Top Ten Films of 2015

Been a bit slow with this one but I wanted to take my time, make a real considered opinion ya know? 2016 was big. Not just a lot of great films and a lot of big blockbusters, but a lot of great blockbusters. MI:5, Spectre, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, all big popcorn movies but all had storytelling at their heart rather than just wham-bam spectacle.

1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens

2. Whiplash

3. Mad Max: Fury Road

4. Ex-Machina

5. Kingsmen: The Secret Service

6. The Martian

7. Spectre

8. Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation

9. Avengers: Age of Ultron

10. Straight Outta Compton

Remember when movie titles didn't have colons? Another byproduct of our current age of remakes, sequels and spin-offs. But 2015 was a strong year and other honorable mentions have got to go to - Macbeth, Legend, It Follows, Furious 7, Jurassic World and Ant-Man. 2016 has got a lot to live up to, but with the likes of The Revenant, The Hateful 8 and Captain America: Civil War, no doubt it'll fill those shoes and need a new pair.

The Long-Legged Fly - Book Review

I reviewed James Sallis' The Long-Legged Fly for Crime Fiction Lover way back in September, but totally forgot to update it on me ol' bloggy blog with it. Follow the link below for my full 'A Classic Revisited' review of this sparse but mesmerising debut from the guy who gave us Drive.

Read my full review of The Long-Legged Fly, over on Crime Fiction Lover.

Follow Me Book Review

Angela Clarke taps into our fears of modern technology and the danger's our online presence can have in the real world in this initially gripping but later quite limited debut. I liked this book, I didn't love it. Pairing a digital-savvy young writer with a tough detective this techno thriller updates the classic who-done-it mystery with a meta-modern serial killer that's made for Generation Y, but beyond it's social media premise it struggles to break free of the standard police procedural cliches.

Read the full review on Crime Fiction Lover.

Savage Lane Book Review

Jason Starr taps into the domestic thriller market with his own unique style in the blackly comic Savage Lane. Karen Daily is a happy divorcee. Mark Berman is not. He's trapped in a loveless marriage, living in the leafy NY suburb of Westchester and is one of Karen's close neighbours. But, like most of the residents of Savage Lane, Mark has something to hide.

Read my full review on Crime Fiction Lover. 

Interview with Jason Starr

I interviewed Jason Starr for Crime Fiction Lover, chatting about his new book Savage Lane, the current trend for domestic thrillers and TV's best box sets. You can read my 4-star review of the excellent Savage Lane here.

Legend - Film Review

Tom Hardy plays dopplegangsters The Kray twins in Brian Helgeland's biopic of the notorious crime couplet set in sixties London. Overwrought, overwritten and often overacted, the film feels like an American's idea of Britain - even the East End's alleyways have a glossy sheen - however it's still a fun three-star frolic.

Read my full review for The Script Lab.

Searching for Spitman

Vice's latest mini-doc is a nightmarish fairy tale called Searching for Spitman. In the council block stairwells, alleyways and dark parks of West London a notorious bogeyman pays young teens and disadvantaged youths to perform deviant acts on him. From rubbing their feet in his face, to pissing over him, these bizarre rituals last three-minutes and earn the participants five pounds a time.

With the West London narration and distorted audio interviews (keeping the contributors anonymous), this is the Brothers Grimm for Millenials. Midnight filming in locations like poorly-lit garages, narrow back roads and council block corridors gives Marlon Rouse Tavares's film a neo-noir style but with gothic horror themes - urban bogeymen and twisted trysts.

It's hard to believe such a character exists until you see the camera-phone footage of feet crudely massaging a pixelated face in a small corner bathroom. It's harrowing and hypnotising in equal measure, a hard watch but well worth it.

In Bruges - Film Review

I wrote this retrospective film review on In Bruges for Spindle Magazine. In my all time top 10 movies, it's the story of hit-man Ray seeking solace and redemption in the fairy-tale town of Bruges. It blends gallows humour, incredible dialogue and several sterling performances to produce a tenderly brilliant gangster film like no other.

Read the full review up on Spindle Mag.

Film Noir Infographic

The BFI have created this beautiful infographic on What is Film Noir. Not only has it got a great overview of the genre, but the specific filmmaking techniques that imbue the style, from 'Choker' close ups to the Dutch tilt.

They rightly crowned 'Double Indemnity' the most film noir movie of all time. This classic directed by Billy Wilder is adapted from the American pulp fiction novella by James M Cain, and contains the most elements of the stark and poetic genre.

Ant-Man - Film Review

Given it’s turbulent production history and harder to sell superpowers, the fact that Ant-Man works at all on the big screen is a small triumph. 

When director Edgar Wright left the project last year over creative differences, many wrote the movie off. However Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man still zings with a zany sensibility, strong comedy performances, and a story that fully benefits from being on a smaller scale than previous Marvel properties.

Read the full review on Spindle Magazine.

Jason Starr's Cold Caller - Book Review

I'm so fickin' happy to have discovered Jason Starr. Cold Caller was his first novel, published way back in '97. It's a blackly comic tale of white collar noir and a middle-class Manhattanite's quarter-life crisis that brings new meaning to the term 'dead end job.'

You can read the full review over on Crime Fiction Lover. And hold tight for my review of his new book Savage Lane, coming soon from the sexy proof copy that's sitting on my bedside table. I say 'bedside table' I mean 'upturned box'.

Mission Impossible - Film Review

The fifth instalment of Tom Cruise's action series should've been called Mission Impossible: Rogue Charm. You can't spell 'functional' without 'fun' and what Rogue Nation lacks in originality, it makes up for with stylish stunts and boyish charm, thanks largely to the franchise's star and his dogged enthusiasm.

My first film review for the Script Lab.

Top 10 Uses of Foreshadowing

The YouTube channel WatchMojo has been entertaining me for years now, but it can also be hugely educational. This video of the Top 10 Uses of Foreshadowing in film provides some excellent examples of set ups and pay offs. Foreshadowing is a powerful story-telling technique but not always easy to get right, too subtle and it may go unnoticed, too obvious and it ruins any mystique.

The Usual Suspects, Shaun of the Dead and Jurassic Park are some of my personal favourites. Whereas The Dark Knight's "you either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain" always felt too heavy-handed to me, considering we all knew Harvey Dent was going to became Two Face.

Crime Fiction: My 5 Favourite Books

When the cruel mistress of time permits I write book reviews and babble on about film noir for Crime Fiction Lover. The editor asked me to write about the five books that got me hooked on the genre, a bloody excellent question when I got to thinking about it. Find out which titles I chose over here. Little clue for you down there.

Drop Dead Press

This, but better. It's a logo idea for an upcoming digital in-print. Needs some development, but the idea's there.

The Books of Tarantino

"When people ask me if I went to film school, I tell them, 'No, I went to films.'"

Quentin Tarantino has an encyclopaedic knowledge of film and pop-culture thanks to his days working at the Californian video rental store Video Archives. But his early work also drew significantly on the writing of crime authors Elmore Leonard and Jim Thompson.

Read the full feature on Crime Fiction Lover.

Heed the Thunder - Book Review

Jim Thompson's second novel is a sprawling, multi-generational epic following the descent of the Fargo clan at the turn of the 19th Century. Although not a noir in the strictest sense, its ominous style and cruel but sympathetic characters show clear signs of the pessimistic pulp fiction Thompson was later known for.

Read the full review on Crime Fiction Lover.

Murder My Sweet & Using IMdB for Dialogue

Murder My Sweet, is the film adaptation of Raymand Chandler's hardboiled detective novel Farewell My Lovely. It's one of the most effective adaptations of the writer's work with it's slick first person narrative, Dick Powell nailing the dry wit of Philip Marlowe, and director Edward Dymytryk presenting a dark, cynical vision of 1940s society.

Chandler's dialogue is second-to-none, and Dymytryk kept it all intact for the film - Marlowe's sarcasm and deadpan delivery are one of the great hallmarks of the noir genre - and something I and many crime fiction writer's aspire to emulate. So when researching Murder My Sweet on IMdB the quotes section proved a fantastic little resource. Nothing like reading the novel or watching the film to really get a feel for the rhythm and beats of the dialogue, but if you haven't got time for that commitment, but need some inspiration dialogue-wise, check out IMdB's quotes section of your favourite movies. If the dialogue's anywhere near as quotable as some of the classic film noir's, there's gonna be a shit-ton of great lines to inspire you.

Dan Harmon's Story Circle

My current obsession with Community has inevitably led me to discover the creator Dan Harmon. His story circle maps out the basic structure to satisfying stories, especially those that grace our screens. Sure it's a very simplified approach but it's also a massive help, a loose guide to the beats your main character is going to hit, the change they will experience, and where they'll end up.

Using Dan Harmon's story circle I thought I'd analyse an episode of Community to see how it fits with the creator's outline, coz I'm super-cool like that and totally didn't cry myself to sleep last night. Beginner Pottery is the 19th episode of the first season and sees Jeff enter the ultimate blow-off class - this is a very literal manifestation of the 'unfamiliar situation', however character-wise, the real unfamiliar situation comes from within the pottery class, when Jeff is upstaged by Rich. The episode deals with Jeff's obsession with being the best at everything, and his realisation that there are some things he's just mediocre at, and that's okay.

A character is in a zone of comfort: Jeff is in the study group room discussing the ultimate blow-off class - Beginner Pottery. He's content in his familiar role as cool guy leader of the group.

But they want something: Jeff wants an easy credit.

They enter an unfamiliar situation: So he attends the Beginners Pottery class for the first time. Although this is unfamiliar territory externally, the real unfamiliar territory is internal and comes when Jeff is upstaged by Rich, who is naturally gifted at pottery and creates an impressive vase.

Adapt to it: A very jealous Jeff stays behind to try and create a piece of pottery to rival Rich's, but his efforts are in vain. The next day, Rich notices Jeff's injured his finger and informs Jeff he's a doctor but Jeff doesn't believe him, instead he thinks Rich is a con-man, a pro at pottery who signs up to novice classes to bag girls.

Get what they wanted: When Jeff notices Rich's car plates are from Santa Fe, New Mexico, he stays up all night researching the area and concludes that anyone born in the region would naturally learn pottery. Jeff thinks he's got the information he needs to expose Rich as a charlatan.

Pay a heavy price for it: When Jeff confronts Rich in pottery class, he tries to copy Rich's technique but violates the professor's 'No Ghosting' rule and is chucked out of the class.

Then return to their familiar situation: Jeff finds Pierce and opens up to him about the difficulty of failure and realising you're not good at something. Failing to produce a good pot in the class made Jeff question himself.

Having changed: Jeff returns to pottery class, apologises to Rich for his crazy behaviour and finally accepts he can't be the best at everything and makes peace with being terrible at pottery.  

Character Bios

So I've just fallen in love with Community. I mean I'm proper head over heels, walking along the beach at sun-set, already imaging our future together in love with Community. The meta-humour relating to TV tropes and movie cliches is right up my sub-plot, as are the relentless pop-culture references, and, it's just a great sit-com, with a bunch of characters you can't wait to hang out with.

The Wikipedia page on the cast and characters is a perfect example of how to write short character bios. Obviously the more you know about your characters the better, but the few lines featured on Community's Wikipedia page sums up each character's major personality traits, their flaws and their subsequent room for growth.

Annie's bio jumped out at me, it reads -

"the youngest member of the group, a compulsive over-achiever, relentlessly organised and comparatively innocent. Annie was extremely unpopular in high school and formerly addicted to Addarall, which has caused her to be very insecure and desperate to prove herself in a variety of extra-curricular groups despite already being considered naturally intelligent and attractive by others. She is normally kind and docile, but can quickly turn obsessed or throw a tantrum when she fails to achieve or is denied something she strongly cares about, even if it's about something as simple as a pen."

This last line reminded me of Kurt Vonnegut's 8 rules to writing, the third states - "Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water." Characters with wants, aims and desires are essential because this is the centre of conflict - your character wants something, but something or someone gets in their way of obtaining it - voila! - conflict. Your characters' specific traits will set up the point of conflict for single scenes, whole episodes and a full season's narrative arch. For example Jeff wanting a date with Britta; this isn't only the over-arching point of conflict for series 1 but also the set-up for the show itself - Jeff creates the study group where our loveable bunch of misfits come together and become close friends, so he can be closer to Britta.

Using Wikipedia's Cast and Characters section is a great basis for writing your own character bios, try reading the entries for your favourite shows, see how they sum up David Brent, Tim Bisley and Phil Dunphey's strengths and weaknesses, then get off the bloody Internet and start writing!