I love a good period drama at the best of times and Boardwalk absolutely kills with its sexy and intriguing story saddled along side some brief prohibition history and gangster scenes. This shoot by Vanity fair is a great showcase for the female actresses that, I feel, really make the show.
Completely pointless and disgusting but I love these short films from youtube. Like any internet phenomenon they've literally come out of nowhere on to everyones screen but I actually really like the way they're shot and edited. Plus they're really funny and that girl eating the giant pancake is hot...
Emotionally devastating films, shot as if they're actually documentaries, following these people on the verge of break down. No hero, no real plot, not story. Just emotion and feeling. Are the best genre of film. I've found few films that pull it off accurately but Neil Armfeild, Derek Cianfrance and Sofia Coppola are directors who nail it.
I haven't worn Irregular choice since I had a Myspace account and an Atticus tee but their spring/summer campaign is hot to trot. The entire shoot is made up of Jennifer Mcmanissimply having a good time in a sweet pair of shoes...
On the theme of female directors I have also recently watched Nowhere boy the emotional story of John Lennon's teenage years. Though I'm not sure if entirely accurate, after reading an autobiography written by Lennon's first wife it's hard to imagine some parts of the story, though I do feel Sam Taylor Wood's portal of John as, well, a bit of a twat is probably right on the mark.
You can see that Sam takes her great aesthetic eye as a photographer and really works with it on the mis-en-scene of this film. Above all the soundtrack is fantastic and Anne Marie Duff (Fiona from Shameless) plays a convincing estranged mother to John.
A good friend of mine (http://hanna-price.blogspot.com/) recommended I watch the film Whip It directed by Drew Barrymore and starring Ellen Page, who of course plays a weird indie/rock, funny,awkward teenager.
Though quite predictable, and much like other films of its kind, this was funny and well directed by Mz Barrymore. I think the lack of female directors out there actually doing anything worth watching makes this film stand out from the rest.
I watched Never let me go today because a poster for it caught my eye on the underground. It is written by Alex Garland, a name I know well because of my years spent studying his novel The Beach at A Level. The two are similar in that they both look at natural human emotion, put in to un-natural circumstances. This film is a bleak and tragic look at the idea of cloning. It reminded me of school, in philosophy and ethics when my teacher would talk about how the government were planning to control and clone us all, and then make us watch Hollywood films about it. This film is much more real and shows morals and ethics whilst at the same being mainly about love.
The love that is portrayed between the three main characters, Keira Knightly, Andrew Garfield and Carey Mulligan is typically English, to the point where the combined Queen's English accents of Keira and Carey have made me scared to talk in fear I may start to hate my own voice. Aside from that Andrew's character Tommy is dim and loveable, Keira's cold and bitchy, much like a lot of her roles and Carey's is morally above everybody and very bright, similar to her character Jenny, in An Education.
Sad and thought provoking this is a great English film.
