Author: birminghamreview

Posted on

BFI London Film Festival is back at MAC – running from 4 to 15 October

Words by Jimmy Dougan (to follow him on Letterboxd click here)

Brummie cinema lovers rejoice. The BFI London Film Festival (LFF) returns to Midlands Arts Centre (MAC) on Wednesday, 4 October with a curated line-up of some of the year’s most hotly anticipated releases – screening exclusively before they hit cinemas and streaming platforms.

There’s no atmosphere on the planet quite like that of a film festival. And don’t just take my word for it. David Baldwin, Producer – Cinema & Screen at MAC, told Birmingham Review: “A fair few of these films won’t even have a trailer yet, so you can go in completely uninformed and immerse yourself in brand new cinema from across the globe.”

He’s not wrong; Lukas Dhont’s Close is one of the most singularly devastating films I’ve ever seen, and I went into it knowing nothing more than the title. What an experience.

But festivals can also take a bit of planning, even leaving you feeling daunted by the number of films screening or at how much it will all cost. But no need to panic, read on to find out Birmingham Review’s three unmissable picks as the BFI London Film Festival (LFF) returns to MAC.

_______________________________________ 

Saltburn – Wednesday, 4 October at 7:30pm

This year’s Opening Night Gala slot has been awarded to Saltburn, directed by Emerald Fennell. Depending on who you ask, Fennell’s 2020 film Promising Young Woman was either a feminist call to arms against patriarchal lad culture or a catastrophically misguided dud, advocating suicide to overcome trauma. I was in the latter camp, though was smitten with Carey Mulligan’s sensational central performance and the snappy, pop-drenched soundtrack.

Saltburn tells the story of university student Oliver (Barry Keoghan) and his increasingly desperate infatuation with classmate Felix (Jacob Elordi). Keoghan’s chops are in no dispute – he was crushingly sweet in The Banshees of Inisherin – and the principal allure of Saltburn is finally getting to see him in a leading role. Let alone the fact that Elordi starred in Euphoria and the stacked supporting cast includes Rosamund Pike, Carey Mulligan, and Richard E. Grant.

Call this critic cautiously optimistic.

Saltburn – official trailer

For more on Saltburn showing at MAC as part of the London Film Festival visit www.macbirmingham.co.uk/event/london-film-festival-saltburn

_______________________________________ 

Eileen – Wednesday, 11 October at 8:00pm

One of the films that has me most intrigued is William Oldroyd’s Eileen, co-adapted by Ottessa Moshfegh from her own intoxicatingly nasty novel of the same name.

Thomasin McKenzie stars at the titular character, a miserable and lonely young woman who works as a secretary at a prison for sex-starved teenage boys. When an alluring new psychiatrist called Rebecca (Anne Hathaway) arrives, Eileen finds herself sucked into a swirling vortex of sexual fantasy and violent catharsis.

Moshfegh is one of our most exciting literary talents, and the novel Eileen is a bleak and funny tale of twisted empowerment. That said, it isn’t Moshfegh’s strongest (that would be 2022’s Lapvona) and it doesn’t have the popular appeal of 2018’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation, so I’m fascinated to see what darkness Oldroyd, McKenzie, and Hathaway – who described it as “Carol meets Reservoir Dogs” – spin from it.

Eileen is a violent and pulpy tale with a suffocating atmosphere courtesy of cinematographer Ari Wegner, and a plot twist for the ages: brace yourself for a plunge into the abyss.

For more on Eileen showing at MAC as part of the London Film Festival visit www.macbirmingham.co.uk/event/london-film-festival-eileen

_______________________________________ 

How to Have Sex – Saturday, 14 October at 5:30pm

A necessary – incendiary, even – examination of sex and consent comes in the form of Molly Manning Walker’s already acclaimed debut, How to Have Sex. Easily the film I’m most excited for, and winner of Cannes 2022’s ‘Un Certain Regard’ award; buzzy is an understatement for this film.

How to Have Sex follows three teenage girls on a rite-of-passage holiday to Malia. The focus of the trip is sex and drinking, something which weighs heavily on Tara (Mia McKenna-Bruce) who is yet to lose her virginity.

Manning Walker worked initially as a cinematographer on short films, before gaining acclaim for her work on the music video for A$AP Rocky’s ‘Sundress’. More recently she worked on indie-hit Scrapper, a colourful and vivid depiction of a father-daughter relationship that wasn’t afraid to push into darker territory. It deftly critiqued the failing welfare state and a disinterested social service, with two stunning performances from Lola Campbell and Harris Dickinson.

While How to Have Sex may draw superficial comparisons with 2022’s superlative Aftersun simply for being set in a typically British holiday destination, expect a topical and profoundly melancholic meditation on teenage self-image, consent, and hopefulness.

How to Have Sex – official trailer

For more on How to Have Sex showing at MAC as part of the London Film Festival visit www.macbirmingham.co.uk/event/london-film-festival-how-to-have-sex

These are Birmingham Review’s pick of three films we think are ‘must-sees’, but the full LFF at MAC programme is a varied and exciting line-up of some of the most exciting works contemporary cinema has to offer. There’s something for everyone of all ages, proving that there’s never been a better time to be going to be going to the movies.

As David Baldwin adds: “October is literally the most wonderful time of the year for cinephiles.” Cheers to that.

What films are you excited to see at this year’s LFF screenings at MAC? Did we miss anything you feel is a ‘must see’? If you see Birmingham Review at any of the screenings during LFF at MAC make sure to let us know.

BFI London Film Festival screenings begin at MAC on 4 October and run until 15 October, with tickets for all films and events on the programme now on sale. For full listings and links to online ticket sales visit:  www.macbirmingham.co.uk/london-film-festival-2023

To read more about the BFI London Film Festival go to: www.whatson.bfi.org.uk/lff

For more from MAC, including all events listings, visit www.macbirmingham.co.uk

Posted on

Not the Last – Women & Theatre’s exploration of Birmingham benefactor Louisa Ryland, at MAC until Sunday 17 September

Words by Ed King / Promotional pictures by Kate Green

What is a legacy? How are we remembered? What do we leave behind that tells others of us? Is it our children, is it our wealth; is it our lives played out in theatre and song?

For Louisa Ryland it was none of these. Until now.

The heiress of the Ryland estate, who inherited her family’s vast fortune when she was just 29 – and the world was 1843 – is the subject of Women & Theatre’s latest production, Not the Last, running at Midlands Arts Centre (MAC) until Sunday 17 September.

Named after the motto emblazoned on the Ryland tombstones, Not the Last is a retrospective look at the life and death of the prominent Birmingham benefactor and final branch on the wealthy industrialist family tree. Written by Susie Sillett and directed by Jennifer Davis, the play explores the last of the Ryland bloodline – who donated modern day millions to the city she was born into, both during her life and after she died.

Many of Birmingham’s hospitals, educational institutes, churches, and public parks – including what is today known as Cannon Hill Park – were donated or built by this ‘Friend of Birmingham’, who courted no celebrity and wanted no recorded recognition for her gifts to the city.

Nor did Louisa Ryland marry or have children of her own, instead dedicating her love, life, and spending habits to those she chose to care for – breaking the Victorian status quo over a woman’s place in polite society, and planting seeds for the future now nurtured in an original production from Women & Theatre.

Performed in the round, in MAC’s main theatre, Not the Last uses a simple patch of earth as it’s stage – roughly 10m by 3m, set on a rostrum in between two audiences flanking the performers. At first it appears sparse, with the two protagonists lying top to tail as the audience enter. But soon dialogue and subterranean props and set buried beneath the top layer of soil bring the stage to life.

Designed by Imogen Melhuish, it’s a clever use of space and allows the cast – Dina (Janice Connolly) and Raynor (Adaya Henry) – to switch from inner city Birmingham to the greenbelt of Warwickshire, as they explore, excavate, and occasionally steal parts of the Ryland heritage, pulling the occasional bench or folding chair from the ground beneath their feet.

Dina and Raynor are part of a local historical society, with the appropriate obsession with acronyms making its way gleefully into the script, and are researching Louisa Ryland as part of a clandestinely competitive presentation the hobbyist historians must make to the wider group.

As a couple brought together by chance, the literal drawing of straws, the exercise allows the pair to not only look at the life of an extraordinary woman – who became supremely wealthy before she was 30 and gave millions in land and money to the city of Birmingham – but to look at themselves.

Dina is stuck in a thornbush of self-doubt, left to grow wild since their school days, with Raynor gasping through a suffocating fear to be all they can be whilst rehabilitating from a damaging head injury. Both women have a story to tell beneath their obvious façade, and by researching the plot points of Lousia Ryland’s life unearth more about themselves in the process. And the occasional piece of garden furniture.

In essence, Not the Last is a self-analytical study on what we are remembered for, and why. And why any of it is important.

Delivered through an astute and funny script, often thought provoking, and relying mainly on dialogue (although each character is given one solo slot in spotlight) the 75 minutes pass almost too quickly and without interval, as we move from initial research to final realisation.

Themes such as self-worth, ambition, acceptance, social norms, the cruelty of the feudal system and our inherited landed gentry, are brought simply and sympathetically to life. Even through death.

But the expectations and challenges chaining the hands of women in the time Louisa Hyland lived and died, on the cusp of the suffragette movement, when women would legally relinquish ownership of their mind, body, and money to their husbands, is a the prominent narrative thread.

The story, which both my sister and I remember being told by our grandmother, another woman not afraid to buck the tend of her time, is that Lousia Ryland never married after being forbade to wed her publicly chosen suitor and not-quite-wealthy-enough man called Henry Smith – who would go on to serve two terms as Birmingham’s Mayor.

But in doing so she kept her wealth, which was – in the parlance of blue blood and wealthy industrialists – significant. And set about donating and distributing it around the growing city of Birmingham, building places of both secular and religious sanctuary across the city.

The play also brings into question the relationship between Louisa and her longstanding nanny then governess, Charlotte Randle – as it does the need to question it in the first place. And whatever the conclusion, or perceived necessity of reaching one, the two women are buried next to each other and the latter’s surname appears on at least one door in Cannon Hill Park.

But the resounding imprint left by Not the Last is not in the script, which has some stand out lines but occasionally jumps over opportunities for development, but in the performances from the two women who introduce, stand up, and deliver the near hour and a half long play.

Going through its own history defining evolution, Women & Theare’s new Artistic Director (Adaya Henry) gives a confident portrayal of a young woman redefining her place in her world, whilst she searches to make sense of the same journey from 200 years ago.

Whilst Janice Conolly, who will leave the same role when she leaves the same stage, is superb – deft in her delivery, pitch perfect funny, experienced, beguiling, and ultimately the aim of anyone who treads the boards, believable.

Not the Last is a sensitive yet unflinching reminder of a life that helped shaped Birmingham which is often forgotten, be it by the patriarchy writing the history books or those of us too wrapped up in modernity to look over our shoulder.

But it’s also about the dangers of history repeating itself – physically and emotionally – and the ease in which we can step into the wrong line because society or the devil on our shoulder tells us to. And if we get only one garden on the earth then what will we use it to grow?

So, thank you Louisa Hyland, for your bravery and benefaction. And the green spaces where so many of us shared so many formative moments. And good luck Janice Connolly.

Two women Birmingham is well blessed to remember.

Women & Theatre’s original production, Not the Last, runs at Midlands Arts Centre until Sunday 17 September. For more information and links to online ticket sales visit www.macbirmingham.co.uk/event/women-theatre-not-the-last

For more on Women & Theatre visit www.womenandtheatre.co.uk

Posted on

‘Paranoid on Westside’, celebrating 53 years of the seminal Black Sabbath album – Sunday 17 September at Velvet Music Rooms

Words by Ed King / Profile pic of Ozzy Osbourne by Paul Ward

On Sunday 17 September, a special celebration is being held to mark 53 years since the release of the seminal Black Sabbath album, Paranoid.

‘Paranoid on Westside’ will be a free to enter event, held at Velvet Music Rooms on Broad Street from 12 noon – with live music kicking off from 3pm.

Organised by Big Bear Music, who’s founder Jim Simpson was Black Sabbath’s original manager, the all day event will feature two bands – Bromsgrove’s ‘stadium hard rock’ four piece, Moose Jaw, and celebrated Manchester based Black Sabbath tribute act, Sabbra Cadabra.

There will also be a rock and roll jumble sale, the mind boggles, and a special Black Sabbath slide show and rare video screening – introduced by Jim Simpson, who took the heavy metal pioneers through their first three albums, whilst Birmingham gave birth to heavy metal.

As Back Sabbath frontman and vocalist, Ozzy Osbourne, told Uncut Magazine in October 2015, “We were made by Jim Simpson” – after the Midlands music man gave Sabbath, then called Polka Tulk, their first break at his renowned regular live music night, Henry’s Blueshouse.

Known for being a popular hangout for local rock musicians at the time, who came to watch and perform alongside the American blues artists booked in Birmingham by Simpson, Henry’s Blueshouse ran for two years and was frequented by bands including Led Zepplin, Jethro Tull, Judas Priest, Supertramp, Thin Lizzy, and Status Quo.

Originally held at The Crown pub on Station Street from 1968 to 1970, Henry’s Blueshouse now promotes regular gigs at Velvet Music Rooms on Broad Street in Birmingham City Centre.

Paranoid was released by Vertigo Records on 18 September 1970, the second studio album from the Birmingham born Black Sabbath, and carries now widely regarded rock anthems including ‘War Pigs’, ‘Iron Man’, and the title track ‘Paranoid’.

The album also offers Sabbath’s polemic about the Vietnam war, with ‘War Pigs’ – the album’s original title track – comparing the strategists behind the American led conflict to Satan worshippers and occult rituals.

‘Hand of Doom’ further explores the heroin addictions of many returning service men, after using the drug in conflict to numb the horrors of the Vietnam War. It was originally penned after Black Sabbath played gig for American service man on army bases in the US.

Paranoid was released by Vertigo Records in the UK and Warner Bros. in the United States and is currently ranked at No. 139 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of ‘The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time’.

Black Sabbath play ‘Paranoid’ at O2 Academy, Birmingham, in 2012

‘Paranoid on Westside’ will be held at the Velvet Music Rooms, Broad Street, Birmingham City Centre, on Sunday 17 September. Entry is free.

For further information, please phone 0121 454 7020 or email: charlie@bigbearmusic.com

For more on Velvet Music Rooms visit www.velvetmusicrooms.co.uk

For more on Big Bear Music visit www.bigbearmusic.com
For more on Henry’s Blueshouse visit www.blueshouse.bigbearmusic.com

Posted on

Supersonic Festival 2023: A weekend with the weird and wonderful – Sunday 3 September

Words by Ray Vincent-Mills / Pics by Alice Needham, Connor Pope, and Andrew Roberts

It’s the last day of Supersonic Festival 2023, and I yawn my way into the art gallery Eastside Projects – where a dozen bodies are knelt into a yoga pose and a peaceful air, led by DO.OMYOGA.

I tiptoe my way past, into a side room, where 77 Boa Drum is being screened – the documentary when Japanese experimental music group Boredoms facilitated a show with 77 drummers in Brooklyn. It’s somewhere between a classroom and a gig, as drummers (quite literally) bounce off and learn from each other. Afterwards is Constellation Kino where releases from the label are accompanied by experimental visuals, digital art, shorts, and movement pieces.

I bob back into the main room, relaxed and inspired, and stumble into the Stuart Maconie Freak Zone quiz where the BBC Radio 6 presenter announces: “Don’t search us without putting ‘music’ at the end of it or you’ll see things you can’t unsee.” I giggle my way out of the gallery and pass Dead Wax, where Shovel Dance Collective are facilitating a workshop on writing a ballad to the often grimy but beloved streets of Digbeth.

I mosey my way into The Mill and head into the Marketplace, where queer alternative collective Outcast Stomp are hosting an experimental life drawing class, resulting in colourful scrawls oozing with life and expression.

After a while, I leave The Mill and head over to 7SVN where singer songwriter and instrumentalist Josephine Foster is performing. I sway to her beautiful songbird like vocals with notes of hope, whimsy, and melancholy – perfect on a sunny festival Sunday.

I bounce up to the foliage filled rooftop where Freak Zone are doing a takeover with club bangers and classics. I then head to The Mill to catch violinist Jessica Moss, as she builds a textured and dark performance with a loop pedal and sporadic vocals.

Looking around I see a cluster of people are sat cross legged on the ground; I frown, remind myself I did 30,000 steps yesterday, and join them to see what the fuss is all about. I close my eyes and let the music wash over me and truly immerse myself in Moss’s dark, introspective, and sublime set, which ends with swirling wolf howls. I stand up teary eyed as I overhear someone say: “It’s the worst thing to go out into the sunshine after that.”

But into the daylight I go, heading back to 7SVN, where I’m then submerged into a room of handmade signs, a couple of heads by Brum based artist Tatvision, and a gigantic tapestry with all the names of bands that have performed at Supersonic over the years.

To my left a group of ‘disciples’ equipped with bells chant all the names. To the right is a group of people passionately strumming guitars. Behind me an enthusiastic goggle wearing blue haired person behind me joins in incessantly. Ahead of me, the procession is lead by a tall man with white facepaint and a megaphone moving back and forth. I can’t help by grin at the sight of it all, the zany celebration of this beloved festival. I think I may have just joined a cult… updates pending (turns out I was half right, it was the Supersonic Mass).

Afterwards, I catch Shovel Dance Collective – a folk group of varying hair lengths – who move from humble moving harmonies to cacophonous bursts of infectious juvenile sounds. “A reminder that folk music was created by the working class those who made the wealth of the world,” declares one of the seven musicians on stage

Back at The Mill, 75 Dollar Bill are occupying stage with effortlessly cool grooves from a duo that make me want to put on a pair of outlandish sunglasses, light a cigar, and saunter down the street.

But there’s no time to lose on this jam packed Sunday line up, and I dart back to 7SVN where Silver Moth deliver a performance that adds shimmery ambient tones to noise rock.

Alongside the experimental music, Supersonic also presents a thought provoking array of workshops and talks. Back in The Mill, The Membranes founding member John Robb and Sony Music’s Julie Weir are having a conversation about the history of goth.

Julie asks John what he thinks about the progression of goth in the age of social media. “If you’re standing in a forest standing in a circle, in a way you’re back in the 17th century, it’s no different than a gothic painting,” he Robb.  I hum in thought and think of this as a reminder Supersonic is not just a festival, but a history lesson in the foundations of what brought this festival to fruition.

Hungry for more music, back at The Mill stage I wait for the next artist scheduled, Montana Roberts, who we are unfortunately told contracted Covid and won’t be able to perform. They are replaced with Marc Wagner and the band Seoul, with repeating synths and ghostly vocals.

I go back to 7SVN where Jessica Moss now teams up with heavy hitting neighbours Big|Brave. The room is packed as they play a set filled with guttural guitars, bellowing drums, and the gorgeous darkly angelic mix of both female vocalists.

Back in The Mill (I’m building up my steps for Sunday too) the Marketplace is filled with funky jams, whilst the rooftop is host to vintage bangers. On stage, The Seer have replaced Širom, bringing with them a backdrop of a crystallised plane filled with lightning bolts that transitions into Blair Witch style footage of a masked figure running over water.

The set feels carefully curated as she pours a bottle of crystals into a bucket, then slowly and deliberately floats across the stage. I think about the DnB filtering in from upstairs and attempt to tune it out.

Afterward, I go straight to 7SVN where people are excitedly discussing the Sunday night headliners (and Mercury Music Prize nominees) Lankum. The room is the fullest it has been all weekend, as the Irish quartet captivate the audience with their blend of rock and folk.

One of the performers talks in between songs about his excitement to be here: “even the fucking security are cool, imagine”, he shouts, before sharing the fact Birmingham has the largest number of Irish expats in the UK.

As Lankum play it truly feels like cultures are being bridged, celebrated, and shared. They go from sea shanties with gusto that ebbs, into choppy staccatos and lyrics about hangovers and belonging. I notice this is the act for the lovers at the festival, as couples kiss and sway – as a group of strangers excitedly Irish dance at the front of the crowd. The set feels poignant and unifying, and I feel lucky I got to experience it.

Back at The Mill, Algiers open up with existential hip hop with soulful vocals, and an enthusiastic synth player acting as the hype man. One of the most versatile acts of the weekend, with a blend of gospel, rock and roll, hip hop with samples from late drill artist Pop Smoke and Backxwash.

A man turns to me eyes sparkling: “He’s got a fantastic voice, so, so beautiful.” And he was completely right.

Back in 7SVN, the final set of Supersonic Festival 2023 comes from Avalanche Kaito – hailing the stage with magnetic energy, as the German duo allow the frontman, griot, and multi-instrumentalist Kaito to tell his story, which includes elemental themes of soil and sky.

I think of how much of a privilege it is to be graced by a griot (who would traditionally be spreading their poetry and music across West Africa and not Digbeth) and experience Kaito’s story in such a dynamic and performative way. Whoever curated the festival line up really knew what they were doing putting the group last, as they encapsulate the festival’s themes on breaking boundaries and crossing borders in music and in the self.

All of a sudden, Kaito whips out a Peul flute. “Just when you thought flutes couldn’t be rock and roll,” I say to someone, who in turn insists flutes have always been rock n roll.

Kaito moves like he emptied his bones backstage and filled his body with guitars and drums, as he scuttles across the stage elated and in a childlike fashion. It’s a pure joy to watch as he gets the crowd going with guttural shouts of “ARE YOU READY?” – only performing when he’s satisfied with the response. There also comes a truly beautiful call and response with the crowd, as people dance and headbang their way until the end.

As the dust settles, it’s clear to me that Supersonic is not just a festival. It’s a love letter to experimental and hardcore music; a place of sharing, learning, and breaking down whatever limitations people may have about music.

It’s even clearer to me that Supersonic is a space for everyone, intricately curated in a way to highlight artists I don’t know how I would find even if I wanted to. Over this extra special weekend, my ears have heard things I’ve never heard before.

70,000 steps, 25 bands, and one speechless writer later… I meander into the afterparty at Dead Wax where Starship’s mid 80’s anything ‘We Built This City’ is playing. Indeed we did I think, and a whole lot more, and I blow the metaphorical candles on the 20th birthday cake of our city’s very special Supersonic Festival.

Supersonic Festival 2023 – Friday 1 September / Alice Needham, Connor Pope, and Andrew Roberts

(Artists featured: Algiers, Avalanche Kaito, Jessica Moss, Josephine Foster, Lankum, Shovel Dance Collective, Silver Moth, Supersonic Mass, The Seer)

For more about Supersonic Festival visit www.supersonicfestival.com

For more on Capsule visit www.capsule.org.uk/

Posted on

Supersonic Festival 2023: A weekend with the weird and wonderful – Saturday 2 September

Words by Ray Vincent-Mills / Pics by Alice Needham and Connor Pope

It’s the second day at Supersonic Festival and activists Decolonise Fest take over the roof with infectious fusions and a zine making table, as with someone determinedly blows up a stash of beach balls by their side.

On The Mill stage is duo Blacks’ Myths, with hints of jazz and blues under unforgiving drums, and groovy bass lines with distorted background vocals.

On the 7SVN is Divide and Dissolve, and whilst they soundcheck someone behind me says: “Do whatever you want for as long as you want babe, times fascist anyway.” Divide and Dissolve do not disappoint, delivering a complex and both gorgeous and brash performance. In between their set they talk about the giving back of land and wearing a ‘destroy white supremacy’ shirt whilst having lunch with your grandad.

As I leave to go back to The Mill, I think about how safe and lovely a space this seems at Supersonic. Sometimes to the festival’s detriment, as I think as someone apologises for punching me in the Taqbir mosh pit.

I catch Elvin Brandhi, delivering some tortured futuristic industrial. It feels like a robot was asked to create what a scream sounded like but in the best way possible.

Elsewhere DJ Bus Replacement Service is performing in a Kim Jon Un mask, and the crowd unthreads. The beach balls finally descend, and the security guard is dancing with an inflatable parrot as everyone is losing their minds.

Then for the final set of the night, back at 7SVN, Backxwash (aka the doom queen) enters the stage making her UK debut.

Her set is interwoven with footage of historical black figures talking about black beauty and resilience. It aligns with her performance beautifully, as she goes full throttle with one blown monitor and three bottles of water later.

Supersonic Festival 2023 – Saturday 2 September / Alice Needham and Connor Pope

(Artists featured: Backxwash, Blacks’ Myths, Blind Eye, Elvin Brandhi, Godflesh, Oxbow, Ragana, Taqbir)

For more about Supersonic Festival visit www.supersonicfestival.com

For more on Capsule visit www.capsule.org.uk