Another Year - Vice, Virtue and the Price of Missing Your Chance

Social realism stalks the circular edge of dying light encompassing veteran British director Mike Leigh's Another Year (2010), a tonal film of emotional complexity and the many manifestations of fear at having missed one's chance of ardent companionship, both sexual and sentimental. Framed metaphorically by the seasonal ebb and flow, Another Year begins in the Spring, showing off the quiet and inexhaustibly happy relationship between geologist Tom (a magnificent Jim Broadbent) and therapist Gerri (played with impressive subtlety by Ruth Sheen) as they tend to their local country patch. Whilst their happiness is enduring and their love for each other earnest, it smarts of stridency when compared to their luckless friends, who wistfully look on and wonder why it isn't theirs.

Mary is Gerri's friend and a secretary at the practice where Gerri works. Played brilliantly, with artful attention to detail and exceptional expressiveness by Lesley Manville, Mary is staring down a bleak future; a failed marriage and inability to find a suitor for her enamour, middling in age and feeling increasingly like a victim of a cruel world, she has turned to drink as an escape. The film offers no such escape to the audience, however, delving into her increasingly frenetic breakdown, scarcely masked by a visibly conscious effort to appear altogether and content.

Ken (Peter Wight) is Tom's friend, and shares an uncannily (and a little annoyingly) similar story to Mary. The similarities include failed relationships, and dour outlook and an addiction to food that mirrors Mary's propensity for wine. Ken is equal parts heartbreaking and off-putting - glugging heartily at the beer can which seems to be an extension of his hand, and then continuing to chew the food already in his mouth. This focus on vice is soon penetrated though, as he breaks down sobbing in front of Tom and Gerri, whose oracular guidance once again is inspired by tales of their shared happiness.

Whilst the film more than delivers a stunning cross-section of conjoined joy and hopelessness, an issue arises in that Another Year repeatedly lapses into ill-definition of intention, where the happy couple's (as well as their adult son's) demeanour seems as easily interpreted as facetious as benevolent. Knowing looks and (hopefully) unknowing perpetuation of a power-imbalance between the couple and their friends adds a potentially perverse nature to every offer of advice or invitation to dinner.

That Another Year starts with Spring, it's immediately striking with a burning ominousness that it will invariably end with Winter. As Mary's psyche begins to fray and her mask slips, scenes from what could be the film's prologue come to mind. A doctor analyses a clearly depressed woman, and after ascertaining her inability to sleep, begins questioning a number of potential causes - alcohol, drugs, caffeine. The role of vice as a coping mechanism overlays the biting realism of Another Year, and the dangers of escapism shine through. Special mention must be made of the wonderful dialogue - buoyant and fluid during Summer and Autumn, it peters into grasping monosyllables in Winter, and its insistence, although frustrating, is immaculately dynamic. Another Year is a contender for modernist excellence.

Home Sweet Homies

Get yourself to Umgeni Road's Gallery 415 to see the collaborative art exhibition between Tokyo-Go-Go and Skullboy. Reflexively described as "perfectly crafted vector illustration and sugar sweet pop colours meets black splatter and cuss words", it's an apt reflection. Plus all the pieces are for sale, so you can sate your posterity with a cheque. Here are some of my favorites, but get to the gallery and see the lot.



































Skullboy and Tokyo-Go-Go

Isochronous and Coals of Juniper

Continuing a bumper weekend for the Durban music scene, astro-synth prog-rockers Isochronous travelled from their inland stronghold to Unit 11 to meet their swelling coastal fan-base. With eponymous synchronicity, they delivered a pitch-perfect ambient explosion of metaphysical lyrics and melodic discordance, working through their set with a prompt alacrity. They were supported by The La Els and Coals of Juniper; the former an '80s dance revival outfit, and the latter an instra-metal trio. Coals were particularly well supported, which is always flattering for a band not resorting to doo-wops.

Isochronous























Coals of Juniper













For even more photos, follow the yellow brick hypertext.

The Ghost Inside

Hollywood's hardcore-punkers The Ghost Inside reached the Durban leg of their Autumnal national tour on Friday night, crashing out a set at Pavilion's Revolution skatepark. Following the counter-intuitive mantra for most hardcore acts, the band's insistent positivity was contagious, getting the small but cooperative crowd 'throwing-down'. They were supported by Facing the Gallows, The Dead Will Tell and Truth and its Burden; some of South Africa's most homicidally intense bands. Note-worthily, Truth and its Burden had a refreshing sincerity about them, which is always a pleasure.

The Ghost Inside













Truth and its Burden

Murth Is Life

Voting Day is as good as any to listen to gangsta rap, eat jam dough-nuts, and work on the MURTH ramp. With Tripple on the job, it won't be long 'til Ice Pick's hurricaning the tombstone.