Fuse issue 51

Screen meet Tim Burton p.8-9

SHORT FUSE

Sparks.

Oscar’s a family guy

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Emin would be proud

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s this a picture of one of the cast from Planet of The Apes?

A strange, misshapen Neanderthal? Or a well-loved painting of Jesus Christ? Based on the picture above, nobody could blame you if the answer wasn’t immediately clear.

In fact, the picture was once Ecce Homo, a painting by Elias Garcia Martinez which hung proudly in the Santuario de Misericordia church in Spain for around 120 years. So how did it come to be in its current state?

Well, it was defaced earlier this year by 81-year-old Cecilia Gimenez, a well-meaning parishioner.

Saddened by the weathered condition of the painting, whose surface had deteriorated over time due to the effect of moisture, Gimenez took it upon herself to restore the painting to its former glory. The result was the hairy monstrosity you see before you.

However, the abomination she created has since attracted much media attention, and subsequently resulted in thousands of intrigued tourists visiting the church. As if this story wasn’t bizarre enough, however, Gimenez is now actually demanding royalties for her creation.

So, this raises the age-old question – just what constitutes ‘art’?

Admittedly, this spectacularly hairy Jesus probably isn’t what springs to mind. But if Damien Hirst can pickle a shark and Tracy Emin can proudly exhibit her unmade bed and make money from it, why should Gimenez not do the same?

She’s attracted just as much controversy, interest and in some cases disgust over her work. So perhaps this botched restoration is a masterpiece in its own right; after all, it’s certainly succeeded in capturing the attention of the world.

Olivia Middleton

Wii are very confused

Fuse.

Friday October 19 2012

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hile Sony and Microsoft have decided to toss plans for a new console into the middle distance for now, Nintendo have spotted a chance to get up to date with an HD console of their own.

In theory it’s not such a bad idea, and could allow Nintendo to recapture the share of the hardcore market they lost in the previous generation. In one sense, they’re right to conclude that the only way is up.

The original Wii continues to pull in casual gamers, and will probably continue to sell in huge numbers for many years to come. For the Wii U however, early indications are that this is too little, too late.

The first and biggest gripe for many people is the price; the original Wii won many new customers because of its modest price point. In fairness, £250 for a launch spec console is fair enough compared to the PS3 for example, which launched with a price point of £425.

Far more worrying however,

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is the choice of only 8gb of storage (about the same as an entry level iPod Nano) and somewhat unbelievably, worse technical specs than the practically ancient Xbox 360.

Online support has also been given a backseat, which leads me to wonder what on earth Nintendo have been doing for the last seven years?

Despite all this the Wii U may yet have some promise; the continuation of the ‘Wii’ branding may make the console desirable to casuals, and although the touch screen has been seen as a gimmick, I can see some ways it might come in handy (for example, getting rid of annoying HUD elements in the corner of the screen and giving fast access to inventory screens).

Having said that, expecting PS3 and Xbox users to shell out £250 for a worse version of their own consoles with a slightly more intuitive controller is, to put it bluntly, stupid.

Joe Williams

eing a male whose balls dropped at some point during the early noughties, I am of course a big Family Guy fan.

Since then its creator Seth MacFarlane has branched out; making new shows, getting involved in movies and lending his sweet voice to the BBC Proms.

10 years ago this is probably not the future MacFarlane envisaged after Family Guy was axed.

Now MacFarlane finds himself accepted as the host of the 85th Academy Awards, as part of the show’s attempt to entice more of the 13-49 age range.

Previous host Chris Rock got in a bit of hot water for generalising that straight, non-showbiz men don’t watch the Oscars.

Whilst he was rightly lambasted for his slightly homophobic point about the focus on fashion being a turn-off for the demographic, it does apply to me, with the exception of the dresses worn by the acid-laced South Park creators in 2000.

The Oscars are the most lucrative night of the most lucrative industry, so while they guarantee allure they may not attract audience empathy.

Billy Crystal alluded to this at

last year’s ceremony: “Nothing can take the sting out of the economic problems like watching millionaires present each other with golden statues.”

Comedic hosts are therefore essential in order to show the attendees aren’t humourless demigods, just ridiculous individuals.

MacFarlane can certainly match the edge that Rock and Gervais have given previous award shows, but he can also offer something more.

MacFarlane has carved out a niche as a ‘with-it’ guest speaker, at universities throughout America and also at this year’s Emmys.

His wit without boundaries makes him and his shows worth watching.

While MacFarlane can certainly prove to be an audienceexpander, he also has his own brand of glitz to add to the establishing glamour.

Editorial Welcome to issue 51 of Fuse.

In it, we have some delightful things for you to read - from a chat with Delphic to a feature on mobile developers Kwalee.

If you’re reading this on Friday 19, then we heartily recommend coming out tonight to Mardy Bum. It’s a classic indie night in the Raynor Lounge, and we love it. See you there.

Coral Williamson Arnold Bennett

Adam Page This issue’s cover was designed by Manuel Andres Fuentes Zepeda, whose name we have apparently spelt wrong for the last two issues. Sorry Manuel.

There’s a light, put it out

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Morrissey spokesperson told NME last week that "The Smiths are never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever going to reunite – ever.” And with that, thousands of people burst into tears of either sadness or joy.

Not really. Nobody cared.

My problem is not with the Smiths or even with Morrissey.

My problem is with the idea that this story is somehow news. The ‘Reformation That Will Never Be’ has been mentioned at one time or another in NME, the Guardian and the Telegraph.

But the ‘story’ is basically about the fact that something that hypothetically could happen is probably not going to. That’s the opposite of news – anti-news, if you will.

It’s all probably just a happy coincidence that the latest in Morrissey’s pleas for media attention comes just a couple of months before the release of his autobiography. Apparently it’s over 200,000 words long at the moment. Imagine that. That’s basically ‘This Charming Man’ writ-

ten out 1,250 times with a few racist rants thrown in between the la la las.

Morrissey and Marr talk about whether the Smiths may or may not reform once every couple of months.

There are always a few hysterical hipster children who cannot bear the thought of no more half-hearted run-throughs of ‘There is a Light That Never Goes Out’ in some dingy commercial venue, surrounded by nostalgic 40-somethings clutching their £4.50 pints. To them I say: get over it.

The possibility (or lack thereof) of a reunion is just another clever moneymaking scheme. So please, please, please let me get what I want, and just shut up about it.

Lauren Archer

Lizzie Hyland spoke to Richard Cameron, a playwright from South Yorkshire.

When did you realise you wanted to be a playwright?

I suppose it was when I taught drama in Scunthorpe and started writing stuff for my students.

There was a lot of nonsense about at that time; you know Dracula Spectacular and all that baloney, there was nothing I could find that had any relevance to the lives they were living, so I started writing my own stuff. I did a play with my students, Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down, that won all sorts of awards at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and in 1990 I got myself an agent.

With Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down being the play that began your career, does it mean a lot that it’s coming back to South Yorkshire?

Yes it does, that play has been done all over the world; I wish I could write another one like it.

I wrote it in three weeks, in one blast, and it was something that came from somewhere I can’t reach anymore. It’s about where I used to live, just outside Doncaster, set in the Don Valley. It was quite an emotional experience at the time.

What inspires you to begin writing a play?

I don’t know, it’s like when something doesn’t feel right or when there’s an injustice going on, when something feels like it’s shrivelling your soul. I hate to see people being dominated by whatever; I hate to see that kind of injustice in the world.

I used to see it as a teacher, I used to think some of the biggest bullies are not in the playground, they’re sat behind the teacher’s desk, and it used to infuriate me. Kids that had a bit of spark about them, a bit of originality, it was frowned upon and knocked

out of them. If I’m honest, when I was a kid, I took the mickey out of people, and I suppose, writing about it is my way of going - sorry mate, I don’t know where you are anymore but I wish you well and I’m sorry for what I did. Certain things in life just click in there and you don’t know when you are going to use them.

Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?

When you start writing it doesn’t matter if it’s all nonsense, when you start to write the first few pages you don’t know the people you’re dealing with. I think it was Ibsen who said, ‘in the first draft it’s like strangers on a train, by the time you get to the third draft they’re like friends you’ve known all your life’.

Just keep going and eventually some truth will come out of what you’re doing. Writing has to come from, I don’t know, soul, otherwise it’s pointless. Somebody said, ‘writing is easy, you just sit at a typewriter and open a vein’.

Sometimes I find myself weeping buckets as I’m writing, and laughing. That’s why I prefer having a shed at the bottom of the garden.

I’m really looking forward to seeing Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down at the Lantern Theatre, what can we expect?

It’s written in three monologues that overlap and interweave, three women that are connected by one man. They don’t know that they are connected so they tell their stories individually.

You need to see the pain and the joy; that’s what I love about small scale theatre like the Lantern Theatre. The actors are right there, they can’t make a mistake, can’t wing it, they can’t con you.

The connection with the audience can be just magical.

Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down will play at Sheffield’s Lantern Theatre from October 23-27

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Saturday November 3: The Dark Knight Rises: 3.30pm, 7.30pm

ive American teenagers head to an isolated cabin for a weekend of fun but, after reading aloud in Latin from a cursed diary, are stalked by evil as mysterious scientists watch their doomed struggle to survive.

Co-written by Avengers Assemble’s Joss Whedon and Cloverfield’s Drew Goddard, who also directed, this film turns the standard teen slasher film into a slick and clever tribute to the horror genre.

If you think The Cabin in the Woods is just another teenage horror, think again. Fortunately this deception is central to the film’s premise.

ollowing the death of District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman assumes responsibility for his crimes to protect Dent’s reputation and is subsequently hunted by the Gotham City Police Department.

Eight years later ‘The Dark Knight’ returns to Gotham, where he encounters the mysterious Selina Kyle and the villainous Bane, a new terrorist leader who overwhelms Gotham’s finest, and Batman resurfaces to protect a city that has branded him an enemy.

With predictable brilliance Nolan perfectly ends the series.

A must see.

he all time classic romantic comedy is still as funny and influential today as it ever was.

Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon star as two witnesses to a gang hit who disguise themselves as women and enter a girl band fronted by Sugar (Marilyn Monroe in one of her best known performances).

Directed by the brilliant Billy Wilder, Some Like it Hot is deserving of its place among the greatest and funniest films of all time.

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Fuse.

Monday October 22: Some Like Saturday October 27: The Cabin in the Woods: 3.30pm, 7.30pm It Hot: 7.30pm

T Monday October 22: Activity room 3 of the Goodwin Sports Centre, £4.50, 4:30pm ‘til 6:30pm

Tickets: £2.50

Available from the SU box office

Friday October 19 2012

GIAG: Film Unit Archery ontinuing with the theme of Olympic sports, this issue’s Give it a Go is archery.

The practical benefits of archery are questionable. You won’t be catching your dinner in Norfolk Park, for example, but as a hobby it’s certainly very exciting.

This session’s tailored to beginners, so don’t worry if you’ve never held a bow and arrow before, nobody expects you to turn up resembling a modern day, middle class Robin Hood.

It needs noting that there’s an element of danger to archery (you are using a weapon after all), so don’t turn up and start bullseyeing your mates.

Q&A

SHORT FUSE

Richard Cameron

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GAMES

Feature.THE EXPLODING MOBILE GAMING INDUSTRY

Pussy-Flipping creation

Kaz Scattergood goes down to Kwalee to chat mobile gaming, farmyard animals, and cats

Fuse.

Friday October 19 2012

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he mobile gaming industry is exploding, and the downloadable games you play on your smartphone on the bus home are becoming arguably as significant as the big releases in gaming retail stores. I went down to Leamington Spa to chat with the guys at Kwalee games, a new developer and publisher of smartphone apps. They boast a highly impressive team of creative people, including their founder David Darling, who was also the founder of developer Codemasters.

Darling has openly criticised the continuation of physical media in favour of downloadable gaming, claiming “consoles have become like dinosaurs heading for extinction.”

They’ve also got the coolest office I’ve ever been in, with beanbags in the theme of their cat-based puzzle game, Pussy Flip, all over the office, table tennis, and farm animal noises and meows going off all over the room.

With a Nerf gun at every desk, wars break out frequently. I could tell I’d entered a fairly eccentric environment.

I talked to Bruce Everiss, the CMO of Kwalee, about the future of the industry and why it’s such a relevant issue today.

He said a big part of the significance of mobile gaming is simply the expansion of smarter handsets, and more people getting their hands on one. Bruce said that the phone industry is likely to go in the direction of smartphones only, there’s “just no point in making dumb phones”.

He believes it’s plausible that in the near future, everyone in the world will possess at least one smartphone.

“The phone industry is going to stop making dumb phones and only make smart phones” With a suddenly massive market of people with capable handsets, it’s understandable that the handheld gaming industry is going to be taking a hit.

Bruce says that according to market research, mobile gaming developers like Kwalee are “totally destroying handheld games”. Markets for PSPs and Nintendo DSs have been in decline for years, and in the past six months have “fallen off a cliff”.

You may have played

The effect on the retail side of gaming is unavoidable (noticed the lack of Game or Gamestation in Sheffield city centre?) and Bruce says this is down to the app store model of distribution being “just so much better for everybody.”

So why is it so much better? The main difference between the development of a console game, and creating a game for an iPhone, is the immense difference in cost. Where developing the next big Xbox game will set you back hundreds of millions of dollars, App Store publishing costs just $99. This, says Everiss, allows for “immense creativity, the biggest the gaming industry has ever seen.”

James Horn, the head of art at Kwalee, came from a background in console gaming, including the development of Activision’s DJ Hero, and he explained that the risks are astronomically higher in the production of console gaming.

“The risks are so high because you have to sell so many games to break even. With mobile games, the teams are much smaller, development costs are smaller, so you can take more risks and try things out.”

This allows new companies like Kwalee to “play around with different business models”, with an industry that is changing all the time.

Kwalee specialise in turn-based social multiplayer games, and have recently been working hard on Farm Fighters. The team behind this new game call themselves Team Unicron, the head of which, Adam Philbin, told me some more about it. He describes Farm Fighters as a ‘farm-based artillery ballistics game’, and promises to provide some pretty hilarious battles, whether that’s with your friends, or any random online player. The game is around four to six weeks away from completion, with plenty of testing and changing until the team are satisfied with the final product.

Kwa l e e’s releases up to now, Gobang Social and Pussy Flip, were described by Bruce Everiss as a “learning curve” for the company, which were their “versions of well established board games”.

With fairly simple 2D graphics, these games are addictive, and more than anything, they show Kwalee’s outlandish style and eccentricity.

Without needing to invent their own game mechanic, these games allowed Kwalee

to “nail” the social multiplayer element of their games.

With that safely in place, they can let their creativity loose on their own mechanic, making use of 2D and 3D graphics, creating a game “somewhere between a full blown war game and physics based puzzle”.

“Mobile gaming allows for immense creativity, the biggest the gaming industry has ever seen” After allowing me to play a demo of the game so far, Adam said “in the end it might just be about blowing the crap out of your opponent”. And trust me, this is extremely entertaining.

The creative explosion that is the mobile gaming industry is certainly evident all over Kwalee’s office, and is probably equally evident in most of your pockets.

And if it isn’t, it soon will be.

To find out more about Kwalee or any of their games, go to www.kwalee.com

Gobang Social

Pussy Flip

Kwalee’s first game, Gobang Social, is a fun multiplayer strategy game. You must simply get five in a row before your opponent does. Using the rules of the Asian game of Gomoku, it is very simple to learn and play, but make your moves carefully.

Perfectly described as a “puzzle based game with cats!”, Pussy Flip is an adorably addictive multiplayer experience. From the cute flipping kitty faces to the “meow” sound effects, this game is a purr-fect social puzzle. For a full review of Pussy Flip, go to www.forgetoday.com

Feature.

Fuse caught up with Delphic’s lead singer James, to chat about the Olympics and why Glastonbury is more important than geography exams

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he conversation launched straight into a discussion about festivals as I had seen Delphic when they played at Bestival in 2010. “We like Bestival because it’s a fun festival, everyone puts on a good show and dresses up so it’s really fun,” says James.

We moved to talking about how bands enjoy festivals, which though is not in the same way as a spectator, is still a hell of a lot of fun.

“At Bestival the first time we went in 2009, we got to see Kraftwerk and they’re one of our all time favourites so that was amazing.

“But mainly with the festival season, you go to one festival, then you’re on the road to the next festival and it’s just non stop - it’s a bit of a whistle-stop tour really.”

“Who cares about geography when you’ve got Glastonbury festival?”

So maybe the festival life isn’t the best part of being in a band, I ask. “I prefer festivals to touring. Because if you get friendly with people at festivals you generally bump into them throughout the whole summer.”

James is a big festival fan, having grown up near the site for Glastonbury as a child, so maybe that is the reason for his bias.

“I went to festivals loads as a kid, the first one was Glastonbury when I was 17. I missed my geography exam to go. Who cares about geography when you’ve got Glastonbury festival?” Interviewing James couldn’t be easier.

But how does the Manchester heritage effect Delphic’s sound? “The first album you could quite easily say yes, there were Manchester bands that we sounded like. However the second album we wrote mostly outside of Manchester and recorded in places like Atlanta so it really hasn’t influenced in terms of sound.

“In terms of the people we are though, it would be hard to remove any kind of sense of being a ‘Manc’ from us.”

We end the conversation by talking about Delphic’s upcoming tour and what we can expect from that.

“We’ve got some new mixes, we mix our tunes together so it’s not just one song because we like to mix it as a DJ set, like people like Daft Punk and Chemical Brothers who we really adore.

“So we’ve got new mixes with the new tunes and

“When you’re off on the road, being bombarded with gigs every night; you can’t really control your life in a way that’s conducive to writing”

“Aside from that, we’re just gagging for the album to come out; we’ve sat on it since the end of June as a finished product and we just want people to hear it. We love it and we hope other people love it too.”

Delphic are playing Plug on Monday October 29 and from what we’ve heard here, Acolyte only touched the surface of the complexity and talent that Delphic have to offer.

Fuse.

“You can’t live in a city where it pisses down 300 days of the year and not have a certain way of looking at life”

they’re really exciting and when the full show is up and running in and we’ve got the lights and everything like that, it’s going to be pretty epic.

Friday October 19 2012

He seems adamant about how excited he is for the new album and how much Delphic want to share it with the world.

“We’ve got a single going to radio and bits and bobs cropping up at the end of this year. But yeah, we can’t wait. This album’s taken us a long time, it’s taken us three years. We’ve gone through quite a lot since then.”

We discuss the writing process for the second album and it appears Delphic too went through the ‘difficult second album’ phase that so many bands are faced with after such a fantastic debut.

“When we got signed we really froze, we didn’t know what to do. Luckily we had all our tunes written and all we needed to do was get into the studio and record them all, release the album and it was done.

“When you’re off on the road, being bombarded with gigs every night, you can’t really control your life in a way that’s conducive to writing.

“So about 18 months ago, things really started to click in terms of writing the new stuff and from then on it took probably about six months to write all the new tunes.”

So how does Acolyte compare to the new album? On talking about it, it appears lots of different things went into the making of the sophmore record.

“It still keeps some elements of course, we’re still the same band, but there’s just a lot of things we wanted to experiment with,” James reassures me.

“Acolyte was written around a dance idea so we’d sculpt a dance beat or a synthesiser thing and then write something over it.

“What we discovered on this album was the power of samplers. The first record was all about synthesisers and that was great fun but you realise they’re a bit limited.”

It’s evident that the styles of the two albums are going to be very different and with a sound influenced by everything from Neil Young to Hudson Mowhawke, you can understand how the James and the band feel it sounds more “sophisticated”.

We move on to talk about Delphic being featured on the Olympics soundtrack, the track ‘Good Life’ and how the band felt about that.

“The more we play it [Good Life] the more we realise it’s nothing like the rest of the album.”

He describes being included on the Olympics soundtrack as “pretty mad” as their manager told them he had put forward the track to the Olympics Committee unbeknownst to them and they wanted a finished version.

“We were all in a state of jet lag and total, total bewilderment! It was great; it forced us in to do something with a song we otherwise would not have done and the Olympics connection was brilliant because we all really loved the Olympics and it turned out to be such a massive success.

“It was nice for us to feel that we were part of that as well.”

Chatter switches from the Olympics to the band’s heritage; they’re from Stockport, Manchester.

“Being from Manchester you have your outlook affected a little bit; you can’t live in a city where it pisses down 300 days of the year and not have a certain way of looking at life.”

MUSIC

DELPHIC

Words: Amelia Heathman Photo: Mira Shemeikka/Flickr

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ARTS

Interview. STAPLE/FACE

Interview: Staple/ face

Fuse.

Friday October 19 2012

The University of Sheffield’s very own comedy troupe Staple/face talk to Joanne Butcher about the highs and lows of life as a student comedian.

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ketch groups have had a long and troubled relationship with British comedy over the years, darting in and out of fashion, from the godfathers of the Monty Python genre to the modern day Pappy’s. Now, born from the University of Sheffield’s own Comedy Revue, Staple/face have entered into the strange and wonderful world of sketch comedy, bringing with them haunting childhood stories of Clangers and philosophical debates over how much freedom your imaginary friend really has.

Staple/face consists of Mike Bentley, Sam Nicoresti and Tom Burgess, three University of Sheffield students who came together to create their comedic trio back in March for a gig at the Great Gatsby that never actually happened. Since then they have had a successful month-long run of their show Friends with Benefit Fraud at the Camden Festival Fringe, and upon returning to Sheffield have already completed their homecoming gig and intend to start fresh with some eagerly awaited new material.

However, as they ready themselves for Edinburgh Fringe next year, we meet with the troupe to ask

more about what they’re like as a writing team, who they count as their heroes and how they handle being both students and professional comedians.

“It can be soul destroying but quite nice going on stage and seeing something you thought would get a laugh not get anything” As a goal, Staple/face say they want to do stuff that makes them laugh and it’s clear from seeing their show that they are enjoying it almost as much as the audience. But it must be different when working behind the scenes, writing those absurd scenarios and trying to find out what is going to make a group of absolute strangers laugh.

“It’s amazing what things people will respond to on different days,” Sam notes. “It’s soul destroying but in a way it’s nice going on stage and seeing something you thought would get a laugh not get anything and thinking ‘oh I need to rethink that’, but equally it’s great finding something that you didn’t think was that funny get a great reaction.”

“We used to write individually but we have more of a working relationship now,” Mike explains. “Usually someone gets a rough draft and then we work on it together. By the end, it comes out about equal.”

According to the group, as they do more shows and learn more about their craft, they’ve started developing rules on which to work on. One is to stay away from that ‘student comedy’ label that stifles most university revues.

“We have a list of rules of what we don’t use in our sketches, like professors, housemates and exams,” Sam elaborates. “We find it ends up being a real set back when people come to the gig and feel it’s a just an in-jokey, cliquey student thing. That’s not what we’re trying to do.”

For a young sketch group, it must be difficult to stand out from the crowd considering the pedigree of talent that has come out of British comedy. Among their inspirations, Staple/face count the comedic giants of Douglas Adams and Chris Morris, as well as the relatively obscure but equally genius foursome, Cowards.

“It’s a real set back when people come to the gig and feel it’s just an injokey, cliquey student thing” “I think when everyone starts out, they emulate their heroes,” Mike explains. “But once you start writing as a group you start taking influence from each other instead. It’s a good way of shedding your influences a bit. I think we’ve found what’s funny and we’re trying to push it into original.”

One of the upsides for sketch comedy, especially for the performers, is audience members tend to be a little less inclined to heckle during the show. However it seems even Staple/face have had their fair share of trouble-makers in the audience, but handle it in a very peculiar way.

Staple/face

did feel disjointed and underdeveloped at times, with parts often falling short of a final punch line.

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After a slightly unnecessary interval, Staple/face was finally beckoned onto the stage to begin their show Friends with Benefit Fraud.

Schooled by the Sheffield Students’ Union’s very own Comedy Revue, the comedy trio are made up of Mike Bentley, Tom Burgess and Sam Nicoresti. Impressively, all 3 of the talent were able to perform a range of roles on stage - from straight man to gag man, Mr Kipling to Joseph Goebbels. This meant that there was no way of guessing what was going to happen in any one sketch and Staple/face continually used this to their advantage.

Harrisons 1854 7/10

aving just returned from a month-long run at the Camden Festival Fringe, Staple/face started off their string of comeback gigs back in Sheffield at Harrisons 1854 just off West Street. Despite the room’s spacious capacity, only ten or twenty chairs were spaced about the room, leaving what seemed like more legroom for the audience than the performers. Nevertheless, the venue filled up and Sam Nicoresti hesitantly welcomed everyone to Staple/ face’s first homecoming performance and summoned their warm-up, Fraser Parry, onto the stage.

Considering the little amount of time he was given, Parry did an incredible job of stirring the audience up for Staple/face without ever losing his own voice. Parry’s absurdist humour matched with his deadpan delivery was both original and entertaining, often leaving the audience completely unsure of what he was going to say next. However, although his act never reduced into a series of unrelated jokes, his set

The show was a barrage of clever ideas and hilarious performances.

For the audience, it was a delight to see a sketch troupe who clearly enjoyed working with each other, as one or two giggles throughout the show may have given away.

A particular highlight of the night was a frightfully clever and particularly grisly bedtime story performed by Tom Burgess who was

able to hold his own on stage with complete and utter ease.

Unfortunately ‘unpredictable’ can soon become predictable and towards the end of the show, sketches involving dead gorillas and meeting God in Waitrose didn’t seem to have the unique silliness of their opening skits. Most disappointing was the penultimate ‘list of sketches that could have happened’ which ended up sounding better than it proceeded to be. It was a shame considering the talent involved.

ARTS

“At the moment I think we’re just content on just being silly,” Tom suggests. “We like trying to push the audience. We try to avoid clichés, so we don’t do doctor’s appointments, shops and interviews. If you manage to avoid that, it can be great for the writing process as you have fun trying to think of more interesting scenarios. It forces us to become more creative.”

The only real problem, however, was the linking between sketches. Without any proper lighting and music apparently played off someone’s laptop, the ends of sketches were mostly dependent on the performers’ ability to freeze in a perfect tableau – something not exactly suited to Staple/face’s high-energy routines.

All of this could be easily ironed out with a better venue though.

Overall, Staple/face is an impressive sketch group with heaps of strange yet fantastic ideas and a definite future ahead of them.

Joanne Butcher

“We did a gig with just me and Sam at Square Hole which went brilliantly well,” Tom explains. “We had a drunken heckler in the audience who just kept joining in so after a while, Sam just brought her up on stage and told the audience: ‘Okay, so Mel has joined this scene. Question, Mel – what next?’ and she had absolutely no idea what to do!

Everything we had structured to work on went completely out the window, but it was really great.”

And although they may not want to be tied down by the shortcomings of ‘student comedy’, being students is simply inescapable. As two of them enter their final year, it’s a wonder how the group are able to balance their social lives and university work with enough time to fit in writing endless amounts of material.

“I was a good student once,” Sam recalls, laughing. “But this is more fun.”

According to Tom, the reality is that they’ve had to sacrifice a lot of their free time to their comedy and, for the most part, let comedy become their social lives.

Setting up their own shows and gigging around the country has allowed them to meet a host of young and upcoming performers like themselves and provided them with a great network for the future.

To learn more about Staple/face and their upcoming gigs, search for them on Facebook or Twitter. Their next work-in-progress show Chest of Things is playing at the Harrisons 1854 off West Street on October 23, with support from Jacob Rawcliffe and Callum Scott.

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Unsurprisingly, Staple/face are a little difficult to sum up in a few words, especially considering the outright silliness of some of their work. It’s probably best to leave it to them instead: “Just eat your greens, do well and be good mates.”

Friday October 19 2012

“We once had a drunken heckler in the audience who just kept joining in, so we brought her up on stage”

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Feature.TIM BURTON

(Re)animating the dead: The making of Frankenweenie

Tim Burton’s new stop-motion movie was the opening film at this year’s BFI London Film Festival. Phil Bayles went down to London to hear the cast, the crew and even the man himself talk about the film.

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im Burton’s reputation certainly precedes him. When I first get a glimpse of him at the Corinthian Hotel in London, arriving for a Q&A session about his new film Frankenweenie, he looks every bit like the mad genius we’ve all come to expect.

Frankenweenie is a remake of Burton’s 1984 low-budget liveaction short film of the same name.

There’s a deep love for what he does, which is evident from the moment Burton opens his mouth, and it’s that love that makes his relationships with the actors he works with so fruitful.

“It’s unbelievably collaborative,” says Martin Short, who first worked with Burton on Mars Attacks! (1996).

“He wants to know what you think, which is absolutely ideal for an actor.”

Martin Landau, who Burton first cast in Ed Wood (1994) stated that he wanted to work with the director after seeing Beetlejuice (1988) for the first time.

“I had no idea who he was, but I thought his imagination was just mind boggling.”

According to Landau, the pair

understood each other so well that they didn’t even have to communicate in full sentences.

“It’s like a big playground, working with [Tim]… he makes it fun, and good directors can do that.”

And the love goes both ways; Burton has worked with everyone on the panel at least once, and for him that makes the job so much more enjoyable.

“When you work with people from the past, who you’ve worked with before, that makes it all the more special.”

“The purity of stop-motion was always very exciting to me” But there’s one key figure in Burton’s work that wasn’t at the panel; composer Danny Elfman, who’s collaborated with the director since they both made their debut with Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure in 1985.

“Danny and I are very close; we always have been. He’s like another character in my work.

He’s really good at guiding the tone of the film.”

Clearly, Frankenweenie is a very special project for Burton. He describes it as a ‘memory piece’; the locales are all based on the neighbourhood of Burbank, where the director grew up.

“Any place you’re from, that’s a part of your life. And it was great delving into those memories; a lot of places change quite a lot, but Burbank hasn’t changed at all.”

The movie was always conceived as a feature-length stop-motion animation, but due to budget constraints it was reduced to a live-action short film for the 1984 original.

“The purity of stop-motion, in black and white, and 3D, was always something very exciting to me,” says Burton.

“The black and white makes it more emotional… and the 3D really suits the work that [the animators] did; it really highlights the tactile nature of the film.”

Burton’s clearly made a good career for himself without the help of Disney, but has he found it difficult putting his stop-motion

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Friday October 19 2012

au, Tim Burton and Martin Short Left to right: Catherine O’Hara, Martin Land

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films against the big CGI releases from the likes of Pixar?

“I really hope all forms of animation are still viable; stopmotion is a beautiful art form, and I would hope that all art forms can flourish.”

“The film isn’t about death; it’s about creation” Burton’s art has certainly flourished, in any case; his works have even been exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Like ParaNorman, another stopmotion film released this year, Frankenweenie makes plenty of references to the kind of horror films that Tim Burton grew up on.

But, as he explains, he was always very careful to make sure that the movie never became ‘reference-dependent’.

“We thought very hard about the references… We wanted the audience to try and feel what these kinds of movies are like,

without having to know every single reference we made.”

Still, the idea of making a fullon horror film isn’t out of the question. “Maybe I’ll make it completely in stop-motion!” he laughs.

All jokes aside, Burton is often seen as a director who’s focused on darker movies which often deal with death. But he doesn’t see it that way, and he certainly doesn’t consider Frankenweenie to be a ‘dark’ film.

“I always wanted to be a mad scientist,” he says, “To me, [the movie] isn’t about death; it’s about creation. It’s about animating inanimate objects.

That’s why I love the Frankenstein story.

“And that’s what filmmaking is; it’s about creating something special with a smallish group of people, and bringing it to life.”

See p.14 for the review of the film.

More reviews online Read more reviews online at: www.forgetoday.com

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says Mackinnon. “We tried to use a lot of motifs from [his] sketches, like the subtle, hand-drawn lines in Victor’s trousers, and to take all of our stuff from [his] head. That way, it feels like one complete world.”

But there were still new issues to get around. In particular, Burton’s insistence on shooting the film entirely in black and white meant that everything – including the props – had to be painted in different shades of grey. “[Tim] wanted the animators to feel like they were in a black and

edited out in post-production.

“It’s amazingly time-consuming,” admits Thomas, “but it gives it a really visceral quality… It’s a very old-fashioned filmmaking style.”

“Stop motion films tend to stand the test of time and become classics” And it’s not just the actors who develop the characters. Even the animators are ‘cast’ and divided into teams which work on a single character in order to keep them all distinct.

“We look at everyone and we see who is drawn to which

character,” Thomas explains.

“Certain animators have a knack for animating Sparky.

There’s a scene in the movie where Sparky is really scared, and there was one animator who gave us a perfect image of that. So we say ‘okay, he’s a Sparky guy’.”

“It’s a single person’s vision,” adds Mackinnon, “but it’s a huge team effort.”

So considering all the trial and tribulation that goes into these films, what do the animators think the future of stop-motion will be?

Thomas is optimistic. “Little kids like to watch CGI, but stop motion is beautiful, and I hope they’ll grow up to appreciate it.

“It’s an art form; [stop-motion films] tend to stand the test of time, and they usually go on to become classics.”

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“It’s a single person’s vision, but it’s a huge team effort”

white world, which was crucial to the film.”

The theme of horror was also incredibly important. The people at Mackinnon & Saunders used pictures of old horror villains, like hunchbacks and vampires, as inspiration for the weird and wonderful characters.

But they still have a soft, almost delicate feeling to them. After all, this is a Disney film.

So the puppet makers create design models out of clay, and when Burton approves of the design, it’s time to make silicone models – complete with real human hair on their heads – to scale.

Unfortunately, the animators have a whole new set of problems to work with – because of Burton’s penchant for giant bodies and spindly limbs, many of the models simply couldn’t stand up by themselves.

Instead, they have to be supported by a rig which gets

Friday October 19 2012

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stop-motion film like Frankenweenie is what you might call a labour of love.

It took a team of 30 animators and over 100 artists, working over a period of 18 months to bring the movie to life.

Or, to put it another way, a single animator working flat out for a week can produce between four and five seconds of footage.

It’s a painstaking task, but animator Tray Thomas and his team are definitely up to the job. But they can’t start until the models have been created, and that’s where Mackinnon & Saunders come in.

The company, led by Ian Mackinnon and Pete Saunders (pictured top left), has already worked with Tim Burton in the past - they’re the ones who provided the models for Corpse Bride - and they seem to be in tune with his way of working.

“Tim has a keen eye for detail,”

All images courtesy of BFI and Disney.

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GAMES

Reviews.

Dishonored

Xbox 360/PS3/PC

8/10

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ishonored is an action/ stealth game that has you play as Corvo, a man of revered fighting prowess who is wrongly accused of the murder of his Empress, the game is a revenge story, only it’s up to you as a player how you dish out that sweet revenge. Many games offer moral choices in the form of a single button tap, and often they fail to make an impact; Dishonored presents with you with a target and expects you to deal with that target, in whatever moral or immoral way seems best.

The developers, Arkane Studios, are no strangers to this dark and moody style and they have made clear that their inspirations for Dishonored are rooted in critically acclaimed games such as Bioshock and Deus Ex. The bar is set very high. Is Dishonoured simply standing on the shoulders of these games or does it stand toe to toe and deliver something more? The answer is yes, yes it delivers much more.

As Corvo you are living in an alternate history where the Victorian style and culture of a city not unlike that of London has been swamped with futuristic technology powered by the oil collected from dead whales. Also there is a deadly plague turning people into ‘weavers’, basically zombies.

It’s grim. It’s great immersion.

“It’s up to you, as a player, how you dish out your revenge” Moving through this world couldn’t be easier. The intuitive controls are smooth and if you should choose to fight any resistance you meet, the combat feels fluid and brutal. Even if you’re only into your straight up first person shooters the fighting that Dishonored provides is definitely worth trying out. In addition to the blocking and hacking of your sword, Corvo’s arsenal consists of crossbows, grenades, a pistol, and amongst other things an array of deadly powers that may be the most fun you will have in any video game this year.

Having so many options allows you to find interesting and p owe rful combinations, all of which may be put to the task at hand, revenge. The game’s ultimate strength is that it makes you feel like you’re doing everything in your own way, perhaps you will exhaust every possible angle of attack, but

Hell yeah! wrath of the dead rabbit Xbox 360/PS3/PC

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f you ever played Rayman Origins and found the whole experience just a little too family friendly, then French developer Arkedo may have the answer, their new title, Hell Yeah!

Wrath of the Dead Rabbit, is a brilliantly irreverent game that looks like a Lovecraftian Saturday morning cartoon directed

by Quentin Tarantino.

The plot is pretty simple; you play Ash, a skeletal bunny in a cape who rules over all Hell.

When the paparazzi take pictures of him in the bath, Ash seeks revenge by killing the 100 demons that have seen the photos – an interesting alternative

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Friday October 19 2012

Cult Corner.

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to the Duchess of Cambridge’s lawsuits.

In terms of gameplay, Hell Yeah! doesn’t exactly light the world on fire; it’s a solid 2D platformer with some decent shooting and a good difficulty curve.

What makes it stand out is the presentation. Like Rayman Origins, this is a bright and colourful game (with an unsurprisingly red palette) with some brilliant design; the levels of Hell look gorgeous; as do the myriad of demons you encounter. No two ever look the same, and they come in all shapes and sizes; a flying brain is followed by

to do so you’re going to have to play the game a lot more than once.

One thing should be made clear: the game is built for stealth. That’s not to say you can’t enjoy a healthy dose of imaginatively killing guards but you will get the most content out of Dishonored by taking your time and sneaking to every alley and dark corner you can find.

The mission based system of targets that you get to dispose of is all strung together efficiently by some well written dialogue. All of the characters have just enough background and good enough voice acting for everything to come across as believable. Dishonored has the full cast. The standard eccentric genius, the serious politician, the quirky girl; and it does well to make you really come to hate your target, or get annoyed at the brashness of one of your allies. It’s unfortunate that overall the plot isn’t anything to write home about.

“Dishonored is a rewarding and unique experience for every player” However the world around you couldn’t be better, the art design and graphics are incredibly detailed, and whilst none of it is ground-breaking photo realism, not once does it fail to impress.

Each and every area has its own story, playing with your imagination and constantly making you question your surroundings. To add to this, your own actions subtly effect how the later areas of the game look, creating even more variability from player to player.

With the combination of intuitive and creative gameplay, Dishonored is a rewarding and unique experience for every player.

Mike Stringer

a talking dog turd wielding a flaming chainsaw.

There’s also a great emphasis on humour here – every enemy has a hilarious little back story, and killing them never becomes a chore. After chipping away their health, you’re required to complete a little minigame – like mashing a button to start a pedal-powered creator or answering an impossible quiz – before the enemy snuffs it, and their deaths include being stung by hornets, eaten by dinosaurs, and nuked by tactical missiles. It becomes essential to play on just to see how the next villain dies.

Hell Yeah! is the perfect example of the small, lovingly-crafted indie games that are all over the PSN and XBLA right now.

It’s unique, it’s a steal at £9.99, and it’ll keep you in stitches from start to finish.

Phil Bayles

Pokémon Black/ white Version 2 Nintendo 3DS 7/10

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here’s this awkward kind of anticipation every time a Pokémon game comes out. We’ve seen all the announcements online, we’ve looked at Japanese coverage once it’s been released, and now we’re just sat waiting for it to come out. Surely no game can meet this level of excitement, even if it is the first time two sequels have come out, rather than just the one.

Well, no, it can’t. Pokémon Black Version 2 (or White Version 2, if you’d prefer) is a great game. The ominous music as you load it up for the first time, the gorgeous introduction; they work to increase the excitement before you’ve even picked your starter. But all this loveliness is undone by menial tasks and repetition of elements you’ve seen in every other Pokémon game. Everybody knows how to catch a Pokémon Bianca, you don’t need to tell us again.

Once you’re done with the weird preliminaries – finding a lost Herdier, giving your ‘rival’ a Town Map – you can get on with things. And then it gets really good. Unlike Black and

Resident evil 6

Xbox 360/PS3/PC 4/10

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t first glance Resident Evil 6 seems like a typical Resident Evil game. It’s got silly puzzles, herbs and weird looking monsters.

However, after about five minutes of play time, you’ll realise that Resident Evil 6 is nothing but a below average third person shooter.

The gameplay and storyline centres around the three playable characters, with each of their stories around five or six hours long. The idea here is that each campaign has its own style and feel, for example, Leon’s campaign as more of a survival horror. However, in reality each campaign is a poor shooter with maybe one unique feature to each.

In terms of in-the-moment gameplay, controls are standard enough, and nothing you haven’t come to expect from a Resident Evil game, the only noticeable changes are the introduction of cover based mechanics and melee attacks, and they finally got

White, a ridiculously large variety of Pokémon from all generations are available to catch from the get-go; something that might not strike you as particularly impressive until you let out a small squeal of nostalgia when you bump into a Psyduck before you’ve even got your first badge.

The graphics, too, have a bit more attention to detail, accompanied by a quirky jazz soundtrack, it’s the little things that make this game. Despite not being on the 3DS, there are a lot of images and movements that you could imagine working well on the handheld. But that just makes you wonder why GameFreak didn’t bother, as it could’ve really worked.

One of the best things about having two sequels rather than one is the fact that the storyline can continue nicely, bringing back characters from the previous games and giving them new roles, since we’re all a bit older now.

Pokémon Black/ White Version 2 isn’t bothering to reinvent the wheel, but it has given it a new set of tyres that make everything just a bit smoother.

Coral Williamson

rid of characters inability to walk and shoot at the same time.

Still, the combat is just so dull, an endless pattern of shoot-everything-that-moves, pick up ammo, reload, and repeat.

Despite this, Resident Evil 6 is still relatively fun. The characters are solid, and it has some interesting boss fights, however, Resident Evil 6 has the characters, but none of the character, of the previous Resident Evil games. It reeks of design by committee, as if half the development team were pandering to the Resident Evil fans of the past while the other half were trying to create Call of Duty: Resident Evil Edition.

When a game series that has been going nearly as long as you’ve been alive changes everything about itself, something has gone seriously wrong. Resident Evil 6 might be pure evil.

Niall Bird

Follow us on Twitter @ForgeGames

Lyceum Theatre 8/10

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eginning the evening with a quip about Jimmy Savile and slowly progressing to bash both taxi drivers and his own children, who he deemed were at a stage of “teenage mental illness”, the veteran comedian Jack Dee performed to the Victor Meldrew within us all.

With his unique brand of utter misery and disdain for more or less everything, Dee lit up the Lyceum with wit and sheer tenacity to screw over every member of society.

Even his own family were not safe, as he declared that he is currently on tour to spend less time with them.

Dee’s career spans almost three decades, and encompasses stand up tours aplenty; 90s panel

shows like the unforgettable Shooting Stars; and that bizarre appearance on Celebrity Big Brother, where he wore a lot of tweed and tried to escape. This, though, is his first stand up tour in nearly a decade, as he has been kept busy with the sitcom Lead Balloon, a kind of British Curb Your Enthusiasm. The sitcom, which he wrote and starred in, was as miserably funny as the rest of his work.

Dee’s intelligence is undeniable, and drew belly laughs from the whole audience, attacking processes as simple as doing the supermarket shop, without nudging into the contemporary offence comedy that so many do today.

Jimmy Carr, we’re talking about you.

His material managed to appeal to the loud stag-do not too far from us, as well as the younger members of the audience, who chuckled quietly on the front row with the sheer desperation

in their eyes that could only be screaming, “please, God, don’t talk to me.”

It was the continuous anecdotes about his teenage children which provided the best response.

Parents’ and teenagers’ eyes alike lit up when he described the sneaky process with which his 17-year-old daughter asked for money: “Darling, how are you getting home tonight. Getting a taxi, yeah?”

“Oh I don’t know, it will be about 2am, I’ll have to walk… I guess…”

Audience interaction is always necessary in huge stand-up gigs, and with a vast and sold-out Lyceum theatre, this was thrown at a poor man called Dave who foolishly chose to go to the toilet in the middle of the first half.

The fact he hadn’t actually gone to the toilet, but instead accidentally broke through the fire exit, made the situation only more hilarious upon his return, when he slipped sheepishly back

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become clear metaphors for her love of shiny, expensive things, and her open joy at the sight of money. This is key to understanding Nora’s character, as we are constantly told that she is “merely a woman,” with no knowledge of “men’s business.”

The character of Krogstad really carried the play, however, as he so convincingly displayed fury and despair, on top of the hurt of his past love for Christine, played by Erin Whyte. Alongside the seriousness displayed by the key protagonists, the comic appearances of Dr. Rank (Alex Moore) and his fantastic drunken stage presence were a welcome relief. Helen the maid (Brenae Maxwell) with her subtle yet effective background

appearances and sarcastic glances – provided an ebb and flow to emotionally charged scenes. A little light-heartedness never goes amiss.

The performance was thoroughly enjoyable. This play will appeal to a wide adult audience, thanks to its mature themes and use of old-fashioned dialect; however a younger audience may fail to understand its content at times. Even if you don’t consider yourself a ‘theatre person,’ you should definitely consider giving The Company a few hours of your time.

William Ross

Newcomer Jack Burkill is instantly endearing as the sweet, self-effasive Felix. Burkill’s wonderfully subtle physicality slowly draws out the scripted sense of social awkwardness.

Alice Ordish should be commended for her cold, cutting performance of Flora, Felix’s mother.

Beneath the icy surface, Ordish brings out a softness that has the audience hanging on her every word.

Lodge insists that his intention is solely to entertain, but beneath the safe, suburban surface of this comedy lies something powerful. Humble Boy alters your perceptions of the world and the people around you. Lodge is right, it won’t ‘reshuffle the seats of power or stop global warming,’ but it is delightful, uplifting and surprisingly thoughtprovoking.

Lauren Archer

what’s coming up this fortnight?

October 19 to November 1 in the Sheffield arts scene

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s ever, Sheffield Theatres has an exciting and eclectic schedule this fortnight, including Music in the Round: Sheffield Music Academy (October 20, the Studio), and The Vagina Monologues (October 30, the Lyceum).

Shelagh Delaney’s marvellously chaotic comedy, A Taste Of Honey, about a Manchester teenager’s battle with social norms in the 1950s is running at the Crucible from October 25 to November 17.

November 2 sees an exciting panel event, hosted by Sheffield Theatres, about whether the gender and sexuality of

playwrights matters.

The wonderful Lantern Theatre has Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down, a South Yorkshire play directed by its new AD from October 23 to 27.

Visual art in the city also has an exciting fortnight, with Fuse’s favourite independent gallery, Cupola, hosting an open access print workshop on October 24.

The Made North Designer Showcase will be exhibiting some of Yorkshire’s most promising designers until November 10.

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of Warhol’s creative process captured on a hand-held camera at the Factory.

It witnesses Warhol creating the Brillo boxes, as well as others of his most wellknown pieces.

The final film had scenes from Warhol’s life, including incredibly personal moments such as holidays, birthdays, parties etc. It also remarkably had shots of John Lennon and Yoko Ono and other iconic friends of Andy Warhol at that time.

Whilst some spectators may wish the films had captured the voices of those on camera, rather than being in silence or accompanied by music, the last two films had all the charm and intimacy of homevideos and gave the audience a unique insight into a man who not only defined a generation of artists, but founded the most influential art movement of the 20th century.

Abigail Bursack

harming and challenging in equal measure, Sheffield University Theatre Company’s Humble Boy is a tale of love, loss, life and bees. The plot centres on Felix Humble, a young man coping with the loss of his father, his mother’s new relationship and his own mental illness and social inadequacies.

As a gentle buzzing descends on the hushed audience, masked beekeepers wander on stage like astronauts on an undiscovered planet. A moment of stillness passes, and suddenly the stage explodes into light and colour and Humble Boy begins in earnest.

A live band fill hushed moments with jaunty recitals of 1940s jazz hits, further emphasising the way the themes in this play transcend time.

However, it’s the buzzing that brings the subtext of Humble Boy to life. It creeps up on you without you noticing, filling the auditorium with the increasingly agitated sound of hundreds of bees. It is at once impressive, striking and incredibly unsettling.

Director Tom Lodge demanded guffaws from his audience, and guffaws he got.

The production started slowly, with a few chuckles here and there, but by the second half the laughs just keep coming.

Short, sharp one-liners are delivered in an engaging and accessible manner, with a real sense of wit.

Friday October 19 2012

o accompany the new exhibition of Andy Warhol’s late self-portraits at the Graves Gallery, the student ambassadors of Museums Sheffield, ‘Andy’s Superstars’, hosted the Visions of Warhol Film Night. The night showed four film reels from the 1960s, which captured the cultural excitement surrounding Warhol.

The four films, directed by William Mass, Marie Menken and Jonas Mekas, three avant-garde directors who were close friends of Warhols, show a unique and warm perspective on the artist.

They illuminate the elusive Warhol in his varying environments.

The films focus on the period just prior to the shooting incident in 1968 that had a profound effect on Warhol for the rest of his life.

The message of the two films could be difficult to understand at first. The first is a long scene of a photo shoot in which Warhol and his companions face the camera. Warhol then hands out fruit and they eat together.

The second was a scene of silver balloons floating in a room accompanied by psychedelic trance music, which thankfully didn’t last as long as the first.

What these two showed about anything, is hard to discern.

The last two films, however, were fantsastic and engaging. Andy Warhol

by Marie Menken was an exploration

et in Norway in the late 19th Century, Ibsen’s A Doll’s House focuses on the gender roles of the period. Glenn Robert’s struck gold with his charming realisation of the play for The Company on Wednesday night.

The women in this play are ultimately disempowered in the presence of men. The way in which Nora, the leading lady, is treated by the men in her life is shocking. She is referred to by her husband as his “imprudent” young wife, and the implications therein; ‘Skylark’ and ‘Squirrel’

Alisha Rouse

University Drama Studio 7/10

Graves Gallery 6/10

University Drama Studio 8/10

into his front row seat, bladder still presumably full.

After a long hiatus from stand-up, Dee has certainly not lost his ability. He easily cast down contemporary ‘offence comedy’, and Michael McIntyre’s lovable goof style, discovering a wonderful middle ground of selfdeprivation and application of real-life hilarity.

He’s significantly funnier than both the pissed man in Spoons making ignorant jokes about the Asian owner of a corner shop, and your Grandad on Christmas Day, utterly miserable and on his fourth glass of sherry.

Humble boy

visions of warhol film night

A Doll’s House

ARTS

An Evening with Jack Dee

Reviews.

Amy Claire Thompson

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MUSIC

Reviews. RELEASES Now Playing

W

ith the abundance of new releases each week it can be difficult to sift through the shit in search of the gold, so Fuse has handpicked some of the musical highlights for you.

We absolutely love Solange Knowles. Her new single ‘Losing You’ has it all, stunning vocals, varied percussion with rhythmic clapping and a vibrant drumbeat and effortlessly cool lyrics.

The track is out now to digitally download and the video is worth watching to see Solange, snappily dressed, dancing around South Africa.

We aren’t at all surprised that ‘Losing You’ is so good, it was written and produced by Dev Hynes after all. We think the pairing is genius.

Kids of 88 have been a favourite of ours for a while now and we couldn’t contain our excitement when we heard their new album Modern Love.

We love their fun and uplifting, strong electronic sound, especially on ‘Euphoria’ which is a definite album highlight.

The afrobeat sound throughout and the change from up

clinic

Free Reign Domino Records 7/10

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Friday October 19 2012

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nigmatic Liverpudlian band Clinic have flirted with the mainstream for a while now.

Having opened for more illustrious bands like Arcade Fire and Radiohead it is surprising that with the release of what is now their seventh album, Free Reign, they are still far from being a household name.

After so many years recording you suspect that’s not likely to change, but with this release at least, it is hard to understand why.

More mellow than previous albums, the tracks are at once subtle and repetitive, hypnotic and brooding.

Opening track ‘Misty’, complete with vocals owing more than a little to Thom Yorke, drifting over a steady bass line and warped keyboard groove, sets the bar very high for the remaining 35 minutes.

Fortunately the album is consistently compelling, combining the more abrasive psychedelic sounds of Spacemen 3 (‘See-

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tempo to cool and minimalist keeps this track interesting and we even think we can hear a woodblock used at one point.

The vocals are kept simple as well as not to distract from everything else going on.

Spector release another great single from their debut album on November 12.

‘Friday Night, Don’t Ever Let It End’ is a standout track from the boys, it displays the same 80s inspired, boisterous indie rock but has the light-hearted sentiment of having a great time with your friends.

Spector play the Leadmill on October 18 with excellent support from Splashh and Swim Deep who we also like a lot. An unmissable gig we reckon.

Danish indie rock trio Efterklang seem to have suddenly popped up on the music scene, despite most recent album Piramida being their fourth.

Their laid back, alternative folk sound works wonderfully on their single ‘Apples’ and the deep, soothing vocals work really well contrasting with the jangly keyboard melody.

The mix just works and it’s no wonder that Efterklang are now getting some well deserved attention.

LW & AH Saw’ and ‘Sun and the Moon’) with the sparse yet expansive krautrock stylings of Neu! as with ‘Cosmic Radiation’ and ‘You’.

There’s even an unexpectedly smooth late night croon in the form of the brilliant ‘For the Season’ which features one of the album’s intermittent bursts of saxophone.

Melodic and intoxicating in equal measure, Clinic have given birth to an album that sounds incredibly organic yet still has the ability to surprise.

You are never quite sure where the songs might lead you next, as with the random static interference half way through ‘King Kong’ or the soulful key change in ‘Miss You’, and you can never quite figure on what’s going on beneath those surgical masks (which the band usually don on stage).

What’s more the album is available to purchase in limited edition Frisbee format. Yes, that’s right, a Free Reign U.F.Olike frisbee that comes with a download code. Far out man.

Henry Wilkinson

ROLO TOMASSI Astrea Holy Roar Records 6/10

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or many, the name Rolo Tomassi heralds a memory of the universally acclaimed, neo-noir classic, L.A. Confidential.

In 2005, a Sheffield-bred mathcore band decided it was time that a new Tomassi stole the limelight; thus, Rolo Tomassi came to be.

Having since released two very successful full-length albums, the band has undeniably gained credibility in the music community.

Now, in 2012, whilst in the midst of releasing a third album, the band’s aim is to further this progress by ingratiating themselves into the legend-like bracket.

Lyrically, lead vocalist, Eva Spence has been quoted as saying that Astraea would be a lot more positive and ‘uplifting’.

Whilst some might perceive this as a form of black humour, Spence’s statement is affirmed upon first listening.

Unfortunately, this positivity almost detriments the band’s perceived image; the raw, heartfelt angst of previous albums, Hysterics and Cosmology is somewhat lost in comparison.

Fortunately, then, Tomassi have not shied away from their usual intricate and technically superior music style.

Tracks such as ‘Gloam’, ‘Empiresk’ and ‘Illuminaire’ are not only good, they are engaging to the extent that it is far too easy to become lost within them; to become immersed within the music.

This, mostly, resonates true throughout the whole album,

though the band is at times at fault for almost dumbing themselves down.

This is an obvious attempt at furthering their image, which they are allowed to do, yet they must be wary of alienating their core following.

All in all, Astraea is not a bad album. For many, it would be considered a passable rendition of the mathcore genre.

However, Rolo Tomassi are not just any generic mathcore band, they are one of the mathcore bands of the current era. In a way, they do have a certain responsibility to uphold the genre’s values; so in light of Tomassi’s previous successes, Astraea falls far too short.

thoroughly brilliant.

The main difference to the main of Death Cab’s output lies not in the songs’ quality, but in their sound.

With Gibbard’s distinctive voice and clever songwriting providing a common quality to them all, they come and pass like snapshots of titular Former Lives, each speaking in its own musical language.

Varying from British Invasionesque melodic plodding to Decemberists-inspired alt-country, the tracks come together like a photobook would, creating a richer whole from distinct parts.

From the self-consciously hummable opener ‘Sheperd’s Bush Lullabye’ to the downbeat, prog rock-y ‘Duncan, Where Have You Gone?’, the songs showcase a much wider range of sounds than we’re accustomed to from Gibbard.

Even his voice escapes his usual saccharine, direct style, becoming a velvety croon reminiscent of Beirut on gorgeous waltz ‘Something’s Rattling (Cowpoke)’.

Despite all the disparate influences, the album’s soft, downbeat acoustic closer ‘I’m Building A Fire’ packages the vignettes neatly into a feeling of cohesion and purpose.

It’s testament to the strength of Gibbard’s songwriting personality that an album composed over the span of close to a decade can still sound so coherent and focused, so much like Death Cab and still stray so far from the known template.

Former Lives, while suffering a bit from the lack of an immediately obvious classic, manages to square the circle effortlessly, meshing beautifully Ben Gibbard’s former lives into a biography of musical moments.

Matthew Hawker

Benjamin Gibbard: Ryan Russell

benjamin gibbard Former Lives City Slang 8/10

I

t’s sometimes overlooked that while Death Cab For Cutie are pretty much the embodiment of an archetypical indie band, frontman and lead songwriter Ben Gibbard is fantastic at what he does.

Even the more poppy end of his output, notably Death Cab For Cutie’s later albums or his gorgeous, quirky electronic side project the Postal Service, was bursting with inventive, clever songwriting that tread a delicate balance between immediate appeal and cryptic imagery.

His first solo album, Former Lives, tends towards the latter, consisting mainly of songs that didn’t make it on to Death Cab albums.

While that may sound like a banal collection of throwaways and B-sides, Gibbard’s songwriting, it quickly becomes clear, is

Martin Bottomley

Follow us on Twitter @ForgePressMusic

Sharon Van Etten Queens Social Club

Wednesday October 10

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nlike the impression her enigmatic album covers give, Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Sharon Van Etten is a shy, almost fragile stage presence.

She seems to not quite have come to terms with critical and popular acclaim, gushing about standing next to John Cale on Jools Holland’s Later a few days earlier.

The unabashed openness, though, works: Somewhat nervously but comfortably, she holds a conversation with the audience, being funny without the need to tell jokes and putting a full Queens Social Club at ease.

Support act This Is The Kit proved to be a good choice, with their Grizzly Bear-inflected songs, receiving only moderate

attention from a tepid crowd yet to reach full capacity and intently focussed only on the headliner. Presumably, that’s what 7.9 on Pitchfork does to acts.

Sharon Van Etten opens with a song like a hangover, ‘All I Can’. Its slow, dry build to a powerful climax, its lyrics bursting with regret and frustration, catch the audience in medias res, throwing the listener into Van Etten’s world of fragile emotions and dubious lovers.

Occasionally experimenting with autoharps and regularly switching around her band’s instruments, the first third of a set is a treat of alt-rock inflected, unabashedly personal songs.

Towards the middle third though, the set falls into a toocomfortable pattern of straightforward alt-rock songs which dampens the mood a little, despite Van Etten’s jovial conversation with the crowd.

The turning point comes with first album highlight that Van Etten calls her “‘90s song”, ‘Don’t Do It’. Sped up from the already excellent studio version and with looped, haunting backing vocals, it provides a showcase for the band to flex their technical muscles more. The songs’ haunting qualities and the band’s assured performance turn it into a mesmerising spectacle.

The set goes on to finish on an even stronger note, with the closing song bursting through an entrancing soundscape and shaking up the room, as Van Etten’s petite figure stands at the head of the aural storm.

The raucous final applause proves that in spite a slight midset slump, Sharon Van Etten can, even with the most miserable of songs, inspire.

Martin Bottomley Photo: Alex Brown

Gallows Corporation

Friday October 12

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Photo: p_a_h/Flickr

Hey sholay The Harley

animated pontificating would usually irritate, but here it is quite endearing, alongside his engaging vocals. They appear intent on imparting the messages of their songs to the crowd - from the pain of single ‘Wishbone’ to the euphoria of ‘The Bears’, it appeared the audience were closely in touch with the emotions of the band, and recognised their local roots.

Hey Sholay seem so comfortable and natural in their performance that they would not seem out of place on a far bigger stage, and it will be interesting to follow their progression to see if they can truly fulfil their potential.

George Francis

Fuse.

peners the Sweet Nothings declare halfway through the set that “We believe socialism should be fun”, and this pretty much summed up the band’s attitude – cute, cheerful folk-punk, with an occasional burst of energy in songs such as ‘She’s An Accountant’.

Perhaps a little too much of a Billy Bragg tribute act at times, but nevertheless, an enjoyable band with some genuinely unique songs, which caught the attention of many slowly entering the Harley.

Technically, there was nothing to dislike about next band Best Friends, though they seem to find it difficult to engage with an audience outside of their loyal fans.

Their upbeat surfer guitar rock just seems to lack anything particularly distinguishable,

t has been said that Frank Carter could not be replaced. But this is not the case. When Gallows took to the stage, Sheffield’s Corporation was alive. The Wolves have returned, and there’s new power in their bite. Supported

by Brotherhood of the Lake and Feed the Rhino, hardcore punk band Gallows stole the night.

For those who aren’t already aware, there has been speculation over Gallows’ new front man, ex-Alexisonfire bassist Wade MacNeil. Clearly he has massive size-22 shoes to fill after Carter’s departure.

Whilst the crowd were being warmed up by the support, MacNeil casually walked through the club and stood by his merch stand, signing t-shirts and making light conversation to ‘Caller of the Town’ in the background.

When they finally showed up on-stage after a tense 35 minute soundcheck, the Watford-based kings of punk

seemed to have opened the gates of Hell. Laurent and Steph did their thing, climbing all over expensive equipment and playing their hearts out.

Circles formed; brows were split; eyes were blackened - in this insane melee of angst-fuelled madness, Gallows seemed right at home.

Bashing out tunes from their awesome self-titled album, whilst throwing in some classics for variety, Gallows destroyed Corporation and destroyed any doubt that Wade MacNeil has indeed successfully replaced Frank Carter for good.

But the real show-stealer was the teasing encore and pulling off what was until recently considered to be the impossible – ‘Abandon Ship’ and ‘Orchestra of Wolves’ performed without stage-lunatic Frank at the front of the pack.

Wade screamed and howled his lungs out to his veterans and newly converted fans alike. Gallows give off an electric atmosphere that will blow your mind.

The Wolves are back, and in them, we trust.

William Ross

Friday October 19 2012

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Thursday October 11

and no tracks are able to stand out on their own. Perhaps being sandwiched between two really enjoyable acts was a detriment to Best Friends, yet this performance was far from memorable.

Headliners Hey Sholay have been receiving rave reviews for their recently released album ((O)) and garnering national coverage from 6Music and the Independent.

They also once released their single in the form of a USB stuffed inside a rubber foetus.

This alone should give you a feel to the exciting, yet eccentric approach taken by the band, and their psychedelic brand of indie-pop fits perfectly with tonight’s absorbed and appreciative audience.

Perhaps benefitting from being in their hometown, Hey Sholay deliver an impassioned performance and the band’s exuberance clearly shines throughout their enigmatic performance.

Lead singer Liam Creame’s

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Reviews.

Frankenweenie Dir: Tim Burton 7/10

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im Burton’s new movie, Frankenweenie, is a stop-motion animation based on a short film he made in 1984, and that fact alone should give you a pretty good idea of what it’s trying to do.

After a somewhat mixed reception for films like Dark Shadows and Alice in Wonderland, Burton is trying to go back to the formula that made films like The Nightmare Before Christmas a success.

And it sort of works; just not like it did when Henry Selick was directing.

It’s about a young boy called Victor Frankenstein (Charlie Tahan), whose beloved dog Sparky is killed by a car. In case his surname didn’t give it away, Victor uses electricity to bring Sparky back from the dead, but ends up getting more than he bargained for when the secret gets out.

Fans of Burton’s earlier films will know what to expect from the aesthetic. Victor’s neighbourhood comes right out of Edward Scissorhands, and the characters all have the same look and feel to them as the cast of Corpse Bride; it may not be original, but it does still look very pretty.

Most stop-motion films have a brilliantly tactile feeling to them, and this one is no exception. The sets and the character models have a brilliant attention to detail, and the evidence of the animators’ fingers is evidence of the loving care - and talent - that’s gone into crafting Frankenweenie.

The voice casting also has some pretty decent talent (and mercifully, Johnny Depp and Helena BonhamCarter are nowhere in sight).

Martin Short and Catherine O’Hara

do a great job of playing three roles apiece (O’Hara’s character of the wide-eyed Weird Girl is one of the great comic reliefs of the film), whilst Martin Landau brilliantly channels the spirit of Vincent Price into an Eastern European science teacher with an unpronounceable name.

In fact, Vincent Price isn’t the only horror trope to be referenced. Like ParaNorman - the other stop-motion, family-friendly horror released this year - Frankenweenie pays homage to the classics of the genre: Gremlins, the monster movies of Ray Harryhausen and, of course, the original Frankenstein are all given a nod.

Add to this the decision to shoot the film entirely in black and white, and one of Danny Elfman’s finest soundtracks, and you’ve got yourself a decent old-school horror film.

Unfortunately, the inevitable comparisons with ParaNorman are something of a double-edged sword. Where Frankenweenie uses its references to create an atmosphere and pay tribute, ParaNorman actually managed to get some genuine laughs from its gags.

It also had a much better protagonist – Charlie Tahan’s Victor is just too bland to be as likeable as Kodi SmitMcPhee’s Norman, which is a shame considering his relationship with Sparky is the driving force of the plot.

Frankenweenie is not a bad film. In fact, it’s something of a return to form for Tim Burton after his live-action disasters of recent years.

But it also had the bad luck to be released at the same time as ParaNorman, and there’s nothing the former can offer that the latter didn’t do much better.

Phil Bayles

Hotel Transylvania Dir: Genndy Tartakovsky 7/10

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eep in Transylvania a variety of hideous monsters are lurking in a castle. But the ghastly ghouls are gathering not to peel the flesh off humans as the victims’ families look on in horror, but to celebrate the coming-ofage party of Dracula’s (Adam Sandler) 118-year-old daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez).

However, when backpacking human Jonathan (Andy Samberg) stumbles on the castle he throws a spanner in the works for the human-fearing monsters as he falls for Mavis, in spite of her being almost 100 years his senior and very boring. Love really can overcome any hurdle.

Hotel Transylvania is strongest in its first act when the rich assortment of monsters is fully exploited for maximum comedy value. We’ve got invisible man jokes, werewolf jokes, Frankenstein monster jokes and mummy jokes.

This more than a gag-a-minute approach plays well for the most part as the film opens with plenty of chuckles.

Unfortunately the comedy is fairly hit and miss, and as the film progresses it becomes more miss than hit, with few moments genuinely funny enough to be memorable.

Hotel Transylvania is a film that relies on humour to a larger extent than other kids’ films due to the formulaic plot and the sense that the writers have largely opted

Ruby sparks

Dir: Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris 6/10

Fuse.

Friday October 19 2012

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ritten by Zoe Kazan and directed by the makers of Little Miss Sunshine, Ruby Sparks is a far more intriguing film than the trailer might suggest.

It tells the story of Calvin Weir-Fields (Paul Dano) a young American writer whose first novel bolted him to stardom while still only in his teens and proceeded to set him up for life.

Ten years on and crippled by writer’s block, Calvin is finally inspired to write by a mysterious girl in his dreams called Ruby Sparks (Zoe Kazan). However, as he starts to pen her story, he discovers she has materialised in the real world just as he wrote her.

Directors Dayton and Faris have always had a music video sensibility and Ruby Sparks does tend to feel like a collection of good looking set-pieces at times. But overall they provide a steady, straightforward direction to an otherwise otherworldly premise.

The film is very reminiscent of 500 Days of Summer. It similarly tells the story of a guy falling in love with a quirky and unpredictable girl and then becoming frustrated when she doesn’t act the way he wants her to.

In this respect, Ruby

for silliness over substance. Overprotective Dracula doesn’t want his daughter to leave the castle and so makes sure she and all the other monsters remain unduly fearful of humans.

When hapless, nice-but-dim Jonathan shows up he has to change their minds, and the remainder of the film can be pretty easily mapped out.

The romance between the lifeless ‘teens’ which drives the story is largely uninteresting, although this is unlikely to concern younger viewers as the writers wisely keep this side of the film to a minimum.

The animation is innovative, with brilliantly rendered scenery, and Dracula’s fluid, over the top movements are constantly entertaining. It also deserves credit for its bold attempt to reclaim the name Mavis for the younger generation.

There are a couple of good pop culture jibes, but these feel slightly out of sync with the film’s squarely mainstream orientation, which attempts to attach as many big names (like Cee Lo Green and Steve Buscemi) to the voice cast as possible.

Unlike last month’s family friendly ParaNorman, Hotel Transylvania is aimed squarely at the younger crowd, not achieving the same clever blend of horror and comedy.

It might not pack the same punch as some of its contemporaries, but as a piece of light entertainment this vampire-based flick certainly doesn’t suck.

Alex Chafey S p a r k s i s less subtle than 500 Days and wears its subject matter firmly on its sleeve.

For instance, as Calvin and Ruby’s relationship unravels and she seeks more freedom, a horrific scene plays out between them where Ruby is mentally tortured and literally beaten to the ground by Calvin’s will. It’s a haunting and brutal realisation of the film’s premise.

If the film had stopped there, it would be receiving a much higher rating.

Unfortunately, it carries on to a shoddy ending for Calvin in regards to both his book and to Ruby. Unnecessary and predictable, the ending only undermines the film’s striking honesty.

Kazan is a wonderful screen presence, ‘kooky’ without ever becoming annoying, and playing the absurdity of her role with complete straightness so that the audience never feels alienated from her.

By the end, you feel more connected to the fictional Ruby than you ever do to Calvin. Dano does an impressive job however, revealing his character slowly to the audience without ever making the transitions clunky or out of character.

Built on the very same concept that produced classics like Frankenstein and Pygmalion, Ruby Sparks goes a long way to providing a fresh and creepy interpretation of the creation story but sadly fails to go through with it to the very end.

Joanne Butcher

hunted

Tuesday, 9:00pm BBC One

T

here’s no denying that Hunted, BBC One’s newest spy based thriller, could be very fun indeed. The idea of having the protagonist work for a private intelligence agency that devotes its time to elaborate, and often very cruel, acts of corporate sabotage provides the strong sense of moral ambiguity that is so often the thing that makes these kinds of shows actually interesting. It’s sad to say, however, that in at least this first

episode the premise is spoiled by messy storytelling and a bland supporting cast.

The show follows the story of Sam Hunter (Melissa George), who is badly wounded in Tangiers after a mission which involves the rescue of an imprisoned doctor.

Upon her return to the agency it is obvious that some kind of foul play was involved and it is up to her to find the culprit.

Meanwhile her newest assignment involves infiltrating the household of a criminal turned property developer (Patrick Malahide) by getting close to his widowed son (Stephen Turner).

All the while she is helped by a supporting cast of various other agents (Adam Rayner, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Lex

Shrapnel and Morven Christie) and her boss (Stephen Dillane), most of whom are incredibly untrustworthy.

It is in this supporting cast though that one of the main problems of Hunted becomes most apparent.

The fact is that these characters create so little of an impact that it’s incredibly difficult to care about them.

This is partly the problem of the script which forces them to read out lines and lines of mindless exposition (this is the first episode after all.) However, it’s also the problem of the actors who more often than not show little to no emotion. Even when making small talk it seems like they are just going through the motions.

Without the ability to identify

on the road Dir: Walter Salles 8/10

The perks of being a wallflower Dir: Stephen Chbosky 8/10

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Cult Corner.

BRICK

Dir: Rian Johnson 2005

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detective story set in a California high school; you might groan at the initial premise of Brick but writer and director Rian Johnson’s 2005 stylish neo-noir is no Bugsy Malone.

In fact, because he’s removed many of the stereotypical images, like the private detective in his fedora and trenchcoat treading the rainsoaked sidewalk of some major city on the hunt for the next big case, it’s easier for Brick to return to the basic ideas that

Tom King

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society and youth.

Salles previously made a name for himself with 2004’s The Motorcycle Diaries which showed Che Guevara’s journey across South America and so he is perfectly suited to adapt Kerouac’s material.

Salles builds an authentic world of post-war America; full of smoke-filled jazz cafes and grungy apartments and stunning shots of the vast emptiness of the American mid-West or sunbaked Louisiana.

Arguably the film’s strongest aspect is the performances.

Riley makes Sal Paradise both an endearing and complex lead whose potential pretension never becomes a problem. Garrett Hedlund impressively captures the magnetism and recklessness of Dean Moriarty and so the relationship between him and Moriarty feels earnest and

believable.

A radical departure from her Twilight image, Stewart embraces the promiscuity and vulnerable nature of Mary-Lou and some of the best moments in the film are when the awkward relationship between the three characters is explored.

Salles has also cast many of the minor roles of the film with great actors, such as Elizabeth Moss and Steve Buscemi.

However, many of these appearances are all too brief and unmemorable and, while Salles is faithful to Kerouac’s rambling prose, the film is at least 20 minutes too long.

But the poignancy and essence of America that Salles captures makes On The Road an effective and memorable road movie.

George Morton

encapsulate the genre.

Like any good mystery story it starts with something simple, in this case a cryptic but terrified payphone call from ex-girlfriend Emily (Emile de Ravin), which leads disillusioned and isolated teenager Brendan Frye (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) to dive head-first into the murky social hierarchy of the American high school and its even more sordid underbelly.

Featuring a script that has most of the characters speaking a curious mixture of modern and 1920s slang, the film is quick to draw parallels with the various youth cultures Brendan is forced to mix with in his search for what has happened to Emily.

The stoners become street level thugs, the sport jocks and their followers are the scheming

upper-crust socialites (complete with their own alluring femme fatale played by Nora Zehetner) whilst Richard Roundtree of Shaft fame steals his one scene as the single true authority figure in all this mess, the assistant vice-principal.

Gordon-Levitt himself is brilliant as the bitter and smartmouthed Brendan, spitting out his lines with relish as he guides us through the surreal and morally ambiguous world.

There was always a risk that Brick would become a sub-par parody of the film noir genre, but Johnson has created both a tribute and a legitimate modern addition to one of the most influential genres of cinema.

Tom King

Fuse.

Fuse.

Kate Lovatt

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with the characters everything else comes to nought. It’s impossible to care about the twists and turns along the path that make up a thriller if you can’t sympathise with the characters that are walking said path.

Hunted is a competent effort in terms of camera work, action and general plot but fails crucially in several areas. If the series doesn’t improve it risks just becoming another generic thriller that will quickly fade into obscurity.

Friday October 2012 7 2011 Friday 19 October

ith an average high school setting, and a not-so-average high school story, Stephen Chbosky directs this coming-of-age film, bringing to life his own novel in a manner that captures the self-discovery and nostalgia of growing up.

The film begins, as the book does, with protagonist Charlie (Logan Lerman) writing a letter to an unnamed ‘friend’ on the night before he starts high school.

The plot follows him through his first year at school as he meets Sam (Emma Watson) and Patrick (Ezra Miller) at a football game and is drawn into their lives.

By attending house parties and performing The Rocky Horror Picture Show with them – all whilst dealing with a new life at school – Charlie begins to understand how friendship gives people a place to belong.

The film’s flashbacks are a nice touch, showing Charlie’s younger self and filling in the background of his past. Transitions between scenes are pleasingly unusual, particularly one where the camera zooms to a piece of communion wafer on Charlie’s tongue, which has changed to an LSD tablet when it zooms out again.

Some of the scenes themselves, on the other hand, feel a little disjointed because the time scale between them varies from a few moments to a few weeks.

As far as adaptations go, this one remains faithful to the novel and includes some of the book’s most famous lines such as ‘We accept the love we think we deserve.’ The script is split between witty dialogue, which gives the film it’s more fast-

paced scenes, and thoughtful philosophies that create moments of close and identifiable friendship. This doesn’t make it two dimensional, however, as scenes are interspersed with Charlie’s thoughts in a first person narrative.

The casting is first rate. Lerman captures the honest integrity, awkwardness and confusion of his character well. Watson, while her American accent can be deemed questionable in places, excels in her first recognisable role since Harry Potter.

Miller’s performance as Patrick, however, leaves the rest of the field in the dust. Whilst this is partly due to him having some of the most humorous lines, what really sets him apart is the vivacity and individuality he brings to his character.

Patrick’s resoluteness to be his own person in a setting where people hide their true selves away is something the audience will warm to. Nina Dobrev’s Candace isn’t given nearly enough screen time as Charlie’s sister, considering her importance in the book, but this doesn’t dent the overall adaptation.

Music is a crucial part of the film and the soundtrack is made up of both the original score, composed by Michael Brook, and a mixture of popular, iconic music that is well chosen to fit the 90s setting. It is unclear why Chbosky doesn’t use more of the music from the novel, but his decision to use Bowie’s Heroes for, arguably, the most important scene of the film in the tunnel is unquestionably good.

It closes The Perks of Being a Wallflower on an emotional high and leaves us with a message that we shouldn’t feel guilty for living in the moment and feeling invincible while we’re young.

alter Salles’ On the Road is a superb and moving adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s novel, with stunning cinematography and brilliant central performances from Sam Riley, Garrett Hedlund and Kristen Stewart.

Sal Paradise (Riley), an aspiring writer in 1940s New York during the Beat movement, is introduced to the charismatic Dean Moriarty (Hedlund) and his new wife, the free-spirited Mary-Lou (Stewart).

The film chronicles their travels across North America and explores the many themes that characterized the Beat generation: poetry, drugs,

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