In the words of Georgia Nicholson, I nearly had a nervy b today. First of all I was walking to work (viva saving the environment, etc) sans umbrella in the misty early morning glow, when half way to the office it starts pissing it down with rain. I tried to run to shelter in a bus stop (shudder) only to end up tripping and going flying over a pigs head! I kid you not! A pigs head! Just lying on the pavement! Then of course the rain got worse, my shoes smelt of butchered pig's head and by the time i got to work, my shirt was so drenched my nipples were positively shining through. When i texted photographic evidence to DazPecs, his response was "now the pigs head - that's funny!" Charming. Then i had a call from one of my original ace gang, Kirsty (25 years as friends this September! Marvy) requiring a jolly good evening out, so I abandoned my plans for the Red Blooded Women showcase with bobbypops & Mike PTA and heeded the call. So for the second night in a row, a jolly good chinwag and an uplifting movie was required (last night was the call of Burn-Ice and therapy known as Mamma Mia). So Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging it was then...
As this is really a series of books (by louise rennison) for 11 year old girls, the cinema was packed with them. I made Kirsty go the cashier to buy tickets so I could stand there and "comedically" roll my eyes as if to make out I had been dragged there against my will. However, the film was quite charming and although the style of chat from the book is a little grating on the big screen, the film makers managed to pull together the real heart of the book which is selfish Georgia's relationship with her friends and family. There are funny moments (saliva kissing is hilarious but repulsive) touching moments (that teenage moment when you realise your parents were young once too and maybe not so bad as you like to think) and moments of maturiosity (where Georgia realises she's a bit of a cow actually and does something about it). Sadly some of the books weird and wonderful characters are pruned down for this film to mere appearance (a fleeting glimpse of the bummer twins; a rather morose Dave the Laugh; barely a mention of Sven) but as a novel adaptation it wasn't too bad. Plus it bought back fond memories of my youth as a 14 year old boy crazy fool and had a brief but ace snippet of Pull Shapes. And the Brideshead Revisited preview on before it, looked lush. Is it XO?!
Onto the band in the film, who I've mentioned before here. The Stiff Dylans (which IS a great name) rather laughably cite Radiohead as their major influence in the film but the fictional band become flesh (or something) charted at 41 this week in the UK with their indebted-to-Mcfly debut single Ultraviolet. It's not the world's best debut single ever, but after seeing it in the film, it does add a certain charm to it's pop rockiness and the actor who plays sex god (the film's words not mine!) Robbie (the film's bands bassist but not the real bands! Confused?) would be perfect as a boyfriend for a young man I know (forever the matchmaker i'm afraid). Of course, I'd much rather hear the song muted in the film as the band's "fictional" debut "Bitch in a Uniform" but hey, I'm already confused by the blurring of fiction and reality with this band, so I'll just wait to hear what they got in line for their debut album...
