Misfits Season 1 review: A brilliant slice of black comedy

There are silly ideas, and then there are silly ideas. But Misfits is one of the silliest of them all; as a group of young offenders are exposed to a bizarre lightning storm, gifting them with a range of supernatural powers. It might sound like one of Stan Lee’s wet dreams, but against all the odds it works. Misfits is dark, violent and hilarious, and it’s one of the best teen dramas of the last decade.

One of the great joys of the programme is in drawing fantastic performances from its young cast. While the characters initially seem somewhat forced and clichéd (Kelly the chav, Simon the loner, Nathan the cocky git), Misfits spends plenty of screen time developing them and fleshing out their back stories, an impressive feat for a short series of just six episodes. Nathan particularly (played by the wonderful Robert Sheehan) becomes are extremely interesting and likeable character.

Another of the best things about Misfits is that it’s brilliantly funny. The scripts are unusually crisp and sharp for a Channel 4 series, giving the cast plenty of opportunity to bounce off each other with delirious black humour. It’s exceptionally dark stuff too, with bizarre deaths and violent crimes being uncompromisingly brought to the screen. Violence is frequent and graphic, with no episode being quite complete without at least one inevitable killing. The show’s gritty suburban setting combine with this violence to forge an atmosphere that can be at times terrifying, but it rarely becomes too intense, the action being broken up by the programme’s trademark brand of humour.

For me, where Misfits really makes an improvement over similar programmes is that it doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s got a silly storyline and it knows it, with the script regularly taking the mickey out of how ridiculous it is.

 Misfits is, impressively, a great series full of great moments. It’s got excellent acting, stellar scripts and lashings of dark humour. It’s a show so wonderful and addictive that, when Nathan prophesises “by this time next week, it’ll be back to the same old boring shit”, you don’t for one moment believe him.

8/10

Gravity review: Overbudget, overacted and overblown, is this the film of the year?

When a studio shells out $100 million to make a movie, they don’t like to take risks. With so much cash riding on the success of a film, all too often a pointless, predictable mega-movie is filmed, released and quickly forgotten. And that’s what makes Gravity so special; it’s got a massive budget, A-list stars and enough special effects to give Avatar a run for its money, and yet it’s fantastic. More than Avatar however, Gravity is a shining example of what a blockbuster can be, and is for me undoubtedly the best film of 2013.

Set around 250 miles above earth, Gravity is the story of two astronauts, Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Matt Kowalski (George Clooney), on a mission to perform repairs on the Hubble Space Station. When their space shuttle is (inevitably) destroyed by a cloud of space debris, the two begin a quest to return to earth with trials and dangers at every turn. Considering that the film features just two on-screen actors, it’s fitting that the roles are filled by performers of such talent and experience, with both Bullock and Clooney making for wonderfully believable portrayals of characters that the excellent script allow to develop and change of over the course of the film. Of course, the real star of Gravity is not the big name talent but the setting around them. It’s clear where much of the budget went as space stations, stars and astronauts gloriously come to life in the shadow of the ever present blue marble of planet earth. The visual effects are simply stunning; you’ll forget that it’s almost all CGI in what has to be the best portrayal of space in cinema history. The cinematography is gorgeous too, flitting between floating serenely through the heavens and spinning dizzyingly as the characters are tossed through the openness of space. It’s even better in 3D, the feeling of debris speeding towards you making for the best use of the technology since Life of Pi.

And while the effects are certainly part of it, beautiful views are not all the film has to offer. There’s a level of intensity brought on by music that shifts from Chopin-esque piano to heart stopping drums in the blink of an eye and a stellar sound design that ranges from the smash of debris striking a space station to, brilliantly, total silence. The music rises to dramatic crescendos to make the film that bit tenser, although Gravity does suffer from pacing issues towards the end as the action slows down to allow for compassionate overacting from Bullock. Despite this, Alfonso Cuarón’s direction is masterful, giving the characters time to develop while keeping the excitement flowing for the majority of the picture.

With the expectations riding on it, Gravity could have been a dire, seen-it-all-before space opera, but instead it marks a milestone for modern blockbusters, combing excellent direction with superb performances and the best space photography in cinematic memory. Whether it tops Apollo 13 as the greatest space movie ever is a debate for the hardiest film buffs, but one thing can’t be denied: Gravity is one of the best films of the year.   

9/10

1984 at the West Yorkshire Playhouse review: A classic adaption of a timeless novel

1984, George Orwell's bleak warning of the dangers of totalitarianism, has been told hundreds of times across almost every medium. The timelessness of its message and the genius of its storytelling have appealed to theatre directors and movie producers alike, although their adoptions, while sometimes excellent, have rarely matched the raw power of the dystopian novel  Orwell wrote in 1949. And while this new retelling from the West Yorkshire Playhouse won’t stand the test of time as the novel did, it is up there with the best of the plethora of plays based on 1984.
 
The story of a Winston Smith’s vain plight against the all pervading Party in a then-future England is a tale rooted popular culture, but while previous producers have chosen to stick rigidly to the original work, this adaption enhances the story through scenes of a present-day book group discussing Winston’s diary. This works superbly, adding a layer of depth rarely seen in theatrical adoptions. It also creates a focus on today’s world of governmental spying, and suggests the question of how different our civilization is to the one Orwell described. It’s not the only thing which has been added either; technology makes an appearance in the form of innovative use of huge screens; particularly effective in scenes such as the iconic two minutes of hate.
 
This adaption’s most major improvement over its peers is in its intensity. Violent use of lighting and blitzing background drones incur a thick atmosphere that becomes almost unbearable towards the end of the performance. The use of sound and music is truly superb, the dramatic noises of gunfire and helicopter blades keeping you on the edge of your seat. Graphic images including a traumatic torture scene, as well as an impressive piece of set demolition only add to the sheer intensity, and the lack of an interval is a sublime decision that keeps the pace nauseatingly fast towards the conclusion. And as if that wasn’t enough disturbia for you, let’s not forget the shocking themes of the original source material, brilliantly recreated here. And that's all without mentioning the acting, which is, on the whole, excellent, with Tim Dutton putting in a particularly convincing performance as the backstabbing O'Brian during the notorious room 101 sequence.
 
1984 is a book held in such high regard that it’s all too easy to stick to the story without taking any risks in a production like this. But this play is different; it features innovative use of technology, new scenes and an overbearing sense of atmosphere. It’s a superb piece of theatre; a classic adaption of a classic piece of literature.

9/10

The Queen Is Dead review: Is The Smith's greatest record the best album of all time?

Despite having broken up 26 years ago, there’s been a lot of talk about The Smiths over the past few weeks, largely due to the publication of iconic singer Morrissey’s new book Autobiography. The controversy and publicity surrounding the book might have led another Smiths related event to pass you by: NME ranked their seminal third album The Queen Is Dead as the greatest record of all time. But was the notoriously Morrissey-loving magazine being too nostalgic; hasn’t anything topped that staggering piece of alternative rock in the 27 years since its release in 1986?

The Queen Is Dead is an album of juxtapositions, flowing seamlessly from the pop silliness of a song like Frankly Mr. Shankly to lyrical darkness to rival Radiohead. This boils down to a set of 10 stunningly varied songs, creating an album that is, in many senses, bizarre. Another thing the Smiths excelled at during this period was satire, with the record mocking everything from religion to the press and, inevitably, royalty. This parody provides some of the finest lyrical moments of the group’s short career, with “Charles don’t you ever crave to appear on the front of the Daily Mail, dressed in your mother’s bridal veil” being a particular favourite.

So aside from princes cavorting in drag on the cover of national rags, what more does the album have to offer? Musically, it’s the Smith’s finest hour, the violent drums and bombastic bass lines of songs like The Queen Is Dead (Take Me Back To Dear Old Blighty) contrasting with the subdued brilliance of Cemetery Gates to showcase a band who leading the indie-rock pack. Morrissey’s lyrics are regularly dark to the point of hopelessness, surely most so on penultimate track The Light That Never Goes Out, where he sings “if a double-decker bus crashes into us, to die by your side is such a heavenly way to die.” This turns from suicidal mania to pioneering musical technique when combined by the sweet and soft synthesisers of Marr’s music, an idea the band perfected on Girlfriend In A Coma on their fourth and final album Strangeways, Here We Come, in which Morrissey discusses his dying partner over a bubblegum melody.

The Queen Is Dead is a timeless album, its satire remaining sharp and its musicianship staying near unchallenged 27 years on. It’s almost undeniably the Smith’s best record, and while the greatest album of all time tag could be strapped to hundreds of others, The Queen Is Dead is undoubtedly a worthy choice.

10/10

Max Payne review: Innovative and impressive gothic noir in this classic shoot 'em up

It’s well over a decade since the release of the first Max Payne game, but his franchise is now a multimillion pound best seller, his character revered by critics and loved by fans. So what was it that made Max Payne so special way back in 2001? And, 12 years on, how much of the game’s legendarily gritty noir has been tarnished by the inevitable force of time?

It’s something of an understatement to say that Max Payne, of the New York Police Department, is not a lucky man. Just a few minutes into the game his wife and child are brutally slain and his best friend and colleague murdered. From there Max Payne becomes as bloodbath as our psychotic antihero sets out on a quest to avenge his family. It’s not an original or particularly interesting premise, but the game’s storytelling is intelligent enough for this to be easily forgivable. Payne’s tale is told through an impressionistic graphic novel format rather than animated cutscenes, with a dark, seedy art style and brooding voiceover performances from James McCaffrey as the lead.

Max Payne is, if nothing else, an action game.  Max is a near indestructible killing machine, wiping out waves of enemy thugs with a wide variety of weapons and dozens and stunningly effective painkillers. There’s no shortage of opponents; Max’s body count numbers in the hundreds by the game’s conclusion, but as shooting the same enemies in similar situations is the backbone of the game, it does become a little tedious. It doesn’t help that only a few enemy character models were built, and coming up against a clone army highly damages the game’s style and believability. It’s therefore fortunate that the actually gameplay mechanics are largely excellent, and the first ever use of Matrix esque bullet time in a video game proves to be a useful and impressive feature. The game’s graphics are certainly outdated, and there are sticky animations and utterly ridiculous stationary facial models, but this is forgivable considering Max Payne’s age and how excellent the recent Max Payne 3 looked.

Better than bullet time though is the game’s intense neo-noir style. Set in a snow-coated winter New York, Max Payne thrives on seedy hotels ridden with prostitutes and back alleys full of mobsters, creating a blackened atmosphere well ahead of its time. There are also some deliciously nasty supporting characters and a plot that twists and turns delightfully over its lengthy three parts, helping to add to this ambiance. The game is unafraid of displaying its influences too, there’s plenty of banter between guards as they discuss classic martial arts films, and the deliriously violent ending in which Max storms the headquarters of a villainous corporation seems a direct homage to the final shoot-out in The Matrix.

It might be visually showing its age, but Max Payne remains an expertly crafted slice of gothic entertainment, packed with pop culture, stained characters and levels of violence to rival Grand Theft Auto. Max’s character is both terrifying and oddly likeable, and it’s no wonder GTA’s creators Rockstar Games bought this iconic franchise.

8/10

 

 

Captain Phillips review: A gripping and intelligent American thriller (come again)!

It’s fair to say the film landscape has become dreadfully cluttered with movies featuring the line “based on a true story” over the past few years. In fact, I’ve recently noticed fewer films which lack those dreaded words than films that do, something that never ceases to depress me as Hollywood begins to give up on imagination in favour of unnecessary sequels and real-life pictures. But Captain Phillips is something different; it’s a film that truly demonstrates just how brilliant a movie can be. Even when it’s based on a true story.

Captain Phillips sets itself in 2009, as Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks), captain of the Maersk Alabama, sets sail for Kenya laden with 17000 metric tons of cargo and twenty crew members. It’s not long before the inevitability of the “true story” sets in and the ship is hijacked by four Somali Pirates, led by the unsettling villainous Abduwali Muse (Barkhad Abdi). Hanks is superb in the title role, but it’s Abdi who really steals the show as Muse, creating a character we can both empathize with and despise at the same time. The film is highly commendable for not just presenting these pirates as a series of foreign cardboard cutouts; taking screen time to flesh out their characters and even making the audience feel for their difficult predicaments.

What’s easily the best thing about Captain Phillips is its intensity, particularly towards the closing stages of the film. As the movie progresses, the screens shift from the vast establishing shots filling the exposition to confined, claustrophobic spaces and shaky camerawork, a technique expertly used to present the mounting desperation of the situation. It’s full of sounds too; the shouts of the Somalis; cries of pain and sprays of bullets build an atmospheric crescendo, enhanced by John Murphy’s powerful score (adored by myself for his work of the Kick-Ass soundtrack).

A blockbuster budgets of $55 million has been wisely spend as the film is luxuriously shot, particularly during the early stages with sweeping views of the ocean and impressive establishing shots.  The script is also intelligently written, a rare asset for most major Hollywood productions, and Paul Greengrass’s direction is excellent.  The script is perhaps guilty of becoming too overblown during the finale, but overall it sustains the viewer’s attention consistently throughout the movie.

It’s almost unheard of for a Hollywood biopic (if one can call it that) to be intelligent, well acted and entertaining all at once, but Captain Philips has it all. It’s a superb film that does full justice to a draw-dropping tale, wearing its “based on a true story” tag with pride and providing over two hours of gripping entertainment.

9/10

What Did You Expect From The Vaccines review: Pure pop-rock fun

As the days get colder and the nights draw in, it’s sometimes nice to take your mind of the chilly outdoors with simple, happy music. And that’s why we need more bands like The Vaccines, whose debut album What Did You Expect From The Vaccines is not only jolly enough to thaw a snow covered football pitch but is also musically excellent. With strong beats and fuzzy power chords, this is as good an album as any for a cold, wet winter.


Clocking in at just over half an hour long, What Did You Expect From The Vaccines is a short album full of short songs. It’s therefore remarkable that most of it is extremely memorable, largely due to the band’s tremendous overreliance on colossal choruses. Indeed, the album’s most summery and simple song Nørgaarad repeats its “her mind’s made up she don’t wanna go steady/she’s only seventeen so she’s probably not ready” leading line four times in its 100 seconds, making use of just 3 chords in the process!

The Vaccines create a brash, unapologetic sound with Árni Árnason’s prominent bass lines merging with Pete Robertson’s powerful drumming, which helps to keep most of the songs so simple and joyful.  Justin Hayward-Young’s vocals are another matter however, as he regularly creates a darker undercurrent to songs like Post-Breakup Sex with murky lyrics and singing which sounds a little quieter in the mix than you would expect.

However, the album is best defined by songs like If You Wanna; short, sweet and featuring an undeniably overmilked chorus. It’s not complex, inventive or even particularly original, but it is great fun, and sometimes that’s all that’s needed.

6/10

  

Gran Torino review: Clint Eastwood orchestrates an entertainment masterpiece

When an established actor directs and stars in their own film, it’s sometimes the final symbol of decadence as they move, kicking and screaming, towards total irrelevance. Fortunately, this is not the case with Gran Torino, a film so deliciously entertaining that it rivals much of the brilliance of actor come-director-come-producer Clint Eastwood’s legendary past work.
 
Over the course of a career lasting more than 50 years, Eastwood has become a world famous macho symbol, but in Gran Torino he plays a man falling apart. Far from the iconic heroes and villains Eastwood portrayed in countless westerns, Walt Kowalski is an unpleasant alcoholic Korean War veteran with a bitter hatred for his Hmong community in his neighbourhood. As the film progresses however, Walt begins to see the error of his far-right views and befriends his young neighbour Thao and his family.
 
While it might sound like the classic redemption cliché, the film takes several dark turns and explores themes of intolerance and gang culture. Eastwood is superb as the grizzled Walt; his experience obvious as her swears and spits his way through every scene. That said, his direction seems someway self-obsessed, devoting most screen time to himself with few moments where he does not appear. The supporting cast is excellent, with Bee Vang playing a convincing Thao and Christopher Carley as the woefully underused priest Father Janovich who attempts to help Walt after the death of his beloved wife. This script is also sharp and crisp, merging tension and suppressed violence with flashes of wit perfectly conveyed by the cast.
 
Eastwood’s direction and the superb script make Walt’s redemption convincing through subtle changes in his character over the course of the film including language and facial expressions, and we again see the impressive wealth of Eastwood’s experience as he creates a believable and perversely likeable character. Indeed, Eastwood’s appearance makes the film, it’s difficult to imagine anyone else playing Walt.
 
Gran Torino is a wonderfully entertaining film, but its flashes of feeling make it an even better picture. It’s but no means perfect; you can complain of Eastwood’s overbearing direction and the occasional cliché; but even so it’s a funny and touching movie well worth its place in Eastwood’s catalogue.
 
8/10