Jonathan Crocker

There’s a story that Billy Wilder (legendary Oscar-winning filmmaker) once told Billy Bob Thornton (impoverished LA waiter) that he didn’t look pretty enough to make it as an actor. Thornton didn’t care. Firstly, he didn’t really want to be an actor anyway. Secondly, he looked interesting. And interesting beat pretty any day of the week. The first Billy would live just long enough to watch the second Billy (actor, writer, director) win an Oscar and marry the hottest woman on the planet. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 5% [?]

Fear and desire, paranoia and lost innocence, sex and violence, betrayal and revenge… The mean streets of film noir? Or the school daze of adolescence? Brilliantly spliced and sutured in Rian Johnson’s ultra-cool indie debut, they’re parallel universes with a perfect fit. Teen noir? Could be a gimmick. But Brick’s opening scene of a dead body face-down in the water is the closest it comes to film-nerd shot homage. Johnson’s genre-riffing mystery thriller is much smarter than that. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 9% [?]

1. The real… Rocky Balboa

It ain’t how hard you can hit… Sly Stallone based Rocky Balboa on no-hope heavyweight slugger Chuck Wepner after seeing him battle invincible world champion Muhammad Ali in an extraordinary fight in 1975. No one expected Wepner to last three rounds. But he took everything Ali could throw – then floored the champ with a bodyshot in the ninth. “Hey, I knocked him down!” grinned Wepner as he went back to his corner. “Well done,” replied his trainer. “But he looks really pissed off now…” Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 9% [?]

1. Planet Earth
Shot on HD cameras and a £16 million budget, David Attenborough’s nature mega-doc might be Blu-ray’s most breathtaking visual experience: every colour, every hair, every tiny air-bubble and fish-scale leaps off the screen and hits your retinas like a drug.

2. Iron Man
Impossible to see where the CG starts and the live-action footage ends on Iron’s Man’s HD transfer. But it’s the lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio that really amazes: skip to Tony Stark’s first flight and feel your surround-sound ripple. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 10% [?]

Joel is taller, wears dark suits. Ethan is shorter, dresses down. Joel looks over to your left shoulder while he’s talking. Ethan looks over to your right shoulder. Sometimes they’ll interrupt each other. Sometimes they’ll finish each other’s sentences. They’re, y’know, kinda funny lookin’. No one really understands the Coen brothers or their movies. But everyone loves them. Their latest movie is called A Serious Man. It’s about… well, try asking them. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 3% [?]

Even she can’t believe it. “Is it? Wow…” Definitely. “Although on the other hand, it feels about 10.” More like five. “Yeah… But maybe five.” It’s definitely five, five years since Tilda Swinton last stared into an i-D camera. Back then, back in 2003, we celebrated her as Britain’s most unique icon of avant garde style: actress, artist, mother, model. The rest of the world has finally caught on. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 13% [?]

Chatting with the Oscar-winning star of The Burning Plain…

Do you ever get nervous in front of the camera?

Oh no, that’s what alcohol’s for. No, trust me, nothing gets you over your nerves. Even when you do nude scenes, it’s not something that’s easy because you’ve done it before. Acting means you have to put yourself to a vulnerable state.

So apart from alcohol, how do you beat your nerves?

Oh great, I can see that headline already! I don’t drink when I work! You’re stirring the pot… No, I think it’s tricky because I don’t know the real answer. I just know that I know how to do it. I have a real passion for human nature and how we survive. I’m just fascinated by it. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 4% [?]

Swapping Spaghetti for Noodles, Korean director Kim Ji-woon talks crazy saddle-saga The Good, The Bad And The Weird…

How big an influence was Sergio Leone? What are your other big influences?

I like Italian Westerns in general but it’s clear that Sergio Leone left a strong impression on me. I was inspired not only by Westerns but by films like Mad Max: Road Warrior, Ben-Hur, Bullitt, The Magnificent Seven, The Wild Bunch and Blade Runner. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 6% [?]