Dod Sno

Suburban Mayhem

I've started a new blog, kinda like a personal diary but not. More a collection of found things and occasional bits and pieces that I've done. It will probably be rather kleptic, with what ever tickles my fancy. But I've got a good sense of humour, a great eye for design, so pop on over an leave a comment!

On-Screen is dead, Long Live FilmGuide!

FilmGuide has been sucking up ALL my time, and now we have a brand new site with pretty much daily updates. Check it out now and subscribe to our feed!

On-Screen is dead, Long Live FilmGuide!

Sweeney Todd

Dark, dirty, gothic London streets; tragic, bitter loss and revenge; a sliver of hope with the chance for redemption; strong male and female leads; high theatrical drama and spontaneous bursts of singing?! That’s right, welcome to the musical of the year! But don’t be put off; this is probably one of a select few musicals that could be stomached by even those who have an active dislike of the genre. Smart, deranged and compelling, Tim Burton’s adaptation of Broadway hit Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Sweeney) is a masterwork.

Does the above description bring to mind anything else? Say, most of Tim Burton’s film catalogue? Little wonder the master of gothic cinema leapt at the chance to direct this macabre musical when director Sam Mendes left it to pursue his recent film Jarhead. It turns out that Burton had expressed interest to Stephen Sondheim (writer of the music and lyrics from the original stage show) in adapting the 1979 Tony Award winning theatre piece as early as the 1980s.

A morose morality play Sweeny focuses on revenge and the bitter cycle it perpetuates. London Barber Benjamin Barker (Johnny Depp) is falsely charged by the crooked and powerful Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) and finds himself sentenced to transportation for life to Australia. The judge has his way with Barker’s wife then discards her, taking the couple’s baby daughter Johanna (Jayne Wisener) as his own ward and raises her as his own beautiful caged animal. Escaping into the sea 15 years later the now embittered Barker is rescued by some sea going vessel and befriended by a young sailor, Anthony Hope (Jamie Campbell Bower), whose fate intertwines with Barker’s alter ego – the soulless entity that is Sweeney Todd. Upon arriving back in London Todd goes back to his old house and begins a grisly partnership with impoverished neighbour and pie-maker Mrs Lovett (Helena Bonham-Carter). Lovett dreams of their blossoming relationship but in her heart can see that Todd is a man possessed. Though offered an opportunity to redirect and transform his anger Todd cannot take it; his inability to let go of this all consuming rage sees him metaphorically apply the blade to his own throat and cause the very last drops of his humanity to drip lifelessly to the floor. [continue reading]

re:format

Ok, so On Screen is back up and running.... sort of. Because of the time and effort put into Film Guide I just didn't have the time to keep posting my reviews over here as well, so On Screen was put to rest.

However, I've decided it won't take too much time just to post each weeks feature film from Film Guide, so that's what On Screen is to become, a weekly film review blog, linking back to it's own offspring, Film Guide.

Cloverfield

Cloverfield is probably the most hyped movie of the summer, though most of the hype is probably just our own insane curiosity as to what the man behind Lost can do on the big screen with oodles of cash and presumably complete creative freedom.

Well, first things first, forget the hype and don’t assume you know anything about the movie. Cloverfield is a pure, unadulterated monster movie. It’s the Blair Witch project meets Godzilla, with a heap of JJ Abrams style thrown in for good measure.

More than anything, it’s the structure of Cloverfield that sets it apart from its predecessors. We are the YouTube generation and JJ has given us a movie that mimics our intense interest in getting up close and personal with complete strangers lives, a voyeuristic nature given free reign through the desire of others to be watched.

We’ve all seen the start of Cloverfield, the party scene with the hand held camera. It’s this style that runs through the whole movie, though somewhere along the way the quality switches from digital cam to high quality movie photography – just where I’m not sure, as I was glued to the screen. [continue reading]

Pan’s Labyrinth

Pan's Labyrinth is a wonderfully mythical tale set against the backdrop of fascist Spain, where innocence must grow up, challenge authority and fulfil her destiny.

Ofelia is forced to journey with her pregnant mother to live with her new father, a man she does not know or trust. Set in the hills of rural Spain her new ‘father’ is determined to destroy the last vestments of the Spanish resistance and shows his true colours early on as he beats to death an innocent farm boy.

With harshness and cruelty abounding, Ofelia withdrawals to a world of fantasy that only she can see.

But is it fantasy? [more]

The Illusionist

The problem with a movie like The Illusionist is that it was preceded by a movie called The Prestige. The Prestige entertained us with a fast moving story of two duelling magicians, trying to out do each other, whist paying each other back for a perceived wrong in their past.

Both The Prestige and The Illusionist are movies about magicians – showmen who use slight of hand and other optical tricks to wow the audience. But both movies are also very different.

Instead of a fast paced thriller, The Illusionist traveled the road of a character driven drama, where the viewer must be on the watch for signs of reality, because in essence, nothing is what it seems. [more]