Film review: The Green Knight

 

Messing with (your) heads…

Although it tells a traditional tale there is little that is traditional about The Green Knight. Washed in beautiful light and shade, every shot looks like an album cover so watching it makes you feel as if you have entered another dimension. It’s a shame that it was only fleetingly in UK cinemas as visual impact is tailor made for the largest screen you can find. What unfolds is a story with a flawed hero on a weird quest that is anything but triumphant or heroic leading to an elliptical conclusion. At the end its not entirely clear what happened or indeed why it happened. Amusingly one of the most asked questions on Google is `What is the point of the Green Knight? I’m not sure this movie will provide that answer; about the only recognisable aspect of any previous version is the round table.

 

The Personal History of David Copperfield review

This charming film is not entirely what you might expect from Armando Iannucci whose reputation was made with dark comedic satire. Yet he has breathed life into this venerable tale giving it a contemporary spin only inasmuch as to show how identifiable a story it actually is. If for some reason you had no idea this was based on a book you might think it was penned recently as there’s nothing here that smells musty or old. Quite the contrary in fact- this adaptation is as fresh and enjoyable as run on the Yarmouth beach which provides one of its locales. But don’t accuse the director- who also co-writes with Simon Blackwell - of going soft as there is always a harder edge where Dickens is concerned.

Skins Season Two

From the TWU archive vortex; first published in 2008.

Skins became one of 2007’s television talking points, surrounded by controversy, some manufactured, most of it based on inaccurate assumptions but it became a series television heads had an opinion about. The arguments ran roughly thus: it was a groundbreaking show that showed teen life today as it really is or it was pretentious, patronising and anyway teens didn’t watch, they preferred Hollydale. The truth probably lay somewhere in the middle - Skins’s first season, for all the fuss, was actually quite traditionally morally grounded and extremely well made with exactly the same care you’d expect from a period drama which in a way it is! Just that the period is this decade. Anecdotally teens do watch it in as much as teens watch any telly at all. The idea that it showed urban life as it is today is of course nonsense; no television programme ever could, but it could be said to show what life is like for a mixed bunch of Bristol based teens at least. And compared to the one note teen characters soap operas seem to offer, it is at least an attempt to identify to some extent with what is going on, particularly as most of the writers of the series are only in their 20s. Anyway, the problem with being a talking point is that expectations are ramped up for what comes next and this can affect the programme makers themselves. In other words, it’s the Difficult Second Series Syndrome. How do you top what’s made you a talking point in the first place?

Skins Season One

Lockdown archive! As we're all spending more time at home during the lockdown- and because everyone's doing this - I thought I'd post some archive material from the vast vaults of This Way Up (it's an enormous golden pyramid in the garden) starting with this review of the iconic first season of Skins from 2007. Wonder what happened to this cast then.....

On the criminally overlooked third Thrills album, there’s a line “I harbour doubts I didn’t live my youth with sufficient recklessness” and you’ll probably feel the same after watching a few minutes of the fascinating series Skins. Before you clock a second though, it’s worth checking out Maxxie miming to the Chipmunks song on Youtube because it’s funny and because it reminds us that this is a series about teenagers enjoying themselves in whatever weird way that teenagers do. Don’t expect to understand why, just laugh because there’s an askew enjoyment to be had from seeing a modern character dancing to such an ancient cutesy song from decades back. Its only one of a series of internet treats lurking for fans hooked on the TV show- the most notable of these is the ten minute “digger party” episode that’s positively surreal. It’s a good preparation for a show which will climax with- yes- a song. 

 Launched first on the minority channel E4 before getting a repeat on proper Channel 4 and now available on DVD (series 2 starts soon on E4 if you’re one of the 27 people who has subscribed to it), Skins is one of those once-in-a decade telly shows about young people that gets Mrs Putey from Basingstoke irritated and critics rhapsodising about how it’s speaking to the young generation. Cleverly trailered with exactly the sort of crazy party that parents will shiver their timbers about, the show seems designed to upset anyone older than 16 while simultaneously giving the under 16s their own show. It bothers me that they watch Hollyoaks which is a plastic, gift wrapped portrait of adolescence which I refuse to believe mirrors anyone’s experience except for well off thritysomethings with wine bars and lofts and designer furniture. As they say in the fab Corsa adverts, Come On!!

Chappie

In a near future Johannesburg, robot police have been successfully deployed but their creator Deon Wilson wants to develop the idea and introduce consciousness, something that his boss Michelle Bradley forbids. However when a criminal gang kidnap him to force him to adapt a robot they’ve stolen he sees an opportunity to test his idea. Meanwhile his rival for funding Vincent Moore, frustrated by the company’s refusal to further develop his altogether less subtle Moose law enforcement robot, exploits the situation to his ends. It’s an intriguing scenario especially with the surrounding South African locale providing a different look while a pacey narrative is never less than gripping.