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Welcome to the Inflight Magazine of Brussels Airlines |
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Text Matt Bochenski, Richard Bence
Image Wire Image
A round-up of the top fi lms, music releases and books heading your way this month
Angus, Thongs and
Perfect
Snogging
explores the ups and
downs of teenage life
Perfect Snogging explores the ups and downs of teenage life
Director Gurinder Chadha Starring Georgia Groome, Aaron Johnson, Kimberley Nixon, Georgia Henshaw
Acting’s next big thing, 16-year-old Georgia Groome, talks to b.there! about her new film, Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, body image and behaving like a diva.
This is your first big film. Did you get to act like a star? No! For a lot of people this would have been some kind of dream, but I always remember that you have to respect everyone you meet. I picked up my own costumes and would take them back – or my mum would take them back for me – and I tried not to let people slave off me. You have to remember where you came from – that’s important.
So, no diva strops? Everyone told me to do diva strops when we moved into the studio – we wanted to keep our make-up bus, but Ealing Studios was being rebuilt and we couldn’t. So everyone was like: ‘Let’s go have a diva strop!’ But I just couldn’t do it.
The film is about teenagers and body issues. Do you worry about people judging you on your looks? I’m really happy with who I am – I don’t try to be what I’m not. I’m not wrapped up in being somebody for the sake of having a photo taken. I am who I am, and I’m happy with that – it’s got me this far. I’m just happy being normal.
Director Dennis Dugan Starring Adam Sandler, John Turturro, Emmanuelle Chriqui
What is it with Adam Sandler? Following I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, in which he married his best friend Kevin James (they were only joking guv’nor, honest!), he’s playing a hairdresser in You Don’t Mess with the Zohan. Jeez, why don’t you just come out and say it…?
At first glance, Zohan actually has a bit more going for it than the vaguely homophobic Sandler scatology. This time, he’s a former Israeli counterterrorism operative who moves to New York to fulfil his coiffeurial ambitions. Alas, in the Big Apple he meets his nemesis, Palestinian bad guy The Phantom, who’s determined to take the Middle Eastern conflict to mid-town Manhattan.
But what could have been a subversive comedy that tears through on-screen taboos is in fact a depressingly simple-minded affair, more concerned with celebrity cameos (Mariah Carey!) than political convictions.
The closest we get to any moral sting in the tale is a kind of wishy-washy ‘we are the world’ message, which doesn’t get in the way of Sandler kicking some Arab ass. Whatever questions are raised by the Israel/Palestine conflict, or even comedy movies, Zohan isn’t the answer.
Walt Disney: The Biography
by Neal Gabler
What do you know about Walt Disney? That he was cryogenically frozen after his death? That he has been accused of being a Nazi sympathiser? That he helped lower the world’s cultural IQ? Well, here’s Neal Gabler to tell you what you think you know is wrong.
Gabler charts a fascinating course through Disney’s life, from his early childhood to Mickey Mouse, Snow White and Disneyland. It’s all the more entertaining for being recognisable, but at the same time he shines an informative light on this multi-faceted character.
What’s most surprising is that Disney’s life was so often unhappy. Even as he became a global icon, he was beset by (what he saw as) creative failures and (real) financial disaster.
Gabler’s account is warm and friendly, but it’s no hagiography – this Disney can be charmless and mean. But he also remains a genius, and this is surely the definitive story of his life.
This is Alphabeat
“I was not looking for arty farty love” begins Anders on ‘10,000 Nights of Thunder’ and that pretty much sets the tone for this brilliant and bonkers album.
Hailing from Denmark but now based in Shoreditch, London’s epicentre of alt/ fashion/cool, Alphabeat are picking up the baton from Mika, who caused such a storm in the style press last year. The band are hot, hot, hot and their single, ‘Boyfriend’, out this month, promises to be the sound of the summer.
With more than a hint of High School Musical campery mixed with a PWL 80s pop sound (Kylie, Jason Donovan et al) Alphabeat are, in their retro-ness, nower than now. The melody between lead vocalists Anders SG (boy) and Stine Bramsen (girl) is musical dynamite, and their schtick isn’t unlike Jake Shears and Ana Matronic of Scissor Sisters. Being easy on the eye helps, of course, but it’s the energy of Anders SG, shaking his tambourine with gusto, that impresses.
Listen out for ‘Rubberboots’, which despite its command for us all to “wear rubber” isn’t a calling to get kinky but rather an aching cry for us all to wear condoms. Beautiful stuff.
But it’s joyous anthems ‘Fascination’ and the disco-tastic ‘Go Go’ that will have you leaping on to the dancefloor with a huge smile on your face. Check out thisisalphabeat.com for news and blogs from the band.
Fantasy Black Channel
It was no surprise to see British band Late of the Pier celebrated in style bible Dazed & Confused. This lot are an editor’s dream: four super-young, über-cool trendies from the unlikely town of Castle Donington in Leicestershire, who make instruments from chopped up pieces of furniture, have a practice space in the attic of an abandoned manor house and released their first album for free on pop culture bandwagon MySpace.
Now they’re back with a studio-produced follow-up, carrying more than a little weight of expectation after being compared with Brian Eno and Frank Zappa. The signs were good, with Fantasy Black Channel preceded by a double A-side single, ‘Space and the Woods’/’Focker’, which set the tone perfectly for what’s to come with its heavy synthesisers and lyrical kick that bears more than a passing resemblance to other current indie faves, Klaxons.
At its best, Fantasy Black Channel suggests a band who are ready to step into the limelight currently occupied by Klaxons, The Horrors and their ilk, with bags of attitude, cheek, a bit of angst and plenty of meaty hooks to dig your ears into. Then again, in its spottier parts, you can’t help but remember that Late of the Pier are a bunch of kids still learning their trade.
Exit Music
by Ian Rankin
It seems like every crime writer worth their salt has a long-running detective series these days. But few have wormed their way into the public consciousness quite as effectively as Ian Rankin’s Detective Inspector John Rebus.
That may be due in part to the BBC adaptations, but it’s also because Rebus embodies so many classic detective tropes. He’s a hard-drinking loner, married to the job and not afraid to cross the lines of decency in pursuit of his quarry. But perhaps what sets Rebus apart is the way Rankin leaves so much of his personality – and his physical appearance – to our imaginations.
After 10 books, Exit Music is set to mark DI Rebus’s retirement. And Rankin has sent him off in style.
Looking to tie up some loose ends before his time with the force comes to a close, Rebus is in contemplative mood. But when a Russian dissident is murdered in suspicious circumstances, and with a Russian business delegation in town, Rebus is pitched into a final, make-or-break case that’s as powerful as any he’s faced.
Friday, August 1st, 2008 at 12:00 amand is filed under incoming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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