With so many deals available online we’ve taken the liberty of picking through the bargain bin and pulling out the choicest offers we could find.

This week we have an excellent sci-fi film, a famous graphic novel and the latest outing for one of the most popular gaming characters out there.

If there’s a deal you think our readers should know about then please do let us know.

Attack The Block – Blu-Ray – £10.49 – HMV

What was probably the biggest cult hit of 2011, Attack the Block was the directorial debut of Joe Cornish (who was also one of the writers on The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn) and even though audience members really liked the film, it unfortunately was not as successful at the box office in the UK and overseas.

Set in a London council estate, a local street gang (who are all newcomers and first time actors) must defend themselves against a monstrous alien invasion. Joining forces with local drug dealer Ron (Nick Frost) and new resident Sam (Jodie Whittaker), the unlikely team must use their knowledge of the streets to fight off the aliens.

With the film available to Blu-Ray and DVD, there is no better time to buy this film and as it is priced at just under eleven pounds on the HMV website, this is worth every penny. Included in this particular Blu-Ray is a copy of the film on DVD as well and a bunch of bonus features, including commentary and a collection of behind-the-scenes footage. Here’s our review.

Click here for the link to buy the Blu.

Batman Arkham Asylum (15^th Anniversary Edition) – Graphic Novel – £7.99 – Forbidden Planet

Arkham City was one of the biggest and most successful sequels of the last few years and it’s great to see it’s popularity soaring, with sales and downloadable content still doing well and NetherRealm Studios making the spin-off IOS game Arkham City Lockdown. But what many people may not be aware of is that the original game was loosely based on a graphic novel starring The Dark Knight written by Grant Morrison and Dave McKean, with McKean doing the artwork.

After the patients of Arkham Asylum have escaped their cells, took the staff hostage and taken over the facility, Batman is forced to enter and put a stop to the chaos that Joker has led. With Dave McKean behind the artwork, the book is absolutely gorgeous to look at, making each villain extremely dark, offering us beutifuly twisted characters and making Batman’s journey through the iconic psychiatric hospital deeply memorable.

Now that the graphic novel has enjoyed its fair share of new readers thanks to the two Batman games, the book is now available in a 15^th Anniversary Edition by Titan Books that includes samples on the development of the book, the complete script and more nice additions. Even if you have never read a Batman book and really liked one of the many adaptations, this is a great place to start!

Here’s the link to Buy the Graphic Novel

Rayman Origins – Play Station 3, X-Box 360 and Nintendo Wii – £17.98 to £19.98 – GAME

Retailers are still on their new year sales and it is no surprise to see that gamers can still buy one of the many Christmas releases at a cheap price. But what was probably the most crazy and weird games to be released was Rayman Origins, a game that was not the biggest selling games of 2011 as it’s price at most shops and websites were cut in half a few weeks after it’s release date.

The premise starts with Rayman, Globox, Grand Minimus and Goth Caster are sleeping and are snoring very noisily. In fact, there snoring is so noisy that it disturbs an old woman who commands her monstrous creatures to create chaos around the world. Rayman and his friends must set everything right through detailed and beautifully animated lands that makes the game feel like an interactive cartoon that you can play either by yourself or with a second player.

With Ubisoft finally putting Rayman back into his platforming roots, it’s a wonderful treat for those who loved the original game and a great introduction for newcomers.

At just under eighteen pounds for the Wii and at just around twenty pounds for the Play Station 3 and X-Box 360, this is a very good price for a game that oozes so much colour, creativity and fun out of it’s brilliant level designs.

Click Here for the Deal.

This sort of thing can rapidly turn into a vanity project, so I will have to watch my step a little. Laudable as it is to try to bring to people’s attention some splendid films which they may not have seen, it can swiftly deteriorate into, “oh gosh, you haven’t seen Cube: Zero, what kind of film fan do you call yourself?”.

So the criterion here is not obscurity, nor necessarily five-star classic status, rather this is an effort at a simple introduction to a handful of rarely seen and perhaps under-appreciated films that you might want to catch when and where you can. I’ve tried to mix up the genres a little and so hopefully everyone can find something they will like.

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1. A Better Tomorrow (1986) – Dir. John Woo

John Woo has been responsible for some of the most acclaimed and satisfying action films to ever see the light of day. Hard Boiled and Face/Off are very different propositions, but no less splendid for it. Before he made The Killer and long before he moved to Hollywood and all but lost his mojo, Woo gave the world Chow Yun Fat with a gun in each hand and A Better Tomorrow, arguably the best film on his CV, if not as balletic in its violence as Hard Boiled, or as sky-high in its conception as Face/Off. It’s certainly better than Hard Target and Mission: Impossible 2.

A Better Tomorrow finds Chow Yun Fat as a gangster, trying to mend his ways and reconnect with his policeman brother, though the path is a difficult one. It gives us the (now) trademark flourishes of a Woo set-piece, lots of guns, quite a lot of slow-motion, operatic themes, seemingly limitless ammunition and piles of dead bodies. As noted above, it is not as much of an adrenaline rush as some of Woo’s later output, but the characterisation is better, the performances more affecting and the denouement more satisfying. Catch it if you can.

2. Scarlet Street (1945) – Dir. Fritz Lang

This one really was a match made in heaven. A film noir, featuring a lead actor (Edward G. Robinson) who was tailor made for the genre (and has given us splendid iterations on both sides of the law in films like Key Largo, Little Caesar and Double Indemnity) and a director brilliant at exploring shadows, both photographically and thematically (The Big Heat, M, Metropolis). It must be admitted that this is a pretty obscure film, relatively unheralded in the oeuvre of Robinson or Lang, but it is no less worth tracking down for it. I caught it on the big screen during an extremely limited re-release back around the turn of the millennium and I am so very glad that I did.

The story sees Robinson as Christopher Cross (Chris-Cross?), a mild-mannered gentleman in the throes of a mid-life crisis who meets and befriends a young woman, whose fiance gets her to help try to con Cross out of a perceived fortune.

Unusually for Robinson, who tended to play characters with plenty of wit, nous and guile, he presents us here with a sad-sack of a man, downbeat, simple and gullible. He is easily duped, but wholly lacks the intellectual or emotional equipment to recover and we are left with a conclusion of devastating finality and bleakness. Fritz Lang is clearly entirely at home with the themes, character arcs and dour colour palate and perhaps the idea of a female character leading someone to their unwitting downfall resonated with him from one of the key elements of Metropolis.

The screenplay is by Dudley Nichols, who also gave us the scripts for Stagecoach, Bringing Up Baby and The Tin Star and is suitably economic and clinical, but in the end it is Robinson’s performance and his plight that most gets under the skin. Affecting and powerful. If you have the time, the whole film is embedded below:-

 Page One (#1 #2) – Page Two (#3 #4) - Page Three (#5 #6)

Batman trilogy filmmaker Christopher Nolan made his mark on the 70mm IMAX screen in London on Wednesday with studio Warner Bros showing the first six minutes of the new Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises, out in July 2012.

Next year’s highly anticipated epic conclusion to The Caped Crusader saga sees terrorist leader Bane (Tom Hardy) arriving in Gotham City, set to push its hero Batman (Christian Bale) to breaking point and cause mayhem in the process.

Producer Emma Thomas was on hand to introduce the clip, saying Nolan’s vision was to make the latest experience as “immersive an experience” as possible, harking back to the days of the filmmaker’s childhood memories of large-screen epics.

True to Nolan’s style of introducing some of his films with a flashback and reference to Batman’s previous escapade, the six-minute clip opens with embattled law man Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) speaking at a fallen city hero’s memorial. Nolan adopts his hard cut method to instantly project us to a far away, war-torn land to be confronted by a trio of captured hooded men – presumably mercenaries – bundled by special forces onto a military plane. It’s clear that one of this faceless cargo is top priority, but what happens next is straight out of any daring action film, with some courageous aerial acrobatics and mid-flight toppling of power that use the 70mm IMAX screen to its best ability.

Uncovering the mask, we get to meet Batman’s main arch nemesis in this film, Bane, a psychotic, muzzled beefcake of madman hell-bent on grabbing glory and power in Gotham. Bane’s prominent face-piece looks menacingly like something out of Predator. The trouble is if these first few minutes are anything to go by, understanding Hardy’s muffled, gravely tones as Bane are going to prove pretty tricky. Still, with a pedigree of playing psychopaths, from his Cape Wrath TV days to Bronson, steely-looking Hardy’s actions speak louder than his garbled words.

These first few minutes flew by, but Nolan certainly sets the scene for some jaw-dropping stunts in the 2012 instalment, combined with each of his tormented characters’ determination to seek their own form of justice or some sort of vengeance over a death. July 2012 never seemed so far away…

Over the past few months, we here at HeyUGuys have offered up a number of arguments in defense of underestimated filmmakers, their flawed films and the trends that haunt Hollywood even to this day. Never, however, has a property been more deserving of a rebuttal than George Lucas’ Star Wars prequel trilogy – an alleged travesty that has apparently robbed a generation of unforgiving fans of their precious childhood memories.

I’ve taken a decidedly different view of the latest additions to the Star Wars cinematic canon – whether as a result of the age at which I first viewed them (as a still-impressionable youngling) or the number of times I’ve since revisited them at the cinema or on DVD – one that is considerably more tolerant and more than happy to see them nestled before the original trilogy in my collection.

Convinced that it is nostalgia – and nostalgia alone – that has given the original trilogy its hallowed status among people of a certain age, it is my opinion that nothing was ever going to live up to the adventures of Luke Skywalker, his one-time love interest turned sister and their favourite scruffy-looking Nerf herder. Casting a critical eye over Episodes IV, V and VI, it quickly becomes clear that many of the criticisms leveled at the prequels are just as true of their predecessors – namely the clunky dialogue and juvenile archetypes characters. Heck, it’s almost as though they’re supposed to be like Saturday morning adventure serials.

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999)

From the opening moments of Phantom Menace we are back, panning through space as though nothing has changed – the same musical cues, sound effects and exemplary set design conspiring to invoke the same excitement and sense of adventure inherent in every instalment to date. Though the substantial plot may kick in before we get much of a sense of who Qui Gon Jinn and Obi Wan Kenobi actually are, if you care to remember A New Hope was not that much different itself – with R2D2 and C3PO escaping their blockade runner before you could even tell your Jedi from your Jawas.

This year sees the release of yet another plethora of comic book adaptations, most recently topped by the arrival of X-Men: First Class in cinemas. To coincide with Matthew Vaughn’s prequel – albeit a prequel with reimaginitive tendencies – the internet has inevitably started buzzing with claims that it may constitute The Greatest Comic Book Movie Ever Made (TGCBMEM).

This particular section of geekdom invariably dusts off their hyperbole every year or so, proclaiming some new release the pinnacle of comic book movie-making, having previously crowned such films as Superman (1978), Spider-man (2002) and The Dark Knight (2008) with the unashamedly self-important title.

Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate what makes each of the aforementioned movies great – and I certainly enjoyed X-Men: First Class (though perhaps not as much as Adam Lowes) – but I find it all too predictable tipping which movies might invariable draw such avid fanboy attention. This endless pursuit of hierarchy has an unfortunate tendency to belittle movies never listed as contenders for the coveted title – somewhat of a tragedy in a genre with precious few incontrovertible misfires. With the exception of Catwoman (2004), Blade: Trinity (2004) and Elektra (2005) there aren’t many adaptations completely without merit. In a genre that spans dimensions, planets and publishers, is there really just one definitive, objective winner?

Make no mistake, I have my own favourites, but I find it a difficult and thankless task to lumber them with such an unweildy accolade (and acronym) as TGCBMEM. Perhaps it is because my tastes differ so drastically from the most vocal patrons of the genre. For example: I adored Kick-Ass (2010), a film which beautifully deconstructs the superhero ethos while embodying it entirely; I found much to like in X2 (2003), quite despite my near allergic reaction to Hugh Jackman’s quickly tiresome Wolverine; and, when nobody else would, I championed Fantastic Four (2005), a brilliantly entertaining superhero romp which refused to take itself too seriously. But my own TGCBMEM? Does V for Vendetta (2006) even count? Would Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) qualify? I don’t suppose it even matters, my heart ultimately only truly belongs to one comic book movie: the utterly incomparable Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008).

“What”, you might ask, “the one about the red-skinned, kitten-loving space-monkey?” Indeed, but if you’ll just hear me out? You see, one of the biggest markers of quality I have encountered time and time again, according to the TGCBMEM crowd at least, is realism. A current zeitgeist, the ostensible fad stipulates that all superheroes must be grounded in reality if they are to be taken seriously by genre connoisseurs. Quite beside the fact that these same people would unlikely deride Toy Story for being about sentient children’s toys, or dismiss Inception for dream-hopping, they nevertheless believe a superhero should be gritty, citing the “darker is better” mantra as a categorical imperative.

The result has been a bizarre tendency whereby filmmakers try to prune their properties of everything that once made them super. Spider-man is deprived of his practicality and intellect, his webbing made organic in case there’s only so much super his audience can take. Galactus, meanwhile, is transformed into a nebulous space-fart to save cinemagoers the sight of a giant, purple alien. The worst offender, in my opinion that is, is Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight.

You see, entire pantheons of the comic book’s established villainy have been necessarily denied entry to the director’s own pocket universe lest they show Batman up for what he really is: a comic book character. Deemed gritty and mature by the fun police, this desired realism is nevertheless undermined by a preposterous ninja threat, a far-fetched fear toxin and the sequel’s ridiculous “signal tracking device”. In all honesty, I’d much rather have watched a caped-crusaderless Dark Knight, without Christian Bale there to stupid up (my phrase, you may prefer “compromise”) a perfectly good crime drama with his gravelly growl and tumbling batmobile; none of which is ideal when the sorest thumb in your movie is that of its titular protagonist.

I don’t love Hellboy II: The Golden Army because it’s silly, but because it doesn’t shy away from its more outlandish elements. The film is at times dark, consistently moving and often (intentionally) hilarious. With other franchises going to painstaking lengths to humanise their superhumans, whether by lumbering them with glasses and a paper round, mirroring a more traditional coming-of-age yarn or blinding their protagonist with radioactive waste – audit must have freaked – Hellboy just stands there – cigar in mouth – defiantly, defying logic by navigating such empathetic waters with surprising ease. Guillermo del Toro’s fearless direction obviously helps, with the script’s embrace of humour and character resulting in one of the most heartfelt comic book capers committed to celluloid. I know heart isn’t everything, or so I’ve been informed on numerous occasions, but untroubled by green screen and bat-nipples, Hellboy II at least has the horns to feature an emotional rendition of Barry Manilow’s “Cant Smile Without You”.

It doesn’t disappoint in the action stakes either. While the world might not be trembling before Parallax’s yellow something of whatever, the sparing use of CGI and preference for practical effects lend The Golden Army an earthy feel that works to compensate for the admittedly bonkers sight of a horned demon battling climatically with a martial artist elf. Boasting a small ensemble consisting of a psychic fish, an explosive emo and an ectoplastic diving suit, the arcs devoted so such unusual characters brings them to life in a way the rejection of Robin, the omission of The Mandarin and the integration of the Cuban Missile Crisis otherwise fail to achieve.

Above all, however, I love the film’s confidence. One movie in to a franchise that would soon be stuck in limbo (there are no words), Hellboy II is often quoted as a very personal movie by del Toro and it really shows. The different between it and it’s less successful predecessor is perhaps explained by the director’s bridging project: Pan’s Labyrinth. Earning the director a slew of award nominations, Pan’s Labyrinth is a dark (how’s that for credentials?) fairytale replete with fantastic creatures and realistic horrors. Bleeding though into The Golden Army, such skill and painstaking workmanship – combined with an unmatched understanding of the source material – imbued the film with a dignified quality that goes beyond name-checking Frankenstein and deriving respect from fads.

In my opinion, a good comic book movie prises substance over style – including characters for a purpose and rewarding them with development for their efforts. Spider-man 3 (2007) is the film most often exampled for this failing, but its triad of villainy is positively well-rounded compared to other offenders. X-Men: Last Stand (2006) and Origins: Wolverine (2009) are two films which falter in their preference of cameos and flashing lights over character and subtext, a crime considering the analogous nature of the X-Men series. I suspect Green Lantern (2011) will be just as unsuccessful when it throws Ryan Reynolds at a million dollars worth of greenscreen later this month, though I may yet be proved wrong. A great comic book movie, however, must make you care about the characters, because great power comes with great responsibility – often followed by a healthy serving of investment-sensitive sacrifice.

This year’s Thor was a massive success in this respect, as it took a plethora of characters from numerous realms and fleshed them out with expert aplomb. Thor too was a little on the silly side, boasting a few too many rainbow bridges to gel with the serious faced TGCBMEM crowd. Needless to say it didn’t receive the same attention as First Class, with the latter’s discussion of genetic mutation and allusion to Nazi Germany and Jekyll and Hyde tying it to the respected world: both scientific and literary. I can’t help but feel that Thor is the better movie, however, unburdened as it is by what came before – even if it does make a few exceptions for what might still be to come. You don’t have to deconstruct, retcon or shoehorn superheroes into the real world to produce a great movie, you just need the confidence to realise the character unashamedly – whatever planet he’s from.

Kick-Ass was similarly exceptional, with a potty mouth and well-judged sentiment that leant it depth and emotionality – whether it be enthralled elation or utter hot-chocolate-prompted devastation. More than just a reaction to comic book movies, Kick-Ass came close to eclipsing its competition with a great script, break-neck direction and enough homages to necessitate repeated viewing. Taking the Hulk (2003) route (which to me, for the record, is the definitive Hulk movie – hey, my grave is already dug) and advertising the required suspension of disbelief from the outset by sign-posting its debt to the medium, Kick-Ass came the closest yet to creating a realistic comic book movie, but in the most delightfully incidental way possible.

OK – so my mind might have wandered, but I guess my point is that there is no objective basis in heralding a comic book movie the best ever; there will always be those who disagree – and so there should be – and perhaps I know this better than most. With the current retcon culture rebooting characters after their first box office stumble, and with the orbital nature of fashion and filmmaking trends, the different incarnations and zeitgeists the characters will invariably reflect will doubtless ensure this TGCBMEM ceremony continues. What of next year, then? Is Joss Whedon’s The Avengers in line for the accolade or should I just give in now and anoint Nolan’s next Batfilm? Will darkness ever give in to light? More than anything, however, I’d like to hand the floor over to you. In your opinion, what is the greatest comic book movie ever made – if indeed there is one?

Austrian born director, Barbara Eder did a student exchange year at Hanna High School in Brownsville, Texas, on which she based her first feature film, INSIDE AMERICA.

Previous to that she studied film directing at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna and made numerous short films like SLEEPLESS (2002), TOD, TEUFEL & KOMMERZ (2004) and short documentaries including HIMMEL, HÖLLE, ROSENKRANZ (2005) and HARALD SERAFIN AUF HOHER SEE (2006).

The INSIDE AMERICA Director talks about her firsthand experience living in the border town of Brownsville, Texas, the process of how the film was made and how she was compelled to tell the tragic stories of her classmates.

HEYUGUYS: When most people think of high school exchange programs, exotic and foreign lands come to mind. Usually a pleasant high school experience in a big city.

How does an Austrian born filmmaker end up in Texas, a small border town such as Brownsville? It seems difficult to find on a map, especially in 1994 with no Google Maps.

BE: Believe me, I never wanted to end up in Brownsville. I was dreaming of New York, San Francisco or New Orleans. I was with an exchange programme back then and right before I left Austria, they assured me a guest family in New Orleans. I remember, I was so excited about it and really looking forward to it. I got on the plane, travelled for almost a day, when I finally arrived at the airport in Louisiana.

There, I was told that my guest family decided to get divorced and that they already found a substitute guest family in Texas. When I heard “Texas” I really wasn’t happy. I thought Texas means cowboys, Bush and nothing to do. I couldn’t use google maps in 1994 but there was a map on the plane. So, on my flight to Brownsville, I, of course, looked for Brownsville on the map. What I found didn’t really cheer me up. To me it seemed the dead end of my journey.

HEYUGUYS: Did you know anything about Brownsville before getting on the plane, and were you at all surprised when you arrived? Did you find integrating into the culture difficult at all?

BE: I didn’t know anything about Brownsville. When I landed at the airport, I only knew that it was at the very end of Texas. That was it. My expectations were very low and actually it took me a while to accept that Brownsville was the place where I was going to spend a whole year. Also, I didn’t really get along with my host family. And finding friends at school was super difficult due to the fact that most students spoke Spanish. So, in the beginning I felt very lonely.

I think the process of integrating into a totally different culture is never easy and takes time. I came to the U.S. with the will to live the life of an American, to make new experiences and to learn something for my life. Still, it took some time for me to adapt. But by the end of the year, I didn’t even want to go back. I found it hard to leave my friends. And after the year, back in Austria, I even had problems to re-integrate in my own culture. Things had changed, I had changed.

HEYUGUYS: At what point did you begin documenting your experience in Brownsville, and when did you begin forming these stories as a film?

BE: When I came to Brownsville, I had left my family and all my friends behind. Back then, facebook or even using the internet for communication was no common thing. All I could do to keep in touch with my loved ones, was to write letters and once in a while calling on the phone with a time change of 7 hours. So, basically, I felt very isolated.

In addition, I felt not quite accepted by my host family and couldn’t really talk to them. And, of course, in the beginning you have no friends because you’re just about to get to know people. So, right after my first day in Brownsville I had this urge to talk to somebody about it. So, I started a diary. I wrote every day for a whole year and stopped writing when I left Brownsville. After that I never wrote a diary again. My diaries (couple of books) became one of the most important sources for writing the script for INSIDE AMERICA.

I came back to Brownsville lots of times and a year after a trip to Brownsville in 2005, I met film producer and friend Constanze Schumann for a coffee. I just talked to her about Brownsville and about my exchange year when I was seventeen. Constanze was actually the one that was so overwhelmed by my experiences about Brownsville and ensured me that my stories would make a wonderful film. So, I went home, took out my old diaries and started reading them again. That was the beginning of INSIDE AMERICA.

HEYUGUYS: Why did you choose to tell these specific stories?

BE: Because these stories were the ones that enclosed what I formerly thought were cliches but discovered to happen in real life. Also, these stories don’t represent the heroic successful lives of a few but the tragic lives of many. I thought, they were more honest.

HEYUGUYS: How did you go about finding your actors? They seemed quite convincing in their respective roles. Were they mostly non-actors, and was there a lot of improvising?

BE: Everything was improvised. My script included only scenes but no dialogues. I wanted the people to talk in their own language. Some scenes I tried out with the actors in rehearsals, some I would just shoot to keep the scene alive and fresh and sometimes full of surprises.

I made a call for auditions at Hanna High School and all over the town. What I was looking for were people whose lives or attitude was very close to the characters in the script. So, e.g. I was looking for a girl who would take part in beauty contests and was very caring about her appearance. And I found a girl who was doing that in real life. Same with the gang guy, the Mexican girl etc. Also, most teachers are real teachers, no actors. Even the police cops were real police cops. Actually there was no professional actor in the movie.

HEYUGUYS: Is there a reason why you chose not to tell the story from the perspective of an exchange student? Or add a character to represent yourself within the film?

BE: I did not find it necessary. I mean, my first few months of Brownsville had a lot to do with watching, observing, listening. I would just absorb all these new people and situations, without having to say “this is good”or ”this is bad”. And that’s what I actually wanted to give to the viewers. The chance to just watch and absorb. Also, I wanted to keep a distance to me as a person. But not as a filmmaker.

HEYUGUYS: Given the style of the film, where it seems like the viewer is watching a documentary, it’s easy to forget that the film is not a documentary. How true is the film to actual events?

BE: There are lots of real documentary scenes in the movie. For example, the school scenes were shot this way. The teachers did their jobs and we would just film it. Many scenes were a mix between documentary and fiction. For example, I would set up a situation, like kids from a gang hanging out in the backyard and the cookie-selling kid coming by to sell his cookies for fund raising. I would tell the cookie-selling kid to just do what he would do in real life and I would tell the gang kids the same (except for hurting the boy!!). And then we started shooting. Nobody really knew what to expect but we just did it and shot it. A lot of scenes were done this way.

HEYUGUYS: As your first feature, what did you find the most challenging about making the film?

BE: Most challenging was finding the right cast. My stories are what someone could point out as cliches. I knew that only the right cast and the right staging could make these stories believable and alive and show that these cliches do exist in real life. Also, the process of making the movie, with such a low budget and only a team of 5 people who don’t even live in the U.S. was a big challenge. There was not lots of sleep but lots of pressure. I am proud of my team and proud of myself staying focussed and taking the journey to an end.

HEYUGUYS: The film ends in a way that leaves the viewer guessing. What do you want the viewer to take away from the film?

BE: The movie gives a chance to see the struggles of different groups of citizens of Brownsville and at the same time gives you the chance to reflect and think about your own. The way it is shot, I don’t judge or prefer any group to the other. I just show it the way I experienced it. And I am giving the chance to get your own picture about it.

HEYUGUYS: What’s next for you after Inside America?

BE: My next project is a documentary about the private lives of Criminal Profilers. I’m dealing with the question:”What does a profiler talk about with his wife when he comes home from work and has dinner?” I’ve done one year research, travelling around the world to find the right profilers for my story. Satisfied with the outcome, I am already shooting this year.

Inside America has its US premiere at this year’s SXSW Festival.

SCREENINGS

11:00 am, Monday March 14, Vimeo Theater, 501 East 4th St

3:00 pm, Wednesday March 16, Alamo Lamar B, 1120 South Lamar Blvd

5:00 pm, Saturday March 19, Alamo Lamar B, 1120 South Lamar Blvd

Picture the scene. Christmas Day, sometime after lunch. All the presents have been opened, the Christmas dinner has been eaten, the Queen’s speech has been, er, ignored, and now it’s time for the family to sit down on a day of yuletide joy and watch a film together. What should it be? Why of course! How could it be anything other than Frank Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Life?

It is, after all, the quintessential family Christmas film. Remember? It’s the one where a man gives up all his ambitions and dreams in order to put others first. The one where he loses all his money and faces bankruptcy and prison. The one where he ends up on Christmas Eve night, ready to hurl himself in a river. The one which leaves everyone sobbing into their pudding before you can say ‘Auld Lang Syne’. And we watch it every Christmas. Er, hang on a minute, really?

Why do we, as a nation, enter into this annual display of cinematic masochism? Why do we choose the ultimate day of family happiness and peace to all mankind to watch a film about a man choosing to commit suicide? What is it about It’s A Wonderful Life that makes it as much a part of Christmas as turkey and crackers? Starring James Stewart and Donna Reed, and directed by Frank Capra, It’s A Wonderful Life is a film now regarded as nothing short of perfection, and an immovable addition to Christmas viewing.

I have no idea when I first saw It’s A Wonderful Life. The film feels like it has always been there, a film I have watched every Christmas for so long that I cannot recall the years beforehand when I had no awareness of it. All I know for certain is that as far back as my memory will go, I have watched the film ever single Christmas with a religious devotion. It’s almost not a choice; the film has to be watched at Christmas and there is no argument to suggest why that should not be. And without doubt, many other people feel the same, routinely watching the film every single year. It is an intrinsic part of Christmas tradition.

It is interesting to think that a film which is considered one of the greatest films ever made had such a troubled history. Like many of the best loved films, It’s A Wonderful Life was not a box office smash hit or multi-Oscar winning triumph. The film went through 8 different writers and was originally intended as a vehicle for Cary Grant before plans were shelved. The film then fell into the hands of Frank Capra who pitched the idea to James Stewart before abruptly changing his mind and declaring the film a bad idea. The plot does certainly sound less effective when on paper – an angel named Clarence is sent down to earth on Christmas Eve to help George Bailey (Stewart), who is contemplating suicide. After re-watching the tale of George’s life, Clarence tries to convince him not to commit suicide by showing him how the world would have been had he never been born. After witnessing the existence his friends and family would have had without him, George recognises the importance of his own life and returns to him family.

Capra was cynical about the overly sentimental and potentially fluffy content and quickly declared his lack of interest in the film. But the plot struck a chord with Stewart who agreed to play the lead role of George Bailey. Despite Stewart’s star presence, the film received mixed reviews and performed badly at the box office. It received 5 Oscar nominations but failed to win any. If it were not for a error made in the copyright of the film, it is likely It’s A Wonderful Life would have faded into obscurity. After the copyright was allowed to lapse, It’s A Wonderful Life was shown repeatedly on television, a cheap film used to fill the schedules.  The film was regularly shown at Christmas, a time when all television schedulers were under pressure to show large numbers of films. Slowly and gradually, It’s A Wonderful Life began to gain an increasing number of fans, its consistent presence in the Christmas schedules provoking growing affection for the film’s sentimental themes. The appeal of the film has endured to the present day and It’s A Wonderful Life is now a firm family favourite, fondly replayed by thousands every Christmas.

On paper, It’s A Wonderful Life sounds like schmaltzy rubbish which should be consigned to the bin, but somehow the combination of the right ingredients make for a film which is a rare example of near perfection. Perhaps the biggest coup was the casting of James Stewart in the lead role. In the context of when the film was made, Stewart was quite possibly the finest choice when it came to representing the qualities of the ideal, all-American hero. Stewart had been steadily building himself a critically acclaimed and successful film career, establishing himself as one of the leading men in Hollywood. In 1940, he achieved the ultimate acting accolade, winning an Oscar for The Philadelphia Story.

Stewart was popular, talented and had the prizes to prove it. However, the real cherry of the cake was that audiences seeing Stewart in 1946 when It’s A Wonderful Life was released were seeing him for the first time on the cinema screen in five years, Stewart having put his acting career on hold to be the first movie star to serve in World War II. So Stewart was not only popular and talented – he was a man who had just returned from five years of serving his country. Film heroes don’t come much more authentic than James Stewart, a man with both the on-screen talent and off-screen decency to make himself into the ultimate leading man.

It’s A Wonderful Life was the perfect vehicle for Stewart as it finally gave him a chance to showcase some of his darker, more dramatic skills which had no place in the many light-hearted comedies he made up until this point. It is very often the darker side of James Stewart that is the more watchable, a point noted by Alfred Hitchcock who directed Stewart in arguably his finest and most challenging role, the tortured and obsessive Scottie in Vertigo (1958). George Bailey is certainly not a complex or deep as Scottie, but he is a lead character with a magnetism that draws the audience deep into the heart of the film.

It’s A Wonderful Life tells George Bailey’s life in retrospect, the audience learning George’s history alongside guardian angel Clarence. The film shows us that George is a thoroughly decent and goodhearted man, a man who continually gives up his own aspirations for the sake of others and puts his loved ones before himself. George’s good deeds are touching and often fraught with self-sacrifice; partially losing his hearing whilst saving his brother’s life, giving up his plans to travel the world in order to run his father’s business and giving away his own honeymoon savings in order to help the clients at his Buildings and Loans company.

George Bailey could easily be the sort of saint-like figure of perfection which tends to alienate and irritate an audience rather than endear them. It’s A Wonderful Life works so perfectly because George Bailey is such a thoroughly likeable man which any audience can relate to. George is not perfect; although he is a good man he doesn’t sacrifices his own happiness with a willing smile. George is frustrated, angry and bitter at the chances he has missed and the good fortune which is experienced by those around him. He is jealous of what he was never able to achieve and privately resents the sacrifices he has been forced to make. George is the perfect leading man for this tale of the value of life as he is a man who feels real in every sense of the word. An all-round family man, a good human being and one who harbours the natural human emotions of regret and frustration.

In examining the plot of It’s A Wonderful Life, the film deals with the many mundane aspects of everyday life that seek to challenge us all. Family, work, money and relationships are the fundamental issues that face us every single day, and it is these things that George Bailey battles against as he wearily plods through his increasingly difficult life. And alongside these plot elements we find the wholly unseasonal themes of despair, hopelessness, disappointment, regret and depression. It’s A Wonderful Life is often wrongly branded as a sugary sweet happy film, but anyone with any familiarity of the content can vouch for the fact that this is a poor misconception. It’s A Wonderful Life is littered with scenes of a deeply disturbing and often dark nature, painfully out of keeping with the warm atmosphere of Christmas.

Perhaps the most shocking moment of the whole film is the sight of George Bailey coming home, aware that his business is about to go bankrupt over a large sum of missing money. George walks into the happy sitting room of his young family, before the strain drives him to shout and kick furniture in front of his children. The shocked silence of the Bailey family is only made worse as one of the younger girls begins to cry. Even after multiple viewings, it remains a deeply disturbing and uncomfortable scene, the sight of violence in the home and the distress of young children touching a sensitive nerve in any viewer.

Ultimately, although the plot and main character of It’s A Wonderful Life are hugely endearing, nothing can change the fact that the film remains one with dark and depressing overtones for one that is watched by so many at Christmas time. Is there any logical reason as to why a film with such challenging themes has established itself as a family favourite?

It’s A Wonderful Life is a film that is ultimately uplifting and happy as the sadness of the journey is redeemed by the unashamed sentimental heart of the ending. The viewer must endure a very long and arduous journey through the life of George Bailey, but the reward at the end of seeing him as the receiver of so much love and friendship is worth the pain. For many, Christmas is a time of reflection, considering the highs and lows of the year gone by and making plans for the year ahead. Every one of us has experienced the same pain that George Bailey feels, looking back on life and feeling twinges of sadness and regret at what we never achieved and the opportunities we missed. Christmas is a wonderful time for family and friendship but also a time of emotional vulnerability as so many go through the annual anxiety of assessing their own achievements and shortcomings. A film such as It’s A Wonderful Life is a source of tremendous warmth and comfort at this time, reminding us that however poor we believe our lives to be, we do touch people every day without even realising. George Bailey rediscovers his love for life as he travels through the alternate reality of Pottersville, seeing how his friends and family would have been affected without his existence. George’s slow understanding that his life possesses great meaning is one of the most heart-warming film moments that can be witnessed, although I personally am always amused at George’s horror when he realises his wife Mary would have become a glasses-wearing librarian if he had never lived. A dire fate indeed.

All films possess a message, and as the notes of Auld Lang Syne ring out over the film’s tearstained finale, the message is very clear. We all matter, we all have a value and however awful we think our lives are, we all make a difference to others without even knowing it. To get across a message as nauseatingly sweet as that whilst still retaining an undertone of dark, poignant drama is a spectacular achievement. It’s A Wonderful Life requires multiple viewings and is thoroughly deserving of the monumental amounts of praise heaped on it.

Films with a sentimental core and emotional ending are nearly always the subject of considerable scorn, dismissed by many as simply overly wet nonsense designed to make people cry. It’s A Wonderful Life is a rare example of a film that can be shamelessly wallowed over by everyone, a glorious pile of sentimental joy that leaves a warm glow inside. It may be a film about suicide and despair, but it is perfect for Christmas time as it is ultimately about the value of life. And there is no better time to appreciate that than when surrounded by loved ones at Christmas.

With the snow thick on the ground and the holiday season well and truly upon us you may be thinking of what movies to watch over Christmas. Do you go for old classics like White Christmas, one of the many takes on Dickens’ A Christmas Carol or one of the more modern movies that crop up at this time of year such as Home Alone, something from the Indiana Jones stable (not a Christmas movie as such but there’s bound to be one on) or even Die Hard?

If you’ve been down those well-trodden paths one too many times before and are looking for a Christmas movie that’s a bit different then let me make a suggestion.

2007 Dutch rom-com Alles is Liefde (Love is All) won the 2008 Golden Calf at the Netherlands Film Festival for Best Director and Best Film, The Rembrandt Award for Best Dutch Actor and Actress in 2008 and Best DVD in 2009, plus a sackful of nominations. To give you some idea of just how popular it was it had one million viewers in the Netherlands, a country of 16 million people, in 2007 and was just behind Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End that year.

The background for the film is the Dutch Christmas season, which starts on 5th December with the arrival of SinterKlaas (the origin of the US “Santa Claus”) and his helper Zwarte Piet (Black Peter) from Spain and  continues on through to Christmas Eve, and the film follows the intertwined lives of twelve Dutch singletons, divorcees and married people trying to find love, family and meaning through a mix of trials and complications, not least of which is the death of SinterKlaas!

If you want a quick view of the plot IMDB can help you out here and but if you’re like me and don’t always like spoilers then I’ll just say that it’s next to “Notting Hill” and “Love Actually” in my collection and to my mind is as enjoyable as both. The trailers are only in Dutch without subtitles but will give you a some flavour of it:

The soundtrack is great with tracks from Hot Chocolate, Corinne Bailey Rae, Norah Jones, Krezip and the title track by Dutch stars Blof, who have previously recorded a combined Dutch and English version of “Holiday in Spain” with Counting Crows.

Almost inevitably it hasn’t received much attention outside of its native Holland but that’s been our loss more than theirs and this weekend I’ll be getting my copy down off the shelf in time for the imminent arrival of Sinterklaas as Sunday’s the 5th and he should be on his boat from Spain,  so if you fancy doing likewise you can grab a copy from Bol.com, the Dutch competitor to Amazon, or ebay but make sure it’s one with English subtitles, ‘Engels Ondertiteld’, or similar, is the thing to look for both on the box and in the DVD setup menu.

As it is in Dutch with the English subtitles you won’t want to have overdone the brandy butter or other Christmas spirit as that might affect your ability to follow it, but do give “Alles is Liefde” a go. You may just fall in love.

What are your favourite alternative Christmas films? Let me know in the comments below.

Just in time for the Halloween season, it’s time to break out the horror cards. Now, everyone knows the classics of the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s, and every year we add the same films to our same old October movie lists.

ROUTINE, BE GONE: I present to you five horror films from the recent decade that will have you scrambling for the remote and keeping your eyes open – simultaneously – not to mention a little humor thrown in there.

These are five films that you may not readily recognize, but you may have definitely scanned the DVD box cover, or surfed passed it on Netflix or Lovefilm, not knowing the treasures awaiting you…

5. Dead End (2003): A family road trip on Christmas evolves into a hellish nightmare only true horror fans themselves could create. A father, a mother, a daughter, a son, and the daughter’s doting boyfriend endure the ride together, as supernatural disasters and paranoia destroy their sanity. And yet, the supernatural elements never seem to go overboard; the movie truly plays out like a “Twilight Zone” episode, roping you and never letting you breathe, all the while keeping it shrouded in mystery.

The atmospheric cinematography and original score are definitely top notch, but it’s the realistic performance from all actors involve which really deserve the applause. Ray Wise holds it steady as the dad, but it’s Lin Shaye, who has usually been reduced to supporting comedic roles in films like “There’s Something About Mary,” who really shines through. Her insanity is just… incredible, much like this super gem.

4. The Descent (2005): The story of six female friends rock climbing, in the wake of a terrible family tragedy, sets the scene for this rough and tough thriller/horror from director Neil Marshall. As if the claustrophobia of these dark, damp caves weren’t enough, Marshall has to thrown in angry, monstrous humanoid creatures as well. One by one, the women fight off these girl-hungry beasts, learning from their gruesome villains while surviving as far as they can.

The best thing about this movie isn’t the great acting, or fantastic direction, or perfectly horrifying set design – it’s the fact that these women characters are never reduced to your typical horror heroines stereotypes. No big-breasted blondes; no moronic college girls ‘running up the stairs when they should be running out the front door’. These are real women, real friends, in a life-or-death situation.

3. Ginger Snaps (2001): Ginger Snaps is as hilarious as it is bloody and horrific, and biting with social commentary and dark feminine humor. It’s the story of two Goth teenage sisters, Ginger and Bridget, one year apart in age, best friends to the grave. They’re obsessed with darkness, death, and the macabre – until Ginger gets bitten by the town’s pesky werewolf on the night of her first menstrual period, and all womanly hell breaks loose.

A low-budget Canadian production has never looked so good. The two female leads have been trained and perfected; the direction is mortifyingly good with a sick, twisted humor and an eye for gore; the make-up is infused with energy and love from the crew; but most of all, it’s the script, which calls to mind the great girl-slang lingo of “Heathers” from the ‘80s. A dark, fun, and unforgettable werewolf ride.

2. House of the Devil (2009): This film – and by film, I do mean film – is a masterpiece. Filmed in ’09 but set in the late ‘70s / early ‘80s, House of the Devil is the ultimate homage to all of the beautiful, horrifying, and dearly missed Satanic horror films of the era it recreates: The Omen and The Exorcist, among others. It was released in very limited theaters, due to its mighty low budget and zero marketable stars, but because of its awe-inspiring prowess, it grew to be a midnight hit sensation in several big cities.

Jocelyn Donahue is Samantha, your average college girl trying to make a buck. She answers a vague babysitting ad, and her fate is sealed. On this eerie night, Samantha is lured out to the house of the Ulmans, one of the most disturbingly, quietly sinister pairs seen in horror films in years, and the ‘70s-infused terror begins. With a deadly perfect original score to match the era, gorgeous direction and set design, plenty of tricks and treats, and cameos from Dee Wallace Stone, Mary Woronov, and Tom Noonan, you know you’re in for the time of your life.

1. Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2005): Behind the Mask makes #1 on this list for its sheer originality. No horror film, or comedy, reached this point of dark hilarity in the past decade. Nothing holds a candle. If this script were produced by some bigger names, it would be one of the biggest cult hits of the decade. It’s filmed in that great mockumentary style, made famous by Rob Reiner and Christopher Guest, and proves to possibly be the best use of the technique yet.

We follow Leslie Vernon, a really sweet, endearing, agile guy on his quest to be the world’s next greatest serial killer. Mind you, this film exists in a world where Freddy, Jason, and Michael Myers were real men whose dirty deeds all took place in the same dimension. Leslie takes us the behind the scenes of his ingenious upcoming murders as he stalks a sad, terrified blonde, and we watch the horror unfold from the point of view of Leslie – and a team of greatly inept grad students, who are way in over their heads. This movie is so inventive, so creative, and so satisfying, I just… I just want to scream. Go out, rent it, and have a great Halloween.

Ross Tipograph is a film buff and Emerson College screenwriting major. When he’s not reviewing movies, he’s writing about costumes for Halloween.

I was having a conversation with one of my HeyUGuys colleagues on Twitter recently about how I haven’t yet seen The Shawshank Redemption.  After the shock of my confession subsided, he had mentioned how great it was going to be for me to experience it for the first time.  We then talked about a couple of films that we wished could be erased from our memory banks, just so we could watch them and feel the excitement of seeing them for the first time.

Obviously when you go to the theater to see a film, you’re going because it’s something you want to see.  There are times where the film in question turns out to be worse than you expected, right on the mark or better than you expected.  Then there are the rare occasions where the film transcends every expectation you could have had.  Those are the films that when you leave the theater, you want to get right back in line to watch it again. There are also those films that you may not have been able to see in the theater but you love so much you wish you could go back and see it for the first time on the big screen.

This is not something that is experienced often.  At least not for me personally.  I love movies.  I love going to the movies.  I love all different types of movies.  I wanted to share with you a handful of films that really struck a chord with me and ones that I wish I could experience again for the first time.

Jaws (1975)
I’m pretty sure I didn’t see Jaws in the theater.  I would have been 3 at the time.  But my folks were pretty liberal with what films I was allowed to watch so it’s entirely possible that they did take me when they went to see it.  I have very early memories of Jaws so it’s safe to say that I’ve watched this film through out most of my life.  It’s one of my favorites and it’s also my “deer in the headlights” film.  Meaning that whenever it’s on, I HAVE to turn it over to see what part it’s on and I get stuck watching it to the end.  I can’t turn away from it.  I wish I could experience Jaws through the eyes of a first timer.  To feel the suspense, to jump at the scares, to scream at Quint that he does indeed need a bigger boat!  Just think of how grand that would be!  I want to experience all of these things, but mainly, seeing it on the big screen in all of its glory and hearing the soundtrack on the theater sound system would be the best treat of all.

Aliens (1986)
I went to see Aliens with my Dad when it came out.  I knew of Alien and knew this was its sequel but I hadn’t seen Alien at the time.  I mainly went to spend some time with my Dad and he really wanted to see it. I was already familiar with James Cameron having seen The Terminator countless times.  It didn’t take long for me to become completely entranced with Aliens.  Sigourney Weaver put strong female characters on the map with the gun-toting-flame-thrower-wielding-grenade-launching-power-loader-driving-protective mama hen Ripley.  Is there anything Ripley can’t do?  She’s a bad ass. Plain and simple.  Aliens had the suspense, the gore, the jumps and the action.  This film is a classic and also one of my all time favorites.  Even though I remember seeing this film in the theater, I would so very much love to see it again, for the first time. I would choose and also recommend the director’s cut.  It contains almost 20 minutes of footage that was not included in the theatrical release.  SCORE!

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003)
I have to group these three films together because that’s how I think of them.  Not so much as three individual films, but one film that just happens to be 87 hours long, and that’s not even taking the director cuts into account.  I saw all three of these films in the theater multiple times.  I had absolutely no connection or knowledge of the source material either.  I went in completely blind and came out completely smitten with all of them.  Even though I get a little ho-hum with the Frodo storyline, I’m all ears with it comes to the other story lines.  These films really have it all.  Action, adventure, friendship, sword fights, creatures great and small, wizards, magic and best of all Gandalf.  Ian McKellen is an actor I could watch and listen to all day.  He has the most expressive eyes in the business.  He’s can tear you down with a look in one second and the next he’s got that twinkle that makes the world all warm and fuzzy.  I would geek out if I could revisit these three films back to back for the first time just so I could be filled with that child like wonder once again.

Batman Begins (2005)
By 2005 the comic book movie genre was moving full steam ahead.  We had already seen how great they could be as proven by X-Men and it’s sequel, as well as Spiderman and Spiderman 2.  We were also shown how bad they could be with Catwoman, Hulk, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen etc.  The list goes on….and on.  When talk of a reboot to the Batman franchise surfaced it was to the tune of “been there, done that.”  Tim Burton took on Batman in two installments which were unsuccessfully (in quality anyway) followed up with another two installments by Joel Schumacher.  Both of which were truly a waste of time.  It was at that point that I had written off any hope of a great Batman story.  Then Christopher Nolan comes along with his Batman Begins.  Taking the film into origin story territory, we get to see a new take on how Bruce becomes Batman and what led him down that path.  Christian Bale was a perfect choice and the direction the story took was more than I could have hoped for.  I remember sitting there in the theater just speechless because I didn’t want to miss a single frame.  I told my friend right after it was over, that I wish I could see it again for the first time.  I still love it and think that it holds up.  I love The Dark Knight as well, but would go with Batman Begins if given a choice.

Star Trek (2009)
I’ve seen every Star Trek movie in the theater with the exception of Star Trek: The Motion Picture and The Final Frontier.  My favorite of the original cast was The Undiscovered Country and my favorite of Next Gen was First Contact.  I will agree with the theory that the even numbered Trek films are the good ones while the odd numbered ones, not so much.  After the dismal disaster that was Nemesis, the future looked bleak for the Star Trek franchise.  Deep Space Nine was done, Voyager was done and Enterprise ended after a few seasons.  None of those were prime fodder for a script.  Word came out that J.J. Abrams was looking at rebooting the franchise.  While the word “reboot” tends to fill me with dread, the name attached to it made me pause before I opened my mouth to slam the idea.  With a beloved franchise like Star Trek, the person undertaking such a thing would surely keep the fans in mind, right?  RIGHT?!

After seeing that brief teaser that was released about a year before the film came out my interest was piqued.  It doesn’t take much ,I know.  Once stills and a proper trailer hit the web, I was sold.  Hook, line and sinker.  Once again, we get another origin story.  This version follows how the crew of the Enterprises meets and begins working together.  Incorporating tweaks to the time line in the story, the writers and Abrams managed to make the story fresh and exciting.  This film did the impossible.  It managed to drag me out of my house to a sneak peak screening, which I had to pay full price for.  On a school night even!  Those things that NEVER happen.  Imagine my surprise when I loved it so much I went again 2 days later.  The second time I went, I took my best friend who managed to stay away from all advertisements and trailers and had no clue that Leonard Nimoy was in the film.  The look of excitement and surprise that she had resembled a kid on their first trip to Disneyland.  I would love love love to recapture that feeling again.

When I see a film I never think, “Ok, maybe this will be the one” or anything of the sort.  These types of films are true gems and ones that manage to sneak up on you.  That is normally the way it happens and the way it should be.  Having those expectations can sometimes ruin a movie and who wants to do that?  One last thing, I do promise to watch The Shawshank Redemption as soon as I can.  I’ll let y’all know my thoughts after.

What films do you wish you could experience for the first time again.  Leave us your comments and let us know.

You can find me on Twitter at @baddladd

Kikujiro (Kikujirō no natsu) is an unusual story about little 9 year old Masao, who, when faced with a lonely summer ahead without his friends and just his grandmother for companionship, takes it upon himself to search for his long-lost mother. With the unlikely help of his strange and grave-faced neighbour, ‘Mister’, together they embark on a very poignant and fractured journey filled with random, colourful strangers and bizarre, surprising encounters.

Kitano’s portrayal of ‘Mister’ is really a joy to watch. Ranging from stubborn, rude, very offensive, absurd, off the wall and fearless, his unintentional sensitivity in this tale can leave you feeling often bewildered and enamoured by him.

Likewise, Yusuke Sekiuchi’s portrayal of Masao is worthy of much recognition too as he sinks into deep melancholy and breaks our hearts with his yearning for his mother. It is the bond between Mister and Masao which is the selling point here and the basic premise for the film as a whole, because it really is a journey into friendship and the discovery that love can be found in the most unsuspecting of places.

Visually this film is very appealing and is often told through the use of flashbacks in Masao’s “How I spent my Summer” school project. Kitano lends his own artistic skill to the animation which sporadically appears in the film and gives it an off-beat edge and softens the desperation facing Mister and Masao.

Kikujiro is directed, written and edited by Takeshi Kitano and sets itself apart from his typical violent offerings centred around the usual gangster characters (Boiling Point, Sonatine, Violent Cop) in favour of a more gentle style and change of pace. A much loved and prolific personality in Japan, Kitano goes beyond his comfort zone and gives us something completely different. As Kikujiro, Kitano’s portrayal shouldn’t be loveable, but it is just too difficult to not be endeared by him. This is partly due to the beautifully composed score by Academy Award-winning Jo Hisaishi, as his music compliments the story perfectly with it’s simplicity and is his fifth collaboration with Kitano.

This film is guaranteed to make you laugh, even go so far as to enrage you in places and shock you into submission to see beyond the simplicity of the surface storyline. I urge you to see it!

“Hey, let’s go! Hey, let’s go! I’m happy as can be…“

Welcome to the wonderful world of Hayao Miyazaki, world-renowned Japanese Animation Director and creator of award-winning animated films such as Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke and Kiki’s Delivery Service.

My Neighbour Totoro (Tonari no Totoro), undoubtedly has brought Miyazaki well-deserved global recognition and international acclaim. It truly is one of those films that adults and children alike, can, will and do fall in love with year after year after year. The essence of childhood, the freedom to express it and it’s uninhibited lust for adventure, are quintessential characteristics which have contributed to the success of it’s broader appeal here. There is no doubt that this story has fast become a a classic amongst children, and Totoro himself an iconic figure to so many.

Immediately, we’re introduced to the Kusakabe family. Little Mei and her older sister Satsuki, together with their father, are beginning their new life in the countryside whilst eagerly waiting the return of their sick, hospitalised mother. This particular issue drives many of the deep-seated feelings of fear, loneliness, love, friendship and adventure within the story, and it is here that Miyazaki delicately addresses the girls’ plight. He approaches these issues with the utmost care and sensitivity which makes this film so emotive, appealing and identifiable to all.

Miyazaki’s love of nature is also evident throughout this film as we’re delightfully presented with endless beautiful and exuberant images of Totoro’s lush forest, the huge, towering Camphor tree and quietly unimposing, soothing glimpses of rural village life in Japan. The exquisitely painted background artwork featured here is second to none and is also characteristic of Studio Ghibli’s other animated classics too.

As Mei and Satsuki settle into their new home, they soon encounter the secrets of the forest and are mesmerised by the mystical occupants within it. The relationship and bonds formed with one particular creature, known simply as Totoro (the keeper of the forest), dominates the heart of this sweet tale. Many other bizarre looking, but oh-so-cute creatures feature here too, and any adult watching this will be hard pressed to not feel a kick of nostalgia and a flashback to their youth as Miyazaki’s endless imagination whisks us away in a flurry of feel-good frolicking fun.

Along with the stunning visuals in My Neighbour Totoro, the same respect and admiration should be awarded to the enchanting music which accompanies this moving piece. There is one re-occurring theme song which is somewhat reminiscent of  the song “Summer Holiday”, but it’s upbeat and joyful presence only adds to the innocence and vulnerability that this film evokes amongst the viewer.

So… sit back, relax and allow your imagination to run wild whilst Totoro and his friends take you on the adventure of a lifetime! (Oh, and next time you think you see a little black soot gremlin appear and vanish instantaneously into a crack or into the pitch black, don’t, whatever you do, forget to bellow out, “come out, come out, wherever you are!”. You just might catch one.

“…..Let’s go walking, you and me. Ready, set, let’s go!!”

Every now and then HeyUGuys feel the need to shine a light on some of the films we have loved and feel are under appreciated. The is the first in our new Must-See Movies series, so do check back for more gems.