Inland Empire
Director David Lynch
Starring Laura Dern, Jeremy Irons, Justin Theroux
Clearly David Lynch has taken a long hard look at his recent output and come to an important decision. Call Mulholland Drive a surrealist nightmare? No! Lost Highway an irrational dreamscape? Rubbish! We’ve had it too easy, by God, and now we’re going to pay.
Thus Lynch’s latest, Inland Empire, is a three-hour carnival of abstract weirdness that makes Salvador Dali’s Un Chien Andalou look like Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Scooby Doo 2.
Laura Dern plays actress Nikki Grace, whose on set romance with co-star Justin Theroux in movie-within-a-movie On High In Blue Tomorrows leaks into the real world. But that ‘real world’ is in turn a terrifying procession of, among other things, gypsy curses and man-like rabbits.
If it sounds weird, well, it is. Not to mention the fact that this is Lynch’s first foray into digital filmmaking, which adds an extra texture of queasy uncertainty to the director’s palette.
Fans will lap it up, and even though for everybody else it might be more a case of ‘endure’ than ‘enjoy’, Lynch remains a maverick, radical genius.
Fast Food Nation
Director Richard Linklater
Starring Greg Kinnear, Bruce Willis
Based on Eric Schlosser’s best-selling book about junk food and the rise of McCapitalism, Fast Food Nation is Richard Linklater’s sprawling ensemble set in fictionalised burger chain, Mickey’s.
Here, in-house PR stooge Don Henderson (Kinnear) is charged with cleaning up the firm’s image by travelling to its dodgy meat-packing plant and making sure that its customers don’t literally end up eating, well, something nasty.
Various sub plots converge on the plant, including Bruce Willis’ fast-talking salesman, a radical young burger flipper and a family of illegal immigrants. At times, all these strands come close to overwhelming the film’s narrative keel, but it survives intact on sheer polemical power.
It can be a bit preachy at times, but it’s enough to make you become a veggie. Okay, almost.
The Good German
Director Steven Soderbergh
Starring George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, Tobey Maguire
Shot in black and white, The Good German is set in Berlin in 1945, where the post-war carve up was to shape a new world.
War correspondent Jake Geismer (Clooney) follows a trail of dead bodies through the rubble, unearthing the dirty secrets behind America’s plans to dominate this new political landscape.
Director Steven Soderbergh deliberately recalls classic noirs like Casablanca and The Third Man, delivering all the tried-and-tested ingredients of a hard-bitten pot boiler.
But it’s Cate Blanchett who catapults you back to a world of 24-carat movie megastars, evoking the sultry spirit of Ingrid Bergman and Lauren Bacall in a stunning performance. She carries a very good thriller into the realms of greatness.
!!!: Myth Takes
American punk/ funk/dance outfit, !!! are back with Myth Takes. The new album is a raucous listen, combining song writing intricacy, with the band’s trademark swagger. The highlight has to be the superbly named, ‘All My Heroes Are Weirdos’, but it’s by no means the only slice of raw energy to be found on what is another great offering.
Ry Cooder: My Name Is Buddy
It’s been a long journey for guitar legend Ry Cooder since the heady Troubadour days of the 1960s. Maybe that’s why this latest album is the fictional tale of Buddy Red Cat. With his signature slide licks and guests including Van Dyke Park, Cooder teases a tale of modern life which is rambling, political, uplifting and musically brilliant.
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