Month: March 2014
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Edinburgh: March.
I am writing this post at 5am, having just got home from work. I have now finished my final shift in this bar, the thought of which overwhelms me with happiness. I will be transferring home to a different bar over April and will then return to Edinburgh having handed in my resignation. Knowing that…
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Moonrise Kingdom.
Sometimes I forget how exciting the wilderness was as a child. I have fond memories of running along windy grassy hill tops in the Falkland Islands, where I spent five years of my childhood. Children’s literature is usually devoted to adventure and freedom. Many Enid Blyton novels are evidence of this.Moonrise Kingdom is a story of…
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The Royal Tenenbaums.
This is possibly Wes Anderson’s most complete and perfect film. Often I find his approach a little too extreme and absurd. I like his films but I find that they sometimes drag on for too long. I couldn’t help but admire the artistry that went into Fantastic Mr. Fox but it drifted so far away from the…
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Rushmore.
Wes Anderson’s whimsical cinema sometimes gets a little irritating. For me, Anderson films are divided into two very distinct categories; the ones that work and the ones that drift off a little. Those that work include The Royal Tenenbaums, Moonrise Kingdom and of course Rushmore. I like both Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Darjeeling Limited very much but even a fan like myself…
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Nymphomaniac.
Lars Von Trier’s latest work proves just how simultaneously serious and silly he can be. Nymphomaniac is the final in his trilogy about depression; the first two films in the series being Antichrist and Melancholia. Split into two volumes, the film’s total running time is over four hours. In Denmark it was released as one five hour film, in the UK…
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The Invisible Woman.
Ralph Fiennes is turning out to be a wonderful director. In fact, his direction is the best thing about his second film, The Invisible Woman. Fiennes plays Charles Dickens in cinema’s retelling of the writer and his mistress, Ellen Ternan. The film is based on the book by Claire Tomalin. Fiennes’ drama explores the affair between…
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Only Lovers Left Alive.
When you spend the duration of a film asking yourself whether or not you’re enjoying it, you’ve probably already answered your own question. Jim Jarmusch’s take on the ‘vampire movie’ is under the impression that it is a lot cooler than it really is. It is too self-aware for its own good but that isn’t…
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The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Wes Anderson’s return to the screen consists of his most stylised piece yet. The Grand Budapest Hotel makes for a fun watch with plenty of laughs all around. It’s up there in the better half of this whimsical director’s portfolio. It is certainly less whimsical than most. This seems to be Anderson at his driest. The story…
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Edinburgh: February.
My most recent month in the cobbled city has been incredibly busy. I currently find myself trudging home at 4am as Sunday mornings dawn and I finish another painful Saturday night bar shift. This is agonising at times but worth it to fund my studies; something I have written in these diary entries repeatedly and…
Hannah McHaffie 