Happy Birthday to me,
Happy Birthday to me,
Happy Birthday to me-eee,
Happy Birthday to me.

32 years on the planet, and life still has the capability of surprising me. Certainly, when I was at Edinburgh last year, attempting to celebrate my birthday, watching Serenity (and actually getting a little annoyed by it), and trying to focus on the distant point when I would be leaving, I didn’t think that in a year’s time I’d actually have something that (vaguely) resembles a completed novel. I certainly don’t know exactly where I’ll be (or even where I’m going to be living) this time next year… but I can at least look back at some of the excessively nutty things I’ve done during my 32 years on the face of the Earth, and feel rather proud at the fun I’ve had. And hopefully, I’ve got plenty to do before my time is up. Hurrah!!

Right, from musings of mortality, to the world of films. Once again, I managed five films yesterday- although I think I was getting dangerously close to burn-out with the last one, as it was rather nicely done but I didn’t enjoy it that much because I was in such an unpleasant mood. I’ve got four lined up for today, and things are going to start settling down a bit this week as the press screenings tail off, and I might get a chance to actually enjoy being in Edinburgh rather than just sitting in darkened rooms watching patterns of light being projected on a white screen. I’m hoping to conquer the major hill known as Arthur’s Seat that lies just next to Edinburgh- I didn’t get all the way up last time, and I’m determined to at least try again, if not actually succeed this time. I’m also going to try and see some live stuff, but I think mainly it’s all going to feel like a shambling race for the finish line. Once I get to Friday, all I’ve got to do is get through another lengthy bus journey, and then Edinburgh will be over for another year, and I can start battling the novel (as well as considering exactly what to do next…)

The films themselves…

GRETCHEN- Anyone who’s seen NAPOLEON DYNAMITE or Todd Solonz’s HAPPINESS will find this very familiar. It’s an off-kilter tale of teenage woes as a dumpy girl falls for a pot-bellied bad boy and experiences major emotional trauma. There’s a couple of great sequences and it uses music very well- but it’s also grotesque, formless and downright annoying at times, as well as taking an absolute bloody eternity to end.
TWELVE AND HOLDING – a wry, intense look at growing up in American suburbia, as a young kid is killed accidentally when a prank goes wrong, and the friends (and twin brother) left behind all find different ways of dealing with the tragedy. Funny and heartbreaking, it’s beautifully played and very well directed, despite a couple of predictable elements.
loudQUIETloud- a music documentary all about the 2004 reunion tour of the Pixies, this was a very well put-together film with great concert footage and some excellent moments- but I don’t really feel that I learnt anything from it. Unlike some of the best music documentaries I’ve seen, like DIG! and SOME KIND OF MONSTER, I think you need to be a Pixies fan to get the most out of this.
AIR GUITAR NATION- a gloriously funny look at the seriously nutty world of the World Air Guitar Championship, and the people who compete in it. Packed full of great tunes and major laughs, this is great fun, but it’s also surprisingly heartfelt and respectful, not treating it as a freakshow but letting the OTT personalities of the competitors come through. Definitely one of the most entertaining of the festival so far.
SHEITAN- Very, very oddball French horror, with a group of rave-happy teenagers falling foul of a group of DELIVERANCE-style countrybound nutcases led by a maniacally grinning Vincent Cassell. Sexy and deliriously weird in places, but it’s ultimately too kooky for its own good, and ends up feeling like twisted silliness for the sake of twisted silliness. And don’t even get me started on the garbled and inconclusive ending…
SOMEONE ELSE- A very well shot British romantic comedy drama about a guy who dumps his girlfriend for another woman, gets dumped himself, and then slowly realises his mistake. There are some great elements here, and it’s a genuinely cinematic romantic comedy that’s aiming for a Woody Allen-style mix of laughs and melancholy- but the central relationship is actually the least interesting part of the entire movie, and it gets stuck between whether it’s going to be comic or dramatic, never really making up its mind.
WRISTCUTTERS: A LOVE STORY- a slightly over-whimsical but charming fantasy all about what lies in wait for you when you commit suicide- which turns out to be almost exactly the same as our own world, just “a little worse”. Patrick Fugit goes on the road to try and find his recently deceseased girlfriend, but is soon meeting up with beautiful drifter Shannyn Sossamon, and while not every element in this film works, it’s still a very imaginative and engaging film that has shedloads of truly twisted, eccentric and dark comedy.

More soon. I’m off to watch stuff, and have some fun as well…

The theory was that I’d be able to do large, expansive updates while in Edinburgh, to describe the ups and downs of life at a film festival. The practice is, to be honest, that I don’t have the time and my feet have barely touched the ground in the last three days. With the whole ‘obtaining interviews’ process being an arcane one that I’m simply not up to dealing with (although I have managed to bag myself another interview with Guillermo Del Toro on the subject of the wonderful PAN’S LABYRINTH, which will be happening when I get back to London), I’ve simply concentrated on seeing as many movies as possible. Thursday was three films, Friday was five and today- once I see the two I’ve got lined up- will total another five. And I’ve possibly got six lined up for tomorrow, depending on how much I can actually cope with.

The films…

APRIL SNOW- Korean melodrama, with a car crash bringing together a man and a woman who find out their comatose spouses were having an affair. Much angst and beautiful people being miserable ensues. It’s beautifully played, but the misery qotient gets a bit too high, and the melodrama A MOMENT TO REMEMBER is much better.
THE LOST- a dirty, nasty and frighteningly gripping take on the ‘delinquent teen’ movie, with a young psycho getting involved with a rich girl out to walk on the wild side, with disastrous and savage consequences. Full on extreme cinema, with loads of sex and seriously grotesque violence- aside from the climactic bloodbath, which could have acheived the same effect if they’d just put up a title card saying “SCENE OF REALLY NASTY VIOLENCE”, this was very impressive.
THE AURA- South American drama, with a Taxidermist getting involved with a Casino heist following a hunting accident. It’s a little too long, but very well put together with some imaginative and expertly crafted sequences.
THE RIGHT OF THE WEAKEST- More heist drama, but from France and the director of the… er… “Trilogy” trilogy, Lucas Belvaux. Working class men try to claw back some self-respect by turning to armed robbery. Naturally, it all goes wrong, but it’s very well put together and excellently played.
HOLLY- Dealing with Child Prostitution in Asia, this was never going to be a barrell of laughs, and does contain some very powerful stuff as American Ron Livingstone (from SWINGERS and OFFICE SPACE) tries to save a young Vietnamese girl from the sex trade. However well it’s put together, it can’t help feeling a little too worthy and far too much of an “issue” movie.
THE TREATMENT- a lovely, intelligent film that’s a proper romantic comedy (not in the general, bland, Hollywood sense of the phrase), where a New York teacher tries to woo a rich widow (played by the ever-gorgeous Famke Jannsen) and also attempts to cope with his hilariously nutty Argentinian therapist (played to perfection by Ian Holm). A genuine delight, it’s both funny and thought provoking without overdoing it.
RED SHOES- a truly nutty Asian Horror from Korea, that takes the very basic set-up of the Powell and Pressburger film and uses it to spin a delriously OTT tale of posession and psychosis, where wearing the titular shoes means that you’ll either lose your feet or your mind. Utterly bonkers, visually stunning, and nightmarish fun.
SHUT UP AND SHOOT ME- a Czech black comedy that seriously misfires, this sees a depressed British bloke who’s lost his fiancee in a freak accident hiring his driver to kill him, with complicated but not necessarily funny consequences. Violent comedy is a tricky thing to get right, and while this has its moments, it feels very lifeless and ends up somewhat turgid and annoying in the end, using crude violence for cheap laughs.

Okay. That’s your lot for now. I’m off to see two more.

One week to go. One week to go…

Film Festivals don’t seem to be designed for human beings- instead, they appear to be designed for the new, uber-efficient next wave of humanity who won’t have to worry about anything as prosaic as finding time for eating or sleeping. I am, to be honest, running on empty- I’m just about keeping up, but I feel like the man running to try and get enough speed to leap onto the Carousel, and some bastard keeps speeding the damn thing up. I am, at least, watching plenty of movies, and keeping myself occupied enough so that the next eight days doesn’t seem like an absolute eternity. I’ve also avoided doing anything at the Fringe Festival for the moment- I want to do some stuff, but I’m saving it for my birthday, which is approaching on the 21st of August. I will be 32 years of age, and life shows no signs of wanting to get less complicated.

Last night was the Tartan Films party, and as a mild sequel to last year, when I ended up on the roof of a building resembling UNIT H.Q., this time I fell foul of Edinburgh’s nightmarish habit of letting one street just transform into another without actually telling anyone. Twice, I ended up going in the wrong direction, and eventually I ended up arriving nearly an hour and a half late. It turned out to be relatively good fun- nowhere near as good as last year’s, and it suffered from a DJ convinced that playing early Sixties tunes non-stop was a good thing, but it did improve occasionally, and I did get to go wild on the dance floor to ‘White Lines’ by Grandmaster Flash, as well as ‘Express Yourself’ by Madonna. A blonde girl briefly shouted “We love you!” on the way off the dance floor, which is always good for the ego when you’re dancing like a maniac and not caring what you look like. In the end, at least, the traumatic journey was worth it.

Film wise… it’s been rather crowded.

JINDABYNE- Excellent, very powerful Aussie Drama. Gabriel Byrne, once again, is ridiculously good.
NEO NED- A Neo-Nazi falls for a Black Girl who thinks she’s the reincarnation of Hitler. Not quite as tasteless as it sounds, but not particularly good either…
THEM- Scary French shennanigans, as a couple in Romania come under attack from mysterious forces. A little one-note, but technically excellent. The Romanian Tourist Board must be really unhappy with all these Romanian-based horror flicks…
LOVE SICK- Sweet romance between two girls, thrown slightly off kilter by an incestuous sub-plot that took me a while to actually work out what was going on.
THE KILLING OF JOHN LENNON- Bland, messy and exploitative. I don’t think the world needed a Mark Chapman biopic, and this hasn’t convinced me otherwise.
CLERKS II- Brilliantly funny and stunningly crude, this is Kevin Smith back on form. It may eventually wear its heart on its sleeve, but it’s also a worthy follow up. And Rosario Dawson is deeply, deeply sexy…
FIRST LOVE- Japanese drama all about a schoolgirl who ends up perpetrating a legendary robbery during the turbulent sixties. Beautifully put together, and gently paced.
BLACK SHEEP- Punky collection of stories in Berlin, with the emphasis on gross-out humour and pushing the boundaries of taste. Baggy and OTT in places, but also suprisingly effective in others.

Right- I’ve got Korean melodrama with APRIL SNOW tonight. I’m pushing myself over the weekend to see as many films as possible, so I can hopefully let myself off and give myself a break on my Birthday. I’m also having some good thoughts on the novel, and am starting to get keen to get back and start doing some serious work.

Time is on my side. Yes it is…

Okay- I was up at 5.30 am this morning. Not exactly what I had in mind, but sleeping in a dorm does do this to me at certain points. Anyway, I at least ended up having a lovely walk around Edinburgh Castle, and now I’ve got another day of movies to look forward to. It’s official- it never stops…

I don’t know if it’s the fact that the novelty has gone, or that I know I really can’t afford to splash out in the manner I did last time, or if I’m just trying to fill my time as best as possible, but I’ve yet to see an advert for anything on at the Fringe Festival that truly makes me think “Yes- I’d really like to see that…” The street walls and building sites are once again decorated in a massive collection of giant posters, but it just doesn’t seem as dazzlingly different as it did last time. Maybe, when it comes down to it, it’s the knowledge that I’m here for work. Last time, it was easy to forget, to say “Well, it’s just a matter of surviving and getting through to the end…”, but one of the results of that was I ended up missing quite a lot of stuff. I don’t want to make that mistake this time, and I want to be able to get to the end of the Festival having missed as few of the films I genuinely want to see as possible. (The fact that I remember exactly how uncomfortable it was to watch films in the Videotecque viewing area is only adding to my determination to get it all right).

The one thing I’m trying to make certain of is that I’m eating well. Film Festivals aren’t really designed to be survived in normal ways- and unlike the screenings I usually go to in London, there’s no chance of any food at any of them. The result of this is that you’ve got to either eat ridiculous amounts of sweets and convenience food, or you’ve got to factor in enough time to be able to eat properly. I’m generally doing a mix of both options at the moment, but hopefully I’ll be able to get it right sooner rather than later. There are going to be some seriously busy days coming up (If I wanted, there’s a couple of days where I could probably manage to see eight films in one day, if I really wanted to). Ultimately, it’s a mixture of trying to see as much as possible, and trying to pace myself so I don’t end up ill. We shall see what the final result is…

Okay- the films so far…

PALIMPSEST- a seriously disturbing Police drama from Poland that managed to feel genuinely Lynchian, without simply ripping Lynch off wholesale. It’s the story of a cop investigating the death of a colleague, encountering intrigue and complications, but also having to deal with the fact that he’s gradually losing his mind. Building up serious levels of menace and throwing in some horribly unsettling, dream-like imagery this was downright spooky, and also managed to throw in what could politely be described as a ‘twist’ without it feeling overdone or unoriginal.

SPECIAL- a low-budget, sweet-minded comedy drama, where a likable doofus (played by Michael Rappaport, who seems to have made a small career out of playing these kinds of roles) is looking for meaning in his life, and agrees to take part in a drug trial. Unfortunately, the side-effects of the drug mean that he thinks he has superpowers, and he’s soon dressing up in a white leather jumpsuit and attempting to fight crime. It sounds kooky as hell, and that’s how it starts, but what’s impressive is the way the filmmakers evolve the story in a gradually darker direction, and it’s ultimately a seriously touching film about finding your own strength. Rough around the edges, but no worse for it.

LIVES OF THE SAINTS- genuinely magical and thoroughly gripping, this British mixture of crime drama and magical realist fairy tale is co-directed by photographer Rankin, and was a hell of a lot more powerful than I expected. Set in a slightly skewed version of London crammed full of rich, almost theatrical dialogue, it follows the lives of a group of people connected to a corpulent Greek crime lord, all of whom are changed by the discovery of a spooky child with paranormal abilities, who may possibly be an angel… Starting off like a Lock Stock clone, this is soon dealing with powerful ideas of religious faith and salvation, this is impressive stuff with one of those lush, richly orchestrated soundtracks that doesn’t put a foot wrong.

THE HOST- Never have great expectations. I’d made the mistake of reading some reviews on Aint It Cool news, the home of hyperbole, and as a result was expecting an absolutely kick-arse monster movie from this South Korean CGI blockbuster. What I got was pretty damn good, and featured some wonderful moments, but didn’t quite balance out its flaws, and the jumping of tones between dark, bleak horror and campy slapstick didn’t always work. A slightly jumbled plot didn’t help matters, and while I wasn’t strictly speaking disappointed, it wasn’t as focussed or effective as the director’s previous film Memories of Murder, and didn’t manage to push to the breathtaking levels that films like OldBoy and A Bitttersweet Life have managed for me before.

The rest of today was taken up with shopping and sorting things out, but I should soon be neck deep in movies. The festival screenings properly begin tomorrow, and I’m going to request as many as I can- one of the main problems I had last time was not having enough to do, and I want to do as much as I can to avoid that problem. Keep myself busy, keep my head down, and the days will go faster.

Life in a hostel is a very strange thing- and it doesn’t help that I’ve ended up in a 6-bed room that’s slightly smaller than the one I was in last time. Space, as a result, is at much more of a premium, but I did at least survive my first night without too many problems. I also had a Seinfeld-fest on my laptop, and I’ve got enough viewing material to get myself through most of the dodgier moments.

Can’t talk for long- I’ve got three films today, including the South Korean CGI monster movie THE HOST which I’ve been really looking forward to, so I’ve got to get going right now. Hopefully, later on, I’ll be able to do a slightly more significant update…

Okay- I made it, despite the tendency for the bus to stop at random moments for no apparent reason, and the tremendously annoying kid in the seat in front of me, who didn’t seem to want to sit still for most of the trip. However, I’m here, I’m in one place, and I’ve been able to find my way around with very few problems. Edinburgh is mine for the taking- and if I can find a wi-fi hotspot somewhere, life would get an awful lot easier.

(I’ve just this moment spotted that the Festival Cafe has wi-fi. Hurrah!!)

Right. I’m off to get something to eat. The movies begin at 11.15.

Wish me luck…

All packed. Ready to go. This time tomorrow, all things being well, I shall be installed in Edinburgh. Two weeks from now, I’ll be back. Funnily enough, it was Edinburgh last time that really made blogging a regular thing for me, so it’ll be interesting to see how I cope. I’m going to miss George terribly, but I am hoping that my experience of last year means I can be a bit more organised and together.

Watch out Edinburgh. Here I come…

Just a quick note before I go to bed- one of the targets that I set myself has been acheived. It might not be perfect, and there’s a couple of errors that I’m not going to get the chance to fix, but I have finally succeeded in properly updating my website. SaxonBullockDotCom is up and functioning, and it should be much easier from now on to update the reviews and articles. If you get a chance, have a look. Hope you enjoy it.

I’m swinging from cheery to depressed at regular intervals, and the fact that I’m facing yet another ticking clock doesn’t help. Tomorrow night, I’ve got another overnight bus trip to look forward to, and I’ve got a lot to sort out in the interim- packing, arranging, and trying to write a whole selection of reviews that really need to be done as soon as possible. My mood has been surprisingly black today- it’s just felt very bleak and strange, and I don’t feel like I’ve been completely succesful in getting lots of sleep. I’m also hoping that doing Edinburgh again doesn’t turn into a hideous mistake. I’m sure it won’t, and I’m determined to get work done on the novel while I’m there- but it’s one of those situations where it feels like life is getting on top of me. I musn’t let it.

I am actually looking forward to doing some serious work to the book. I keep hearing that people are enjoying it, so hopefully that’s a relatively good sign. It’s just a matter of getting it to the point where I’m happy to let it go- and then, the whole question is what do I do next?

Gulp…