And the award for strangest movie I’ve ever seen goes to… yes, I’ve finally watched surreal genius director David Lynch’s bonkers 1977 debut. I went into this prepared for a strange and unique experience – but wasn’t expecting how entrancing an experience it was. Jack Nance (credited as John Nance) plays Henry, an oddball character in a rather awkward relationship with a girl, who has a baby who turns out deformed and premature.
Strange days…
Yeah it’s a weird story filled with surreal images that cover anxiety, nightmares and hallucinations. This is shot in eye-catching black & white, emphasising lingering shots, a creepy industrial setting and a constant soundscape of exaggerated effects from steaming radiators to grinding of teeth (and one unnerving moment of puppies suckling on a dog). Lynch’s eye for bizarre imagery, uncomfortable character interactions (including a very strange dinner table scene) foreshadow where he went with movies like Blue Velvet and Lost Highway. Clearly he was a unique voice in movie making from the start.
Not as scary as some of Lynch’s other work and a simpler concept overall, but the imagery is mesmerising, strangely amusing at times and quite revolting at others. An interesting, bizarre and strangely entertaining debut.
The Blu-Ray from the U.K. division of The Criterion Collection has a brand new 4K restored image, that although in black & white looks clean and atmospheric. The uncompressed stereo soundtrack especially showcases the often unnerving sound effects. However it’s in the extras where this release excels; archival footage with cast and crew, an 85 minute documentary from 2001, directed by David Lynch, and there’s also several of Lynch’s suitably strange short films, along with a second documentary from 2014. The release also comes with a comprehensive booklet that includes an interview with David Lynch, taken from filmmaker and writer Chris Rodley’s book ‘Lynch on Lynch’. As a long time fan of the director, this is solid gold.
As I learnt writing the last look-back, 2017 has been a pretty packed year as far as entertainment is concerned, and there’s been plenty of highlights over the months. So continuing this little bit of nostalgia, I thought I’d give a portion of this to my music highlights of the year, of which there have been many.
In the summer, Garbage made a return to the stage going on the road with the iconic Blondie for their co-headlining ‘Rage and Rapture’ tour which over 20+ dates travelled the United States and from what I hear was a roaring success. During the tour Garbage released a stand alone single, the politically charged ‘No Horses’ accompanied by a powerful, hard-hitting video (see below). It was another belter of a track from my favourite band, but wasn’t the only highlight of the year for me…
Indie electro-rock band PVRIS returned with their second album ‘All We Know Of Heaven, All We Need Of Hell’, and it was a step up from their impressive debut and cemented them as a new, unique voice in my music landscape. Add to this British four piece Wolf Alice also delivered their second album ‘Visions Of Life’, and like PVRIS it was an improvement over their debut and a haunting, artistic experience full of emotion and effective songs that has made them one of my favourites. A couple of more veteran artist also released new material and although I don’t listen to everything out there, I am glad to have discovered Paramour with their fun, energetic album ‘After Laughter’ proving worthwhile. I was also happy to see the return of possible my favourite female solo artist Kelly Clarkson and her latest release ‘Meaning of Life’ really impressed and proved this singer still had it after her previous, otherwise forgettable ‘Piece by Piece’ album.
Well back to the movies and such…
July to December
As the blockbuster season continued, I didn’t get around to all the big hitters but was pleased to see the latest of one of the best franchises around right now, War For The Planet Of The Apes which again proved powerful and exciting with stunning effects. Less engrossing but still fun was the rather hypoed but run-of-the-mill Baby Driver. Adding to the disappointment was the surprisingly un-engaging Christopher Nolan WWII drama Dunkirk which for a war movie directed by one of the best around, proved strangely boring and lacking in character or spectacle. It sure was ‘pretty’ though.
Get Out was a rather unsettling thriller and an interesting take on the racial tension subject, and hyped book adaptation Girl On The Train was an enthralling mystery with a great central performance from Emily Blunt. One of my favourite directors, Park-chan Wook returned with The Handmaiden, an erotic period movie that although a tad drawn out was an engrossing love-triangle thriller. Mark Wahlberg’s based on true events thriller Patriots Day was also powerful and gripping, whilst Jake Gyllenhaal sci-fi thriller Life was particularly effective and scarily-relevant. August finished up with one of my personal horror highlights of the year, the far better than it should have been sequel Annabelle Creation.
Around this time I also watched the highly anticipated and very long awaited new season of Twin Peaks. This was probably one of my most perplexing, strangely gratifying and definitely unique experiences of the year. David Lynch’s magnificently bizarre and utterly surreal 18 episode ‘TV event’ is still something I am trying to piece together in my head even months after finishing it. I had the box set for Christmas so may well be diving back in. That ending though….yeesh.
French cannibal horror / coming of age drama Raw proved effective if disturbing and distasteful but has certainly stuck in my head. However, the latest entry in a once beloved saga, Alien Covenant was very underwhelming, having more in common with the tiresome Prometheus than the Alien movies. Then I stumbled upon Netflix movie Gerald’s Game, a surprising, engrossing and creepy-as-hell Stephen King Adaptation.
I finished (at least the story) of the highly acclaimed and heavily hyped The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and as if testament to just how much fun and appealing that game was and still is to me, I still find myself going back to finish every shrine, find every weapon and do at least the majority of side-quests. I even recently purchased the season pass. Yeah I can’t get enough of this game.
The highly anticipated Blade Runner 2049 disappointed, with a plodding pace, forgettable visuals and was only marginally saved by a good turn from Harrison Ford. However all was not lost as November rolled around and the much anticipated Super Mario Odyssey was finally released … and proved to be everything I had hoped it would be. Add to this I finally got my hands on the highly acclaimed Japanese animation Your Name which proved to be a decidedly clever and thought-provoking body-swap drama.
So we come to December and particular stand-outs were Despicable Me 3 and the otherwise maligned Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. Bigger name movies like Spider-Man Homecoming and even Star Wars The Last Jedi didn’t fair as well for me but still had their moments. With Christmas upon us again, I always enjoy writing these look backs and considering the movies that will eventually make up my Top Ten. I’ll have that particular post out on New Years Eve, so please drop by then and check it out.
I also managed to get my hands on a new phone. Previously and for about 3 years I’ve had the Samsung S6. However now I have the recently released iPhone 8, which I’m loving so far and along with my iPad, that’s me all Apple’d-up going into the year ahead.
So there we have it. That was my 2017 in two big entertainment nutshells.
I haven’t posted on here for a while. Well, apart from going away on holiday for a long weekend last week, I haven’t been watching any movies and have more been concentrating on a combination of work and in my leisure time, playing some games. Currently I’m playing Destiny 2 on Xbox One which I had pre-ordered a while back. Short impressions? I’m really digging it. It’s not exactly far removed from Destiny 1, bar some improvements and polish to the formula, such as now being able to travel to different locations without returning to orbit. I put many hours into Destiny 1 and can see me putting just as much time into this sequel. The advent of clans and easier to be a part of fire teams seems an added incentive also. Graphically it’s no slouch either, with varied planets to explore and great effects and atmosphere. The core combat is also as satisfying as it ever was. The game could greatly do with some new enemy types however but apart from that I’m having a great time.
Another game I’m enjoying is Steam World Dig 2 on the Nintendo Switch. I liked the look of this game from footage I’d seen a while back and it’s as fun and interesting an experience as I’d hoped. What can I say – platform exploration mixed with mining / digging is like gaming crack, and I find it very appealing that I want to rush back to the game time and time again. It may be a 2D platformer but it has colourful, vibrant graphics with a charming art-style and plenty of detail. I don’t have much else to say other than give it a try if curious.
I also got my hands on the highly anticipated Sonic Mania. I have the Switch version and boy, I’d forgot how difficult Sonic used to be. It’s sort of a celebration / re-imagining of the first 3 Sonic The Hedgehog games from waaaay back on the Sega Megadrive, with a few new stages added in for good measure. Although I’m enjoying it and it’s still a great deal of addictive fun, it’s reliance on old-school pixel graphics is a little disappointing – a bit of refinement here and there would’ve been nice – and a few new animations only adds so much. Overall for a Switch game it’s at times a bit ugly. Yet as a celebration of a famed videogame character, I guess it does it’s job well enough.
I finished watching Twin PeaksSeason 3 also, and have come away somewhat disheartened. The ending, without spoiling just left me thinking ‘wtf?’ and many plot threads (if they can be called that – this was not your usual show) failed to go anywhere. I’m leaving my final verdict until after I’ve re-watched the whole season on Blu-ray where I can really study it … not that I’m really expecting to come away all that wiser. We’ll see. Yet I will say this: as a purely artistic, utterly surreal ‘vision’ and as a return to film-making by acclaimed director David Lynch it was still effective, and at times amazing – but satisfying? The jury’s still out on that one.
I have some movie reviews in the pipe line and a few other ideas for this blog, so keep an eye out for further updates soon.
See what I did there? Yes, this post is primarily about two big loves of mine…Twin Peaks and the rock band Garbage. First more of an update on what’s going on with my favourite band. Firstly they are working on new music! This is reported to be a song they hope to release in time for a forthcoming tour. Shirley Manson, lead singer and general all-round bad-ass, has also contributed her vocal talents to the soundtrack of TV show ‘American Gods’ with a song she worked on with composer Brian Reitzell (Hannibal, 30 Days of Night) called ‘Queen of the Bored’ and well, it’s super cool. Video-link below:
Secondly Shirley is visiting London to attend the summer-camp music school for girls known as ‘Girls Rock London‘ as a Patron giving talks I presume on what it’s like to be a woman in the music business, conveying her 30+ years experience to the attendees. Should be very interesting. Here’s a picture of her as posted by the event organisers. Yeah, she’s looking great as usual. Now as mentioned earlier the band are preparing to go out on tour – with none other than legendary band ‘Blondie’ for the rockingly-titled ‘Rage & Rapture Tour’ which kicks off in July. Around the same time the band will also be releasing their autobiography entitled ‘This Is The Noise That Keeps Me Awake’ … so an eventful time for Garbage and a great time to be a fan of this pioneering and acclaimed band. Although they seriously don’t get the recognition they deserve these days; even 20+ years after they began, Garbage don’t answer to nobody and do their own thing, their own way … which is pretty damn cool.
On the TV front of course the big event has been the (very) long awaited return of Twin peaks – you know, that quirky little soap opera about a murdered girl that ran in the early nineties, got cancelled after it’s second season and also spawned a (mostly) reviled movie that later gained cult appeal. Now it’s back and if you thought the original was ‘a bit weird’ … well, David Lynch, series creator and all-round genius (or madman, I’m undecided) has been let off his leash and delivered possibly the strangest, darkest, freakiest and most daring TV show in years. I’ve watched 3 episodes so far of the 4 that have been revealed, and even though I’m loving it as a Lynch aficionado – it’s also really messed with my head and I can certainly understand if even die-hard Peaks fans could get turned off. Just watch it though – you just have to give it a go and make your own mind up. It’s that kind of experience. Even if you end up not liking it.
To celebrate the release of Twin Peaks, I also picked up the newly-restored version of Lynch’s Oscar-winning surreal drama Mulholland Drive and will be watching and reviewing it soon, so watch out for that.
Well that’s all from me for now. Check in again soon and I’ll have more stuff to show you…probably.
For a while there, around the time of this movie’s release the as yet unknown Jake Gyllenhaal was the poster boy for a generation of disaffected teens. Now regarded as a cult movie, this decidedly anti-teen drama still strikes a cord, with it’s dream-like atmosphere and obvious Lynchian stylings. Gyllenhaal plays troubled school kid Donnie who suffers from depression, has a past linked to burning a house down and seemingly can’t relate to the world around him. He also happens to have an imaginary friend called Frank, a guy dressed up in a rabbit costume. Following a freak accident where an aircraft engine falls out of the sky and through the roof of his bedroom, Donnie tries to piece together various clues supposedly leading to the end of the world.
A blend of styles, from sci-fi, Twilight Zone and high school angst to David Lynch-like urban paranoia – makes for a decidedly unique experience topped off with an unhinged central performance from Gyllenhaal. Along for the ride is welcome support from an alluring Drew Barrymore, a very young looking Jena Malone, Maggie Gyllenhaal and the late Patrick Swayze. It defies conventions and is pretty bizarre, but is also a movie that really made me think about life and death, the choices we make, paths we go on etc. This is all aided by an effective, ethereal score and great 80s themed music cues, the most memorable being Gary Jules’ eerily brilliant version of Mad World.
It’s probably not a movie for everyone, is slow in places and leaves some moments unexplained. However as an introduction to one of my favourite actors, and as a high school movie that really had a profound impact on me … I give this my highest recommendation.
The Blu-ray is (mostly) impressive stuff. The image quality I’m guessing is purposely soft, to create that dream-aesthetic, so disappoints with flat colours and a smudgy, dull appearance throughout. However, sound fairs much better with crisp dialogue, good use of surrounds and each music moment is particularly effective. However it’s in the extra material where this Arrow Video Limited Edition blew me away. We get two cuts of the movie, including the longer Director’s Cut, which primarily adds greater emphasis to the sci-fi elements with on-screen extracts from the time travel book featured in both versions, extra symbolism and some scenes are extended or slightly altered. Ultimately though this version doesn’t differ all that much from the original but perhaps is a little clearer in some of it’s themes. However the mystery of the theatrical cut is for me what makes it so effective. There’s a wealth of supplementary material included, like interviews and deleted scenes. Stand outs though are two audio commentaries on the theatrical cut from cast and production crew, as well as another on the director’s cut. Add to this a detailed collector’s book and I’d say this is one of the most packed Blu-rays you can currently buy.
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Craig's Movie Report 