Films and Television, Music and Books.

 

Really interesting and atmospheric tv film starring Tom Skerrit and Michael Parks who give complex performances. The film is directed by Alan Metzger who never really did anything as good , mainly pay cheque thrillers and other 'topic of the month' tv movies . The writer Nevin Schreiner has form tho' writing some taut thrillers here and there that paid off when they had a director or producer behind it with ta lent. The film has a lot of interesting symbolism and a strong hidden narrative about the toxic by product of men sticking to traditional male views of masculinity and the role model of bread winner and provider'/protector . They even take in a game of baseball and that most American of past times shooting guns. With a parallel journey between the two police officers showing that neither benefit from what 'being a man' has to offer , it ends in violence between the two. i picked up on it after the domestic abuse section and the amount of alcohol a...

A brief analysis of a short scene from the film version of the t.v series Porridge, which i thought was quite clever and showed a high level of thought from the production. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xOldHAIXXo&fbclid=IwAR3DJ9SM33wToJWIhgeyAgXna7ja5EoSd3XNircOHBlhHauyyiuqAkeBhxs Peter Vaugn, you might remember him from GoT, but he had a long career before that, and was extremely talented (watch him on Our Friends In The North) . In the British t.v series Porridge he plays  Harry 'Grouty' Grout a  psychopathic gang leader with enormous pull in the prison. When he leans on lifelong criminal Fletch to hustle him in some passports apropos a prison break, its an interesting insight in to an actors take on a character. Grouty has n o time for positive emotions, he rips open the envelope like he's carving up a victim, and the letter he discards might contain a sentiment but he dismisses such humanity. Is the Sandra referred to his lover ( who else would be trusted...

One of the less talked about critical themes explored in the film The Running Man is the exploration of women's roles both in a nihilistic future and therefore contemporary America. And how the media treats women and commodifies  their bodies to sell product. If we remember that repeated imagery in the moving image is the creators tool to express dialogue. In this post i will discuss the various women shown in the film, their roles and how they are treated by the male characters and the environment in which they exist.  i posted these two captures of the two protagonists, because its repeated imagery and when directors/producers film it , then it's often to show the visual alphabet of their narrative, hidden or otherwise. Glazer, the director seems to use the genre piece to highlight excessive horrors of a future world to reflect on injustices in our contemporary one. One of the main, and ignored i think, theme he explores is the misogyny inherent in our western cu...