Wednesday August 31st 2011
Those of you who’ve been paying attention may remember the assertion I made in my review of Kill List this morning that the film ‘makes exemplary use of Helvetica’. Well, since then I’ve received messages on Twitter (primarily from a man by the name of @topfife) suggesting that the opening credits and intertitles in Kill List are in fact rendered in Arial.
As you can see in the illustration above, it can be quite hard to differentiate between the two (spoiler alert: Arial’s at the top) and as the titles are not replicated in Kill List‘s trailer I have no way of knowing for sure which typeface is used without seeing the film again. It should be noted however that the Kill List ads currently running on this blog use Arial.
Can you settle this matter once and for all? Please get in touch immediately via Twitter, Facebook or e-mail. Together we can put an end to this rampant speculation.
1:20pm – Significant update:
1:39pm – Significanter update:
The final word there, from Kill List director Ben Wheatley.
Wednesday August 31st 2011
It’s quite hard to find a decent still from Kill List (hence the distinctly Knowing-esque one above) because on the surface at least, it’s not an attractive movie. Watch the trailer and you’d be forgiven for assuming it was one of those straight-to-DVD gangster movies that invariably feature Dexter Fletcher, full of low-rent digital cinematography and vaguely recognisable soap stars. Albeit a straight-to-DVD gangster movie with an unusually artsy soundtrack.
Luckily you need only get as far as the film’s incredible opening titles (and they really are INCREDIBLE) to realise that Kill List is an entirely different beast. It’s a film that straddles genres while remaining tonally sound; a film that’s exhilarating while you’re watching it and fascinating in hindsight; a film that’s substance-over-style but also immensely stylish; and a film that makes exemplary use of Helvetica.
TRUST ME
It’s also a film that would be completely destroyed by explanation, so I’ll say nothing more for now and instead remind you that the film’s OUT THIS FRIDAY and desperately NEEDS TO BE SEEN. Because, you know what, it’s…
Meta.
Tuesday August 30th 2011
I know this blog’s been a little competition-heavy over the last couple of weeks (Warning: there’s another one coming this weekend) so I promise I’ll keep this brief.
Drive is astoundingly good and easily one of the best films of the year, but I haven’t reviewed it yet because I’m a dick. A lovely bunch of people called Reprint are previewing the film at a special event at the Curzon Soho on Thursday 8th September, where they’ll also be unveiling an exclusive poster for the film designed by lovely Paul Blow. Further details at the Facebook here.
I’ve got a pair of tickets and two of the posters (worth £40 each HOMG) to give away and all you have to do to win them is be the first person to solve this hastily-drawn crossword puzzle and re-arrange the highlighted letters to spell the name of a popular fruit. Then type your answer in the comment box underneath.
First correct answer wins — get a move on!
Tuesday August 30th 2011
Hot on the heels of the news that Fernando Meirelles’ 360 will open this year’s London Film Festival, this morning it was announced that another Toronto premiere will be slowly ambling across the pond for the closing night gala: Terence Davies’ The Deep Blue Sea.
It’s the first narrative feature in more than a decade from the director of such films as Distant Voices, Still Lives (which I’ve TOTES seen) and The Long Day Closes (haven’t seen) and it’s an adaptation of the Terence Rattigan play about a married woman who falls in love with an RAF pilot in the 1950s. Tom Hiddleston stars opposite Rachel Weisz, who’s now two for two at this year’s LFF. Who does she think she is, George Clooney at the 2009 LFF? *obscure reference face*
Now… BRING ON THE HEBRON QUOTE:
‘It’s a great pleasure to be able to close the festival with this exquisite new feature from one of our most cherished directors. Terence Davies is a filmmaker who the BFI has supported from the very beginnings of his career, and in Terence Rattigan’s centenary year, this beautifully directed and acted film is the perfect closing night film.’
Double Terence all the way across that quote. So intense.
Monday August 29th 2011
Hidden behind a haze of 3D smog so thick that even paler-than-pale Anton Yelchin remains visually imperceptible, Fright Night is one of 2011′s blandest horror movies. Supposedly an upscale alternative to the Prom Nights and Disturbias of this world, this remake of the 1985 sort-of-classic has a decent cast including Colin Farrell and Chris Mintz-Plasse and a solid director in the form of Craig Gillespie (wot done Lars and the Real Girl), but its ambitions seem so feebly compromised at every turn that, by the end, its plot feels about as defined as its cinematography.
[Bet you didn't see that analogy coming, suckaaaaa.]
The gay subtext of the original film is gone, and lead teen Charley’s adult accomplice is now a Las Vegas magician rather than a TV star, but otherwise the plot is roughly the same. David Tennant plays the cockney magician role in his first American movie appearance, but there are no prizes for guessing who might have been their first choice…
There’s a certain amount of fun to be had with Colin Farrell being ‘a bit of a badass’ but eventually you just end up with the feeling that everyone involved had better things to be doing and were basically going through the motions. Which incidentally is how I feel writing this review.
It’s a bad movie that’s bad and you shouldn’t see it.
