Browsing Archive: November, 2013

Sam Shepard

Posted by Tom Brogan on Sunday, November 17, 2013, In : Theatre 


I went to see True West at the Citizen's Theatre on Saturday night, for the second time during its run. I had also seen it on the third night and I really enjoyed it. The set looked amazing and the two leads, Alex Ferns and Eugene O'Hare, seemed like they were having a lot of fun, especially in the later scenes. I had made a note to myself to go back to see it a second time, but I was only propelled to get another ticket when the Citz announced that the last performance would be followed by a...

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Nightwatch

Posted by Tom Brogan on Sunday, November 17, 2013, In : Films 

Nightwatch was a film I saw when it first came out on video in about 1995. A Danish thriller it centres around a student taking a night watchman job in a morgue. I remember really enjoying it at that time. I also watched the 1997 remake starring Ewan McGregor. I always felt due to the casting that the identity of the killer was heavily signposted in that one. I decided to get a copy of the original on DVD and watch it again when I realised that I'm now much more familiar with the three leads....


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Shades

Posted by Tom Brogan on Friday, November 15, 2013, In : Books 



I had the opportunity to go along to the launch of Shades by Colin Leslie last night. The book is a biography of Hibs legend Erich Schaedler. A few years ago I wrote an article on Erich for a football blog called State of the Game. You can read it on the Writing page. I wanted to write about a player who made an impact on the game, but was not someone who was widely known. What I discovered when the article went online was that Schaedler was loved by all who came in contact with him or even j...

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Eastbound and Down

Posted by Tom Brogan on Tuesday, November 12, 2013, In : Television 
The latest season of HBO's Eastbound and Down has been a real revelation for me. It's a comedy that sprinkles in drama so well. Kenny Powers is a far more complex character than he appears from the off. One week I find myself really rooting for him and the following week I'm thoroughly appalled by his behaviour.

It's Stevie though who has made me laugh the most. The changes in his looks and attitudes have had me near crying the last few weeks. Ken Marino also has me in awe of his acting abilit...
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The Disaster Artist

Posted by Tom Brogan on Sunday, November 10, 2013, In : Books 
Another film covered by How Did This Get Made? is The Room. Commonly accepted as the worst bad film of all time (although I think Birdemic has now inherited that title) The Room is the vision of writer/actor/producer Tommy Wiseau. The new book The Disaster Artist by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell is the inside story of how the film came to be. 

Sestero was one of the leads of the film, and by his own admission 'The Tommy Whisperer', the one man who was at Tommy Wiseau's side throughout the durat...
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How Did This Get Made?

Posted by Tom Brogan on Sunday, November 3, 2013, In : Podcasts 
One of the best things I've stumbled upon this year is the podcast How Did This Get Made? Presented by Paul Scheer, Jason Mantzoukas and June Diane Raphael, every fortnight they watch a film that's so bad it's amazing and then discuss the various plot holes, bad acting and general oddball film-making techniques. The best way, I find, to listen to it is to watch the film first.

It's through this show that I've discovered some eye-popping films that I wouldn't have bothered to watch otherwise. S...
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