Sister Midnight

A quite startling and surreal viewing experience by Karan Kandhari

Fashioned from influences ranging from Wes Anderson to stop motion animation, the film is a rare beast in that it makes no apologies for the forthright nature of the lead female protagonist. She has been ushered into this world of one she does not want to be in, yet through grit and gumption (much like early Capra heroines) she grows into her role as a domestic goddess in spite of her plight and lot in life. Lumbered with a husband who is no help whatsoever, she becomes a beacon in the community and admired by women who share the same problematic life and grows towards her husband.

In a great year for cinema from the sub-continent (All We Imagine As Light and Girls will be Girls), these are films of universal themes that are attractive to western audiences with moments of hilarity and subtlety that would not look out of place in Apatow comedies. This along with the utilising of western music (Buddy Holly for consumation anyone), at times surprising yet equally refreshing, with the director picking the brain of Jim Jarmusch seemingly.

Anchored by a noteworthy central performance by Radhika Apte, which is both vulnerable and affecting; she grows more and more misanthropic with her behaviour become more manic which subverts the audience anticipation

Sister Midnight is a film that is light with moments of darkness attempting to seep in, but one that reminds you of the power of human imagination amidst painful moments of loneliness and isolation. This is a film that is not the restrained human drama you expect, instead a free-spirited view of a brave new world available to a burgeoning sub-continent.

When the twist of the film occurs, the pathway of the film alters to a second journey for the women as she seeks a new path to discover. If the film is flawed it is the use of animated animals to depict the emotional psyche of the woman's state, it falls down on this trope because the caustic humour of the film's first hour is lost sadly.

However, the bold and brave style of performance and aesthetic should hold this film in good stead to garner a wider critical response and cult following due to its very nature of being something you have never seen before yet embracing influences of world cinema from Wenders to Ozu.

This has already garnered a Best British Film Debut nomination at the Baftas in February for the director in a highly competitive category. As well as being nominated for Camera D'Or in Cannes last year

Sister Midnight is out on 14th March from Wellington Films

Pax and the Secret Swarm

 

Final book in the Pax trilogy by David Barker

David Barker is a prolific writer, whose first published books were about the threat of global warming and the impending threat of water and eventual lack of it in three books that were scientific thrillers.

Following that successful publication run, he has turned his head to young adult fare in the Pax trilogy which has reached its conclusion.

Short sharp books that elicit fond memories of bygone schooldays and the lore of English literature ranging from Tom Brown to Grange Hill with a hint of a wizarding school on top.

The story revolves around the eponymous Pax, an assertive and industrious young boy, who gains admission to the elite school in the hope of becoming an Engineer in New London. This New London is run by a powerful Mayor who has built up new walls around London effectively keeping everyone they do not like out of the capital. 

Pax over the three books disrupts plans by the Mayor to garner more control over his population by way of mind-numbing propaganda and lies about those outside the walls namely the Countryside Alliance. 

Throughout Barkers's work he has always been able to bring an element of real-world truth to his writing as all the best science fiction does; the writing elicits an element of fear of what may be. And with the unsavoury images and stories coming out of America and that countries insatiable desire of total authoritarianism it certainly does ring true. 

Author David Barker 

Pleasingly, Barker knowing his main readers will be young adults he writes with a simpler good versus evil template with Pax and his erstwhile friends the ones wearing capes and flying around doing heroic things with robots, while the bad guys are those that wear masks and hold guns. Again, images all the more familiar nowadays in the days of ICE. 

While this book itself does not hit the heights of the second book in the series in this reader's opinion, the book is a fine straight-shooting end to this thrilling dystopian trilogy.

Pax and the Secret Swarm is out from Tiny Tree Books now on all formats.

My thanks to them for the review copy for an honest review.

Pynch - Beautiful Noise

Back with their second album, Pynch return 

When they first appeared on the Speedy Wunderground label with Disco Lights, Pynch have slowly built a loyal following based upon their clever rhythms and technical prowess with an ear for a hook with vital vocal delivery. Their first album 'Howling at a Concrete Moon' was an amalgamation of their singles with some filler but nevertheless a great listen about the disenchantment and allure of city life.

Today, they release their sophomore album Beautiful Noise. For some bands, this is always referred to as the difficult second album. But Pynch are not like some bands, they are a special four piece and have been since they released the slacker/covid-19 anthem 'Somebody Else' a track written before the global pandemic but whose tale of alienation and loneliness meant more within the troubled times.

The new album begins with 'Forever' and it is a reminder that Pynch unlike a lot of their contemporaries are well aware of the strength of the intro to a track - an enticing conduit for fans to get excited before Spencer Enock's distinct vocals come through.

Throughout the album, there is that spirit of DIY and shoegaze, a feeling that they are going to make music that they like without the hope that it connects but the belief that it will. There are winks to current music trends in 'Post-Punk/New-Wave' with the band themselves refusing to be pigeon-holed coupled with the single 'The Supermarket' with its driving bassline.

Upon further listenings, this album is a joy, for fans of early New Order whose post-Curtis' death were works of disillusionment along with the late 80s Depeche Mode. Think of 'Microwave Rhapsody', a song about sitting around and daydreaming; their unique knack of making universal the kitchen sink dramas they illustrate bodes well when they see the larger world available through touring.

They have already travelled to wider parts of Europe and the East coast of America; their guitar/electro sound sitting nice with the recent nostalgia binge of the Strokes/Yeah Yeah Yeah's period.

Title track and the longest one on the album, is perhaps their most, angry song, the lyric is about wanting to stay in bed and ignore the beautiful noise he sings about. And yet despite the heaviest sounding song, Spencer's forlorn earnest vocal remains engaging and it even detours into a jazzy sound ending which is rich and different in their scope. 

Even the penultimate track 'Come Outside' which showcases Spencer singing with drummer Julianna Hopkins, shows another avenue of invention possible to the band in future outings.

This is not so much a band with a foot in the door ready to eat at the top table, they are ready to kick that door down fully and announce themselves.

Self-released and self-produced on their Chillburn Recordings label, Beautiful Noise is out now on all formats.