On Their Bikes

New Releases: Friday, September 18, 2009

The month of September has become a cinematic doldrums, the lull after the summer blockbusters, the calm before the winter biggies. Often it can yield up some understated or offbeat gems, to wit 500 Days Of Summer or District 9. Though not this week, which resorts to seasonal type, numbering just three nationwide releases, the pick of which being possibly Away We Go (pictured above). Sam Mendes' road movie, starring Maya Rudolph and John Krasinski, is "sketchy but likeable," according to The Guardian.

While the family 3-D animation, Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, gets decent write-ups, it's far from the case with Nick Love's 80s football hoolie-fest, The Firm. Says the Daily Mail, "The one positive aspect is that Danny Dyer isn't in it."

Of the limited releases, the fly-on-the-wall documentary, Three Miles North Of Molkom, about a New Age/nudie/tantric festival in Sweden is reckoned to be a real hoot.

All national reviews follow below...

Nationwide
Away We Go
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs
The Firm

Limited
The Agent Birdwatchers
Blind Dating
Chevolution
Je Veux Voir
31 North 62 East
Three Miles North Of Molkom
Wanted

The Daily Mail/Mail On Sunday
The Daily Telegraph/Sunday Telegraph
The Guardian/Observer
The Independent/Independent On Sunday
The Mirror/People
The Star
The Sun/News Of The World
The Times/Sunday Times
Audio reviews: Five Live

Everything But The Kitchen Sink

New Releases: Friday, September 11, 2009

All hail Fish Tank, the grim Essex-set drama from Oscar-winning documentary maker Andrea Arnold (once a presenter on '80s Tiswas-like Saturday morning romp No. 73), which the broadsheets have lapped up — none more than the compulsorily socially-aware Guardian, which anoints Arnold "Ken Loach's natural successor." Praise too, for Greg Mottola's Adventureland, a college coming-of-age comedy which, says The Times, as "an example of the genre takes your breath away."

Julia & Julia, starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams, about pioneering US TV chef Julia Child, wins plaudits, but not universally, The Independent's Anthony Quinn damning it with the faint praise of being "not objectionable". National releases also include panned gross-out comedy Miss March and sci-fi actioner Gamer, starring the questionably ubiquitous Gerard Butler, which opens midweek.

Of the limited releases this week, nice to see the return of The Thing, John Carpenter's 1982 Alien-style shocker, dismissed in its day but rehabilitated as an overlooked sci-fi classic.

All the week's reviews follow below ...

Adventureland

The Daily Mail/Mail On Sunday
The Daily Telegraph/Sunday Telegraph
The Guardian/Observer
The Independent/Independent On Sunday
The Mirror/People
The Star
The Sun/News Of The World
The Times/Sunday Times

Fish Tank

The Daily Mail/Mail On Sunday
The Daily Telegraph/Sunday Telegraph
The Guardian/Observer
The Independent/Independent On Sunday
The Mirror/People
The Star
The Sun/News Of The World
The Times/Sunday Times

Gamer

The Daily Mail/Mail On Sunday
The Daily Telegraph/Sunday Telegraph
The Guardian/Observer
The Independent/Independent On Sunday
The Mirror/People
The Star
The Sun/News Of The World
The Times/Sunday Times

Julie & Julia

The Daily Mail/Mail On Sunday
The Daily Telegraph/Sunday Telegraph
The Guardian/Observer
The Independent/Independent On Sunday
The Mirror/People
The Star
The Sun/News Of The World
The Times/Sunday Times

Miss March

The Daily Mail/Mail On Sunday
The Daily Telegraph/Sunday Telegraph
The Guardian/Observer
The Independent/Independent On Sunday
The Mirror/People
The Star
The Sun/News Of The World
The Times/Sunday Times

Audio reviews: Five Live

Life, Nelson, But Not As We Know It

New Releases: Friday, September 4, 2009

A double whammy of critical wows this week, first with the Kevin Jackson-produced, South African alien flick, District 9, and also in the shape of inventive romcom, 500 Days Of Summer. District 9 and its alien crustaceans gets raves across the board, a "prawn cracker" according to the Daily Mail. 500 Days, meanwhile, does receive a couple of cynical knock-backs from The Times and Sunday Times, Rupert Murdoch's cockles failing to be warmed on this occasion.

Elsewhere it's the usual smorgasbord of late summer stock, a harvest festival of the unusual, including two critically-panned WW1 Euro-epics, Passchendaele and Red Baron (where's Snoopy when you need him?), a documentary about a London rent boy, Greek Pete, and Big River Man, about a bloke who swims up the Amazon — though presumably not after coating himself in lard, on account of all the piranhas. An acclaimed surfing chronicle, too: Bustin' Down The Door.

All the week's reviews follow below ...

Big River Man

The Daily Mail/Mail On Sunday
The Daily Telegraph/Sunday Telegraph
The Guardian/Observer
The Independent/Independent On Sunday
The Mirror/People
The Star
The Sun/News Of The World
The Times/Sunday Times

Bustin' Down The Door

The Daily Mail/Mail On Sunday
The Daily Telegraph/Sunday Telegraph
The Guardian/Observer
The Independent/Independent On Sunday
The Mirror/People
The Star
The Sun/News Of The World
The Times/Sunday Times



District 9

The Daily Mail/Mail On Sunday
The Daily Telegraph/Sunday Telegraph
The Guardian/Observer
The Independent/Independent On Sunday
The Mirror/People
The Star
The Sun/News Of The World
The Times/Sunday Times



500 Days Of Summer

The Daily Mail/Mail On Sunday
The Daily Telegraph/Sunday Telegraph
The Guardian/Observer
The Independent/Independent On Sunday
The Mirror/People
The Star
The Sun/News Of The World
The Times/Sunday Times



Greek Pete

The Daily Mail/Mail On Sunday
The Daily Telegraph/Sunday Telegraph
The Guardian/Observer
The Independent/Independent On Sunday
The Mirror/People
The Star
The Sun/News Of The World
The Times/Sunday Times

Passchendaele

The Daily Mail/Mail On Sunday
The Daily Telegraph/Sunday Telegraph
The Guardian/Observer
The Independent/Independent On Sunday
The Mirror/People
The Star
The Sun/News Of The World
The Times/Sunday Times

Red Baron

The Daily Mail/Mail On Sunday
The Daily Telegraph/Sunday Telegraph
The Guardian/Observer
The Independent/Independent On Sunday
The Mirror/People
The Star
The Sun/News Of The World
The Times/Sunday Times

Scrubbers!

Forty Years On

Have been up to my eyeballs crafting a piece for The Sunday Times on Withnail & I to tie in with a DVD giveaway. Embraced as one of Britain's best loved "cult" films it was handy to discover that it was forty years ago this winter that Bruce Robinson first sent Marwood's battered Jag up the M1, the project beginning life as a novel. For those in the know, amongst Robinson and the prinicipals, there's a code of silence... an omertà... so that didn't help when it came to getting quotes. Due to alleged financial irregularities on the part of Handmade Films and others, it is claimed that a lot of money is still owed.

As devotees know, the experience of the film disillusioned Robinson and he hasn't directed a flick since 1992 (Jennifer Eight). This month, however, marks his return. Big fan Johnny Depp has managed to haul him out of retirement and they just last week finished shooting Hunter S. Thompson's The Rum Diary in Puerto Rico. Released in 2010, it'll be Robinson's first directed film in eighteen years.

The big question remains as to just how good Withnail actually is. I was not a massive fan first time round and, having watched it again recently, remain unconvinced that it is anything more than a reasonably entertaining, quirky British comedy. There are some fantastic scenes, to be sure, but also some rather weak ones. Take away the segments with Uncle Monty (the fabulous, scene-stealing Richard Griffiths) and what are you actually left with?

Juliet Bravo

Here's my Juliet Stevenson interview from this week's Sunday Times Culture.

Hey Hey, JJ

Here's my JJ Abrams interview in Sunday Times Culture.

The Day The Earth Stood Still

All Smiles Chez JJ

Just got off the phone with JJ Abrams, director of Star Trek, creator of Lost, Alias, Cloverfield, Fringe, etc. Historic date today as Star Trek opens globally. At the time of speaking it had done a full day's business in Australia/New Zealand and the matinees had already concluded across the UK and Europe. East Coast USA was just rolling up the shutters. An effervescent chap but incredibly modest. Breakfast time in LA, he was just going to hang out with his son, who's off school, wait for the studio returns tomorrow morning and "Hope that people like it." If the reviews are anything to go by, he'll be sleeping soundly.