Exit wounds by Rutu Modan - at the Plan B Graphic Novel book group

I made it along to this months book group and we were talking about Exit Wounds, a book that I wrote about when I read it in 2007 (see here).  I had to re-read the book because I didn't really remember it and thankfully it's a pretty smooth read and I got through it in about an hour.

Exit wounds is a beautiful book to look at.  The art is clean and it flows well.  I've been re-reading Tintin recently and the Herge influence is clear.  Some people felt that the simplicity of the faces in the book made it difficult to gage the emotions that characters were expressing but generally most people liked the art.

The story proved slightly more problematic for some people.  A few expressed the opinion that it didn't really go anywhere while some were struck by the 'kitchen-sink' reality of the story.  There is a big hole in the book as we never meet the absent father who is the McGuffin of the book.  His absence is a real feature of the book.  I have a theory that the titular 'Exit wounds' are the psychic wounds that the father creates as he leaves the lives of the various  women he has relationships with.

Again, this is a book that I would recommend to people.  It is an easy read if not a great read.  It's enjoyable but it's not a masterpiece.

NEDS - DVD review

I approached Neds with trepidation.  I was born in Glasgow, I grew up in Lanarkshire, I went to school with a lot of neds and I own a flat in Glasgow.  I didn't see this film in the cinema because I thought it would attract a dodgy crowd.  I've finally caught up with it on DVD.

I think it's a good film, possibly even a great film, but it could be difficult to follow if you don't speak the language.  It follows a young boy as he finishes primary school where he has academically excelled and starts  secondary school where he falls in with a bad crowd.  Outside school he starts to hang out with a bad crowd and get into trouble.

I recognised the characters and situations in this film.  I've seen people end up like the characters in this film.  It was very real to me and at times very upsetting.  On a personal level, I've been threatened with a knife, kicked in the head and I've had my carry out stolen from me.  I know how all that feels although I'm lucky that I've gotten away from it.  I felt that Peter Mullan and his actors have created a great film that is fairly true.

As I watched the film I was struck by a real feeling that if I have children I would want to avoid them putting up with all that sort of shit.  I guess that means moving to the country or something.  The events dramatised in this film still go on in Glasgow and other Scottish towns on a weekly basis.  Our society is fucked up.  If you disagree, read the newspapers or the BBC website.

The film ends ambiguously but it's a good ending.  You can pick your own ending.  I hope that the main character did well after all of this.  Having read other reviews on the internet I know a lot of people didn't like him but I hope he gets a second chance.

This is a story about how your environment fucks you up.  Well worth seeing.  Use subtitles if you need to.

The Adventures of Tintin - movie review

Tintin is another comic book that I read a lot as a child.  I learned to read with Tintin and Asterix books.  As an adult I guess that I enjoy the Asterix books a bit more.  Some of the early Tintin books were a bit racist which made them less readable. 

Despite these misgivings I was keen to see the film.  It has a great pedigree, directed by Steven Speilberg with a script by modern British writers such as Edgar Wright, Steven Moffat and Joe Cornish.  The voice talent was impressive too with strong turns from Jamie Bell as Tintin and Andy Serkis as Captain Haddock.

The look of the film is consistent with the comics.  The CGI motion capture is unobtrusive and not too much like a computer game.  The characters look like their comic book ancestors while moving like people.

The story is OK, mixing elements from several of the Tintin books.  It works for the most part.  I was slightly annoyed by some deviations from the original stories but on the whole I enjoyed it.  I might even go and see this again in the cinema.

Flashman by George MacDonald Fraser

Flashman is a 1969 novel written by George MacDonald Fraser.  The eponymous antihero of the book, Harry Flashman, is based on a charcter from the novel Tom Brown's Schooldays.  In this book, the first of a series of 13, we are introduced to Flashman who is a complete arsehole. 

He is a coward, a bully, a rapist and a racist.  He does several very unpleasant things during the story.  As he is the first person narrator of the story you are drawn in by him a bit but generally he is a difficult character to like.  The historical detail in the novel is good.  This book is based on historical events during the British occupation of Afghanisthan between 1839-1842 and there are certain resonances with current events.

This book can be enjoyed despite the flaws of Flashman.  I will probably read some of the other books in the series in due course.

Soylent Green - DVD review

I first saw Soylent Green on BBC2 a long long time ago.  It was shown as part of a series of cult movies.  I can't remember who presented the series but I greatly enjoyed the film.  It's frequently referenced in popular culture (the Simpsons) and while it looks a bit dated it's still good fun.

Soylent Green is based in the dystopian future of New York in 2022 (not long now).  The world is vastly overpopulated and running out of food.  People survive on protein pills made from SOYa and LENTils.  The protein pills come in different colours (red, blue, green).  Charlton Heston stars as a police detective investigating the death of an executive who works for the Soylent company.

The dystopia is well realised.  People litter the streets, living in stairwells.  Strawberries cost 150 dollars for a jar. The main character has never seen beef.  Rich men live with concubines called 'furniture'.  The film immerses you in this world.

Heston investigates the murder and finds out some shocking secrets.  The film is crying out for a remake but I don't know if it would works as well.  Worth tracking down.

The Girl who kicked the hornets nest - DVD review

This is the third in the series of Swedish language adaptions of the novels of Stieg Larsson.  In some ways I enjoyed the film more than the book.  The slightly wayward plot of the book has been edited down for some slightly more punchy storytelling.  Having said that, 140 minute Swedish courtroom dramas are not really 'punchy' by their very nature.

I always like Swedish films because I love the scenery and I love Stockholm.  The story is involving enough if you have seen the earlier films or read the books.  I have to admit that I did get a bit of an air-punching buzz every time one of the many bad guys met their fates.

A decent film but only if you have watched the first two.

Nevermind by Nirvana - 20 years later.

Nevermind was released on September the 24th 1991, over 20 years ago.  It's difficult to believe how long ago that is.  In many ways, Nirvana changed the music industry.  When that record came out I was in third year at high school and I listened to Black Flag, Minor Threat, Dead Kennedys and Fugazi.  I thought Nirvana were a pop group initially and it took me a few months to realise that they were a real band.

When I finally started to listen to them I was impressed.  I think I got a copy cassette of Bleach with the Vaselines on the b-side first before finally getting Nevermind.  Nirvana always seemed more 'real' to me than Pearl Jam.  This may have been because the members of Nirvana dressed like I did.  It might have been because they referenced bands like Black Flag in interviews.  Pearl Jam just reminded me of Guns n Roses.

Nirvana sort of became the biggest band in the world and I watched them closely in the music press.  Back then, before the internet, if you wanted to stay up to date with music you had to read the NME and Melody Maker every week.  I did it religiously.

Incesticide and In Utero were released.  I managed not to see them twice.  Once, when they played at the QMU I didn't know who they were and I didn't think I'd get in.  The second time, Kurt shot himself and the tour was cancelled.  The Kurt Cobain death cult went mental.

The music was still amazing.

More and more music became available over the years, initially on bootlegs and later on official releases.  Nirvana shelved some great songs.  Nevermind was probably the best recorded set of songs they put out but I enjoyed some of their other tracks more.

My personal favourite Nirvana tracks (in no particular order) are listened below

Been a son
Sappy
About a girl
Dive
Dumb
Even in his youth
Here she comes now
In Bloom
Love Buzz
Molly's Lips
Opinion (the fragment of a song that we have)
Son of a gun
Stain

I think the tracks I've listed above would make a decent album.  They certainly make a good iTunes playlist.  Now, 20 years later, I'm a rich doctor (somehow) and I've bought a vastly overpriced deluxe edition of Nevermind that I'm looking forward to listening to.  Life goes on.  I'm now 7 years older than Kurt Cobain was when he died and 10 years older than he was when he recorded that album.  At 34 I still feel fairly young and the 20th anniversary of this record is a bit scary.

The Omega Man - DVD review

I read the novel 'I am Legend' by Richard Matheson when I was a young teenager about 20 years ago.  I liked the book but I don't really remember it too well.  I saw the 2007 Will Smith film but I don't actually remember it too well now. 

I am Legend tells the story of the last man on Earth, a man who is immune to strange disease that has turned the population into vampires.  He tries to develop a cure for the disease to allow the human race to continue.

The Omega Man was the second version of 'I am legend' to make the big screen in 1971.  It has a real '60s vibe to it with clothes, haircuts and attitudes from that time.  The 'infected' have a Charles Manson vibe and are referred to as 'the Family'.  Charlton Heston manages to get a shag despite being the last man on Earth.

The Omega Man is entertaining but dated.   It was good to see it after many years.  Modern audiences probably prefer the Will Smith version.  There is also another  version called I am Omega that I intend to avoid as it sounds a bit dodgy.

Private Eye - the First 50 years by Adam MacQueen

I'm not sure when I first started to read Private Eye.  It was a long time ago but certainly during the Ian Hislop era.  I think I initially enjoyed the cartoons although I probably didn't really understand very much else in the magazine.  I haven't always bought every issue but I buy as many as I can.  I've very much enjoyed a lot of the output this year, especially the downfall of the News of the World.

This book by Adam MacQueen is a high quality history arranged in alphabetical order.  The bad things that Private Eye has been guilty of over the years are presented in as much details as the good.  Homophobia, sexism and public schoolboy-ism are presented as much as crusading investigative journalism and good jokes.  The in-fighting amongst the staff is also described in unflinching  detail.  Hislop appears to have sorted things out and got rid of some of the more unsavoury aspects of the magazine.

Private Eye as a magazine is both anti-establishment and of the establishment.  The UK is a better country because of Private Eye and I hope it keeps going for another 50 years.

 Private Eye Website - you still need to buy the magazine for the good stuff

Complicity - DVD review

Complicity is an old film now.  It came out in 2000.  I saw it at around the time of its release, either in the cinema or on video (old skool).  It is based on the novel of the same name by Iain Banks.  When I was a teenager Complicity was one of my favourite books, probably because I wanted to be a journalist at the time, because I used to worship Hunter S Thompson and because music by bands like the the Pixies is referenced. 

The film seems a bit quaint now.  It was never a big critical or commercial hit.  Jonny Lee Miller was cast as the lead character, probably off the back of his role in Trainspotting, another drugcentric Scottish film.  Interestingly Keeley Hawes, later to find fame in Ashes to Ashes, is the female lead here.  In the decade or so since I last watched this film I had managed to forget most of the plot.  It's OK, if a bit clunky.  I mainly enjoyed playing 'spot the minor Scottish celebrity' and seeing the Highland scenery.  I think the book is slightly better although I suspect that it is best enjoyed as an angry adolescent.

The soundtrack sounds a bit dated now.  It's a shame the film couldn't afford the Pixies.  We were left with some pre-millenium indie rock that doesn't have much bite.  The film is OK but it's not a masterpiece.