I'm a bit bored in January so going to the cinema lots

Brokeback Mountain, Odean Covent Garden- 21st January 2006
A Cock and Bull Story, Islington Vue- 22nd January 2006

OK. So I said that January would be a dry month for gigs and so it has been. So to comfort myself and repel the increasingly suicidal urges my terminal lack of money has inspired in me, I’ve been going to the movies rather a lot this month.

This weekend I went to the movies not once but twice…

On Saturday I headed over to the Odean Covent Garden to see a movie that everyone I know has said is fantastic, and, joy of joys, it turned out they were right! Apart from the fact that Heath Ledger is barely audible through the majority of the film (although I’m sure his accent is very authentic), the brilliance of the other elements of the film (stunning mountain scenery, a totally unsentimental script) more than make up for some minor incoherence (there’s taciturn and then there’s ‘face like granite- what’s that he’s saying?’). Anyway, it’s good stuff, very sad and very true.

On Sunday I went to see A Cock and Bull Story in Islington and it was the complete opposite- that is, very very funny indeed. Rob Brydon, apart from being Welsh like myself, is a very funny man (likable idiot I think is the correct terminology) and by far and away stole the show from Steve ‘I’ve got a big fat ego’ Coogan, who, fair dos, seems up for a bit of self-parody and castigation, making fun of his own Roger Moore-esque philandering reputation. Basically it’s about the filming of a version of ‘Tristram Shandy’ but is really about the playfully competitive relationship between the two comics; the new Vic and Bob if ever one was needed.

Anyway, was well pleased with the outcome of my cinema-going excursions and would highly recommend both movies.