My brother’s film company, Slingshot Studios, has just launched a distribution arm. Read more here.

I promised Armand I’d post a review of a Nightmare on Elm Street movie while he was away, and even though he’s now back, I know he’d be upset if I didn’t follow through, so here goes.

I’m a big fan of horror films. I like the actually scary ones (The Shining, The Exorcist, Ringu…) and the gory ones (Hostel, Saw, Braindead…). Recently I decided to watch some horror franchises in order – god only knows why, but I started with Final Destination (1 ok, 2 better, 3 terrible, if anyone’s interested), and then moved on to the Nightmare on Elm Street series. This is my review of A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge.

I have a bit of a problem with Freddy Krueger as a character. He’s just not scary. He wears a ridiculous jumper and looks a bit funny more than anything else. I’d only ever seen him in Freddy vs Jason before and in that he is quite clearly a figure of fun, but it turns out that he’s a bit rubbish in his early days too.

This is a terrible film. The first one at least tried to tell a coherent story and explain that Freddy could only hurt people while they were asleep; Freddy’s Revenge seems to completely change Freddy’s powers and doesn’t make the whole dream thing clear at all. The main character is seen taking some tablets to keep him awake, but no effort is made to explain how or why he thinks he should take them.

There’s a half decent bit where Freddy breaks out of the main kid’s body and his fingers split open, but apart from that, avoid.

Sadly, I am going to continue watching all the way up to New Nightmare, and then I might give the Friday the 13th films a go. Wish me luck.

The Academy Awards were two weeks ago. There were absolutely no surprises in the major categories, which is always a little disappointing.

Here’s my take on it, and just to be difficult I’m not going to agree with any of the official winners. Obviously, there are an absolute boat-load of films I haven’t seen, so take it all with a pinch of salt.

I may follow this up with my take on the Razzies, but I have seen Basic Instinct 2 so it might be a little repetitive.

Best Picture

Actual winner: The Departed
My winner: Pan’s Labyrinth

Best picture of the decade so far? Probably.

Best Director

Actual winner: Martin Scorsese for The Departed
My winner: Paul Greengrass for United 93

United 93 is an astonishing film in many ways, but it really is down to Paul Greengrass that it is the film it is. Scorsese should have won years ago, but he doesn’t get it for this one.

Best Actor in a Leading Role

Actual winner: Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland
My winner: Leonardo DiCaprio for The Departed

An absolutely revelatory performance from the sprout-faced boy. To go from making me want to pour acid into my eyes and ears just to make him go away during Gangs of New York to this certainly deserves some kind of award. I’ve heard Forest does a passable impression of Idi Amin, but I haven’t seen it, so there you go.

Best Actress in a Leading Role

Actual winner: Helen Mirren for The Queen
My winner: Ivano Baquero for Pan’s Labyrinth

This one is kind of difficult for me for two reasons – I don’t particularly like actresses generally and I haven’t seen the Queen, Notes on a Scandal, Volver, Little Children or any of the other ‘strong’ female performances of the last twelve months. Pan’s Labyrinth was the only film from the last year I could think of with a major female character, so I went for a child.

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Actual winner: Alan Arkin for Little Miss Sunshine
My winner: Mark Wahlberg for The Departed

Another great performance from an actor who has never previously shown any ability to act (remember Planet of the Apes?). The accent is a little odd but apparently it’s meant to be like that.

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Actual winner: Jennifer Hudson for Dreamgirls
My winner: Abigail Breslin for Little Miss Sunshine

I’ve picked another child. I know I’m not going to be allowed to forget it.

Arvind invited me to a preview screening of Sugarhouse tonight, the first movie from his film company, Slingshot Studios.

Here’s a teaser:

Now, I know he’s my brother and I’d be heartless if I didn’t say nice things about the film, but: it is wonderful. That’s the right word. It’s a really compelling piece of film-making with some remarkable performances and great staging. I’m sure I get a little extra from having seen the set and getting my name in the credits, but… It is unambiguously cool. I had one issue with it (only one), which I won’t share as I can’t without spoiling it. But its really irrelevant to the overall sense of “whoa” this film evokes.

For the uninitiated: it’s a relatively low budget urban thriller made possible due to an innovative revenue sharing model developed by my brother and his team, and totally digital production. According to Arvind, it looks like a film that costs between 6-10 times as much.

It’s filmed in HD (I’ve only seen it in SD at the moment and do want to see it in HD if possible…). If you want to know more about it, read up on the Slingshot blog and drop my brother a line.

It’ll be on limited theatrical release in the next month or so before it goes on the festival tour, but I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if this became a cult runaway hit. Ashley Waters, Andy Serkis and Stephen Mackintosh deliver fantastic performances. Go see it, blog about it, tell your friends about it.

Just been to the VENUS premiere with Maz. Was a great film, actually. Wasn’t too sure on the basis of the trailer (especially with the cheesey American voiceover in the version below)…

I don’t think this can be said often enough, but Peter O’Toole and Leslie Phillips are LEGENDS. I had a very strong desire to walk up to them both at the end of the film and simply say “Marvellous. Splendid. Wonderful.” — completely sincerely (although I would have fun speaking in posh). Sadly Leslie was occupied and Peter had left early, but still. Splendid. Marvellous. Wonderful. I hope you’re into blogging ;-).

Here’s the trailer for you:

It opens this week and I recommend everybody sees it: all the acting is magnificent, most of the writing is wonderful, you feel uncomfortable where you’re meant to, warm where you’re meant to, and pensive and confused where you’re meant to. Occasionally, admittedly, it is confusing as to why he’s quoting the most obvious Shakespeare out there (I mean, even I recognised the quotations), but it was, I guess, broadly appropriate.

It’s a love story. And a story of a life (mostly) well lived. “You have been loved, Maurice.”

Thanks to Alicia for sorting tix via Buena Vista…

Celebrity spottings: Hanif Kureshi, Peter O’Toole, Leslie Phillips and Jodie Whittaker (beautiful young star of the film) – for those curious, it’s her real accent (or close to it!).

Update: Sheels was at the premiere too, and just sent me a text to let me know she is standing at the bar next to Peter O’Toole! Cool!