Top 5 of 2020

I initially thought the look back on this is going to be limited. 2020 was crap and we all know it. But rifling through my watched films released this year, on IMDb, I have somehow caught 29 movies despite the limited availablity for the silver screen. So as usual, what follows is the best I personally saw in 2020 and then a short list of the drivel I also encountered...

5. The Gentlemen
- a genuinely fun time is had following the usual reprobates and charismatic characters from a new Guy Ritchie film. Just gets in there with a 1st Jan release date. Let's just forget he made Aladdin...

4. Calm with Horses
- a small but tough Irish family drama with a truely believable performance from actor Cosmo Jarvis about an ex-boxer who makes the mistake of not doing his master's bidding.

3. The Invisible Man
- somewhat of a surprisingly good remake but that feels unfair. Remake seems the wrong word as it's simply a modern telling of a classic story. The camera's lingering performance elevates the whole thing which reminds me of Carpenter's original Halloween...

2. Tenet
- this years "saviour of cinema" didn't quite live up to such a title but realistically what film would. The pandemic isn't going anywhere any time soon. A lot has been said of the film already. For now I think it's Marmite for many people. I feel that second viewing makes all the difference and in time, may be looked at with more favoured eyes. I do however agree with some views of whether a film should perform on first viewing for an audience unlikely to go for repeat screenings. It lacks the balanced entertainment and smart story telling that instant classic, Inception, has going for it but maybe this film is a fine wine in the long run.

1. David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet
- a documentary film but a film nonetheless. And possibly the most important film of the year for the world to watch. If the message doesn't sink in after watching it then I can't the lesson being learnt in quick enough time. Sad, informative, entertaining, inspired.

An honourable mention goes out to Saint Maud, for a quietly unsettling envoyable time at the cinema and The Last Dance, for being absolutely brilliant across the board. As always the bottom 3 are the pants of what I saw this year. I throw little more than the title and no extra attention to them.
1. Dolittle 2. Bloodshot 3. Mulan

Corona May

Hello you fools.
It is I, the rarely here to post things guy. A mini update that follows on from the last post in March. I have indeed kept up with keeping somewhat busy and filling my time with spaceships! All can be viewed on my Artstation here. There are youtube links as well. Will post a few here just for the sake of posting really...

2020. But are we seeing any clearer...

So, I didn't post all last year.
And why post at all, you may ask. Blogs are dead. There are more immediate ways to put your word out…
Well… you’re probably right, whoever you are, yelling at your screen.
Last year was hugely productive and hopefully, if you happen to be reading this in the future, proved to be a big step up and forward for me. Personally I made some rather big changes to my life but the internet isn’t a place to air one’s laundry so lets skip that as it’s not the point of the blog anyway (I know, what ever was the point of this blog?)

It’s 2020 and as history will report we are in the middle of the viral pandemic that is CoVid-19 or Coronavirus. Working from home or at least feigning to work from home, I’m determined to use the time as productively as I can whether it be keeping up with drawing, practicing painting or generally updating software and running some user/life admin tasks.
As this was intended as (and should remain as) a design and film blog from my perspective, I hope to post any pieces I’ve done during this time. I must admit, when starting something like this, you aren’t exactly concerned with whether you will hold yourself to it down the line whether that be a few months or even years later. Being busy as I have been on Fast9 and currently The Batman, it should be said it is hard to muster up the fuel to write some long essay for my own gratification.
But if you start to do something then you’ve at least begun the journey, right?

So what have I done to begin this “stay-at-home” period. I broke out the traditional materials and practiced with some mini painting in a postcard sized book that I had begun way back in a Sept 2018 post. I had since tried 3 other paintings (below) and the fourth is the one I did last night.