The title refers to an apartment complex built post-WWII, a title card informs us. Once attractive and affordable, the place deteriorated over the decades into England’s equivalent of Chicago’s infamous Cabrini-Green, to the point of demolition. As the thriller opens, only the top floor of Serenity House, aka Tower Block 31, awaits removal and rehousing. […]
uk
Posted inArts & Culture
The Sweeney
The Sweeney was a cop drama that ran for four seasons in the 1970s in the UK. I’ve never seen it, so I can’t tell how faithful the 2012 Sweeney is. I can only judge it on its own, and it’s a fantastic crime thriller. As Jack Regan, Hugo’s Ray Winstone leads the Flying Squad, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Cherry Tree Lane
Likely, that film opens with an unspeakable act that calls for retribution, and ends with said retribution being achieved. And in the middle are cat-and-mouse games and close calls and rounds of table-turning to keep conflict chugging. Cherry Tree Lane, however, removes that midsection, condensing the story to assumedly real time. In between its bookends, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
‘E.CO’ friendly
Contemporary art meets environmental awareness in E.CO, a photography exhibit that serves as the perfect showcase for [Artspace] at Untitled, according to Executive Director Jon Burris. “The reason we were interested in this particular show was that it fit our mission. We are an environment designed to stimulate creative thought and new ideas about contemporary […]
Posted inMusic
Locked and loaded
UK rock band Young Guns didn’t have the biggest expectations for its first substantial trek across the pond. “We were kind of thinking, ‘We are first ones on, from England, and no one is going to give a shit,’” singer Gustav Woods said. “It’s been fantastic, though. We were hungry. It’s so great to come […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Above Suspicion: Set 1
Emetophobes may wish to shield their eyes in the opening scenes of the pilot, as rookie Detective Constable Anna Travis (the magnetic Kelly Reilly, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows) has trouble getting used to the job’s sights and smells when it comes to corpses. She eventually proves useful elsewhere, when her superior, the brusque […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Casting the Runes
Those working on a TV special on the history of witchcraft have peculiar run-ins with a mysterious, reclusive alchemist known as Karswell (Iain Cuthbertson, Gorillas in the Mist), a man who openly espouses lust, deviance and all-around evil. When one character recalls a co-worker’s fatal brush with Karswell (depicted in the prologue) and says that […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Despite leaving The Mystery of Edwin Drood incomplete when he died in 1870 (of all the nerve!), the book has hit the screen about half a dozen times since, most recently this two-hour version from the BBC, now on Blu-ray fresh from airing on PBS’ esteemed, enduring Masterpiece Classic showcase. Edwin Drood (Freddie Fox, The […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Spiderhole
It’s been such a cliché for decades that the recent comedy “Tucker and Dale vs Evil” may have parodied it (however unlikely) to its well-deserved death. At least the quartet of UK collegians of “Spiderhole” has done something different: Rather than go away for the weekend, these students leave their dreary dorms behind for good. […]
Posted inMusic
Los Campesinos! — Hello Sadness
Their neckbreak rock style that somehow straddles post-rock and post-punk — as best exemplified on the explosive “Youngster …” opener “Death to Los Campesinos!” — no longer catches listeners unaware, but singer and songwriter Gareth Campesinos!’ vocal improvements and knack for darkly comical, hyperdetailed storytelling really focuses this disc’s stories about messy relationships and death. […]