Film Review: Only God Forgives

A violent and hypnotic world created by a director willing to push the envelope and challenge modern mainstream audiences and studios.

In 2011 Nicolas Winding Refn wowed audiences with his portrayal of a neon 80’s saturated Los Angeles underworld in his film Drive. Ever since, people have been anticipating a follow up that matched its intensity and mood, not to mention its cool factor. Winding Refn’s latest will challenge cinema goers just as much as his previous films have. It is by far the most experimental and creative film to get a wide release this year and most certainly matches its predecessors intensity but its ability to capture the imagination of the multiplex audience will be tested.

In Only God Forgives Winding Refn replaces the streets of Los Angeles with the gritty and raw streets of Bangkok. Shot by Larry Smith of Eyes Wide Shut fame, Winding Refn’s vision of Bangkok is a dark, dirty and menacing landscape. Filmed almost entirely at night Only God Forgives is a mesmerising painting of brooding, threatening colours and a neon boiling pot threatening to burst at any moment. Gosling, supporting a similarly stone faced character to that of his Drive counterpart plays a rather complex and engaging Julian, an expat running a Muay Thai gym with links to Bangkok’s criminal underworld. After Julian’s brother is murdered by corrupt police his bleach blonde, quite terrifying mother played by a scene stealing Kristin Scott Thomas arrives to charge Julian to find and kill his brothers murderer and those involved. A sequence of events that finds Julian then pitted against the equally frightening Chang (Vithaya Pansringarm) a senior policeman who is a constant ominous fixture throughout the film. Slow moving, methodical and menacing Chang sets the tone for the film as a whole.

Chang and Julian are interesting adversaries as Winding Refn challenges our ideas of good, bad, violence and the human psyche. Throughout Only God Forgives it’s hard to know who to root for as roles are never clearly defined and no one is overly likeable. Equally interesting are Gosling and Pansringarm, both hardly speak throughout the film but have an undeniable presence even when off the screen. Both ooze menace and violence and when coupled with the incredibly tense atmosphere provided by Winding Refn and Smith make for an explosive showdown between the two that threatens to overflow the screen. A scene that is masterfully built up and then revealed with precision and will no doubt become a cult classic for some.

There is a lot of slow walking, slow talking and slow panning in Only God Forgives that will irritate some and amaze others. Each frame is painstakingly precise into building up Winding Refn’s mood and makes for a visually stunning experience. Winding Refn asks his audience to join the dots with his hardly there plot and instead prefers to flood the viewers eyes with stylistic and mesmerising shot after shot. Here we have a director proving himself to be one of the hottest commodities in film pushing boundaries and creating art on the screen amongst brutal flashes of violence. And while some may be lost to the style over substance approach others will revel in the unique filmmaking bleeding into mainstream cinemas, if not just for the cultish cool factor.

Verdict: See this

If you didn’t like the neon lit criminal underworld of Los Angeles and Gosling’s wooden anti hero from Drive you probably won’t like the neon lit criminal underworld of Bangkok and Gosling’s wooden anti hero in Only God Forgives. However, here we have a beautifully shot fully realised violent and hypnotic world created by a director willing to push the envelope and challenge modern mainstream audiences and studios.

ONLY GOD FORGIVES
Directed by: Nicolas Winding Refn
Written by: Nicolas Winding Refn
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Kristin Scott Thomas
Released by: The Weinstein Company

Film Review: The World’s End

The third installment of Edgar Wright’s fabled Three Flavors Cornetto Trilogy is set to hit Australian theatres this Thursday August 1st, and it’s awesome. Aptly titled The World’s End (in more ways than one), the film completes the trilogy of comedy films directed by Edgar Wright, written by Wright and Simon Pegg, and starring Pegg and Nick Frost, which included Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.

The story centers around five friends who are reunited after 20 years to compete a pub-crawl across their hometown of Newton Haven. Brought together at the urging of one of the old friends Gary King, the once fateful leader who chose never to move past his 20’s or out of the old town, the group reluctantly embarks on to what turns into a fight to save the world.

It is a much bigger film than the last two and goes to show that given to the right people a bigger budget can go a long way, with a budget almost 5 times that of Shaun of the Dead they didn’t waste it, the effects are fantastic. In terms of direction, Wright just keeps getting better and better. His shot composition is spot on throughout and the pace at which the action is set up and played out is phenomenal. The action sequences involving Gary (Pegg) trying to have his pint are spectacular, and when Andy (Frost) snaps and turns on all the “Blanks” like a rugby player I couldn’t help but think of the words from his character in Paul; ”it’s not fat, it’s power”.

There are lots of little clues placed throughout the film leaning to plot outline as well as the continuation of imagery and scene setup that fans of the trilogy will surely appreciate and admire. There is almost a beat to it. The dialogue is very funny and at times quite silly, however I never found it to be predictable, which is refreshing in its self but a skill that Wright and Pegg own.

The film has it all; a desperate man trying to hold onto the past, a story of unrequited love, quarrels among old friends, the fight for freedom, personal realisation, a pub crawl and lightbulb-faced aliens. What’s not to love?

Get out there and watch it, well worth the big screen dollars, and you come home knowing that you are supporting some very talented and funny people who will surely continue to entertain us in the future.

THE WORLD’S END
Directed by: Edgar Wright
Written by: Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg
Cast: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Martin Freeman, Rosamund Pike
Released by: Working Title Films / Universal Pictures

Robin Thicke – Blurred Lines

There’s been few part-time vocalists slash full-time chauvinists who can hold a torch to Justin Timberlake ever since JT showed everyone how to do smut all classy-like back in ’06. Even when they possess superior chops and more street cred they languish for a single and a half and quickly disappear. Charm is the name of the game and JT’s ability to win friends and influence panties is a finely tuned mechanism.

Even the subject of this piece, a Neptunes pet project, never elevated himself too far from Pharrell’s considerable lap. The issue was really the tunes. Robin Thicke has charm aplenty and teems with style: throwing his arms akimbo in the three piece suit while those baby blue opalescents blink all innocently at you. It was simply too bad the songs stunk.

But alas, opening with that song from the video we’ve all seen – a simply excellent pop song, which for a while was a challenge Thicke had not yet tackled – he follows through with flare. Second track, “Take It Easy On Me”, is better than anything on The 20/20 Experience—an album I reviewed back when it came out and found to be an Everest-sized molehill. I hacked at that bitch every which way and couldn’t find even an ember with which to light my crotch-fire. The aforementioned Thicke track is a sublime dirty talk session, replete with crystally synths and an elegant hook just begging for a club mix.

Front-loading the album with the two obvious singles, the ensuing tracks “Ooo La La”, “Ain’t No Hat 4 That”and “Get In My Way” work seamlessly through a very crisply and stylishly-produced lattice of disco, funk, R&B and electro infused with Latin and Caribbean influences. They’re fresh and danceable, though they can come off a little stiff at times. Thicke would have been better advised to stick with the heavier nightclub direction “Take It Easy On Me” was going.

Damn hard worker/verse-whore Kendrick Lamar drops a few bars on “Give It 2 U” and quickly sums up the album’s primary trope: “You’re like a needle in a haystack / Uh, I wanna sit you where my face at.” Euro-lounge number “Feel Good” is heavy on the cheese but is saved by a skilful hook and some creamy vocals. Closing track “The Good Life” regresses back to Thicke’s days on the adult-contemporary charts and makes for a wan end to what is otherwise a highly satisfying album.

It’s also a dirty piece of work, launching metaphors like great phallic rockets with every second line. But if you ask Thicke, he’ll just tell you his wife’s cool with it. And honestly, the fact that he’s married is part of what makes this album kind of subversive. Thicke introduced himself to the world with a banal adult-contemporary single some years back. The single, despite possessing the much-coveted Neptunes stamp, remained a languid and uninspired piece of boss nova schlock. Had Thicke’s career remained on that trajectory, Blurred Lines would have been his mid-life crisis album.

Instead, to hear the man say it: “the last year, my wife and I just really wanted to have fun again, we wanted to be young again and we wanted to dance again and go out with our friends, so I wanted to make music that reflected that culture.” Okay, so perhaps it is a mid-life crisis album, but it’s one where Thicke and the object of his lust and adolescent metaphors is also his partner. They walk hand-in-hand through the smut, hallucinogenics and general indulgences of this album, which is the sexiest thing about it.

The constant references to his schlong get tired and his skill with innuendo can be clumsy and obvious, but overall Thicke is never boring. The instrumentals are tailor-made for both Thicke’s silky falsetto and his crooning mid-range and the bountiful hooks act as an indulgence all their own. Blurred Lines is also Thicke’s most consistent effort yet, and that’s progress in anyone’s book.

(Star Trak / Interscope Records)

Jackson Scott – Melbourne

What is this shit? Has indie music become so calculated and cerebral it’s disappeared up it’s own ass? Is indie in 2013 the equivalent of the same pretentious cerebral bullshit that prog was in 1973?

The phrase “there’s nothing original anymore” may be oft overused in today’s modern pop landscape, particularly when used to describe guitar-based rock, but it should not be used as a counterpoint to pass off any old wank in the name of “art”. Hipsters will get behind this album, but believe, me as much as the new Vampire Weekend, you’ll have forgotten about this record by summer, returning to older, richer, more tuneful albums that, even while wallowing in their own self-pity (which Jackson Scott seems to revel in doing), provide you with a deeper emotional sustenance rather than pure annoyance.

I’d comment on the songs if there were any. They’re mere sketches and doodles, reference points to undeveloped ideas, ideas that could have actually given way to potentially good-great songs if Scott actually could focus his attention long enough. His cloying kid-like voice may or may not be hiding behind a various number of treatments, but he sounds like Alvin from the Chipmunks on acid. And while there’s a perverse enjoyment in this initially, it wears quicker than paint thinner. By the time Melbourne gets around to the shoe-gazey snorefest that is “Together Forever”, you’re truly hoping that the song doesn’t prove prophetic.

There’s a great ringing guitar solo that rises above the din of the almost Weezer-esque “That Awful Sound”, but it’s tuneful respite is all too brief. Some of the sunnier acoustic numbers, namely “In The Sun” have a certain narcotic charm that is reminiscent of Kurt Cobain covering Syd Barrett. Yes, on paper, that sounds amazing, but Scott’s inscrutable lyrics and mumbly vocals keep the listener so far at arms length, it’s like he’s defying anyone to even listen to him.

Some people may be down for that, proclaiming it “frightfully modern” and “the point”; I call these people “wankers”. While delivering an album of snippet-demo-like-songs can be done successfully (hell, Guided By Voices made a career out of it), Jackson Scott’s Melbourne does so in attempt to hide its desperately self-conscious grabs at being “arty” and “weird”. It’s antagonism is transparently calculated and entirely boring. Scott may be an interesting artist to watch emerge, but currently his biggest fan could only be himself. 

(Fat Possum Records)

Kevin Rudd’s open-ended boat policy

With the election just a few weeks away, it was just a matter of time before Kevin Rudd came out making a statement to boost his election prospects and boy, did he come out with a bang?

The Prime Minister has announced a landmark reform to the asylum seeker policy wherein every asylum seeker who arrives in Australia by boat will be sent to Papua New Guinea henceforth. Additionally, anyone deemed to be on genuine refugee status with valid documents will then be settled in PNG and not Australia anymore. He has also stated that the government is on the look-out for another country to send asylum seekers to.

“From now on, any asylum seeker who arrives in Australia by boat will have no chance of being settled in Australia as refugees. Asylum seekers taken to Christmas Island will be sent to Manus and elsewhere in PNG for assessment of their refugee status, if they are found to be genuine refugees they will be resettled in PNG”, said the PM. He further added, “I understand this is a hardline decision but our responsibility as a government is to ensure a robust system of border security and orderly migration on one hand as well as fulfilling our legal and compassionate obligations under the refugee convention on the other. Australians have had enough of seeing people drowning in the waters. Our country has had enough of people smugglers exploiting asylum seekers, seeing them drown in the high seas”.

Rudd is of the belief that this will discourage asylum seekers from making the dangerous journey to Australia by boat. As part of the agreement with PNG, the Manus Island Detention Centre is expected to undergo further expansion and revamp.

Well, it looks like Rudd has struck gold with this policy and that he would win the election hands down but this plan does have its share of ambiguity.

Australia will have to channel funds for university reforms in PNG, the development of a hospital, law & order initiatives as well as handling all resettlement costs for refugees. These expenses are predicted to run in billions and to make matters worse, the Manus Island detention centre is near its full capacity. Let’s not forget that as of today, there have been 15,610 boat arrivals in 2013 alone which places further stress on the budget.

Now, what do we know about PNG? According to Australia’s Foreign Affairs Department, travelers heading to PNG are constantly reminded of increasing cases of robbery, violence against women and the department advises people to move around in a group at night. So, in a nutshell, PNG is deemed unsafe even though it’s a country with lots of potential.

Coming back to the policy, most Australians have been vocal about their displeasure towards the escalating numbers of refugees entering the nation every year and while this new policy looks a winner, one must admit that it would not discourage people from risking their lives making the hazardous boat trip. Let’s not forget that this agreement with PNG is only for a year and by the end of 2014 we would know whether this policy has worked for Australia. However, there are no answers to questions such as where the money is going to come from, what happens when the detention centres reach full capacity? Will Australia have to organize funding for the ‘other’ place as well? Is this a move by Rudd to lure votes in the upcoming election and a mere political game?

LISTEN: Jimmy Hawk’s Yana Homme

I’ve seen Melbourne singer/songwriter Jimmy Hawk on two occasions. The first, backed by an electric band The Endless Party, jamming through some fuzzed out stellar rock n roll. The second, a more subdued duo outing filled with experimental electronic soundscapes and guitar-strewn pop. His latest work falls somewhere between the two. “Yana Homme” is beautiful lo-fi folk and is a great example of Hawk’s musical dexterity and vast range.

Perfect for wisftul introspection and quiet afternoons, the new single is out now on his own First Love Records. Check out the single above and watch the music video below, which was created by comic book artist Ben Montero.

The Fall of Ryan Braun

I’ve been watching Ken Burns’ Baseball documentary again, where in the supplementary Tenth Inning, a great deal of time is dedicated to Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire’s home run chase of 1998. It was swing and after beautiful swing, every crack of the bat, and the long soaring flight of all the balls as they sailed out into the crowd, into the decks, and into oblivion, one after another. It was such a beautiful time in baseball. Reeling after the crippling strike of 1994, the home run chase proved to be the perfect elixir to the greed doldrums, and both Sosa and McGwire became icons of the sport for not only enthralling a nation mired in a Presidential scandal, but one that was looking for solace in its old pastime.

“Innocence is beautiful” says Pedro Martinez as he flashes a smile. There is a glint in his eye as he talks about his countryman Sosa, yet he knows that time and history will not look back on Sosa’s accomplishments with the kind of love and fervour America and the world showed him and McGwire as they chased, and ultimately, smashed Roger Maris’ record. But for that moment, for that year, as the world looked in on every at-bat, it was one of the greatest races in sports.

“Innocence is beautiful” -Pedro Martinez, talking about 1998 in the documentary ‘Baseball’.

Innocence however, hasn’t been beautiful for Ryan Braun. Now suspended for the remainder of the 2013 season for violating the MLB’s “Basic Agreement and Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program”, the much promised and talented Milwaukee Brewers star will live for the rest of his career under the same cloudy murk McGwire and Sosa live under thanks to this disgraceful Biogenesis debacle. His long stubborn stance proclaiming innocence looks ridiculous in hindsight, and his vehement protest against the process in which the 2012 drug test progressed is both awkward and rather ridiculous (even dragging Packers QB Aaron Rodgers into the mess as he stood up for his friend). It seethed of arrogance, and now with hat in hand, much of his words are neither entirely apologetic and/or filled with accountability. It’s a new kind of “what you do when you get caught”.

Perhaps this wasn’t too unexpected, but there was still a part of me, as a Brewers fan and as a fan of the game of baseball, that players in this day and age would have learned some, any, lessons. Or at the very least, have been collectively savvy enough to avoid the potential pitfalls of strip mall prescriptions. Maybe we want our stars to have learned their lessons, but in truth, when we all put so much on the success of these stars, it’s not hard to see the pressures of expectations and promise from such a young age.

Ryan Braun will probably never be inducted into the Hall of Fame and the Brewers have to accept the fact that the face of the franchise, our superstar, our beloved hero, is much less than we all hoped he would be. For this season, it won’t be too much of a loss. The Brewers are mired in mediocrity and have been without Braun for long stretches of the season, so continued reliance on talented youngsters like Jean Segura will be nothing new. There’s a chance for the likes of Logan Schafer and Caleb Gindl to make an impact, while consistency from veteran players like Carlos Gomez, Jonathan Lucroy and Aramis Ramirez will continue to make a difference. But next year and the years ahead? We’ll have to wait and see Braun’s return to Miller Park and whether hometown fans will welcome him back with open arms (no doubt in opposing parks however, he was already hearing the chorus of boos before this suspension).

One of my Brewers shirts has Braun’s name emblazoned on the back. I’ll still wear the shirt because I still love the team, and a part of me wants to ignore the consequences of his actions because there’s a belief that the club, the franchise, will always be bigger than any player. But in baseball, that isn’t always the case. And because as a fan, he’s your guy, on your team. Innocence is beautiful and the support for your team is blind.

Buster Olney’s words on Braun are perhaps the most painful. For baseball fans and for fans of what we perceive to be heroes and ambassadors of the game;

“Their Cal Ripken is not Cal.”

One of the greatest falls of recent times.

Fun Size – Since We Last Spoke

Nostalgia can be an intoxicating thing. Like many long gone bands who have once again donned their guitar straps, Richmond, Virginia punks Fun Size have shelved their hiatus and have released their first album since 1998. For some, the nostalgia and another chance to cash in become the determining factor behind their drive, but for Fun Size, whose genesis as a band was formed when being punk was more about the true freedom of musical expression, Since We Last Spoke is an unbelievable breath of fresh, and familiar, air.

If you’ll let me digress a little; the band’s debut, Pop Secret, was a real gem, an album I found while browsing a Tower Records in Singapore some 15 years ago. Its songs, all rough around the edges and raw, exemplified the youthful unkemptness of 90s punk rock; when the actual songs mattered more than the production value and when bands of this nature wrote songs to play them in front of their friends. Songs like “Pickle” still hold up better than what the majority of what their contemporary counterparts produce (and not surprisingly, the line in the song, “we were here before you were / and we’ll be here after you’re gone”, is apropos in describing Generation Now). When the band signed to Fueled by Ramen for the release of their 1998 album Glad To See You’re Not Dead (this was before Fueled by Ramen started releasing junk), it seemed the band was on the up and up. The material on Glad To See… was a distinct change from Pop Secret. They weren’t afraid to add complexity to their music, forgoing the standard punk rock song writing structure for songs like “Pretentious Porch”. At the time perhaps, it went against what punk was “evolving” into, and not long after, the band called it a day.

Fast forward to 2013 and we’re getting a new Fun Size album that is not only the most polished effort they’ve released, but the most energetic and urgent sounding record they’ve done. “Useless, Useless” is the album’s high gear attitude that revs up Since We Last Spoke, a left hook reminder that the band may have been out of the spotlight, but didn’t lose any of their musical potency. Melodic, fast paced songs about the trials and tribulations of life wrapped in frenetic guitar work (“End of the Road”) and skate punk sensibilities (the terrific “Try Not to Care”), Since We Last Spoke is nostalgic yes, but convincingly new. For fans of 90s melodicore like Good Riddance, and for those who rode the wave that brought Unwritten Law and fellow Virginian’s Ann Beretta to the fold, will find much to like about Fun Size’s return.

It’s been a long time between drinks for Fun Size, and while the new album is more straight forward than their previous efforts, it is their ability to evoke sounds from the last generation of punk that gives Since We Last Spoke a distinct stamp of approval.

(self released)

Review: Fun Size – Since We Last Spoke

Nostalgia can be an intoxicating thing. Like many long gone bands who have once again donned their guitar straps, Richmond, Virginia punks Fun Size have shelved their hiatus and have released their first album since 1998. For some, the nostalgia and another chance to cash in become the determining factor behind their drive, but for Fun Size, whose genesis as a band was formed when being punk was more about the true freedom of musical expression, Since We Last Spoke is an unbelievable breath of fresh, and familiar, air.

If you’ll let me digress a little; the band’s debut, Pop Secret, was a real gem, an album I found while browsing a Tower Records in Singapore some 15 years ago. Its songs, all rough around the edges and raw, exemplified the youthful unkemptness of 90s punk rock; when the actual songs mattered more than the production value and when bands of this nature wrote songs to play them in front of their friends. Songs like “Pickle” still hold up better than what the majority of what their contemporary counterparts produce (and not surprisingly, the line in the song, “we were here before you were / and we’ll be here after you’re gone”, is apropos in describing Generation Now). When the band signed to Fueled by Ramen for the release of their 1998 album Glad To See You’re Not Dead (this was before Fueled by Ramen started releasing junk), it seemed the band was on the up and up. The material on Glad To See… was a distinct change from Pop Secret. They weren’t afraid to add complexity to their music, forgoing the standard punk rock song writing structure for songs like “Pretentious Porch“. At the time perhaps, it went against what punk was “evolving” into, and not long after, the band called it a day.

Fast forward to 2013 and we’re getting a new Fun Size album that is not only the most polished effort they’ve released, but the most energetic and urgent sounding record they’ve done. “Useless, Useless” is the album’s high gear attitude that revs up Since We Last Spoke, a left hook reminder that the band may have been out of the spotlight, but didn’t lose any of their musical potency. Melodic, fast paced songs about the trials and tribulations of life wrapped in frenetic guitar work (“End of the Road”) and skate punk sensibilities (the terrific “Try Not to Care”), Since We Last Spoke is nostalgic yes, but convincingly new. For fans of 90s melodicore like Good Riddance, and for those who rode the wave that brought Unwritten Law and fellow Virginian’s Ann Beretta to the fold, will find much to like about Fun Size’s return.

It’s been a long time between drinks for Fun Size, and while the new album is more straight forward than their previous efforts, it is their ability to evoke sounds from the last generation of punk that gives Since We Last Spoke a distinct stamp of approval. (self released)

Watch: Veronica Mars’ Comic-Con footage

After being hailed as the most successful Kickstarter campaign to date, the first footage from the fan-funded Veronica Mars movie has made its debut at this year’s Comic-Con. A mish mash of interviews with cast and crew along with movie footage, the nearly 5 mins of film gives fans a glimpse at what their money is funding.

After raising more than $2million in just 10 hours, the Veronica Mars Kickstarter campaign raised nearly $6million to fund its cause, confirming what fans of the cancelled show have wanted for years: a movie.

Featuring the returning cast of Kristen Bell, Jason Dohring, Tina Majorino, Percy Dags III and Enrico Colantoni, the film is being directed by series creator Rob Thomas and is set for release sometime in 2014.

Check out the Comic-Con footage below.

http://www.traileraddict.com/emd/77464