The Weekly Review: 24/06/2012

A weekly round-up of what I have been watching, listening to and discussing. Rather than just posts about film, this is a bit more all-encompassing as I think my interest in cinema and art crosses over and between a variety of sources...

Very few films this week. I have been completely immersed in The Simpsons. Blame a boxset I have not watched yet. Blame a fantastic Season 8. Blame whatever you like, but film ultimately took a back seat.

Highlight of the Week

The Lammys: It really has kicked off this week. I love this time of year and I'm excited about the future of The LAMB. We've yet to hear from the LAMB who is Best Blog, but I think it has been a fascinating year with some great outcomes. For me personally, what I'm going to do, is go through my Google Reader and stop following a huge bunch of blogs because I have realised I am losing track. I have followed too many and therefore don't use it as effectively. I don't visit some sites that I 'joined' years ago whilst there are many blogs out there which I don't visit often enough (or realised I don't even follow) - and clearly should. Specifically, I hope to become much more active on French Toast Sunday, Cinema Sights and Fog's Movie Reviews. These are site which, though I knew about, for some reason or another I haven't given enough time too. But this will change now. I'm also spending [possibly too much] time on the LAMB forums, which is alot of fun. If you are a LAMB, get in on that: http://thelambforums.proboards.com/index.cgi

DVD's/Blu-Rays/Cinema

Warrior: Yeah, it was alright. But I felt the entire film was like a tick-list. Imagine the boardroom meeting: "How can we have twice as many fights as a normal boxing movie?"/"I know, lets show two characters with their own separate stories in a martial-arts-type-boxing tournament". Two more characters in the story and the film would simply show every match in the tournament!

The Bourne Identity: I will re-release my negative overview of this film. I stand by the film being weaker than the sequels, but I think I "get" why people like it now.

The Bourne Supremacy: The strongest story in the franchise. So far.

The Bourne Ultimatum: The best action-sequences in the franchise. Bring on Jeremey Renner...

All Quiet on the Western Front: For the 'Classic Columb'...

Music/Podcasts

The LAMBcast: Listened to the whole Brian VS The World episode and it was great. I'm not a big fan of Scott Pilgrim VS The World. I get why people like it, but there is something a little smug about the whole film. I'm a little bit more convinced about how bad a film it is ... and I thank Brian for his insight to this. I also think the seven opponents he had were completely beat!

The Fugees: Listened to 'The Score' and damn, it is so good. Something so personal and yet passionate about the songs and lyrics. Brilliant music.

TV/Theatre/Art Galleries/Books/Misc

The Simpsons - As mentioned, halfway through the eighth season and I am keen to keep watching. Also began tweeting an animator on the show. What an amazing job! As mentioned on Twitter/Facebook - Space Coyote is a badass.

Across the Blogosphere...

I've been busy this Half-Term. Covering a few films at The London Film Festival, continuing the Star Wars posts for Man, I Love Films, managing to watch a special screening of The Matrix and even squeezing in an analysis on the new Tintin film! I have also tried to re-organise some of the scroll-down menu's if you wanted to see some analysis of some other films - in fact, I wanted to re-release the analysis of the Saw films, but decided against it.

But, blogs continue to build with posts coming from every angle so of course I have been reading a few and I thought I'd highlight a couple...

Across the Blogosphere ...

I haven't created a post like this for a while. But, when there is some good stuff out there, you blow the horn and let people know. Taking a leaf from Andy Buckle's 'Links' Page, I'll first link to posts you may have missed that I have written before telling you others I recommend. A huge bunch has been written as analysis-posts for Man, I Love Film with reviews of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and The Guard, but exclusively on Screen Insight I have covered the American Pie trilogy: American Pie, American Pie 2 and American Pie: The Wedding.

Elsewhere, Ryan - of The Matinee - has covered extensively on the Toronto Film Festival. Last year I used his TIFF coverage to help me choose my own choice films from the London Film Festival - indeed, this influence will continue this year...

Kai has also been a busy-bee with his own coverage of the TVIFF festival in California. I believe that during his time covering this festival he managed to nab an interview with actor Mike Wiles (Fight Club and Magnolia to name a few)!

The Kid in the Front Row always delivers with some great content and, only recently, he collected together a bunch of articles he has written on The West Wing. I know he loves it, but alas, I do not. Which reminds me, Jess from Insight into Entertainment also placed up her Top 5 West Wing episodes. I don't like The West Wing - let's just clarify that again.

I have been absolutely loving the LAMBcast of recent months - specifically due to the Rants and Raves of the Week. In fact, if I tune out with the 'main feature', I will skip ahead to the rants and raves. The passion, the frustration ... brilliant!

And finally, Ben Cooper at Anomalous Materials wrote a brilliant write-up about his love for John Williams Schindler's List score. It is incredible and I only wish that more people wrote about soundtracks ... that reminds me... I really should do another Incredible Soundtrack post ...

Man, I [Don't] Love Genre Discussion

I have recently caught up on a number of LAMBcasts and Reel Insight podcasts - and have visited the all new Dylan/Kai Combo-Blog Man, I Love Film and it has brought up a few talking points.

Primarily the topic of Genres. The Rom-Com discussion on the LAMBcast highlighted how films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Groundhog Day feature as Rom-Coms - the same genre as Leap Year and The Proposal and that the term 'Rom-Com' is generally applied to crap Romantic Comdies opposed to actual Rom-Com's. In the same way, akin to the Man, I Love Film Blogs "Top 5 'Westerns'" or "Top 5 'Vampire Films'", they equally use Genres to summarise their points. Finally, the talk of Ryan Gosling's roles in The Notebook  - categorised as primarily a 'romance' whilst Blue Valentine is categorically a 'drama' ... or an anti-romance, I guess.

Westerns, Sci-Fi, Gangsters, Romance, Comedy, Horrors, B-Movies, Drama (what is that?), Torture-Porn, Porn... they all count as Genre's. Then you have your genre combo's - Rom-Com, Zom-Rom-Com, B-Movie Horror ... etc.

Many years ago, in Sight and Sound magazine I read an article which, in passing, noted how the use of genre as primarily of commerical gain and not of any academic of artistic merit.

Comedy - for example - almost always features in a film. But that sure doesn't make it a comedy. Forrest Gump is incredibly funny ... but it isn't a comedy. Horror, I guess, is something scary ... but you have that slim line between Horror and Thriller ... to Crime and so on and so forth. Genre is a way to categorise films - a simpliciation of a simplistic category. Westerns are set in the dusty-scapes of America whilst Horrors 'have a kill within the first act' - ensuring the films remain within their codes and conventions. These are not set in stone though and, nowadays, the fact that they are not set in stone means that people play with the conventions - Scream, Grindhouse, No Country for Old Men, etc.

Genre is akin to the boardroom simplicity - Jan De Bont with "Its Die Hard but on a bus!" or D.J. Caruso with "It's Rear Window but updated, for kids!".

How often do you find yourself saying - "yeah, I didn't really like X thing in film - but, y'know, thats what [insert genre cliche here] involves". It doesn't have to. It could be anything you want it to be. As people have shown! Rom-Com's can be profound - see Woody Allen and Co. Rom-Com's can be surreal - see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Action films can explore the dreamscape - see Inception and Sci-Fi can be littered wiith a wide variety of philosphical musings - see The Matrix. Heist Films don't even need to show heist! (See Reservoir Dogs)

With all the 'meta' films and film-literate cinema currently out in the world, the use of genre to categorise films is redundant. If anything, if a film manages to stick successfully to genre tradition, then it clearly lacks originality because, by definition, it has been 'done' before. So lets put Genre to one side and hope that filmmakers expect more from their audience - because, seriously, I don't go to the cinema to see the guy always getting the girl or the butch guy always saving the day, I don't need the guns-in-the-air-slow-motion-sequence that manages to kill everyone in sight or even see see the big-breasted girl running from the guy with a knife ... I go to see a bloody good film and the genre don't make a blind bit of difference.

Across the Blogosphere ...

I haven't had an 'Across the Blogosphere' in some time, so I thought, now I have a few blogs and podcasts to mention, now would be the time.

First up, and arrogantly so, I featured on the LAMBcast for the first time. Its always difficult for us Brit folks to manage to take part in these things - often the ideal time is in the afternoon on a Saturday and - if thats the time people start across the atlantic - us Brit folks are at that moment in the middle of our Saturday night festivities. Thanks to Nick and Jason for beginning a little earlier so I could take part! I thoroughly enjoyed the show and I hope to take part again in the future.

Secondly, as most people know already, Mad Hatter managed to snag a sweet interview with an Oscar-Winning editor - no other than Walter Murch, who edited the sound on Apocalypse Now! amongst a huge bunch of Francis Ford Coppola films. Do have a listen!

Thirdly, Univarn found his favourite faux-movie trailers. You can find a bunch on YouTube, but some of these you might have missed ... I know I had.

One more? Sure - this site I have only recently found and it is incredible. The 1001 Movies club has not ceased it continues in the form of filmsquish! so check it out! It shall not be long before my review on Melies A TRIP TO THE MOON will be a part of the relaunch!

Remember - you can always email The Simon and Jo Film Show directly using this email: simonandjoshow@gmail.com

We are also on Twitter (simonandjoshow) and Facebook.

Across The Blogosphere...

First off, problems with comments! Loads of people are getting annoyed with it, including myself, and are even completing posts about it - including Andrew from Encore. So, I guess its a good thing that I can link to the posts that I commented on ... but found the comment deleted shortly afterwards and i wasn't going to type it again now was I?

Mad Hatter completed a great post about the rubbish movies currently at the cinema or, more importantly, if  in time - they will become better. he notes The Hurt Locker and Sunshine as incredible movies that didn't reach their full potential during their summer release. Some great comments from others following the post too!

This is also the subject of the latest LAMBcast which, I must add, gets better every listen!

Mike at 'Are You Talkin' To Me' discusses Twilight and, more importantly, the many homosexual-links within the film... Maybe we should all be 'Team Bella' and simply hope that the two can get together - leaving Bella with her indpendence.