Gateshead-born North London-dwelling arts journalist person, film reviewer for 'The Crack' magazine, leftist, cyclist, liker of nice things, ‘good hair'.
Pablo Larraín's
#Spencer
is worlds removed from standard royal portraits, more like a Polanski psychological thriller, albeit with chinks of light. Kristen Stewart outstanding as Diana, trying to maintain sanity & independence in arcane, oppressive & eerily timeless environment.
Two undisputed cult horror classics on
@TalkingPicsTV
tonight: 1962's eerie & dreamlike Cocteau-influenced, Lynch/Romero-influencing 'Carnival of Souls'; & 1971's 'Blood on Satan's Claw', a delirious folk horror depiction of adolescent hysteria
#BloodonSatansClaw
#CarnivalofSouls
Opening today at BFI Southbank The Red Shoes: Beyond the Mirror is a technicolour swoon of an exhibition, feat pre-production material, items from Powell & Pressburger's classic including Moira Shearer's size 3(!) ballet shoes, & dreamy installations inspired by pic
@BFI
Kenneth Branagh’s semi-autobiographical
#Belfast
is shamelessly nostalgic, poignant, funny & beautifully played. The gorgeously rendered black & white photography makes this akin to flipping through a well-thumbed, much loved old photo album.
#LFF
#Belfastmovie
@BelfastMovie
Very concerned to hear about Tyneside Cinema's funding issues. An absolutely priceless local asset as well as a canny night out. Vivid memories of catching there for first time faves such as 'Un Cœur en Hiver', 'Farewell My Concubine', 'Reservoir Dogs' & 'La Maman et la Putain'.
#ShauntheSheep
#Farmageddon
delivers peerless
#Aardman
studio’s regular combo of endearing silliness, loveable characters & breakneck action, this time with witty nods to various sci-fi classics. Stick around for a splendid post-credits sequence that is as apposite as it is funny
Although it never quite ascends to catty heights of 'Mean Girls' or 'Heathers' slasher comedy
#BodiesBodiesBodies
is fast-paced, smart & funny takedown of entitled Generation Z rich kids. Shiva Baby's Rachel Sennott leads crowded field as the most shrilly solipsistic character.
@jasebyjason
I remember going out for a cycle that morning and saw Jeremy Corbyn on Stroud Green Road in Finsbury Park doing something with some volunteers and thinking, 'Well, if he can get himself together so quickly, I've no excuse'.
Maggie Gyllenhaal's very impressive directorial feature debut, Elena Ferrante adaptation
#TheLostDaughter
is endlessly compelling & enigmatic with powerhouse turn from Olivia Colman. It manages to retain dense novelistic feel while remaining completely cinematic
@thelostdaughter
@nicktolhurst
Thanks to this tweet, I've just spent twenty minutes deliberating on which side of the statue debate various 'Middlemarch' characters would come down on. I *really* need to get out more (while maintaining a 2 metre distance).
Rev. Casaubon would be on pro-statue btw.
'It's in the trees! It's coming!' An American professor investigates the disappearance of a colleague only to have a curse placed on him to be enacted in 3 days. Jacques 'Cat People' Tourneur's atmospheric British horror classic
#TheNightoftheDemon
,
@TalkingPicsTV
11pm tonight
All killer, no filler with handful of deep, deep cuts thrown in, Pulp sounded immaculate at Hammersmith. Staging gorgeous & Jarvis in better voice than ever, still throwing them Viv Stanshall meets Gainsbourg moves with wild abandon.
#Pulp
#EventimApollo
#Hammersmith
@welovepulp
Alex Winter's comprehensive Frank Zappa documentary
#Zappa
strikes elegant balance between wacky portrait of counter-counter-culture provocateur, & elegiac & profound study of ground-breaking & uncompromising artist. Includes wealth of archive footage.
@ZappaMovie
'I repeat,
@BFI
are today launching 'Cinema Unbound: The Creative Worlds of Powell and Pressburger', a major UK-wide retrospective of the filmmaking duo's work to take place in the Autumn.'
#CinemaUnbound
#PowellandPressburger
Day 8 This Mortal Coil 'It'll End in Tears' As well as 3 or 4 of greatest cover versions ever recorded, a fantastic gateway to other artists. Elizabeth's Fraser trilling 'Why are we so hung up in each other's chains?' on 'Another Day' lump in throat stuff every time.
#23Daysof4AD
Really enjoyed the ‘Poor Things’ costume exhibition at The Barbican. As well as Holly Waddington’s extraordinary outfits, there’s fascinating info on thought process that went into designs.
#PoorThings
@PoorThingsFilm
@BarbicanCentre
'Ninety years ago I was a freak; today I'm an amateur.' RIP David Warner, one of my very favourite, if not my favourite, actors. His effortlessly scene-stealing turns made an average film good and a good one great.
#DavidWarner
Based on a Kurosawa screenplay, 1985’s
#RunawayTrain
is meaty, richly allegorical action thriller with Jon Voight & Eric Roberts as duo of escaped convicts trapped on a train racing through Alaska. A rare quality flick from normally schlocky Cannon Group.
@TalkingPicsTV
9:05pm
London Film Festival press screenings a bit different this year. Not sure assistant projectionist approves of today’s selection either (open for surprise)
#LFF2020
#Stray
@wrkclasshistory
@marlor_marie
I walked past his pizza place while on holiday in NYC in early 90s & he was standing there looking out of window in a pair of big red shorts. If I had known this then, I would’ve went in & shook his hand (& bought some pizza)
Mark Gatiss & multi-tasking co. truly brought something back for 70th anniversary live reading of ‘The Quatermass Experiment’ at
#AlexandraPalace
. Brilliant James Swanton provided requisite chills & pathos as ill-fated astronaut Victor Carroon
#Quatermass70
#BFI
@Yourallypally
Typical. Wait years for reruns of classic The Outer Limits episodes penned by sci-fi writer Harlan Ellison that heavily 'influenced' The Terminator, & 2 come along in a month. Following recent screening of 'Soldier',
@TalkingPicsTV
are showing 'Demon with a Glass Hand' tonight
As well as penning best Star Trek: TOS episode (imo), sci-fi scribe Harlan Ellison wrote 2 of greatest 'Outer Limits' episodes. One, 'Soldier', with Michael Ansara as titular futuristic warrior teleported back to 1964 & adopted by well-meaning family, is on
@TalkingPicsTV
tonight
Surely a precursor to 'An American Werewolf in London' with its scuzzy Big Smoke rendering & deft combo of comedy & horror, the brilliant
#DeathLine
aka 'Raw Meat' is on
@TalkingPicsTV
tonight at 9pm
Day 15 'Treasure' Cocteau Twins. Loved 'Head Over Heels' but here they blossomed and set out in loads of intriguing directions, from lullaby minuets and industrial squalls to festive chimes. They were never again so eclectic and so bold.
#23Daysof4AD
Part psychodrama, part bleak comedy, part hallucinatory nightmarish mood piece,
#RobertEggers
follow-up to ‘The Witch’
#TheLighthouse
is a North Atlantic blast of vivid inky black & white imagery & belligerent brassy score.
#RobertPattinson
&
#WilemDafoe
fine double act
#LFF
When I interviewed Terry Hall for his ‘Laugh’ album, I asked if he’d sign an autograph for my university chum & big TH fan Nicola
@1501Nic
. He graciously obliged. She dug it out this weekend.
#TerryHall
Day 4 ‘Doolittle’ Played this cassette to death bitd - just an immaculate set of songs, thrillingly rendered that reenergised late 80s ‘indie’ rock. Saw Pixies at Northumbria University on this tour & anticipation & atmosphere was electric
#23Daysof4AD
Day 18 ‘Kangaroo’ This Mortal Coil, featuring the holy vocals of Gordon Sharp. Sublime version of Big Star tune. Love the the little chivalric keyboard flourish, and the way the line ‘I saw you staring out in space…’ just hangs there - in space.
#23Daysof4AD
#TalkingPicutresTV
is the only channel I religiously check the listings for now. Seen some absolute gems on there recently, and the team have a genuine relationship with their viewers.
@TalkingPicsTV
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Day 3 ‘Head Over Heels’ First heard ‘Sugar Hiccup’ on John Peel & was rooted to spot. Went out & bought album next day. Saw them at Newcastle’s Tiffany’s shortly after. ‘From the Flagstones’, an ep track that featured on reissue, is my favourite Cocteau Twins piece.
#23Daysof4AD
Two undisputed cult horror classics on
@TalkingPicsTV
tonight: 1962's eerie & dreamlike Cocteau-influenced, Lynch/Romero-influencing 'Carnival of Souls'; & 1971's 'Blood on Satan's Claw', a delirious folk horror depiction of adolescent hysteria
#BloodonSatansClaw
#CarnivalofSouls
Day 23. 'The Spangle Maker' Cocteau Twins. My favourite 23 Envelope sleeve. The photograph is 'The Crystal Gazer' by Gertrude Käsebier. I did my degree at Newcastle Polytechnic where Vaughan Oliver studied design, & got massive kick out of seeing his work on walls
#23Daysof4AD
It felt like a miracle watching Green & Scritti Politti co performing Cupid & Psyche 85 in 2021. Absolute scenes during ‘Wood Beez’ & crowd singalong to ‘Oh Patti’ was real lump in throat stuff
#ScrittiPolitti
#CupidandPsyche85
@scrittipolitti
A landmark in Queer British cinema, 'The Leather Boys' is on Talking Pictures TV this morning at 10:35am. Old 80s indie lags may be familiar with some of footage of star Rita Tushingham via The Smiths' 'Girlfriend in a Coma' video.
@TalkingPicsTV
The hits were cool & all, but it was older stuff that really raised roof at
#RoxyMusic
at the O2, particularly Andy & Phil searing through ‘Out of the Blue’ & ‘Editions of You’ & Bryan taking piano for show-stopping supremely creepy ‘In Every Dream Home a Heartache’.
@roxymusic
Day 21 'The Serpent's Egg' Dead Can Dance. We've grown accustomed to hearing Lisa Gerrard's vocals on film soundtracks and the like, but I'll never forget hearing opening 'The Host of Seraphim' for the first time. Awesome is an overused word... but this is awesome
#23Daysof4AD
Day 2. ‘The Comforts of Madness’. Dreampop with emphasis on pop. Saw Pale Saints at Newcastle Riverside touring this album bitd & vividly remember them opening with slow-building, thrilling ‘Sea of Sound’
#23Daysof4AD
#PaleSaints
Day 12: 'Clan of Xymox' Only got around to listening to this album fairly recently for some reason, but I remember hearing 'Stranger' on John Peel bitd, and loving New Order with Teutonic vocal combo & general air of goth-disco dread. Another outstanding sleeve too.
#23Daysof4AD
Day 5 ‘Wheel in the Roses’ First encountered Rema-Rema’s music via This Mortal Coil’s cover of ‘Fond Affections’. Pre-streaming & Wiki I didn’t know whether Rema-Rema was band, artist or songwriter. Recent documentary ‘What You Could Not Visualise’ filled in blanks.
#23Daysof4AD
Gateshead was a town ‘carefully planned by an enemy of the human race.’ Warm words for my hometown from J.B. Priestley in 1933, as quoted in Brian Groom’s ‘Northeners A History’.
@GroomB
#Gateshead
#NorthenersAHistory
Nearly 2 hours of non-stop bangers from peerless Pet Shop Boys at Wembley. If I *had* to choose highlights, the percussive Latin-inflected ‘Se a vida é’ & ‘Domino Dancing’ & evergreen ‘Left to My Own Devices’ with Neil T in full declamatory Noël Coward mode.
@petshopboys
@PhilipProudfoot
PLP's approach, the ones who have acknowledged, very similar MO to Johnson - 'Wait for the findings from the report, wait for the findings' and when it arrives 'Time to move on'
Day 22 'Release the Bats' The Birthday Party It's wild that 80s 4AD had this reputation as the home of ethereal trilling, when they began the decade with records like this - label retained a gothy element though, I suppose. This still sounds violent & unhinged
#23Daysof4AD
Scorsese influence hangs heavy over 60s-set biker movie ‘The Bikeriders’. Over-qualified cast, including Tom Hardy doing accent thing, fail to rev much life into tale of macho sentimentality that’s more meandering than freewheeling. Jodie Comer great though.
#LFF
#TheBikeriders
@tracey_thorn
Lovely tributes to Terry at the Madness gig at the O2 on Friday: support Lightning Seeds played 'Sense' & Madness covered 'Friday Night, Saturday Morning'.
Park Chan-wook's
#DecisionToLeave
is immaculately-choreographed, memorably-populated noir/Hitchcock-style dark romantic puzzle, as Korean detective becomes obsessed with beautiful Chinese immigrant curiously unmoved by husband's death. Possibly too labyrinthine for some tastes
#Tish
, a stirring documentary about the geordie photographer Tish Murtha, best known for chronicling working-class life in Newcastle's West End, also serves as a passionate plea to provide creative outlets for the less privileged. And the photographs, or course, are wonderful.