And the crowd cried out Fhoi Myore...

Artwork!

I just posted a load of my artwork HERE

Cell 211 - Out Now

Soaking in blood, sweat and everything else, this hard as a hammer Spanish prison drama is based around a wonderfully inventive concept – a guard trapped in a riot has to pretend to be a convict to avoid being killed. It’s a beautifully simple idea and one that keeps the audience on its toes throughout.

Eager to impress, Juan (Alberto Ammann) leaves his pregnant wife (Marta Etura) at home in order to go to work a day early. Unfortunately for him, all hell is just about to break loose. After an accident knocks him out, Juan wakes up in the cell of the title. He has to think fast. Or die.

Central to the disturbance is Malamadre – literally ‘bad mother’ in English - (Luis Tosar) whose trust Juan must win in order to survive. Their relationship becomes deep, full of complexities and contradictions – as well as more than a little homo-eroticism, particularly when Juan is forced to strip in a humiliating ‘welcome’ to the prison – and one that defines the film.

Cell 211 is an uncompromisingly grim experience and it presents a pretty bleak outlook for the Spanish prison system. However, the prisoners are never presented as anything less than human. There is also the fascinating realisation that without the bars, chains and locks, there is not that much that separates the guards from the prisoners.

New Lord Dongley - Coming Soon...

Angels of Evil - Out Now

Angels of Evil

Covering similar stylistic ground to 2008’s French crime biography Mesrine but lacking some of that movie’s emotional punch, this visually appealing but repetitive piece tells the true(ish) story of Milanese gang leader Renato Vallenzasca. The film follows the conventions of most mobster histories - and, it must be said, with no small amount of flair – as the rise and fall of yet another violent man is glamorously played out on screen.

The best aspects of the film come from the central performance of Kim Rossi Stuart as Vallenzasca, imbuing the character with charm and charisma as he goes from crime to prison to escape and then back again. The solid supporting cast - including Paz Vega and Moritz Belibtreau – strengthen the film’s overall quality but in truth there is little here that hasn’t been seen before. There is excitement, yes, and beautiful people and beautiful locations but what there is not is a sense of depth in the screenplay. As the production notes themselves attest “in this film you will not discover the truth about Vallenzasca’s case. Instead you will discover that there is more than one truth…” This ambiguity, shifting of morals and superficiality may have been Vallenzasca’s greatest strength but ultimately it is his – and the movie’s – greatest weakness too.