"You promised me that everything was gonna be ok, remember?"

The Film "Requiem for a Dream" (2000) is based on a book by Hubert Selby Jr of the same name:

I haven't read the book, so, to be fair, I can't comment on how close it follows the narrative.

One thing I do know is this: Requiem is one of the most relentless movie rides you could ever experience. But you constantly want to get off.

Like wincing at road kill, the use of montage is cleverly interwoven with stark images that, try as you might, you simply cannot turn away from.

I have watched this film several times, and it always has the exact same affect. I sit there slack jawed and tense for a couple of hours, seemingly unable to draw breath - but the other night I watched it with my best friend, who had never seen, or heard of it before: seeing his reaction was almost as hard to watch as the movie itself. It was then that I knew that what this film does so well, is really get under the skin and right smack bang into the centre of the darkest soul of things.

The music just adds weight to everything you're seeing: intense & running the same theme throughout. This has to be one of the most exhausting films ever made - the story itself is not particularly hopeful, but the way the Directory Darren Aronofsky draws you in is like nothing else.....

Ultimately, you could argue that films like this are self indulgent, that movies should be happy, jolly, fun and uplifting affairs. But I disagree; whilst this films messages are essentially seen as;

"Hey!.....Drugs are bad, addiction is bad, we're all doomed, your dreams will diminish to nothing, leaving you empty and wanting"

That's actually OK with me. I don't want to be protected - I want to see behind the scenes, I dig the hideousness;

If you're a little like this too, then this film will have a profound effect. if it's not your bag, then try sticking your head in the sand.

Shut your raggedy-ass up, and sit the fuck down!

While everyone else in the room is getting in a dizzy tizz over Quentin Tarantino's new Movie Grindhouse, (yes, I know it's a double bill with Robert Rodriguez sharing Director's credit...) I got to thinking; What is my Favourite Tarantino movie?. Which of his films, when all is said and done, can I go back to and enjoy as much now, as the first time I watched it?. I have to say, for my money, that would have to be Jackie Brown.

Jackie Brown was Tarantino's 5th time in the ring as a Movie Director, only this time the subject matter was drawn from a Elmore Leonard novel "Rum Punch"; Tarantino had, by this point, written Reservoir Dogs, Natural Born Killers & Pulp Fiction, and was carving a very plausible reputation as the Zeitgeist of the '90 film industry. It seemed, whatever he had a hand in, turned to gold...

Re-writing the novel into screenplay is always going to change the plot in some ways. That Tarantino manages to retain the essence of the story whilst altering some of the plot only magnifies his talent.

Also interesting is his casting: using A- Lister's such as Deniro & Keaton in smaller parts, whilst handing over the leading roles to veterans such as Pam Grier & Robert Forster, just shows a man at the top of his game, with laser like accuracy, he nailed every single part perfectly.

But what I like more than anything else about Jackie Brown, is the pacing. Tarantino has the ability to turn up the heat (reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill Vol's 1&2, Natural Born Killers), but here we're seeing an obviously more pensive view through the lens. Every shot is allowed to slowly unfold onto you. this is not like many other films of it's time, crashing and shouting all the way to the end without much to say. Damn it this film has depth, soul even.

And if you think you know what the film is "about", look again. There are at the very least four story lines occuring all at once, every bit as complex as say, The Godfather, or No Way Out or Glengarry Glen Ross. As the pace is so perfectly kept, you're almost seduced into believing that all these stories are one and the same thing. Like I said, look again.

I'm very exited about Grindhouse too. It seems that in the last fifteen years that I have become so interested in film, Tarantino has been an imminent force, every now and again back on the radar with a new box of tricks. Grindhouse, no doubt will expertly reinvent a genre that many didn't even know existed. No doubt there will be the obligatory Grindhouse copies in the next 18 months or so. No doubt Tarantino will be asked to dissect every frame of his new film.

But I wonder if this signifies another kind of departure. Jackie Brown was probably the most mature of him first five movies. People will pick their favourites, but none could deny that the characters within Jackie Brown are "real" enough to care for, can we actually say that of any other character, in any of his 4 films before?

The Story, the Script, the Dialogue, the Characters, it's all here: Jackie Brown is hard to beat.

"This is England"

“This is England” Sean Meadows film offering, comes off as something of a beautiful lament for the 1980’s. But there is nothing saccharine about the images he draws from: The Falkland War, our Iron Lady Maggie Thatcher, Miners Disputes, Unemployment:

Acting as the backdrop to something like the “everyday tale of a young boy’s short distant travel in the summer of 1983”, from bullied & oppressed flared wearing ginger, to skinhead. His charming indoctrination into a small, tight knit crew of skins is dealt with admirably, and without much deliberation.

The original skinheads, their sensibilities and beliefs are only briefly touched on – these, remember, are 2nd generation skin’s – what there about, to begin with, seems more like benign resignation that life in England in the 1980’s had little to offer; and of course, to a certain faction, they were absolutely right:

But focus is put, quite rightly, on the positives of belonging to something; something with meaning, something solid – a feeling our main character is certainly in desperate need of:

What Meadows does so perfectly here is understated reality. Every character feels so very, very real. If you, like me, where 13 years old in ’83 – then this is incredibly familiar territory
Unlike the films of say “Scum, or Made in Britain that were made in the 80’s and were dealing with similar topics on a grander scale:, the anger, frustration, pessimism & confusions of the time are kept to just one character here – who’s return into the crew brings change, and ultimately this is where the films heart rings out. (You might want to compare some of the more darker commentary to American History X,)

This is, quite honestly, one of the most beautifully accurate and painful films to come out of England in a very long time. It does not try to answer questions; it tries to show how a seemingly good souls can become seduced, changed & Ultimately, damaged:

Meadows’ lament may well be the most poetic British cinema we’ve seen so far this decade