants to revolutionize his perfect life by using the internet to fire people, instead of flying, his life is flipped upside down. The two form an uneasy friendship and by sharing in her life, Bingham begins to see the flaws in his own.

Up In The Air is a film hotly tipped to win a handful of Oscars this year and despite enjoying it I still can't figure out why it is so. It was funny in places, and pretty sad and 'thoughtful' in others but left me with no lasting feeling or emotion. There are some great performances by the actors but I think the original script didn't leave them that much to work with.

Love-A-Fayre @ BWMC

Bethnal Green Working Men's Club was the perfect venue for the plush, sparkly, silky, satiny event that was the Love-A-Fayre on Sunday. Unlike a few of the craft events I'd been to recently this one had dancing, and burlesque dancing at that, which I have to say was a bit of a suprise for a slightly drizzly sunday afternoon. The venue was packed out for the lovely ladies, who ranged from a clown to an indian princess to a regal countess.
As for the shops there were some old favourites like Lady Luck Rules OK and Garudio Studiage, and some new faces (for me) like HeartZeena and Be-Bop-A-Lula. I finally bought the bicycle necklace that I'd been swooning over for ages and some vintage threads from Supermarket Sarah. It was a great way to spend the afternoon, and I hope the WMC do another one very soon!

TWIG (42)

Peter Sandbichler
Pace (2003)

Nowhere Boy (15)

Now I'm not sure whether this film was good because of Sam Taylor-Wood's directing, Aaron Johnson's performance, or the excellent screenplay by Matt Greenhalgh. Whatever it was, it was thorougly engaging and poignant, and really impressed me.

The film is a chronicle of John Lennons childhood in a dull, depressing post-war Liverpool. Lennon lives with Mimi (the excuriatingly good Kristin Scott Thomas) his tightly strung aunt who has raised him fom the age of 5. He spends his days rebelling against her and against the formal education he must abide by. It's not until he reconnects with his mother-Julia who is spirited, fun and most importantly musical, he starts realising what his life could really be like. He escapes into music and performances with an ever-changing line up of fellow friends and musicians. Whilst his mother and his aunt fight over him, he fights with himself and the truth that is yearning to come out.
The film's tone was excellent, casting and acting superb, and costumes spot on. I was glued to the screen throughout, not wanting to miss a bit and would gladly return to the cinema to see it again. Top marks.

TWIG (41)

Stephanie Syjuco
Unsolicited Fabrications: Shareware Sculptures (2009)

some strange shapes

Nine (12A)

Nine - the film with, annoyingly, eight stars in it. In fact, a line-up to die for including Penelope Cruz, Sophia Loren and Judi Dench. The latter drew me to the film itself, a chance to see Ms. Dench glamming it up was an opportunity not to be missed!
The film tells the story of Guido Contini (played by a dodgy Italian sounding Daniel Day-Lewis) who is a film director loved and adored by the people of Italy. He is in the midst of a mid-life and mid-career crisis; his new film is going to be shot in 10 days and he hasn't started the script, his wife is unhappy, his mistress too demanding and his muse, well, being a muse. The film flits dramatically from fantasy to reality with the many women in his life performing raunchy, provocative numbers whilst including 'flashbacks' of Contini's difficult childhood.
The musical elements were probably what saved this film in my opinion, they were over the top, glamorous and totally extravagant - exactly what you expect from 'the director of Chicago' Rob Marshall. Unfortunately the storyline is weak, predictable and sometimes led to quite awkward viewing. As there are so many female leads it's hard to form a relationship with any character, apart from perhaps with Contini's wife, the wonderful Marion Cotillard who was criminally under-used.


N.B. The film is called Nine for two reasons; Guido Contini has had 9 top films up to the one he is about to write and throughout the film there are black and white flashbacks to when he is nine years old.

'tis the season to be thankful

Here are my thankyou letters for this year, they are felt tip, biro and typewriter on paper. Sent out this week so if you're expecting one, expect it soon.

The Cove (15)

This documentary film, focuses on the barbaric killing of dolphins in Japan, the knock-on effects, and how the man who gave the world Flipper,Ric O'Barry is now determined to undo what he started.
In Taiji every year over 23,000 dolphins are slaughtered. Fishermen capture panicked dolphins by using walls of intrusive sound and herding them into a bay. It's here that dolphin-trainers come from all around Japan to capture the healthiest looking specimens to take back to their water parks. The others are moved to the Cove, brutually slaughtered and sold on for meat. This meat in turn is reconstituted into other meat, and ignoring the fact that dolphin meat has a dangerously high mercury content, sold on throughout Japan. This meat was responsible for many pregnant ladies damaging their unborn children in Minamata Bay.
O'Barry hand picked a team of film makers, free-divers, technical guys and assistants to catch out the men who are responsible for these actions. The film follows them, their plans to hide high-definition camera in the rocks of the bay and the eventual uncovering of Japan's secret at the International Whale Meeting. Mainly constructed with one-on-one interviews with various prominant figures in the uncovering attept and in the wider world of anti-animal cruelty, the film's fast, exciting pace is utterly compelling and the style lends itself well to revealing the truth. It's as if everything has a direct, knock on, even more devasting effect, and by the end of the film I couldn't make any sense of why this monstorous act occurs.
It's a powerful piece of film-making that, if seen by enough people could actually make a great deal of good and actually make a difference.
Go to http://www.takepart.com/thecove for more details.

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus (15)

Set partly in dingy London wastelands and partly inside of the mind of immortal Dr. Parnassus, Terry Gillingham's film was never meant to be easy to paraphrase into a review. Add to that the untimely death of one of the lead characters and the addition of waif-like model Lily Cole it is indeed a strange, surreal experience.

Having made a deal with the devil thousands of years ago, poor old Dr. Parnassus is down his luck, nobody wants to listen to his stories, no matter how much his assistant Anton or daughter Valentina bat their eyelids and jump about encouragingly. One night, as they are travelling around London in their theatre-come-caravan-come-carriage, they come across a man who's been hung upside down Blackfriars Bridge. This man turns out to be Tony (Heath Ledger) who begins to help them turn their luck around, much to the dismay of Anton who no longer has any attention from young Valentina (Cole).
Meanwhile, old 'Parn' has struck another deal with the devil, to stop him collecting on yet another deal from long ago (when Valentina was 16 she was to become his). The group take on the challenge and thanks to some dubious re-branding (courtesy of Tony) start off successfully, thrilling middle-aged ladies by entering into Parnassus's mind and revealing their fantasies! It is only when Tony meets some people from his past they begin to question where he came from, who he is and why exactly was he hanging from a bridge.
The sets and costumes are lavish and magical, the surreal, dream-like quality of the fantasies inside Dr.Parnassus mind incredible, and the transformation within these of Tony from Heath Ledger, to Johnny Depp, to Jude Law and to Colin Farrell-genius. Lily Cole ain't half bad either, her exquisite doll like feature enhance this other-worldly fantasy, it's as if she too comes from a completely different land.
Sometimes the film was convoluted, hard to follow and down right silly but I believe with many of these type of films, that is exactly the point, and you just have to go with it. Unfortunately I found the ending weak and cheesy which let this film which otherwise would've been thoroughly impressive down.

Guest Projects Christmas Market

TURNHURST have some work at Guest Projects Christmas Market this year. All works cost under £500, so get yourself down there to pick up a bargain!

Frieze Zine!

It can't have escaped many that it was Frieze week last week and at the same time as selling subscriptions, going to Czech film-screenings, fair openings, talks and the like, I made this prototype for a zine. Keeping to the same alphabet format as the last one, the challenge for this one was to write 10 words about 24 galleries (abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvqxyz). Only a few of the galleries are British so it makes for some interesting reading!



It is strange how many words keep on popping up. I might make a graph with some of the more popular ones, akin to the graphs and pie-charts they have for the power 100 in this months Art Review. Just need to find somewhere in East London that prints a3, double-sided, black and white and then they can be distributed!