First published on Snipe //
Shortly after breakfast this morning, as I flew over your man-city of London, I realised what it means to be a pigeon in this world.
You have indeed fucked me over for the last time.
Author: Declan Tan
Neds (2010) Review
First published on Snipe //
Neds (short for Non-Educated Delinquents in the film) charts the viscous trickle of one gifted boy’s eventual adhesion to the 1970s Glaswegian gang culture, a fate that Peter Mullan (writer-director), now into his third feature, so narrowly avoided in his youth.
Peter Watkins, The Universal Clock and The Monoform
First published on Spike Magazine (May 8th 2011) //
Writer and director Peter Watkins has dedicated his career to exploring the limits of docudrama filmmaking. After the BBC suppressed transmission of The War Game in 1965, most of Watkins work has been produced in Scandinavia and British interest in subsequent films has been curiously absent. Declan Tan investigates why
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Waiting, Security and Deposits // non-fiction
First published on The Open End (May 3rd 2011) //
The toilet is filled up a dark mess with dried paper stuck to the rim, climbing up and all around the once-white porcelain. The shit is piled high, lifted substantially by hardened masses of soggy arsewipe and other somehow unidentifiable matter; all of it reeking yellow of piss, shit and decay. We know that flushing only fills it further and faster toward emergency. We have a bucket waiting, but we don’t want to use it. For these reasons the toilet lid stays shut.
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London Word Festival 2011 Preview
First published on AOL Asylum.co.uk (April 6th 2011) //
Word to ya mother: The literary folk are back, or just more highly concentrated from next month at the London Word Festival.
This LWF is a peculiarity though in that it has strived to separate itself from the kind of stuffy, celebrity-oriented literary festivals found the world.
Essential Killing (2010) Review
First published on Snipe //
Jerzy Skolimowski (writer of Knife in the Water, writer-director of Deep End, actor in Before Night Falls) is clearly not a bad sort. His credits speak for themselves. And on top of writing one of Polanski’s greatest hits, he’s won a Golden Bear, Special Jury prizes galore and was even in Eastern Promises, which wasn’t such a farce either.
Route Irish (2010) Review
First published on Snipe //
Ken Loach’s take on Iraq was always going to be one to look out for. After In Our Name, Green Zone, The Hurt Locker and a slurry of others sent hot and steaming down the pipe of supposedly cantankerous cinema, Route Irish is a welcome return to veracity that has undoubtedly been amiss in previous war-film efforts. This isn’t to say that those other films aren’t sincere. Surely their respective producers think and believe the things they project up onto the screen, supposed wisdom in a blindfold, it’s just that no one as qualified or well-informed as Loach has bothered to make a mystery/thrillerama like this, until now.
The Boy Who Said Sorry // fiction
First published on Thought Catalog //
When he smoked cigarettes he was afraid. Where he’d hold the butt was far too close to the cherry to not burn his fingers but that was only because he didn’t want to touch his mouth. So he was afraid of both of those things happening. More afraid that it would be against his will.
Norwegian Wood (2010) Review
First published on Snipe //
Anh Hung Tran’s adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s 1987 novel, Norwegian Wood, is one of those films that leaves you seeking out the source material. Perhaps that isn’t even a bad thing.
Alex Horne Interview
First published on AOL Asylum.co.uk (March 9th 2011) //
Asylum chats to comic Alex Horne about death, life and whatnot.
Internet Present 