Fass

A little cultural recommendation. Saw one of the films of the year last night, the year 2012 that is. I absolutely loved director Steve McQueen's debut feature Hunger, an extremely powerful and absorbing piece of work that featured a mesmerising lead performance from Michael Fassbender. The pair are together once more in the forthcoming Shame, which is equally as impressive. I'll not say much more, it's probably better the less you know before actually seeing it. Terrific performance again from Michael, I reckon that in terms of profile and reputation, The Fass could well be 2012's The Gozzle.

OK, let's crack on with that best of 2011 malarkey...

Album #9:
Deaf Center - Owl Splinters

In short, a superbly atmospheric instrumental album of that home listening/modern classical type stuff from Norway. It's dark, it's sombre, it's black magnifence stretches across all the tracks. Less of a whisper, more of a huge ambient roar. Sample track: Close Forever Watching

Film #9:
Weekend

Bit of a gem this one, and one that seems to have gathered a real following, even though it had a pretty smallscale cinematic release. A very simple, yet authentic and wholly plausible British film that follows a couple of men (actors you're very unlikely to have ever seen before) who meet in a bar on a Friday night and then spend a lot of the following two days together. They have sex, they take drugs, they talk. They talk a lot, a real lot and it's never less than captivating. It's all very understated and matter of fact, it's almost a shame that the sex/drugs activities and references are undoubtedly what's given this film it's 18 certificate, as it wouldn't be a significantly different movie if it had come in as a 15 and got a wider audience (it certainly deserves one). It's actually pretty lovely with a charm streak a mile wide running through it.