XXY weaves together three landscapes: the fluidity of the ocean, the violence of the scientist’s laboratory and the arid determinacy of life on dry land. Fifteen year old Alex, who so far has been subsumed by neither a male nor female gendered identity, is marooned on the shore. For writer/director Lucia Puenzo this is where things are forced into a fixed shape. XXY (in my opinion grossly (…) Continue Reading »

DAY 29 TO DAY 42 a slapped arse e.g. a headless chicken e.g. an ostrich e.g. The Industrial Revolution Reality Television Technological Singularity Nothing in here is real so why would I risk putting myself ‘on the sofa’ directly I entered the house directly I made my entrance: no movement no response no entertainment no expression no opinion no position. When (…) Continue Reading »

Chris Morris’s jihad comedy Four Lions depicts five inept Muslim ’suicide bombers’ and has been praised as a delightful expose of the ’moral idiocy’ of such an act. Here I discuss the forthcoming sequel. Continue Reading »

My expectations weren’t particularly high when I went to see the Clash of the Titans. And I must say I was looking forward to it, perhaps moved by some masochistic feeling that compels me to go see films that are going to provoke my inner academic (knowing a few things about Greek mythology). And yet I’m always up for a laugh. The movie in all its blockbuster glory fulfils what it sets out (…) Continue Reading »

DAY 15 TO DAY 28 A FAERY TALE WITH TALKING FURNITURE! A FAERY TALE WITH WHISPERING WOOD! A FAERY TALE WITH CAPTURE AND INTRIGUE! they use PUPPETS in therapy don’t they please do not repeat the same phrase nine times please do not repeat the same phrase nine times please do not repeat the same phrase nine times please do not repeat the same phrase nine times please do not (…) Continue Reading »

DAY TWO TO DAY 14 THINGS ARE REALLY Everyone who watches can help it. Everyone who watches can help everything they do Everyone who watches is o O WHATCHA MEAN HALF A WIG this is a life dream and it makes me angry I overheard (someone on the bus) love her friend but not who he is not really. What do you mean he is how do you know. What do they say (they say, they say) about (…) Continue Reading »

Ringu was released in Japan in 1999 and was an instant hit. It became the highest grossing horror film in Japan at 15.9 billion yen ($137.7 million). Its reception in the UK was much more muted when it was released in a handful of art house local cinemas and then on Channel four in 2002. A few months later remakes where on the way in the US and in Korea as, mainly through word of mouth, its (…) Continue Reading »

I first caught Transamerica about 15 min in, on a tiny television set in a small family-run hotel in St Malo. That was back in 2006, about a year after its release and I was working as a tour guide in France. In the first few minutes this is what I thought was going on: a very masculine-looking woman teenage hitchhiker are driving through the US. What I didn’t get was whether it was a man or a (…) Continue Reading »

Superheroes are something else; it’s what makes them super. The premise of Kick Ass is to make ‘the superhero’ just another performance that any geek in a wetsuit can pull off. In fact, white nerd Dave Lizewski’s turn as Kick Ass is almost as easy as the ‘homo’ persona he adopts in order to get into the bedroom and under the bra of the school hottie, Katie Deauxman. What makes Dave (…) Continue Reading »

Swept up in the recent scuffles over representation in parliament (PR/AV/FPTP…) I’ve been thinking about representation on my little tv. It’s clear that of all my machinery the tv is the one least likely to make me ‘think the world more radically’. I expect it to be disgusting, disappointing and particularly muffling- like stuffing a load of sponge in your ears (I’ll admit the muffling is (…) Continue Reading »