Biutiful

Director Alejandro González Iñárritu
Country Mexico/Spain

Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, Biutiful tells the harrowing story of Uxbal, a crook and single father, who tries to draw together the strands of his life as his own death approaches.

Uxbal (Javier Bardem) lives in a run-down neighbourhood of Barcelona with his two children. His estranged and bipolar wife Marambra (a fantastic Maricel Álvarez) flits in and out of their lives. Uxbal tries to supports them through his criminal dealings with Senegalese and Chinese gangsters and a construction racket with his seedy playboy brother Tito (Eduard Fernández). Uxbal also makes money through his ability to communicate with the dead and ease them into the afterlife.

When Uxbal is told that he has cancer and only months to live he seeks to reconcile with his wife and secure a future for his children. But a drugs bust, a tragic sweatshop accident and his wife’s volatility push Uxbal over the edge. It’s unclear whether he can find a suitable carer for his vulnerable children. And as his physical condition deteriorates, ghosts of the deceased start to haunt him.

Biutiful is certainly a bleak film that some may find difficult to watch. While most of the scenes are riveting and incredibly shot by cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto (a drugs bust, a binge at a strip club, a child’s birthday party), others seem excessively morbid. Uxbal’s physical deterioration from prostrate cancer – we see him urinating blood several times – makes for unpleasant viewing. A clandestine gay affair between Chinese gang-leader Hai (Taisheng Cheng) and one of his cohorts does little to advance the story and many may find its inclusion (and violent end) puzzling. There is little levity in this film and audiences may find the characters’ relentless suffering hard to bear.

Still, this is Iñárritu’s intensely personal meditation on life and death, which starts and ends with a quiet beauty. And Javier Bardem’s stunning performance anchors the film, perfectly capturing Uxbal’s descent into chaos and his eventual redemption. Biutiful is dark, frenetic, and intense but ultimately rewarding.

Brighton Rock

The Surprise Film at previous London Film Festivals has ensured its hot ticket status, with big films making it worthy of the hype. In 2007 they gave us the Coen brothers’ adaptation of the bleak Cormac McCarthy novel No Country For Old Men. In 2008 it was the treat of Mickey Rourke as The Wrestler. And last year it was Capitalism: A Love Story. All right. That was a bit of step down but it wasn’t awful, just disappointing.

This year’s surprise was Brighton Rock, another adaptation of the much-celebrated Graham Greene novel, scripted and directed by The American’s Rowan Joffe, and updated to 1964 (the year in which the death penalty by hanging was abolished).

Films opening today in London

LEMMY

BURKE & HARE

THE HUNTER

INVOLUNTARY (DE OFRIVILLIGA)

THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT

OUT OF THE ASHES

SAW 3D

Mount Kimbie

This band are hot shit at the moment, with their plinky dubstepping electronica. They are not markedly better than many other bedroom / laptop projects we come across, but they’ve gone done tickled the hipster media erogenous zones and got cool. This is a nice live version we were sent. I saw them at Airwaves – it was nice sounding but it had no real build to it like live dance music should. It was more: music for milling around to. Anyway, I’m being very negative. They’re good.

Mount Kimbie – Ruby (Live At Berghain, Berlin) by snipelondon

Best of the week's Top 5s

This week Snipe got rustlemania, went on a macabre pub crawl featuring Winston Churchill’s hat, tried very hard to be edgy through the medium of Halloween costumes, and then tried to make up for it with some wholesome pumpkin recipes. Happy Halloween!

London’s finest spots for leaf rustling
East End boozers for the ghoulish minded
How to cause mild offense at Halloween costume parties
Uses for pumpkin goo

The Letter From Death

A new book examining how perceptions of death affect human life launches on Monday at Foyles on Charing Cross Rd. “The Letter from Death”, by Lilian Moats, features a foreword by Howard Zinn and 20 full-page illustrations.

The publisher extends a public invitation thus: “Please join us at the launch of The Letter From Death on Monday the 1st November from 6pm to 8.30pm in The Gallery. Third floor, Foyles, 113-119 Charing Cross Road, London, WC2H 0EB. RSVP to helen at canofwormsenterprises dot co dot uk or call 020 7708 2942.”

Find out more about the book here.

Caribou Remixed

Snipe favourites (and our issue #2 music lead) Caribou have released a remix album, streaming for free on Soundcloud. Hear the whole of their brilliant album “Swim” stretched, battered and pieced back together by a variety of electronica stars below.

Swim Remixes by Caribouband

Rally to ban spontaneous demonstrations at Parliament and Keep Fear Alive tomorrow

Thank god sanity prevails.

Tomorrow there will be a UK-adjunct to Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity at the Old Palace Yard SW1. Writer Tim Ireland fears that some attendees may actually start straying over towards the Houses of Commons and Lords, in contravention of the ban against spontaneous protests against Parliament.

To prevent this, he has received permission from the police to to stage an urgent demonstration to protest outside Parliament against any violation of this law preventing protests outside of Parliament.

Says Ireland: I call on you to join me this Saturday to take stand against such people:

The law is the only thing that stands between us and absolute chaos. We can’t have people marching on Parliament at a moment’s notice. We need the threat of arrest to keep them at bay. Perhaps a little kettling if they try to stare us down. Something that’ll make them think twice, at any rate.

London agenda for Friday 29 October

London agenda for Friday 29 October
1. Play an instrument of the mind [Le Cool]
2. Go to a carpark to see Delphic [Le Coo]
3. Take on the man at the Frontline [Run Riot]
4. Porn it up, with, you know, class, at Agent Lynch’s Studio 64 Hallowe’en Special [Run Riot]
5. Vivisect your heart out at Last Legs Veterinary Clinic [Run Riot]
6. Watch B Movies at the Victoria’s Blood Ceremony Hallowe’en Special [Run Riot]
7. Punks say fuck you to Hallowe’en. Dragster, Maximum RnR, The Deadnig, Grimble Band, and Public Disgrace at 12 Bar [London Gigs]
8. Laugh until you cry, dance until you die [Spoonfed]

Simon Bookish

Playing reworked versions for piano at Mary Magdalene Church, with Leafcutter John on live sampling. Photo by Vicki Churchill. Set highlight: “Long Haul”, from the underexposed masterpiece Trainwreck/Raincheck.

Trainwreck / Raincheck by Simon Bookish