★★★☆☆ It's been mere weeks since the 2013 edition of the Glastonbury Festival ended - the cows are not yet back in the hallowed fields of Worthy Farm - but festival fans still shaking off withdrawal symptoms could do worse than Glastonbury: The Movie in Flashback (2012), an affectionate rockumentary of the festival as it was in 1993. A director's cut of the film first released back in 1996, it is an oddly passive account. Director Robin Mahoney presents the festival on its own terms and generally allows the action to play out organically. There's no commentary, few interviews, and the only ostensible structure is a day-by-day division.
We follow a few characters ('Vanessa the Pink Dress Girl", for example) but otherwise it's defiantly loose. This certainly sets a spirit-of-the-sixties tone - the use of split-screen is perhaps a rather conspicuous nod to Woodstock (1970), that other doc about that other legendary festival - but the...
We follow a few characters ('Vanessa the Pink Dress Girl", for example) but otherwise it's defiantly loose. This certainly sets a spirit-of-the-sixties tone - the use of split-screen is perhaps a rather conspicuous nod to Woodstock (1970), that other doc about that other legendary festival - but the...
- 7/16/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Capturing the enchanted world of the Glastonbury festival site in 1993, Robin Mahoney's freewheeling, split-screen doc, now remastered and recut, has bags of energy and wit.
The film is seduced by the crusties, jugglers, mushroom men and music but quite able to laugh at it all, too. The general lack of lucidity about the experience is perhaps troubling – one woman says it's all about "burnt potatoes and a bit of music"; another man says it's "about drinking cider and falling over".
But this is a pre-bbc-presenters-in-a-yurt era, before cultural re-evaluation and commercialisation had really taken hold, and so it becomes about the music and when Omar's There's Nothing Like This kicks in, or the Stereo MCs remind you what a tune Connected was before the mobile phone ads co-opted it, well, you just go with it and allow a touch of recall to waft you away.
DocumentaryGlastonbury festivalFestivalsJason Solomons
guardian.
The film is seduced by the crusties, jugglers, mushroom men and music but quite able to laugh at it all, too. The general lack of lucidity about the experience is perhaps troubling – one woman says it's all about "burnt potatoes and a bit of music"; another man says it's "about drinking cider and falling over".
But this is a pre-bbc-presenters-in-a-yurt era, before cultural re-evaluation and commercialisation had really taken hold, and so it becomes about the music and when Omar's There's Nothing Like This kicks in, or the Stereo MCs remind you what a tune Connected was before the mobile phone ads co-opted it, well, you just go with it and allow a touch of recall to waft you away.
DocumentaryGlastonbury festivalFestivalsJason Solomons
guardian.
- 6/30/2012
- by Jason Solomons
- The Guardian - Film News
Dark Horse (15)
(Todd Solondz, 2011, Us) Selma Blair, Jordan Gelber, Christopher Walken, Mia Farrow, Justin Bartha, Zachary Booth. 86 mins
Trust Todd Solondz to give us the flipside of movie man-childhood. There's nothing funny or adorable about 35-year-old Abe (Gelber), who lives with his parents, collects action figures and has no idea of his own uselessness. He meets his match (sort of) in the virtually comatose Blair, and what ensues is a romcom that's neither romantic nor comical, but beneath the misanthropy lurks some kind of compassion.
Killer Joe (18)
(William Friedkin, 2011, Us) Matthew McConaughey, Emile Hirsch, Juno Temple. 102 mins
Curdling Texan noir and melodrama in a bizarre, curiously fascinating thriller.
The King Of Devil's Island (12A)
(Marius Holst, 2010, Nor/Fra/Swe/Pol) Stellan Skarsgård, Benjamin Helstad. 116 mins
Prison thriller set on a 1950s Norwegian borstal island.
Storage 24 (15)
(Johannes Roberts, 2012, UK) Noel Clarke, Colin O'Donoghue. 87 mins
Minimal sci-fi thriller set in a London storage unit.
(Todd Solondz, 2011, Us) Selma Blair, Jordan Gelber, Christopher Walken, Mia Farrow, Justin Bartha, Zachary Booth. 86 mins
Trust Todd Solondz to give us the flipside of movie man-childhood. There's nothing funny or adorable about 35-year-old Abe (Gelber), who lives with his parents, collects action figures and has no idea of his own uselessness. He meets his match (sort of) in the virtually comatose Blair, and what ensues is a romcom that's neither romantic nor comical, but beneath the misanthropy lurks some kind of compassion.
Killer Joe (18)
(William Friedkin, 2011, Us) Matthew McConaughey, Emile Hirsch, Juno Temple. 102 mins
Curdling Texan noir and melodrama in a bizarre, curiously fascinating thriller.
The King Of Devil's Island (12A)
(Marius Holst, 2010, Nor/Fra/Swe/Pol) Stellan Skarsgård, Benjamin Helstad. 116 mins
Prison thriller set on a 1950s Norwegian borstal island.
Storage 24 (15)
(Johannes Roberts, 2012, UK) Noel Clarke, Colin O'Donoghue. 87 mins
Minimal sci-fi thriller set in a London storage unit.
- 6/29/2012
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
Robin Mahoney's retooled version of his 1996 documentary buys into the Glasto mythology, tie-dye and all
Robin Mahoney's retooled version of his 1996 documentary strolls in like the last, straggling remnant from the furthest field on the site. It comes swaddled in tie-dyed fabric, its head whirling with visions of the bands of yore (the Lemonheads, Ozric Tentacles), spinning garrulous tales of campfire communions and dreadlocked debauchery. It's baggy, it's meandering, it's altogether uncritical. For all that, the film's giddy, carnival-esque air proves infectious. Mahoney ushers us jauntily back into the past, between the rows of tents, to view the fireworks.
Rating: 3/5
DocumentaryGlastonbury festivalFestivalsXan Brooks
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds...
Robin Mahoney's retooled version of his 1996 documentary strolls in like the last, straggling remnant from the furthest field on the site. It comes swaddled in tie-dyed fabric, its head whirling with visions of the bands of yore (the Lemonheads, Ozric Tentacles), spinning garrulous tales of campfire communions and dreadlocked debauchery. It's baggy, it's meandering, it's altogether uncritical. For all that, the film's giddy, carnival-esque air proves infectious. Mahoney ushers us jauntily back into the past, between the rows of tents, to view the fireworks.
Rating: 3/5
DocumentaryGlastonbury festivalFestivalsXan Brooks
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds...
- 6/28/2012
- by Xan Brooks
- The Guardian - Film News
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
We need not despair entirely that the Glastonbury Festival isn’t taking place this year, for Robin Mahoney’s 1995 landmark documentary Glastonbury The Movie re-releases this week, re-constituted from a stockpile of previously unseen material, aiming to once again capture the spirit of a type of festival that, amid heightened commercial concerns, is fading away.
What Mahoney’s original film did and this one manages even more efficiently is to provide a swift, energetic travelogue of the A-to-z of a music festival. Beginning just as we do, arriving at the campsite and setting down, Mahoney and his crew provide beautifully-shot glimpses of the sun setting as revellers drink, dance, and prepare for the three days of partying to follow.
Initially pitched as a Pagan festival, Glastonbury is perceived by many as the most carefree and hedonistic of the summer’s musical gatherings. The footage here – largely...
We need not despair entirely that the Glastonbury Festival isn’t taking place this year, for Robin Mahoney’s 1995 landmark documentary Glastonbury The Movie re-releases this week, re-constituted from a stockpile of previously unseen material, aiming to once again capture the spirit of a type of festival that, amid heightened commercial concerns, is fading away.
What Mahoney’s original film did and this one manages even more efficiently is to provide a swift, energetic travelogue of the A-to-z of a music festival. Beginning just as we do, arriving at the campsite and setting down, Mahoney and his crew provide beautifully-shot glimpses of the sun setting as revellers drink, dance, and prepare for the three days of partying to follow.
Initially pitched as a Pagan festival, Glastonbury is perceived by many as the most carefree and hedonistic of the summer’s musical gatherings. The footage here – largely...
- 6/27/2012
- by Shaun Munro
- Obsessed with Film
Dexter Fletcher tells Jason Solomons about his forthcoming cockney western
Wild Bill team go west
Following the success of his directing debut, Wild Bill, former child actor Dexter Fletcher is making a full-blown western, set in Arizona. However, he tells me, Provenance will still be made up of Londoners, this time seeking their fortune in the frontier towns of the American west. "I've always loved westerns but have never been able to be in one," Dexter says. "I tried to work a lot western ideas into Wild Bill and I feel really lucky to be able to actually get to make one of my own, in real western country." BBC Films is backing the film and Mark Strong is set to star, alongside Sammy Williams, the kid in Wild Bill who also featured in Joe Cornish's Attack the Block. The rest of the cast has yet to be confirmed...
Wild Bill team go west
Following the success of his directing debut, Wild Bill, former child actor Dexter Fletcher is making a full-blown western, set in Arizona. However, he tells me, Provenance will still be made up of Londoners, this time seeking their fortune in the frontier towns of the American west. "I've always loved westerns but have never been able to be in one," Dexter says. "I tried to work a lot western ideas into Wild Bill and I feel really lucky to be able to actually get to make one of my own, in real western country." BBC Films is backing the film and Mark Strong is set to star, alongside Sammy Williams, the kid in Wild Bill who also featured in Joe Cornish's Attack the Block. The rest of the cast has yet to be confirmed...
- 6/23/2012
- by Jason Solomons
- The Guardian - Film News
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