I saw “Top Gun: Maverick” on an IMAX screen last night and what a buzz it was. It was such a feast for the senses – booming audio, breathtaking aerial photography, and that iconic soundtrack (surely the best use of a gong in a song ever?). I switched off my critical voice and enjoyed it for the big, bombastic, brainless summer blockbuster it was. That said, the most interesting scene was the one between Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer, which leaned into his current voice limitations due to cancer, and it was surprisingly tender, touching and really nicely done. Overall the film felt like a cool new cover version of a familiar old favourite, and ultimately it is a better movie than the original. Well worth a visit to the cinema to take in the spectacle of this kind of event movie.
I remember seeing this silly YouTube series a few years ago where films were delightfully distilled into 5 seconds or so. Found em again, and they are a delight. Titanic one below is still the one that makes me laugh the loudest.
Nicolas Cage has been making increasingly erratic and poor movie choices for some time now. Back in the 90s, for the now defunct artlick.com project, myself and my friend Dave had this mad idea of creating marketing materials & collateral for a buddy road-trip movie, where Cage would star as himself opposite a bottle of ketchup. We wanted it to be just odd enough to seem almost a plausible choice Cage would make. We really got into it and the final mugshot movie poster Dave created up above is an absolute gem – a proper work of art that belongs on a wall – and I would dearly love to see this movie. Presenting Mr Splash…
The idea began I think over lunch one day when we spilled some ketchup on the table and Dave took a photo of it with our trusty digital camera. Somewhere between that moment and our mild obsession with quirkmeister Nicolas Cage as an actor, grew this idea, which was quite simply one of the most fun creative things we ever brought to life. It spawned such a world for us as we explored it, including a whole backstory and history, as well as a visual identity that we gave a lot of thought to.
We were very interested in getting the right look and feel for this sort of creative project, so it became important to us to test different variations of ideas and styles for the fake film we were constructing. We landed eventually on the teaser poster above, but we did toy with the slightly more cartoonish noir one below for a while, but eventually discarded it.
With the visuals starting to take shape, we spent ages (probably far too long) cooking up names for the cast and crew of the movie. I have very vivid recollections of being very precise and specific about this absurd list of contributors, but that level of detail ultimately helped us bring the creative world it lived in to life. There was a particualr moment of giddiness about deciding the score was written by someone called simply “Barkley”, which somehow was a nod to the legendary composer Vangelis. Which then led to us deciding that Vangelis was actually going to make his debut as an actor in the movie! (alongside a rather eclectic international cast, which you can see in the mugshot poster at the very top of this post)
As part of this extensive world building, we then decided to present the archival materials and content from the film on artlick.com as an exclusive peek into the library of self-proclaimed film historian and auteur (and crushing bore) Raymind Runn, a personal friend of the film’s director. Below is the elaborate, self-indulgent, and deliberately poorly written introduction we used to present Mr. Splash on the website.
There are other fragments that I can unfortunately no longer find, including a memo from the movie producers outlining a series of changes they required in order to complete the financing of the movie to completion – with ludicrous requests like demanding that it be 17% more funny; adding a scene where someone eats sushi, because people love sushi; giving Nicolas Cage or the bottle of ketchup a catchphrase.
Like so many of the things we created for artlick, we really went deep into the details, and went super specific to our own sense of humour, in the hope that others would follow. And if they didnt, that was ok, because we had an absolute blast piecing it together. Which feels like a good rule of thumb in general for most creative endeavours. It will find an audience. Even if it doesn’t, enjoy it. You might end up with something as funny and simultaneously cool as this poster!
You can keep your Citizen Kane and your Godfather; part of me reckons that Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is the greatest film of all time. Some of that is attributable to growing up in an era when John Hughes released one great movie after another, each one as charming and wonderful as the last. Part of it is down to the fact that Ferris Bueller is the cool rebel I always wanted to be. And much of it is down to the fact that it was a film both my father and I shared a love for in equal measure, often swapping lines with glee and, after a long search through the channels, deciding to stick the well-worn Ferris Bueller video on. Most of all, it is a film that is genuinely funny with real emotional depth and holds up just as well in today’s light. It has it’s fair share of wildly enthusiastic fans (one fan recut the film as an indie coming-of-age film) and, without fail, it always gets the single biggest roar and response in my “Things That Are Cool” poem. It is a film that that celebrates living in the moment. How could you not like a film like that? “Life moves pretty fast, if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it”
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2. Fitzcarraldo – Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog is a genius. Lets get that out of the way immediately. His cinematic output would put most filmmakers to shame with a range of remarkable dramatic pieces (Aguirre, the Wrath of God; The Enigma of Kaspar hauser) alongside spectacular documentaries (Grizzly Man; Lessons of Darkness). But perhaps his most famous film is Fitzcarraldo, fabled as much for its difficult production as for the remarkable end result. The making of the film is brilliantly chronicled in “Burden of Dreams” by Les Blank which serves as a terrific companion piece to Fitzcarraldo. The central role of the Irishman Fitzgerald, known as Fitzcarraldo in Peru, is played by longtime Herzog collaborator Klaus Kinski (originally played by Jason Robards, with Mick Jagger as his sidekick), who has to pull a steamship over a steep hill in order to access a rich rubber territory and fulfill his dream of staging an opera on the other side. Herzog chose to actually pull a boat over a mountain and so the stuff of metaphors is born. Despite the troubled production, what remains is a stunning film that has yielded millions of fans around the world (including the brilliant Irish band The Frames, who named an album and song after the film). If you see only one Herzog film, then see this one, but you really should see them all. “I want to build an opera!”
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3. Withnail & I – Bruce Robinson
“Withnail & I” is a longheld cult favourite amongst students in Ireland and England, but is a somewhat unknown entity further afield. This is a great shame, as Withnail & I is one of the most hilarious films you’re ever likely to see. On the surface it is a story about two out-of-work actors at the tail end of the 60s, but beyond that it is a much richer story of broken dreams, friendship, lots of drinking, delusion, poverty and how one may never play ‘the Dane’. With an incredible soundtrack, brilliant comic dialogue, a meandering oddball story and Richard E. Grant’s superb central performance as Withnail, you will be hard pushed to find a film more bumper packed with memorable scenes and quotable lines. “We’ve gone on holiday by mistake!”
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4. The Big Lebowski – Joel & Ethan Coen
The Coen brothers have made many, many masterpieces ( Fargo, Oh Brother Where Art Thou?, Raising Arizona,No Country For Old Men) but The Big Lebowski seems to have a particular, beloved cult status for anyone who has seen it. Myself included. But, in some ways, it is actually quite hard to place what is so wonderful about the film. Maybe it’s the central characters of The Dude and Walter (portrayed in career best performances by Jeff Bridges and John Goodman) or perhaps the gang of brilliantly loopy supporting characters (esp. John Turturro as Jesus Quintana), or maybe it is the brilliantly chosen music that complements each scene or perhaps it is the wonderful, quirky dialogue which repeats and twists its way back around to different characters throughout the film. Or maybe its just because every time you watch it “new shit comes to light, man!” Whatever the reason, it is a film that never fails to put a smile on your face. “The Dude abides.”
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5. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart – Sam Jones
Music documentaries are usually reserved for fans of the band in question, but this gorgeous black & white documentary about the difficult genesis of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot by Wilco is a fascinating film for anyone interested in that age old battle between commerce and art. It helps that the album in question is one of the great records of the modern era and the band, Wilco, are one of the very best around (best kept secret and all that). Like all great documentaries it happened to be there at a critical time to capture a defining moment in the life of the subject and their environment. In retrospect it seems like a perfect snapshot of the beginning of the end of traditional record labels. The happy ending for the story is that Yankee Hotel Foxtrot has gone on to be Wilco’s most successful record ever. If you haven’t listened to it, you’re as foolish as the record execs who ignored it. “You were right about the stars, each one is a setting sun”
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6. Wings of Desire – Wim Wenders
A film co-written by Austrian novelist Peter Handke and German filmmaker Wim Wenders about an angel in Berlin who longs to be mortal might sound like difficult, pretentious viewing. And for some, it might well be, but to me it is the most lyrical, beautiful film of them all. What if I told you Peter Falk and Nick Cave star as themselves and the cinematography is among the finest you will see? Still not convinced? Well, all I can say is that this is a film that resonates and reverberates inside long after you have seen it. It is in essence a layered, nuanced poem set to film (based loosely in part on Rainer Maria Rilke’s Duino Elegies) and manages to tackle profound truths about love, humanity, history, mortality and sense of place. The central poem by Handke, Das Lied vom Kindsein, is a masterpiece of writing in its own right and truly sings in harmony with the film overall and asks us to see the beauty of the world through pure innocent eyes. How we see, after all, is how we live. “When the child was a child, it didn’t know that it was a child, everything was soulful, and all souls were one”
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7. Baraka – Ron Fricke
Baraka is an absolutely mesmerising film but extremely hard to classify. In essence it is a series of images from over 24 countries on 6 continents set to music (or using source music and audio) that paints an astonishing portrait of the planet we live on. Falling somewhere between a Planet Earth documentary and a National Geographic photo essay, it is a spellbinding and captivating look at the people and creatures we share this world with. Filmed in gorgeous 70m, long before handy digital cameras were the norm, it is a truly beautiful film that is as rewarding as it is thought provoking.
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8. Fight Club – David Fincher
Fight Club is a film that divides opinion somewhat and generally appeals more to men than women, but it really is worth a look. It’s a modern classic. Visually stunning, well-written, expertly directed, well acted and a pitch-perfect soundtrack (music nerds will be interested to know that Radiohead were one of the original choices for composing the soundtrack). The film even manages to improve upon the source material (a novel by Chuck Palahniuk) with inventive visual flourishes and dark, subtle humour. Once again, this is a film that rewards you upon repeated viewings as its many layers reveal themselves in different ways, even after finding out the game changing plot twist. I am Jack’s recommendation. I am Jack’s complete admiration for this film. “The first rule of fight club is, you do not talk about fight club”
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9. Waiting for Guffman – Christopher Guest
Christopher Guest has the honour of pretty much creating the genre of mockumentary with his collaborators on Spinal Tap. Since going up to 11 on that work of genius he has continued to create a new mockumentary slice of brilliance every few years of his own making. While “Best in Show” is probably more well known and absolutely hilarious, it is his precursor to that film, Waiting for Guffman, which is his true masterpiece: A film about a theatre director, Corky St. Clair, who wishes to stage a musical about the history of small town Blaine, Missouri. For anyone who has even had a cursory encounter with amateur drama it rings painfully true and features some absolutely inspired, deliberately painful musical sequences. It also features some truly hysterical, inane dialogue and the brilliant cast of improvisational actors are uniformly brilliant, with special praise reserved for Parker Posey who manages to bring incredible tenderness and unbelievable stupidity to her character. An underrated comedy classic that you have to see. “I just hate you and I hate your ass face”
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10. Point Break – Kathryn Bigelow
Point Break? Yeah, Point Break! As pure, dumb action movies ago, you’d be hard pushed to find many better ones. Keanu Reeves goes undercover to infiltrate a bunch of surfing, skydiving bank robbers you say? I’m already in and I am munching popcorn. Great cinematography, preposterous names like Bodhi and Johnny Utah, along with a collection of great character actors like Busey and Swayze makes for good old fashioned fun. Plus I am reliably informed by an NYU film school graduate, that the car and foot chase sequence (see above) is still taught as a masterclass in editing. And the director Kathryn Bigelow went on to win an Oscar for The Hurt Locker, if that stuff matters to you. Anyway, this film will make you want join the FBI, start surfing or make action movies. Or all three. Not many films can boast that. “I caught my first tube today, SIR!”
One of my favourite Irish musicians is Pearse McGloughlin. His ear for melody is remarkable, and his ability to wind lyrical tapestries around them is a thing to marvel. A few years ago in advance of his second album “In Movement” being released, he commissioned a series of short 60-90 second films to accompany excerpts of songs from the forthcoming record. I was lucky enough to be asked to make one. Having never made a film, but with a deep love for the artform, I gave it a shot. I chose his song “The Lonely Track”, which was deeply atmospheric and really appealed to the storyteller in me. It is a dark and compelling tale which has, to my mind, more than a hint of Bob Dylan’s Isis from the Desire album. I shot a series of sequences on a visit to New York City and I felt that the sensation of motion & advancement was critical to the feel of the music. It was a journey that had darkness and foreboding within it, but at the end of it was the dreamlike hope that a better day was ahead. And so the film above is what turned out. It’s a bit abstract I suppose, but I really like how it turned out. And it was such a great creative task to lean on some other great art as a scaffolding to build upon, especially when I had no real sense of how to make a film. And if you haven’t listened to Pearse McGloughlin and Nocturnes music, I cannot recommend them more highly.
