Little White Lies

The new issue of Little White Lies is out now. For those of you who haven't heard of it, it's a (relatively) new movie magazine that comes out every couple of months.

The difference between LWL and other film magazines, is that apart from the lack of big-star interviews and slavish focus on the latest Hollywood blockbuster, a lot of the articles in the mag aren't actually about films at all. So why's it a film title then? Well, I think the theory behind it is that in real life, decent films throw up a whole load of issues that are worth discussing. Like if you've been to see a good movie and are down the pub afterwards, you're discussing the film and the conversation veers towards things that the movie raises.

Like the current issue for instance. In keeping with previous editions, LWL has a 'feature' film that gives the headline article, in this case Sam Mendes' new picture Jarhead. So, the other articles riff on the theme of war. There are articles like: real life stories from soldiers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, a fun piece about boys' military toys, a feature on radio station in the Bosnian war, a look at Hollywood's obsession with futrustic weapons , and some war soundtacks. All good stuff.

In keeping with other film mags however, they also review movies. But there's also an interesting little twist that I totally approve of. They give the usual marks outr of 5, but they do three sets of marks. One set for anticipation (e.g. a new film from Jim Jarmusch is highly anticpated, so may get 4, and on recent form, a new Woody Allen film doesn't carry high expectations, so may get 2 or 3). Another mark is for enjoyment, which takes account of the experience for the 2 hours or so watching the film, and the last score is in retrospect, given that great movies stay with us, or something that may have been thrilling at the time may leave no lasting impression, or that we may even change our minds after some thought or discussion. Is that not a great way of reviewing films? They're right, it's not just about the experience of literally watching the thing! Why hasn't anyone thought of this before?

Anyway, if you want a copy, you can get them from Borders, Fopp (although I was in there last week and they didn't have any in) and other select vendors. Or you can subscribe.