Blu-ray Review: The Disappearance of Alice Creed

Eighteen minutes into The Disappearance of Alice Creed I had it all figured out.  The opening scenes of the film had been quite impressive as two men went through the preparations for an abduction with meticulous attention to detail.  The opening sequence featured no dialogue but introduced Marc Canham’s haunting score that permeates the rest of the film; at times chilling and melodic, the music serves to escalate the sense of tension and foreboding.  However, once the actual abduction had taken place, it seemed that a level had been reached and I guessed what would happen next. 

Two men had kidnapped a young girl and what would follow would be a typical story of manipulation, romance and a dash of Stockholm Syndrome where the girl would wear down the weaker of the two men before escaping. I’m happy to say that I was absolutely wrong.  The Disappearance of Alice Creed is full of dramatic plot twists and surprises and nothing about this film is predictable.  It certainly didn’t follow the formula that I imagined in my mind.

It is difficult to give a synopsis of The Disappearance of Alice Creed as the first of several plot twists occurs very early on in the film.  It is about a kidnapping and Alice Creed (Gemma Arterton) is the daughter of a multi-millionaire.  Vic and Danny (Eddie Marsan and Martin Compston ) are ex-cons who served time together in prison and they hope that the £2 million ransom will be their big payday.  Terrified beyond belief and humiliated by the physical reality of being stripped of her clothes and tied up, Alice Creed is nevertheless not giving up without a fight.  While so many abduction films deal with the families and logistics around the ransom drop and police investigation, this is a film that focuses on just three people and their thoughts, emotions and manipulations.

 

In his first feature length outing as director and writer, J Blakeson delivers a dark and compelling film that will keep audiences at the edge of their seats, heart pounding in their ears for the full 96 minutes. Most of the film takes place in a tiny apartment and Blakeson and cinematographer Philipp Blaubach went for a very specific visual style.  The lighting and camera techniques convey a sense of claustrophobia, darkness and escalating unease.

 

Gemma Arterton is a rising star and has since starred in Quantum of Solace and Prince of Persia.  Her terror and fear were almost tangible in this film and she gives a fine performance.  It is no surprise that Eddie Marsan is absolutely convincing as the menacing and controlling Vic.  Last seen as Inspector Lestrade in Sherlock Holmes, Eddie is a regular in the British film circuit and has twice been the recipient of the British Independent Film Award for Best Supporting Actor.  The biggest surprise in the film comes from Martin Compston.  J Blakeson had been looking for a young Colin Farrell when casting the role of Danny and Scot Martin conveys that charm, passion and dark appeal perfectly.   He is incredibly easy on the eyes and expertly portrays Danny’s nervous and unsure demeanour before launching into a far stronger and more manipulative role in the film.

Depending as it does on lighting, cinematography and music to convey a taut and disturbing tone, The Disappearance of Alice Creed is certainly a film best viewed on Blu-ray.  Presented in HD 1080p video, the visual quality of the Blu-ray is excellent and the image crisp and clear.  Given the dark nature and low lighting of much of the film, there is very little noise too which is great .  This is one of the best soundtracks I have heard in a film this year and the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 sound quality on the Blu-ray really serves to deliver that sound well.  Incidentally, this is Marc Canham’s first project producing a film score as he had previously worked on video games and the soundtrack is available on CD and download.  It features the fantastic Cathy Davey song “Holy Moly” that plays in the closing credits.

The extras on the Blu-ray include a “Making Of” featurette which explains how the actors were chosen and features their original casting videos.  I quite enjoyed that and enjoyed the cast and crew interviews too.  Other extras include “Selected Storyboards”, an “Extended Scene With Commentary” and the UK and US trailers.  I must say that the US trailer was much better and gave far less away about the story than its UK counterpart.

The Disappearance of Alice Creed is a dark, minimalist thriller that maintains an unrelenting degree of tension from the opening sequence right to the closing credits.  It features several plot twists and surprises and will keep you guessing right up until the end.  It is technically a fine film and features great cinematography and music and I would give it four out of five stars.  While it can be frightening and violent, it is entertaining and not overdone and I would recommend it to quite a wide audience.

Buy The Disappearance of Alice Creed at Amazon.co.uk ¦ Amazon.com

Article first published as Blu-ray Review: The Disappearance of Alice Creed on Blogcritics.

Music Monday ~ 33: Uncorrupted – Museum

 

I can’t stop listening to this song and I think it is just incredible.  It has everything that makes a perfect song for me – it is melancholy, powerful and epic.

That is not the only reason you should listen to this song though.  Museum have just completed their debut album Traces Of and I honestly believe they are on the verge of becoming big, very big.  With over 100,000 listeners and 900,000 plays, they are the most listened to unsigned band on last.fm and I hope that their new album sends them into orbit.

The good news is that I have secured an advance copy of the album which I will review soon and in the meantime, you can visit their last.fm page or their website binarymuseum.net and download some of their tracks for free.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: trailer and photos

I know this isn't very eloquent but all I have to say about this trailer is wow. It looks incredible and it reminds me of just how far we have come in the past decade throughout the books and the films. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows looks like it is going to be world class entertainment and it looks like they only just got in there before the former-child stars really did begin to look like adults.

Like all Harry Potter fans out there, I have embraced all of the previous photos and promotional material with great enthusiasm but I have to say that I think these are the most exciting and stunning images yet.

Click on any of the photos for enlargements

Roll on November!!

All photos courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Music Review: Ashton Nyte – The Valley

Artist: Ashton Nyte Album: The Valley Label: Intervention Arts  Release date: 15 June 2010 Genre: Alternative  Rating:  5/5

Ashton Nyte is no stranger to the South African music scene.  His band The Awakening first burst onto the scene in 1997 with the massively popular gothic rock cover of Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sounds of Silence” and they have maintained a loyal following ever since.  Arguably South Africa’s most successful gothic rock act of all time, The Awakening went on to release eight studio albums between 1997 and 2009 and have found increasing success in both Germany and the United States. 

Not one to sit around idle when the The Awakening weren’t recording, Nyte began to release his own solo material around 2000.  While The Awakening maintained a heavier presence leaning towards the gothic rock and darkwave genres, Nyte seemed to find more expressive freedom in his solo material and experimented with genres such as glam rock and low-fi indie rock.

Now in 2010, Ashton Nyte makes his long-overdue US debut with his fifth studio album The Valley.  The story goes that The Awakening were on their second tour of the United States when Nyte fell in love with America and more specifically, an American.  He moved to the United States in 2009 and this is his first album to be released since making the move.  Written over five years, it is a collection of ten acoustic songs with a distinctively American or wild western theme.  Ashton Nyte is somewhat of a musical genius and this album is no exception as he has written all of the music and lyrics for the album, plays all of the instruments and all of the songs feature his distinctively baritone vocals.

Nyte’s influences shine through in his music and it is impossible to avoid drawing parallels to his idols such as Johnny Cash, Lou Reed or Nick Cave when listening to his music.  The Valley  is more than a simple tribute though as it details a very personal journey and displays a sense of great depth and reflection. 

The album begins with the title track “The Valley”.  Nyte explains on the sleeve notes that this is where the journey began and that the song has been left in its ‘rough demo’ format.  The song certainly doesn’t feel unfinished as it captures the specific place in time which Nyte says that he has visited many times since.  Written in South Africa, he describes a desolate place where he “wonders if other people ever feel the need to get lost”.  It is a raw and sincere sentiment that draws the listener in. 

With the tone set for the album, Nyte continues with a further nine stark and dramatic songs that speak of lost love, drugs and salvation.  “Dead Man’s Road” is one of my favourite tracks of the album.  It is powerful and melancholy in its description of meaninglessness and desolation and it features a strong alternative-country hook.  Other songs worthy of mention are “Salvation” which is a heartfelt song with strong religious imagery and “Pale Horse” with its beautiful searing guitar hook.

The first single from the album is “Jennifer”, a searching song about love lost and you can see the music video below.

If I had to choose an album that is most similar to The Valley in terms of the depth of emotion and the journey within, I would have to say U2’s The Joshua Tree.  Like The Joshua Tree, The Valley too is a description of a growing relationship with America and uses imagery of wide open spaces and vast American landscapes.  This is an album to waste away a long Sunday afternoon listening to and it is certainly an album to listen to again and again.  It stirs up all sorts of emotions and it is a long time since an album has done that.

I would certainly recommend The Valley but would also recommend giving some of Nyte’s older albums a listen.  For taking me by surprise and inspiring such emotion in me, I give The Valley five out of five stars.

Buy The Valley from Amazon.co.uk ¦ Amazon.com ¦ iTunes

Article written by me and first published as Music Review: Ashton Nyte – The Valley on Blogcritics. This review contains affiliate links.

Iconic Play “For Colored Girls” Adapted for the Screen

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf was a play that was first performed in California in 1975.  It was written by Ntozake Shange and was essentially a collection of 20 poems performed by seven characters.  The characters did not have names and were simply known as a colour, for example, “Lady in Blue” or “Lady in Red”.  The poems dealt with incredibly intense aspects of the women’s lives such as rape, abortion and domestic violence and the Broadway production of the play was nominated for the 1977 Tony Award for Best Play.

The play has been adapted into a film produced by Tyler Perry and 34th Street Films.  Simply shortened to For Colored Girls, the film will be released on November 5th 2010 by Lionsgate and it will star Janet Jackson, Whoopi Goldberg, Loretta Devine and Thandie Newton. 

Several stylistic changes have already been made in the film, most notably that the cast has grown to twenty women (perhaps to encompass each of the twenty poems) but the characters have also all been given names.

One thing is for sure, this is not going to be an ordinary film.  The colours and visualisation in the character posters and the trailer are quite vivid and exquisite and I do hope that the film embodies some of the mastery and sensitivity that the original play brought to the stage.

Eight character posters have been issued for the film and feature above. Aren’t they just beautiful?  I especially love Thandie Newton and Anika Noni Rose and certainly look forward to Loretta Devine’s performance as Juanita. You can click on any of the images for full resolution shots.


From left to right: Anika Noni Rose (as Yasmine), Kerry Washington (as Kelly), Janet Jackson (as Joanna), Kimberly Elise (as Crystal), Phylicia Rashad (as Gilda), Loretta Devine (as Juanita), Tessa Thompson (Nyla) and Thandie Newton (Tangie) in For Colored Girls. Photo credit: Patrick Harbron

This is the official trailer for the film:




Article first published as Iconic Play For Colored Girls Adapted for the Screen on Blogcritics.

Music Monday ~ 32: The Sounds of Silence - The Awakening

 

In preparation for my review of Ashton Nyte’s fifth solo album The Valley (which will run on Thursday), I thought I would share The Awakening’s massively brilliant version of Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sounds of Silence”.  Ashton Nyte is the lead singer of The Awakening which is undoubtedly South Africa’s biggest gothic rock band of all time.

Enjoy!

Music Review: The Chemical Brothers - Further

 

Artist: The Chemical Brothers  Album: Further Label: Freestyle Dust / Parlophone Release date: 14 June 2010 Genre: Big Beat  Rating:  4.5/5

 

They are the big beat masters that burst onto the dance music scene in the mid-nineties and changed the face of dance music forever.  Together with acts like The Prodigy and Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers brought their manic yet superior brand of electronic music to audiences worldwide and they return in 2010 with their seventh studio album Further.  The Chemical Brothers are more popular than ever at the moment and their gigs at the London Roundhouse in Camden in May 2010 are famous for having sold out in two minutes.  With explosive and festival defining gigs at Sónar Festival in Barcelona, Spain and Exit Festival in Novi Sad, Serbia, it seems that The Chemical Brothers can do no wrong but does Further deliver?

The album kicks off with “Snow” which jars from the outset with a series of analogue dots and dashes.  I waited for it to get better and was momentarily heartened by the introduction of a menacing bassline before Stephanie Dosen’s vocals start about a minute into the song.  It is not a good start to the album and while the lyrics were quirky, “your love keeps lifting me, lifting me higher”, I found the track grating and almost painful. 

“Snow” flows into “Escape Velocity” which is the first single from the album.  As the track begins, you can’t ignore the influences of both Pink Floyd and The Who as the song breaks free of its cloying predecessor and explodes into a psychedelic soundscape.  “Escape Velocity” is twelve minutes of pure bliss and it is surely testament to the calibre of this song that it has been played so extensively by radio stations in the UK.  The Chemical Brothers wanted to explore the boundless possibilities of their sound with this album and to produce an album that simultaneously journeyed through the history of music and the infinity of space.  They have achieved these aims with “Escape Velocity” as this complex, layered track takes you to dizzying heights and by three-quarters of the way in, it is just time to sit back and get lost as the song descends into sublime chaos.

Having forgiven The Chems for the first song on the album, I took note of the closing statement as “Escape Velocity” finally came to an end:

“Well, that was some experience.  Now just let me adjust the spatial controls and we’ll move to another observation point”. 

“Another World” begins and immediately slows down the tempo.  If “Escape Velocity” took us into orbit then “Another World” is that first feeling of weightlessness.  This is beautiful and lush and is best enjoyed really loud and in stereo.  The song has ethereal traces not unlike Cocteau Twins and it is certainly one of my favourite songs on the album.  “Another World” was the third single from the album and was released as a digital download on August 16, 2010.  The next song “Dissolve” speeds up the tempo again with another progressive and psychedelic song.   The song has a massive big beat hook and great drums towards the end. 

“Dissolve” blends into “Horse Power” which is six minutes of classic Chemical Brothers brilliance.  The urgent, frenzied beat reaches fever pitch and the acid house samples remind me of some of Moby’s early tracks.  The song breaks about half way through with a fantastic synthesiser line.  “Horse Power” reminds me a lot of “Music: Response” from their 1999 album Surrender.  Next up we have the menacing opening beats of “Swoon”.  Thirty seconds in and the track introduces an incredible synthesiser loop.  The title says it all as “Swoon” is an uplifting and beautiful song that breaks into a lush and sweeping frenzy as Tom tells us “just remember to fall in love, there’s nothing else, there’s nothing else”.  “Swoon” is the second single from the album and remixes of the song appeared on the “Another World” single. 

“K + D + B” takes the tempo down a notch from the lush perfection of the previous song.  It is an upbeat song that is still pleasing despite not having a real hook or beat.  It is a good filler before the next track which is the last song on the album.  “Wonders of the Deep” is a swirling and epic track that pretty much sums up the fantastic journey that this album has been. 

The CD might end there but iTunes users purchasing the full album can get access to two further bonus tracks which fans might not want to miss out on.  “Don’t Think” is an absolutely banging track that is perhaps the hardest song that The Chemical Brothers have ever produced while “Pourquoi” is a funky, quirky song.  The songs are slightly removed from the themes and music journey of the main album release and I am unsure as to whether they should have been included as bonus tracks or rather as b-sides. 

Despite an unsteady beginning, Further proves to be the best Chemical Brothers release in years.  It is the closest they have produced to a full concept album and I think that the space journey themes and the concentration on music instead of collaborations has produced an absolute hit.  This album is best enjoyed loud and as a whole and I give it an easy 4.5 stars (less half a star for “Snow”).

Buy The Chemical Brothers Further at Amazon.co.uk ¦ Amazon.com ¦ iTunes

Article first published by me as Music Review: The Chemical Brothers - Further on Blogcritics.

Movie review: Eat Pray Love

Wanderlust is the term used to describe the enduring and at times overpowering impulse to travel and explore the world. Once bitten by the deadly travel bug, travellers find it increasingly difficult to settle in to the mundane life of the nine-to-five rush and are often counting the seconds until they can get back on the road again. Liz Gilbert (played by Julia Roberts) was one such traveller and Eat Pray Love opens with her realisation that she no longer wants to be married and that she wants to travel for a year to find out who she really is.

Liz finalises her divorce from her bewildered and heartbroken husband and leaving behind both her lover David (James Franco) and her career as a journalist, she embarks on a year-long trip to Italy, India and Indonesia.

In Italy, Liz learns to eat.  She learns to fall in love with food and she discovers the relationship between food, friendship, romance and happiness in Italy.  Many women in English-speaking countries have an unhealthy relationship with food and it is linked to poor body image and that is precisely what she discovers in Italy.  She also spends her time learning to speak Italian and making friends with other tourists and locals too.

The purpose of Liz’s visit to India is to visit David’s ashram and it is in India that Liz learns to pray.  She also learns that the culture there is very different to her own but that it is not up to her to interfere in other people’s lives but to be a friend and positive influence.  It is through the recovering alcoholic Richard from Texas (played by Richard Jenkins) that Liz learns to forgive herself and is then ready to move on.

The final leg of Liz’s journey takes place in Bali, Indonesia.  It is here that Liz learns to love.  She learns not only to love herself again but finds love in Felipe (Javier Bardem).

Eat Pray Love is the type of film that should greatly inspire people to travel and to find themselves and in fact, both the film and the book on which it is based has inspired a mass of copy-cat tourism. 

As a traveller who frequently falls in love with cities to the extent that my heart aches for them afterwards, I found the film entirely dissatisfying in its lack of focuses on the cities Liz was visiting.  There was the obligatory sweeping cinematography in Rome with some impressive panoramic shots of the city and there were some great aerial shots of Bali but I didn’t find anything in the film that made me long to visit any of the locations (and both Italy and Bali are top in my to-travel list).  Apart from a wedding scene, there was no focus on India outside of the asram.  Perhaps there was more about the local people, customs and history of the places Liz visited in the book but I didn’t see enough of it in the film.

 

As a film lover, I found the film to be quite dragging and far too long.  This is not the type of film that you should get bored in, especially if you are a lover of travel and food but I did not enjoy it.  Thankfully the actors in the film were all impossibly beautiful and I was able to keep myself occupied thinking about that.

I would say that he crux of the matter is that Liz Gilbert was so hard to relate to, no matter how charmingly Julia Roberts tried to portray her.  She walked out on her husband for no reason other than that he didn’t want to join her on yet another international trip, she was undeniably privileged and in reality, the whole trip was financed by an advance from her publishers.  In all of that, she flits through cities and friendships and at no time in the film is that shown with any depth.

There is no doubt that Eat Pray Love has been a popular book and I imagine that many people will flock to see the film too.  I ‘got’ the film but I just didn’t like it very much.

I give it one-and-a-half stars out of five for some decent cinematography, good looking actors and some reasonable acting.  Yes, I’m being generous.

Eat Pray Love will be released in the UK on 24 September 2010.

All images © Sony Pictures