Coexist

Something is happening. The xx are coming. Of course it was hardly difficult to see their songs fail, due to them being constantly played in just about anything over and over again (I'm looking at you, Waterloo Road). This can be forgiven due to their subtle, terrific debut xx, with one of the most brilliant marketing campaign's I saw that year. Now back on brilliant form, Oliver, Jamie and Romy are joining as a contender for one of the best albums this year. The crowning track is obviously Angels, where the quiet sorrow of Romy's voice flows over Jamie's distinctive synth. The repetition of love is chilling and so sad, and the music so perfect, It is an obvious choice for the best song on the album. But there is more. Chained is a fascinating choice for the somphore song on a sophmore album, but it fits surprisingly well and echoes some of their earlier work, such as the sombre Do You Mind? The bravest piece on the album is definitely Reunion, with the fantastic clatter of steel drums, obviously a nod to Jamie xx's solo album with Gill Scott Herron. Powerfully sad is Missing, Oliver Sim wailing (My Heart is beating/In a different way). Overall, this is a spectacular album, and a definite challenger for best album of the year.

10/10

Teo

The Dilemma

How the hell did any of these people lower themselves to star in such a ugly, mean-spirited and surprisingly depressing piece of crap? I mean seriously, we have Vince Vaughan, Kevin James, Winona Ryder, Channing Tatum, Queen Latifah, even Oscar winners Jennifer Connelly and Ron Howard. Ron Howard, director of Cucoon! Don't think that Vaughan is innocent too, having produced it too. So what is this horrible thing about? Ronny (Vaughan) sees his best friend's wife cheating on him with some unbelievably stupid hunk played by the genuinely good Channing Tatum. He wonders whether to tell his best friend. And the rest of the film is a vomitorium of horrific standard, with forced joke after forced joke. We wonder how these characters can be this commendably dumb. In the cinema, I wanted to yell at the screen out of absolute rage by the fact that all these people, all with considerable talent, could put themselves into such a poorly written dramedy. Oh, what's that now? Who was it written by? Oh yes, Allen Loeb, writer of the equally revolting Adam Sandler vanity project Just Go With It. The piece de resistance is a dull monologue on honesty that feels like it goes on for hours while Connelly and Ryder don't do anything. With horribly racist stereotypes, and some of the worst exposition ever in a film, this is a horrible film.

1/5

Teo

Hope Springs

Meryl Streep is the best actress of our generation, period. In all of her films I have seen, she has been perfectly cast, be it her identical performance in The Iron Lady, the lovely Julia Child in Julie and Julia, any role. And despite the fact that this is neither of the 3 main stars' best roles (the others being Tommy Lee Jones and Steve Carell), the chemistry between them is magnificent enough to hold the whole film together. The premise goes that Jones and Streep have been married for 31 years. He wakes up to breakfast and coffee on the table every day. They sleep in separate rooms and have not had sex in 4 years.  For their anniversary he gets her a water heater for the house. So Streep consults Dr. Bernard in Hope Springs, Maine, played in deliciously nuanced form by the always good Carell, and suggests the idea to the stingy Jones. He begrudgingly agrees and they fly off. The rest of the film is pure brilliance, in which we are invited to marvel at the three leads talk in uncomfortable detail at their dull marriage. Although it is barely a stretch for Jones to play grumpy old man, he does it with grace and class. And on top of the laugh out loud moments lies poignancy and a biting message about ageing and what it really means to be married to someone.

7/10

Teo

The Help

Viola Davis is a captivating screen presence. Be it a sympathetic social worker in Trust, or the fascinating Mrs. Miller in Doubt. However, I think she is perfectly cast here, playing a warm black maid in Mississippi in the 50's in The Help, one of the better racial dramas in the last few years. Set in Jackson, The Help tells the story of the brave, yet naive Skeeter, played in ebullient form by Emma Stone, who wonders what happens to the coloured help, the maids who unrelentingly nurture white children, when the children grow up. She questions Aibileen, her 'friends' maid, in secret, to write a book all about the escapades they go through daily. She also gets the wonderfully sassy Minny, with an Oscar-award winning performance by Octavia Spencer. Also on the radar are the charming and ditzy Celia Foote, played off-type by Jessica Chastain, and the evil racist prom-queen bitch Hilly, played in cruel form by Bryce Dallas Howard. Also good is Allison Janney, who is constantly teetering between racist and tolerant. Despite a fantastic all star cast, the film can be schmaltzy and the length is undeniably bloated. In retrospect, it is a very well done and fascinatingly written film.

4/5

Teo

/\/\ /\ Y /\

It could have been remarkably easy for M.I.A. to go for broke and take the yellow-bricked road to the underwhelming R & B genre so common on a third album. Thank God for the unconventional London rapper, because instead of being another Keri Hilson, we get an electro, bold, strange and polarising album. One of the definite highlight is Born Free, in which the controversial video, featuring a genocide against redheads, had really taken attraction off the actual song. Really, what makes this song genius is how different it sounds to anything else on the album. Her vocals are definitely noted as she screams defiantly, (I don't wanna talk about money cos' I got it) Different to this is the closest thing to pop on the album, XXXO, in which she rallies about the blatant sexualisation of children, the biased media and Quentin Tarintino. possibly the best are heavy industrial songs like the mechanical whines in the fantastic Steppin' Up, or the possible-best song Teqkilla, in which we get those same unbelievably catchy lines (I got sticky icky icky icky wiiiiiiid/I got shots of tequila in me) Is it a good album? Yes, but some songs are just too ridiculous for M.I.A., like the undeniably irritating Space. However, many hit the right note, but this is not conventional M.I.A. so many fans will recoil at how artistic it is. I however, very much enjoyed it and that's why I'm giving it 9/10.

9/10

Teo