A depressingly good selection of cinema

Recent cinema releases include Zack and Miri Make a Porno and My Best Friend's Girl, which are unashamedly stupid duder comedies. Adding High School Musical 3 to that list completes the three feel-good films in the UK movie chart top 10.

Besides them, EVERYTHING out at the moment will make you think about killing yourself. Quantum of Solace (currently the UKs number 1) deals with Daniel Craig's new moody Bond. Body of Lies is all about, well, lies and the lying liars that tell them. Max Payne is a noir about a renegade cop trying to find out who murdered his wife and kid. All pretty depressing.

However, three other films currently on general release at the minute make the said films pale in the sad stakes. They will crush your spirit whilst being really damn watchable, annoyingly amongst the best films of the year. Hunger, rookie director Steve McQueen's debut, is an unflinchingly bleak look at legendary IRA member Bobby Sands who died after hunger-striking for 66 days. It's a really good film - poignant but not preachy.

Gomorrah - about the Italian Comorrah mafia who run most of Naples - will kill any nostalgic memories you have about the gangsters in Goodfellas and The Godfather. The Comorrah are anything but goodfellas - instead they're fat, petty and reckless and have no allegiance to rules and respect. Women and children are targets, as are morons and the weak. Gomorrah is nearly three hours of the starkest, toughest look at gangsterism ever put to celluloid. You'll NEVER watch The Godfather in the same way again after seeing it. Or Scarface. (You'll understand why.)

If anything could have been more depressing but at the same time brilliant, then it's Waltz With Bashir, which probably pips the others to Depresser of the Week. God, it's soul-crushing. Visually beautiful, expertly pieced together and just totally horrible. And without giving too much away, the film's final message is just about the saddest thing you'll ever see in a cinema: The human race is incapable of progress, even when armed with the most pertinent and harrowing memories.

See them, don't see them, just be sure your mental state is in a good place before you take the plunge if you decide to do so. Otherwise, it's pretty horrorific stuff. Be warned... all three are about as good as cinema will get in 2008.

When the monks went to war...

Greatest. Footage. Ever.

Yesterday in Isreal these monks confused the ideology of peace with the philosophy of 'You want a piece of this!?!' more often associated with Friday nights in Hammersmith than the Old City's Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

If religion was always like this, I'd convert.

Republicans get a McCaining as hope returns to the world

Here is the number crunch of Barack Obama's historic election victory last week, according to CNN figures.

Only Missouri is yet to declare a result, although McCain is likely to have just sneaked it.

Essentially the election was over when it was announced early on that Pennyslvania had gone Obama's way (55%-44%). Analysts immediately (and correctly) called the result and with news that Florida was turning bluer by the second, a Democrat win was beyond doubt. McCain very graciously conceded defeat soon after.

The figures show the Democrats gaining roughly 53% of the vote to the Republicans 46%.

As naive as it sounds, Obama's win has given the world a new hope that America can go some way to rescuing it's international relationship and even make some positive progress on the workd stage - certainly people will not be expecting any more ill-advised wars in the Middle-East. With huge majorities in the Senate and Congress, President-elect Obama will have at least two years to really push his policies before the next round of House elections in 2010/11.

Of course, the big story is the obvious one: A black man and his family will move in to the White House on the 20th January 2009. A true American redemption story has come to it's dramatic climax with racial barriers which can never be put back up smashed down. The hope is that the end of Bush-house Republica signals a new era in world politics with a potentially great leader at the helm.

Storm-in-a-teacup #2: Brooker breaks down Daily Mail morons

Very quick post, just highlighting a very-well worded version of my opinions on the great Radio 2 Wussy/Wossy scandal.

Charlie Brooker at his best.

Obamccain the finale: America goes to the polls, Democrats tipped for win

Voting has begun in the States to a backdrop of pollsters and bookies heavily backing an Obama victory despite the election being the first to feature a black candidate.

Obama victory parties are springing up across the world, despite that voting doesn't close in most places until much later tonight. Such is the desire for an Obama Whitehouse that US police are preparing for riots if McCain somehow comes through. Obama himself has remain stoical and said just one word on today's event to a raucious rally in Virginia: "Tomorrow."

The Democratic candidate is fully aware there are issues involved in this election which have never needed be factored in before, and the main one of those is race. Many still believe a black man cannot win the Whitehouse [check any comments page on any Obama related news story] and attitudes like Pat Buchanan's here don't help. A New York poster ad which has taken-off in the last few days aims to knock the debate dead (at least in the city - if it is even an issue there).



It's a very good message and a great piece of Photoshopping by a little politico somewhere. It would have been a very different election if the roles were reversed but with luck the US people have finally done something worthy and voted on the policies, not the colour.

US Election day beckons: Obama should "put some meat on his ideas", says Conan The Barbarian

Tomorrow night America goes to the polls, with Barack Obama taking a clear lead into the voting. However, as we all know, this has been one of the most unpredictable campaigns in modern political history and any number of factors could decide the result: race, rednecks voting Democrat, a plumber named Joe or a moron from Alaska who can't name a daily.

However, as much as I want you to win, Mr Obama, all-action meathead Arnold Schwarzenegger has a message. You should listen, mainly because it's so eloquently put and brimming with political weight.