21 year-old Sean Wilson, from Torquay, Englany graduated from the University of the West of England in Bristol with a 2:1 in Film Studies and English. Sean also loves music, especially film music from composers such as John Williams and Thomas Newman. With his love of film, reading and writing, Sean reviews films for the Fujairah Observer!  

Another month sees another eerily accurate performance from Michael Sheen, this time resurrecting controversial, outspoken footie manager Brian Clough and his doomed 44 day stint at Leeds United.
Fresh from widespread acclaim from his uncanny turn as David Frost in Frost/Nixon, Sheen further seals himself as the premier chameleon actor of his generation, giving birth to a character who superficially bears similarities with his Frost portrayal – but contains more darkness beneath.
This isn’t to say that Tom Hooper’s The Damned United is a gloomy, psychological, navel gazing portrayal of ‘The Greatest England Captain That Never Was’- far from it. Hooper’s film is an incredibly fair, reverential and affectionate portrait. Distancing itself from the source material (David Peace’s much darker, more internal ‘biography’ – dismissed by Clough’s widow), the film demonstrates a much lighter, more entertaining touch. If much of it is fictionalised, the loyalty to the character of Clough is nothing less than admirable.
Zipping back and forward between the aforementioned 44 day run and his earlier days as manager of Derby with remarkable coherence and clarity (the intervening years brilliantly played out as a shifting football league table), we first zero in on Clough as he has dragged Derby County out of the mire with a combination of brains, even more brawn and a crucial partnership with Peter Taylor (Timothy Spall). Poised on the cusp of great change, Clough runs into controversy by signing £225,000 player David Nish without consulting the board of directors, presided over by Sam Longson (Jim Broadbent). Clough resigns – despite overwhelming support from fans and players alike – and his future career, including the aborted Leeds stint, unfolds.
Already forming itself as not only a fascinating snapshot of a key period in UK social history (Nish’s signing foreshadows the million dollar deals done today; the football matches themselves are a bruising display of mud, sweat and tears) but also a gripping character study, the film creates a neat psychological arc for Clough by emphasising his rivalry with stoic manager Don Revie (Colm Meany, another coup for the film, bearing a remarkable likeness), whom he finally confronts in a television interview. One of the greatest incidental pleasures of the film is its recreation of such real life events. On his arrival at Leeds, the famous incident where Clough demanded the players dump their medals in the nearest dustbin is also played out.
With Sheen’s skill at understated character work forming a rock solid centre, the film brings to life the man who was bold, brash and ultimately responsible for his own undoing at Leeds: namely that he took charge of a team whom he looked upon less than favourably. Never judgemental, the film posits Clough’s failure as a character flaw, never anything more. It also pleasingly doesn’t cop out at indicating his later successes at Nottingham Forrest.
Although not daring enough to paint a truly complex picture, it’s certainly a cut above the standard biopic and Clough’s career (as it’s condensed on-screen) makes for fascinating albeit dramatized viewing. Authentic looking in its recreation of stand-only stadiums and dreary looking 1970s England (although ardent followers of the period will inevitably pick holes), The Damned United is that rare thing: a football film for those who know nothing about the ‘beautiful game’.

Sean's rating: 8/10

Richard Curtis’ films are like a rich chocolate: sweet, fluffy, maybe even saccharine, and always polarising when it comes to popular opinion. Curtis is always more successful when scripting, as opposed to directing, and The Boat That Rocked plays to these core strengths so successfully that one can overlook the lack of experience behind the camera. The result is one of the funniest films in years.
Based (very loosely) on the exploits of real life pirate radio Caroline in the 60s, Rocked chronicles the journey undertaken by Carl (Tom Sturridge), the newest recruit to a free spirited, fun loving offshore crew of DJs, among them leader Quentin (Bill Nighy), lustful Dave (Nick Frost), respected yank The Count (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and others. Why Carl has been seconded to the vessel remains a mystery, but his parentage may have something to do with it…
On the other side of the fence is humourless Minister Dormandy (Kenneth Branagh, wasted in an anonymous role) who is attempting to shut the station down with the help of an assistant (Jack Davenport) whose name begins and ends with a ‘t’’ and contains an ‘a’ in the middle. Funny the first few times, the joke on the name soon wears thin and marks the weaker side of the film (the dull government drones are also none too subtly represented through bleached, drab lensing).
As it stands, this segment of the film takes up so little of the running time that the focus soon shifts back to the boat based frolics – where the real fun lies. Playing it like an extended TV sketch, the marvellous ensemble clearly had a whale of a time filming, and it shows on-screen.
Generating peerless chemistry (which is surely one of the hardest things to get right in any movie), the mix of veteran and relative novice comic actors works a treat, even, in some cases, favouring the less famous faces. Rhys Darby (most familiar from Flight of the Conchords) brilliantly works in his character Angus’ fear of water in the latter stages, Chris O’Dowd (TV’s The IT Crowd) is winningly earnest as likeable Simon (reputedly based on Tony Blackburn) and Tom Brooke as Thick Kevin brings the house down with his dunderheaded observations.
The star turns (on the boat, at least) are also excellent. Bill Nighy has the lanky, louche thing down pat by now but he does it so well it’s a joy to watch. Nick Frost offers a slightly seedier, more lugubrious slant to his cuddly big screen persona and, mercifully, Curtis resists the temptation to waste Seymour Hoffman, giving him a poignant soliloquy where he laments the future of pirate radio, while also playing to his underrated strengths as a brilliant comic performer.
Yes, it’s all very obvious, very shallow and much romanticised (the real job was surely much more claustrophobic and intense, not to mention lonely – women weren’t allowed on-board, unlike what the film suggests). But then this is a Richard Curtis film – no-one expects incisive cutting humour or subtlety. For that, audiences can turn to Armando Ianucci’s brilliant new political satire, In The Loop. Boosted by a predictably superb soundtrack (featuring The Kinks, The Who and even Ennio Morricone), Rocked is content with merely providing a great time… and at that it succeeds brilliantly.

Sean's rating: 8/10