Artful Dodging
A look at what you can see in and around Dartmouth
by Max Brandt
(Opinions expressed are those of the writer – whinge, whine, moan, complain.)
F
rustration is a self-fulfilling prophecy, isn’t it? The more something doesn’t happen
when you expect it to, the more frustrating the experience becomes and we all love the internet, don’t we? Whilst trying to research a few things for this article, I was consistently bamboozled by error messages and a complete lack of information, much of it extremely relevant, on particular websites. If you’re trying to promote something that is date-sensitive, it surely makes sense to actually have the dates displayed, wouldn’t you say? Or to make sure that site is up and functioning at the very least. I’ve been in touch via e-mail with the sites in question (always assuming that the link works!) but it was very frustrating. Right, soap-box away and we’re off to the pictures this time round.
READY FOR YOUR CLOSE-UP? Crikey! What a splendiferous collection of films in September; right across the genre spectrum with a little something to please everyone and from the look of it, reasonably programmed with a sensible split between children’s and grown-up entertainment. All at The Flavel, by the way.
SARAH’S KEY (9th – 15th September) Another film where the best of it happens in the past/ flashback. The modern premise doesn’t really work, but, that being said, the story-teller, Kirsten Scott-Thomas, is, as ever, magnificent. The story revolves around the historical events of 1942 when the Jews of Paris were herded into the Vel’ d’Hiv. A remarkable film, if for nothing other than the performance of Melusine Mayance, the young girl who plays the Sarah of the title. You’ll certainly want to see this if ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjama’s’ struck a chord with you.
THE SMURFS (9th – 11th September) They’re blue. They’re CGI. They’re for the kids. ‘Nuff said.
SUPER 8 (16th – 22nd September) J.J.Abrams has a pretty good record in the directorial/ production stakes. A very successful re-launching (that’s another one to add to the list!) of the ‘Star Trek’ franchise, producing ‘Cloverfield’ for the cinema and ‘Lost’ for TV (he wrote a deal of that one too), it seems that he has now gone into the ‘homage’ business. That’s not to say that ‘Super 8’ is bad film – far from it – but it is a lot of something and not much of anything. Abrams is already on record as saying that the biggest influences on his film-life have been Spielberg and Lucas, so what chance originality when the executive producer on this one is Steven Spielberg? The opening forty five minutes or so, and at points throughout, the film is a lovely little story of a group of misfit kids (Goonies anyone?) growing up in a small town and trying to make a super-8 zombie movie. They are witness to a spectacular train wreck, as they are filming, and something escapes from the train...enter the bad guys in the shape of the military (ET anyone?). The second half of the film is completely taken over by the SFX and the alien. Plenty of action, humour and suspense, but it was, I feel, not sure if it was trying to be its own animal or be a not-so-sneaky tribute to the master of this sort of film. Close Encounters it ain’t, but still, it’s a great way to lose a couple of hours and the kids will definitely love it!
COWBOYS AND ALIENS (16th – 22nd September) The only odd bit of programming this month is putting these two films (see above) on the same dates. But hey! For sci-fi/action freaks, it’s a bonanza. Jon Favreau is behind the camera for this one, he of Iron Man fame (and acting in several films over the years, probably most notably in ‘I Love You Man’ and ‘Four Christmases’) and he certainly seals his reputation as a director of no mean accomplishment with this surprisingly hard-edged blockbuster. It stars Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford (both, it seems, playing by rote
Harrison Ford Daniel Craig
and picking up the cash) and is a sort of Bourne Identity in the Wild West with Spaceships and Feisty Females. It takes all the best bits from all the alien films and westerns that you’ve ever seen and mixes it up.
RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (24th – 27th September) What a cast! What a surprise! And it even has Andy Serkis reprising his role as King
Kong...sort of. I am a huge fan of the original series of films from the sixties/ seventies and who can forget that iconic closing shot from
contd. over
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