About a month or so ago, before the chaos of December arrived I was queueing this post up - a selection of 5 sensational experiences I had in the festive build up which I hope will still satisfy all your senses, even if they are well past their posting date!

1.Eastern Promises at the Rich Mix
If you haven’t seen it yet, do, it was one of the best films I saw last year for sure. A combination of tough Russian gangsters, young Eastern European girls tragically failing to make a better life for themselves in London, a midwife, a baby and the best fight scene of 2007 make this gruesome thriller led by Viggo Mortensen a stunning watch from start to finish. Be warned though, after viewing you may have violent dreams.

2. Eating great food and getting crack
At some point I paid my second visit to the mighty Great Queen St gastro pub in Covent Garden. Between the four of us we had excellent vension, burger on dripping bread and a barley, squash and mushroom risotto, all very tasty indeed! To complete our inner glow we took a stroll down the embankment towards the Tate Modern where we saw the crack before going up to level 7, where we shared four amazing desserts whilst London’s skyline became illuminated in front of our eyes.

3.James Murphy + Tom Mahoney = Fabric live 36
After a hectic electronic start to the mix (which isn’t too studio friendly late morning I’ve found) things calm down and slip into a funkadelic, disco experience that makes you want to dance sexy.

4.International Lefthanders Day
At the time I wanted this poster a lot, it’s been made with Scandinavian skill.

5.Apple iPhone
It’s not about what this first generation product can’t do, it’s all about the amazing things it can do. The touch screen interface is absolutely superb, you consume lots of stuff, you stroke it alot, it’s incredible. I have had iPhone-itous for two months and it feels great.

On Thursday night I was very lucky to go to the closing night gala of the BFI London Film Festival, red carpets and film stars aside this was all about Wes Anderson’s latest film The Darjeeling Limited.

The film tells the story of a spritual journey across India by train undertaken by three brothers, Francis (Owen Wilson), Peter (Adrien Brody) and Jack (Jason Scwartzman). They have not spoken for the last year since their father’s death, the trip is planned to allow them to reconnect with each other, to be brothers once again. Without saying too much the trip doesn’t quite go as planned and events unfold to take them on a new journey.

The film was preceded and will be when it’s released later this month by Hotel Chevalier, an entertaining short where Jack, the youngest brother and his ex-girlfriend (Natalie Portman) are reunited in a hotel room in Paris prior to his trip to India. Whilst it isn’t essential viewing before TDL, it introduces you to a heartbroken Jack and allows you gauge the temperature of what is to come.

So for the main attraction, it goes without saying this film is beautiful to look at, the exposure of the indian landscape and culture reinforces it’s place on my list of countries to visit. The sound track is fittingly quirky and at times perfectly introduced by Jack with the assistance of his bose iPod speakers. The deadpan chemistry between the brothers will keep you engaged from start to finish and you will love the 11 piece family crested luggage, Francis’s control freak personailty and the prescription drug abuse. As much as I wanted to love this film completely it doesn’t quite pack a loveable punch for me. For sure it’s a great film to see on the big screen and I would recommend you to do so, although you may come away like me wanting a little more from it.

Unfortunately this isn’t a post about the legend that is Mark Morrison, it’s just good news, I’m back on PTN with 5 things from the last few weeks…

1. Poke have recently produced a campaign site for the WWF in an effort to help persuade the government to include emission-tastic aviation and shipping on the change climate bill, if you sign an online petition your name might just sail down the thames on a massive paper plane or boat. Iain has written about this in detail if you would like to find out more.

2. I found an old friend on the internet yesterday, she has a great photography portfolio.

3. I have been enjoying the uber user-friendly stats app extrodinaire aka. Google Analytics since hooking it up on my portfolio site last month, it’s well decent and so simple to add to your site, have a go.

4. Cookie introduced me to Raymond, a great french short film produced by the Mill that will remind you of the Ragdoll.
‘Raymond, a lazy swimming pool instructor, who would like to discover the ocean’s. A team of scientists with a brand new solution offers to help him’.

5. Some friends and I went to NYC at the end of September, it was incredible - here are the pictures which tell the story (well apart from the bits I wouldn’t want to show Grandma!).

The London Film Festival is coming soon, October 17th - November 1st. I am excited.

Hallam Foe is probably the best film I have seen this year.

It’s a ‘fucked up british teen movie’, well that was the genre the film was placed in by it’s director David Mackenzie at the post screening Q&A session I attended at the ICA on Tuesday night. Black comedy it is, this coming of age tale adapted from Peter Jink’s novel is hugely entertaining throughout.

The film tells the story of Hallam ‘Jamie Bell’ Foe’s journey of grief after his mothers recent death, a journey which forces him to escape his rural family home and step mother for the Scottish capital, Edinburgh. In the city he continues his peeping tom obsession, his liking for fancy dress whilst perfecting his rooftop climbing skills and romancing his new boss - who happens to be a deadringer for his late mother. The cast is rich, full of great characters, I especially enjoyed the efforts of Ewen Bremner (Spud from Trainspotting).

The sound track feels perfect, well I guess it was always going to when they had access to the Domino catalogue, I brought it the next morning and have been playing it far too much this week, Psapp’s ‘Tricycle’ is pretty special. David Shrigley illustrated credits and intro sequence are another good thing.

The film is released next Friday, August 31st, you should go and see it.

The London International Animation Festival starts Tuesday evening and runs through to Sunday. ‘The Pearce Sisters’ a new film from Aardman Studios opens the festival.

An amusingly bleak hearted tale of two weather lashed old spinsters. Lol and Edna Pearce live on a remote and austere strip of coast. They scrape out a miserable existence from the sea. The pearce sisters is a tale of love, loneliness, guts, gore, nudity, violence, smoking and cups of tea.

Hairspray has been out for a while, and you know what, Ive already been to see it five times! The last time being earlier today. Every time I went to see it, the particular screen in question was packed, and I bet you anything, some of those people must have seen at least seen it once already, judging by the noticeable pre-laughter chatter!

Hairspray is one of those rare films that stays true to its format, its comedic value manifests itself in a politically incorrect kind of way and very visually too, which naturally makes you smile all the way through. It has some excellent production values and it doesnt try to be anything other than what it is, which is a classic musical with really upbeat catchy feel good songs. The cast are spot on and have the underused talent of acting with their eyes. no doubt in years to come this version of Hairspray will be remembered fondly.

here are some reviews I googled:

“[…] the blend of John Waters’ anarchic weirdness, a star-studded cast and some splendid retro tunes creating a beguiling 1960s pastiche that’s an infectious delight from start to finish.” - Channel 4 Review

“Hairspray is ultimately one of the more engaging and fun movies of the summer…” Rotten Tomatoes (93%)

New York Times Review

I finally got round to watching Roman Polanski’s film The Pianist on the weekend. For those who haven’t seen it yet, It’s a powerful account of the ethnic cleansing the Nazi’s carried out on the Jewish population in Warsaw, Poland during WW2. As to be expected the film documents the harrowing extermenation of the enforced jewish ghetto’s, but one man’s (talented jewish musican) determination to survive under the terryifying conditions played by Adrien Brody (who I think looks like a cartoon character by the way) rewards the viewer massively. On a lighter note Paul Bradley aka. Nigel Bates from Eastenders fame, plays an underground jewish newspaper publisher - nice work Nige.

It feels slightly uncomfortable to describe the film as brilliant, but it is - everyone should see this.

SingleShot is a collection of 15 film and video pieces that have been shot in one single take. The project is presented in a fine one page website from BVA, which features subtle AJAX and Flash goodness, with Google maps to support the event listings. Nice work.