62nd Berlin Film Festival

I'm heading off to Berlin for this year's film festival in the early hours of tomorrow morning, where I'll be watching 20-30 films and writing pieces for the Daily Telegraph. Whilst there I'll also record a podcast or two with Jon and Craig, who are going as part of the "industry" (basically they are seeing all the films but don't have to write anything about them).

Though the festival doesn't start officially until the 9th, tomorrow night there is a preview screening of Werner Herzog's second death row documentary - entitled 'Death Row' - which I'm very much looking forward to. There's also a lot of interesting films in the competition, including 'Shadow Dancer' from James Marsh and an interesting French-Philippine drama called 'Captured', about some holiday makers who get taken hostage. I also like the sound of Billy Bob Thornton's ensemble family drama 'Jane Mansfield's Car'. There's also a European premiere for Oscar nominee 'Extreme Loud and Incredibly Close'.

But as with all festivals the best movies will probably emerge from unlikely places and be directed by people I've never heard of.

I'll do my level best to keep this blog updated whilst I'm away, though these things can be chaotic and I'll already likely have a lot of work to do. If you don't hear from me for two weeks then you can expect a huge backlog of reviews to start trickling in from when I return on the 20th.

José Padilha interview at The Telegraph

An interview I did with Brazilian director José Padilha, to coincide with the DVD release of his gritty, violent police thriller 'Elite Squad: The Enemy Within' (released December 26th), has gone up on The Daily Telegaph website. I mainly spoke to him about his plans for the upcoming 'RoboCop' remake, which sounds like it should be, at the very least, interesting. Read the interview here.

I'm pretty excited about this interview, from a personal point of view, because it's the first freelance thing I've written and then pitched to a newspaper subsequently. It's exciting because the story - having gone up on the site of a major paper - has been quoted elsewhere, meaning my work is also (kind of) up on NME and The Metro, which is quite fun!

'Three Colours Trilogy' review:

I watched Krzysztof Kieslowski's 'Three Colours Blue/White/Red' over the weekend and really enjoyed them, which was a surprise as I thought they'd be the sort of strained arthouse fare that's far easier to merely "appreciate". 'White' was especially good - a darkly funny Polish chapter - though the virtuosity of 'Blue' and Irene Jacob's radiance in 'Red' also left a strong impression.

My review of the Blu-ray box set, released today, is up now at What Culture!.

I've also had DVD reviews in the last two Saturday editions of the Daily Telegraph which I hadn't bothered plug here for some reason.

Gross-out gals comedy 'Bridesmaids' - which I enjoyed far more on a second viewing than I did upon theatrical - and the repugnant, mean-spirited, black-hearted 'Horrible Bosses', a more typical dude comedy which will never get the chance of a second viewing.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to have time to review the brilliant 'Weekend', which totally justifies the recent hype and box office success.

Telegraph feature: The "top 10 Plague films"

To coincide with today's UK release of Steven Soderbergh's US box office hit 'Contagion' The Daily Telegraph got me to compile a "top 10" list of movies similarly themed around the idea of a deadly epidemic. The best thing about this assignment was the fact that it finally made me watch Alfonso Cuaron's 'Children of Men' which, it turns out, is really amazing.

Don't be fooled by the title though, more than half the films in this list are pretty awful. The "top ten" thing is just what the sub editor on the site has called it. (I've already had a friend call me out on making some shocking picks!)

You can check out this feature here!

I wrote a very similar piece about end of the world movies back when 'Melancholia' came out last month - which you can read here.

Oh, and if you've also been wallowing in an ignorant stupor for the last five years, I would urge you to watch 'Children of Men'.

'Melancholia': End of the World feature - Telegraph Online

Ahead of the UK release of Lars Von Trier's apocalyptic 'Melancholia' tomorrow, a feature I wrote about end of the world movies has been published on the Daily Telegraph website. It's about films where the world is actually destroyed - or else seems to be on an irreversible decline - so it's pretty spoiler heavy. Also, whilst the title on the site says "top 10", the majority of these are imperfect movies united by this loose theme and don't form any kind of list of recommendations (though all are worth seeing).

The link for that piece is here.

'Melancholia' is rated '15' by the BBFC and is released in the UK from tomorrow.

General chatter...

Aside from the previously reviewed 'Kill List' and 'Attenberg', I've not yet seen any of this week's theatrical releases, which include the poorly received 'Apollo 18' and the only slightly less shat-upon remake of 'Fright Night', so in lieu of any new movies to opine upon I just thought I'd post links to what I've published so far this week.

I've had another DVD review in The Daily Telegraph, this time casting my eye upon Denzel Washington's 'The Great Debaters' and yesterday saw me looking over the new Blu-ray release of Sergio Leone's seminal 'Once Upon a Time in the West' for What Culture.

At the moment I'm writing up transcriptions of my interviews with people from last week's IFA technology show in Berlin, and there's a two-month old interview with 'Warrior' actors Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton that needs to be readied soon for that film's release later this month. There are also articles about two of my great childhood loves, 'Star Wars' and 'Jurassic Park', to coincide with the upcoming Blu-ray releases.

Finally, I hosted a Q+A with 'Kill List' director Ben Wheatley and the film's DP Laurie Rose at the Duke of York's Picturehouse on Sunday night. It was a good turnout (just under 200 people) and a lot of them stayed at the end to ask their questions. They were a pleasure to interview and the whole thing was so relaxed (Ben is especially down to Earth and unflappable) that any stage fright I had quickly subsided once it was underway. The director's refusal to explain the film's ending frustrated some audience members, but there was still a lot of interesting stuff. For more of Mr. Wheatley, check out one of the most recent Splendor Cinema Podcasts where the director joined Jon and I to discuss everything from the rubbish marketing for his first movie 'Down Terrace' to our shared disbelief at the cheapness of 'The Planet of the Apes' Blu-ray box set.

'Cowboys and Aliens' Review + 'Submarine' DVD

'Iron Man' director John Favreau's genre mash-up 'Cowboys and Aliens' is out on the 17th in the UK and I've reviewed it already over on What Culture. The short version: I found it incredibly boring. It left me in little wonder that the big budgeted Harrison Ford/Daniel Craig movie failed to beat 'The Smurfs' to the top spot at the US box office on its opening weekend. Why did I find it so dull? Read the review.

I've also had another DVD review published in the pages of the Daily Telegraph last weekend, as I appraised Richard Ayoade's brilliant directorial debut 'Submarine' - which you can also read online now that Saturday's more tangible issue is lining hamster cages.

Also, check back in the next couple of days for my review of 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes', which comes out on Friday over here. I'll say already that it's really good and a probable Oscar contender: an intelligent and exciting film which will reignite enthusiasm for the franchise overnight. British director Rupert Wyatt and motion capture performance advocate Andy Serkis (the film's real star as Caesar the ape) have every reason to celebrate a fine piece of work.