http://www.spannered.org/film/ Music, art, film and literature from outside the mainstream bubble, a platform for writers. Spread a little mp3 love. en-gb Copyright 2007 Spannered. All Rights Reserved. Thu, 9 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT 240 http://www.spannered.org/images/skins/spannered/RSS.jpg http://www.spannered.org/ http://www.spannered.org/film/1698/ http://www.spannered.org/film/1698/ Two years after completion, Leandro HBL & Wesley Pentz's documentary on the sound of Rio's favelas finally sees a proper release. Greg Scruggs serves up critique and sociological context. Mon, 23 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/film/1270/ http://www.spannered.org/film/1270/ Anton Corbijn's first feature film forges a fittingly bleak yet affecting depiction of the life and career of Joy Division frontman, the late Ian Curtis. Wed, 24 Oct 2007 23:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/film/715/ http://www.spannered.org/film/715/ Another excellent Cinema 16 compilation has hit the shelves. Just think of it as a sanctuary for baby hedgehogs, says Lance Barrington. Sun, 11 Jun 2006 23:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/film/713/ http://www.spannered.org/film/713/ Ash Ghadiali looks at Robert Greenwald's Walmart film and asks just what is Michael Moore's legacy for the art of the documentary. Mon, 15 May 2006 23:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/film/714/ http://www.spannered.org/film/714/ The entrancing story of a musical genius who defies the odds. Mon, 15 May 2006 23:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/film/707/ http://www.spannered.org/film/707/ Comic road movie with an Oscar-worthy central performance that satisfies in a non-conventional kind of a way. Fri, 17 Mar 2006 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/film/706/ http://www.spannered.org/film/706/ Von Trier's newest brings plenty of things to mind. Hegel and Thomas the Tank Engine among others... Tue, 14 Mar 2006 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/film/703/ http://www.spannered.org/film/703/ Dave McKean's delightfully strange animations and mythical beasts brings out the little kid in you. Sat, 11 Mar 2006 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/film/694/ http://www.spannered.org/film/694/ Intelligent, engrossing thriller, but does it give you the fear? Sat, 11 Feb 2006 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/film/670/ http://www.spannered.org/film/670/ From Russia with horror. Nght Watch may contain a lot of mumbo jumbo but get past that and it's great, reckons Lance Barrington. Wed, 05 Oct 2005 23:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/film/669/ http://www.spannered.org/film/669/ Oliver, twisted by the Polish dwarf? Not as much as you might think – it’s a sumptuous family tale with dark undercurrents. Tue, 04 Oct 2005 23:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/film/668/ http://www.spannered.org/film/668/ Van Sant's latest has all the dreamy strengths of his last two films - just don't go and see it if you're a wannabe rock star. Wed, 31 Aug 2005 23:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/film/656/ http://www.spannered.org/film/656/ This indie offering gives a refreshing view of LA life. Thu, 18 Aug 2005 23:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/film/655/ http://www.spannered.org/film/655/ It's a movie, Jim, but not as we know it.... muses Tara P. Nevertheless, this low budget sci-fi flick impresses. Wed, 10 Aug 2005 23:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/film/644/ http://www.spannered.org/film/644/ Origin stories rule, despite some godawful clichés. Wed, 22 Jun 2005 23:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/film/645/ http://www.spannered.org/film/645/ Frank Miller wrote and drew the original sin city comic books and was writer on the classic batman graphic novels, Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One, which were a major influence on the new film Batman Begins. He has recently co-directed a film version of Sin City. Wed, 22 Jun 2005 23:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/film/646/ http://www.spannered.org/film/646/ Henry K bemoans the absence of one of Antonioni’s finest works from a season showing at London's National Film Theatre, and dissects its political importance. Wed, 22 Jun 2005 23:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/film/647/ http://www.spannered.org/film/647/ Comedy set in Franco's Spain about middle-aged gonzo pornsters with a passion for Bergman. Wed, 22 Jun 2005 23:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/film/639/ http://www.spannered.org/film/639/ It appears that barely a month passes without the release of a film that questions the nature of identity and perceptions of reality, however for every Fight Club and Memento there is an Identity or The I Inside. That said there were high hopes that The Jacket would bring a fresh and inventive take on the psychological thriller. Director John Maybury has a long history in British avant-garde cinema, having worked with Derek Jarman, and his only feature approaching the mainstream is 1998's  Love is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon. The Jacket stars Adrian Brody and Keira Knightley, the former having given an Oscar winning turn in The Pianist and the latter finally getting her chance to test her acting credentials. If this were not enough the film is produced by Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney’s Section 8 production company. However it comes as a huge disappointment to have your brain gently prodded rather than vigorously poked. In fact the only revelation – as is usual in these films – is: ‘is it really that easy to write a Hollywood psychological thriller’?Having miraculously survived a bullet to the head during the first Gulf war, Veteran Jack Starks (Brody) intends to return to his native Vermont. On his way home events conspire to see that he is convicted of a crime he may not have committed and is placed in a psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane. Here he is experimented on by Dr Thomas Becker (Kris Kristofferson) who is testing the powers of sensory deprivation. During his time in the jacket, locked in a mortuary drawer, Jack experiences a jump forward in time, from 1992 to 2007, where he meets Keira Knightley’s beautiful but disenfranchised Jackie Price. It is in this timezone that jack discovers the time of his own death and must, with the help of Jackie, attempt to ascertain the reasons why. The first half hour hints towards the film this could have been, as themes are opened up and an ethereal tension pervades every bleached out shot. On an aesthetic level the film works, ostensibly real yet peculiarly unfamiliar. Narrative arcs begin to explore and expose the nature of masculinity and its effects. Male orchestrated violence is juxtaposed with the passive and kind manner of Jack. Firstly in an attempt to show compassion in that most violent of aggressively masculine pursuit, war, a young boy shoots him. Then after helping a mother and her daughter fix their car he is framed by a near neanderthal hilly-billy for the slaying of a traffic cop. Any brutality, whether it be war, torture or murder is enacted exclusively by men. Women, on the other hand, are depicted more positively, from Jennifer Jason Leigh’s good-natured Dr Lorenson to Knightley’s kind but damaged JackieThe slip in Jack’s grip on reality is nicely played out, as the viewer and Jack struggle to locate meaning and reasoning behind his shifts in time. But the film doesn’t work hard enough to convincingly suggest that Jack’s sense of reality may be warped. When he catches the bullet, the film seems to want to hint towards an ambiguity over whether he survived the shooting or not, but this is never realised. Similarly when he is convicted of the shooting it is largely due to his confusion over the events yet flashbacks clearly show he wasn’t involved. The Kafkaesque quality of Jack’s situation is enhanced by the films depiction of the powers that be exert in dictating reality. Jack is found guilty because of his unstable memory rather than any solid evidence, whilst the inmates of the asylum are continually drugged and told they are deluded by the oppressive staff entrusted with their care.It is at this mid-way point that the film begins to head up blind alleys and the time-hopping romance between Jack and Jackie begins to take over. Maybury appears to lose steam, either through fear or boredom, and starts tying up loose ends with obvious and lazy resolutions. For example, Jack confronts Dr Becker in 2007 who tells him that the last time they met Jack reeled off the name of the previous four victims of becker’s experiment. It comes as no surprise that the next scene involves Jack, out of the drawer, reciting the name of these four men. In a similar example of idle scriptwriting Jack reveals to Dr Lorenson in 1992 how she cures one of her patients having being told how in 2007, in the previous scene. These may be plot spoilers but they demonstrate how forced and contrived these elements are – their only purpose appears to be to pad out the plot and service the narrative.The Jacket clearly wants to be a cross between 12 Monkeys and Jacob’s Ladder, but whilst it shares similar themes with other head-scratching thrillers such as Fight Club and Memento, approaching issues of male identity crisis and the fragile nature of reality, it is hamstrung by these plot devices and a pat resolution. Shame, because this promised to be one of the more interesting films of 2005. Thu, 02 Jun 2005 23:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/film/636/ http://www.spannered.org/film/636/ Eye-catching but conventional comic book adaptation that may disappoint. Tue, 31 May 2005 23:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/film/637/ http://www.spannered.org/film/637/ Visceral, effing bizarre, creepy and traumatic... From Chris Cunningham's first short we wouldn't expect anything less. Tue, 31 May 2005 23:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/film/634/ http://www.spannered.org/film/634/ In his fourth feature Solondz returns to his familiar style of politically incorrect and irreverent black humour. The story's set around the young adolescent ‘Aviva’, whose life’s ambition is to have “lots and lots of babies” as soon as possible. The pursuit of this desire rapidly leads her through sodomy, born again Christian Britney-esque dance ensembles, murder and abortion. Solondz  has encouraged us to question how one empathises with Aviva’s plight by using a variety of actresses to play her. These range across a wide spectrum of America from a plump Jewish teenager, a skinny ginger girl, an obese black woman to a thirty-year-old white woman. Palindromes is essentially a love story about the conditions created by desire to obtain a form of unconditional love. For Aviva, though merely a child herself, it seems that this love can only be attained by having her own child, and therefore possessing a love intrinsically hers. However having succeeded in becoming pregnant she is forced by her mother to have an abortion, which leads her to run away. Upon her journey Aviva encounters many people striving for love – some innocently, others deceptively – however what unites all Solondz’s characters is his examination of how far we will go to achieve some form of unconditional love and how perhaps intention and methods can intermingle to the point where deciding what is ‘right’ and for whom is impossible. Is the character of Joe, who Aviva uses to realise her escape, a paedophile, if the child, Aviva, is consenting? is a murder righteous if it  is the death of a ‘murderer’ of the innocent unborn. Is a mother's love unconditional if she has conditions upon her children? As shown by Aviva's mother when she forces her child to have an abortion against her will despite or unaware of the consequences that decision will have on her daughter's life.The theme of love is also a metaphor for how eager we all are to have faith/belief systems, or how we strive for our own verification of self through the love of another. Aviva is taken in by Mama Sunshine and her adopted family of disowned children. The character of Mama Sunshine has love that will extend to all those forsaken and cruelly abandoned by parents unable to love them; children with difficulties, the wrong children. Though Mama Sunshine's love is unconditional in that it crosses gender, race and disabilities it is conditional in that the children must love Jesus. Solondz has cleverly managed to explore how our human desires can create conditions upon love where we are prepared to sacrifice others or perhaps even ourselves  to obtain them. Mama Sunshine's love of children and righteous belief in the sacrosanct nature of human life will extend to murdering the killers of others. Aviva's desire to have someone to love, will drive her to being sodomised, brainwashed and labelled a child whore. Joe in the desire for atonement, love, and forgiveness for his (alluded to) previous sinful life is lead to him finding God and committing murder. Where does the line lie between love and hate, or indeed as solondz so often explores, between tragedy and comedy?Palindromes is a very well observed, mature story. Solondz has managed to represent as many different strands of human fallibility in love as in his previous film Happiness through only one narrative story line. The self reflexive nature of  Solondz’s Storytelling is present but with greater awareness and subtlety. One is aware of Palindromes’ obvious narrative devices; but, instead of using these to comment on representation’s inherent falsity as in Storytelling, he uses films divisiveness to allow him greater artistic freedom to emphasis his themes. Though his use of different actresses to play Aviva is confusing at first, it  does serve quite well to tell a universal story that at least makes an effort to transcend cultural and racial stereotypes within film. In producing a work of more maturity Solondz has lost none of his black humour. By tackling so many issues and themes he could be in danger of  being heavy handed or pretentious, but the diplomacy of his darkest humour shines through. Mon, 09 May 2005 23:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/film/626/ http://www.spannered.org/film/626/ Low budget innovation and narcissism collide in this arresting debut. Sun, 24 Apr 2005 23:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/film/617/ http://www.spannered.org/film/617/ The first German film to be accepted at Cannes for 11 years provides some serious food for revolutionary thought. Sun, 17 Apr 2005 23:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/film/612/ http://www.spannered.org/film/612/ The 'Bear delights in some new, lesser known works from Kurosawa. Wed, 13 Apr 2005 23:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/film/614/ http://www.spannered.org/film/614/ Documentary films with a political bent have enjoyed continued successes over the last year, and in this spirit Musicalbear warmly receives McLibel: Two Worlds Collide by director Franny Armstrong. Originally completed in 1997, the film has been re-released due to recent developments in the extraordinary saga that has been billed as the ‘the biggest corporate PR disaster in history’.Once upon a time a number of members from a group called London Greenpeace were handing out leaflets – ‘what’s wrong with McDonalds’ – making claims about the pernicious nature behind Ronald McDonald’s seemingly benign smile. McDonald's caught wind of these accusations and didn’t like it. As London Greenpeace were an unincorporated organisation, in order for McDonald's to eliminate the leaflet and its distribution, they had to find individuals and names. Small fry for the notoriously litigious McDonald's… or so they thought. Two members of the group – Helen Steel and Dave Morris – refused to back down and apologise. What ensued has entered the annals of the legal world as the longest and protracted civil court case – 314 days spent in court over the course of seven years, Defending the claims made, evidence cited by David and Helen is presented throughout the film. The most chilling aspect of McDonald’s burger empire is the targeting of children in their advertising, and in one surreal moment one of Ronald McDonald’s pesky incarnations visits the very play school that Dave’s son attends. The personal indeed becomes the political. As the court case drags on the burger behemoth realises that things are not so simple, and we hear, courtesy of a secret recording, McDonald’s representatives trying to settle things out of court, in true Hollywood bravado style. With the success of Eric Schlosser’s book Fast Food Nation and Jamie Oliver’s TV show Jamie’s School Dinners, health and politics has become prominent on the menu. McLibel: Two Worlds Collide addresses the concerns of a public with a huge fast-food chain, but it also shows how two people, whose purity of conviction and desire for justice enabled them to take on a corporate Goliath and in it’s own modest little way, the film reminds us of the impact individuals can make. Wed, 13 Apr 2005 23:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/film/611/ http://www.spannered.org/film/611/ Sean Penn is true to form in this interesting historical thriller with contemporary relevance. Mon, 04 Apr 2005 23:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/film/610/ http://www.spannered.org/film/610/ This gripping Second World War tragedy breaks German taboos and portrays Hitler as an all-too-human monster. Mon, 28 Mar 2005 23:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/film/602/ http://www.spannered.org/film/602/ François Ozon takes a backwards look at relationships. Thu, 17 Mar 2005 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/film/601/ http://www.spannered.org/film/601/ Art? Porn? Art porn? Henry K Miller's not so sure if Winterbottom's newest is any of them. Fri, 11 Mar 2005 00:00:00 GMT