Wild Tales

It's been an odd couple of days. I turned 24 last Thursday, but I lost out on a chance to read some of my work on the radio, and I'm having to deal with some of the most mind-numbing bureaucracy at a job that's already eating my valuable writing time. This road to the breaking point has led me to an interesting piece of world cinema: The 2014 Argentinian film, Wild Tales.

 The film is divided into six vignettes:

• Pasternak features a group of passengers on a plane who slowly realise they all share a connection to one man;
• The Rats follows a waitress at a diner who must deal with the man who ruined her family, and the cook's offer to poison his food;
• The Strongest is about two motorists who try and out-do each other on a desert highway;
• Little Bomb tells the story of how a civil engineer's life comes crashing down over a disputed parking ticket;
• The Proposal is a "Bonnie Situation"-style scenario about a wealthy man trying to cover up his son's involvement in a hit-and-run;
• Till Death Do Us Part shows what can happen when a bride learns of her husband's infidelity at their wedding.

All these stories are built up really well, and include some of the funniest pitch-black humour I've ever seen in a film. It's sick, but it's also something we can all relate to in one way or another.

I originally saw this film last year, after having a minor breakdown in my previous job and leaving obscene notes on the front desk. I saw a strange irony in the fact that this was the running theme in the film: stories about ordinary people who are pushed to violent extremes by a society which makes no sense to them. Even if foreign language films aren't your thing, I highly recommend that you check this one out.

And if you were wanting to hear me on the radio, you can see what I'd originally planned to read here: https://authorvalpenny.com/2017/10/27/the-emporium-a-short-story-by-guest-author-andrew-roberts/

Or here: https://bookreviewstoday.info/2017/10/27/the-emporium-a-short-story-by-guest-author-andrew-roberts/

Special thanks to Val Penny for publishing the story. I hope it makes some interesting Halloween reading for you. Happy writing.

Upstart Crow - So You Think Shakespeare's Boring?

"So You Think Shakespeare's Boring?" - That was the title of a project I had to do as part of the English GCSE. I'm just going to let it all out: I hated learning about Shakespeare at school. It's rarely taught well. Having to stay up all night translating one scene from Much Ado About Nothing into modern English is a surefire way to really kill someone's interest. Especially if that someone is 14 years old and believes that evenings are better spent playing Call of Duty.

Anyway, I'm not here to do another rant about bad blood from my school days. I'm here to look at something that might get someone interested in Shakespeare: Upstart Crow. This sitcom from Ben Elton follows David Mitchell as William Shakespeare trying to make a name for himself as a playwright. Unfortunately, his common background is a cause of contention with the Oxbridge-educated playwright and Master of the Revels Robert Greene, played by Mark Heap.

The series has a great cast of characters, and takes place around three principal locations:

1. Shakespeare's London lodgings, where he writes his plays while plagiarising accepting inputs from his servant Bottom (Rob Rouse) and his landlady's daughter Kate (Gemma Whelan) who aspires to be an actress. Also present is Shakespeare's close friend Kit Marlowe (Tim Downie), a suave fellow playwright and spy.
2. Shakespeare's family home in Stratford, where he interacts with his wife Anne Hathaway (Liza Tarbuck), their grumpy teenage daughter Susanna (Helen Monks), and his parents Mary Arden (Paula Wilcox) and John Shakespeare (Harry Enfield). The home scenes often include a rant by William about his commute from London.
3. The Red Lion Theatre, where Shakespeare runs his plays with actors Henry Condell (Dominic Coleman), Richard Burbage (Steve Speirs), and William Kempe (Spencer Jones).

The stories in each episode often allude to Shakespeare's works, and he is often inspired or dissuaded by these events. And because it's Ben Elton, there are plenty of stabs at modern issues, but it's done in a way that fits in well with the setting, often in the form of people joking that it will never catch on. I especially like how everyone frequently criticises how loquacious Shakespeare is, most notably with the line "Wherefore art thou?", which is seen as "Where are you, Romeo?". Yeah, it mocks Shakespeare just as much as it lauds him.

If there's anything I do take issue with, it's the character of William Kempe. He's supposed to be similar to Ricky Gervais, but I don't really see the point of that. I just don't think he's very funny - and I wasn't that keen on The Office to begin with. Besides that, the series is solid comedic gold. Speaking as someone who hated studying Shakespeare at school, I find it very therapeutic. And speaking as a writer, I find that I can almost relate to the protagonist, as I'm sure most writers trying to get their lucky break would.

The second season of Upstart Crow has just finished, but there's a third season and a Christmas special on the way. I highly recommend that you find it. If you liked Blackadder then you'll love this one.

Blood and Bone China - Vampires in Stoke

Stoke-on-Trent is hoping to become the UK's "City of Culture" in 2021. And since it's October, and we now dedicate the entire month to Halloween, I figured I'd take a look at something that puts them both together.

Blood and Bone China is a 12-part film serial directed in 2011 by Chris Stone, paying tribute to the old Hammer Horrors. Taking place in 1897, we follow Anthony Miles as Dr Newlyn Howell, a country vet from Buxton who travels to Stoke-on-Trent to investigate the mysterious disappearance of his brother Richard, played by Simon Hooson. He is aided by Sentinel reporter Anna Fitzgerald, played by Rachel Shenton, and Alexander Pyre, an enigmatic friend of Richard's played by John James Woodward. Soon, their investigations lead them towards Linus Hemlock, a reclusive pottery magnate played by David Lemberg.

When looking at the characters, I have to say that Newlyn's a bit of a wimp. That's fair enough though: horror is all about vulnerability, so I can't really fault that. Meanwhile, Anna is the classic "intrepid reporter" and Alexander is later revealed to be a Van Helsing-style vampire hunter. Nonetheless, they share a good dynamic with both Newlyn and Anna getting plenty of witty snarking. And wimpy or not, Newlyn still goes through a rough hero's journey so I still root for him.
Meanwhile, Linus Hemlock is delightfully hammy yet still menacing, almost like a Bond villain. And even he gets a sympathetic moment (in a flashback).

The visuals are stunning. The film has been shot in and around some of the most gothic parts of Staffordshire, and the low-lighting helps to deliver a haunting atmosphere. The cliffhangers are all suitably tense, especially once the vampires turn up.

The whole series is available online at http://www.bloodandbonechina.com/index.html, and I do recommend that you watch it. It's a good way to spend a dark October night in.

Western Weekends - 3:10 to Yuma

It's been a while since I've done one of these. But a Red Dead Redemption 2 trailer was released last Thursday, and it's been on the mind since then. I thought today I'd go for a recent film, 3:10 to Yuma, based on the short story by Elmore Leonard. There was a adaptation released in 1957 with Glenn Ford and Van Heflin, but I'll discuss that one when I've seen it. The one I've seen was released in 2007, with Christian Bale and Russell Crowe.

Christian Bale plays Dan Evans, an impoverished rancher living near Bisbee in Arizona. In an attempt to alleviate his financial burdens, he joins a posse to escort Russell Crowe's Ben Wade to Contention, where the notorious outlaw will be put on board a train to Yuma Territorial Prison. We follow the posse as they travel to Contention and overcome numerous pitfalls while being pursued by Wade's gang, led by his right-hand man Charlie Prince, played by Ben Foster.

I think Christian Bale and Russell Crowe work off each other really well. Evans presents himself as a morally upright figure, who doesn't seem interested in the reward or even delivering justice. Meanwhile, Ben Wade is a charismatic and cunning manipulator, who acts like a wild card and even helps his captors at times. The posse also includes the elderly Pinkerton agent Byron McElroy, played by Peter Fonda, and Bisbee's vet Doc Potter, played by Alan Tudyk.

It's quite a dark film, with two of the posse members being as bad as Wade - you'll be glad when they get killed off. It offers a savage morality which mirrors the setting, and I think it pays off. I'm not going to say how, as I don't want to spoil it.

At the time of writing, this version of 3:10 to Yuma is available on Amazon Instant Video. I'm sorry that I'm not comparing the original, but I might do if I see it. I guess sometimes it's interesting to see a remake before the original.