Sunday, July 27, 2014

Mulholland Drive (2001)

Diane Selwyn; an actress with a dream. Camilla Rhodes; her lover, her idol. Hollywood doesn't live up to its façade and Diane feels betrayed in life and love. She becomes a casting director of her own fictitious drama, giving parts to those who pervade the final days of her life. As she descends into madness and Pandora's Box exudes its terrors, enter: Betty Elms - an ingénue desiring a path that is the antithesis of her recent journey. Those who aggrieved her will pay the price; the one she desires becomes her neophyte protégée. Il n'est pas de orquestra! Silencio...

Saturday, July 19, 2014

Chicago (1927)

Real-life killers Belva Gaertner and Beulah Annan were Maurine Dallas Watkins' inspiration for her play's dubious heroine Roxie Hart and rival Velma Kelly; two women who became idolised despite their abhorrent criminal activity. Chicago is a modern morality play and a poignant indictment of a society obsessed with celebrity culture, the theatrics of the legal system and journalists' desperation for scandal. In our mollycoddled society, do we care more for performance and entertainment over truth and the lives of the innocent? Still relevant today; Frank Urson's film highlights how susceptible we are to the razzle dazzle of media and law.

Friday, July 04, 2014

Clue (1985)

Defying its frivolity, Clue has a grave attitude toward capitalism. Our playful guests are proud of their anti-socialist stance despite it being their ultimate downfall. Each has the blood of staff on their hands for their cardinal sins. Their sanguine attitudes are challenged on this ruddy night of financial ruin; even Miss Scarlet's lust for cash is subdued in a sea of compromising guilt. Jonathan Lynn's script disguises the left-wing politics behind a veil of bourgeoisie personalities. In an ironic reversal, Marxist egalitarianism prevails; our players survive with an equal share of penalties.

Or was communism just a red herring?