34 min
DOWN TERRACE (2009) and Family The Prestige
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- TV & Film
The first film in our Ben Wheatley season is his cinematic debut, DOWN TERRACE. We offer contrasting reviews in perhaps surprising directions (given our PP form), and then spend time talking about different attitudes to masculinity, what it means to be part of a family unit, and how this film — for all its apparent parochialism — could in fact be a comment on the political situation in 2008.
Next Week
Our next film is the *incredibly* brutal KILL LIST (2011). If you’re prepared to give it a go (and please do skip it if you’re at all averse to...hard-hitting movies), then watch it here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kill-List-Neil-Maskell/dp/B00FFIN2TS.
This Week’s Media
MILLION-POUND MENU (2018): Fred Sirieix, Atul Kochhar, Scott Collins
THE CHURCH (1989): Michele Soavi, Hugh Quarshie, Tomas Arana
Recommendations
W1A (2014–): John Morton, Hugh Bonneville, Monica Dolan
FRIDAY NIGHT DINNER (2011–): Martin Dennis, Tamsin Greig, Simon Bird
THE JOB LOT (2013–): Luke Snellin, Sarah Hadland, Russell Tovey
EDGE OF TOMORROW (2014): Doug Liman, Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt
SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING (1960): Karel Reisz, Albert Finney, Shirley Anne Field
Footnotes
First of all, here are links to Ben Wheatley’s bios: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Wheatley and https://m.imdb.com/name/nm1296554. Rob mentions the Oedipus complex; while there’s lots available on that online, this book is a good — and short — introduction: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=F7REVY8I_fQC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false. ‘Saving the cat’ gets a good treatment from TV Tropes, where it’s also known as ‘petting the dog’: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PetTheDog. Finally, for more on the idea of British social realism (including ‘kitchen-sink dramas’) on TV or film, see this book: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=QdN0mhkEmK4C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false.
The first film in our Ben Wheatley season is his cinematic debut, DOWN TERRACE. We offer contrasting reviews in perhaps surprising directions (given our PP form), and then spend time talking about different attitudes to masculinity, what it means to be part of a family unit, and how this film — for all its apparent parochialism — could in fact be a comment on the political situation in 2008.
Next Week
Our next film is the *incredibly* brutal KILL LIST (2011). If you’re prepared to give it a go (and please do skip it if you’re at all averse to...hard-hitting movies), then watch it here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kill-List-Neil-Maskell/dp/B00FFIN2TS.
This Week’s Media
MILLION-POUND MENU (2018): Fred Sirieix, Atul Kochhar, Scott Collins
THE CHURCH (1989): Michele Soavi, Hugh Quarshie, Tomas Arana
Recommendations
W1A (2014–): John Morton, Hugh Bonneville, Monica Dolan
FRIDAY NIGHT DINNER (2011–): Martin Dennis, Tamsin Greig, Simon Bird
THE JOB LOT (2013–): Luke Snellin, Sarah Hadland, Russell Tovey
EDGE OF TOMORROW (2014): Doug Liman, Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt
SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING (1960): Karel Reisz, Albert Finney, Shirley Anne Field
Footnotes
First of all, here are links to Ben Wheatley’s bios: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Wheatley and https://m.imdb.com/name/nm1296554. Rob mentions the Oedipus complex; while there’s lots available on that online, this book is a good — and short — introduction: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=F7REVY8I_fQC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false. ‘Saving the cat’ gets a good treatment from TV Tropes, where it’s also known as ‘petting the dog’: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PetTheDog. Finally, for more on the idea of British social realism (including ‘kitchen-sink dramas’) on TV or film, see this book: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=QdN0mhkEmK4C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false.
34 min