Lost Season 5

January 21. What better to alleviate the January blues?

Top blogs

The world's top media and marketing blogs according to Advertising Age. 

Curious reviews

First reviews are in for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. They seem surprisingly reserved. Read Variety's take here and here. 

Marriage on the rocks

The New York Times' Maureen Dowd discusses Gus Van Sant's new movie Milk in the context of the Prop 8 vote in the US. 

Man of the hour

I've got the Bauer! The London Independent yesterday had a great guide to all things 24 in anticipation of tomorrow's two-hour movie, 24: Redemption. Hopefully this will help erase memories of the rather muck series 6 (that nuclear detonation in LA was a potential shark-jumper) and mark a return to form for one of television's truly great - and truly addictive - dramas. 

Live Ad

From today's Independent

It's Tuesday evening in RTE's Studio 6, a tiny space that's about to play host to something pretty big: the first ever live advert on Irish television. The 90-second commercial for 11850 Directory Enquiries is due to air on TV, radio and the web during half-time in the Munster vsNew Zealand rugby match, and everyone involved, from broadcasters to ad men, seem eerily, suspiciously calm. Continue here. 

10 great ads.

Hillary, Secretary of State?

Continuing the spooky art-life parallels between Obama's election and the fictional election in the last two years of The West Wing, it looks like Obama's vanquished foe - Hillary, not McCain - could become the Secretary of State in the new Administration. Just the latest fascinating twist in this tale.  

Tailor-made for the recession

My feature on 28 euro Lidl suits from last Friday's Irish Examiner

Thrifty shoppers with champagne tastes but lemonade pockets have long availed of German supermarket Lidl for their Italian hams and French cheeses, but now the bulk-buying giant has hit on an idea that’s truly tailor-made for these credit-crunched times: discount men’s suits. 

For just e27.99, you can pick up a two-piece plain or pinstriped suit, ranging in sizes from 38-44 (and while you’re at it, you can throw in a shirt for e9.99 or a rain jacket for e12.99). With competitors like Pennys offering suits for e57, and Michael Guiney’s wares coming in at e70, it is believed that the Lidl suit is the cheapest two-piece ever sold in Irish shops.  

However, while the conspicuous consumption and labels-obsession of the Celtic Tiger era might be on the wane in our new hair-shirt financial environment, will the fashion-conscious Irish punter really go in for the idea? Picking up a few groceries in Lidl is one thing, but an actual suit that you would wear to work? I decided to put the Lidl suit to the test with the man on street and experts in the men’s fashion market.  

Sure enough, I found out pretty quickly just what Irish shoppers think of the concept, because when it came to actually getting a suit, I discovered that there wasn’t one to be had in Dublin city centre. The manager in the Moore Street outlet informed me that the first arrivals had all sold out within just two weeks (there were no shirts available either). I contacted the customer service hotline, and they were able to locate one last pinstriped suit in the store in Newbridge, Co Kildare.  

I’ll be the first to admit that I initially cocked my nose up at the idea of wearing a Lidl suit, but looks-wise at least, I thought the two-piece looked perfectly fine. I have worn size 38 in a suit jacket before, but this one seemed much larger than usual. For that reason, I was never going to look very fitted in it. I considered having some alterations made, but a quick call to my local seamstress confirmed that any work done would actually cost more than the suit itself, which probably defeats the purpose. 

The suit itself is made in the Czech Republic, and is 100% polyester, so it isn’t very nice to touch. Plus on this chilly winter morning, my legs could feel every cold breeze that blew by. I figured the key to pulling off the Lidl suit experiment was to match it with a smart blue shirt and pink tie, which I had picked up in Topman and Bertoni respectively, and which, incidentally, together cost over twice as much as the actual Lidl suit itself. When I saw the entire ensemble put together, I thought I looked quite dapper. But what would members of the public think? 

I got my first opinions on Moore Street, in the heart of Dublin’s north inner city, where I was scheduled to get my picture taken. A woman on one of the fruit stalls told me I looked “like I was going off to make my Confirmation in my father’s suit”, but while I was posing for a picture outside Lidl, I solicited the ultimate Dubliner compliment from a female passer-by: “You look only massive!” When I told her where the suit was from, she seemed genuinely shocked. 

From there, I hightailed it down to the IFSC area, where thousands of men in suits work and socialise every day of the week. The first person I run into is a friend of mine whom I had told about the suit the weekend before. “It’s not at all what I was expecting,” he exclaims. “It looks a bit big on you, but apart from that it looks pretty good.” 

I then approach a group of smartly-dressed men and women on their cigarette break outside a financial institution to canvass opinion. “It looks quality enough, but when you touch it you would know it’s cheap,” one man told me. Would he buy one himself. “Yes, I think I would,” he replies. Would he tell anyone where it’s from though. He laughs. “Probably not,” is the reply.

His female co-worker pipes in: “I’d rip the labels off it! But I think with a nice shirt and tie you can definitely pull it off.” 

“I’d wear it to work, but not to a wedding or anything like that,” one of the other guys states. “I’d definitely wear the jacket on its own with jeans on a night out.” When I tell them that the suits appear to be selling out in Lidl stores, none of them are surprised. “Everyone’s looking to cut corners any way they can,” one of the girls says. “If you have a sense of style at all, you should be able to make something of the cheapest clothes.” 

So far, the suit seems to have garnered popular support. Now it was time for the expert opinion, and who better to adjudicate than renowned tailor Louis Copeland, whose store was just named Best Menswear Boutique by RSVP magazine. Standing amidst designer suits by the likes of Brioni, Kiton and Canali (the suit brand of choice for one Barack Obama) that cost anything between e2,500 and e6,000, I begin to feel self-conscious for the first time.  

“My opinion is that the suit is worth the money that you pay for it,” Copeland says. “Obviously you don’t get fitted properly, and it wouldn’t have the interlining that a better suit would. 

“The cut of it isn’t that bad. It’s all polyester so I don’t know how long it would last, but for that price, you’d get a couple of good wears out of it and that would be it.” 

Copeland adds that the market for men’s suits is thriving despite, or perhaps even because of the recession. “I find that people are dressing up rather than dressing down these days,” he says. “In times like this people appreciate the concept of value for money more. If you buy a good suit, it’s an investment. It’s going to last. Plus once you wear a good suit, it’s hard to go back to anything else.” 

Professional stylist Suzie Coen is also surprised by the quality of the suit. “I was expecting you to turn up in this plain black, shiny thing,” she laughs. “It’s better than what some of the high street chains have to offer for a higher price.  

“Having said that, it being polyester means it would crease terribly, and you would look more rumpled than normal if you were wearing it all day. Plus I think you would sweat a lot in an office environment wearing it. I’d like to see it after you got caught in a rain shower or if it was dry-cleaned, because I don’t think it would withstand those conditions. 

“However, while that shape isn’t great on you, the cut of the lapel and the pinstripe makes it look more professional. It would be a good starter suit for someone who doesn’t wear suits normally, like a kid just out of college going for an interview or if someone had to go to a funeral.” 

What now for 'mom-in-chief' Shelly O?

Good piece over at Salon about the "momification" of Michelle Obama. 

West Wing to Wisteria Lane

Is anyone else chuffed beyond words that President Jed Bartlet's two personal assistants  - Kathryn Joostyn and Lily Tomlin - are now playing sisters on the creatively rebooted Desperate Housewives? Lovin' your work gals

The talkies

In the course of the week's electionising, and sight-seeing and what not, I managed to squeeze in a few movies, which will be opening here in the next few weeks (except for W, which debuted yesterday). Here's my two cents...

W:

What a bizarre movie this one is. Is it a melodrama? Satire? Parody? Comedy? Who knows! It's actually a combo of all those genres - at least I think it is - so for that reason Oliver Stone's latest presidential bio is a bit all over the place tonally, and it ultimately gives a pretty shallow and facetious, though unintentionally entertaining, look at the disastrous presidency of Bush the Younger. 

That's not to detract from the movie's biggest attraction though - the performance of Josh Brolin, who not only brilliantly mimics Dubya's mannerisms and tics, he even manages to make the man, dare I say it, likeable. 

Apart from Brolin, there are other performances to savour, though that's not really meant as a compliment. Richard Dreyfuss makes for a believably - but lazily - evil, shadowy Darth Cheney, while James Cromwell makes for an interesting GHWB, though the actor fails to shake that menacing demeanour that normally works so well for him.  Meanwhile, Jeffrey Wright takes on Gen Colin Powell, but bafflingly gives him a voice that sounds like Eddie Murphy's Professor Klump in The Nutty Professor. 

But best - and by that I mean worst - of all is Thandie Newton, who makes Dr Condoleezza Rice walk, frown and sound like Billy Bob Thornton's character in Sling Blade. Absolutely hilarious. 

Changeling:

This is another one that I was really looking forward to, but about which I was left decidedly ambivalent. To be fair, Angelina Jolie is phenomenal in the lead role of real life 1920s mother Christine Collins, who took on the corrupt LA police department after her son vanished and she was 'given' a replacement boy months later that clearly wasn't her child.

It's an incredible story with many extremely dark twists, turns and false endings. But therein lies the problem: the movie is simply too packed with plot. Director Clint Eastwood is a master of lean, clear-sighted film-making, but here he adopts an uncharacteristically heavy hand, undermining the story's stark power by allowing it to, at times, descend into predictable, movie-of-the-week blandness, and even cheesiness. 

Changeling looks fantastic, with some beautiful period detail, and the performances of the wider cast (John Malkovich, Jeffrey Donovan and the brilliant Amy Ryan) are uniformly good. I was left disappointed though. Maybe a second viewing will change my mind.

Religulous:

American comedian Bill Maher has made no secret of his disdain for organised religion, and in this wickedly funny and sarcastic documentary, lapsed Catholic-Jew Maher lays into all manner of faiths and beliefs, ranging from Catholicism to Scientology. Sure, he picks some easy targets (trucker Evangelicals, an actor playing Jesus at a Holy Land theme park in Florida), but it's hard to argue against the cold, rational way he debunks scripture, points out gross hypocrisies (particularly regarding the Christian response to homosexuality) and the patently absurd myths and narratives that underlie most world religions. This probably won't get a release in Ireland or Europe so look our for it on DVD.

Rachel Getting Married:

Now we're talking: a highly anticipated movie that didn't disappoint. Silence of the Lambs director Jonathan Demme goes back to handheld camera basics to cover a weekend in the life of the dysfunctional, multi-cultural Buckman family where the eldest daughter, Rachel (brilliantly played by Mad Men star Rosemarie DeWitt) is about to get married. The movie's drama kicks off when disruptive, drug-addict sister Kym (Anne Hathaway, as you've never seen her before) arrives home from rehab for the nuptials, stoking long-suppressed tensions and anxieties within the extended clan, leading to a series of startling, uncomfortable confrontations, home truths, and uneasy, unstable reconciliations with her loved ones, particularly her emotionally distant mother (played by 80s screen legend Debra Winger, making a hugely welcome return to the Hollywood fold).

This may sound like traditional indie movie/fucked-up-family fare, but RGM is a far more interesting, engaging and remarkably subtle entry to that ever-growing cinematic subgenre than say last year's repugnant Margot At The Wedding. 

There has been much attention paid to Hathaway's performance, and I must say every word of it is deserved. She is, quite simply, extraordinary in this movie: a truly career-transforming role that will lead to some major mantlepiece hardware during next year's award race. Her Kym is a profoundly, at times nauseatingly narcissistic, self-involved train wreck, yet Hathaway also manages to make her sympathetic, human and relatable. Her eyes, her voice, her very body language communicate to the audience that this is a young woman harboring enormous pain, and that is unleashed in many ways throughout, most shockingly in an absolute whopper of a scene with Winger that will be replayed as both their nomination clips at the Oscars next year.

I can't wait to see one again when it opens here. Be excited.

Slumdog Millionaire:

Let me just say this now: I loved, loved, LOVED this neo-epic, charming, exuberant, funny, romantic and moving film from Trainspotting director Danny Boyle, a real people pleaser (literally: it won the People's Choice Award at the Toronto Film festival) that is sure to become this year's Little Miss Sunshine/Juno critical darling. 

Dav Patel (known to us as Anwar in Skins) confidently makes the jump to charismatic leading man status playing Jamal Malik, a Mumbai call centre worker who makes it to jackpot question on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? The uneducated street kid's success causes suspicion amongst TV chiefs and he is duly arrested. During the course of his interrogation, each of his correct answers from the famous quiz show provide a frame for Jamal's picaresque life story, covering his Dickensian life on the teeming streets of Mumbai with his hothead brother, to his quest to find his childhood sweetheart Latika (Freida Pinto). 

It may sound ludicrously contrived, but, trust me, Boyle pulls it off with panache, infusing the story with kinetic, youthful energy, aided by some fantastic performances from his childish cast, a cracking soundtrack and an unrelenting emotional oomph that will carry you through to the final credits, which, incidentally, explode unexpectedly into a Bollywoodtastic dance sequence that you will want to replicate as soon as you step outside the cinema. 

One of my favourite movies of this year, and one that I cannot wait to see again.

Bobby Jindal: Republican nominee 2012?

Surely this guy is the only credible candidate? Because if the GOP thinks Palin is its future, the party is in even more trouble than we thought.

Fit to lead

Geez, now I can no longer seriously keep telling myself that "I'm too busy to go to the gym" 

President Obama sells out...news-wise, of course

There was not a newspaper to be had in all of DC today. While in a newsagents in Union Station, I was talking to people who queued for an hour to get their hands on any publication they could to keep for posterity.

See front pages here courtesy of the, frankly, awesome Newseum, where I spent about 4 hours last Monday!

From DC...

I'm in Washington DC this week, and watched the early results in the packed Hawk N Dove pub on Pennsylvania Avenue. I watched the declaration of Obama's victory in my hotel, and after watching his speech in Chicago, I went back out onto the streets to gauge the reaction. 

All over the city, I could hear people cheering and car/truck horns blaring endlessly. I made my way around the corner to Presidential Plaza where thousands of people had gathered outside the White House to celebrate not just Obama's elevation, but Bush's end. In between chants of 'Yes we can' and 'Yes we did', there was lots of jeering at Bush, with choruses of 'No More Bush' and 'Hit the Road Bush, and Don't You Come Back No More'. 

The atmosphere is electric - people hugging, celebrating on the streets, cars blowing their horns in unison. An incredible night - those scenes outside the White House are burned indelibly on my mind. 

The new First Family

President-elect Obama

297 votes as of 11.06pm EST

Picture of the Day

Barack Obama cries as he speaks about his beloved grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, who died today. 

Meanwhile, every national poll gives Obama a 5-7 point lead going into the vote tomorrow. I'm predicting 55% popular vote and 350 electoral votes for Obama.

Happy Hallowe'en

Hallowe'en viewin'

These are my picks for the movies that will scare the bejaysus out of you. What will you be watching this weekend?