The Ides Of March

If there is an actor who is at the top of him game at the moment it is Ryan Gosling and he serves up another stunning performance in political drama The Ides Of March .
Gosling plays Stephen Meyes, the brains behind the presidential candidate Mike Morris (George Clooney). He's a relative newcomer to the cut throat world of politics.
This is seen pretty early when we meet the campaign managers for the two democratic candidates - Paul Zara (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) and Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti) - who are both more than experienced at playing the game.
Both know Meyers is good but they are also aware he's a bit wet behind the ears and make use of reporter Ida Horowicz (Marisa Tomei) to prove the point.
It's a bit of who is playing who as each tries to outmaneuver each other.
The pressure is well and truly put on Meyers when he discovers a scandal involving intern Molly (Evan Rachel Wood) that could easily end the campaign for Morris.
Gosling really stands out here and that's a bit of a call considering the company he is in - Giamatti and Hoffman are outstanding actors - and coupled with his performances in Drive and Lars And The Real Girl a couple of years back he's a star well and truly on the rise.
(I also have to confess to a bit of a man crush here too!!)
As far as the overall film goes there are probably better political dramas or thrillers out there but The Ides Of March is well worth a look. There are a few, I wouldn't call them twists, interesting turns and you have to wonder if there really are any winners.
I enjoyed it, and with such a great cast it would be disappointing if I didn't. 8 out of 10 and I'd expect there has to be an Oscar nomination for Gosling coming up pretty soon.

The Inbetweeners Movie

I must admit I had never heard of The Inbetweeners before this movie came along and in some ways that may have helped. I didn't really know what to expect.
So called because they sit in between the cool people and the freaks in the high school pecking order and are left to awkwardly pursue life with that role.
The best comparison that can be given, as far as the film's standing goes, is it is like a British American Pie (quite appropriately the trailer to the new American Pie film, Reunion, was shown in my screening). But be warned as this makes the AP films look PG-rated.
Our four hapless heroes are Jay (James Buckley), Neil (Blake Harrison), Simon (Joe Thomas) and Will (Simon Bird) who take off after graduating for a schoolies-type holiday in Greece. As you do.
Their plan, or maybe Jay's, is for them to basically get as much action as physically possible.
Looking at them you can guess how that is going to go, at least in the short term.
I had no real prior knowledge of the characters from the TV series but I thought Will was a particularly well rounded character and was played with plenty of humility by Simon Bird. He's basically the narrator and despite having possibly the best in the physical stature of the quartet is very much self deprecating when it comes to girls.
I do have to say that there is very little left to the imagination as we go through the movie. There is plenty of coarse language, plenty of nudity (strangely mainly male) and at times it can be seen as quite offensive. But it depends on what you expect and how you take it.
Personally, I haven't seen a funnier movie in quite a while. Sure, it was inappropriate and crass and at times very juvenile but I couldn't help but chuckle just about the whole way though, with several really, really funny moments.
Not for the prudish in any way, The Inbetweeners Movie is very good fun. A 7.5 out of 10.

I won't give a full review of Immortals (3D) but it now holds a new record low score for a movie since I've been keeping scores. A 2 out of 10. If you've got nothing better to do then knock yourself out but if you must see it Mickey Rourke isn't a bad villain and the lead guy, who will be the next Superman, is good in his role but they all had nothing to work with. Avoid.

The hollow man

In the middle of everything that is going on in the world something occurred to me recently that in some way shocked me and in another way came as no surprise.
I can't feel anything.
No, I haven't been suddenly struck numb. I haven't lost my sense of touch but I think my inner sense of feeling has been eroded.
When it comes to myself I can feel all things. When it comes to external things it seems all I can come up with is what amounts to 'meh'. I know when something that is supposed to elicit some kind of emotion happens I can acknowledge it but am rarely physically affected.
It's almost like I've been desensitised to anything outside my existence. It's also a very scary thought.
The best way to describe it is kind of a hollow feeling.
I've discovered this, I guess, through a number of pretty hollow pursuits over the past few months. Among other things.
As I sit here and type I can feel all manner of things going on inside me, some I have become accustomed to and some I am perennially tortured by, but when it comes to the mind and the heart they are seemingly indifferent.
No small part of this has to be a result of a number of years on anti-depressants. These little white pills are very effective is getting you down to a moderate level and keeping you there. But that's the trouble, you're in this seemingly endless pattern of no real highs and no real big lows and it is really ticking me off.
I have tried a couple of times to taper off them but so far they have won. Seemingly I struggle when I reach a certain level and just can't seem to get beyond it.
If one thing is for sure - I don't want to be hollow.

Breaking Dawn part 1

So we're into the final book of the Twilight Saga and it's definitely the one which was going to be the trickiest to translate to a movie.
Breaking Dawn part 1 rejoins the story as Bella and Edward prepare for their wedding.
A lot of time is spent setting up part 2 as we meet a number of friends of the Cullen family who will play a role in the conclusion to the story next year.
The wedding does take up a bit more time that it probably should and we get the warning from Jacob that once she is married Bella will become the enemy. Bella tells Jacob that nothing will change and she isn't planning on becoming a vampire for at least a year.
Things change quickly once the newlyweds reach their honeymoon destination, Isle Esme somewhere off Rio de Janiero. After being warned that consummating the marriage would kill Bella they eventually give it a go, with a few somewhat hilarious scenes.
As the trailer to the movie has given away - and I think they made a mistake there for people who hadn't read the book - Bella miraculously falls pregnant and the baby is a fast grower.
They return to Forks to try and work out what it is that is growing inside her and what threat it might pose. When the wolves decide that the baby poses a threat it forces Jacob to choose between the wolves and the Cullens.
The point in which they split the book was predictable to those who have read it and pretty satisfying really. There is also an extra scene midway through the credits which gives us some direction for the finale.
Look, the Twilight series isn't high art and it has been made with the fans of the series in mind and on that score it is very well done. Like all the other ones there are flaws but with the knowledge of the books you don't notice so much.
A 7.5 out of 10 and hoping that the finale is a 9!

Secret Codes and Battleships

Let me start by saying that this is, without any doubt at all, THE album of 2011.
Being a long time Darren Hayes/Savage Garden fan I was always going to get his new album Secret Codes and Battleships but, to my surprise, it blew me away. Easily the best thing he's done since Savage Garden (though he has made some very good music) and every bit as good as SG's debut album (but just below Affirmation).
Somehow Hayes has managed to find the balance between the slightly electric pop he has been dabbling in and classic SG-style pop - and it works to an extent that all 12 songs on the album proper are brilliant.
It's a rare thing that you can get a CD and not need to skip tracks, happily listening to it from track one to the end. I've done that a lot in the couple of weeks since I bought it.
Standouts? Well, I keep coming back to the opening track Taken By The Sea, closely followed by Hurt, Roses (where he seems to make reference to his 'previous' life and divorce) and Stupid Mistake.
The two songs most talked about are Black Out The Sun, which he originally wrote for Leona Lewis but thankfully kept for himself, and Bloodstained Heart. The latter is quite a stunning song.
I'd say the lead single Talk Talk Talk is probably the weakest of the 12 but I still listen to it without any problem.
Unfortunately, this album is likely to be largely ignored by the music buying public who are more interested in inane, trashy pop by the likes of Lady Gaga and her contemporaries but, take it from me, this is a cut or two or three above that. This is first class, intelligent, modern pop with a hint of a throwback to the Savage Garden days.
As I noted as the start - best album of the year, easily. Well done Darren.

Regression

If there is one thing I don't want it is to go backwards.
Without question I have come a long way in the past few years but what seems clear is that my reaction to certain things seems to be the same.
Or at least very close to the same, the over reaction that allows my mind to run away with itself before considering more logical explanations.
I know I have learned a lot, not only about myself but also practical things that can be used in situations where over reaction is possible. I have pushed myself, tried things I had been afraid to try before and travelled when only a few years ago I had very narrow boundaries.
In some of these things I have gained the confidence to continue - but there were a few moments last Friday where I admit I thought I could be back at square one.
Not only was that a scary thought at the time the prospect of going back there is, quite frankly, haunting. But as I said previously, I am tired of being afraid.

Half living

'A life lived in fear is a life half lived'.

It's a quote from the movie Strictly Ballroom, a classic film in its own right and a line that could not be any truer.
Particularly for me.
I am tired of living in fear. It's easy to say that you should just not be afraid any more but that is far too simplistic.
What am I afraid of? That is something that is hard to define - I am afraid of losing my freedom, that my health scare of six years ago now is just waiting to come back and get me.
I had a startling reminder of this a few days back.
I thought I had passed blood in the bathroom and I kinda went cold and numb for a second at the thought of it and what it would mean.
Long story short it wasn't blood but jam that had been discarded in the bowl and had not flushed completely away. It was a massive relief to say the least but the feeling has stuck with me to an extent.
It was an illustration that what happened there is a possibility, though not a likelihood at this stage, that it could one day be a reality.
A bout of what I think was food poisoning a day earlier didn't help, either.
I fell back to old habits, thinking that if it were real then there were all these things I had planned that I wouldn't be able to do - things I had been looking forward to.
Anyway, I will get a clearer picture on where all that stands at the end of the month when I have my about 2-yearly look through assessing my inner health - you know what I mean.
Now the last two of those have been excellent and, really, there is no reason why I should think that this time will be any different. I could get picky about a couple of small things but, largely, I am doing pretty well.
Having committed myself to go to the gym as much as possible is also helping and I have noticed some differences. Hopefully as my physical body strengthens my mind can as well.
I often think it is funny that what scares me are things from within and not external things. It's almost like my phobia about magpies.
But that's another story.
I have taken some rather large steps this year and another one will be taken later this month, an achievement that I thought impossible a few years ago is now something I am looking forward to with some vigor.