audiopearl Reviews

Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010)

See No Evil but Laughing Cavlierly!

[10/10 · 13 September 2010]

I'd heard of the film but must admit to watching it with no expectation whatsoever, so there's no point in me saying I wasn't disappointed as I had no expectation BUT I was immediately enchanted and absolutely hypnotised by this fantastic tale that weaves fact with fiction.

Banksy blurred and blacked-out next to a monkey head with no eyes under glass...superb! A yuppie pop attack that given half a chance a yuppie would probably buy as art or media...AND then Banksy's effected voice...oh my giddy aunt...I almost poohed my pants with laughter...AND WHAT DOES HE DO? He proceeds to play slightly dumb and remote allowing those that he is having a poke at to continue BEING dumb and remote. You, Banksy mate (not that it matters to you) gained my respect straight away! HERE is a genuine film that IS 'STREET ART'.

But the real star of the piece --- as created by Banksy --- is Thierry Guetta...F**king Genius! A superb caricature for the modern age...not only is he a Warhol baby BUT he seems to be the actual mistake that Warhol made during a dodgy can of soup in HIS fifteen minutes of madness! If he's really like he is portrayed then he's a passionate groupie at best without any artistic ability whatsoever...unless art has become project management (...AND to be honest I'm not sure whether Banksy is really making THAT point BUT hey I'm one measly member of the stupid masses...) Hell, it doesn't matter as Guetta does a good deal of his talking whilst overlooked by a portrait of the Laughing Cavalier...whose heady hairstyles he seems to emulate...so consciously or subconsciously he is laughing at us whilst laughing at the character he creates...everything is so manufactured that it is almost stencilled in a way that STREET ART never was BUT in a way that the mass market bullsh*t IS! What can I say but this is a portrayal of a distorted art market and the plain meaninglessness of pop-art? Now that everyone can have their fifteen minutes of fame I guess the thing to de-construct is fame itself...and that's what Banksy does here...and has been doing since he marked his first wall...I could go on but it'd waste your time with my idiocy and isn't that what this film is about?! Take a leaf out of Banksy's Beckett-like debut (not only has he Waited for Godot HE stencilled him)--- Think for yourself and create your own reality!

Definite must watch for everyone in my opinion.

Fringe (2008–2013)

Noblesse Oblige cannot save Malady of the Mysterious Mediocrity

[4/10 · 6 June 2010]

Let me get several things out of the way first. I was a massive fan of the X-Files...and I read and researched the whole Doors of Perception, LSD 52 and mescaline experimentation that occurred in the US under the auspices of our infamous Brit, Aldous Huxley...but this is not about the man who became guru to the hippie movement...it is about a program that takes elements of the Huxley experimentation into states of consciousness, the whole x-file approach to the bizarre and conspiratorial occurrences in our lives AND marries it with a fringe science FBI team where the only hindrance to their progress is the clearance that people seem to have or not have. In Fringe nobody laughs at the fringe team like they do at the x-file team, they are above everybody. Interesting but when did that happen? The last time I checked people still thought most of the ideas of fringe science belonged in a pile firmly labelled "ridiculous".

The marriage that Fringe represents is utter nonsense. The badly drawn Agent Dunham seems to have the awareness of a gnat where FBI procedures are concerned. She is driven by a very unspectacular emotional crusade that really is not as well established or as believable as the x-files' Mulder who feels forever guilty about the abduction of his sister. We are constantly told she's a "great" agent but our own eyes then proceed to tell us otherwise. Similarly most of the characters and their development is poor...and that only indicates lazy writing to me but many will dismiss that because such a large hole was left in our lives when the X Files finished. Similarly I was watching in the hope that Fringe would fill that hole. Perhaps the stories would be more developed by the writers.

The stories themselves are fairly poor on the whole but that again may be my demanding requirements for a level of realism that has no place in a populist show such as Fringe. Some find profundity in shows such as Fringe and Lost. Certainly Lost has a level of philosophical interest but Fringe fails because the stories are neither profound nor developed. Agents and Agencies in the real world have to qualify their work and prove that what they do is cost effective; they have to answer for any incompetence and explain any departure from normal procedures. This is also true of the scientific community...We are simply required to ignore the absence of all of these things...but let us suspend all of these requirements and ask is there nothing good about the show? I should say Dr Walter Bishop is an intriguing character. This is predominantly because of the the fantastic ability of John Noble to turn bad writing into an appealing scene on the screen. Yet it ultimately fails because we are supposed to suspend ALL reality and believe that not only has he experimented on every possible level of fringe science (an impossibility given time constraints) but that he is somehow the father of all the world's current ills (with a colleague) and after being locked away for almost two decades in an asylum he will help the FBI to resolve those ills. Am I being over demanding again? I said let's suspend our requirement for realism and then quickly criticised the series for lack of realism again.

Unfortunately I think we have to expect a certain level of realism...we might be able to suspend some requirements but the Studios be damned if the are so lazy and expect us to suspend ALL requirements. I could say more but I wouldn't want to ruin it for those that might get some enjoyment from the series...suffice it to say I am not one of those people but there will be many. I think my main bone of contention is that I wanted more from the show...it promised much but left me disappointed and most of my disappointment is down to the poor writing and ultimately not the show or the actors on the show.

In summary, some will enjoy the series but I did not...I found it had all the attraction of a present that is beautifully wrapped but left one disappointed when finally realising the gift itself does not live up to the promise!