Ultra Culture Cinema

On Wednesday night the cinematic event of the day took place at the ICA, namely Ultra Culture Cinema #3. For those of you who aren't already acquainted with Ultra Culture - familiarise yourself with "The UK's Greatest Movie Blog" instantly. If you don't want to click on that link, UC is also featured in my Blog Roll. You really have no excuse. When I first stumbled upon it, many moons ago (at least 10?) I spent the majority of those next few days poring over every bloody word I could squeeze out of the available content. This proved damaging to whatever essay it was I was working on at the time, but beneficial to my life generally. So go on - enrich your lives, have a gander.
So, I, and the other UCC attendees who had torn themselves away from the oh-so-hyped Spain v. Germany match (only to be delighted that they hadn't bothered staying in to see it) were treated to an evening of delights. Despite immediately being horrified to learn my little sister (she's 18, and about half a foot taller than me, but she still counts as "my little sister" - she is thinner after all) was friends/acquainted with Ultra Culture creator Charlie Lyne's friend and free-ticket holding member of the audience. This might not seem like such bad news, but when you're "in PR" and your younger sister who's barely got her foot out of college is better connected than you are, humiliation is all you can feel. Incidentally, it is my mid-year resolution to use the phrase "I'm in PR" as many times in casual conversation as possible - I really enjoy sounding like a yuppy toff. Anyway, before the film was released upon our hungry eyes, we were treated to some entertainment in two parts. The majority of the first part of said entertainment involved free treats like cans of Fanta and Beer or the odd Curly Wurly (apparently a hot commodity) being passed around. Previously mentioned little sister was particularly eager to get her mitts on these. I asked her "what else do you want, the shirt off his back?" to which she replied "yes actually, I like his jumper". And it was indeed a very snazzy jumper. Kudos. The second half of the entertainment was provided by comedian/magician/love child of Peter Crouch and Sue Perkins (he describes himself as such), Chris Cox. Initially I thought this was going to be painfully awkward to watch, but he was actually very entertaining indeed. As was the girl who was dragged up on to stage who was wearing an outfit which definitely allowed me to see her actual nipples. The lesbian inside of me enjoyed this immensely.
After all this excitement, the lights dimmed, and the wonderful video below started. UCC #2, where Trash Humpers was shown, began what I hope will be a continuing trend to include funny videos prior to the actual feature with this being shown beforehand.

For some reason I was particularly excited that it was David Roy from Dananananaykroyd in the video, not because I've ever listened to them (I will) but because I "did some promotion" for various singles of theirs last summer while interning at Wild. Oh the life of a PR genius.
We then all settled down for the main event, Mother. The film is the latest from Bong Joon-Ho who has now been compared to Hitchcock by pretty much everyone who matters, and if I knew more about Hitchcock, I'd probably agree. That makes me sound like someone who's never seen a Hitchcock film, which simply isn't true, I just haven't seen nearly enough to make sweeping statements confidently. ANYWAY there's always a certain degree of anxiety over how good a film's going to be when you've managed to convince your companions to come with you. The film was of course excellent - the perfect mix of tension, humour and shock-factor topped off with breathtaking cinematography and a killer script. All this AND middle aged Korean women pulling some shapes in a field/coach? My companions were duly satisfied. For more on the film, download the notes here.

The audience was very excited when the film for next month's Ultra Culture Cinema was announced. I won't spoil the surprise, although 2 out of 3 of my readers were actually with me on Wednesday evening. So that leaves you, yes YOU, make sure you have August 25th free and available. You won't regret it. You can buy me a drink afterwards for recommending it in fact.