There's Always a Joker...

We're All Clowns!

By pure chance I heard an song sung by Anthony Newley on the radio this morning, called ‘There’s Always a Joker’ (from 1965 movie soundtrack of 'The Roar of the Greasepaint). Listening to the lyrics got me thinking about the upcoming movie starring Joaquim Phoenix, ‘Joker’, which I hope to post a review of, as soon as it opens here in the UK.

Loren Coleman just posted on his blog, ‘Twilight Language’, about the possibility of the ‘Copycat Effect’ being activated on opening weekend of the film in the US (or elsewhere). Strangely, or rather, predictably, Joker symbolism is now all over the place and slowly permeating the imagination of the population.

I’m seeing correlations appearing in the recent entertainment news with up-coming movies showing a distinct synchronistic flavour. Just a small selection below...

Anthony Newley as the Mad Hatter, Alice in Wonderland

 'Pure Imagination' from Charlie & the Chocolate Factory was co-written by Anthony Newley

Johnny Depp as Mortdecai, also known for Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, and Alice

Here IT is again

Ad Astra ...et ultra

Once upon a time... in a Galaxy...

-Spoilers Abound-
My love of sci-fi had me chomping-at-the-bit to see this movie. As soon as it opened at my local cinema I was there, I left work early especially to be one of the first people to see it.

Now this love of sci-fi stems from many things in my past. Mostly a childhood built around outer space adventures, dreams of world-saving heroes, and seeking out the mysterious, searching for answers to life’s unknowns. The trailer for Ad Astra, or ‘To the Stars’*, seemed to tell of just such a space adventure.

My love for Brad Pitt films on the other hand, well that’s quite a different story. I lost my interest after Ocean’s 11 and it’s taken a while to rekindle. Angelina had a lot to do with it, but I digress…

Ad Astra gives us a glimpse into a ‘near future’ where entrepreneur extraordinaire Elon Musk’s vision of space exploration has come true. So, we have a Subway sandwich to look forward to on the Moon among other things. 

All is not what it seems in this latest tale of man’s thirst to discover new planets, and new life. With an opening scene to die for, and a premise to intrigue, Ad Astra’s hero Roy McBride (Pitt) is on a top-secret mission, a quite personal mission, with a remit to save the universe.

Some fine acting on show here from the likes of Tommy Lee Jones as H. Clifford McBride, and a personal favourite of mine Donald Sutherland, as a rather worn-out companion/handler Thomas Pruitt. 

What I found exceptional about the film is the fact that it is full of homage to many other films on the subject, from the reflective visors and orchestrated space-station moves of Kubrick’s 2001:A Space Odyssey (1968), to mirroring Planet of the Apes, to styling ideas taken in copy from Chris Marker’s, La Jetee, (1962), of which Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys (1995) is based – coincidentally another movie featuring Brad Pitt.

This film is expertly executed by writer/director James Gray, with spectacular cinematography (a name and a half 'Mr Hoyte van Hoytema'). The action, when it comes, and goes, is thrilling, and you certainly want more of it, but as our hero approaches his goals, things turn dark.  Pitt is superb in the role for once, as he broods and mopes, stares into space, barely cracking a smile. 

Nothing beats that feeling of travelling through the solar system alongside our protagonist. The further away from earth he gets, the deeper into space he reaches, the more isolating and depressing it becomes. Earthlings are bad tourists, bringing their usual crap with them, when not at war, they’re disrespecting the environment.

With deep space comes deep sadness, ‘We’re all we’ve got’, Roy tells Clifford. There you have it, the denouement delivered deadpan by our hero, sealing the deal on this being one of the most interesting yet depressing sci-fi experiences. 


As a final note, I’ll leave a warning to any future space captains out there. When a national hero says, “You don’t need to answer that call”, listen to him, k?



*=Seneca: “Per aspera ad Astra.” Through Hardships to the Stars

The Mirror Cracked?

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) - The Autumn Queen

In the above screenshot we see Margot Robbie as the fated Sharon Tate dancing around her bedroom. After this shot, you get to see the mirror on the wall behind her very closely. I was speculating on why Tarantino chose to deliberately slow-pan the camera across the mirror. It’s a familiar mirror, dating from the early 70s, not really the 60s though. A lot of younger girls had/have one of these on their bedroom wall. They came in various sizes, with a multitude of designs copied from Czech artist Alphonse Mucha’s Art Nouveau collection, known as ‘The Seasons’, I had a smaller version of ‘The Summer Queen’. Here we see a very large version of ‘The Autumn Queen’, chosen perhaps to send a message? 


Mucha was influenced by symbolism and by the social aspects of William Morris' Arts and Crafts Movement in England during the early part of the 20^th century. He gained notoriety with his work co-mingling art deco designs with advertising of the period. He even designed Paris’ Metro-station signs and billboards. It’s interesting to note that Alphonse Mucha, apart from being a renowned painter, much copied and re-printed, was very active in his native country as a member of various secret societies, and a high-ranking vocal proponent of Freemasonry.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

Wise guys and Convertibles

As I've now lost access to my own movie review blog of old 'Celluloid Seduction', I've posted my spoiler-light film review here. Comments welcome!

There’s a clue in the title, Once Upon a Time... is a fairy tale, a modern Grimm, where truth and fiction mingle. The trouble with Tarantino’s latest fable is that there isn’t much of a moral to the story and his monsters, witches, and princes, are actors with ‘use by’ dates. 

It’s April 1969 in sunny California. In the background of the opening scene, a car radio blurts out a news report with familiar names from the era. Sirhan Sirhan has been sentenced to death for the murder of Robert Kennedy. 

Our protagonist (Leonardo Di Caprio as fading actor Rick Dalton) and sidekick in sideburns (Brad Pitt as his stuntman double Cliff Booth) are has-been players in the fickle world of cinematic entertainment, about to get their just rewards as they calculate their headcount of fictitious ‘kills’. 

If you are a Tarantino fan there is no doubt you will enjoy this latest offering, and it’s clear to see QTs love of Hollywood shining bright. From the billboards and lights of a dozen old cinemas and theatres strewn through a 1960s Hollywood. He delights in taking the viewer on a wild ride courtesy of a fast convertible screeching around corners, passing famous mansions, through the Hollywood Hills, well before the seatbelt was compulsory.

Familiar faces pop up here and there, familiar themes of buddies on a mission, baddies with a plan, and some indulgence in revenge for the ‘what might have been’. There’s even a bit of lazy storytelling, where a few minutes of narration fills in for a missing half-hour of plot, segmented between some genius scenes of Hollywood irony.

Regarding that plot and characterization, well as the story goes, this is old Hollywood meets new age and the so-called swinging-60s. If you remember them, you were never there. It’s clear Tarantino remembers his childhood and love of teatime TV Westerns, and hippie music, and movies about Nazis, and Asians, and very, very high-cut denim shorts and… feet. I’ll leave you to ponder that one.

Without giving too much away, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is billed a ‘comedy’, which on the most part it is. Simmering along the edges of the film, reflected in mirrors and windows, not quite taking us there, the news headlines we all know (Manson Cult/Sharon Tate murder). The sinister creeps in, together with the absurd, as the mind of the viewer is toyed with, made fun of, and generally left traumatised by the experience...
Pure Tarantino.