Text Matt Bochenski
A round-up of the top films, music releases and books heading your way this month
Q+A MICHAEL PITT
Funny Games
Director Michael Haneke Starring Michael Pitt, Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Brady Corbet
What do you do when you’ve made a creepy French-language film about two home invaders holding a wealthy family hostage with their young child? Make it again in English, of course. Only Michael Haneke has gone one better, and made an exact shot-for-shot replica of his hit film Funny Games. Why? Well, no one seems sure, but we did have a chat with one of the new film’s stars, Michael Pitt.
What CD are you currently listening to?
The last CD that I bought was the new Magik Markers album [Boss]. It’s great – you should check it out.
What book are you reading?
I’m reading the new Dalai Lama book; I don’t know the title but it’s really cool. And I’m reading A Long Way Gone: The Memoirs of a Child Soldier by Ishmael Beah. I bought it at the airport. I’m only halfway through but it’s pretty great. What was the last film you saw? I just went to a screening of Things We Lost in the Fire by Susanne Bier. It’s really good – Benicio del Toro is great in it.
And the last DVD you bought?
I don’t even remember… I don’t know. Time of the Gypsies by Emir Kusturica isn’t the last one I bought, but it’s the next one I intend to buy.
27 Dresses
Director Anne Fletcher Starring Katherine Heigl, James Marsden, Judy Greer
Katherine Heigl is going to be a big, big star. Blessed with the kind of hot-damn looks that will get guys drooling in the aisles, she also has a goofy charm that’s guaranteed to keep girls on side.
Heigl is the saving grace of Anne Fletcher’s hit-and-miss rom-com 27 Dresses. She plays Jane, a perennial
bridesmaid who watches in horror as her callow younger sister snags the man – and wedding – of her dreams. To make matters worse, Jane finds out that her favourite wedding reporter, Kevin Doyle (James Marsden), is really a hoary old cynic who now has the hots for her.
Heigl’s performance is cool, knowing and adorable without making you want to puke, while Marsden offers good support. However, the film suffers from the malaise affecting most chick-flicks: they go through the motions safe in the knowledge that their core audience is easily satisfied. Perhaps worst of all, 27 Dresses is a film about an independent career woman who has to give up her job and get a man to ‘find happiness’. Is that really what modern women want?
Janet Jackson
Discipline
“Discipline is the idea that unifies the songs on this record. As a concept, and even a lifestyle, discipline can be applied to so much about ourselves. In my case, I see it as one of the defining aspects of my character. Discipline was part of a family culture that I absorbed; I was born with it. But it was not until this record that I began to understand its full meaning.”
So says Janet Jackson. And well she might – if the least wacko of the Jacko siblings hadn’t been so ill-disciplined in her approach to keeping her clothes on, her career might not have been on the back burner for the last four years. As it is, this album is her first for Universal, and marks something of a comeback after 2006’s disappointing 20 Y.O.
With the likes of super-producer Pharrell on board, Jackson sets out to show young pretenders that she still has what it takes, while not being afraid to steal some of their party pieces. Lead single Feedback begins with a raucous drum track straight out of M.I.A.’s box of tricks, and evolves into the kind of sweaty, sexy electro R’n’B mash-up Britney knocked out for her surprisingly brilliant latest album Blackout.
Smooth soul master Ne-Yo makes an appearance on the excellent title track and the funky Can’t Be Good – both worthwhile collaborations – although only time will tell if there’s enough steam left in Jackson’s engine for her to really mix it with the youngsters long-term.
The Black Crowes
Warpaint
It’s been seven years since the last studio album from the American rock act. And those were lean times: they were dropped from their label, and underwent a number of line-up changes.
But you don’t sell 20 million albums worldwide for nothing, and Warpaint (so called for “the revolution that could take place in all our souls”, according to frontman Chris Robinson) offers more than a hint of vindication of their newfound indie status. The fact that lead single Hard to Handle was included as a track on the video game Rock Band suggests that, at the very least, they’ve softened their image a little.
That’s not to say that Warpaint isn’t full of great tunes. Songs like We Who See The Deep and Movin’ on Down the Line are full of the Crowes’ signature bluesy sound, while Whoa Mule suggests the band may even have picked up a sense of humour in the long wait between albums. One thing’s for sure, though – they’re back with a bang.
Book club
The White Tiger
by Aravind Adiga
Aravind Adiga’s debut novel could not be more timely: India has become a global buzzword as it continues to assert itself as an economic force to be reckoned with.
The White Tiger is the story of Balram, a smart guy whose parents are too poor to get him properly educated. He gets his break when a wealthy businessman takes him on as a chauffeur and introduces him to the heady world of the big city. As he looks in from the outside, Balram sees that the only way a guy like him can succeed will be through murderous dedication.
Adiga’s novel is an atmospheric work that captures the great paradoxes and inequalities of modern India. She takes us on a breathtaking trip from rural poverty to the high-rises and low morals of India’s new financial class, revealing envy and elitism at the heart of India’s economic miracle.
Balram may not be a particularly sympathetic hero, but through him we get what feels like an authentic taste of modern India.
The Navigator
by Clive Cussler and Paul Kemprecos
Clive Cussler might be best known for his roguish hero Dirk Pitt, but this is his seventh book in collaboration with Paul Kemprecos chronicling the adventures of the National Underwater and Maritime Agency’s Kurt Austin.
Austin will be instantly familiar to fans of Cussler’s books, as will the many scrapes he finds himself in. This time out, it’s up to him to foil the plot of Viktor Baltazar, an evil villain intent on stealing a priceless Phoenician artefact connected to the lost Ark of the Covenant.
But it’s all too easy for familiarity to become predictability. There’s not a lot in The Navigator that fans of Dirk Pitt, Indiana Jones or action movies in general haven’t seen a million times before, from pirate raids to human sacrifice via the obligatory beautiful woman in peril.
At his best, Cussler can take the iconic artefacts of antiquity and give them a fun, modern twist, but he doesn’t really achieve that here. What exactly is it about collaborations that tends to bring out the worst in both writers?
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