Film Review: Of Horses and Men (15) (Iceland/Germany 2013) (Director: Benedict Erlingsson) (Icelandic/Swedish & English with English Subtitles), Filmhouse, Screen Two, Edinburgh, Saturday 19.07.2014, 18:15

I had gone to see this due to what appears to me to be very odd circumstances. My father phoned me one evening to inform me of this film he had been reading about and ask if I knew of it. My father has very little knowledge of contemporary cinema and it is even stranger that he is informing me of a film that I had not noticed up until that point. While he was on the phone, I noticed that it was going to be coming on at the Filmhouse in approx three weeks from then. 

I thought if I did not go to see the film and he were to ask about it in future, how could I then expect him to put up with me dribbling on about other films. Though I did take the opportunity to recommend to him that he tries to seek out 'Le Quattro Volte' (2010), the charming, nearly wordless film about a goat-herder and his goats in northern Italy. 

Of Horses and Men focuses upon very rural communities in Iceland and how these people relay upon the relationships they have with their horses. Some of these communities and their horses interconnect. It is the depiction of these connections, their sub-groupings and further splinterings that provides the meat to what would otherwise be a very slight film. 

The film feels quite honest in it's depiction of how in rural life there are times when nothing is as interesting as the lives of those who live near by. The film is quirky, it has scenes that are warming and several scenes that are laugh-out-load funny. It has beautiful cinematography, or should that be, beautiful landscape that has been captured on camera. It was refreshing after some of the shit I've seen recently (Godzilla, Spidey etc.), though at the same time, I cannot claim this to be a cracker. Though again you could do a lot worse than spending 80 minutes with this very pleasant film. 

Rating: 07/10.    

Live Performance Review: Abdullah Ibrahim,  The Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Friday 18.07.2014, 20:00

This gig was part of the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival 2014, and due to this there were two other performances on the bill. The performances were under the banner of 'Mandela Day Concert'. I have given the headline to Abdullah as he is the only one I landed up seeing.

For those who don't know, Abdullah is regarded as the master Jazz musician of South Africa. He is now 80 years old and has had a career of international renown for well over 40 years. I first heard him perform on BBC2's Later...with Jools Holland in 2000.  

Some weeks back, I had looked at the programme for the Jazz & Blues Festival and for yet another year I thought there is nothing that catches my eye. A colleague had caused me to look again at details, and it was then that I spotted Abdullah was performing. That was a prospect I was not going to miss, so with literally a couple of days to go I got a ticket for the middle of the second row. It was only at the venue that I realised that Abdullah was on first. 

It was just him on piano without any accompanyment. It was one of those performances that was quite remarkable and faultless; a slinky-soulful-funky-joy from start to finish. He performed what my 'untrained-ear' took to be, a semi-improvised long piece that appeared to cover different periods of his enduring career. The only criticism is that I would have preferred for him to have played for longer (though then I never expected to be able to see him perform, so mustn't grumble). 

Why did I not stay for longer? Well sadly that it appeared somehow that the gig had drawn what can only be described as the most ignorant and disrespectful bunch of knuckle-dragging numpties that I have come across in a very long time. That was certainly the impression from where I was sitting. During the performance the amount of people who were glued to their illuminated-dumb-phones while being completely ignorant as to how distracting the enchanting-glow of this is, was quite staggering. Even worse was the amount of noise from people banging seats while happily taking themselves elsewhere; are people no longer encouraged to stand quietly during a performance? Is it me who is the weirdo for wishing to have hush while an absolute legend of jazz demonstrates his considerable skill? I could not tolerate these neanderthals any longer and there was too many guilty parties for me to tackle during the break. - Regrettably this made me grateful he had been on first.  

My comment previously about wishing he could have played for longer, this would only stand if we were fortunate enough to have a respectful audience. I don't think it fair to subject him as a master-musician to the level of dunderhead behaviour he sadly was having to put up with that evening.

Despite this considerable and legitimate gripe, I still consider his performance to have been impeccable, this is why the rating is what it is, and why I feel very fortunate to have been witness to this despite the circumstances:

Rating: 10/10.           

Film Review: Godzilla (2014) (12A) (U.S.A/Japan 2014) (Director: Gareth Edwards),  The Filmhouse Cinema Screen One, Edinburgh, Sunday 13.07.2014, 20:30

I don't know much about Godzilla and only recently saw the original in the cinema. I enjoyed the original, thought it was well acted and impressively inventive when considering how old it is. I have only seen snippets of the version from '98, the one which Japan disowned and refused to acknowledge as Godzilla, of which I rather liked what I saw. The most I know of Godzilla comes from the cartoons that were on t.v. when I was a whippersnapper. 

In regards to this new version...Firstly there were other monsters, which I had not known about. This in itself is not an issue. The issue I have is that Godzilla is now being portrayed as the benign creature who actually saves San Francisco from the other monsters. 

What sort of message does this send. With the original, Godzilla was meant as a warning of what could happen if people were not careful with their use of nuclear power. Now we have a creature who survived an attempt to destroy it with the use of nuclear weapons (those so-called ocean based nuclear tests in the '50's) who now is happy trying to defend those who tried to destroy it. So kids, those evil baddies of the future, if we try to destroy them, they will either die or they will turn and help those who were just trying to destroy it. Because children, that's how the world works, Doh! 

Secondly there was the staggeringly obvious such as, a bus of schoolchildren being driven over the golden gate bridge while it was under attack. Of course they survive, and I chuckled at the heavy-handedness of it all. 

The other issue I have is Arron Taylor Johnston. As a leading man he is about as expressionless as it is possible to be. Less emotion and we would have been reaching to diagnose as catatonic. The fact he was twined off with Elizabeth Olsen, who can act, just through into sharp focus even more, how truly awful he is as an actor.   

Sadly I found the film to be tediously dull without a shred of suspense, though not as annoying as the horrendous 'The Amazing Spiderman 2'. On a more positive note, Gareth Edwards first film, 'Monsters' (2010) is far more inventive and engaging with people you actively give a toss about rather than just recognise from the latest t.v. fad. 

Bring Back Godzookie, all is forgiven!

Rating: 03/10. 

Live Performance Review: Monty Python Live (Mostly),  The O2, London, Wednesday 02.07.2014, 18:00

This one I see as my dad's fault as he introduced me to the wonders of Python as a child. A mate and myself had found it relatively straight forward to get tickets and went with contained excitement and intrepidation. 

I had watched the BBC's Imagine programme broadcast on the Sunday night before the show and had my reservations increased by knowing that there was going to be a chorus line of singing dancers. 

We were sat quite high up, though close to the stage, the view felt acceptable. The chorus line was well used and did not irritate as I had expected. Having said that there were a couple of 'performances' that the chorus line did that I did not quite get and which appeared to me to be not as well thought out as the others. 

Despite doors opening at 18:00, the show began at 19:30 and once you removed the interval the performers were on stage for a good 2 & 1/2 hours. 

There was a fair amount of use of screens. As well as enabling those in the cheap seats to see what was happening on stage, the screens were also used to work into the show live action and animated clips from the t.v. shows. This enabled the involving of some skits which could never have been managed live and the posthumous involvement of Graham Chapman. The level of use of screens along with the chorus line was also clearly used to enable enough time for costume changes.

There was a good mix of skits and funny sing-along-a-songs from the t.v. shows and films. Almost all of what they did I was fairly familiar with though they did nice updates such as going straight from 'dead parrot' to 'cheese shop' and from 'accountancy/lion taming' to 'lumberjack song'. It was also a delight to see the likes of 'Nudge, Nudge', 'Spam', 'The Spanish Inquisition', 'An Argument' 'Albatross' & 'Four Yorkshire Men' being performed live.         

Of the five remaining members it was clear that Palin and Gilliam were the most sprightly though all of them did appear to be making an actual effort. It was also nice to see Carol Cleveland still being roped in to cover the ladies parts that the chaps don't cover. 

The stage was impressive in it's Gilliamesque appearance and the show was well strung together. The show did not drag at all as it moved from skit to song to dance and so on. There was a high degree of silliness as you would hope and it was nice to see the likes of Cleese and Palin struggling to keep it together. I was aware of having a beaming grin on my face throughout. I would not say it was excellent though it was very good, I very much enjoyed and was glad I went. 

Rating: 08/10.