August 22, 2006
official: hallam foe rocks!
I just got back from seeing Hallam Foe for the first time, at a private screening.
Sure, I am biased [Dave, the director is a good friend of mine, and has recruited me to help him with the marketing], but what the hell, it frickin' rocked anyway.
How to describe it? How about, "Young Adam" meets "My Life As A Dog".
Basically, it's a smart, sweet coming-of-age movie, but with something kinda dark, twisted and funky about it.
Basically, Dave has made himself quite well known in film circles as a maker of really dark, twisted, screwed-up movies. Both Young Adam and Asylum were very disturbing films, and definitely not for kiddies.
With Hallam Foe, he lightened up, without losing any of his particularly unique genius. Somehow he managed to pull it off. Rock on.
OK, so now you know I liked the movie, and yeah, my critical opinion might be slightly biased by my relationship with its Director. Whatever. I don't mind risking my reputation, letting you know my opinion.
Anyway, my bias has particularly interesting backstory to it, beyond the "he's my friend" and "possibly good for my career" angles.
In the movie, 18-year-old Hallam Foe is played by Billy Eliiot's Jamie Bell, who by the way, [1] acted superbly in this one and [2] bares a striking resemblance to Peter Jinks, the guy who wrote the Hallam Foe novel. Without giving too much away, Hallam has a screwed-up family situation, so he flees home and gets a job as busboy in a large, Victorian, Edinburgh railway hotel. To shoot these scenes they hired out one of the great Victorian railway hotels, The Caledonian.
Now here's the rub. When David and I were both 18, I was living near the Caledonian in large delapidated, 4-bedroom apartment in the New Town district of Edinburgh [similar to the house featured in the movie, Shallow Grave]. My parents were going through a divorce at the time, and their business in Texas was tanking, so they were in America most of the time. Even when they were around, the family situation was so bad I kept a very wide berth. So I was mostly on my own, or at least, it certainly felt that way.
David, meanwhile, had recenty left both school and his parents' house [a large, granite pile in the Scottish boondocks, not unlike Hallam's house in the movie], and had just arrived in Edinburgh, looking for a place to stay and a job. His family situation wasn't quite as screwy as mine, but he seemed every bit the misfit as I was.
To make a long story short, although I didn't know him that well up to then [we knew each other from mutual friends' parties, but it was still very early days back then], I allowed him to stay at my house. Basically, we had free reign. My parents were in America, my older sister had pretty much moved out and was living with a friend, so she wasn't around much, either. We had taken an instant liking to each other, and anyway, it was a big, empty house, and I was glad of the company.
Add to this, my parents' house in Edinburgh was being refurbished. Halfway through the refurbishment, like I said, their business tanked, and suddenly the rebuilding ceased. So by the time Dave arrived on the scene, backpack in tow, the house was a total wreck, despite its prestegious New Town address. Dave and I made ourselves as comfortable as we could in these large, half-painted, half-plastered, underfurnished, dusty, gothic, Georgian rooms, but there was something definitely "camping out" about it.
No matter, as we were both 18 at the time, we had a high tolerance for mess. So we made the best of it. We soon both found summer jobs, and coincidentaly, we both started our jobs on the exact same date: June 11th, 1984.
We were to have a glorious summer, until autumn came and we both would leave Edinburgh: Dave would go to Australia on his gap year, and I would move to Austin to enroll at the University of Texas.
This summer was the first time for both of us being on our own without family or adult supervision, making money and let's say [cough], meeting women. Proper women, not schoolgirls. Up until this time, we'd both had girlfriends and all, but this was when we both started... how do you say... climbing up the sexual learning curve by having experiences with older women. Which, believe me, was a totally different scene from dating the respectable young "gells" from Edinburgh's finest private schools, which had up till then been our only experience with the fairer sex.
And this vibe is what Hallam Foe is about. Forget the plot details, Hallam Foe leaves home and starts having experiencing older women, in the Biblical sense. That's what the movie is really about. Coming-of-Age for boys is a very paradoxical phase of life. We're still kids, and yet, we're not. And for Dave and myself, it was these rather random, strangely existential experiences with older women who ushered us through that phase.
Maybe one day when we've both had one whisky too many, Dave and I will share the gory details with you. Suffice to say, the situations were as screwed-up as they were enjoyable. It was a time of life neither one of us will forget in a hurry.
My job was a junior bartender at Whigham's Wine Bar on Hope Street. David's job was just across the street, as a busboy at... The Caledonian Hotel!
This, believe it or not, was a total coincidence. I believe The Caledonian wasn't confirmed as a shooting location until two weeks before the shoot began.
When he was shooting the film, this was the first time David had stepped inside the Caledonian in over 20 years. Those memories from 1984 came flooding back to him, and as somebody who was there at the time, all I can say, he seriously captured it. When I read the film script last year, this vibe from our past wasn't apparent, but watching it up on the screen earlier today, it was all there, in glorious Technicolor.
For years, as a struggling, aspiring filmmaker, David kept telling me that one day he would love to make a movie that captured that deliciously screwed-up, sexy, brief jourey of "Becoming a Man", the same journey that every boy goes through, that we both had lived through at the same time, in the same place.
Looking at the film today, it was such a thrill to see that David had finally succeeded. Rock on.
It's interesting that your take-away from the film is different from the synopsis that appears on imdb. Perhaps that suggests multiple marketing strands might work and each attract different tranches of audience. Personally speaking, I'm more interested in the voyeur element of the script (and perhaps I should be worried about that).
As for "Young Adam" meets "My Life As A Dog". Well very few people saw Young Adam, not many more have seen My Life As A Dog - so the combination of the two of them as a descriptor (while perhaps accurate) is meaningless to most people. I think plot is the source of more incisive and accesible descriptors.
Posted by: John Dodds at August 22, 2006 7:14 PMJohn, the point of my post wasn't "Here's why you should like it" or "Here's why some hypothetical audience should like it."
The point of the post was "Here's why I like it".
There are a lot of bad movies out there with great synopses...
Posted by: Hugh MacLeod at August 22, 2006 7:26 PMWhoah! What a massive post.
So here is my first comment on Gaping Void. I too loved the movie and in some senses you evoke a similar feeling of what was descibed to me by DM's brother Al as 'relief' when he saw the film.
There's no doubt about it that when you've worked on something for as long as we all have that to see it on the screen and know that the movie doesn't suck, let alone to know that you are involved in something special, has elements of relief about it.
I think the movie is fantastic. DM has managed to construct a brilliantly engaging yet entirely plausible world for all it's oddity and one that I know makes me think of the time I went through making my own less exceptional journey.
It's been an exciting day.
Great post Hugh.
ck
Posted by: colin kennedy at August 22, 2006 7:33 PMHugh - I wasn't suggesting that it was. I was just very taken by such an explicit example of how the worldview of the consumer (for want of a better word) shapes the experience they have and the implications that has for marketing in all spheres.
Incidentally I'd like to start a groundswell for the development of a script based on yours and David's 1984.
"Two Macs on the Pull" or "Hugh and Dave's Lecherous Adventure."
Posted by: John Dodds at August 22, 2006 8:06 PMLooking forward to catching the film when it goes on main release - you may want to take some inspiration from http://www.foureyedmonsters.com/ who have managed to use nearly every web 2.0 trick to find an aduience for their film... just a suggestion given with respect and no expectations :-)
Posted by: DK at August 22, 2006 8:57 PMWhat i found most refreshing was how palpable the whole experience of seeing the film was.
I'm doubtful that i've truly passed what Hallam was going through... looking forward and looking back at the same time... having confidence in himself to walk away from his literal nest but finding that it's not a new nest or new friends or new relations that define you but who YOU are, that we never walk away from ourselves.
It tip-toes across a myriad of situations that echo some of my own personal experiences and it's clear it's done the same to others who've seen it.
To bring a little visual grammar to the table, there is a shot at the end of the proposed trailer with Hallam literally looking out at the audience and it felt that the film and Hallam are clearly looking out at you!
Posted by: Lee at August 23, 2006 1:21 AMNeat summary - I may well seek out the reels. However....
It's Outrageous.......
If your Whighams time was around 18 to 20 years ago (OMG) then HEY - I PROBABLY MET YOU HUGH!!!!!
I drank in there a LOT...
Being in the New Town, your 'experiences' probably also involved Cinderellas??
BTW I'm still looking for 'Stormbooze' in my local highstreet wine portal...Ink-on young lad.
Posted by: Frank at August 23, 2006 8:40 AMCinderella Rockefeller's on St Stephen's St. Ouch. Pain.
Posted by: Hugh MacLeod at August 23, 2006 11:15 AMI'm flattered you think Jamie Bell bears a striking resemblance to me, Hugh. However, I think I still have the edge in terms of raw sexual charisma.
Posted by: Peter Jinks at August 23, 2006 11:19 AMGood points, John...
Remember, the blurb on imdb was written by someone who actually hasn't seen the film.
So far, the only people who have seen the movie are people connected with the project.
I'm interested in what people who aren't connected with the project have to say... and one has no control over that. I think as amarketer all you can do is listen and "get out of the way"....
Posted by: Hugh MacLeod at August 23, 2006 11:20 AMthis feels right. we all know that talking about stuff with your mates helps make your mind up much more than seeing a poster or watching a tv ad but with film the effect is so much more huge. if you know someone and respect their opinions you'll go see the films they like and vice versa. i don't know you hugh but read your little ditty now and then and quite like some of the stuff you put out there. i'll be checking the movie out for sure. i used to work in the film business and the idea that talking about the film or the process of making it (marketing it or whatever you want to call it) before it's even close to being finished is going to be a shock to the system for loads of execs. not for the film makers though - more power to them. nicely done
Posted by: eugene007 at August 23, 2006 12:47 PMIt's very hard to explain how coming of age feels, but you manage it perfectly. A great post, one of the best I remember.
Posted by: Nia at August 23, 2006 12:55 PMGreat post, Hugh. Your earlier life sounds just as colorful as your present. Although, I'd be happier to read about the point in life when you found True Intimacy. I'll keep checking back. Rock on.
Posted by: shelley Noble at August 23, 2006 9:22 PMI am very happy that my friends can get into the film (even at this rough stage). And yes relieved too! But the big question for me right now is how to get the rest of the world into it. Yes it is a fucked up coming of age movie of sorts. But I hope it is a lot more than that.
We really need to find a way of expressing what makes the film special and why people should go and see it. I am way too close to it right now to be able to do that. I know the responses to it in the 4 rough cut screenings we have shown so far have been overwhelmingly brilliant, so that is really encouraging. But I really want to find a beautiful, clarified way of communicating what it is that doesn't rely on cliches and reflects the film accurately.
The proplem is that it is a complex movie about a difficult stage in a young guy's life and any attempt to reduce it to an easily digestible soundbite/pitch seems to take away the magic of the film. We know we need to find this pitch in order to capture the imagination of our potential viewers, but we don't yet know what it is.
This search for the film's identity is the challenge of the next few weeks for us and I hope Hugh is going to engage his readers in our quest . Any help much appreciated.
Posted by: David Mac at August 23, 2006 11:27 PMJamie Bell is shaping up to be a fine actor. Anyone see The Chumscrummer? Kind of a rip-off of Donnie Darko, but it's different enough to make it a worthwhile film to watch. More than worthwhile actually, especially if just to watch Bell's performance.
Posted by: Harold J. Johnson at August 24, 2006 6:07 AM