Review - Green Day - Uno

Originally posted on www.soundblab.com

Green Day return with their ninth studio album and their first for three years, and the best bit is there are another two on the way as ¡Uno! is the first in their trilogy of new albums, excited? Well you should be, as this album doesn't disappoint.

As a fan of Green Day's old stuff from back in the 1990s I can honestly say I was not a big fan of their last two efforts and I found this a refreshing blast from the past. That's right they've ditched the rock opera of the last 10 years and gone back to what they do best, which is great rock that makes you want to sing and dance around.

Stand out tracks from the album include 'Let Yourself Go' which makes you want to jump around and is very reminiscent of Dookie, 'Angel Blue' is possibly one of the best tracks on the album with its excellent guitar riffs and another rocky jump around chorus.

'Troublemaker', 'Carpe Diem' and Fell For You' add to the old school sound that they've finally brought back making you just want to repeatedly jump up and down.

It's not all brilliant however with the track 'Kill the DJ' falling a little short with its experimental dance rock sounds that get a little repetitive, but at the same time it's still a good song but just doesn't match up to the other songs on offer.

Overall this is a great rock record with pop twinges that will make you think its 1994 all over again. A brilliant come back album through and through.

Review - Be Mine

Originally posted on www.biggaypictureshow.com

Be Mine is gay themed romantic comedy that tells the tale of a gay man who is about to be married, as he recounts the time he was a kissing virgin, waiting for that first snog.

At first you may think the film sounds like it could be another light hearted comedy in the way that Another Gay Movie was, but where as Another Gay Movie had hilarious characters and a plethora of laugh out loud moments, Be Mine has none of those. Overall it isa bit like what the secondary characters were up to during the house party of the first American Pie film, only this party is quite possibly the worst I’ve ever seen in a film, with around 20 guests and that’s being generous.

The premise does sound like it would be fun and entertaining, but it has been executed completely wrong. The script is trying too hard to be funny and whenever they almost have a funny moment they go and ruin it. The way its shot also lets it down massively as the opening credits look as though they were written on Microsoft Paint and then the film looks as though someone filmed it for a University project, which if it was a project of this sort would have been ok, but for a film release it was awful.

Some of the scenes in the film area bit long, such as the naked hot tub scene, which just drags on and makes you lose interest, much like many more scenes in the film. The bad execution also seeps into the acting as this is probably one of the most hammily acted films I have ever seen, with no one standing out for good reason.

Overall there weren’t any redeeming moments in this film. I did laugh but for all the wrong reasons. I can see what they were trying to do with this film, and maybe if the basis was used again – but everything else was overhauled – I’d watch that version. But until then all I can say is don’t go out of your way to see this one.

Why Are There So Few Documentaries About The AIDS Crisis In Britain?

Originally posted on www.biggaypictureshow.com

The HIV/AIDS crisis is something that everyone from all different walks of life has heard of. From television, book and films to magazine articles, everyone has a pretty good understanding of what happened during the 1980s.

For gay people especially, the crisis itself is now deeply rooted into our consciousness, whether we were there during the 80s or not. We’ve heard about the people who died, those who fought for funding to try and find a cure and/or proper treatment, and everyone else in between who struggled long and hard to help people who have been diagnosed with the virus, as well as the families of the people who lost their lives due to it.

It’s even deeply rooted into our minds when it comes to sex, as we all now know the importance of safe sex and what it could mean if that one time we weren’t safe, we became unlucky.

But for us Brits a lot of the information we get is from our American counterparts and about what happened over there during the 1980s. For example, in 2011 the documentary We Were Here looked at the AIDS crisis in San Francisco and interviewed a number of people who were there and experienced what happened.

By doing so it became the first documentary to take a deep look at what happened and the impact it had on the people living in San Francisco and how they responded to it. Today How To Survive A Plague opens in select US theatres, which looks at the crisis and the early days of the activist groups ACT UP (AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power) and TAG (Treatment Action Group). Those two looks at AIDS in America join the likes of the Oscar winning Common Threads: Stories From The Quilt.

However there has never been a decent-scale, feature documentary (that I know of, at least) that has taken a deep look at the crisis when it hit the UK. After all, HIV/AIDS has significantly impacted on a number of people over here and it has continued to do so since the 1980s.

We’ve all seen and heard about the safe sex advertising campaigns complete with icebergs, headstones and a deeply eerie narration from John Hurt, so we know it was just as bad over here. But do we know anything further than this campaign?

AIDS is still a problem now, with HIV infection rates remaining quite high and rising over recent years. It is definitely still an issue and we need to see and hear more about what actually happened to people living in the UK who were affected by HIV/AIDS during the early days of the disease, whether it was their friends, family or themselves that were affected by it, and whether it was slightly different or worse here than what people felt in other areas of the world. It is slightly ridiculous that for many British people, their knowledge of the AIDS crisis in the US is far greater than on what happened in the UK. Documentaries like these aren’t just about remembering our history, but also potent reminders of a disease that may not be the absolute killer it once was, but which we still need to be vigilant about.

Considering the success of the film We Were Here and the positive reaction it received, it would be interesting and helpful to see the effect a UK version had, told from a viewpoint that’s different from what we’ve already heard from over the pond.

Review - Café de Flore

Originally posted on www.moviemuser.co.uk

Café de Flore tells the tale of two unrelated stories set in both the present day Montreal and Paris during the 1960s, which sees a deep exploration into love looking at its ups and downs, heartache, happiness and the guilt within most love stories.

The film is both interesting and at the same time a little drawn out and boring. It’s sad to say this because the premise of the film is very interesting looking at love in two different ways in two completely separate time frames, and the way they connect is both intriguing and great, yet at the same time some parts of the film just become a little bit too lacklustre.

The film does have its positive points and is shot brilliantly, with its almost indie film feel and the way they’ve shot 1960s Paris makes it intriguing and beautiful and sad all at the same time. Also given the films constant theme of music throughout, with the lead male character Antoine (Kevin Parent) playing a DJ and the same song springing up between the 60s and the present day, the soundtrack is brilliant and is probably one of the best parts of the film as it evokes several emotions and gives the film a sultry, sinister, happy and dark undertone.

The acting in the film however has to be celebrated with Vanessa Paradis giving an outstanding performance as Jacqueline, a mother raising a disabled child in a very unforgiving and intolerant time, and you can feel her anger and determination as she raises her child alone in the hope of him becoming more than he’s expected to be. Kevin Parent also gives a great performance as Antoine whose regrets, anguish and guilt makes you feel sorrow and anger for his character.

Overall the film is good and will make you feel a bit teary eyed from time to time, and in some cases make your recognise yourself in the characters. But it also falls flat in places as the pace goes a little slow. However overall this is a good film and a definite must watch.

Review - Paul Weller - The Attic

Originally posted on www.soundblab.com

Paul Weller returns with 'The Attic', the latest single from his number one, 11th studio album, Sonik Kicks. However, like he has done in the past, Paul has decided to release the single as an EP with a brand new track, 'The Piper', and a full version of album track 'Sleep of the Serene'. By now we may feel as though we know Mr Weller. After all, he's been around for as long as anyone can remember and has become synonymous with the British rock scene over the last 40 years, but this single is a little different to what we usually get.

Judging by the upbeat and melancholy vocals coupled with excellent guitar riffs from his last EP/single I reviewed, 'When Your Garden's Overgrown', I expected something similar, but this is a much more of a rockabilly-styled, happy and summery song which sounds like it has jumped straight out of 1974, and if I'm honest I don't know how I feel about it. Yes, it's finger-tapping, dancing-around-the-garden-in-the summer-with-a-slightly-warm-can-of-cider fun, but it's just not what I expected, so the jury is still out on this one.

However, new rack 'The Piper' does sound very Paul Weller with a little space-age feel thrown in to go along with his usual rocky sound. If I'm honest, this should have featured on the album and lead as the latest single. Overall, I must say 'The Attic' isn't the best track but this is worth the buy just for the new song, so as a whole it passes the grade.

Review - Cat Power - Sun

Originally posted on www.soundblab.com

American singer-songwriter Cat Power returns to the music scene with her ninth studio album, drawing on her blend of haunting ethereal vocals and minimalistic indie background beats, but it's a little hit and miss. By now most people know what to expect from Cat Power, she has been releasing music since the mid 90s after all, and for many big fans out there this album may be that little gem they've been waiting for. But as someone who isn't completely aware of the entire oeuvre of Cat Power, I can honestly say this album definitely isn't the best way to get introduced to her music. It's ok but it won't have you hooked and running out to buy her entire back-catalogue.

This album has been a long time coming, and has been in the works for the last five or six years, so you would have thought it would have been a little better, especially when the indie sound she is known for has become so mainstream. However, this album just makes her sound like a cheap and less feisty Florence Welch, which is sad considering she was making music before Florence was even in high school.

The songs themselves aren't so bad; there are some very good tracks here such as 'Manhattan', an upbeat, chirpy song which makes you want to sing and dance along despite her melancholic vocal. Then there's 'Peace and Love'. A very fast-paced, almost rocky song with a very catchy chant of "nah nah nah" and a good beat, it's definitely one of the best here. Elsewhere, 'Nothin' But Time' is a really upbeat, cheery track that lifts you right up. However, at almost 11 minutes, the song just gets a bit formulaic and you begin to lose interest in it.

The remainder of the songs are all quite boring; they all sound pretty much the same with their minimalistic beats and sad vocals which, to be fair, is her style, but she could have upped the ante a little bit considering she's been working on the album for so long. Songs such as 'Silent Machine' and 'Sun' almost go somewhere at the start, with the former sounding like a 70s throwback and the latter containing a bit of a dance-inspired opening, but that's where it stops as the remaining few minutes of each song fall flat and sound like all the other songs on the album.

The album is a concoction of a few hits, misses and almost-hits which just miss the mark and, whereas the raw and melancholic sound is true to her, the whole album just kind of falls flat on its face. Despite a few good songs, it's not something I'm going to be in a hurry to listen to again.

Review - The XX - Coexist

Originally posted on www.soundblab.com

After three years of waiting The xx return with the follow-up to their Mercury Prize winning self-titled debut album, and I must say it's definitely worth the wait. I saw the group at Bestival two years ago, albeit outside the big top tent as I didn't get there soon enough, but the atmosphere was electric anyway. I can honestly say that I was extremely excited about this release and I wasn't disappointed. You won't be either.

Coexist automatically hooks you with that distinct sound of soft, haunting vocals coupled to the atmospheric, moody, slightly depressed, chilling sounds, familiar from the first album. However, while you may think this album night sound a bit samey-same, you would be wrong as they manage to make the music sound fresh and new, even though it's really not.

Coexist has a number of great tracks, with first single 'Angles' acting as brilliant alternative love song and 'Chained' a brilliant melancholy tale of troubled love. But the stand out track on the album for me is definitely 'Sunset' with its excellent chilled-out sound and brilliant lyrics demonstrating what happens after relationships when you stop talking to an ex, making it sad but relatable to most people in a way that a typical top 40 break-up song just isn't. This should definitely have been the lead track. Less stellar parts of the album include 'Our Song' and 'Swept Away', both of which just didn't reach the standard of the other nine songs and sound a bit bland. However, when the rest of the album is so goo this can be forgiven.

This really isn't an album which you'd want to listen to when you're depressed. If you're a fan of The xx then you probably know this already. After listening to the album it seems to be about lost or troubled loved, and when this is brought together with those haunting sounds and sad vocals it really hits you, and works on so many levels.

This is a brilliantly sad, depressing, minimalistic and melancholy album that will have you hooked from the very beginning. If you ever get the chance to see them live then do so, because whereas this may sound great on record I can guarantee it will sound even better live.

The production code may have come down but we still aren't mainstream

Originally published on www.biggaypictureshow.com

After the production code was brought in during the 1930s it became much harder to show several different things on the Hollywood Screen.

There were restrictions on the length of time a couple could be seen kissing, whether you could show a couple in bed together, even a scene from Disney’s Snow White had to be cut because she was shown in bed with the seven dwarfs, and then there was the restriction of showing homosexuals on screen due to what was know as sex perversion.

However after existing in Hollywood for over thirty years the final part of the code, which just happened to be the section concentrating on sex perversion, came down in 1968, finally allowing homosexual characters to be shown in Hollywood films.

There had been gay characters shown in films prior to 1968, but these films were from countries such as Italy and Great Britain, but with the dominance of the Hollywood film they hadn’t made enough of a global impact.

After the production code had fully come down gay people were finally being shown in some films, but we had a very odd portrayal as throughout the 1970s and 80s we were mainly shown in a negative light, usually as villains or victims.

As the 1990s came around gay people finally began to get a slightly better portrayal, that meaning that we weren’t necessarily tragic or villains, as we were now cast in the role of the ‘gay best friend’ in several Hollywood rom-coms, where we minced about helping our girl friends shop for the perfect shoes. Hello stereotype. But we were far from leading characters.

Over this period of time we were getting more of a leading role in some independent films such as My Own Private Idaho by Gus Van Sant, but these were seen by limited audiences and we were once again just missing out on the mainstream, and we weren’t leads in big blockbuster films.

It wasn’t until the 2000s with the release of Brokeback Mountain that we finally saw a mainstream Hollywood Blockbuster depict two gay men as the lead characters, alas they were very tragic figures but it was a true portrayal of the time. But since this we have still not seen many big Hollywood films featuring gay characters as leads.

Yes there was Milk and The Kids are Alright that both garnered much success, but this is only two where there could have been many more.

Maybe its Hollywood’s fear of not appealing to a big enough audience or maybe it is the fear of the actors to not be seen as gay and alienate a large section of their audiences, that we will never know.

But what we can see is, whilst these fears hover around behind the doors of Hollywood it looks as though we haven’t come tremendously far in the last 40 years, so maybe we will just have to wait another 40 and live with the fact that we do have exposure in many indie films these days. Every little counts after all.

Why gay characters need to be on TV

Originally posted on www.biggaypictureshow.com

Over the last decade the gay community have come onto our television screens with a bang. Since the 90s we have seen a selection of television shows achieve ratings and critical success such as Queer as Folk, Sugar Rush and Lip Service, along with gay characters playing principal roles in other television dramas and comedies like Shameless, Skins and Gimme Gimme Gimme.

Aside from this we now have gay characters on our television screens on a daily basis with soaps like Coronation Street, Hollyoaks and Eastenders featuring several gay characters and storylines, allowing everyone to see that we are just the same as everyone else.

However where these programmes, characters and storylines have been met with praise and positive responses, they have been equally met with dislike and several complaints to Ofcom.

Over the last few years there have been several issues in the news surrounding gay people on television, such as the complaints surrounding a lesbian kiss on Coronation Street, along with some feeling there were two many gay characters on the show. There were complaints surrounding a gay sex scene involving openly gay actor John Barrowman in Doctor Who spin off Torchwood, despite the programme being aired after the watershed, and there were complaints regarding a gay couple being seen in bed with each other in Eastenders.

The fact of the matter is when straight people on these shows are shown kissing or in bed, we never hear of several complaints being made to Ofcom because of it. And even more importantly gay people are part of society and therefore should feature in television shows especially soap operas, I mean we wouldn’t complain if there were two many black or Asian people on Coronation Street would we?

Aside from gay people needing to be seen on television to show people that we are part of society, it also needs to show that we are just like everyone else, dealing with the mundane 9 – 5 working hours or having troubled relationship problems. Yes there have been stereotypes in the past such as Tom from Gimme Gimme Gimme or Mr Humphries in Are You Being Served? But in the last 10 years television has helped show that the gay community is just as diverse as every other community and that we aren’t all running around shouting “I’m free.”

The most important reason for us being visible on screen is to show today’s youth that it’s ok to be gay so they aren’t scared to come out, and to show others that gay people aren’t to be viewed as something different or to be scared of. Eventually with enough positive portrayal on television we may be able to almost stamp out homophobic issues, but until then we’re just going to have to keep showing everyone that we are just normal people.