I'M A TUMBLR!

Ok, here's the deal: I just can't find the time for in-depth Flickerdroming at the moment. The sad fact is, I gotta work!

BUT, there is always my Tumblr blog: http://flickerdrome.tumblr.com/ where I log what I've watched at the cinema (and at home) and remark (briefly) my reactions. It's not much, but it's something.

Watch this space... (just not too intensely).

2010 IN REVIEW

Firstly, an apology to any Flickerdrome followers (left) out there. I began the year with great intentions (to analyse and assess each weeks' two most highly regarded films according to The Critic List – well, no-one’s paying me for this, I’m not sitting through Sex & The City 2 et al just to find out that yes, they really are that shit) but events conspired against me (lost my job, etc). So while I kept going to the cinema, the blog was sadly neglected and became more of a guilty burden than a fun, creative outlet.

HOWEVER, I still have plans for this site, and will be recommencing in 2011 with a more realistic (but no less brilliant, obviously) and possibly collaborative approach to bringing you, yes you, the best guide to what’s worth going to see at the cinema.

Flickerdrome’s best, and worst, movies of 2010...

The Father of My Children (Le Père de Mes Enfants)

Director: Mia Hansen-Løve
France/Germany, 2009, 112mins, rated 12A
Screening: The Renoir, 6 March 2010

In my February review of Lucrecia Martel’s tense and engrossing The Headless Woman, I not only praised it for its unique cinematic style, but expounded on the importance of art cinema and those film-makers who are dedicated to exploring film’s complexities in order to really communicate with us. Who’d have thought then that within a matter of weeks I’d be seeing a film that’s not only another perfect example of effective art cinema, but one that embodies the very principles I was extolling and actually summarises, explores and, in its own peculiar way, celebrates the exact point I was trying to make (albeit in a much clearer and more beautiful way)…

Flickerdrome's 'Top 10'

I'm not really that big on lists, but I figure having a 'top ten' on here can help you see where I'm coming from as a film fan. It's not written in stone and wasn't pored over for weeks on end, it's not even in any particular order, just a summation of ten movies that have absolutely floored me at some point. I'm sure there are plenty more out there that I've yet to see or have yet to be made that could just as easily be included...


2001: A Space Odyssey
USA, 1968. Director: Stanley Kubrick
"I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do."

Once 2001 blows your mind, you're never quite the same again. Evolution, God, extra terrestrials, the perfect silent movie intro, unequalled cinematic advancements, man vs. machine, the dichotomy of synthetic intelligence and then: Through The Stargate. What a trip. God bless you Mr Kubrick.
Also ran: Citizen Kane, Apocalypse Now, Dr Strangelove

Shutter Island

Director: Martin Scorsese
USA, 2010, 138mins, rated 15
Screening: Notting Hill Coronet, 14 March 2010

Boston, 1954. Two US Marshals – Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) – emerge from the fog on a boat bound for Shutter Island: a maximum security offshore prison for the criminally insane. Dressed in classic film noir attire (hats, suits and long coats) and accompanied by ominous classical music, the tone is set for a dark and unsettling ride. After a decade of overly-contrived epics, Martin Scorsese’s back, relaxing from the need to bring us another magnum opus and sinking his teeth into a glorious homage to Hitchcock and Hollywood’s dark years. An intense psychological-suspense-thriller-mystery awash with fantastic twists and turns, Shutter Island feels at once like a new and assured direction for Scorsese, as well as something pleasantly familiar. It's very possibly his most direct and enjoyable film since Casino.