Ex Machina

On a spur-of-the-moment cinema trip, Alex and I saw Ex Machina on its opening night. I knew nothing about it beyond hearing a short radio interview with Domhnall Gleeson that made me curious enough to suggest we try it (plus it was starting in, like, 2 minutes). I loved it. You should watch it.

The plot follows a young programmer at Blue Book (a Google-like search engine) as he tests a revolutionary new robotic A.I. after winning a competition to visit with the company's CEO. Everything goes perfectly.

Ex Machina reminded me of Moon - both are small, satisfying character-based sci-fi films with twists and turns. Both are very good. The tech speculations are well illustrated, regardless of plausibility. It's easy to imagine how the near future could be, um, unimaginable thanks to one or two developments. Remember how the Tamagotchi changed everything?

Under The Skin and Her also make perfect boxed-set companions, though even after a single watch I reckon I prefer Ex Machina. It's not so bleak as the former and it's not trying as hard as the latter to have cool trousers.

Anyway, if you're in the UK, go see it now. Give it love. It'd be great if Alex Garland got to direct more films. If you're in the US, you gotta wait until the 10th of April.

Oh, and don't watch the trailer if you possibly can. It doesn't spoil much but, like with lots of things, it's better to know nothing.

Godzilla 2014 gif

Pretty hyped about Gareth Edwards' upcoming Godzilla film. From the brief glimpses we've seen, the creature design is looking awesome.

This animated gif is taken from the new It Can’t Be Stopped TV spot. I brightened up the hero shot of the big fella to get a better look at him. The looping makes it a bit silly, but dang is he prickly.

GFT: For All

Here's something bonkers. I've been working with the amazing Glasgow Film Theatre on a series of simple animations to accompany For All - a project discussing what cinema means to the community.

Between July and September, 9 writers will publish texts on the theme of 'For All' to encourage discussion and the sharing of ideas. Short extracts of each piece will be animated and shown onscreen at the GFT before films and on the Glasgow Film website where you can read the texts in full.

The first part of the project launches today. Pamwepo (at together), a poem by Tawona Sithole, beautifully sets the tone for what's to come. Visit the page, read the piece and share your thoughts.

(flip to HD for better quality)

Creating these animations (which I'm still working on btw - it's gonna be a hectic month) has been a learning process and no mistake. I may have dabbled before, but this is my first time working on anything on such a scale. Despite this, I'm determined to play around and enjoy myself. The turnaround on each clip is short so we're going for simple, effective little ideas and trying not to stress on getting everything perfect.

Music for the project is provided by two of my very favourite musicians in the world - Jonnie Common and The Pictish Trail. This makes me unbelievably proud. If you don't know their work, go check it out. Figurehead (by JC) and Michael Rocket (by Pictish) are good places to start.

So, if you find yourself in Glasgow over the next wee while, go see a film at the GFT. It's a beautiful cinema and they show brilliant films. The For All animations will play before the features and you can contribute to the project via the Glasgow Film blog, on Twitter using the #filmforall hashtag, on the Glasgow Film Facebook page and by using the post-it notes in the GFT foyer. Here's some more information about getting involved.

Emily Munro, Head of Learning at the GFT has written a response to Pamwepo on the blog. It's a good place to start.

I'll write more about the project as it progresses here and I'll toot about it on Twitter. Stay tuned.

Exorcist 3: Nurse Station Scene

My favourite movie scare. Beautifully done.

Stanley Kubrick's Boxes

Last night, just by chance, I noticed that someone had uploaded Stanley Kubrick's Boxes, a documentary by Jon Ronson, to Vimeo. I was super excited as I'd been trying to find it for quite a while with no luck.

The film, as far as I can tell, was made alongside this 2004 Guardian article by Ronson which I remember reading on my lunch break back when I worked in Argos. It's a fascinating exploration of Kubrick's giant (bloody GIANT) personal archive that shines a little light on his creative process.

I'd recommend giving it a look, especially because there's a chance it'll be pulled from Vimeo if the wrong kind of dude stumbles over it. It's as funny and interesting as you'd expect from a Jon Ronson documentary.

There's a suggestion in there that Kubrick understood that he could create works of genius, but only if he methodically researched every detail of a project for years beforehand. That's comforting, eh? The idea is lovely - that even if you're not a natural talent, you can achieve something beyond your capabilities if you're patient and put in enough goddamn work. It completely humanises the big, scary, impenetrable director.

I'll maybe do a wee post about my love for Jon Ronson sometime soon. If you don't know his work, his latest book, The Psychopath Test, is a great place to start.

EDIT: understand there's a good number of people visiting after a bunch of activity on Twitter last night. First off, hello! Second off, Javaring on Vimeo is deserving of credit for the upload.

Holmes vs. Potter

Tonight we watched a film that I remember fondly from my childhood. The Spielberg-produced, Young Sherlock Holmes. A decent Indiana-lite adventure that once freaked me out with its trippy hallucination sequences. It always came on the telly on a wet Saturday afternoon.

When trying to convince Alex it was a worthwhile watch, I said 'You'll like it, it's a bit like Harry Potter'. I don't mind a bit of H.P. now and again and neither does Alex. I'm not into the books or anything, but I'll watch the films. Anyway, having not seen Young Sherlock Holmes in at least 10 years, 'a bit like Harry Potter' turned out to be a hell of an understatement. Y'know Withnail & I has that drinking game? Well here's one for Young Sherlock: take a swig everytime something Harry Potter-y comes on screen - you won't make the credits.

The main 3 characters, Holmes (Harry), Watson (Ron) and Elizabeth (Hermoine) wander around their big old school in their stripey scarves getting into all sorts of pavlovas. They make friends with an eccentric old professor (Dumbledore), sneak about after dark and take the piss out of Watson for being a clumsy arse. Sherlock spends most of the film with a scar on his face (given to him by the bad guy, for goodness' sake). Tea is eaten in a massive hall complete with a million candles, comedy twins and scowling teachers:

There's even a fencing (wand) lesson where Holmes proves himself to be a formidable fencer (wizard) but is warned that he needs to keep his emotions in check, or else. As the mystery (concerning an Egyptian cult) unravels, the gang head out into the London underworld (Diagon Alley) to visit curious shops in the search for clues. I'm using Google to find these names, by the way.

Best of all though is Holmes' rival, Dudley (Draco). A right proper ponce who sneers and scowls his way through the film as he plots Sherlock's downfall. He's a bad egg. He chats up Elizabeth. He gets Holmes expelled. He nicks a trophy. Just take a look at him next to Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter. Ooh, that rotter:

Pretty close eh? When you see him in action it's hard to not be all 'hang on a second, this is getting weird'. I guess it could still be a coincidence though. Well, yeah, but just wait until Sherlock goes and makes a potion that TURNS HIS GODDAMN HAIR WHITE:

Haha! It's like J.K. Rowling wrote some weird Young Sherlock Holmes fan-fiction and it all got a bit out of control. Look, he's even got a couple of cronies tagging along with him. There has to be something fishy going on, right? Right?

Well, maybe. Turns out some guy beat me to the comparison by about 5 years. He goes into a fair bit of depth on this blog about it. There's a lot of interesting stuff about J.K. Rowling's influences, Chris Columbus' involvement in Young Sherlock / the H.P. films and more nerdy comparisons that I could ever make. Here's me thinking I was dead insightful.

I'm not meaning to go all conspiracy theorist here, Harry Potter has a ton of really cool ideas going on. It's cool. These similarities only make watching Young Sherlock Holmes more fun. If you're in the mood, you can even watch thewhole thing on YouTube right now.