London Alt Gigs and Cult Cinema

Crocodiles play dark, garage-inflected rock n'roll with a nod to the Jesus and Mary Chain. I mean, look at the photo: wearing sunglasses...at night?!?! Here are some sample songs.

Akira Kurosawa's last great film is a visual masterpiece that borrows from King Lear, Noh theatre and Japanese legends to tell the story of a cruel and powerful Japanese warlord who, as he enters old age, decides to pass his empire on to his three sons. But he finds out that power cannot be shared that easily, and it leads to betrayal and war.

Anyway, this has almost universal critical acclaim, and it won Best Costume Design at the Oscars, netting nominations for Best Director, Set Design and Cinematography too. It also sits in both IMDb and Sight and Sound's top 200, if you care about that kind of thing.

I feel like people have been requesting another trip to the Prince Charles to see this for ages, so here we go. No, it's not one of the screenings with Tommy doing a Q+A, but I've been to one and he's not the most lucid of interviewees (and he now signs merch from the other side of a plastic screen which is weird, albeit kind of on brand).

Anyway, over 20 years on The Room remains probably the most perfect bad movie ever made, filled with simply amazing dialogue and line delivery*. Tommy plays 'Jonny', a kind hearted man who cares for everyone around him, only to be betrayed when his best friend Mark begins an affair with his future wife, Lisa. Then, there's Denny, the local college student Tommy has taken under his wing as well as Lisa's sickly mother Claudette, their amorous friends Mike and Mary, impatient drug dealer Chris R and many more.

I originally wanted to see ML Buch at Union Chapel on this night but it sold out. If you got a ticket, feel free to gloat. But how's this as an alternative - one of the most enjoyable films ever made?

To my knowledge still the only successful movie adaptation of a board game*, Clue is far, far better than it has any right to be, a rapid-faced, wildly funny translation of Cluedo to the big screen with a brilliant comic cast that includes Christopher Lloyd, Madeline Kahn, Michael McKean, Eileen Brennan, Colleen Camp and Tim Curry.

The plot? Haven't you played the game? Six colourful strangers are invited to dinner only for a murder to occur. But which one of them did it, and in which room, and with what weapon? They all have to work together, or maybe against each other, to find out.

With all the current brouhaha about Megalopolis, it's almost easy to forget how great a director Francis Ford Coppola once was. He did some decent stuff afterwards but Rumble Fish is his final masterpiece, an expansion of the 50's greaser teen aesthetic of The Outsiders into an art film setting. It's filmed in glorious black and white, with a wonderful score by Stewart Copeland, a career-making performance by Mickey Rourke and a cast that also includes Dennis Hopper, Tom Waits and early appearances Matt Dillon, Diane Lane, Lawrence Fishburne and Nic Cage. I CANNOT WAIT to see this on a big screen.

Teenage hoodlum Rusty James is a tearaway who lives with his alcoholic father, the memory of his absent mother and a life that veers between gang fights and a girlfriend who needs more of him. When his big brother, the legendary and mysterious Motorcycle Boy, returns, things appear more hopeful. But tragedy is always lurking in the background.

Teeth of the Sea play experimental psych with electronica leanings and an array of influences they say includes Morricone, Eno, Delia Derbyshire, Goblin and the Butthole Surfers. And they're pretty good! Here are a couple of vids from the new album: