The way of the Gun

07/10/2018:

Went to see the Giants in Liverpool on Saturday with the family. Impressive stuff. Spent the evening in The Sandpiper, which is a pub outside Ormskirk, Lancashire, to celebrate my parent’s fiftieth wedding anniversary. Spent Sunday, once I’d eventually dragged myself out of bed, watching Jumanji (1995), Star Trek (2009) and X-Men – First Class (2011) and though I don’t have a lot to say about any of them, I enjoyed revisiting them immensely, probably cause I was a bit tired and lolling on the furniture in a state of quiet repose whilst the telly flickered and the kids treated me as a fleshy climbing frame.

RIP Scott Wilson, who is best known these days for his dramatic stint as Hershel Greene in zombie depress fest The Walking Dead. I have fond memories of him in William Peter Blatty’s The Ninth Configuration (1980). However, my real favourite remains, for reasons I cannot quite fathom, The Way of The Gun, Chris McQuarrie’s directorial debut released in 2000.

The Way Of the Gun, a low key crime favourite that came and went faster than a cool breeze on a summer’s day, remains my favourite Chris McQuarrie movie, not least because it’s tough, violent and sporadically amusing and features a couple of no nonsense turns from from Benecio Del Toro and Ryan Phillippe as a pair of desperado kidnappers in over their heads. Scott Wilson’s turn in the film is cooly intimidating. Highly recommended for anyone unfamiliar with it.

14/10/2018:
Not really watched anything this week with the exception of a couple of Jamie Oliver shows. Listened to a lot of music and tried to finish Witcher 3 on the PS4, something I have been sporadically attempting for well over a year. I’ve also been chipping away at my novel in fits and starts. Attended the theatre for the first time in an age to watch Death of A Salesman, which was a wonderfully mounted production directed by the magnificent Sarah Frankam at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester. Both myself and The Lampshade Maker had a great time, even if it is one of the most depressing plays I have seen performed during my time as an adult. Going to watch a bit of telly today, paint the daughter’s bedroom and hopefully set up and post a backdated blog. Then maybe a movie.

Maybe.

First Man

26/10/2018:

Spent the best part of six nights in Paris, where I ate a lot, spoke a bit of French, toured the 11th arrondissement in search of music and books and decent wine and eventually watched First Man (2018), the latest Damien Chazelle movie, in an empty cinema somewhere near Père Lachaise Cemetery. The film was tense, heartbreaking, inspiring and psychologically draining. As much an ode to grief and the deadening impact of repetitive trauma on the human psyche as it was a space movie about the first men on the moon. It featured a truly layered performance from Ryan Gosling as stoic space cadet Neil Armstrong. Portraying the pilot as a tragedy stricken parent internalising his grief with varying consequences was a brave move.

Meanwhile, for anyone not interested in character driven movies about the horrors of loss, the rocket man stuff was really cool too.

Tonight, sat up and watched The Trouble With Harry [DVD] (1955), Hitchcock’s darkly humorous comedy of errors about a dead body and the gentle New England country folk trying to find a way to cope in trying circumstances.

Though not exactly vintage Hitch, the film is a neat addition to the master’s oeuvre, featuring an incredibly light touch from the director despite the film’s thematic preoccupation with death. The film displays less of the technical wizardry Hitch was known for, and relies more on the witty verbal interplay between characters to carry it forward.

There are plenty of knowing laughs and some fun performances from the likes of John Forsythe and making her screen debut as Harry’s young widow, Shirley Maclaine. However the real standout is Bernard Hermann’s score. Hermann’s first collaboration with Hitch adds real texture to the film maintaining the playful, blackly comic tone of the piece, without being intrusive or overwrought. A delightfully irreverent listen, the score foreshadows his later work for the master in films such as North by Northwest (1959) and Psycho (1960) respectively.

The film did badly on release due to the fact nobody knew quite what to make of it and disappeared off the public radar for years afterward. However as a whimsically surreal bit of Hitch indulgence, it deserves a second chance and its place in the sun.

Explorers

27/10/2018

Dad, Sam and Molly night. A Joe Dante double-bill, whilst The Lampshade Maker was out getting fed. Plumped for Explorers (1985) to start, nothing like the Thunder Road – as inspired a mode of space transport as has ever been designed for a movie – and a bunch of eighties kids causing sci-fi mayhem in small town America to get the ball rolling.

Followed this up with zany science fiction comedy Innerspace (1987), as delightful, irreverent and off the wall, with some incredibly well considered special effects work, as it was thirty years ago. Starring Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan.

The Way of the Gun
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