The end / the beginning

This is the last time I'll be posting to this particular blog. I am, from now on, concentrating solely on my interests in Irish and Scottish film. Apart from anything else, they're far less represented in the blogosphere than the other things I cover, so it's not like there's a shortage of sources if you want to read coverage of horror, cult movies, documentaries, current releases etc.

For a couple of reasons, I'll be leaving this blog online for a few weeks but then it'll be deleted for good. Rather than leave it floating out there forever, I'd rather get rid of something that will not be getting maintained.

So if you only came here because of, well, any reason other than the Irish/Scottish stuff really, then I guess you don't need to bother coming back, but I thank you for reading. If you are, on the other hand, interested in either Scottish or Irish film (or both!) then be sure to pop back and visit me over at www.gaelmovies.com whenever you can.

A bunch of recent releases

Okay, it's decided. I will be abandoning the scattershot approach of the Freakpit and very, very soon this blog will be replaced with a brand new one. If you're here for the coverage of documentaries, spaghetti westerns or any other marginalised form of movie then I apologise but let's be honest. There are countless blogs out there devoted to such things and lots of them have a great deal more effort put into them than this one.

The Scottish and Irish stuff has been getting more and more common of late and that's the interest on which I'm going to concentrate. But before I hammer the final nails into the Freakpit's coffin and start talking about tartan and blarney, I thought I'd finish off with a brief round-up of a bunch of recent films that I never got round to reviewing.

FROST/NIXON boasts a couple of decent lead performances and is a gripping enough film about a fascinating incident. It was probably the best of the big Oscar movies but was still rather conventional and unspectacular, a testament to how weak the last year or so has been for films.

AUSTRALIA was almost every single type of awful. I'll single out the expression-free Nicole Kidman trying desperately hard to act (again) as being the "highlight" but really it's difficult to know where to start, or end, when describing just how much this film stinks of terrible.

RACHEL GETTING MARRIED slips a little towards the end of the film when the actual wedding goes on forever - to the point where you genuinely feel like you're watching an entire video of the wedding of two people you've never met - but otherwise is a fine ensemble piece dominated by an incredible Oscar-nominated turn by Anne Hathaway.

MILK was an entertaining study of important true events, a nice reconstruction of time and place and a showcase for a great performance by Sean Penn but as far as biopics go, it was another case of ticking boxes.

REVOLUTIONARY ROAD was a fantastically dark look at fifties American suburbia and the futility of the American dream, with good performances for the most part. Miserable, cynical and various other adjectives that people also use to describe me all apply.

MY BLOODY VALENTINE 3D. Yeah, this one's a bit out of place. On the one hand, I like 80s slashers, including the original of this. On the other hand, I despise the current trend of remaking every film ever made and try not to give them my money. So I got into this one using a voucher I had been given, so my conscience is clear. It's in 3D, it's got gore and female nudity and Tom Atkins is in it. If none of those things interest you, steer clear because they are literally the only things that come close to being reasons to see it.

THE CLASS is the Cannes prize winning French drama combining semi-improvisation and verite style to take a look inside a school full of troubled kids. It's all well handled but don't go expecting easy answers to anything. Or any kind of answers at all. I can't make up my mind if it's a terrifically realistic look at the problems of modern education or if it's just a cynical expression that there's nothing we can do to help these people, no matter what we try.

GRAN TORINO is another entertaining entry in Eastwood's canon as he plays the miserable old war vet who hates pretty much everyone. He's a racist bigot, some Asians move in next door, blah blah blah. Yeah, you know what's coming, but Eastwood proves again why he's such an interesting director (and storyteller, more importantly). Not without flaws (and is it right that a racist is so funny?) but still a crowd pleaser all the same. This is what Dirty Harry looks like when he's retired.

Watch this space for updates on the status of the blog. Bye for now.

Quick Scottish/Irish update (10 March)

Further to my last big Irish and Scottish updates, here's a couple of little bits of extra information.

If you missed BBC NI's entertaining and touching documentary OVER HERE, fret not. If you're quick enough, you should still be able to see it on the BBC iPlayer.

Various Irish film sites are reporting that the film WC is getting a limited release from March 13th. Check your local arthouse for details. Not seen this one so can't give you any steer as to the quality.

If you're in or around Glasgow on March 28th, there's a special screening of HELEN at the CCA, by the Irish directing duo Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor (aka Desperate Optimists) who will both be in attendance for an interview. You may remember I saw this one at EIFF last year and didn't like it that much. Too cold and distant for me and just didn't ring true, but it was probably the most beautifully shot film of the 50-odd movies I saw at the festival. I'm not going to enthuse wildly about the film, but the Q&A should be interesting, particularly for low budget or aspiring filmmakers. Ticketed event, but free.

Scottish animated short HERZOG AND THE MONSTERS is now available on the BBC Film Network.

Irish film update (5 March)

Big Irish film update today. Let's crack on...

At the IFI in Dublin, this month's Ireland on Sunday screening (on Sunday 8th, i.e. this weekend) is the documentary WHAT AM I DOING HERE? by Trish McAdam which I am not familiar with at all (this is the world premiere after all) so head over to the Irish Film Institute to find out more.

Also at the IFI, this month's archive screening is the vintage DARBY O'GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE (which I've just heard is going to be introduced by Jim Sheridan). At the risk of destroying my credibility... I've never seen this.

Declared by me to be the joint best film of 2008, Declan Recks's EDEN has just been released on DVD in the USA so for those of you who are either in America (ooh, a wee Irish film pun there) or have multi-region DVD players, buy a copy. Still no sign of it appearing in the UK despite picking up a distributor. Admittedly it's the same distributor who picked up KINGS and I'm still waiting for that to get any kind of a UK release.

While we're talking about DVDs, Lance Daly's excellent KISSES is released to buy on DVD tomorrow, but only in Ireland. I've heard nothing about it getting a UK distributor yet and certainly nothing's been submitted to the BBFC as I write this, so this might be your best bet to see it if you haven't already done so.

Two Irish films are on release in Ireland at the moment. The Liam Neeson/James Nesbitt drama dealing with the legacy of the troubles, FIVE MINUTES OF HEAVEN, is playing at all of four cinemas (as far as I know). I've been too lazy to look up any reviews but it won a couple of awards at Sundance. Looks interesting, so if any of you are in Dublin, Dundrum, Cork or Galway why not go and see it. I'd hope that Neeson and Nesbitt coupled with the fact that it's directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel should be enough of interest to get it some kind of UK release, but I've heard nothing so far and the fact that its release in Ireland is so limited doesn't seem like a great sign - unless it's testing the water before a major release. If anyone know anything about a UK release let me know.

Slightly less likely to get a UK release I fear (although I hope I'm wrong) is the Irish animated romp THE SECRET OF KELLS, which played well at JDIFF last month. It's had some cracking reviews so if you've seen it let me know.

I suppose I could just organise a day trip at the weekend - fly over to Ireland first thing in the morning, see THE SECRET OF KELLS and FIVE MINUTES OF HEAVEN, pop into the shops to buy a copy of KISSES and then fly home again but even my love of Irish cinema doesn't stretch to such lengths. Actually that's a lie, my love of Irish cinema does... but my bank balance doesn't.

Belfast Film Festival recently announced its programme. There's a lot of Irish feature films playing, including John T Davis's documentary TAILWIND which I've missed at a couple of festivals. I mention this one specifically because it was on BBC NI a few days ago and I forgot to mention it here. I think that was an edited down version though, so if you get the chance go and see the full length version of this documentary about the Northern Irish contribution to World War II.

Their programme of Irish shorts features a whole heap of short films and no less than 14 of them have been covered here on this blog, most of them favourably, so why not go along and see some of them. I'm not going myself. I was tempted, particularly since I have never been there (and I believe my ancestors came from there so I could do the whole stereotypical tourist thing) but I'm reserving my holidays for the various other film festivals that I've still got planned for the year, including many more Irish ones. If there had been some really cheap flights I might still have been tempted with a last minute thing, mind you.

If you go to over to Youtube, the festival has posted a whole bunch of trailers showing at the festival, split into features and documentaries.

Going back to the subject of BBC NI, and to make up for not mentioning TAILWIND, a similar subject (this time American soldiers in Northern Ireland) is covered in OVER HERE which airs on BBC NI next week (9th March, 9pm). If, like me, you live elsewhere in the UK, you can get the regional variations of BBC on Sky Digital and such services.

Just to prove I'm not totally limited to this part of the world, I'll mention that there are a few Irish film festivals in American this month. San Francisco started today and is on tomorrow as well; Seattle is shortly after that; most significant is the Chicago Irish Film Festival. This runs from the 6th to the 11th of this month - features include classics and new films, such as THE INFORMER and KISSES. They'll also be showing a bunch of shorts, including Conor Ferguson's ATLANTIC which you'll recall I declared the fourth best film of 2008. So if you happen to be reading this in Chicago - first of all, hello from Scotland, and secondly, go and see some Irish films. Especially ATLANTIC.

Finally, Irish films are represented at this year's London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival. Neasa Ni Chianain's FAIRYTALE OF KATHMANDU, covered in this blog back during the Edinburgh film fest, is playing on 6th and 7th of April (paired with SPOTLIGHT: GAY PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, a short film about gays in Ulster). Short films at the festival also include the Irish films MAN HUGS by Aoife Sullivan (26th March) and JAMES by Connor Clements (6th April), the latter also having been covered in this blog.

Scottish update (4 March)

Okay, a bunch of Scottish-related film updates for you. I am seriously considering replacing the Freakpit with an all-new blog concentrating on the Scottish and Irish stuff by the way. Just so you know.

Richard Jobson's cult-destined Edinburgh action film NEW TOWN KILLERS, which I really want to see but have missed thus far, is playing at the Belfast Film Festival, which just announced its programme.

The Scottish short film THE HAPPY DUCKLING is playing as part of a collection of short films for kids at the DCA in Dundee on the 21st and 22nd on March. Additionally, there is a special event with the filmmakers on the 21st.

The MacRobert in Stirling is showing Alfred Hitchcock's fantastic version of THE 39 STEPS on 20th March and is also having a "Tartan Day" screening of STONE OF DESTINY on 4th April.

The Hippodrome, Scotland's oldest purpose-built cinema (completed in 1911) is nearing the end of its restoration and should open its doors as a cinema again in April. Check out these pictures on Flickr and try telling me you don't want to watch films in places like this.

BAFTA Scotland has announced the nominations for this year's New Talent Awards. First of all, well done to Rose Leslie for her nomination for NEW TOWN, as I thought her great performance was one of the few endearing characteristics of this BBC misfire.

What I really wanted to point out however are the nominations in the fiction category, as all three of them - FLASHED, I'M IN AWAY FROM HERE and LIFE OF A PIGEON - were covered by me in my recent round-up of the stuff I saw at the Glasgow Film Festival. LIFE OF A PIGEON also scored an acting nomination for Owen Gorman. Well done to all involved with all three films.

Talking of LIFE OF A PIGEON, I believe that you can actually watch it on the director's website at www.billycampbell.co.uk so off you go and do that now. There's another film he made as well, ISLAND TO ISLA, but I've not watched it (yet).

While we're on the subject of the shorts I saw at Glasgow, I should also point out that you can see FOUR FUR A FIVER on Youtube. Go here to see this short documentary.

Finally, again on the subject of Scottish short films, one of Scotland's most successful shorts, CRY FOR BOBO, is available on the BBC Film Network.

That's all for now. There's an Irish update coming tomorrow night.

GFF09: AGE OF STUPID

AGE OF STUPID is the latest in the series of documentaries about how we're ruining the planet and there's not much time to do anything.

Taking the concept a little further than usual, director Franny Armstrong (of MCLIBEL fame) presents the film with a futuristic framing device in which a man watching over an archive of Earth's history (played by the great Pete Postlethwaite) examines the evidence and wonders why we chose to destroy the planet when we had the chance to save it.

The concept's a little more imaginative than normal but delivers more of what we've come to expect. It's going to be a hard task to conquer the prevailing attitude of "it'll be okay in the end" and AGE OF STUPID won't do it without help. That's where the film's clever marketing strategy takes over though, and there will be all sorts of ways to see this film in the coming months.

From a purely cinematic point of view it's a well-made film with an important message but you can never escape the feeling that you're being lectured to. However the aim here is not just to make a decent film, it's to save the planet and you have to applaud it for doing it in such an engaging way. See it.

GFF09: WHO KILLED NANCY?

Alan G Parker's documentary (following up on his book) aims to clear the name of Sid Vicious by examining the events surrounding the mysterious murder of Nancy Spungen.

It's an interesting insight into the punk era and particularly the New York scene at the time. Unfortunately Parker is so dedicated to Vicious and his life that the majority of the film becomes about him rather than the kind of investigation the title promises.

After a brief dalliance with the subject at the start, the closest we get for much of the film is an examination of how Vicious came to be mixed up with Nancy and various other people before finally returning to the subject towards the end. Even then, despite a few people clearly pointing the finger at one individual, there's not much more than a "we can't find him" and that's that.

The film is certainly worth seeing for anyone with an interest in the scene and in that respect it's a good documentary; but for a film calling itself WHO KILLED NANCY? it doesn't really deliver the kind of film I was expecting.

GFF09: ONE EYED MONSTER

Isn't it just typical? You spend your life waiting for a film about a psychopathic, dismembered phallus going on a killing spree and then two of them appear at once.

Hot on the heels of Frank Henenlotter's BAD BIOLOGY comes this low budget horror comedy in which a group of youngsters head off to a remote cabin to film an adult movie only for an alien to turn Ron Jeremy's fame into a crazed monster.

You can't make a film like this and not have it be tasteless, but as far as it goes this film is a lot less crass and misogynistic than BAD BIOLOGY. Many of the gags are genuinely smart rather than just relying on the obscene ridiculousness of the situation and the cast look like they're having a blast making it.

It's just as stupid and cheap looking as Henenlotter's effort but by dropping some of the nastiness in favour of some characterisation, ONE EYED MONSTER just edges it in the battle of the killer... nope, sorry, I just can't believe I'm even writing this.

GFF09: THE UNBORN

If you've been to the cinema recently, you may have noticed a large poster for this horror film (produced by Michael Bay... sigh) featuring an attractive young lady in a pair of ill-fitting panties. It would be all too easy for me to suggest that this was done because this by-the-numbers slick-but-empty badly-acted piece of crap is not going to be remembered by most of its target audience for anything else except that young lady in her underwear.

So easy, in fact that this is exactly what I'm going to do.

Gary Oldman, you were in THE DARK KNIGHT for God's sake... can you really be this desperate for a quick buck?

GFF09: GRACE

In this indie horror flick, a woman's pregnancy turns nasty when her baby, having apparently been stillborn, suddenly comes back to life and... well, you know it's not going to be good.

The horror genre is not exactly light on films about kids going bad, from THE OMEN to JOSHUA to... actually, now that I mention it, I notice that JOSHUA came out on DVD recently and it's been retitled THE DEVIL'S CHILD, with a wee banner saying "aka JOSHUA" underneath it. AKA? AKA? It's not AKA anything, that's the film's sodding name. One of the best things about JOSHUA was its subtle approach to the material, something echoed in the name of the film. Why not just go the full way and call it something like THE REALLY EVIL CHILD WHO WANTS TO MURDER DADDY or some such crap?

Sorry, what was I talking about? Oh yeah, familiar territory, etc. GRACE tries to bring something new to the table here but unfortunately that something new is just taking the usual story and making it more unpleasant. Some of you might think this is a good thing - after all, a lot of horror has gone off in this direction of late - but for me it's a cheap trick which adds nothing and ends up doing more harm than good.

Granted, I'll admit that as much as I like gory, nasty horror there are some things I don't like seeing and one of them is violence involving pregnant women. GRACE, with its combination of this and baby-based horror just left an unpleasant taste.

The film, which was made for a low budget, is very slickly done and that disappoints me even more. I'd love to see the director Paul Solet work on a better script because he's clearly blessed with both a love of horror and a lot of talent but sadly GRACE is just plain unpleasant, and not in a good way. His abilities and those of the lovely and talented Jordan Ladd are sadly wasted here.

GFF09: I SELL THE DEAD

It's directed by Dubliner Glenn McQuaid and it seems to be maybe, possibly set in Ireland (Ron Perlman even sports an Irish accent) so I feel justified in attaching the Irish film label to this one, even though it's really an American one. The time the film is set in is equally vague, but it looks kind of Middle Ages like.

Dominic Monaghan and Larry Fessenden play a couple of grave robbers who spot a way to make a bit more money but, as you'll have guessed by the fact that this was part of Glasgow Film Festival's day-long Frightfest event, things go horribly awry.

The old favourite of having a man on death row (Monaghan) telling his incredible story to a priest (Perlman) has been done before but there's something grim about it that always lends a bit of weight to a horror film. Sadly a bit more weight is what this film could have done with.

There are some good gags in the script and the leading duo have some chemistry, but by and large the film doesn't sustain the gag ratio successfully enough for what is essentially a comedy film with horror trappings.

The budgetary restrictions also leak through in many parts of the film. Clearly made for little money, the film feels too claustrophobic in places. I don't mean that in a good way either, I just mean that all too often it feels far too much like the film has been made on a tiny soundstage - even when it's on location.

Credit to McQuaid though, he does do a grand job of getting a lot of the moody lighting and smoke-draped countryside just right, creating a perfect homage to the old Hammer films and sundry other British imitators of the '70s. It's a shame then that the US location work eventually overwhelms the mood of the piece, with a beach-set showdown involving some zombie-like creatures destroying the atmosphere that McQuaid worked so hard to generate. For most of the running time it's an effective Hammer tribute but the beach scenes just make it feel like another American made-for-DVD cheapo.

That may well be the case too, since I don't see it troubling a cinema any time soon. If you're getting friends round for a late night film romp, you could certainly do a lot worse than this likeable little movie but in the end it's a film that never quite overcomes its humble resources.

GFF09: DOROTHY

DOROTHY, or rather DOROTHY MILLS if you want to give it the name it seems to have been released under in other territories is an Irish/French co-production. I mention this not just because of my enthusiasm for Irish cinema but because it perhaps sums up what a mixed bag this film is.

In the lead, we have Carice van Houten. Now I thought she was terrific in Paul Verhoeven's BLACK BOOK - not only did she did she manage the impressive feat of still looking sexy while covered in excrement, she turned in a terrific lead performance which carried the whole film. Having not watched anything she's done since, I was glad of the opportunity to catch her in some rather different material.

So, a Dutch lead actress, playing an Irish woman. Okay, interesting. In the supporting cast we have the wonderful Scottish actor Gary Lewis, again playing Irish. Van Houten ends up sounding like a curious Irish/American kind of thing while Lewis sports a kind of Ulster/Scottish hybrid accent. Both good performances, mind you, just a little odd.

That's in keeping with the film though. The story isn't terribly new (woman turns up in small town, weird things happen, hostile locals, dark secret from the past, etc.) but it's an enjoyable mash-up of horror staples. Again it contributes to the mixed up feel of the film - at times it wants to be Hollywood teen horror, at other times it's more in keeping with the traditional WICKER MAN style of story. You know the one, outsider stumbles across weird rural community who do things differently.

Good use is made of the sparse Irish landscape, the cast is solid enough and director Agnes Merlet manages to get some good tense scares out the material. As much as the film is a passable way to spend the time however, the real reason for watching it is Dorothy herself.

I must confess that when young Jenn Murray was nominated at the IFTAs for her performance it passed me by. I'd never heard of her, never heard of the film and my attention was focussed on some of the more well known material. Shame on me. As the teen girl haunted/possessed/whatever by the spirits of, well, loads of people, Murray packs as much emotion and versatility into the role as it can possibly allow. It's thanks to her incredible efforts that an otherwise fairly average horror film becomes extremely engaging indeed.

The downside is that the film suffers whenever she's not around, although van Houten and friends manage a reasonable job of keeping things ticking over. But the star of DOROTHY is Dorothy.