Author: Ben Gummery

In 1992, Quentin Tarantino exploded onto the independent cinema scene with his violent and ferocious debut film Reservoir Dogs which featured an ensemble cast including Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Chris Penn, Steve Buscemi, Lawrence Tierney, Michael Madsen & Tarantino himself.

This film showed the beginnings of Tarrentino’s bold and unique film-making style that was further developed in later films such as Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill. He was unafraid of using on-screen violence as a tool to shock and thrill audiences. He also created believable and relatable characters through the use of everyday conversation and pop culture references of the time; you could almost imagine these violent criminals were someone you might know.

But one aspect that really sets this film aside is the use of music. Many directors prefer to score their films or have specially written music but Tarrentino (in his early work at least) advocates for using existing music from around the time-period. For this film, it’s as if he took a 70’s Jukebox and picked songs that perfectly complement both the scene & setting with songs such as ‘Little Green Bag’ (George Baker Selection) and ‘Hooked on a Feeling’ (Blue Swede) in complete contrast to the dark events of the film as it unfolds.

Music is introduced through the fictional radio station ‘K Billy’s Super Sounds of the 70’s‘; that characters tune into at various points in the film. My favourite example of this is the infamous ‘ear-cutting’ scene in which Mr Blonde (Madsen) tortures cop Nash (Kirk Baltz); all set to Gerry Rafferty’s ‘Stuck In the Middle With You’ playing on the radio.

This ironically upbeat song somehow takes away from the violence we see on screen and yet complements the action perfectly.

I’m not a particularly big fan of 70’s music but I really enjoyed the selection here and the music in the film is almost a character in it’s own right; marking key points in the story.

EDIT – Check out http://techtalk.currys.co.uk/music/tell-us-your-favourite-movie-soundtrack-to-win-a-home-cinema-soundsystem/

Coffee Town is the original comedy from writer/director Brad Copeland and marks the first feature film produced by website CollegeHumor; better known for their on-line comedy videos. This continues a new trend of features created by on-line content sites; the feature iSteve (a comic look at the life of Steve Jobs) was released by site FunnyorDie earlier the same year. The film was released simultaneously in cinemas and on-demand.

The film stars Glen Howerton (star and co-creator of TV sitcom It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia) as Will; a website manager that uses his local coffee shop as his office. This deals comically with the clichés and real life habits of coffee shop users; as Will has created his own delicate ecosystem in order to maintain his free-loading existence.

However, this existence is threatened when the shop owners plan to convert the shop into a bar. Will teams up with fellow slouches Chad (Steve Little) and Gino (Ben Schwartz) to hatch a plot to foil the owner’s plans. Will also competes with suave bartender Sam (Josh Groban) for the affections of love interest Becca (Adrianne Palicki).

Howerton brings us an assured, warm & funny sitcom performance for the big screen; perhaps not what many would count as a successful transition but in this case it works. Formed from a series of oddball and slightly exaggerated comic performances you could easily compare this film to an episode of the Big Bang Theory or Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Highly watch-able and well paced at 87 minutes long the comedy here reflects on situations many will relate to.

3/5

More recently Internet giant NetFlix have announced they are developing their own features for release and distribution. With these new distribution paths it is easier than ever for slightly off-beat, small films such as these to get made and reach a larger audience. This may mark the start of the end for the traditional ‘studio’ model as we know it.