Tamara Drewe

I'm afraid I noticed that this film existed for the obvious reason - Gemma Arterton in those hot pants, photos  which conveniently made the rounds during Cannes festival earlier this year. I'd never seen any of the films she's been in (James Bond - yawn. Clash of the Titans - groan. Prince of Persia - snore. RocknRolla - vomit) until yesterday night, but I'm guessing that Tamara Drewe is Arterton's career highlight by a long shot. Because it's great.

The poster and the plot synopsis (young journalist returns to hometown of her childhood and wreaks havoc among locals) is actually misleading, because it distracts from the fact that it is actually Tamsin Greig's character Beth, and Jessica Barden's mouthy 14-year-old, lovestruck Jody (on the left), who drive the film along and cause all the havoc. Arterton's character, I have to say, I pretty much hated. Young, beautiful, successful, with a massive house in the country and the obligatory Apple work station, all the while complaining how tough it is to be beautiful AND smart. Because nobody takes you seriously. Why yes, shit, I can't believe you make it out of bed in the morning. Anyway, that isn't to say that Arterton is putting in a bad performance - she's very good. As is almost everyone, in fact.

Dominic Cooper's Ben Sergeant is blatantly modelled on Yannis from Foals (although when I asked him about it he wouldn't directly admit to it, just said that he knows a few people in bands), and I found him a bit too overdrawn at the beginning. But during the Q&A afterwards, him and the other actors said how much they'd enjoyed playing people who were comic book characters, i.e. characters who were (over)drawn.

Beth and Jody, the long-suffering wife of a successful, lecherous author and a teenager bored to death by life in the village, provide most of the laughs. We see Beth wearing an impressive number of aprons, and making and fixing things. When she says, after an argument with her husband, that "it's all falling apart", we get a first glimmer of the unhappiness she's lived with and which could erupt any minute.

Jody, on the other hand, has her life in front of her, but is already scared that "nothing will ever happen" to her. So she tries to make stuff happen - throwing eggs, breaking into houses, fantasising about sleeping with rock stars. It doesn't sound like a huge character, but she's by far the most lovable and funny figure in this film.

What I also enjoyed were details like the skull & crossbones dog tag on Ben's beloved dog 'Boss', and the awful/amazing 'surfer dog' T-shirt worn by the hapless American author Glen, who seems unable to view the writing process via a metaphor other than digestion. I could go on about how much I liked the way writers are portrayed in the film (not very sympathetically), but I'll make do with saying that this was, as a straight up film (not qualified to comment on the adaption of the respective comic books), better than Scott Boring vs The World. Peace out.


Photo credit: Empire Movies

Sauna Youth

Yesterday, I ordered the new Sauna Youth tape. Today, I got in the post. This is how I like my oders to be processed. In addition to not fucking around when it comes to mailing things, Sauna Youth are also one of the best and most interesting new (ish) UK bands I've heard this year. They kind of mix RAW POWER-era Stooges and a punk rock ethics (and, in places, 60s girl groups) into a retro garage punk that sounds like it's the most fun to play ever. All of the dudes in the band have played in other bands for hundreds of years - there's two guys that used to be in The Steal, one of them was in Twofold, one in Captain Everything... you get the picture. All great bands, but Sauna Youth for me is the best of the bunch (well, maybe close second to The Steal). They've already released a couple of tapes and a 7" (which is ace too). Check their myspace for availability - they only made 50 of these particular bad boys and I've already got one so it's get one while they're hot (they've put a download link on their blog, which I hope they don't mind me reposting - if you do, let me know guyz).


SAUNA YOUTH - NEGATIVE OBSESSIONS from lindsay on Vimeo.


Another reason for you to get one is the B side, which doesn't have any songs but an awesome short story by Jennifer Calleja, read by (I think) the singer and accompanied by a kind of ambient electro track. Not what you'd get from your average hardcore band, and it works perfectly. The story's about a university professor with a serious masturbation issue, but it's not garish or crude in any way - it's really sharply observed and beautifully written. She's got some more of her writing here, and most of what I've read so far is pretty good, too.

Photo credit: Sauna Youth

Weezer at Reading: Piss-take or phenomenal?

This weekend, Weezer played the Reading/Leeds festivals. They hadn't played in the UK since 2005, when Make Believe came out, and because Weezer are one of those bands who have a fan base so rabid I checked my vaccinations before heading to Reading yesterday, the potential for a total and utter let-down was worrying. Sure, the Red Album and (sigh) Raditude were both more useful as paperweights than as records, and expectations of the band's festival shows had probably lowered overall, but the faith in River's genius is still strong in a lot of people, and his band's first three and a half albums (that's right - Maladroit's singles are awesome) constitute a ridiculously good back catalogue. Theoretically, that is. Because someone who sees fit to write and record something as turgid as "In The Mall" might just be capable of leaving "Buddy Holly" off of a festival set list.

In that last respect, we needn't have worried. They played it as their last song and it sounded awesome. It was what came before that was less of a straight-forward affair. Rivers stage persona these days looks like the Woody-Allen-esque nerd he is, but behaves like 8-year-old trying to impress a family gathering. There was a silly wolf hat, a mudbath, high-fives for everyone in the first 3 rows, and some covers. Ah, the covers. Many fans will fume at the fact that they thought it more appropriate to play cover songs and not a single track off of Pinkerton, but my guess is that most of these people will not have been at Reading yesterday - when they started doodling the intro to "Teenage Dirtbag", I thought it was a lovely little joke about how people used to confuse the two bands back in the day, but as it became clear they'd play the whole song, everyone around us just embraced it and sang along like it was a Weezer classic.

"Kids" was played in the same straight-faced way, and you could tell Rivers (like lots of others) just appreciates MGMT and wanted to create a fun moment at a festival. I'd rather watch that than a deadly serious, arty-angsty Foals set, ta very much*.

Sure, "The Good Life" or "Don't let go" would have been nice, but we got "Surf Wax America", "My Name is Jonas" and fucking "Undone"! (New single "Memories" sounded a bit pants though - catchy enough but rather Rivers-by-numbers) And if the rumours are true, we'll get all the "proper" Weezer songs in their full glory anyway. In the mean-time, I'll keep trawling Youtube for some decent footage of Rivers falling over in the mud and the bit where everyone hopped up and down for the 'hip, hip's in "Island in the Sun".

*being slightly facetious here - they probably played a banging set, but my point is that I'd rather see a band like Weezer play a big festival slot than a band like Foals play a small festival slot, if that makes sense.