Saturday, 1 November 2014

Somers Town

Also Known As:
Unknown
Year:
2014
Country:
United Kingdom…
Predominant Genre:
Comedy
Director:
Shane Meadows
Outstanding Performances:
All.
Premiss:
A pair of unlikely new friends and the girl they both fancy.
Themes:
Empathy
Friendship
Identity
Loyalty
Self-expression
White culture
Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:
Unknown
Review Format:
DVD

Minor miracle of a movie painted on a necessarily small canvas by a film director resting between films who is (now) incapable of producing lazy, inconsequential work.

Using performers who are just right for what needs to be said, the performances here are as natural as natural could be. The film is filmed in master shots that allow the actors to fully express the emotion of a scene without undue and unnecessary cutting getting in the way. Apparent stasis produces greater motion, as this constant underplaying creates a far greater emotional effect than a full-blown melodrama.

In essence, this movie expresses the humanity at the heart of so much of ordinary, everyday life that is missed by those bigger scale films obsessed with the unusual, the cruel and the deranged. And it does it all without trying too hard.


Copyright © 2014 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute this posting in any format; provided mention of the author’s Weblog (Esthetics) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

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Science:



No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.



Jacob Bronowski… (1908 - 74), British scientist, author. Encounter (London, July 1971).


Sleep of Reason:



The dream of reason produces monsters. Imagination deserted by reason creates impossible, useless thoughts. United with reason, imagination is the mother of all art and the source of all its beauty.



Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes… (1746-1828), Spanish painter. Caption to Caprichos, number 43, a series of eighty etchings completed in 1798, satirical and grotesque in form.


Humans & Aliens:



I am human and let nothing human be alien to me.



Terence… (circa 190-159 BC), Roman dramatist. Chremes, in The Self-Tormentor [Heauton Timorumenos], act 1, scene 1.


Führerprinzip:



One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves… There is no organ of conciliation or mediation interposed between the leader and the people, nothing in fact but the apparatus - in other words, the party - which is the emanation of the leader and the tool of his will to oppress. In this way the first and sole principle of this degraded form of mysticism is born, the Führerprinzip, which restores idolatry and a debased deity to the world of nihilism.