Having met at Leicester Music College in 1998 and formed early last year, The Havenots are Sophia Marshall and Liam Dullingham, two young pups (20 and 22) whose smoke-weary delivery belies their tender years. Informed by Gram/Emmylou, Gillian Welch/David Rawlings and Uncle Tupelo, this is gentle smoulder for the most part, all languid, punt-down-the-river melodies and mountain-air acoustic guitars (courtesy of Samuel Harvey).
Riffing on early David Mamet or Neil LaBute, writer-director Patrick Stettner's superb three-hander anatomises the airless, amoral culture of top-rank executives. In a faceless airport hotel, high-flyer Stockard Channing plays sadistic sex-and-power games with young business rival Julia Stiles and corporate headhunter Frederick Weller. Sharp, astringent, and proof that complex ideas and strong performances transcend even minimal budgets.
A double header, featuring two of David Lean's finest directorial efforts. Hobson's Choice (1954) sees Charles Laughton's magnificently overbearing Lancastrian patriarch butt heads with his equally stubborn daughter Brenda de Banzie, while John Mills is splendid as her husband, the worm who turns. The Sound Barrier (1952), in which Ralph Richardson attempts to devise the first faster-than-sound plane, sees stiff upper lips wobble as his efforts come to grief. It's also notable for some fine aerial sequences. Bravo, chaps!
