Sweet Nothings

I've never been a huge fan of horror films. Due to chronic lack of popularity, I didn't spend lots of evenings in darkened rooms full of friends trying to prove how hard and unshockable they were in the face of the latest gore-fest (obtained via dubious means from the Bewdley's sole video store). Still, I understand the attraction of being scared - despite being something of a coward, I enjoy the adreneline rush of rollercoasters, particularly the palpable relief when the ride is over that it didn't get stuck upside-down on that big loop, or collapse, or explode, etc. In the last few years, the much-discussed Torture Porn genre seems to have become the norm for mainstream horror. My experience of this sort of thing only extends to the first Saw movie, which I actually found fairly clever and tense. Despite this, though, I've had no great desire to see anything else, especially the seemingly endless conveyor belt of Saw-quels . Meanwhile, there are smaller films be...

Saw a preview of Scott Pilgrim vs the World last night. Yes that’s right - a review of a film BEFORE it’s properly released! TREMBLE at the novelty of my opinions. So? Meh. It’s alright . Nothing wrong with that per se, lots of films are perfectly enjoyable without coming close to greatness. Unfortunately, the buzz and trailer for this, combined with Edgar Wright’s track record, very much suggested this would be an eye-popping game-changer of a movie. Depending on whether I bought into the concept or not, I was expecting it to be a film I’d either fall in love with or absolutely hate. The fact is, I enjoyed bits of it and appreciated some of the one-liners without ever being able to immerse myself. One reason for this would be unfamiliarity with the source material - adaptations always lose something in translation and I’d guess the comic books go into more detail about the backstories of Scott, Ramona and the Seven Evil Exes, something which Wright understandably sacrifices in o...

I’ve heard The Suburbs being referred to as a return to form for Arcade Fire, which implies that Neon Bible was somehow a poor album - to me an astonishing accusation. While I wouldn’t objectively try to claim that the latter is better than the wonderful Funeral, the fact is I can listen to the likes of Intervention and No Cars Go over and over with no noticeable diminishment of pleasure. Bold, epic songs dealing with all manner of Big Issues, what’s not to like? Well, seems like some considered those songs to be overblown and empty, which left Arcade Fire in an interesting position - as big a cult band as could possibly be, never likely to break into the mainstream and in slight danger of losing a section of their fanbase, not to mention some of their humanity, due to a perceived excess of grandiosity. However, The Suburbs should satisfy pretty much everybody. Initial signs weren’t too promising. The title track and Month of May were released a couple of months ago, the latter in ...