KAOS: April 2020

We can invest trifles with a tragic profundity, which is the world

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MASS IN
M O T I O N

I T ' S A M A N ' S W O R L D A N D Y O U M E N C A N H A V E I T

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Continued after the jump...

Absolution

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F I L M S K O O L

A F I L M I S A P E T R I F I E D F O U N T A I N O F T H O U G H T

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At a Catholic public school, Benjamin Stanfield (Dominic Guard) is tired of being the teacher's pet and decides to play a practical joke on his form master Father Goddard (Richard Burton). In confession, Stanfield tells Goddard that he has accidentally murdered his friend Blakey (Sir Billy Connolly) and buried him in the forest. When Goddard investigates the matter, he finds a buried scarecrow. Goddard is outraged, but, due to the seal of confession, he knows he cannot expel Stanfield. Shortly after, Stanfield once again enters the confession booth, telling Goddard that what before was a practical joke, he has now made happen. In disbelief, Goddard once again goes to the forest to investigate the matter. This time, he discovers Blakey's dead body. The plot soon thickens as Stanfield's fellow student Arthur Dyson (David Bradley) mysteriously disappears.

Richard Burton is an actor I could watch - and listen to - all day long (and never more so than when he appears alongside Elizabeth Taylor). He's extraordinary in the extraordinary Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Boom! ("Mrs. Goforth!"), and, of course, that opulent behemoth, Cleopatra (the film, not Ms. Taylor). His presence automatically elevates a production (not that Boom! needs further heightening, with Ms. Taylor drunkenly hectoring anyone who comes near - including Noël Coward - from the cliffs of an Italian island).

Sadly, Ms. Taylor isn't present in 1978's Absolution (see was playing a professor of ancient history in Return Engagement, instead), so Anthony Page's (The Wicker Man) thriller is a more sober (and less camp) affair than those earlier Burton/Taylor skirmishes. Instead, we have a young Billy Connolly, an even younger Dominic Guard (who Doctor Who fans will recognise from 1982's Terminus), and David Bradley (Kes).

Absolution had a troubled life, with Burton struggling from at least 1971 to get the picture made. Problems persisted during its production, with the budget slashed, forcing the film to wrap sooner than planned. It was then shelved until 1981 - and didn't see the light of day in the US until 1988. Richard Burton died in 1984.

Despite all of this, Absolution is a hoot, with a robed and dog-collared Burton stalking through dusky woods. Guard and Bradley are excellent in their supporting roles, with Bradley getting the juicier role as a weaselly cripple, and Connolly acquits himself admirably. There's a moment of real gore, and the final twist is as delicious as it is unexpected.

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In my time I have seen truth that was anything under the sun but just, and I have seen justice using tools and instruments I wouldn't want to touch with a ten-foot fence rail

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MASS IN
M O T I O N

I T ' S A M A N ' S W O R L D A N D Y O U M E N C A N H A V E I T

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Continued after the jump...

He could do so much for me if he just would. He could do everything for me

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MASS IN
M O T I O N

I T ' S A M A N ' S W O R L D A N D Y O U M E N C A N H A V E I T

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Continued after the jump...

Isaac Dunbar

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BEATS

RHYMES

& LIFE
W H E R E W O R D S F A I L , M U S I C S P E A K S

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Scorton's Creek, new music from Isaac Dunbar, a song about his first boyfriend.

Continued after the jump...

He don't have to move very far to go nuts in the first place and so he don't have so far to come back

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MASS IN
M O T I O N
E R O T I C A

I T ' S A M A N ' S W O R L D A N D Y O U M E N C A N H A V E I T

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Continued after the jump...

Blonde Animals

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F I L M S K O O L

A F I L M I S A P E T R I F I E D F O U N T A I N O F T H O U G H T

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Fallen 90's sitcom star Fabien, on a road trip to Paris, crosses pathes with Yoni, a young, romantic soldier with baggage of his own, along the way.

Blonde Animals is a queer fish.

It's a surreal, whimsical, sort-of road trip movie, with questions about identity, loss, and grief at its core. It's regularly laugh out loud funny, with gags that hinge on memory (or lack of it), a decapitated head, and over-stimulated coprophiliacs (trust me: you really don't want to Google that).

Thomas Scimeca injects warmth and likability into the role of Fabien, stopping Blonde Animals becoming... too much. Things do drag a little towards the end, but perhaps only in light of the frenetic action in the first half.

Mad, madcap, daring and unhinged, Blonde Animals is a film with a lot of heart, and likely unlike anything you'll have seen before.