Caught up with the second injection of DVDs while I was away.
The star, without doubt, was
Dead Man's Shoes. Great recommendation from Glaconman for a film I'd never have known existed.
It's a FilmFour-backed movie, and has a strong low-budget Ken-Loach-like feel. This is real England: no glamour, no gloss, no stars, no self-conscious 'performances'. A totally naturalistic, bleak portrayal of a Peak District community. Bunch of guys behaving in ways that some distant bit of my youth could resonate with -- idle, boozy, constant partying -- suddenly terrified by the return to the town of a soldier hell-bent on revenge for the way they treated his emotionally-disturbed (is that the right euphemism for "nutty"?) younger brother.
I won't say much more than that. It's not a Schwarzenegger-type of sci-fi giggly violence. This is gritty and raw and desolate stuff, but has a soft, emotional underbelly that makes the experience even starker. It's also got a couple of narrative twists in the tail that take it from good to very good. Highly recommended.
Trailer --
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0419677/trai...27353-10-2[url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0419677/trailers-screenplay-E27353-10-2][/url]
Blood Simple, the first movie from the Coen brothers, is the first step in my chronological Coen education. Half-decent thriller too. Another pretty low budget enterprise I'd say but the sleazy world of Texas bar culture and double-crossing seems authentic enough. It has a sort of understated
film noir feel to it. Nearly all the characters are corrupt and loserish. A few holes in the plot (unless I missed a couple of things) but I can forgive that. This is cinema. We tend to believe whatever we're told. Well worth catching up with.
Not the case with
Raising Arizona. Sorry, but I didn't get it. At least, I didn't get the hour or so that I managed to watch. I couldn't bear to waste any more of my life beyond that point, so I turned it off and stared at the wall instead. Much more enjoyable. Maybe it was just me but the combination of Beverly Hillbillies humour and "Three Men and a Baby" cutesiness did nothing for me. I don't want to talk about it anymore. For me, a miss.
