Drama Archives -

October 12, 2018

BREVIEW: Skate Kitchen @ Midlands Art Centre 12-17.10.18

Words by Ashleigh Goodwin

Crystal Moselle’s Skate Kitchen is her sixth venture into the world of directing, and features a primarily female fronted cast, led by Rachelle Vinberg in her first feature length film. Vinberg plays Camille, an isolated teenager who enjoys nothing more than skateboarding and scrolling through her Instragram feed.

Upon following the female skateboarding collective ‘The Skate Kitchen’ closely on the platform, she attends one of their meet ups in NYC and quickly befriends them. From this Camille begins to navigate adolescence with her new friends in tow, as opposed to being alone with her mum in their suburban Long Island house.

I didn’t know what to except when going into the preview – organised by Film Hub Midlands in conjunction with Telford & Wrekin Council – having avoided researching the film until I was able to catch a screening. But I imagined it would be more of a documentary that focuses on the technical side of skateboarding. And despite this not being the forefront of the film, it was still woven successfully into the narrative to create a good balance of realism and fiction. You’re able to see that Moselle’s approach to the subject is authentic and well researched; indeed, the writer/director initially approached The Skate Kitchen girls after seeing them on the subway and was curious to know more, which is what spawned the making of the eponymous film.

At its core though, Skate Kitchen is not just a skateboarding documentary or drama piece but a modern coming of age film – one that is primarily (and successfully) directed towards females, as opposed to the relationship between them and their male peers which can often be the focus of such films. Although Skate Kitchen does touch upon this too.

Compiled of relative newcomers (apart from Jaden Smith), the cast is what makes Skate Kitchen unique and charming. The girls aren’t trying to fit into their assigned roles and the characters they play just seem like an extension of themselves, which makes sense given Moselle’s approach to the film. Due to the ease of their performances and how natural their chemistry is, it makes Skate Kitchen feel authentic and intimate, like a fly on the wall witnessing real life conversations amongst a group of girlfriends. There are no weak performances within the cast, with each member bringing a distinct personality and something individual to the film. I felt this particularly extended to Janay (Ardelia Lovelace), whose character is played with such realism it almost felt like a documentary; Lovelace is really enjoyable and interesting to watch which makes it easy to invest, emphasise, and root for her throughout.

Skate Kitchen’s strengths go further than being well cast and directed; the film doesn’t just explore the world of females occupying the typically male dominated domain of skateboarding, but goes beyond that to incorporate the classic coming of age tropes in a fresh, modern way. This makes it accessible to those in their teenage years, especially female viewers.

Topics that are typically shied away from are spoken about and shown in length; scenes where Camille discusses periods, tampons, sexuality, and family relationships are dealt with frankly and with blunt honesty – mainly from Kurt (played affectionately and charismatically by Nina Moran). It’s through this approach that Skate Kitchen does the job of expelling and diminishing stigma around such natural issues, alerting audiences to the fact that these are simply normal.

Concepts such as fractured families, finding freedom, body dysmorphia, and first loves are also shown throughout the course of the film, but none of them feel underdeveloped or skimmed over, with all of them fitting comfortably within the film’s narrative.

The only pitfall is that despite having strong themes, it didn’t feel as though there was much of a definitive plot to Skate Kitchen. There was no big, main, end goal. But this doesn’t detract too much, as the film presents itself as more of an exploration of coming of age as opposed to a succinct story about it. In a way this even works to the film’s favour, as it makes it more true to life; Skate Kitchen still ends up where it needs to.

Although I did feel this issue diminished the opportunity to develop certain narratives, especially when it came to Camille’s relationship with her mum – played by Elizabeth Rodriguez (better known from her performance as Aleida Diaz in Orange is the New Black). At the beginning of the film, Camille’s mum is a constant on screen – banning her daughter from skating after she ‘credit cards’ herself on the board. Camille disregards this and, to add insult to injury, starts travelling to New York regularly to meet up and practice with the girls from The Skate Kitchen.

Halfway into the film their mother-daughter relationship is in pieces, but it suddenly becomes secondary and fades into the background with them only reconciling briefly on screen near the end. When they do reconcile it’s still touching, and the scenes of Camille holding her mum’s hand whilst guiding her precariously down the street on her board are some of my favourites from the whole film. Yet it would have been nice to see them resolve their issues in a full scene – or for the mum’s narrative to be woven in more evenly throughout the whole film, as opposed to heavily then not at all.

This point also extends to her relationship with The Skate Kitchen girls, after their explosive falling out near the end we don’t see them make up again and it would have been interesting to see how this played out on screen. Although, again, this isn’t necessarily a negative – this approach shows how insignificant and irrelevant teenage arguments can be in the grander scheme, and how things can go back to normal. Rather than showing a scene where they make up verbally, we end with shots of all the girls skating carefree down New York streets with nothing but music, shots of their boards, faces, and the city.

Overall, Skate Kitchen isn’t a film I will be eagerly waiting to re-watch, but I think it’s an important, heart warming, and entertaining film to put on your list. Also the influx of these films – namely ones that are female written and directed, and feature a female dominated cast – are important. They show a perspective not present in a lot of mainstream films and address issues or topics that are often missing too, especially amongst a female teenage or young adult audience – an agenda the UK distribution company for Skate Kitchen, Modern Films, has been working hard to promote.

The use of protagonists from different cultural, racial, and economic backgrounds is also a strong tool in storytelling, and allows film to be more readily accessible to a wider range of people. Not only that, but through sharing female experiences via film, audiences can find solace, solidarity, education and guidance that they may be lacking in the public sphere and it opens up a dialogue for certain issues and topics.

Diversity within film has always been important and although there is still a long way to go, with films like Skate Kitchen the future of fair representation does seem a little brighter.

Skate Kitchen – official trailer

Skate Kitchen (rated certificate 15) is out on general release, with screenings at Midlands Art Centre from 12^th to 17^th October. For more details, including a full programme schedule and links to online bookings, visit www.macbirmingham.co.uk/event/skate-kitchen-boarders

For more from on Skate Kitchen, visit www.skatekitchen.co.uk

For more on Modern Films, visit www.modernfilms.com

For more on Film Hub Midlands, visit www.filmhubmidlands.org

For more on Midlands Art Centre, including venue details and further event listings, visit www.macbirmingham.co.uk

________

NOT NORMAL – NOT OK is a campaign to encourage safety and respect within live music venues, and to combat the culture of sexual assault and aggression – from dance floor to dressing room.

To sign up to NOT NORMAL – NOT OK, click here. To know more about the NOT NORMAL – NOT OK sticker campaign, click here.

June 1, 2018July 17, 2018

BREVIEW: My Friend Dahmer 01.06.18

Words by Ashleigh Goodwin

When asking the ‘average’ person what their interests are, we’ve all heard the standard pastimes rattled off: socialising with friends and family, sporting activities, travelling, having a pint at the pub… And as I enter into the world of professionalism and small talk, I’ve realised this is a safe, relatable, and most importantly a socially acceptable list to recount in those awkward moments of introduction.

But it was after I inadvertently blurted out that my main interest were “serial killers”, with wide eyes and possibly over enthusiastic tone, in a work conference icebreaker not so long ago that I felt the pang of peer review and social acceptance. I don’t necessarily mean this is a bad interest, as I know many people who share it, but at the end of it all aren’t we all trying to fit in?

Due to this fascination, I’ve amassed bits of knowledge on Jeffrey Dahmer over the years from various sources: podcasts, autobiographies, biographies, films, interviews and documentaries. So, when I was offered the chance to sneak a first peak at the new biopic on the serial killer, My Friend Dahmer, I was genuinely overjoyed – jumping on a train from Bristol back to Birmingham to make the advanced screening at The Electric Cinema, as organised by Film Hub Midlands.

My Friend Dahmer is based on the 2012 graphic novel/memoir by American cartoonist John ‘Derf’ Backderf. Derf was an acquaintance of Jeffrey Dahmer’s throughout their time at Eastview Junior High and Revere High School from 1968 to 1978. The film adaptation doesn’t show this entire timeline or solely focus on Backderf’s friendship with Dahmer, like the graphic novel, but rather follows Dahmer throughout his four years in high school, charting his binge-drinking, the separation of his parents, his fascination for dead animal experimentation, and his desperate cries for attention to gain acceptance amongst his peers. The film shows Dharmer’s life up to the time just before his first human murder, two weeks after his graduation, ending with him picking up his first victim – hitchhiker Steven Mark Hicks.

My Friend Dahmer is also presented through the eyes of Dahmer himself, as opposed to the singular perspective of Derf in his graphic novel. Director and screenwriter, Marc Meyers, explains this switch was because “we’re all most interested in the life and descent of Jeff Dahmer. It’s the mix of Jeff’s school and home life that is the most compelling and important part of the story“.

Meyers does a great job with this film, carefully executing a cautionary tale that could have easily descended into the common pitfalls of the serial killer genre, such as glamorisation, dramatisation and desensitisation. Yet the way he captures Dahmer’s declining psyche, using subtle editing throughout the film, at times feels nothing short of masterful.

Meyers utilises all available factors, such as sound, the transition between frames, and the use of both establishing and close up shots, to create a deliberate and careful portrayal of Dahmer’s chaotic decent to the point of no return. I’ll admit, however, on occasion at the beginning the film felt slow and I was initially frustrated we were getting a lacklustre portrayal of the situation. But as My Friend Dahmer enters into its second half you realise this is a deliberate move to show the progression of Dahmer’s character and how he eventually gets to the point that he does.

During his school life, Dahmer was notorious for regularly faking seizures and mimicking cerebral palsy through speech impediments and certain ticks, in a bid to attraction attention from his peers. This worked too, as Derf and his classmates formed a “Dahmer Fan Club” due to how entertaining and interesting the found their ‘friend’ Jeffrey.

Derf, along with other peers, paid Dahmer to do “his act” at Summit Mall one afternoon; Derf has stated the event went down as “legendary”, as Jeffrey Dahmer spent around two hours terrorising shoppers by shouting in their faces, flinging their food trays from tables, and faking seizures in the middle of the complex. I felt this scene did a great job of summarising the tragedy that was Dahmer’s teenage years; the disconnect he had from everyone, his desperate need to fit in, and how he ultimately was nothing more than comical fodder amongst his peers.

Meyers could have easily set this up as a purley comical scene, but uses it as a pivotal point within the film to show the severity of Dahmer’s rapidly declining grasp of normalcy. Again, the editing is great here and shows the raw emotion by using a series of close-up frames that focus solely on a tormented looking Dahmer. Quick fades and dissolves are then used to fit the crescendo of a piano instrumental in the background, effectively building the emotion of the narrative and conveying an increasing despair without any dialogue.

However, the main highlight of the film is indisputably Ross Lynch’s performance as the younger Jeffrey Dahmer. Lynch was previously known for his work on the Disney Channel, and this departure makes his delivery even more surreal whilst showcasing the wider berth of his acting skills. Lynch manages to pin-point Dahmer’s character, not only in his immediate appearance (Lynch is virtually unrecognisable with his mop like hair and large glasses) but in his slouched posture, his introverted mannerisms, and most strikingly his facial expressions and eye contact which convey emotion in each scene without saying a word.

Meyers also finds balance in his execution of Dahmer’s character, showing the stereotypically introverted and sinister Dahmer but also his collected and composed nature in a very self-aware way. This is reflected in the story of how Dahmer called the President’s office on a school trip to Washington and arranged a meeting with his friends and Vice-President Walter Mondale. Lynch re-enacts this with a great calmness and slight arrogance – the more confident side of Dahmer gives the character further depth and an indication of his multifaceted personality, which became a vital part of the man in later life.

Lynch’s performance is also made so captivating because many of the experiences and situations Dahmer faced through adolescence are those that can be commonplace for any teenager, such as loneliness, negligence and the struggle for acceptance. This humanises Lynch’s character, as it isn’t hard to relate certain aspects of his demeanour to someone you know. Backderf even stated that Lynch’s portrayal of Dahmer will “make viewers uncomfortable because it’s so familiar.”

My main gripe, however, is that I feel My Friend Dahmer portrays the ‘Dahmer Fan Club’ to be more compassionate than was perhaps strictly true – especially judging by Derf’s own account in his graphic novel, which repeatedly stated that generally they excluded Dahmer, didn’t give him much concern, and pretty much kept him around for entertainment.

However, in the film there are a handful of scenes where members of the group question if it’s “mean how [we] treat Dahmer” and later on that they should “leave him alone”. None of this is reflected in Derf’s original recount and feels as though it has been thrown in to the film to make his peers appear more sympathetic, or to make them seem more like invested acquaintances than they were.

This is demonstrated most prominently within the penultimate scene between Dahmer and Derf in the car outside Jeffrey’s house; Derf, after disassociating himself from Dahmer due to his overbearing weirdness, hesitantly discusses heading off to college and Dahmer’s future plans. At this point in Derf’s graphic novel I was practically begging for someone to ask Dahmer ‘are you okay?’, but it never came. By introducing the disjointed, flippant interests in Dahmer’s welfare at this stage in the film adaptation it felt unnecessary, disingenuous, and took away the severity of hopelessness and isolation of the central character.

Although also towards the end of the film the narrative shows Dahmer’s former friends and his parents all leaving him, instilling the audience with a heart-sinking feeling as we expect the inevitable. The scene where Dahmer’s mother, Joyce, leaves with his brother, David, is done in such a blasé way it almost becomes comical, with Meyers using this to encapsulate the tragedy of Dahmer’s teenage relationships and how utterly alone he really was. After Joyce leaves, the scene is deathly quiet as Dahmer falls to the floor and cries. You can see the angst and conflict in Lynch’s face, so much so you could arguably mark the point where all hope is lost for Jeffrey Dahmer.

There is a further absence of any full discussion about Dahmer’s struggle with his sexuality. There are a couple of scenes in My Friend Dahmer that hint towards this inner conflict, but this could have been expanded on rather than being just an undertone as it is such a vital part in the killer’s motives and central to the whole character of Jeffrey Dahmer.

I also have a feeling the film may hold more appeal to those with a pre-existing interest in Dahmer. For those with little interest in the notorious serial killer, it may seem slow paced and potentially anticlimactic and we don’t see any of what Dahmer is most known for, so I would recommend reading Derf’s graphic novel for a bit of background.

This being said, My Friend Dahmer carries a lot for all film lovers to enjoy, such as the aforementioned performance from Lynch and the evident craft put into each scene; the colour pallet for the film is really enjoyable, recreating the era through a sepia quality and giving a portrayal of Ohio within the late-sixties that feels authentic and rich.

Overall, Meyers presents an honest look at Jeffery Dahmer’s unsettling and upsetting childhood. The film neither excuses nor sympathises with his actions, but still shows the extent to which Dahmer’s traumas and inner demons grew through the negligence of those around him, and eventually consumed him, in a process that is both fascinating and heart-wrenching to watch.

My Fiend Dahmer offers its audience a glimpse into the serial killer’s adolescence without assigning blame on certain events or situations that lead to his fate. But rather the narrative explores the factors that shaped Dahmer into the individual he became, without trying to answer the ‘nature Vs nurture’ debate – a conversation arguably best left to both the audience and wider society. Something to remember during that uncomfortable small talk at the office Christmas party.

My Friend Dahmer – official trailer

My Friend Dahmer is out in general release from Friday 1^st June – coming to both independent and mainstream cinemas across the UK. For more on My Friend Dahmer, visit www.filmrise.com/film/my-friend-dahmer

May 10, 2018

BREVIEW: Spring at Birmingham Literature Festival @ REP & other venues 27-29.04.18

Words by Helen Knott

Antonia Beck’s first programme as Birmingham Literature Festival’s Festival Director focuses on celebrating and championing female writers. So it’s little surprise, as I walk into Birmingham REP’s Door space for my first taste of their spring weekend programme, that the audience is predominantly female.

It’s shame that more men aren’t present for this engaging panel discussion – titled 2018: The Year of Publishing Women? – which is inspired by the novelist Kamila Shamsie’s ‘provocation’ that publishers should only publish books by women in 2018. I think they would find it interesting.

When proposing the concept, Shamsie argued that her approach would both highlight and counteract the gender bias in publishing and literary awards towards male authors. Initially published in The Guardian, the article sparked much discussion and publicity but only one publisher, And Other Stories (represented on today’s panel by Fiction Editor Tara Tobler), has taken up the challenge. Today’s panel members make it clear, however, that there are a lot of other positive ways to work towards greater gender balance in literature and in society in general. Catherine Mayer set up the political Women’s Equality Party, Sian Norris founded the Bristol Women’s Literature Festival, and Sabeena Akhtar is compiling an anthology featuring work by women who have experience of wearing the hijab.

The panel discuss some of the issues that they have faced as female writers and editors. They agree that female authors are marketed in certain ways, with sexualized or feminised book covers, that they are typecast into writing in limited genres or about particular themes, and that, although female authors achieve high book sales, they are less often named on award shortlists than men. Panel and audience members put forward a number of suggestions of how to counteract these issues, including networking and mentoring, refusing to work for free, and utilising the internet to publish work independently.

Perhaps the most striking thought that I’m left with is that this isn’t just a problem of female representation. It’s an intersectional issue. Yes it’s difficult to be a woman in publishing, but you could further argue that a white, wealthy woman is – on the whole – going to find it easier to build up a professionally broad network of contacts than their counterparts from a different class or culture. The lack of equality in publishing is a complex challenge that isn’t going to be solved by a single panel discussion in Birmingham – yet this event carries out the important job of making sure that the issue continues to be highlighted.

Next is #MeToo: A Movement in Poetry. Fair Acre Press has published an anthology of poetry featuring the work of 80 female poets in response to the #MeToo movement – which highlights the prevalence of sexual harassment and assault against women in society. In this event, 24 poems are read aloud by over twenty different female voices. Some of the poems are read by their authors on the stage (such as Kathy Gee’s ‘Still Guilty’ and ‘=Not Him’ by Pat Edwards) and some are read by audience members, either at the front of the room or from their seat in the auditorium.

This format is simple, but incredibly powerful. When the woman next to you in the audience suddenly stands up and starts reading a poem about sexual assault or harassment, it really brings home the fact that this could be happening to the person next to you on the bus, at work, or even at home. And you had no idea. The poems are thoughtfully arranged, starting with the ambiguous ‘Reeds’ – which describes an episode that could be the start of something, or of nothing. Poems like ‘The Bicycle’ show the narrator trying to focus on other things to distance themselves from what just happened, whereas ‘Spunk’ powerfully describes an episode explicitly.

By the end, ‘Spartaca’ sees women standing together in solidarity and speaking out. The sheer number of episodes and stories presented brings home the widespread nature of sexual assault and harassment that women encounter. But it also creates a sense of solidarity. Poem after poem, experience after experience, momentum builds, and the more women that speak out the more women have the courage to join in. Considering the distressing subject matter, the poetry, presented as it is here, has an uplifting effect.

We’re back on a more comfortable footing for the festival’s final event. Festival Director, Antonia Beck, describes Jenny Murray as having a voice that’s a “staple in all our homes” in her introduction to A History of Britain in 21 Women with Jenny Murray. As you go through life, you occasionally meet people with such charm and ease that you’ll listen to them, enthralled, for hours. Murray is such a person. It’s not surprising that she has become such a beloved institution on our airwaves.

This event is named after Murray’s book, which is part memoir, part accessible take on British history. Tonight, Murray tells a series of anecdotes from her life mixed with interesting stories about 21 women who shaped the history of Britain, all framed by questions from ex-BBC Midlands Today presenter Sue Beardsmore. Murray describes history as being the “biography of great men” and her book addresses this by documenting some important women in British history, some of whom Murray believes are somewhat passed over in the school curriculum.

She talks about women like Boudica, who led an uprising against the occupying Romans and who Murray first encountered in statue-form on a trip to London as a child. And Elizabeth I, who would be her top pick for a fantasy dinner party. And Margaret Thatcher, the only woman Murray says she has ever been frightened of. The evening ends with Murray speaking about the sexism that women still encounter, particularly highlighting the difficulties faced by female MPs and praising the #MeToo movement for raising awareness of harassment and abuse.

It’s a fitting end, both to the event and to the weekend as whole, which certainly posed some interesting questions about the role of women in literature and in society. Whether Antonia Beck continues to focus on celebrating and championing female writers in the full Birmingham Literature Festival programme, running from October 4^thto 14^th, remains to be seen. But until autumn, there is both plenty of food for thought and plenty still to accomplish.

For more on Birmingham Literature Festival, visit www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org

For more on Writing West Midlands, visit www.writingwestmidlands.org

For more from Birmingham REP, including full event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.birmingham-rep.co.uk

April 25, 2018

BPREVIEW: Spring at Birmingham Literature Festival @ REP & other venues 27-29.04.18

Words by Helen Knott

Spring at Birmingham Literature Festival is a weekend-long partner to the full ten day festival, running mainly at REP from Friday 27^th to Sunday 29^th April. Further events are also being held at the High Street branch of Waterstones, Birmingham & Midland Institute, and the Curzon Building by Millennium Point.

Tickets prices vary for all events, with some already sold out. For direct information on the Spring at Birmingham Literature Festival, including full programme details and links to online ticket sales, click here.

Organised and run by Writing West Midlands, Birmingham Literature Festival celebrates its 21^st anniversary this year. And whilst the festival may have reached young adulthood, it continues to gather momentum each year with 2017’s edition featuring some of its biggest ever events – including Brummie comedian Joe Lycett and Jess Phillips MP (Yardley) in conversation at Town Hall.

2018 is a particularly interesting time for Birmingham Literature Festival, as the recent appointment of Antonia Beck as Festival Director marks the start of a new chapter (pun intended). It will be interesting to see what impact Beck, an award-winning theatre maker, has on the programming and direction of the festival in the coming years.

We’ll know more when the full October programme is announced, but on first sight the spring programme isn’t a massive departure from previous years – featuring a line-up of writer events, screenings and workshops, with a mix of star names (Alexei Sayle, Jenni Murray) and local authors.

There is, however, a particular focus on celebrating and championing female writers within the Spring at Birmingham Literature Festival programme. In the centenary year of women in the UK over 30 being guaranteed the right to vote, and with the #MeToo movement continuing to highlight the prevalence of sexual assault and harassment, it’s a fitting theme for the festival. Discussions will include the gender bias in publishing, women’s place in history, and the #MeToo phenomenon itself.

Here are some of my picks of the events to watch out for this spring, all designed, as Beck puts it, to create, “a space to learn, challenge and be inspired”.

The Boy with the Top Knot screening @ The Studio (REP) 27.04.18 / 6pm / Free (booking required)

Black Country writer Sathnam Sanghera’s critically-acclaimed memoir about a second-generation Indian man growing up in Britain, The Boy with the Topknot, was turned into a BBC drama in 2017. Here you can watch a screening of the adaptation, then join a Q&A with some of the key people involved – including director Lynsey Miller, screenwriter Mick Ford, and Sanghera himself. Sanghera is Guest Curator for the full festival in October, so watch out for hints of what he might have in store.

For more on The Boy with the Topknot, as featured in the Spring at Birmingham Literature Festival programme, click here.

________

#MeToo: A Movement in Poetry @ The Studio (REP) 28.04.18 / 6pm / £8 (£6.40 concessions)

Fair Acre Press has published an anthology of new poetry featuring 80 female poets’ response to the #MeToo movement. The anthology, tilted #MeToo: A Movement in Poetry, includes work by Jill Abram, Helen Mort, Pascale Petit and Jacqueline Saphra, and includes a forward by Jess Phillips MP. At this event, poems from the anthology will be read by some of the poets themselves and by audience members in a thoughtful, and no doubt hard-hitting, response to an extraordinary movement.

For more on #MeToo: A Movement in Poetry, as featured in the Spring at Birmingham Literature Festival programme, click here.

________

2018: The Year of Publishing Women @ The Studio (REP) 28.04.18 / 2.15pm / £8 (£6.40 concessions)

Back in 2015, the novelist Kamila Shamsie made a provocative suggestion – to counteract the gender bias in publishing and literary awards towards male authors, Shamsie suggested that 2018 should be the Year of Publishing Women with no new titles written by men.

Shamsie’s article has sparked much discussion and publicity, but only one publisher (And Other Stories) has taken up the challenge. In this panel discussion, the debate will be continued by Catherine Mayer (writer and co-founder of the Women’s Equality Party), Tara Tobler (Fiction Editor at And Other Stories) and Sian Norris (writer, founder and director of the Bristol Women’s Literature Festival).

For more on 2018: The Year of Publishing Women, as featured in the Spring at Birmingham Literature Festival programme, click here.

________

A History of Britain in 21 Women with Jenni Murray @ The Studio (REP) 29.04.18 / 7pm / £10 (£8 concessions)

In her 2016 book, A History of Britain in 21 Women, Woman’s Hour presenter Jenni Murray tells the stories of 21 British women who have shaped the country and indeed, her own life. Each chapter focuses on a different woman, some of whom are well-known and others less so. For this event Murray will be in conversation with television journalist and presenter Sue Beardsmore. Expect plenty of anecdotes from Murray’s life, full of her trademark wit and warmth.

For more on A History of Britain in 21 Women, as featured in the Spring at Birmingham Literature Festival programme, click here.

For more on Spring at Birmingham Literature Festival, visit www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org

For more on Writing West Midlands, visit www.writingwestmidlands.org

For more from Birmingham REP, including full event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.birmingham-rep.co.uk

March 28, 2018July 17, 2018

BREVIEW: Ready Player One – UK release from 28.03.18

Words by Ashleigh Goodwin

Monday evenings are nearly always unbearable. I practically run home, eager to get to the warmth of my house, only to emerge the next morning for work and to start the cycle again.

However last Monday, I headed to Cineworld on Broadstreet for a preview of Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One. This was made possible by Film Birmingham – Birmingham City Council’s film office who enables accessible and effective ways for production within Birmingham, ‘done through a number of free services available to the film and television industry including locations and crews as well as filming permissions.’

Film Birmingham has been a supporter and developer of film and TV since 2006, and embodies the rich history of cinema dating back to 1863 whilst connecting Birmingham productions to the wider UK film industry. They also support film events and industry screenings, which is what led me to being packed into Screen 10 of Cineworld instead of curled up at home. You can tell, even before the lights go down and the screen comes to life, that this is something special – whether it’s just the opportunity to preview a high profile film from the comfort of our home city, or the fact that some of Ready Player One’s landscapes were handpicked from right here in Birmingham.

Ready Player One is an adaption of Ernest Cline’s bestselling novel of the same name, and it seems only fitting that Steven Spielberg directs as the novel incorporates a hefty amount of 1980’s references – a time where Spielberg arguably conquered the industry, directing and producing films from E.T. to The Colour Purple. And Ready Player One doesn’t waste time in transferring this nostalgic vibe, opening with Van Halen’s ‘Jump’ and automatically engrossing the audience; the whole soundtrack is perfectly curated to reflect the imagery and content – vital in supporting any film, but especially one interweaving so much popular culture. There’s even a DeLorean.

Ready Player One follows Wade Watts (a superhero sounding reference that he doesn’t fail to mention when introducing himself) played by Tye Sheridan, most recognisable as Ellis from Mud and Scott Summers from X-Men: Apocalypse. Wade is orphaned, living with his Auntie and her partner in a trailer park in Columbus, Ohio – in a future that doesn’t seem too far removed from modern day, but where its occupants spend most of their time immersed in a virtual reality world called OASIS. OASIS offers salvation in this arguably desolate 2045 landscape by allowing the player to take on any reality-defying form they wish, and was created by the eccentric and off-centre mogul James Halliday (Mark Rylance). But there’s a further incentive in OASIS than just escape; before his death Halliday hid ‘Easter eggs’ within the virtual world, and whoever finds them first will inherit his fortune. And so ensues a world-wide race to do just that.

Spielberg has previously stated that as he has grown older he feels ‘a deeper responsibility to tell stories that have some kind of social meaning’, with this ideology being perfectly evident in Ready Player One. The film is set amidst the future of technology and the popularisation of virtual reality, something currently capitalised on within modern society now more than ever.

As a subject for filmmakers and storytellers, virtual reality is increasingly interesting to explore – the possibilities, scenarios and outcomes of a virtual world are endless and limited only by imagination. Plus, as a modern society, with we can plausibly picture ourselves there in the not too-distant future, right alongside those entering OASIS or being captivated by the advancement of technology. Spielberg successfully shows the juxtaposition, yet balance, of physical Vs virtual domains and how slowly but surely the latter is beginning to outweigh the former.

You can’t fault the conventions of Ready Player One either; the blockbuster quality is evident, complete with mind-bending car chases, huge sets and beautiful visuals. And whilst the latter were what I found most enjoyable most about the film, you’d expect nothing less than stunning cinematography from a Spielberg production. Ready Player One proffers a dystopian future through carefully curated shots and angles which solidify the setting for the audience. It seems familiar, by incorporating futuristic touches but remaining on the right side of believable – as though you could pass this landscape on your way to work and not bat an eyelid, with the frames of The Stacks (the estate Wade lives in) being amongst my favourite within the film.

Although Ready Player One is a two hour twenty minute action-packed, surreal ride (this is unassailable) I also feel this is where the root of its problems lie. Despite the sheer amount of content packed into the (slightly lengthy) run time, certain concepts, ideas and storylines still feel underdeveloped and overlooked throughout the narrative. This particularly extended to the relationships portrayed within the film; I feel little real connection with any of the characters, not due a narrative intentionally overlooking any emotional development, but because there are simply so many additional plot points needed to complete the main storyline.

This ‘broken spider web syndrome’ seems to be a running theme across Ready Player One; Wade loses his Auntie at the hands of the film’s villain, yet this is never addressed again – other than the scene directly afterwards where he looks fleetingly anguished. Similarly, Samantha (Olivia Cooke, known for her endearing performance in the TV series Bates Motel) explains she wants to win the coveted prize to avenge her father’s death. This makes for an interesting plot point but one that is never further developed and gradually we lose this side of her character, with the focus on her shifting to being solely Watt’s love interest midway through the film.

This, again, is problematic; Watt’s professes his love after a few short scenes of interacting with Samantha’s avatar, Art3mis, with a short, lacklustre conversation, yet still their relationship intensifies. Watt’s then continues to declare his love throughout the film at arguably inappropriate moments, such as when they’re immersed in battle scenes or during the penultimate moments of action. Which although fits conventions – declarations of love before battle scenes – due to an underdeveloped relationship, feels as though it’s just ticking boxes to say ‘yes, this film also has a romantic sub-plot’.

Apart from a deficit in emotional or character development, I feel Ready Player One has another downfall – and perhaps this one isn’t a fault of the filmmakers, as any book to film adaption can bring challenges of staying true to the nuances of the original text. But in Spielberg’s production, the sheer volume of pop culture references don’t translate that effectively to the big-screen. They feel a little forced – not being an undertone or an influence, but more thrown directly and relentlessly at you one after the other.

There is a particular scene where Wade’s avatar, Parzival, is trying on clothes for a date, moving from Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ outfit to Duran Duran-esque costumes; at one point he asks “am I trying too hard?”, which encompasses my feelings on the amount of pop culture that was supposedly a highlight of the film (and the book). And with Spielberg’s work itself being such a strong staple of popular culture, it seems especially off-kilter that his latest production rides so much on other references that felt neither subtle nor natural within the narrative. Apparently this was even argued by the director himself when the aforementioned DeLorean was suggested, with Spielberg finally acquiescing as he was only Back to the Future’s producer.

Despite these points, watching Ready Player One is an engaging experience. But whilst I enjoyed the concept and the exploration of virtual reality, the visuals, and the soundtrack, there were other, more conflicting factors that I couldn’t move past – making the storyline a little confused and ultimately forgettable. It’s been a week since viewing Ready Player One and I struggle to remember some of the names, places, and certain elements of the plot.

Saying this, maybe I’m missing the mark – but this is the appeal of film, hundreds of people can watch the same piece yet it will produce different thoughts and feelings across the aisles. And whilst the knowledge that Steven Spielberg shot aspects of this film here in Birmingham fills me with immense excitement and civic pride, that fact is more alluring to me than the actual on screen content it turned into.

And the Oscar for best Council film development department goes to…

Ready Player One – Official trailer

Ready Player One is out on general release from Wednesday 28^th March, being screened daily at Cineworld on Broadstreet. For Ready Player One show times, alongside the cinema’s wider programme, visit www.cineworld.co.uk/cinemas/birmingham-broad-street

For more on Ready Player One, visit www.readyplayeronemovie.com

For more on Film Birmingham, including upcoming projects, visit www.filmbirmingham.co.uk