And Time Goes by So Slowly

'Unchained Melody' by the Righteous Brothers is a beautiful song. I don't really know enough about music to talk about time signatures, but I love songs like that, where each chord is a lilting arpeggio of 6 notes. 'For Your Precious Love' by Otis Redding, 'Last Kiss' by Taylor Swift, 'Hallelujah' by Jeff Buckley, 'Sanctus' from Fauré's Requiem, and, of course, possibly the most beautiful song ever written, Schubert's 'Ave Maria'. If you can collect enough of them, put on some headphones with a playlist of them and close your eyes. That class of song, they are irrefutably utterly beautiful. There must be something very specific about that rhythm for so many disparate songs to achieve the same effect.

So in amongst its kin, 'Unchained Melody' is probably third after 'Ave Maria' and 'For Your Precious Love'. What brings it to my mind to highlight is a section which, musically, just blows my mind every time. It's that bit near the beginning which goes '... such a long lonely time / and time goes by / so slowly / and time can do so much'. The emotion in those dulcet tones as the first stanza glides into the second really does one on the heart-strings.

However.

'Batman v Superman' - Film review

Review contains spoilers for this film. (But lets be honest the majority of the spoilers in this film are ridiculous. Besides, who worries about spoilers for the second film in a series?)

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was directed by Zack Snyder and is the second entry in the DCCU (If Marvel have the MCU then do Detective Comics have the DCCU? Does it have a name yet?). The first was Man of Steel which was fairly well received in the comic-book movies community but which I personally haven't seen. To be honest you don't have to have seen it to watch this film because Superman is Superman and he's pretty well established in this film anyway. I'll try to avoid comparisons to the MCU, although it can't be ignored that, coming second, the DCCU has to make a clear decision whether to avoid or embrace emulation.

This is a very large image if you click on it.

First let's talk about what the film got really right - Ben Affleck's Batman. Here we have the new best film interpretation of the caped crusader, better, even, than his incarnation in the Arkham videogame series. This dark knight really is a force of nature: the first time we as an audience encounter him from the perspective of an outsider, a policeman investigating a case, the atmosphere is distinctly oppressive and threatening and his first appearance heart-jolting. Maybe Bale's Batman was more valiant and honourable but he now seems lumbering, relying merely on brute force in comparison to Affleck's, who uses stealth and intelligence and demonstrates martial and athletic prowess in all of his confrontations. What's more, Affleck's more cerebral, reserved Bruce Wayne who gives the impression of an inner strength was a more complimentary and coherent fit to his Batman than in Bale's Bruce/Bat pair. There's something about the distance the audience are afforded from Wayne here which creates a sense of mythology around this bat - a force of nature, something of the dark which is separate from our sense of reality, which doesn't necessarily obey our laws of physics as he leaps from wall to wall and vanishes into darkness. We're occasionally offered a little look into how this effect is created, for example seeing Alfred tinkering with the voice alterer, but here Batman v Superman somehow manages to have its cake and eat it because while we see that it's just technology and can marvel at Wayne's prowess it doesn't take away from the fact that that 'Tell me, do you bleed?' is chillingly un-human.

'Eye in the Sky' - Film review

Eye in the Sky is an international political thriller directed by Gavin Hood and starring Helen Mirren, Aaron Paul and the late, great Alan Rickman. It tells the story of a British military officer seeking authorisation for a drone strike in a foreign country on a British national.

The film is a hugely complex moral question based on a very simple premise, so its strength comes from the attention it gives to setting the stage and form the time it took to be intelligent, thoughtful and sensitive. Take for instance the news/documentary exposition on El Shabaab at the beginning of the film. This sequence stands out so much in contrast to the cliche of other more low-brow thrillers, exemplified perfectly by the breakfast scene in Olympus Has Fallen with the offhand reference to rising tensions on the Korean peninsular to create a vague sense of intrigue. There the news programme is used for the opposite purpose for which it's intended in the real world - to tantalise slightly, but mostly to leave the audience in the dark. Eye in the Sky totally turns this trope on its head in the opening sequence, as the news programme is probably the best way to get vital information across. What's more, this blatant exposition doesn't feel in anyway cynical, or rather its cynicism completely pays off as the film evolves requiring a well-informed audience.

Inheritance (for S. Davies)

That you and I are similar this is true,
Lucretius' glass reflects again to see
What great bounty I owe to thee:
Love of art and life inherited of you.
Damned procrastination though
You think part of this fillial 'deed';
So think you that document dishevelled be -
What good be goals if wait is all I do?

But fear not, there may be hope, perchance:
Aware I was that soon was Mother's Day
I actually wrote this sonnet in advance!
So, aye, flit and fancy rule me that they may
But if surely I can write a couple stanzas,
Surely, then, concerns are washed away!

Explanation for a Hiatus

Having a while ago received praise from a friend (and fellow-blogger) on the regularity and consistency of my work on this blog, I feel I owe an explanation for a hiatus which as of this writing has lasted just in excess of 2 months. Besides this I'm pleased to see growing evidence of an irregular and inconsistent yet relatively sizeable readership - and my gratitude for this is another part of what compels me to justify this lack of content from me.

Firstly, what started it to begin with. As I may have referenced before, I'm an actor in my local youth theatre, the Nuffield Youth Theatre, while on my gap year before going to university in October. Shortly after my last post here would have been my last show with the Youth Theatre proper, as Odysseus in an adaptation of The Odyssey which played on allegories of the current refugee crisis. (Disclaimer: this is a large youth theatre, so I wasn't actually playing the main character, I was one of six people playing Odysseus at different points). Immediately after this I was in a 'grassroots' production directed by a member of that youth theatre, Emil Rousseau - whose name I include here as a possible claim to fame when I'm older, yes I was in my youth in a play directed by Emil Rousseau. The play was called Scuttlers and was set in gang-ridden 19th century Manchester, which meant producing my best Mancunian accent, which was awful.

'A Raisin in the Sun' - Play review

A Raisin in the Sun is a play co-produced by Eclipse Theatre Company, Sheffield Theatres and Belgrade Theatre Coventry, directed by Dawn Walton. It tells the story of financial and social strife in an African-American family in civil-rights era South Side Chicago who hit upon a small fortune in insurance money after the death of the family patriarch. A Raisin in the Sun plays through this week, finishing with a Saturday matinee and evening performance, at the Nuffield Theatre in Southampton, before continuing its tour in the Liverpool Playhouse, Watford Palace Theatre, Albany Theatre and Belgrade Theatre throughout March.

One of the things slightly mesmerising about this production from the very opening is its very intense attention to high naturalism. The whole play takes place in the kitchen/living(/bed)room of the Younger family's Chicago apartment and, though scene changes eventually break the unity of time afterwards, the first scene tracks the Younger family's morning routine from sister-in-law's groggy waking up and cooking breakfast (irl, with a cooker on stage) to elder-brother's reluctantly leaving for work as a chauffeur. The effort the cast go to in maintaining this illusion is very impressive and the work pays off as a very immersive and invested portrait of home life. Furthermore, it's a very relatable portrait of home life, which makes this naturalism a very important frame of reference for a 21st-century, English (largely white, in Southampton) audience to contextualise the social issues of the play in what might otherwise feel like a different, incomprehensible world; by giving the audience something they recognise and partake in daily the play can then make direct comparisons between the audience's experiences and the Younger family's.

Singing the Praises of a University I'm not Going to

Since the introduction of fees for university and the massive spike in the number of students being admitted to university there's always the thought at the back of one's mind at extravagant open days that universities have interests besides the advancement of the next generation. Of course whatever the motive the education is likely to be first-rate - what better advertisement for Cambridge's £21,000 course than the prestige afforded its alumni? However, having accepted my offer for Birmingham fairly secure that that institution values paper over linen I feel the need to publish praise for another institution which very clearly honestly believes in the enrichment of its alumni.

This morning I received a letter from Queen Mary, University of London, congratulating me and formally offering me a place. It would have been a nice touch if that's all it was, just the thought of sending a physical letter beside the automatic email from UCAS. QMUL went a step further however, which fully cements in my mind the idea they are wholly committed to the betterment of human intellect, society and culture.

'Deadpool' - Film review

Deadpool is the latest Marvel (/Fox) comic book movie, set in the X-Men universe as opposed to the MCU, about the merc-with-a-mouth Wade Wilson and his alter-ego Deadpool (duh). It's directed by Tim Miller (my heart bounced for a moment thinking it was directed by TJ Miller) and stars Ryan Renolds in the eponymous role, and is all-round just a really really brilliant movie.

First and foremost, Deadpool is the most loving and perfect pastiche of the superhero genre I've yet seen. It has the love of both the insider and the outsider: of the insider to stay true to what the fans and lover of the genre really want to see in their movies, and of the outsider to find and poke fun at those oft-ignored cliches of the genre which get repeated year-on-year. It was slightly unsettling watching the trailers before such a movie, here's roughly what to take away from those: -

X-men Apocalypse: They're the four horsemen of the apocalypse! It's the end of the world! WE WILL TEAR DOWN EVERYTHING THEY HAVE AND BUILD A NEW WORLD!
London Has Fallen: This is the most secure event IN THE WORLD! 6 of the world leaders are dead AND THE PRESIDENT IS UNACCOUNTED FOR!!!
Triple-9: They want us to do one last job - this has to be the BIGGEST ONE EVER! Let's get the Triple-9! All the cops in the city come running IT'S A CODE TO DIE FOR

'Spotlight' - Film review

Spotlight is directed by Tom McCarthy and tells the true story of investigative reporters (going by the name 'Spotlight') uncovering the covering up of child abuse by Catholic priests in Boston. It stars some big-name established actors such as Liev Schreiber, Mark Ruffalo and Stanley Tucci. There'll be a fairly interesting comparison to make on the finer details of investigative-reporting true-stroy film-making, as tomorrow I'm going with my brother to see Concussion, a film in the same genre about a cover up in the NFL.

A solid true-life conspiracy thriller.

One of the odd things about Spotlight is an interesting decision which turns into a questionable decision, or rather a questionable decision which turns into an interesting one: starting sort of in medias res, besides the 30 years earlier prologue. This creates some quite strange pacing for the first quarter of the film. To begin with it has the effect of thrusting you straight into the action with a little bit of intriguing confusion, wondering how you got to the point you're at at that moment, but then this creates a dip of slow pacing as everything has to be explained. However, this is then turned around again as a benefit to the film, as everything is explained and you begin in medias res, as it leads to some of the most naturalistic exposition I have ever seen in film. The characters and situations are so well arranged to have characters with a reason to be imparting the valuable information - the lull in pacing is worth it for making this excellent feat of writing possible.

Just to see if I Could

Wednesday afternoon, my interview at Queen May, University of London, afterwards a brief meet up with a Symonds friend, who goes to UCL, and her QMUL boyfriend. The interviews were meant to be only 15 minutes, by the time the academic felt he'd got enough from me the taster drama workshop had already started. I apologised meekly to the practitioner and put my stuff to the side and joined the circle, the Scottish girl I befriended on the day whispered to me 'that was a long time!'

20 minutes of rambling on about everything that excites me about the English language, literature and drama - finishing reading Barack Obama's fascinating, inspiring biography; ordering The Travels of Ibn Battutah on Amazon the night before; discovering the musical Hamilton and the cultural/historical significance of conflicting musical styles. I couldn't tell if I was able to properly communicate my tremendous excitement to the interviewer, but whatever, it was enough, however truthful and accurate it was. It took QMUL just over 24 hours to get back.

Maybe I'm more inspired by Alexander Hamilton than I would have otherwise realised. Though I hadn't heard the lyrics of the musical nor had I really known that much about the ten-dollar-founding-father before, the past few months have been a slow revelation of this Hamilton-fire-burning desire to explode up and out. 'Imma get a scholarship to Kings college / I shouldn't brag but dag I amaze and astonish' - 4 Russell Group universities, some of the best in the country for English and/or drama. Maybe he and I have something in common, even if it is just to his fictional representation.

'Bridge of Spies' - Film review

Bridge of Spies is a cold-war period drama/political thriller directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Hanks and Mark Rylance. It tells the story of a New York insurance lawyer encumbered with defending a Soviet spy as a formality, a representation of democracy when the death sentence is a foregone conclusion. However, Tom Hanks, being the paragon of justice that he is, decides, hang-on-a-minute, this man does deserve fair representation, and his pursuance of justice takes him to D.C. and eventually beyond to the Soviet East Berlin to a politically charged prisoner negotiation.

Found a tagline better than 'the stakes have never been higher'

The first impressive feat of Bridge of Spies is world-building. This may be a surprising accolade seeing as it's based on a true story, but the past very often seems like a different world - not just the past of a no-longer extant country like the GDR, but even the past of a place more familiar like the US. One of the film's many tag lines was 'the stakes have never been higher' and Spielberg does an excellent job of presenting this alien, polarised world. Nowadays we live in a (largely) international world, Bridge of Spies comes with the stark reminder that less than half a century ago this was a hugely different case.

'Taxi Tehran' (Discover Tuesdays) - Film review

My local Picturehouse cinema is a nice little building on the quay called Harbour Lights. Along with every other cinema in the Picturehouse franchise they run a weekly event called Discover Tuesdays, which is basically giving screening to arty/foreign/eye-opening films which aren't on the new release ordinary programme, as a chance of experiencing something different. It's basically right up my street in terms of what I'm trying to achieve this year, though a little steep, I highly recommend it.

Including a poster with other peoples' reviews on it, scandalous.

Taxi Tehran is a Life in a Day-style rolling-camera film from Iranian director Jafar Panahi. The premise is that Panahi has somehow procured a taxi (in the Iranian capital Tehran), with almost the entirety of the film's footage coming from an 'anti-theft' camera he installed on the dashboard, recording the conversations and interactions he has with the various friends, family and customers he picks up over the course of a few hours. The action feels so real it's risky saying it merely 'feels' real and wasn't in fact just candid-camera recording, though one of the first passengers plants the suggestion that at least some of the action is scripted and staged by asking (in Persian) 'I'm in a film aren't I?'

'The Hateful Eight' - Film review

The Hateful Eight is Quentin Tarantino's eighth movie, starring Samuel L Jackson, that guy from Lie to Me and Channing Tatum. It tells the story… well that's a little bit complicated actually.

What's cooler than being cool?

What makes a synopsis so difficult is this film is very, very long - almost 3 hours in fact. To sum it up in any sort of concise fashion: it's two bounty hunters (one of whom is a black Unionist cavalier) taking a wanted murder (Daisy Domergue) alive to Red Rock, an outpost in Wyoming some time after the American Civil War, when a blizzard descends and they have to seek shelter. On the way they pick up a Confederate captain (who proudly calls himself a rebel warrior) who claims to have been called on to be sherif of Red Rock. The troop of 4, that's 4/8, find shelter in the form of a haberdashery, where the other 4/8 are also sheltered, including a Confederate general and a travelling hangman, who happens to be due to hang Domergue when the bounty hunters and sherif bring her to Red Rock. However, with the 8 shuttered in against a storm, a spat of murders makes the bounty hunters realise that transporting Domergue may have more complications than expected… As you can see, it's hard to sum up.

'Reservoir Dogs' - Film review

Reservoir Dogs was Quentin Tarantino's directorial debut in 1992, and I'm basically watching it because I'm going to see The Hateful Eight today so needed to get in the right mood for it. It's on Netflix, something I noticed when I was searching for my Netflix film to watch this week and thought it made sense considering my plan of action today - so basically if you're in the UK and have Netflix you can go and stream it too.

Reservoir Dogs tells the story of a group of career criminals caught up in the aftermath of a botched heist, trying to figure out who set them up in a secluded warehouse. Besides the prologue with Tarantino's signature brilliantly natural and ever-engaging dialogue writing, the film plays to something that would be a staple throughout Tarantino's career (or at least the ones I've seen: Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and The Hateful Eight), the non-linear storytelling beginning in medias res, in this case with a high speed getaway with a bleeding co-thief in the backseat - heart-racing stuff right from the get go. This film is bloody brilliant, and I hugely enjoyed it. There wasn't a single moment when the energy dropped or when things were uninteresting.

New Year's Resolutions

New Year, new…

No hang on, I'm still me. In the millisecond between 2015 and 2016 nothing really changed - a few cells may have died here and there, some other may have meiotically or mitotically divided, and some nerve impulses strained against the alcohol littering their phospholipid to get the image of the 00 on whatever London building it was to my conscious mind. Apart from that, the only thing that's changed is the date.

There was a soppy-woppy Facebook status at some point on the 31st of December 2015, however, which said something important, an artificial change. Nothing changes on new year's, nothing except that which we change for ourselves, and for what better reason than none at all? For what better reason than a number on a clock dragging humanity one year farther from our Palaeolithic caves and limping somewhat reluctantly into our past's future? Other than destiny, the future is just the change we make for ourselves.