Hit and Miss (Abbott, 2012) TV

TV shows don't tend to be my thing- I love movies. And I don't really know why I started watching Hit and Miss...perhaps to see Chloe Sevigny actually act rather than fellate on camera. Perhaps to see Chloe Sevigny with a prosthetic penis. Either way, I heard of it and felt compelled to watch, and I'm so glad I did.

Hit and Miss is a mini-series centering on Mia (Sevigny), a pre-op transsexual hitwoman. Sevigny has certainly proven her acting ability, taking on a raw and truly heart-breaking role. We sigh with her, we cry with her, she is truly captivating.

In the first episode, Mia receives a letter from an old girlfriend who has terminal cancer, telling her she has a son. When Mia is led to a beautiful old farmhouse, she finds four children- Riley, Levi, Ryan and Leonie- living alone. Their mother has succumbed to cancer. The eldest daughter Riley has taken on the mum role, and makes a hard-nosed parent, while desperately clinging on to the slice of youth she has left. Levi wants to be 'man of the house' and takes on a typical macho "fucking tranny" stance. Little Leonie 'talks' to her mother through an old radio, her imagination allowing her to carry on normal family life. 

Mia meets her son, Ryan. He is withdrawn, and loses his lunch money to the landlord's son each morning. Upon arrival, Mia is told the kids' mother, Wendy, appointed her their legal guardian, and this is an uncomfortable change for everyone.

Mia's homelife is set in a large, mostly empty warehouse apartment, with a table, chair, bed and mirror. Riley wants to continue running her family as she was, insisting that Mia "just sign the documents, then piss off."

In Mia's parallel universe lie two men, Ben and Eddie. Ben becomes Mia's love interest, at first in the dark about her 'secret.' He is sweet enough, and their relationship develops (somewhat shakily) in a realistic way. They date, but Mia rejects even a kiss before he knows the truth.

"You've got a cock?!" Ben screams, red with confusion. "I'm not gay!" 

"And I'm not a man!" Mia insists.

Eddie (Peter Wight) starts off seeming like the boss of your dreams. A fat, ageing Cockney, he is paternal and insists that Mia's wages go towards her operation. 

"You're like a machine," he tells her, valuing his best worker.

Over time, Eddie becomes sinister. He recruits Levi to do "a few things" for him, but tells him "never ask questions." His rosy smiles wrinkle into ugly sneers. He becomes genuinely threatening, and we feel his shadow over us as he comes to punish Mia for failing a job.

As various plagues hit the young family, Mia's stealth and knowledge guide them through, while she battles with her own demons on a depressingly uplifting voyage. 

Superb acting carries a wonderfully sensitive and realistic script. The young actors carry huge personality, especially Karla Crome (Riley) and Jorden Bennie (Ryan). Several particularly touching scenes take place in this unlikely father-son relationship. Suddenly confused after walking in on Mia naked, Ryan wanders into the kitchen in make-up, a stuffed bra and high heels, much to the disgust of Riley. Later, after following Mia back to her apartment, the little boy begs, "Please come home, Dad." Both these scenes brought tears to my eyes. I shared Mia's joy when Ryan first called her 'Dad.' I felt proud when Riley spontaneously cared for the depressed neighbour's young baby. I felt heart-breaking remorse when their feral uncle Liam sacrifices himself for his niece. 

Hit and Miss is such a truly wonderful series. I am beyond disappointed that it has (at least for now) ended after six episodes on a dramatic cliffhanger. I am amazed in the creators' ability to make such a desperate, upsetting plot lifted by genuine love and commitment. Mia, Riley, Levi, Ryan and Leonie are perhaps an unlikely family, but such a harmonious one, and throughout the series, the children come to rediscover their long-lost mother figure. Even Riley realises she's not too old to have a parent. I have come to love this family, over only six episodes, and shall miss them like real relatives if a second series doesn't arrive.

Sid and Nancy (1986) dir, Alex Cox

Rating: 4.5/5

Most everybody knows the story of Sid and Nancy by now- bassist of British punk band The Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious fell in love with American groupie Nancy Spungen. Their heroin-fueled, violent and obsessive relationship saw the collapse of The Sex Pistols, Sid's solo career, their friendships, and ultimately, themselves.
This is the kind of story people do not care for- they see nothing worth pity or remorse in a couple of 'junkies.' At least not on the surface. But Alex Cox's chilling biographical presents 'a couple of junkies' who are very much troubled, and very much in love. It goes beyond the leather-and-chains image, to the deep, raw depths of Sid and Nancy, suitably lacking modesty.
Sid Vicious (Gary Oldman in his performance of recognition) and his best friend Johnny Rotten (Andrew Schofield) are up-and-coming punk pioneers, with their band The Sex Pistols, and enjoy partying hard when they're not playing shows. At one of these parties, their claustrophobic sleeping arrangement is infiltrated by bleach-blonde groupie Nancy, who is desperately trying to bed them. Johnny storms off, leaving Sid lying next to his not-so-secret admirer.
Later, Johnny looks on disgusted as Nancy injects herself and Sid with heroin, before having sex in his bed. This is the point from which everything is downhill. 

Despite the beginning of the relationship being somewhat casual, they become an inseparable couple, and Nancy immediately starts acting as his pushy 'manager.' Perhaps this is what Sid needs? Perhaps, except Nancy is very loud, and very aggressive, and succeeds in scaring off pretty much everyone she crosses. The band hate her and what she has done to their bassist, but the couple are joined at the hip.

Chloe Webb is a magnificent Nancy. Early on, she comes off as very annoying, her New York accent caterwauls as she scrambles around in the dirt in broken heels. She is captivating, yet repellent, and very unstable. During a tense scene in a crummy phone booth, she calls her parents for money to fund their ever-growing heroin habit, only to be told they can't/won't help her. As she starts to see where the conversation is going, she visibly grows frustrated, and frighteningly snaps, smashing the glass of the phone booth, before collapsing onto the street screaming. Her anguish is painfully heartfelt, and we really feel for her, while recoiling nervously from the sudden outburst.

Gary Oldman in his dramatic breakthrough role as Sid Vicious makes a true embodiment of the man himself. He naturally takes us through so many emotions: we laugh when he grabs a banana with his teeth from the crotch of a guy swinging on a doorframe, we exhaustively sigh as Nancy screams at us for being so fucking weak, an invisible chain chokes us as he lies in the fetal position screaming, realizing what happened in that hotel room. One of the most pitiful sequences shows Sid, playing a small club show to an empty room, absolutely hammered, reading the lyrics off a piece of paper, and eventually he can't even be bothered to stand up. The scene is tear-jerking in how shamefully far Sid has fallen. Now proclaimed one of the best actors ever, it is easy to see how this demonstration of his abilities led to great things for Gary Oldman. 

Each scene uses mise-en-scene appropriately and creatively. The concerts are sweaty, noisy, chaotic and somewhat dazzling. The prison cell floor is rock hard and icy cold. The methadone clinic is suitably beige and sterile, with an air of condescension. "What right y'all got to be strung out on that junk?" the sagely administrator demands. But it's way beyond right. It's need.

Some votes have been cast for favourite scary movies and moments. We're not done yet, but already we've got a great mix. Some classics such as:

Jaws (I only used this photo cos I'm too scared of sharks now to have one on my blog. Cheers, Spielberg!)

John Carpenter's classic Halloween

Tobe Hooper's Poltergeist

And then we have some more diverse votes, like

A twisted thriller starring James Woods- Videodrome

South Korean psychological masterpiece A Tale Of Two Sisters

And even RL Stine's Goosebumps episode The Haunted Mask!

We are still debating and collecting votes, so keep watching for further votes and results!

The Breakfast Club (1985) dir, John Hughes

Although one of the famous 'Brat Pack' 80s movies, The Breakfast Club is much more than just a teenage comedy. It holds the attention of a comedy-seeking audience, whilst presenting a very deep outlook on life, for teens and adults.

Stuck in a Saturday detention are 'a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal.' They have nothing in common, and are not happy about being there. Their supervisor Mr Vernon is having a mid-life crisis, and is just as unhappy as they are. He soon wanders off and gets drunk with the janitor, while the teenagers laugh, cry, confess, confide, get high, and eventually write the essay Mr Vernon set for them.

Aside from the genuine and energetic cast, the film's progression really relies on John Hughes' clever script. Hughes is an omniscient writer, getting deep into the thoughts of both kids and adults, and presenting their feelings and fears with true authenticity. Anyone can relate to it, and every word of dialogue has its purpose. 

The cast all stand out in their own way, fully embodying their characters. They are all so uniquely interesting, and all remind you of someone you went to school with. A tremendous scene between Mr Vernon (Paul Gleason) and Carl the janitor (John Kapelos) ties the ends of adolescence and adulthood together. "Why did the kids change and turn on me?" asks Mr Vernon. "The kids didn't change, man," Carl replies, "You did. I mean, would you have liked you at their age?" 

Not only is this movie clever and insightful, it's also very funny, partly down to the great script, and partly down to the wonderful performances. Bender (Judd Nelson) is the petty criminal/ class clown/ bully, and his cockiness and cheeky charm make him lovably amusing. Allison (Ally Sheedy) is withdrawn and kooky, making her odd outbursts all the more hilarious. And there is something truly awesome about the maths geek (Anthony Michael Hall) gathering all his nerve and lung power to scream, "Fuck you!" 

Entertaining, intelligent and uplifting, The Breakfast Club perfectly sums up two separate generations, and doesn't ever lose its touch.

Rosemary's Baby (1968) dir, Roman Polanski

Rating: 5/5

Rosemary's Baby is wonderful in so many ways. I'm an avid reader, and having loved Ira Levin's novel, I find this is one of the very few movies that I enjoyed as much as the book. One thing they got so right with this film was sticking to the novel almost completely, even down to the dialogue. Ira Levin's words through Roman Polanski's eyes are truly perfected.

Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow) and her struggling actor husband Guy (John Cassavetes) move to a beautiful old apartment building where they are befriended by an eccentric, nosey old couple next door. When Rosemary falls pregnant, strange circumstances hand Guy his big break, and he becomes very close to the Castavets next door. Roman Castavet (Sidney Blackmer) is an intelligent sage who has been to any place you can name. His wife Minnie (Ruth Gordon in her Oscar-winning performance) is noisy and colourful, but somehow maternal. Through the course of her pregnancy, strange stories about the Castavets and who they really are terrify Rosemary, and she comes to suspect the neighbours have bribed Guy into their Satan-worshipping coven, in order to use the baby in their rituals.

Polanski takes a supernatural theme, and makes it believable in a natural environment. A band of Satan-worshippers is a very medieval fear, but the director and cast bring it realistically into the 20th Century. 

Mia Farrow makes a wonderful Rosemary. She is sweet, bordering on childish, and naively struggling with her belief in God as demented atrocities occur, and she seems to be the only one who sees them. She makes Rosemary's fears very real, and hints of hysteria make her especially vulnerable. We feel for her, and share her fears.
John Cassavetes plays Guy suitably asymmetrically. He is a loving, hard-working caring husband. But he won't let his wife see another doctor, on the basis of it not being fair to her current one. "What are you talking about?" cries an agonised Rosemary, "What about what's fair to me?!" Could he really be plotting against his own wife?

Set design stands out. They craft a seemingly normal, middle class apartment block, which only looks sinister when you look at it the right way. Rosemary's old friend Hutch warns her of the building's macabre past of mysterious murders, cannibalism and Satanism, shortly before falling into a sudden coma. The Branford is enticing and beautiful, but the cold shudders that haunt the basement soon start rising, along with the heat. 
The cast and crew have demonstrated the ability to present everyday things and occurances, with the subtlest hint of menace, making it missable to the people Rosemary turns to for help.

Rosemary's Baby is the product of absolute experts at work. From a fantastic novel, along came a fantastic director, fantastic cast and crew, and ultimately, a fantastic film.

Requiem For A Dream (2000) dir, Darren Aronofsky

Rating: 5/5

More and more these days, nurses, teachers and politicians with no 'real' experience are using ridiculous scare tactics to keep kids off drugs. Although graphic and disturbing, Requiem For A Dream does more than scare, it chills you to the very core. If there was ever a good case against hard drug use, this is it. And not because of threats of vomit-covered death...Aronofsky shows there are much worse things. And that they are very real.

The plot revolves around four New Yorkers- elderly widow Sara, her heroin-addict son Harry, his heroin-addict girlfriend Marion, and their heroin-addict friend Tyrone. In summer, Sara is excited to slim down into her favourite red dress for a supposed upcoming television appearance, and gets amphetamines from a dodgy doctor. Harry and Marion are excited to make their fortune dealing heroin and open a clothing store. By winter, their dreams have crumbled as a result of drug abuse, and this masterpiece of cinema is an account into the very real, painfully slow deterioration of addicts. 

It is hard to focus on certain features as it's so masterfully created, but Aronofsky's trademark psychotic cinematography is used to frightening effect, from an uneasily close perspective. This film is also perfectly cast, with Ellen Burstyn giving a heart-breaking performance as a desperately lonely woman, and Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly and Marlon Wayans boldly filling edgy roles with enormous authenticity. 



Those nurses, teachers and politicians tell kids that drugs are addictive, and you crave them, and they make you see things. That ain't the half of it. Aronofsky thrusts us right next to Marion as she sweats and screams, and drinks from various bottles in the medicine cabinet. We sit on Sara's shoulder as she sobs, ashamed, while hallucinated people mock her. We are forced to be part of everything, so uncomfortably close to these terrifying realities, and we can't help but get pulled into the characters' quicksand of despair and terror. This is the reality of hard drug abuse. It is all too easy to lose control of, and its concequences are all too real.

Approach this film with caution- it is chilling, depressing and graphic, and for this reason, Aronofsky has succeeded in making a truly meaningful film.

Hatchet (2006) dir, Adam Green

Rating: 4/5

I first bought Hatchet whilst looking for cheap DVDs to entertain us whilst on holiday. I'm a sucker for a good old horror, so we got it, and an hour and a half of pure entertainment followed.

Adam Green's mainstream debut takes on a familiar slasher plot: a bunch of people, stranded in a swamp after a botched ghost boat tour, being terrorised and picked off by horribly disfigured Victor Crowley, a man accidentally killed by his father by a hatchet blow to the face. Is he still alive? Is he a ghost? Is he invincible? It's not clear, but many slasher culprits tend to take on this otherworldly state.

But despite a common horror formula, Green has put painstaking effort into making the deaths as original as possible, and he does it perfectly. I guarantee you'll never have seen anything like these- they are truly imaginative gems! Having watched the features on the DVD as well, I can confirm just how painstaking the director's effort really was. He vowed to use not a single frame of CGI, and the authenticity and craft that went into fulfilling this vow is outstanding. One particularly outstanding sequence was designed specifically to show an amazingly gruesome death in a single shot to prove that no shortcuts were taken. It was one of those 'one chance only' shots, and it is the most revolting, yet most masterful sequence in the film.

Another aspect Green incorporated was, in fact, comedy. But he made a very valid point: "Comedy works in horror, as long as you don't combine the two." He exercises this tip expertly. Victor Crowley's sudden blood-splattered appearances are terrifying, yet some of the character's dialogue is laugh-out-loud funny. And somehow, neither diminishes the other. 

I might also add that Green managed to recruit some top-notch horror actors- Robert Englund, Tony Todd and Kane Hodder bring their slasher expertise to the table.

Adam Green brings youthful yet artistic craftsmanship to his first big movie, and every aspect is carefully constructed to full effect. The scares are shocking, the laughs are hilarious, and the effects are spot on. This is what makes it one of the most all-round entertaining horror films I've ever seen.

The Beach (2000) dir, Danny Boyle

Rating: 3/5

As I just finished reading Alex Garland's novel The Beach today, it seemed like a good place to start for my first blog review. I first watched, and subsequently loved, the film several years ago, and reading the novel has given me a lot to talk about.

Trusty old Roger Ebert described The Beach as 'a confused film that makes three or four passes at being a better one and doesn't complete any of them.' I think, ultimately, I agree with him. One thing that stands out about The Beach is the fluctuating and somewhat flustered style of both camerawork and plot. It starts off as a mellow and inspiring adventure, hazily lit by Thai sunsets. It suddenly takes on a grubby, sinister feel before dropping into a Vietnam-inspired nightmare, before finishing on a cheery, typical Hollywood note. The sudden changes in style are abrupt and inexplicable, and because of this, the film does not run too fluidly.

The cast act well, given the badly-adapted screenplay which I believe is what failed this movie. It takes on enough of the novel's plot and underlying themes to create a watered down version, but not enough of them to prevent utter confusion at unfinished sub-plots and sudden changes in direction. 

Despite an under-developed screenplay, this movie excels in creating an atmosphere. When Richard (Leonardo DiCaprio), Francoise (Virginie Ledoyen) and Etienne (Guillaume Canet) collapse into the shallows of the mysterious beach, it is every bit the paradise that Daffy (Robert Carlyle) promised. Beautifully bright blues and yellows flood the lagoon, shades you can only see in tropical places. All the beauty of a Thai island, complete with showers and wooden huts, and a field full of 'complimentary' marijuana- it really is paradise. The first segment of the movie is truly feel-good, and incredibly absorbing, and this is the part I like the most.

The Beach is exciting, if somewhat 'confused,' and truly let down by a bad screenplay. It allows you to daydream about the possibilities when you have no responsibilities, and plenty of spirit (and money!), and it's a great feeling!

Revised Top Scary Moments Plan

My sister and I have said for years that Channel 4's often repeated list of 100 Greatest Scary Moments is not only somewhat outdated, but we were also bored of the same winners: 3rd- Jaws, 2nd- The Exorcist, 1st- The Shining. We have mulled over the idea of compiling our own favourite scary moments, and these plans are well underway. Watch this space, and post your suggestions.