Russelling up a storm
An amazing night was always guaranteed when I saw Alice Russell would be playing Komedia with backing from the Jack Baker Trio. And as she charged on stage and leaped…
Success No Secret
Secret Cinema’s latest project, the seductively named Secret Cinema, premiered in Brighton last month with a fantastic night of entertainment and immersion in the form of the 44th best comedy…
Stereophonics – Best of: Decade in the Sun (V2)
I stand firm. I will not bow beneath public disdain and suggest that my fondness for the back catalogue of the Stereophonics is a guilty pleasure. On the contrary –…
Changeling
Based on a true and definitely incredible story, Clint Eastwood’s new motion picture Changeling is set in an apparently immaculate and flourishing Los Angeles of the late 1920s, with a…
Floorplay… better than sex?
After meeting in a record store in 2006, Brighton boys Ben Prok and James Fitch honed their collaborative sound to reflect the very essence of what they stand for –…
Of Time And The City
From Terence Davies comes his long-awaited fifth feature, and, at the age of sixty-five, it is not a moment too soon for the British auteur. Of Time And The City,…
Tallulah Rendall – ‘Lay Me Down’
Sounding distinctly akin to P J Harvey, Tallulah Rendall has perfected her art amongst some of the capital’s finest musicians – though it was not until recently when asked to…
Scott on secrets and lies
Nearly every crime thriller centres its moral high-ground on the issues of trust and deception. It is one of those given clichés that a traitor will be uncovered as the…
Lake Tahoe freeze frames over
Fernando Eimbcke’s new film focuses on the suburbs of an unnamed Mexican town. The minimalist cinematography progresses by eerily still shots of the deserted landscape, through which the young hero,…
Kanye West – 808s and Heartbreak
Kanye West reinvents himself again on 808s and Heartbreak, an extraordinary album of such a personal nature that it seems indecent to listen.
To have or not to have a convincing accent – that is the question
How are you supposed to feel about British comedians in Hollywood? Are they traitors? Ambassadors? Too often it has been a bit embarrassing as the lure of money and fame…
Lotz to be said about Lodz
I have to admit I was a little apprehensive about this screening. The little experience I have of Polish cinema paint it in my mind as a rather gruelling affair.…
Improvisation of epic proportions
The Bays and the Heritage Orchestra @ The Brighton Dome, 21st November For those who missed the interview The Badger ran a couple of weeks ago, The Bays are a…
Foreign film favourites
Foreign-language films seem to come with an expectation to be arty and abstract, but in fact they’re found in all styles and subjects, much like the American and British films…
The Vanguards – ‘Regress’
The Vanguards are a 4-piece from Manchester, and describe themselves as a ‘hard edge, sub pop band’. In the musical tradition of Manchester, the band are trying to develop an…
Not Brother’s Quay selection
The first four films of the screening, Stille Nacht I – IV, are music videos, commissioned either by MTV or by rock band His Name Is Alive. While some of…
Mosshart and Hince kill the mood
The Kills @ Concorde 2, 21st November If I’m completely honest, I wasn’t expecting a lot from The Kills. Critically acclaimed they may be, but when it comes down to…
Waltzing across the screen
When trying to find someone to go to Waltz with Bashir with, I described it as it is, an animated Israeli documentary about soldiers’ recollections of the first Lebanon war…
Brighton’s adopted son comes home
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds @ the Brighton Centre, 23rd November Standing among the huge crowd gathered at the Brighton Centre on Sunday, it was hard not to notice…
Choke
In Clark Gregg’s latest adaptation of a Chuck Palahniuk novel, Sam Rockwell (Assassination of Jesse James, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind) plays sex-addict Victor Mancini, cursed with an obsession of…