Fertile Imagination

Puffball (directed by Nicolas Roeg), available on R2 DVD via Yume Pictures, 120mins.

In Nic Roeg's comeback film Puffball, the seemingly ubiquitous Kelly Reilly plays an ambitious architect who buys a rundown building in a remote Irish valley to transform and renovate. A spot of alfresco rumpty-pumpty later, she falls pregnant, much to the consternation of a neighbouring family who for reasons unknown other than their own belligerence and stupidity feel the unborn child belongs to them. Cue all sorts of nonsense involving dodgy wine, a glowing ball and an impenetrable cameo by Donald Sutherland.

A self-styled 'thriller about love, life, grief and sex', re-uniting director Roeg with star Donald Sutherland, it's not difficult to assume Puffball's backers were hoping for some of the magic of Don't Look Now to rub off on this latest project. While there's enough of Roeg's skills in evidence to just about keep the interest flowing through its' overlong 2hr running time, this latest tale of life, death and architecture, based on a Fay Weldon story, lacks the satisfying structure that made his earlier work such compelling viewing. The result is a vaguely beguiling misfire, mainly of interest to people keen on following the director's career, although to be fair that should include pretty much everybody with a regard for intelligent, handsome cinema.

The Strife Of Reilly

Eden Lake, Odeon Telford, Tuesday September 16 2008, 6.30pm.

A weekend break in the secluded beautyspot Eden Lake for Kelly Reilly's primary school teacher and her buff diver boyfriend (Michael Fassbender) gains nightmarish proportions when they become terrorised by a feral mob of local youths. James Watkins' thriller adopts the classic trick of using familiar horror movie tropes to address contemporary social concerns, in this case anti-social behaviour, knife culture, dangerous dogs and general all-round 'chav' fear.

The result is nasty, brutish and short, but nevertheless, in all senses, a bloody good film. The combo of social realism and intense, hyperdriven violence is an awkward one to pull off, but Watkins manages it superbly through ramping up the suspense and terror an extra level at judicious points. The film is also ably served by a starmaking turn from curvaceous ingenue Reilly, who manages to look magnificent even after being fully dunked in a tank of shit, and makes the audience care enough to carry them through to the heartstopping climax.

Look Now

Nic Roeg has made his first major feature film for some years, a horror yarn based on a Fay Weldon story, starring Kelly Reilly, and re-uniting him with his Don't Look Now leading man Donald Sutherland. Initial reviews have been mixed, but bad Roeg is usually better than a lot of films made by lesser mortals at the top of their game, so perhaps best to judge for ourselves when Puffball is released in cinemas from July 18. In the meantime, here's the NOT WORKSAFE trailer to whet your appetites.

The Keys Don't Work

Piano/Forte, Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, Sloane Square, London, Saturday September 23 2006.

In Terry Johnson's Piano/Forte, Oliver Cotton plays a disgraced Tory MP about to get married for the third time in his country residence, to a glamour model he met amongst the witchety grubs of the reality show that enabled his public redemption. Alicia Witt and Kelly Reilly play (twin?) daughters from his first ill-fated marriage, who have reacted in starkly divergent ways to their mother's suicide - Witt's Abigail, a talented pianist, has withdrawn into stammering agorophobia tended to by her Australian uncle Ray (Danny Webb, in the play's most convincing performance), while Reilly's Louise has travelled across Europe drifting into a life of transient jobs, promiscuity and mediocre circus stunts. When Louise arrives unexpectedly back at the house on the eve of the wedding, with mischief on her mind, the stage is set for a weekend of ribaldry, revelation and recrimination.

Johnson plays with a number of theatrical staples here (country house melodrama; bedroom farce; an Agatha Christie style whodunnit and Hitchcockesque psychodrama, complete with a murmuration of swallows waiting to swoop), stirring in some modern elements of light satire on celebrity culture and showstopping sexual content (Reilly revels in a bold scene where her character descends a staircase topless and torments her father; the Spanish caterers are revealed as erotic acrobats whose wedding performance culminates in public ejaculation and inadvertent buggery) amidst the wordplay, psychological intrigue and special effects. The result is a slightly overlong but hugely entertaining and often funny play, rich in atmosphere if ultimately low on point, moderately hampered by an elaborate set design ill-fitted for purpose in this theatre space, making it near-impossible to view all areas of the action from many of the seats.

Piano-Forte continues at the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, Royal Court, until October 14.

Peter, Bjorn And Gone

We begin with some sombre news that left us feeling flatter than Beirut as Victoria Bergsman has left The Concretes to concentrate on a solo career. We know that The Concretes are a solid unit containing multiple songwriters and vocalists, but Bergsman has a unique delivery and dry stage banter that will be difficult for the Swedes to replace. It does though kinda explain Bergsman's recent diversification - as well as singing on Peter Bjorn and John's recent PV Single Of The Week 'Young Folks', she's credited with providing Camera Obscura with haircuts on their latest long-player 'Let's Get Out Of This Country'...

Simon Sweeping The Nation went to the Truck Festival at the weekend but all we've got to show for it so far is this blurry but still fantastic photo of Dead Kenny's summer crush Emmy The Great in a seriously short skirt. It has to be said we'd have had difficulty finding our focus in the circumstances, too.

In theatre news, a new Terry Johnson play is always something of an event (eg. Insignificance; Hitchcock Blonde) so book early for a limited four-week run of Piano/Forte at the Royal Court Theatre. Sopranos star Alicia Witt and Kelly (Mrs Henderson Presents) Reilly head the cast.

This year's Big Brother we can take or leave, but what is certain is that contestant Imogen Thomas's ex-squeeze is a dastardly dick for releasing a home sex video purporting to feature the purrty Welsh miss in a rarebit of graphic action. But we admit we still looked at the NOT SAFE FOR WORK evidence (purely to identify the culprit concerned, 'course). Time and motion students can download the EXTREMELY UN-WORKSAFE full video from here.

Random Reading-bashing always provides an amusing diversion.

'Night, Warden.