The Descent - Proper Horror

So, in short I've not done any of these in a while. This is mainly down to 3 hours worth of podcasts that I've put together, and you can listen to here, and an amount of time where I was struggling to function as a proper human, but that can wait for another blog that I inevitably wont start up. Or might, but probably wont.

So I really wanted to start back up with a recent Horror film that I thought stood out from the pack, and went above and beyond the jump scares you've come to expect. Now I'm assured that The Babadook (2014) leaves you properly disturbed after a watch, but the last time I tried I was rather tired and only managed about half of it. Another time maybe.

The Babadook (2014)

Then there's the 3 Insidious films that are either out, or 2 of them are out, or, something, they didn't really push the right buttons either. Yeah there's not much that I remember from them that really pushes the right buttons for 'scared'. Yes you get a little bit of an eerie setting with the kids cropping up here and there, and that one odd looking demon thing that could teleport at will gets a good jump scare here and there, but nothing that can match up to real world fear.

And that's why The Descent really sticks with me, as it is entirely based in real world fearful scenarios, and resonates with my hate of a number of confined spaces. The film is claustrophobia heavy, and the sets do a stunning job of trapping you underground with the characters. Now, on a very personal level I loathe the idea of being underground in any sort of cave system. Why? It's an extreme environment, with no real way of supporting life and no safety net support system.

If you are trapped in that environment, in that film, there is no way out, and that is what happens. The dark, practically lit sets provide such an immersive and recognisable setting that your body reacts as if it were in the story. Your heartbeat quickens, you begin to get a bit fidgety, adrenaline kicks in and you begin to feel the psychological effects of true fear.

The Descent (2005) - Submerging yourself in water, underground, with one light, and no idea where it comes up? Excellent idea!

I think that part of the success of the film is the differing layers of fear that are built up throughout the first half of the film. It's bad enough being in the tight confines of a cave network, but then there's the additional scenarios the character's become involved in. Possibly the worst part of the film to watch, in my opinion, is a scene in which the lead climber needs to submerge themself almost entirely in order to continue on the route. This footage alone plays on multiple fears, the initial confined space, being submerged and unable to breathe, and finally stepping into the unknown. The only thing that comforts you is that it is the early stage of a film, and conventions tell you that the characters will be fine. But this is still someone willingly giving up oxygen, their ability to move freely and more importantly the safety of being somewhere they can breathe, for all they know there's no exit to the underwater channel within regular breath holding range. Drowning in a cave, scary thought no?

I shall now revert to the sound design, as I always will, and the overwhelming feeling you get is that the environment is silent. Deadly silent. You have been removed from civilization, from nature, and this is as close as you can get to an alien environment without leaving the planet. The design includes no excess, again there are layers, all adding to the overall fearful feeling. The atmosphere: cold, unwelcoming, completely silent, with no signs of life, and the activity within scenes: panting, heavy exhalation, quickened breathing. The atmosphere implies that you're not welcome, and the diegetic audio conveys to you that the characters are not at all comfortable, and this is what you will pick up on. The echoey environment helps emphasize the characters' actions and how they're feeling, which you as the viewer are encouraged to mimic, with the reverberation overloading the senses. Ever noticed how many 'scary' settings end up incredibly echoey settings (swinging and rattling chains, reverberating footsteps and the like)? The very best way to emphasize the details you need to pick up on.

It doesn't matter if you're sat here thinking you could deal with these scenarios without a problem, if you're engrossed then your subconscious will do the work for you. And I firmly believe that with so many layers involved (including some that are a little spoilery that I omitted), that there's a little something within this film to get everyone a little rattled. 

If there are any recent standout Horrors out there I'd love to know, the genre fascinates me, and this kind of post is really just a mindblurt that seriously echoes my dissertation... Anyway, words are down online, and if you managed to get all the way to the end without wanting to slap me for the standard of writing then I commend you. If you end up watching The Descent and enjoy it as I did, then there is a sequel you can go for. Not as good in my opinion, but still plods along the same lines stylistically. I don't think the narrative is quite as strong, and as a number of locations are revisited I don't feel it's as scary. Another admirable mention in a similar style is As Above, So Below (2014), set (and apparently shot) mostly in the catacombs underneath the streets of Paris, with a slightly different horror narrative twist, and some incredibly bold stylistic ideas. Again, not incredible film making, but a very admirable effort if you're looking to be unsettled.

That's all for now, until my next incoherent babble session!

A Marvel Timeline

Do you remember a time before superheros were breaking box office records? Well neither do I, but I'm assured there was such a time...

Since 2008, Marvel have cashed in incredibly heavily on the demand with 10 films and 3 TV series if my counting is accurate (it may not be, so I'm covering myself) (Oh, and I'm not counting Age of Ultron because it's only just come out and I'm not entirely sure of it myself)(I never stick to what I say so there's a good bet that I may put Age of Ultron in the list and this means I don't have to come back and edit). So out of what's been produced, what's your favourite? Why? If you've been living on an island without the need for any other sort of entertainment for 7 years (lucky sod) then what should you watch from the series?

Well as it's my platform, here's the list of all 13 (maybe 14) in order of preference.

13) The Incredible Hulk. (2008)

I'm sorry to all fans of the big man, this one is a very forgettable film in the grand scheme of what's been produced. For a start, it was before the time of the big money multi-films-in-the-universe contracts and it's a singular appearance for Ed Norton, which may be why it feels so out of sync with the rest. The plot is a fair way from gripping, with less backstory than Marvel afforded a lot of the other original films aaaaaand I only remember it as a straight forward action flick. Must say though, for a last-on-the-list film, it isn't a 'bad' entertainment effort (more contently average), hence the shedloads of cash they've made over the years.

The Incredible Hulk (2009)

12) Iron Man 2 (2010)

Again, not a huge amount to write home about, Iron Man's sequel kinda falls into the same action only bracket of Hulk, and it's also a sequel, so you're forever comparing it to the original, and it's not as good. There are some pretty good bits, Sam Rockwell is forever a welcome presence on screen in my eyes, and, errrrrm, welcome Scarlett Johansson? Probably the two best parts of the film I think, only watched it a week or so ago and still can't remember the best bits, doesn't bode well?

Iron Man 2 (2010)

11) Thor: The Dark World (2013)

First of the Thor films on the list, which I'd probably call the weakest character based series, but that may just be me not enjoying the whole other realms part of the Marvel universe all that much. There's not much I can really say to big it up except say that it's a fairly well constructed film the budget is fairly well spent? But sadly the entire plot feels incredibly Dr. Who, and it's rather lackluster because of it.

Thor: The Dark World (2013)

10) Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D (2013-)

The first TV show to make the list, and I think it falls down on the experimental nature of the concept, i.e trying to make a TV show from a concept you've only presented previously in a cinematic form. But it's light entertainment, a few cameos from Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, and picked up a lot in the latter half of the first season and into the second season. You get a lot more time to develop plots and characters in a 20 odd episode season, and they didn't quite do enough early on to keep up a decent pace. Bonus points though for some of the crossover stuff.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Series 1 (2013)

9) Thor (2011)

Again, not my favourite of all the character series, but a touch stronger than the sequel. Possibly the most admirable part of the film is the Asgardian architecture VFX, which, 3 years after their first film, is probably Marvel's biggest VFX design challenge since their inception. The humour in this Thor film trumps the other, as you're seeing a out of world character become acquainted with life on earth, and even though it's the first time you see him in the cinematic universe, I feel there's far more in the way of character development in this film than the second. Again, Thor probably suffers on this list because the supernatural nature of the world appeals to me less than the earth based films.

Thor (2011)

8) Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

For many people not the strongest character in the universe, but there's something about the 40s feel film that is very entertaining, especially when it plays as a film that certainly does not take itself all that seriously. It's more of a classic almost Indiana Jones style flick instead of the hyper scienced action film you find from some of the other titles. It's got silly German accents, introduces the Tesseract, makes reference to Indiana Jones, introduces Peggy Carter and Howard Stark (more on them in another entry, and despite it's pacing failings as the film reaches it's conclusion, it's a fun way to spend a couple hours!

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

7) Agent Carter (2014-)

In a way this is a combination of Captain America and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, and contains the better elements of both. It's set just after the events of the bulk of Captain America, in a time where there may technically be no superheroes? Think about it, CA on ice and missing, age wise it's long before any of the other characters are born and long before Thor visits earth, so... yeah? We settle instead for Peggy Carter, dealing with shit on a daily basis and working thrice as hard as anyone else in the pre-S.H.I.E.L.D era. A few other cameos from familiar faces help bulk out a cast of people I don't recognise, but most importantly off the back off their first TV venture, the characters evolve at a far faster rate, and there's none of the drag you get from AoS. Hence the higher ranking.

Agent Carter, Series 1 (2014)

6) Iron Man 3 (2013)

The next two on the list were real tricky to pick between, however I had to leave this one at 6 because of the success created off the back of the other film. Iron Man 3 is possibly the funnest of the trilogy, with RD-J at his most obnoxious, and possibly his best performance in the series. Personally as someone with 0 attachment to the historical Mandarin character, I quite like what they did with him (the Croydon reference gets extra points for them too). There's far more in the way of character vulnerability than the other films as the suit(s) goes missing for a hefty chunk of time, and overall it's just a rather enjoyable, humourous couple of hours. It's a Marvel film, that's the only box it's really ever going to tick.

Iron Man 3 (2013)

5) Iron Man (2008)

This beats out Iron Man 3 because of the simple fact that it spawned the rest of the now entertainment empire. Overall Robert Downey Jr does fairly well as a Tony Stark, so much so that for a lot of people he is now that character. As origin stories go it works rather well for an outsider coming into the comic book world, and you're provided with rough outlines of who some of the main players are, what is apparently considered possible within this new cinematic world and what technology is available. It's a very suitable bridge between comics and film, and still regarded by many as one of the better films in the universe.

Iron Man (2008)

4) Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

When you're going to change things up a bit, and start introducing a new series of characters into your cinematic empire, why not start with a mute tree and a talking raccoon who are best mates? Guardians just has something insanely catchy about it, and you often care very little about the wide array of new locations and people you're meeting. The new characters are fun, and immensely likeable, the pop culture references are likeable, and the cassette mix that appears in the film is catchy as hell. If you're looking for a one off watch, it works like that too.

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

3) The Avengers (2012)

 One of the most profitable films of all time (I think), and for many the best film within the entire universe. It's so high up the list for me due to the lack of need for much backstory, or baggage within the story. It relies heavily upon people going to see the other films in what they would call 'Phase 1' to be completely knowledgeable about what exactly is happening, however, in terms of sheer enjoyment and understanding the story presented on screen, it still works. It's been noted on a number of occasions how well the cast has been juggled in terms of screen time, and how for such a large scale project it still feels incredibly personal.

The Avengers (2012)

=2) Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

This slipped in joint second having seen it twice since release, and enjoying both screenings. Made on a grander, international scale, with a much bigger cast, and a new batch of superpowers. It excited me more than it's predecessor, and plugs a number of gaps that The Avengers missed out on. There's more in the way of surprise, the humour and all round chemistry is better, there's still the character driven story behind it, and although there will be 101 million Loki fans out there to tell me I'm wrong, I thought the more menacing and deranged Ultron is superior. Personal opinion isn't it, I don't need to justify anything, just like it more. And so, it's joint second in entertainment value with...

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

=2) Daredevil (2015)

Third time lucky on the TV show front? Daredevil is the best and also most recent of the Marvel TV shows, and I feel that it's probably due to the combined reasons of changing from their rather recognisable style and less broadcaster involvement due to it's distribution method. It's darker and more violent than any Marvel product before it, and it suits the characters and the nature of the story down to the ground. You're away from the hi-tech world of Stark Industries and S.H.I.E.L.D, and into the back alleys of Hells Kitchen where there's no aliens or superpowers on show, just a blind guy maiming anyone doing wrong. I've done loads on it already >here<, so check that out for the full on convincer.

Daredevil (2015)

1) Captain America: The Winter Solder (2014)

Another of the more recent films, and in my opinion the stand out effort. It not only has the entertainment value of the other higher ranked films, but it also crosses far more genres, feels like the most well considered film, and provides the viewer with the biggest universe twist so far. Now with everything being intertwined with all these films, the actions of one film can affect the others, and christ do they enjoy referencing the other movies. Especially in Iron Man. The effects of Winter Soldier change everything that has been harmonious before in the Universe, and almost allow Marvel to move on and expand. Coupled with the action elements, it's also part spy thriller, contains some of the best characters from the series (CA, Black Widow, Fury, Hill) and introduces a few more excellent additions. The spectacle is spectacular, some of the gadgets are proper Bond-esque (except for the one that is full on Mission Impossible) and you get a good old fashioned well done car chase for your money too. I'm pretty sure that's everything to include? It's just a really entertaining, engaging film independently and links up nicely with all the others. I'm looking forward to what the directors do with the other installments that they've been entrusted with, especially if there's as much care and attention as there is with this.

Oh, and I nearly forgot about the scene in the lift. It's impossible to pull off a full on fight scene in a lift, right...?

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

So there's a full and almost explained ranking of everything Marvel has churned out to entertain the masses up until now, and if you want to know why it's so shoddily written, that will be because of the writing in installments. Love it or hate it, it works for them, and there's actually probably a little in there for everyone, and there's a lot more planned. Some people can't stomach the fantastical nature of some of the produce, but if you're open minded to the action/sci-fi genre you'll probably end up enjoying at least some of it. Law of averages isn't it? Give enough options and something is bound to work. Or maybe in this case it goes the other way? Tarnished with the same Marvel logo so to speak, if you see one and really dislike it, then the rest are automatically discarded? I don't know, not really sure if this is relevant or not, just looking for a conclusion. How about another still from the winning film? That'll be the way I do it, I'll try and return to the original premise behind this blog next time. Try...

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

Daredevil. 2 Minutes 8 Seconds.

It's been a while hasn't it?

So, here's a post based off a 'have you watched' question, and a post written because I feel it deserves a little bit of appreciation, they've done well have Netflix, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe has a brand new beast to add into it's sprawling entertainment empire.

Another admission, yes, this is cheating, it's a trailer and not a clip, the idea is to sell the series. Over that? Brilliant, let's move on.

First thing to say I think is that we're 12 years on from the last time anyone attempted this character on the big or small screen, and I think I'm safe in saying that last effort has been bettered... Yeah, massively bettered. If you've not seen the film from 2003, Ben Affleck mimics the look of the early 2000s Cyclops from the X-Men films and wanders around and the image goes all sci-fi and he wears some uncomfortable looking red leather and beats up people in bullet time and Colin Farrel runs around with a bullseye carved into his head and flies off a motorcycle and throws pens at people and kills them and...

So it's all just a bit of fun really. Nobody would miss out if it had never been made.

Back to 2015 and we have a creation at the other end of the spectrum, and clear influences and ideas on how to get it right this time round. And by get it right I mean make it better than the movie, in my opinion. You may like the movie more, which is fine, but you'd be very wrong to do so.

This current round of Marvel films (and TV show) usually follow the same winning formula of don't go too dark, don't go neo-noir and in essence carve out a personal path for success instead of working along the success formula of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Become known for your own specific character styles (the wise cracking one, the tall, brutish one, deadly (usually) female assassin, etc.) and I reckon that the people running the cinematic arm of Disney are well happy with what's been produced. I mean when Disney bought out Lucasfilm, in between all the mockery and yelling about how George Lucas is a sell out, there were the groups of people reminding the rest that these were the people who provided us with the entertainment of The Avengers, so they must know what they're doing? (Even if everything that gets made is a tad samey)



So, off the back of all that Marvel and ABC got together once more, this time to make a Netflix broadcast TV series, and it's nothing like their formula. At all.

Daredevil Dark

It is dark. Incredibly dark. Batman Begins levels of dark. And as an outsider to the character and the history and the backstory and the comic book storylines, I feel it works incredibly well. I probably should have mentioned that I am in no way a comic book/graphic novel reader, and in all honesty I don't know what the differences are in the definitions or what the base material for this character is classed as. The artwork is rather admirable mind you. So yeah, back on topic. The world depicted in the series and the themes running through the visual aesthetics match up quite nicely. This is not the high class, high budget combat world of S.H.I.E.L.D or Iron Man, this is no budget vigilante brawling in the back streets of 'Hells Kitchen'. When I say brawling, it's often far more one sided than that. I'm led to believe the backstory has been changed somewhat from what people who know the character would recognise, but it gives an incredibly detailed depiction of Daredevil's motivations through a range of flashbacks over the course of the series.

These one sided brawls, not got a better name for them, sorry about that, are meant to appear as realistic as possible, for a TV show about a blind vigilante lawyer with superhuman aural abilities, and throughout you can visibly see Daredevil get more and more tired, as more energy is spent. This is a far cry from almost all other superhero based shows/films, where the characters contain unstoppable energy and then are stopped almost instantly, there's no tiredness as an in-between at all. The closest possible comparison in terms of performance style I think is the famous hallway fight scene from Oldboy, and one scene part way through the series where he takes on 2 or 3 rooms of people in one narrow hallway seems to be a tribute. If you've not seen Oldboy (the better 2003 one) and you enjoy this series, then go have a watch.

Daredevil pulling an Oldboy in a hallway.

What's also quite refreshing is that I don't recognise the cast, admittedly that's because I don't watch Broadwalk Empire/Law & Order (actually I do recognise Deborah Ann Woll from True Blood, so scratch that one), and it's nice to see these people settling into these roles with no previous personalities attached to them, and the results with the Kingpin are truly wonderful. He seems slightly unhinged pretty much all the time, but in a way where it's visibly and very consciously subdued, Vincent D'Onofrio for me is easily the pick of the cast. The three other main and various support just don't get given characters anywhere near as interesting, but there is nobody unconvincing to my eyes.

Now backstory is an extremely contentious issue when it comes to comic book characters, for some it's been done to death, and then for others they've altered it and it's all been made a little ridiculous. I feel it's important in this case to delve as much as they did, given that you're watching a 'blind' guy do things that I'd struggle to do with full vision. I'm led to believe that it's altered slightly from the classic comic character, yet as soon as you're introduced to the story through flashback, it makes a lot through narrative instead of cheesy SFX.

I think I've mentioned before on these how I know very little about the technical side of cinematography, but I know what I like, and this is it. Harsh edges, pools of light, heavy shadowing in the corner of rooms, contrast, restricted colour pallet, and overall incredibly stylized Noir 'film making' (TV making?). Couple that with the rather detailed sound design, lots of rain involved, little details from the sound design accentuated in order to give you Daredevil's perspective, and you have a vast improvement on 2003's effort. I reckon anyway.

I don't think any of that was spoilery? I urge you to seek it out if you have a Netflix subscription, and if you dont, it's a really easy thing to convince the family/friends to share with you because there's a decent amount on there. But I think that's enough dodgy writing for the time being don't you?


I'll try and do this a little more frequently, but probably wont be able to keep that up... The Descent will probably be the next post up, if you like horror as much as I do (which is a lot) and you haven't seen it, there is a lot in there to trigger you!

Until then I guess Marvel binge and adios!

Forgotten Scott - Body of Lies, Kingdom of Heaven.

Don't ask why, but I was thinking about Ridley Scott a few days back, and when it comes to the films of his that I enjoy, it's pretty easy to label them.

Alien. Blade Runner. Gladiator.

There will be a number of people who agree with that selection, and inevitably some who have issues with one or all of them, but lets go by IMDb/Rotten Tomatoes consensus here, roughly 8.4 and 85% ratings respectively, so I'm willing to speculate that my opinion of them spreads fairly wide. The next part of my thought process was, what's he done since that's been really good?

Turns out that there's more than springs to my mind immediately.

And in my case I think that's because the things that spring to mind immediately are the past 5 years of meh-fests. In reverse order I think it's Exodus: Gods & Kings, The Counselor, Prometheus, Robin Hood. Now there might be stuff missing from that there list (it would've taken about 10 seconds to google, but then again why not make up facts?), but all in all as far as recent history goes, my opinion is that I don't really feel like there's anything to properly shout about. Prometheus is possibly the most divisive film out of those 4 in terms of public opinion I'd say, but I still enjoy the quote which describes it as 'the most beautiful film I've ever wanted to punch in the face'. (Watch the opening 10 minutes or so, the rest is take it or leave it)

So is a bad run enough to tarnish a Director? I mean it's 5 years of not having much on the way of critical acclaim or mass public adoration, the first thing I think of is 'he's kinda lost it a bit hasn't he?' And upon further reflection, and a bit of a google, that's rather unfair.

Since 2000s Gladiator there was a 10 year span which included Black Hawk Down and American Gangster, which are only a slight step down from the 3 you remember first off, and then Kingdom of Heaven & Body of Lies, which although arguably are not as good as the other two, are still rather enjoyable.

It was Body of Lies that alerted me to this, having completely blanked out when trying to recall between Gladiator (2000) and Robin Hood (2010) I saw it in HMV and recognised it. I remembered bits and pieces of it, the genre, the people involved, and that I really enjoyed it when I first saw it, but apparently not enough to clock it when thinking through Scott films. Did Prometheus really tarnish his list of work enough to do that for me?

Body of Lies

Zero Dark Thirty

For those who havn't seen it, Body of Lies is from 2008...ish, and runs in the same kind of vein as Homeland. Leo Di Caprio is a CIA intelligence agent, running operations on the ground for the US from the drone eyes of an overweight and heavily accented Russel Crowe back in his comfortable family lifestyle. Obviously being contained in a single feature length run time means that it lacks the kinds of intrigue, spread of interests and development that Homeland gets afforded each season, but it's still a decent piece of cinema. Might do a proper piece on it at some point actually but that's another story. It's very much a story of the times, and I'd imagine it would have been a fairly big hit in the states simply due to the subject nature? I don't know that for a fact, but a reasonable assumption I'd say given other successes. Terrorism and counter terrorism are now part of everyday news reports, and this film feels like the start of the Homeland, Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty style of film making, without really reaching those heights. But you got to enjoy a bit of drone death cam though am I right? Classic international sniper vision.

Body of Lies

Kingdom of Heaven strays closer to the topics he seems to enjoy more overtly these days, quite obviously in the case of Exodus, but then also there are ridiculously heavy religious themes running through Prometheous (which add nothing, yeah, nothing is definitely the right word). In a sense Kingdom of Heaven, a story about a blacksmith's journey to the 'holy land' of Jerusalem, is slightly less religious than Prometheus, which is future people traveling to another planet in order to discover the meaning of cave paintings. There is a little bit of logic, kinda. There's less in the way of philosophical religion in the religious war epic, it's merely locations of supposed importance to people, and it's the basis of the war, there is little in the 3 hours (I'm going off the director's cut here) about what the religion means to people, why, how it affect's their reasoning. It's mostly just Orlando Bloom going, 'nope, don't feel any godly presence' over and over again. Prometheus on the other hand is awash with wanting to find out about a creator, referring to the higher beings as gods, questioning faith blah blah... Yeah I'm not against all this sort of thing, but in a place where it has a bit of gravitas, the sci-fi hybrid really doesn't work for me at all. I certainly don't remember it cropping up in Alien, and that's the film people remember. Religious rant over, Kingdom of Heaven is a fair effort at telling a historical narrative, with enough time allowed to properly expand on the lead's life, follow along with both the sides at war and understand the politics surrounding it.

Kingdom of Heaven

Yet not in the same league of... I can't really think of an example right now... Alexander? ...noooo, Troy? I kind of like this more than Troy though, King Arthur? ...nope, I'm just going to hope that you've seen it and deal without having any comparisons ready and waiting.

So there you have it, it took me about two evenings* to write but there's a couple extra Ridley films that may have completely passed you by. Should you ever feel short of something to watch, there's a couple of suggestions that might entertain you for a couple of hours. MIGHT.

(*I fell asleep on evening one, probably should have taken that hint on my writing skills, chances are you didn't get this far anyway, so screw it)

Hang on, there's a bigger gap between Blade Runner and Gladiator than Gladiator and Robin Hood? Yeah I'm not going into that. There'll be another review of another not new film in a little while, probably on my next BluRay binge.

Sonic Highways - Timeframe is going to be difficult.

I'm going to have to completely break every rule I set out at the start, because upon review, I find it impossible to pick just 3 minutes. I want to go 'oooh watch this bit!' and then a paragraph later, 'ah no, this is a bit which illustrates that!' and you'd end up watching an entire episode within this one post.

Instead of that happening, I'm just going to try and convince you it's worth taking the time. Oh yeah, and this is regardless of what you think of the album. Despite having the album making process as part of each episode, it's about so much more than that, so, so much more.

Okay, I've found a clip. It's not the greatest clip for encapsulating everything the documentary is about, and it doesn't cover the sheer range of styles and content, but I quite like it. In a way it contains the most important part of the entire series.

 It's not quite under 3 minutes, but ah well, you're lucky to get a clip anyway.

That clip is from the best episode from the series (joint 1st with the other 7) New Orleans, and displays the sort of heart that you get from the people telling the story, and the people involved in the story. It's full on, 100% musical education, and from the type of teacher who really cares that you learn about it. There's both history of people and the history or tech, providing a wide interest for fans of both or either.

The New Orleans episode focuses mainly on the people of the city and their musical heritage, including 101 people I've never heard of before, and 5 or 6 that I have. There is so little I knew going into it, and yet, so much of what I didn't know about, I also apparently thoroughly enjoyed. You'll be the same, I guarantee it. With the episode being focused on New Orleans, you expect a number of topics to be covered, and they are, but everything links back to the history of the city's music. Residents claiming to be 'ashamed' of the historical tag of being one of the largest slavers destinations in the entirety of the united states, but along with this, the kinds of sounds, rhythms and styles that it brought along with it and helped shape the city into what has become known for musically throughout the world.

Oh yeah, and the album to accompany the series, well, the series actually accompanies the album, but I'm not reviewing the album. Each episode contains a whole host of musicians, most of whom inspire the track for that particular episode, and a select few play on the song. You can genuinely feel the influences in the final pieces, and it's even presented in the form of a music video right at the end of each episode. Fully stylized, thought out and shot in the space where it was recorded (except for the Las Vegas one, that place was barely big enough to fit the band).

Finally, as a bit of an after thought I may as well mention the style of the doc, even though to me it barely matters in this case, I'm all about the content it provides. But on an international stage and with so much money pumped into the project, it needs to be engaging, and I think it does this fairly well, blending a lot of archive footage along with what they shot on site, and incorporating a wide range of historical photography. I'll happily admit that Dave Grohl isn't the greatest director around, but these episodes are far from shameful - they play out like a huge 8 hour passion project by an excited 45 year old child. It works out as a teacher talking about all of his/her favorite artists, and then after talking about each one they get the opinion of each one, and after the opinion that artist plays you some music. There is so much music in the episode it's a marvel in itself. None of it feels forced, it all flows in a way, and carries you through history. There are some sections which just play through songs with faces and names and photos, there are so many introductions to be made that it's impossible to link them all in a coherent narrative, so I'll let these sections slide. Anyway, it's TV, it has it's own recognised series narrative, it's fine, see how easy it is to justify everything?

I'm going to steal a quote from a tweet I've just seen, to paraphrase, 'Real music isn't just style, one flavour. Music is a banquet.'

Welcome to one of the longest spanning, most varied and most consumable banquets of modern times.

Under the Skin. 1 Minute 45 Seconds.

So this one wont be a long one, it's only going to be short because the clip I've chosen is rather simplistic, but then again bloody beautiful to go with the rest of the movie.

I reckon this is going to be a sort of Marmite film if (go on, when) you watch it, it's not the most action packed feature of 2013, and there is extremely little in the way of expositional dialogue. In fact, I reckon there's no expositional dialogue. But the film on the whole is a stunning piece of work, each different aspect is crafted beautifully, and Scarlett Johansson does a stunning job of conveying everything you need to know through through her performance. In reality the following clip could be slightly shorter, but I thought I'd add in that first shot, y'know, as a bit of an extra convincer.

So here it is!

(apparently I can't embed this one due to copyright something blah blah blah, so the still above should link straight to youtube!)

Done? Happy? Confused? Feeling slightly peckish?

Let me add a little bit of an explanation to the clip, then I'll rock on and do a little bit extra on the make-up of the clip and the various aspects I love about it.

I might then add in a couple of other stills from the rest of the film, to wet appetites further. If you've been good.

So it doesn't really matter where in the film that clip comes, all you need to know is that it's very personal to the character, and vital to the self discovery that you're going to be following along. But before we get into any of that, there's the opening shot (that I left in purposefully, and is a clean break off from the scene/settings just before this clip). This is pretty much standard for this film, there are some absolutely beautiful landscape shots throughout, and they give an incredibly mysterious air to the Scottish setting, and in a way, it aids the sci-fi aspect of what is otherwise a narrative fairly based in reality. Shots like these remind me ever so slightly of a less blue Prometheus, but that's about the only comparison I'm going to make. Prometheus is pretty and very little else in my view.

Under the Skin (2013)

Now the narrative of this little segment, the self realisation that the lead character is unable to truly be as human as the people around her. It's essentially a little bit of envious people watching from a POV perspective followed by some really intensely held shots as she tries to fit in. There's a conscious decision to string out that moment as long as possible, only two camera angles, and a lot of chew time. Never thought that would be a thing that I'd ever type. It's a proper realisation moment, where she realises that she's never going to be able to fit in properly with humanity, outlined by some of the reactions when she nearly throws the cake up.

Now technically, I think this scene is silently stunning, there is very little in the way of sound, so much so that at times in the wrong environment it's possible to think that it's muted. But then it feels in no way unnatural also to me. The location and setting lends it's self to that level of silence, and there's very little visibly diegetic in the scene that you expect to hear. It's a prime example of well used minimalism which fits in nicely with a number of other scenes throughout the film. The only sounds you really hear surround the eating of the cake, cutlery on china plate, and gagging on the food, with the rest of the visible diegetic sound you'd expect (maybe those cars in the background, or the rest of the people in the established open space) blend seamlessly into the background.

So that's pretty much it. It's not an expansive spectacle of a scene, or part of a scene, but there's a lot packed into such a small segment in terms of exposition, and that's what impresses me hugely about this film. The entire piece contains very little in the way of expositional back story, flashbacks or dialogue, and focuses on showing you everything you need to know through the performance and the interactions. It just stuck with me, after my first viewing, and the getting the bluray of it gave me another chance to sit back and properly understand what's happening. I openly accept that it's not the sort of thing you can half watch, or spend part of your concentration on, you need to be fully involved, and that's a pretty brave thing considering the habits of some film audiences these days.

Oh yeah, and the soundtrack really abrasive so listen to by itself, but incredibly fitting to the picture, and properly completes the work of art.

Now, you've been good enough, have a couple more locational stills. Not all of them though obviously, don't want to spoil it for people!

Three of the many beautiful location wides. Paintings the lot of them.

Anyway, that's me over and out, don't let the Scottish accents turn you off from watching it ;)

Some Love for Rush

As a soundie, it's my duty to bring these things up as frequently as possible, so let me set you a scene and make this drag out for a little longer than it otherwise would.

So yes, a scene for you all. My life is a fairly simplistic one most of the time, and a lot of that time is spent sat in my armchair, with music churning out from the speakers on my desk. And before you say anything, having an armchair at 21 is absolutely fine, and if you tried it, you wouldn't have life any other way. So yeah, chair, music and getting engulfed in the sound, singing along to whatever is playing. Singing? I can't sing? I'm not singing, this is more humming, but feels like I'm singing to something on the radio? This is confusing. In short the Rush soundtrack was on and I was completely engulfed.

Chris Hemsworth as James Hunt, Daniel Brühl as Niki Lauda

For those of you unaware, Rush is a film made in 2013, set through the mid-late 1970s, following the careers of racing drivers James Hunt and Nikki Lauda. As much as I love this film as a whole, the soundtrack is the one thing I'm going to pick out as being something especially catchy, and easily on par with what gets released in the charts.

Soundtracks in movies often come in two forms, either a collection of tracks picked to fit with scenes within the film, or there's the hiring of a composer who will write music with the scenes in mind and you end up with a collection of tracks within a similar style to underscore the film. Sometimes is a collection of both. This is the category into which this film falls.


Now I'm probably just going to litter the post with these, so hopefully you can just listen along per paragraph, almost, I'm going to fail hugely should I try to make 3 minute long paragraphs. But I reckon my first point, with the reference of the clip above is going to be the mild genre crossovers. Not that soundtracks have genres, obviously, but you know the conventions I mean, don't you? I'm hinting towards the heavy use of strings, the heavy use of fully composed orchestral pieces, either classed as classical, or contemporary classical I reckon. Anyway, the first track on the list, 1976, is almost a half and half beast, beginning as a string focused track, before spilling over into the drum, guitar & cello heavy groove of the rest of the soundtrack. So enjoyable. A simple pleasant phrase that runs throughout, and a tempo fit for racing.

 

In a way, the film's setting within a rather rock & roll70s lifestyle, with Bowie and Thin Lizzie to also on the soundtrack, bleeds into the music and gives it an extremely bluesey feel all over. With both '20%' and 'I could show you if you like?' giving raher awesome little interludes into the narrative. Both only notching in around a minute of screen time, but enough to stick memorably in the mind, and enough to seek them out afterwards and enjoy independently.


I mean seriously, these little phrases of music (probably too short to labelled as songs in their own rights) are easily enjoyed in any environment, and are not, as much film music is (and rightly so), reliant on the images in order to give themselves a purpose. They're not even overly emotive, lets face it. Listening to '20%' you can tell it's excitement, but in what setting? With it being a racing movie the first guess is always going to be the most obvious, part of a race, but then it'd also be fitting in any kind of party setting, or any other form of adrenaline rush. 'I can show you if you like?' is a little easier to figure out, so I don't have to expand on genre, however it's damn catchy.

Worst album review ever? Probably.

In short there's a helluva lotta drums & guitars.

Now for the finest and easiest track to listen to on the entire record. What the hell, I'll add this one in context with engine sounds and everything. Well half of it anyway, that way it's not as spoliery, and I care about spoilers.



Apparently this clip is blocked in the US, bloody copyright sensitive bastards.

'Lost but Won' is almost like a full expansion of '1976', similar kind of style, with the obvious underscoring to begin with, followed by the far more raucous second half. But in the grand scheme of the mix, the engines, car tyres squealing, and splashback off the cars means that the entire piece of music works as underscoring, and it only ever cuts through whenever the style dictates.

All in all the score feels like an incredibly brash reworking of Zimmer's style, still including the main elements of the occasional heavy hits, and stripping down his more expansive orchestral pieces into a single Rains of Castermere (Game of Thrones fans will know) lead line, with staccato guitar running throughout, a bass line that reminds you slightly of Fleetwood Mac's 'The Chain' (the current F1 theme music), and the occasional drum line reminiscent of the Joker themes from The Dark Knight. That there is a mix should really entice anyone in right?

No album star rating or some kind of out of 10 review because it comes as a package with the rest of the film, but as a complete work, go watch it. If you're not a huge racing fan you should find it fairly interesting and a gripping watch. If you're a fan of racing then you'll adore I'd assume? I mean it's a fantastic representation from the point of view of someone who's seen nothing to do with the time and setting before.

And if you're particularly into sound, I reckon you'll end up with goosebumps. Them engines.