All posts by Leigh Singer

25 Jan 2015
Sticky Post By Posted in Features Permalink

Bruno Wizard: The Lone Star / Dazed & Confused

Sticky Post By On January 25, 2015

With his life on film and his work in Selfridges, the fiercely independent punk artist and iconoclast tells us why he’s still not selling out

Text Leigh Singer
Photography Anna Stokland

If you’re one of the select few who know Bruno Wizard, chances are you’d call him a punk. You might remember hearing him back in the movement’s 1970s heyday, fronting bands The Rejects and later The Homosexuals in London’s first official punk venue, The Roxy, in support of bands like The Damned, Wire and X-Ray Spex: the anarchic lyrics, clattering three-chord riffs and performances that made up in sheer visceral energy what they lacked in musicianship.

If you really know Bruno Wizard, though, you’d know “punk” is a label he has consciously rejected almost from the outset. “I felt I’d already had my revolution hijacked in the 60s by the establishment having control of the means of production, distribution and media,” he says. “It took about four years to happen to my generation. So when punk came around, they had learned from the last time and what I call ‘establishment punk’ got co-opted after, what, six months? I was outside of that.” Read more

22 Jan 2015
Sticky Post By Posted in Features Permalink

10 Great Comedies of the 21st Century

Sticky Post By On January 22, 2015

10 Great Comedies of the 21st Century

As the LOCO London Comedy Film Festival rolls in to blow away the January blues once again, we decided it was time to take stock of some of the 21st century’s finest, funniest achievements in film comedy.

Let’s face it, in dark, dreary January, everyone needs a good laugh. LOCO, the London Comedy Film Festival now in its fourth year, was specifically designed to combat the winter blues, serving up an array of new and classic shorts and features across the capital. Along with its world premieres, and the opening night UK premiere of Lost in Karastan, this year’s LOCO theme is social class – a smart choice in a general election year – which means the likes of vintage Ealing comedies Passport to Pimlico (1949) and Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) and more modern classics such as Local Hero (1983) and Life Is Sweet (1990) back on the big screen.

And LOCO isn’t just about watching movies; it plays an active role in providing training and ideas for funding for the next generation of comic filmmakers. Its highly popular Kickstart Your Comedy Career course at BFI Southbank offers a great way to motivate and connect people – just the way the best comedies do. Read more

19 Dec 2014
Sticky Post By Posted in Film Reviews Permalink

The Woman in Black: Angel of Death

Sticky Post By On December 19, 2014

The number of good, or at least successful, horror films that don’t have a sequel is about as long as the list of satisfied clients recommending the Michael Myers Babysitters Agency. So in 2012, when The Woman in Black, adapted from Susan Hill’s popular 1983 novel (and subsequent long-running West End play), became the biggest British horror hit of the past 20 years, a new chapter from the revamped Hammer Films was pretty much nailed on.

Horror sequels, perhaps more than most franchises, are generally the epitome of a quick cash-in. Even the classics – The Exorcist, Halloween, The Ring – regularly falter at the first follow-up, regurgitating the same old formula, minus the innovation. Credit Angel of Death, then, for at least trying to ring some changes on the original, even if ultimately its dependence on the now-known mythology and familiar tropes of its source material drag it kicking and screaming back to Black.

We don’t get another Victorian gothic drama, then, with star Daniel Radcliffe replaced by another Hogwarts classmate. Instead we open during the Blitz, 1941, as a bunch of young children leave bombed-out London town for the, heh-heh-heh, safety of the countryside. Unfortunately the vengeful spirit of Jennet Humfrye, the wronged suicide whose own son died, is still lurking about. At Eel Marsh House, you don’t need the German Luftwaffe to be in danger from things that go bump in the night.

Two teachers accompany the kids. Strict disciplinarian Mrs. Hogg (Helen McCrory) and the younger, kinder Eve Parkins (Phoebe Fox). It’s Eve who tries to connect with vulnerable young orphan Edward, and who first gets suspicious when Edward starts to exhibit trance-like behaviour; and when grisly things start happening to the other children. Eve, with the help of dashing and locally stationed RAF pilot Harry Burnstow (Jeremy Irvine), must fight back against their implacable ghostly foe.

For all the film’s admirable production qualities – George Steel’s images give the ever-present mist a creepy tactile quality and Jacqueline Abrahams’ production design on the dilapidated Eel Marsh House makes the Bates Motel look like the Beverly Wilshire – there’s something overly studied and box-ticked at play here. Screenwriter Jon Croker knows enough to ensure that both protagonists, Eve and Harry, need some unresolved past traumas that tie into the main storyline. He dutifully includes them but then proceeds – Eve’s tortured visions aside – to have characters tell each other their painful secrets, more than show them. It’s prose, all right, but there’s no poetry.

Those irritating LOUDJUMPSCARES, a feature of almost every modern horror flick generally having little to do with the actual plot, turn up on schedule every 10 minutes. And just once, it would be refreshing to see a ghost story where the door hinges were well oiled, the pipe work didn’t wheeze like an asthmatic and every kid’s plaything didn’t resemble a dog’s chew toy. Even the Angel of Death subtitle feels redundant. It’s a little like making a Jason Vorhees sequel called Friday 13th: Maniac with a Hockey Mask and Machete. Tell us something we don’t know, already.

Director Tom Harper (The Scouting Book for Boys, TV series Peaky Blinders) is one of the more promising young British helmers around, but it’s as if he knows that we already know the mysteries in store. One can feel him straining to keep things fresh, the camera constantly creeping in and around the old dark house. But the story, indeed the entire franchise has already been mortgaged to a property we’ve already seen condemned. There’s only so many renovations one can do.

It’s a shame because, if you get rid of the actual Woman in Black, there’s some promising material here. A tale set in WWII, a time where blackouts were mandatory, where death was ever-present and minds could snap at any time under the psychic strain, is fertile ground for horror. The best scenes here use these specifics: a fake airplane landing field location; a gruesome use for a gas mask; the repressed guilt of survivors. But inevitably, back to the house and its black widow we go, and it’s business as usual.

Earlier this year The Babadook showed how to transform a haunted house into something fresh and genuinely disturbing. And newcomer Phoebe Fox’s fine, tremulous performance suggests an actress who could dive into the depths of unfiltered grief. What we get here is a film that, despite its watery climax, paddles in the shallows, content to give us more easy Woman thrills, without really examining the horror of what makes us human.

The Verdict

By no means a disaster, The Woman in Black: Angel of Death’s very adequateness is its own cautionary tale. The need to keep a franchise breathing but stable, cuts off the new possibilities to make it come thrillingly alive.

6.0

Horror sequel that fails to match its predecessor in terms of scares.

+Impressive production elements
+Strong performance by Phoebe Fox

– Overfamiliar haunted house tropes
– Formulaic scares
– Wasted potential of intriguing new premise

The Woman in Black: Angel of Death reviewed by Leigh Singer for IGN.com http://uk.ign.com/articles/2014/12/18/the-woman-in-black-angel-of-death-review See the published article on IGN.com

09 Dec 2014
Sticky Post By Posted in Interviews Permalink

Agyness Deyn – Electricity

Sticky Post By On December 9, 2014

Agyness Deyn’s charged starring-role debut
The former model with the peroxide crop shifts gears, portraying epileptic Lily in Electricity

Every time a Cindy Crawford (Fair Game) or Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (Transformers: Bend Over) lumbers gracelessly from runway to movie screen, the boo-boys gleefully lambast the very notion of an MTA: Model Turned Actress. That someone who’s evidently nothing but a vacuous mannequin should dare to talk, walk and even emote at the same time? Stick to the designer frocks, love; pose, pout and know your place. MTA? More like DOA.

Here’s a two-word f***-you to such presumptive, sexist bollocks: Agyness Deyn. 2007’s British Fashion Awards model of the year, the Lancashire girl whose distinctive peroxide crop and androgynous allure revamped an ailing industry after the initial supermodel cycle – Kate, Naomi & co – had spun out. Deyn’s everyday exoticism always suggested a certain nonchalance with the fashion world. Not that she didn’t work (it) hard; more that, while her catwalk stare was focused, her inner, artistic eye was wandering.

And so Deyn turned her attentions to acting. A play (The Leisure Society) here. A supporting film role (Pusher) there. Attention duly followed, though perhaps more from novelty value. That’s about to change big-time with her startling lead role in new British indie Electricity. Deyn plays Lily, a young woman suffering from temporal lobe epilepsy searching for her long-lost brother, while trying to keep her condition from overwhelming her.

Deyn’s in practically every scene. The entire film is filtered through Lily’s sputtering, hallucinatory perspective. It’s a role that demands complete physical, emotional and professional exposure, yet Deyn’s beguiling mix of strength and vulnerability makes it her own. It’s such a breakout performance that Terence Davies (Distant Voices, Still Lives), arguably England’s finest auteur, promptly snapped her up as the lead for his next film, Sunset Song. This MTA’s second career is lurching to vibrant life.

Lily’s condition isn’t one we’ve seen depicted on-screen. What was your key to understanding it?

Agyness Deyn: I basically camped out in the London office of this specialist. He’d show me videos of people who have it, because they have to collate the mental activity to the physical activity that’s going on. And I just kind of noticed that when (a fit) came on, it’s as if someone’s soul was being ripped out, you know?

That’s quite a description…

Agyness Deyn: It’s as if they’re being controlled by someone else. Not in a being-possessed way, and it’s not like being out-of-control either, because the actions are very repetitive. Some people have seizures and it’s not the same as an epileptic fit. Epilepsy is a rhythmic thing, it’s like a circuit that gets stuck.

Was there anything you could connect it to in your own experiences?

Agyness Deyn: Being controlled by something huge that you can’t overcome – everyone can relate to that in a tiny degree in their life. And just being a young woman and going through things, like puberty – it’s mental, isn’t it? As a young person going through that, you’re not in control of your body. But then magnify it a thousand times.

This is a huge step-up from your previous acting roles. Did you ever question: “It’s a great part, but has it come along too early…?”

Agyness Deyn: I didn’t really think about it in that way – ‘Am I ready yet?’ Maybe I should’ve done…

I’m not saying you weren’t ready…

Agyness Deyn: No, no, it’s good… That could have been a rational thought, but I read it and fell in love with Lily so much and knew that this was what I wanted to do for my career. So to audition and get offered it, when you truly connect to it on an emotional level – I was just so excited to be given the opportunity to create a story with all these amazing storytellers.

What was your most challenging scene?

Agyness Deyn: Hmm… There was one scene I did where she starts hallucinating with the snake on the table and she’s all over the place. When we were doing it, I felt so uncomfortable and thought it was terrible. And when I actually saw it, I realised it was actually because (Lily’s) in bits and by that time I’d been literally doing it for five weeks, six days a week. (I was) absolutely physically fucked and I was so in it, that I was experiencing what she was. And then I was like, ‘Oh, that’s where the magic happens…’

You obviously love the teamwork of filmmaking. Did you ever get the same collaborative buzz working in fashion?

Agyness Deyn: On a small scale. Sometimes you do a shoot and you’re just facilitating someone’s vision where you think, ‘OK, this isn’t really my thing but that’s my job I’m going to do it.’ But it can be very creative within the team – doing shoots with Tim Walker or Steven Meisel where they create a world. But it’s like a tiny drop compared to doing a film for weeks or months. You have withdrawal symptoms afterwards.

So Title A, the fashion label you started with your sister – is doing that a way to express more creativity within an industry you know?

Agyness Deyn: It’s something totally different. In a way it’s just clothes that me and the two other women I do it with… We just all crave a certain aesthetic. So we wanted to create it. And it’s going really well – we’re growing.

There’s often media cynicism when someone moves from one creative field to another, particularly so with a switch from fashion or modelling. How have you found that?

Agyness Deyn: It’s funny because it’s never been a consideration, and I only think about it when people bring it up…

Sorry, but it’s an obvious thing to ask…

Agyness Deyn: No, it’s a great question and, like you said, it definitely occurs. But I feel really strongly about what I want to do in life. And I feel that one should fulfil those things or else they’re not really living life. To be creative and work hard is such a beautiful thing.

“I feel really strongly about what I want to do in life. And I feel that one should fulfil those things or else they’re not really living life” – Agyness Deyn

Given that your husband (Giovanni Ribisi) is an actor, do you prefer to share work stuff or keep it separate?

Agyness Deyn: I don’t know, people in relationships have… Obviously, they talk about work and they share each other’s lives. But then you’re doing your own thing at the same time.

So would you do, say, script read-throughs together?

Agyness Deyn: No… (laughs)

Tell us about your Terence Davies experience. Did you know his work before?

Agyness Deyn: Yeah. Terence is such a beautiful storyteller from an emotional perspective. The first time I read the (Sunset Song) script, I just cried because it’s so emotional. I auditioned and months went by and then, I’ll never forget, I was on the street in LA and he called me up personally and offered me the job. That was a dream.

Is Sunset Song in the same vein as Distant Voices, Still Lives?

Agyness Deyn: I did just ADR a month ago, so I’ve only seen little snippets. It’s definitely very character-driven as Chris – the lead role – she narrates it as well. It’s very unsentimental in a way, but very connected to a bigger picture; relationships between humanity and the earth. Terence Davies is so… classy, without being at all pompous in any way. He’s all heart. And he has to feel it.

Electricity is out in cinemas on December 12

To see the original article at Dazed Digital click here: http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/22857/1/agyness-deyn-interview-electricity

23 Oct 2014
Sticky Post By Posted in Film Reviews Permalink

Serena

Sticky Post By On October 23, 2014

Silver Linings Playbook. American Hustle. Two of the most acclaimed US movies of recent years, both starring two of the hottest actors around – Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, both Oscar-nominated for each film, with Lawrence winning for Playbook. So when a third movie headlining America’s dream team is mysteriously delayed for two years (Serena was actually shot before American Hustle), something is definitely amiss. Crueller critics were gleefully anticipating a full-blown fiasco but Serena will disappoint them as well as most everybody else, failing even to be an epic failure. Instead it’s just slight and rather silly. Read more

21 Oct 2014
Sticky Post By Posted in Interviews Permalink

Edward Lovelace & James Hall – The Possibilities are Endless

Sticky Post By On October 21, 2014

In 2005, Scottish musician Edwyn Collins suffered a massive hemorrhagic stroke that left him only able to utter four phrases: “Yes”, “No”, “Grace Maxwell” (the name of his devoted wife), and “the possibilities are endless”. His long struggle to recover affected not just his musical ability but also his memory. Some semblance of his previous life has been movingly put together in the new film from rising British documentary makers Edward Lovelace and James Hall. Read more

17 Oct 2014
Sticky Post By Posted in Film Reviews Permalink

Monsters: Dark Continent

Sticky Post By On October 17, 2014

Taking the Alien franchise as your starting point is a bold but risky move. Not so much the concept of aliens themselves – though as with Monsters, Gareth Edwards’ 2010 breakout original, the ETs-on-earth provide backdrop – but the idea of reinventing your series each time out.

Ridley Scott’s Alien is a sci-fi-horror hybrid, effectively a haunted-house-in-space. James Cameron’s Aliens armed and adrenalized the concept to make a sci-fi-action/war epic. It was an inspired change of pace that honoured yet expanded on a classic to produce not just a sequel but an equal. Read more

16 Oct 2014
Sticky Post By Posted in Film Reviews Permalink

It Follows

Sticky Post By On October 16, 2014

Sex and death: a staple of scary movies forever, from eroticized vampire feeding frenzies through to Cronenbergian body horror (Shivers, Rabid) and slasher movies’ promiscuous teens. You don’t need to have studied Freud to view the endless Friday the 13ths and Halloweens, with their knives, axes and chainsaws thrusting at and penetrating nubile young girls (and the occasional guy) as frustrated phallic revenge. Film studies tutors get off on these readings the way Jason Vorhees does when watching a new batch of dumbass campers arrive at Crystal Lake. Read more

14 Oct 2014
Sticky Post By Posted in Film Reviews Permalink

The Mule

Sticky Post By On October 14, 2014

There’s “black comedy” – a sense of humour shot through with the darkness some folk simply can’t laugh at. And then there’s The Mule, a crackerjack new Australian crime thriller, which might also be referred to as a “brown comedy”; it’s dark, alright, but its particular shade is more associated with toilet humour – or, at least, the stuff that goes in the toilet. Wait, come back… “Sh*t happens?” is truly a, er, logline that sounds like a gimmick. But fundamentally, that’s what this film is about – whether a naïve stooge who’s ingested twenty condoms full of heroin can outlast the police who are holding him for seven days on suspicion of drug smuggling by not, shall we say, producing the evidence. Read more

05 Oct 2014
Sticky Post By Posted in Interviews Permalink

Pawel Pawlikowski – Ida

Sticky Post By On October 5, 2014

British cinema, perhaps without fully realising it, has missed Pawel Pawlikowski. He left Warsaw as a teenager, eventually settling in England, where he studied literature and philosophy at London and Oxford before starting his filmmaking career – mainly BBC documentaries – in the 1980s. The best-known of these – Dostoevsky’s Travels, Serbian Epics, Tripping With Zhirinovsky – were festival circuit regulars and prestigious award-winners. Read more

Get in touch

Your Name (required)

Your Email (required)

Subject

Your Message