Ben Granger I judge newspaper TV reviewers by a very high standard indeed. Why the hell shouldn’t I? Let’s face it, this is the dream job any human being can have. Sitting, scratching your mardy arse whilst staring out the flickers that would bombard your face anyway and getting paid for it. Jesus! They have […]
The Incredibles Are Satan’s FuckBeast
Chris Mitchell on the abomination that is Pixar’s latest The Incredibles. No no no. Sick and wrong. Until now, digital animation had been synonymous not so much with great computer generated cartoons as great scripts – Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc, A Shark’s Tale and, leading them all, Shrek – which not only broke […]
Julie Burchill – Sugar Rush
Ben Granger Julie Burchill: donchajusluver??!! Well, yes, actually. There once was a time when I agreed with all my Graun reading friends “that bigoted bitch” should be humanely shot, but it seems a very long while ago now. My obsession with her venomous vitriol went from fascinated horror to perverse admiration in the time it […]
Nicholas Pileggi and Martin Scorcese : Wiseguy and Goodfellas: Mob Rules
CJ Wood on the transformation of Nicholas Pileggi’s book Wiseguy into Martin Scorcese’s film epic Goodfellas Goodfellas is a film which lives and breathes life, a criminal life set in a world unfolded by convincing narration and a visual style which is perhaps the finest mix yet seen of visceral life and the artist’s eye. […]
Alan Warner – The Man Who Walks
Jerome Deg It is difficult to know where to start with a writer as good as Warner and a novel as diverse and brilliant as The Man Who Walks. The danger is that you’ll end up sounding like movie-blurb whilst bandying words like ‘genius’, ‘spiralling, rip-roaring’ and ‘provocative’. It is difficult to precisely quantify why […]
Anthony Bourdain: A Cook’s Tour: Eat The World
Jayne Margetts on Anthony Bourdain’s quest to eat the most gastronomically dangerous dishes on the planet I love my authors a tad on the fresh, petulant and carnal side. A splatter of blood-and-guts-style reportage only heightens the pleasure, as do tales of human squalor and degradation. I can hack romance, but only in staccato style, […]
Alan Moore – The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Chris Mitchell Take several classic 19th century literary characters – Allen Quatermain from "King Solomon’s Mines", Captain Nemo from "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea", The Invisible Man, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, among others – bring them together as an ego-ridden but intriguing outfit under the auspices of the British Secret Service, set them within […]
Bruce Wagner : I’ll Let You Go : Loss And Reconciliation
Dan Epstein talks to Wild Palms creator Bruce Wagner about his new novel I’ll Let You Go I first met Bruce Wagner in Los Angeles around the middle of 1997. I was and still am a rabid David Cronenberg afficionado. I was walking along the Venice Beach walk when I passed two gentlemen wearing suits. […]
John Ridley : A Conversation With The Mann : A Real Comedian
Dan Epstein meets John Ridley, screenwriter and hard-boiled crime novelist John Ridley is a man of many talents and prolific with them too – stand-up comedian, screenwriter for Three Kings, Undercover Brother, Oliver Stone’s U Turn and author of Everybody Smokes In Hell, Stray Dogs, Love Is a Racket and, most recently, A Conversation With […]
Bill Hicks : Bad Moon Rising – a tribute of sorts
Even though he’s been dead for seven years, the savage political satire of Bill Hicks makes more sense than ever. Chris Hall spreads the word. If you mention to any intelligent individual under the age of 25 that you saw Nirvana and The Pixies live you’ll get a response along the lines of “you lucky […]
Paisley Rekdal: The Night My Mother Met Bruce Lee
David Remy Based upon journals kept during the author’s travels through Asia, the essays in The Night My Mother Met Bruce Lee: Observations On Not Fitting In read less as a search for family roots than an investigation into how society’s attitudes about race shape cultural identity. According to Rekdal, the daughter of a Chinese […]
Annabel Chong : Sex: The Annabel Chong Story
Robin Askew meets porn star Annabel Chong to discuss her infamous DVD documentary Sex: The Annabel Chong Story “Oh my god – this couple just turned around and gave me a dirty look!” Annabel Chong giggles like a schoolgirl. “It’s like, no sex please we’re British.” Perhaps unwisely, she’d stepped outside her film company’s noisy […]
John Baxter: George Lucas: A Biography
Chris Mitchell Throughout his film-making career, George Lucas has continually pushed back the boundaries of technology in order to realise his ideas on the silver screen. John Baxter’s biography of the man is not only an account of Lucas’ personal history but also the transformative effect Lucas’ fascination with technology has had on the entire […]
J.G. Ballard : Crash : Prophet With Honour
David B. Livingstone on why J.G. Ballard is one of the most vital writers of the 20th century “This author is beyond psychiatric help. Do not publish!” It was with these ironic words that an editor at J.G. Ballard’s publisher futilely urged the suppression of Crash over a quarter-century ago, a book which many have […]
Alex Garland : The Beach : Backpacker Blues
Nancy Rawlinson finds out why The Beach author Alex Garland is still unsure of his writing success No matter where you go on this small planet of ours, you will encounter ‘Garland’s Law.’ That is, for every 10 people under the age of thirty that you meet, approximately 3.33 per cent of them will have […]
Douglas Coupland: Lara’s Book Lara Croft And The Tomb Raider Phenomenon
Chris Mitchell Well, it had to happen. Lara Croft, star of the Tomb Raider videogames, gets the coffee table treatment in her own glossy picture book. In an attempt to give this tome some literary gravitas, “Generation X” author Douglas Coupland has been drafted in to provides thoughts about the Lara phenomenon and a story […]
Cookie Mueller: Ask Doctor Mueller
Chris Mitchell This is one book you can judge by the cover. It shows a home snapped portrait of Cookie Mueller laughing, her head thrown back and her hand out against the wall for support. Ask Dr Mueller is three hundred pages of that laughter, gathered together from over 25 years worth of her writing […]
Francis Ford Coppola : The Godfather : Saturday Night Fever: John Badham: Sex And Spaghetti
Bethan Roberts watches the transformation of the American-Italian man, from The Godfather to Saturday Night Fever With The Godfather recently re-released in a new print, Don Corleone and his family are back on our screens, shovelling spaghetti into their mouths, screaming at their wives and shooting other Mafia families – all with excessive amounts of […]
Derek Jarman: Preserving A Harlequin
Spike reflects on the work of England’s quintessential Renaissance man, Derek Jarman By the time you read this, Derek Jarman: A Retrospective will have closed at the Barbican Centre. However, the Barbican Centre’s comprehensive catalogue of the exhibition, which has been published by Thames And Hudson, gives a chance to re-evaluate the impact and splendour […]
Andy Warhol: SPIKE looks at I Shot Andy Warhol: There She Goes Again
Chris Mitchell sees the American premiere of I Shot Andy Warhol The debut feature from writer-director Mary Harron, which opened in New York last month, takes a hitherto unexamined angle on the Warhol myth. I Shot Andy Warhol tells the story of Valerie Solanis, Warhol’s would-be assassin and author of the S.C.U.M. (Society for Cutting […]
Alberto Sciamma : The Killer Tongue : Suck It And See
Chris Mitchell gets a sneak preview of the outrageous new film, The Killer Tongue This year’s Cannes Festival witnessed an explosion of tongues, transvestites and the tightest costumes ever devised with the premier screening of The Killer Tongue, the debut film from the Brighton-based production company Spice Factory. Starring Robert (‘Freddie Krueger’) Englund and Doug […]
Quentin Crisp: Resident Alien: The New York Diaries
Chris Mitchell As camp as Christmas and twice as sparkly, Mr. Quentin Crisp makes his literary return with Resident Alien. Featuring selections from his diaries between 1990 to 1994, Resident Alien describes the hectic social whirl of one “who is in the profession of being.” Never refusing an invitation, Quentin lives a life in which […]
Joel And Ethan Coen : Fargo : Love Minus Zero
Fargo Joel And Ethan Coen Chris Mitchell Snow most often appears in the movies as the signifier of Christmas cheer. It may be cold outside, but it looks beautiful and everyone has a rosy glow on their faces and in their hearts. Fargo is different. From the blizzard which rages in the opening scenes through […]
Quentin Crisp : Resident Alien : An Englishman In New York
Chris Mitchell goes for lunch with Quentin Crisp This month sees the publication of Resident Alien, the selected diaries of Quentin Crisp. It is difficult to surmise whether this man needs an introduction or not, such is his longevity as a cult figure of quintessential Englishness, “a stately old homo of England”, to quote […]
