Bright Star (film review)

This bitter-sweet, tender dramatisation of the love affair between English poet John Keats and the girl next door, Fanny Brawne, is exquisitely directed, written, photographed and acted. The two main leads, Abbie Cornish and Ben Wishaw, are particularly impressive and have great chemistry together, with many tender and beautifully captured love scenes between them. I say 'love scenes' and not 'sex scenes', but despite the lack of the latter Bright Star is brimming with sexuality. It's a bit like Pride And Prejudice in that respect. It also pulls no punches in depicting the hardships of early 19th century Britain; from the poverty and limited healthcare, to a women's lot to marry a rich husband out of necessity. Despite these circumstances, the love story within Bright Star has a very authentic feel to it, played out with lovely naturalism. A poignant, moving and affecting film that captures both the happiness and the pain that love can inspire. 8/10

The Family (film review)

With one or two exceptions, most notably Silver Linings Playbook, Robert de Niro's output has been far from admirable in the past ten or so years. Maybe he has been resting too much on his laurels. The Family fares no better. Resorting to crude stereotypes of Italian Americans and the French, this Luc Besson dark comedy focuses on an American family trying, unsuccessfully, to fit into French life after they enter an FBI witness protection programme. The script, by Besson, lacks subtlety, sharpness or flavour. The portrayal of the French are annoying assholes and Italian Americans as volatile and violent sociopaths provides very few, if any, laughs. A lot of the scenes just feel pointless and rather empty. For example, Michelle Pfeiffer's character visits a Catholic church and goes to confession at the request of the priest. She returns later to the church and the priest tells her to get out because her confession disturbed him so deeply. Why did Besson include this in the film? It adds nothing to the plot or themes of the film, and it is not funny. Maybe Besson just has a chip on his shoulder towards the Catholic Church. This sort of sloppy writing and direction is typical of The Family. Best to avoid. 4/10

To be or not to be: why I am voting Yes for Scottish independence

I have been a 'yes' voter from pretty much the start of the referendum campaign. My response to those in favour of staying British has been mixed; on one hand I can understand their anxiety and doubts, there are very reasonable questions that need to be answered, but on the other hand I just don't understand why some Scottish people don't want to have their future in their own hands and govern themselves. If we do go independent there will indeed be problems and obstacles to overcome, but I think we are smarter and more capable than we give ourselves credit for and that we can work out these problems, whatever they may be. It will be a time of adjustment and uncertainty, but that is inevitable and nothing to be afraid of. One of the main reasons I want Scottish independence is that the Scots did not vote in the current Tory government, who I particularly dislike. I find them patronising and out of touch with the ordinary man in the street. The south of England voted in the Tories and it is the south of England who will therefore get number one treatment from the Tories. The Tories boast that there has been economic recovery in Britain. That is only a half truth; to be more accurate there has been economic recovery in the south of England, not Britain as a whole. If we have an Edinburgh government then that government will only have Scottish matters to contend with and can give their 100% attention on the people that voted them into power. Another major reason for leaving the UK is the state of the NHS down south, which by all accounts is in a terrible state. In the Glasgow Herald newspaper there has been many letters sent in by doctors and nurses who are very concerned that the NHS in Scotland will get dragged down with the NHS in England. Also, if we go independent then getting rid of Trident will save the Scottish economy in the region of £350 million a year, money that can be reinvested into education, the NHS, etc. Westminster dumped Trident on us, as no other city or town in England wanted a nuclear arms base on its doorstep. Trident is only about 30 miles from Glasgow and Edinburgh. Finally, when Prime Minister David Cameron agreed to a Scottish referendum he did not allow a third option, which was 'yes, to be come independent over a gradual period of time'. I think he did this because he knew that if the Scottish people were given this option they would have gone for it. Cameron should not have denied us this alternative. The devolved Scottish government should have had the final say on how the Scottish people were to vote. So, these are some of the reasons why I am voting yes this Thursday. It is also just a gut reaction, a feeling that it is natural to want to govern ourselves and that we are good and clever enough to do it. Go for it Scotland.  

Lucy (film review)

Lucy is much more than Scarlett Johansson defeating foes and overcoming obstacles in a sexy and cool way, although she does this very well and is a significant proportion of the film's success and enjoyment. Luc Besson writes and directs a film along the lines of Limitless but of course gives it his own rather far fetched twist; a drug is developed that allows human beings to access more of their brains capacity, currently assumed by the medical profession to be about only 10%. Scarlett Johansson's character Lucy accidentally absorbs a large quantity of this drug and as her brain capacity soon rapidly increases, so does her ability to retain and process information at a staggering rate and even control and manipulate certain external objects. The second part of that sentence, about controlling external objects, is indeed very far fetched and probably subject to scientific ridicule. But Besson has such fun with the themes and visuals that he almost gets away with it. I say almost, as the last twenty minutes of the film is way over the top and doesn't really make any sense. Morgan Freeman's character is very interesting. He plays a professor and scientist who is an expert in the human brain, and is soon contacted by Lucy with the hope of not only making sense of what she is experiencing but also to save her life. I obviously won't tell you what happens at the end but the underlying philosophy is a largely secular one; that we are merely a highly sophisticated collection of cells and that our main purpose in life is to pass on our genetics and knowledge to the next generation of human beings. That aside, it is a thought provoking and largely enjoyable film with an excellent performance by Johansson. 7/10      

John Lloyd, Jack Dee and Mark Nelson at the Edinburgh Festival

       

The weather at the bus stop in Glasgow was sunny and bright, so the omens looked good. But as Alan, Tony and I headed east on the bus the grey clouds rolled in and ruminated over Edinburgh for the rest of the day. Rain threatened but never really materialised, a welcome reprieve. Our first show was John Lloyd's Museum of Curiosity at the Cowbarn, Underbelly's Bristo Square. We smuggled our pints of Strongbow into the Cowbarn, even though it is legal to drink in the streets of Edinburgh and were not in any danger of being thrown into a police car. As we took out seats we read various interesting facts from a screen at the back of the stage. The only one I can remember is that J.D Salinger carried the first six chapters of Catcher In The Rye in his backpack as he stormed Utah Beach on D Day. John Lloyd is a British writer, presenter and producer, best know for being involved in such shows as Blackadder, Not The Nine O'Clock, Spitting Image and QI. He is currently presenter of The Museum Of Curiosity on BBC Radio 4, where guests (usually an author, an academic and a comedian) are invited to donate an object that fascinates them into the virtual museum. The four guests at our live show were comedian Jimeon, academic Simon Singh, another comedian called Tim, although his surname escapes me, and a youngish guy called Dan who works on the radio show. I had seen Jimeon advertised about Edinburgh during the Festival but had never experience his comedy before. This Irish/Australian was probably the least interesting and funny of the quartet. Tim was interesting but not particularly funny. He donated a paper canoe to the museum, as he had sailed one 60 miles up the Thames, setting some kind of record. Dan chipped in now and again but I don't think that he donated an item. Simon Singh, the academic, proved to be the most interesting of the lot. I can't remember what he actually donated, but he talked about the enigma machine and codebreaking at Bletchley Park and then about the link between mathematics and The Simpsons, the popular cartoon show. I could quite happily have listened to Singh for the full hour, he was very interesting, articulate and insightful. So a good start to the day. After another pint we headed to Assembly George Square St for Jack Dee's Help Desk. Leaflets were handed out before the show and audience members wrote down problems that they were having, the idea being the Jack and his panel of guests could help to solve some of the problems. The panel consisted of unknown comedians, some funnier than others, but Jack's quick wit kept the laughs coming. The audience members participated well, especially some guy who, I hope in jest, wanted to save money by installing a shute for his elderly mother instead of an expensive chair lift. Laughter works up quite an appetite so after a huge KFC dinner we were refuelled and ready for the next show, which was comedian Mark Nelson at the Gilded Balloon Teviot. We had seen Mark perform a few years before, so we knew what to expect; a funny and lighter version of Frankie Boyle. Nelson's show was called Please Think Responsibly and most of his material was garnered from being a husband and father. It was a solid set, and Mark can be genuinely very funny, but I was a bit put off by his crudity and bad language. 90% of it was unnecessary. It left a slightly sour taste in my mouth, so I was glad to have another pint in the Gilded Balloon and ruminate with Tony and Alan over the successes and failures of the Festival. Today had probably been my most enjoyable outing of this years festival. My favourite: Tim Vine. Biggest disappointment: Animal Farm (mainly because it was in a foreign language and the subtitles were out of synch). Surprise package: either Mitch Benn or John Lloyd. Another good year. Plenty of laughter, interesting conversations and pretty girls.

Paul Merton and Whose Live Show Is It Anyway? at the Edinburgh Festival

Alan and Hannah had gone through to Edinburgh earlier in the day to watch a musical about sex trafficking, so Tony and I followed on a few hours later. The plan was to meet at the Pleasance Courtyard for Paul Merton's Impro Chums, a show we had seen a few years ago and we were therefore confident of another fun packed hour of improvisation. The Grand was packed to the rafters, testimony to Merton's popularity as a performer and comedian. His chums included Greg Proops (Tony and I exchanged anxious glances as he bounded on-stage), Mike McShane and a few others whose names now escape me. Proops proved to be a much better improviser than stand up comedian. He was as witty and sharp as the rest. But Merton was probably the funniest of the lot, outshining his chums. Some sketches worked better than others, and if they were not laugh out loud funny they were at least amusing and we could admire the performer's quickness of thought. Afterwards we went somewhere for a pleasant pint and then a bit of dinner at the Assembly Courtyard. As I chomped on my gluten free chicken burger the rain started to come down and for the rest of the day the weather would prove to be as mercurial as Paul Merton's wit. And I mean that as a compliment to Paul. Our next show was Nina Conti at the Assembly Roxy, a venue which was new to us all. It turned out to be an attractive church which is now used as a theatre. But maybe a modern venue would have been better and more immune to the rain lashing down. When we arrived we discovered that The Roxy had suffered a power failure, possibly due to the weather and the old wiring circuits within the restored 19th century church but we will never know. We sheltered from the wind and rain for about half an hour, using Tony as a human shield, but eventually abandoned ship and headed for the luxury of a bar and the necessity of a few pints. It was disappointing to miss the Nina Conti show, she's a very talented and funny ventriloquist, but there was nothing that could be done. Such is life. So instead we sat in the aptly named Rascals bar for a couple of hours nursing pints of cider and chatting amiably. We braved the wind and rain once more and charged to the McEwan Hall in Underbelly's Bristo Square, another new venue for us. Back in the 1990's there was a popular British television show called Whose Line Is It Anyway?. It was basically the same idea as Paul Merton's impro chums and this year they had reformed for a festival run. Clive Anderson was host, Philip Pope was on keyboards for any sketches that required music, and the performers were Phil Jupitus, Stephen Frost, Greg Proops (again) and Richard Vranch (again from Improv Chums and I am conscious that I have probably misspelt his name). The show was in memory of the great Robin Williams, who had tragically died a few days earlier, and I thought this was a nice touch and indeed it got a warm round of applause. The show was certainly as good as Impro Chums, despite the overlap of performers and sketch ideas. The audience lapped it up and I can imagine that Whose Live Show Is It Anyway? will be sold out for the remainder of the festival. We headed home after this show, catching the 10.30 pm bus and thus avoiding any drunken idiots. Not my favourite festival day but that is not to say I didn't enjoy it. Oh, for the darling buds of May, and not the cold rain of August.

 
                                                           Host Clive Anderson

Tim Vine, Animal Farm and Mitch Benn at the Edinburgh Festival

                                                                      Mitch Benn

The weather in the week leading up to our first day at the festival was actually pretty decent but on the allotted day it was peeing down with rain. But this was not going to stop us from having fun. First up was a theatre production of George Orwell's classic Animal Farm at the Assembly George Square. I was curious about this, having recently read the book for the first time. The play started with a voice over in what sounded like Russian but with a screen above the stage providing English subtitles. Initially I thought that this was just a reference to the Russian revolution, which Animal Farm partly satirises, but the cast came on stage and started speaking in the same language. This had not been mentioned in the Fringe book. Furthermore, the lines spoken by the cast and the subtitles on the screen were out of synch, so it was difficult to know exactly who was speaking. It took me about 15 minutes to adjust to this, but after that I quite enjoyed the show. The acting was of a decent quality, the stage props and set design were quite clever and much thought had been given to the screenplay. So it was a good production, just not what we had expected. (The cast were actually from Georgia, not Russia, but we only found this out later) After Animal Farm we had a good wait until out next show, so we (Tony, Alan, Hannah and I) had a bit of lunch and a pint while trying to evade the lashing rain. Mitch Benn was next. I was unfamiliar with his work but according to Alan he was a contributor to Radio Four's topical The Now Show. I have listened to it a few times and found it funny and interesting so I had fairly high hopes for Benn. We crossed to the New Town and settled into our seats at The Stand Comedy Club. Benn's show was called Don't Believe A Word and was a humorous foray into astrology, homeopathy, and, somewhat predictably, religion. Basically things that you can be sceptical about. I was waiting for a big religious bashing rant but it never quite amounted to that, thank goodness. Not so much because I am a practising Catholic but I just want to be entertained and not have an atheist push his own agenda. Benn did a bit of agenda pushing but he was not too bad. I disagreed with some of his points of view but wasn't offended at any point. He was more irreverent than offensive. But was he funny? At times yes, so it was a decent show. After Benn we had an early dinner at Conan Doyle's pub and then made our way back to the Old Town, this time hiring a hackney to shelter us from the rain. Tim Vine was our final show of the day. The king of corny but clever one liners and general silliness. We nursed an agreeable pint under the shelter of cover and then queued up for the show, a long queue which did not surprise me. He's a sell out performer. Alan and I had seen him live a couple of years ago and had enjoyed his set immensely, so we knew that we were in for a good show. And indeed we were not disappointed. Corny but very funny. And not one swear word or crude joke. We had a drink at the Waverley Pub, kitsch and fun, and then headed back to Glasgow for one last pint. So, overall a successful start to the Festival. Just hope that the weather is kinder to us next time.

                                                                          Tim Vine