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(Untitled)
This journal is now officially defunct - I've migrated over to:
http://genrenaut.blogspot.com/
They've been good times... -
Charles Dickens - Our Mutual Friend (1865); Hard Times (1854)
As I may have mentioned previously, though a rabid fan of Victoriana I’m not a huge admirer of Dickens (I suspect I’ve been made bitter by his ascendance over his worthier and far more interesting colleague, Wilkie Collins). Having said that, however, his work always makes for worthwhile reading, even when it infuriates. Of course, the Victorian ( Read more... ) -
Creature Feature: In Brief
Jaume Balagueró & Paco Plaza - REC 2 (2009)
The first REC, while by no means a masterpiece, was a solid and original piece of horror film-making, doing something a bit different with the zombie genre and making unwontedly welcome use of the hand-held camera - and indeed, managing to extend on the technology and hence the mise en scène. The second ( Read more... ) -
Gus Van Sant - Elephant (2003)
In the heady days of my youth, I was a big true crime aficionado. But although I remained fascinated by perpetrator mentality, as my early twenties passed, I began to feel just a little too much empathy with the victims, and just a little too much of the uncomfortable voyeurism of the position of the true crime fan (in keeping with the pulpiness ( Read more... ) -
James Pants - Seven Seals (2009)
Biblical occultism - via Kabbalah - may be the new age fad du jour (although isn’t it getting just a little, well, so noughties?), running the culture fiend through a gauntlet beginning with Dan Brown and ending with Madonna, but that’s not to say that the resurge of interest in Judeo-Christian mystical traditions doesn’t have anything to offer. ( Read more... ) -
Susan Hill - The Woman In Black (1983)
I don’t know how I’ve managed to miss Susan Hill, given the strong feelings I have for the classical English supernatural tale as manifest from the Victorian era through to the first few decades of the Twentieth century. Perhaps it’s because I have a general dislike for pastiche in literature (if not in other genres) and, in the postmodern age in ( Read more... ) -
Pedro Almodóvar - Tacones Lejanos ('High Heels') (1991)
As the film beginning a run of mid-period Almodóvar vehicles which, while interesting, were more problematic than the dark intensity of his earlier works but hadn’t yet developed the majesty and emotional kick of his finest later films (the trilogy comprising Todo sobre mi madre, Hable con ella & La mala educación), I wasn’t expecting particularly ( Read more... ) -
Louie Psihoyos - The Cove (2009)
It took me some time to get around to watching this widely-hailed documentary, because I thought the scenes showing dolphin slaughter would be awful - and they were. Despite, or because of, this shocking footage, this is a work which deserves the plaudits which were heaped on it. The story begins with Ric O’Barry, a fascinating character whose ( Read more... ) -
Matteo Garrone - Gomorra (2008)
This sleek and brutal film, like Roberto Saviano’s book on which it is based, is a work of docu-fiction, but it is only a light transposition of the everyday reality for Neapolitans and their ongoing relationship with the Camorra (while the Sicilian Mafia/Cosa Nostra are the best known, they are not the only Italian criminal organisation; others ( Read more... )