Posts Tagged skins

Now that the footy season is coming to an end, what are you going to do on Friday and Saturday nights? You can’t spend your time watching matches and blaming the umpires for your team’s losses anymore (all one-eyed footy fans will know what we mean).

You too could look this stylish.

Luckily, there are some great new films out that we used to fill our spare time including Cadillac Records, Killshot and Fireflies in the Garden (available at Network stores now).

The always bootylicious singing and acting AT THE SAME TIME!!

What we loved most about Cadillac Records is that it proves that not every movie based on a true story has to be boring. Plus, for those of us who are a little younger, it’s a fun history lesson (yes, there was music before the iPod even existed). If you are a part of Gen Y, you’ll be pumping out unfamiliar names such as Muddy Waters (Jeffrey Wright) and Little Walter (Columbus Short), just as fast as Pink or Britney Spears by the end of the film. Meanwhile, older members of our crew enjoyed remembering these ‘music legends’ all over again (they were beaming!).

So, what’s it all about then? The film explores how a small recording studio, Chess Records, began recording blues music in 1947. Of course anyone who knows a little bit about pop culture knows that this music eventually gave birth to rock and roll in 1955 with Chuck Berry (Mos Def).

We found it very hard to go past a film that features Beyonce (Etta James) and Adrien Brody (Leonard Chess). The cast succeeds in conveying the many complicated layers of the music industry as the movie progresses.

Killshot is a film that packs a little more punch. We felt the film re-iterates something we pretty much knew before watching it anyway: no one is more suited to playing a hitman than Mickey Rourke. Everyone knows he’s had his troubles (and various cosmetic surgeries) in the past but Killshot reinforces that he’s still a darn good actor. Not that Diane Lane is a push over in terms of acting ability.

What we found really enjoyable is that while the film is fairly predictable (Lane plays a woman who sees a hitman (Rourke) carrying out a job and… he’s not happy!), the suspense that builds as the film progresses makes up for it. We were on the edge of our seats as we wondered how that cute little alien from 3^rd Rock From the Sun (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) became a hitman.

Another new release we found really enjoyable was Fireflies in the Garden. With Julia Roberts, Willem Dafoe, Ryan Reynolds, Carrie-Anne Moss and Emily Watson, it certainly doesn’t lack a stellar cast. And their emotional range as actors combine nicely to convey grief and loss in the most rawest of ways.

Fireflies in the Garden forces you to ask the question: what if a loved one in your family died? Would you find something out about them that would change your perception of them? How would the rest of the family cope? Let’s just say, we had our tissue boxes handy and ended up looking like Rudolph by the end of the film. And that’s what the film does; it makes you relate the situation back to your own life.

When we’re not in the mood for an entire film or we don’t have as much time to kill, we look towards television. Most recently, our office has had Skins: Series 3.

The ‘new kids on the block’

This show has developed quite the little cult following but unless you’re an SBS viewer, chances are you haven’t even heard of this little puppy. We were hooked after we saw the first episode.

So how would we describe Skins? To say that it is an exploration of ‘teenage angst’ is oversimplifying a show that has many complex layers. In saying that, we’re sure you get the drift: sex, drugs, rebellion and so on. Not that any of us here would know what that’s all about. Series three is more of the same with more worthy twists and turns. We enjoyed re-living our youth vicariously through these characters.

One thing that Skins can’t ever be accused of is being static. In order to aid the series’ evolution, the cast is changed every two seasons (only one character, Effy, was spared from seasons one and two). Perhaps some daytime soaps like The Bold and the Beautiful can take note. Are we the only ones who have noticed that they’ve had the same characters for the last twenty years?