FILM REVIEW: RISE OF THE GUARDIANS

Santa Claus (Alex Baldwin), the Tooth Fairy (Isla Fisher), the Easter Bunny (Hugh Jackman) and the Sandman make up the team of mythical creatures referred to as ‘The Guardians’ in the animated adaptation of William Joyce’s book, Rise of the Guardians. The myths of these characters build off our preconceptions to establish an imaginative world that contains endless possibilities and is visually stunning.

Directed by Peter Ramsey, written by David- Lindsay-Abaire and co-produced by Guilemro Del Toro, the film follows the Guardians (“it is our job to protect the children of the world”) as they join forces to defeat the evil Pitch Black (Jude Law), who threatens to strike fear in the hearts of the world’s children. In order to do this, the Guardians team up with the protagonist of the film, Jack Frost (Chris Pine) who begins the film as a newly born mythic creature desperate to seek talents other than creating ice, wind and snow.

The majority of Rise of the Guardians is filled with high speed flights across rooftops or huge, epic fights but that is not where its appeal lies. The film comes to life when our prior knowledge of these long-standing characters is used as a foundation to create the film’s world. We are all aware that the Tooth Fairy takes teeth and leaves money, but did you know that teeth contain our memories? Santa Claus builds toys at the North Pole, but did you know about his army? The Easter Bunny is associated with eggs, but how does he paint them? In every scene, the film enhances our preconceptions of what these characters can do.

Then there’s Frost, a character with no real backstory but that’s exactly the point. He’s enigmatic, uncertain of his place in the world and desperate for people to notice and accept him. Here, the film has built a character that is flawed, potentially dangerous, but very powerful with an affinity for good. His array of human characteristics is what keeps the film grounded in real emotions.

The film challenges the 21st century stereotype of Santa Claus.

The film makers have enlisted a talented group of actors to bring some inspired vocal interpretations of these classic characters. The best of these may be Baldwin’s spirited performance as North. This is not the warm, lovable St. Nick featured in the original Miracle on 34^th Street.  This Father Christmas is a gregarious Russian bear of a man ready to wield his twin swords when needed. Fisher’s fairy is a charming, flirty sprite as she admires everyone’s oral hygiene. Pine’s Frost possesses some of the confidence of an extreme sports champion. His bravado masks his ambition to be appreciated by the world’s children (“Hey, I make snow days!”). As Pitch, Law is a sneering gentleman villain, an educated eloquent fellow who delights in his own wickedness.

The writing is intelligent as it attempts to twist Christian morality into cartoon dimensions without ever referring to God, Jesus or the origin of Christmas. The only thing it forgot to do is make us care. Without developing relationships between the characters through smaller human moments, it's difficult not to feel discontented with the excitement of fantasy - and just a little hungry for something more. 

TV REVIEW: THE HOUR (BBC)

The BBC drama about a BBC news programme returned last week, and it's never felt more relevant.

In the first episode of The Hour’s second series, loathsome political accomplice, Angus McCain advocates that “A lie has no legs. A scandal - now, that has wings.” With slicked-back hair and hinted-at homosexuality, actor Julian Rhind-Tutt injects the lines with the hostility and malice that those who avidly watched the drama’s first series have come to expect from him. His beloved Prime Minister Eden might be gone, but McCain wants to convey from the outset that he still exerts power in the shadowy world of Westminster. And in speaking these words, he’s also setting up a series’ worth of plot points, and reassured us that writer Abi Morgan has decided to stick with a successful formula.

Nine months have passed since the show-within-a-show, The Hour, started on the BBC, and a new head of news is changing the course of events. Hector Madden (Dominic West) is still lead host and Lix Storm, (Anna Chancellor) remains as producer, but last year’s ordeal mixed with his father’s death has led Freddie Lyons (Ben Whishaw) away to Paris for the time in between. Missing her right hand man, we can instantly tell that Bel’s passion for the show has decreased since last year.  Freddie soon returns older, wiser and better poised as a meaningful rival (and co-host) to Hector for the status of the show's alpha male. 

Ben Whishaw as Freddie Lyon, The Hour's home affairs correspondent.

It was impossible for Morgan to know when writing The Hour’s second series that it would air in a week when the real-life BBC has been encompassed in scandal that hinged on inadequate management and investigative journalism gone wrong. The Jimmy Savile affair and the Lord McAlpine disaster are hardly equivalent to having Soviet spies wandering around the corporation's canteen, but it still feels more topical than a drama should be observing producer, Bel Rowley (Romola Garai) wrestling with the problems of sourcing and news management, and worrying that ITV’s competitor programme, Uncovered, has stolen her idea for a hard-hitting investigative news show and is delivering it better than she is.

The changing role of women is at the very centre of The Hour; the character of Bel Rowley is based on the real-life BBC producer Grace Wyndham Goldie. As the show focuses on the making of a BBC programme about contemporary events, The Hour is very much about Britain: the British establishment attempting to adapt to or control a world on the edge of dramatic change. The first series was set against the backdrop of the Suez crisis; the current series, a year later in 1957.

Two fairly well-known faces have joined the show this year, in the form of Peter Capaldi (The Thick of It;Torchwood) and Hannah Tointon (The Inbetweeners; Switch). Both make wonderful first impressions, with the former joining the Hour team and the latter acting as the catalyst for Hector’s troubles. Overall, this episode was a great return for a series that was, at times, too complicated to enjoy. There’s more of a focus on characters and relationships than on outside scandals and world events, and this gives it the potential to be even more successful than the first series.

The Hour continues on BBC Two every Wednesday at 9pm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00wkh14/The_Hour_Series_2_Episode_1/

ONE BILLION AND COUNTING: IS FACEBOOK REALLY CONNECTING PEOPLE?

Facebook has hit a significant new milestone: the social network now has one billion users.

Just as Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg announced its one billion users on the 14^th of September, the site released its very first advertisement entitled ‘The Things That Connect Us.’ The advertising campaign will air in thirteen countries, including Spain, Mexico, Russia, Brazil and the US.

The 90 second advert, made by Wieden and Kennedy (well known for its Nike advertising fame), aims to reveal the human aspect of social networking and the role Facebook plays in maintaining and developing human connections.

The advert compares Facebook to chairs, bridges, basketball and other things that unite people and states that Facebook is like a “great nation”, a “place where [people] belong.”

Facebook's new advertisement compares the site to chairs and various other objects which connect people.

“What we’re trying to articulate is that we as humans exist to connect, and that we at Facebook facilitate and enable that process,”  head of Facebook’s consumer marketing, Rebecca Van Dyck, reported. “We make the tools and services that allow people to feel human, get together, open up.

"Even if it’s a small gesture, or a grand notion — we wanted to express that huge range of creativity and how we interact with each other.”

To date, Facebook has documented 140.3 billion friend connections, 1.13 trillion likes and 219 billion shared photos since it commenced in February 2004. Over 300m photos are uploaded daily and 62.6m songs played.

"Helping a billion people connect is amazing, humbling and by far the thing I am most proud of in my life," Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook timeline update on his personal account. "I am committed to working every day to make Facebook better for you, and hopefully together one day we will be able to connect the rest of the world too."

But does Facebook really connect people? The company is beginning to be acknowledged as dictator like. If we write on someone’s timeline, who else will see it? If we comment on someone’s status, whose newsfeed will it show up in? Occasionally, it seems like Facebook is a hidden microphone, threatening to expose what we really want to say. Deprived of the ability to open up, connecting with friends is a challenge.

In the same way, the social network can create a false sense of community. Everyone is called your ‘friend.’ What is a ‘friend’? On Facebook, what they call a ‘friend’ is someone who can view your profile and comment on your statuses and photos, and vice versa. A ‘friend’ on Facebook can be someone you’ve never met. It can be a friend of a friend, someone you have only heard of, or someone you have only met once or twice. In the real world, however, a friend is someone you have a deep relationship with. Generally, it is someone you have looked in the eye and had a conversation with. It is not difficult to acquire over 100 Facebook ‘friends’ but none of them ever grow into real quality friends. It is only too easy for Facebook to replace an old fashioned phone call. The simple person to person approach. Instead, it is a world where inhibitions are few. People are ever more vocal about their opinions and ‘friends’ are connecting in a negative way.

Despite receiving negative press, reaching one billion users a month is a significant achievement for Zuckerberg.

In a more positive light, Facebook can be beneficial to businesses. Samuel Junghenn, founder of the Digital Marketing Agency, Think Big believes that: “businesses need to stop focusing on the negative press around Facebook and start focusing on engaging. Facebook has a massive market share of all online consumers and any business would be remiss not to use it as a platform to drive traffic and customers.”

In order to solve these conflicting points of view, Facebook must remember to centre around friendship; focus on building meaningful experiences with friends. To develop that, the social network can create an environment of trust, security and of true connections as Zuckerberg concludes that “the need to open up and connect is what makes us human. It’s what brings us together. It’s what brings meaning to our lives.”

http://www.strathclydetelegraph.com/2012/11/is-facebook-really-connecting-people/

EVAN ROBERTSON: THE ILLUSTRATED QUOTATION PROJECT

“The best thing about paperbacks (apart from the smell, of course) [writes Evan Robertson, a writer and illustrator based in New York], is that when a little jewel of a sentence grabs you, you can underline it… Underlining is the original ‘interactive’ media. Think of it as a hyperlink that redirects to your own thoughts, and like a hyperlink, it can leave the rest of the story behind and open up a new window of ideas, insights and musings.”

That’s the spirit of this series of illustrations.

His plan is to complete 50 posters a year, having done 24 already. Among those are lines from literary giants including Oscar Wilde, Vladimir Nabokov, Ernest Hemingway, Jane Austen and Emily Brontë.

Robertson describes his work as “inspired by my love of literature, word play and straight-shooting language,” and indeed, these poignant prints are filled with visual puns which tortured artists, English Literature students and bookworms will adore.

Robertson extracts sparks of thought which – after reflecting upon them – could lead to more sparks themselves.



"Lie to me by the moonlight. Do a fabulous story." from F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story, The Offshore Pirate.





"Curiosity is insubordination in its purest form" from Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita.

"Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same" from Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights.

"I am half agony, half hope" from Jane Austen's Persuasion.

Visit Robertson’s Etsy store Obvious State, to purchase the posters.

 

REVIEW: THE NUTCRACKER- THEATRE ROYAL, GLASGOW

The Nutcracker sets the stage alight in Matthew Bourne’s rendition of one of the most popular ballets of all time. Matthew Bourne: renowned for his all-male Swan Lake revives his gloriously irreverent interpretation of the classic Tchaikovsky ballet as it nears its twentieth anniversary.

The Nutcracker is traditionally a celebration of sweetness and Matthew Bourne’s version epitomises this sentimental and saccharine ‘sweetness’ in a modernised way.

The first act is a wickedly bleak deviation from the standard Victorian opulence of most productions to a grey, Dickensian orphanage. According to Bourne, “the Christmas party that opens most productions of The Nutcracker represented a fantasy in itself for most audiences”, reducing the possible potential for dreamland in the second act. The second act’s ‘Kingdom of Sweets’ is an all-out attack on sugar. Despite this, however, Bourne’s production is altogether darker than the original: to highlight Bourne’s departure from all things sweet and innocent, the antagonist is ironically named Sugar.

Hannah Valssalo (who recently played Baby in West End's Dirty Dancing) as Clara.

Bourne is a natural storyteller and the tale he tells is endearing as well as humorous: Clara and her fellow orphans are characterised with eccentric touching detail; the bespectacled, pyjama-clad cupids who haplessly try to mastermind Clara’s quest for true love, are earnest and silly. Underneath the jokes, however, Bourne’s love for The Nutcracker and the classic tradition is clear. The choreography is filled with subtle references to ballets by Robbins and Petipa which are given character and style by Bourne’s excellent choice of cast.

Amid all the fun, humour and great entertainment Clara (Hannah Vassalo) and the Nutcracker’s (Chris Trenfield) pas de deux is truly a thing of rare beauty, a wonderfully expressive dance. Bourne’s new generation of dancers’ embody praiseworthy stage presence with a level of technical accuracy which allows Bourne’s choreography to rise to the scale of Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece.

Anthony Ward’s jagged grey and white set is a marvel, telling us everything we need to know about the misery of the lives spun out within it. But so, too, is Bourne’s poignant sense of drama: from the moment the dancers appear on the front of the stage during the prelude, each character and reaction is depicted with precision and humour. Bourne is a master of choreography as the new characters he incorporated into his production portray. There is no denying the spirited energy of the company who deliver the routines in incredibly precise style with fast-forward pirouettes and icicle-sharp footwork. His production is choreographed in an almost cartoon like manner: the flamenco-dancing Liquorice Allsorts (Liam Mower and Tom Jackson Greaves); Adam Maskell's Knickerbocker Glory, a drug-smoker with ice-cream hair; the ditzy Marshmallow Girls and the cheerful Gobstoppers in their bike jackets.

Overall, Bourne’s radical rethinking of a classic ballet has, along with Swan Lake and The Car Man, revolutionalised the world of ballet. Bourne has instilled life into a well known tale, thus making us rethink the ideas behind The Nutcracker. The conventions of classical ballet are still there: precisely accurate choreography and the traditional ballet technique. Yet, the combination of Bourne’s impressive choreography and Anthony Ward’s costumes and theatrical effects deliver a typically elegant theatrical ballet which is visually beautiful.

Buy tickets here:

http://www.atgtickets.com/Matthew-Bourne-s-Nutcracker-Tickets/6/703/