Nick Prescott

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https://hdl.handle.net/2328/3303

Dr Nick Prescott is a lecturer of English in the Department of English, Creative Writing and Australian Studies. He is also a member of the Adelaide Writers Week Board, and broadcasts weekly film reviews for the ABC.

Nick's research interests include:

  • Postmodern Literature
  • Contemporary American Fiction
  • Allusion and Intertextuality
  • Thomas Pynchon
  • Don DeLillo
  • Philip K. Dick and Paranoia
  • Contemporary Cinema and Intertextuality
  • Fiction as Socio-political Commentary and Critique

    • Nick's extensive supervisory interests include:

  • Postmodern Literature and Theory
  • 20th Century American Fiction
  • Crime and Detective Fiction
  • Genre Fiction
  • Science Fiction, in particular the works of Philip K. Dick
  • Literature and Film Adaptation
  • Literature and Intertextuality

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    Browsing Nick Prescott by Author "Prescott, Nick"
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      "16 Blocks" directed by Richard Donner [review]
      (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2006-08-03) Prescott, Nick
      To say that audiences haven’t heard much of Bruce Willis lately isn’t quite accurate; the actor has voiced a number of animated characters recently, even if he hasn’t appeared in the visual sense terribly often. As a man who became a superstar in the 1980s, Willis doesn’t need to work constantly; I’m sure the villa in Tuscany or the castle in the Scottish Highlands would have been comfortably paid for by now. It’s interesting, then, to observe the kinds of roles that will draw Bruce back in front of the cameras: with 16 Blocks, the actor is returning to the kind of grungy, unshaven, hard-drinking cop he played in the third Die Hard film.
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      "44 Inch Chest" directed by Malcolm Venille [review]
      (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2010-11-12) Prescott, Nick
      I can’t quite believe that it was almost ten years ago that I was raving to everyone I knew about an independent film from England called Sexy Beast. The great Ray Winstone (who began his career on TV in Robin of Sherwood, of all things) gave a bravura performance as Gal, a retired British criminal living on the Costa del Sol, laying low and enjoying the sunshine. Into his idyllic retirement came the terrifying Don – a genuinely frightening Ben Kingsley – whose mission was to entice Gal back to Blighty for one last job. The fireworks began there and didn’t let up for another 100 minutes; Sexy Beast was the most bracing, hilarious, tense and unmissable film about British criminality and masculinity to come along for years.
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      "Ashes to Ashes" directed by Johnny Campbell, Bille Eltringham [review]
      (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2009-10-22) Prescott, Nick
      Several years ago, audiences in both the UK and Australia were introduced to the wondrous BBC drama Life on Mars. Taking its name from a David Bowie song, Life on Mars followed the intriguing exploits of a 2006 Manchester cop, Sam Tyler, (played by the wonderful John Simm) who was hit by a car and seemingly sent back in time to 1973. The show functioned as a compelling psychological thriller, following Tyler’s efforts to discover what had sent him back in time (was he in a coma, dying, dreaming, or in some kind of limbo-land or Purgatory?) and his attempts to escape 1973 and get back to his life in 2006. At the same time, the show was a loving and at times hilarious re-creation of the 1970s British cop-show milieu (think of The Sweeney crossed with The Professionals, but shot with today’s filmmaking technology), and it featured the wonderful Philip Glenister as the now-iconic DCI Gene Hunt, a politically-incorrect, hilariously foul-mouthed and utterly lovable character who infuriated Tyler as often as he helped him in his various quests.
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      "Candy" directed by Neil Armfield [review]
      (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2006-05-26) Prescott, Nick
      It’s my pleasure to announce that Australian cinema audiences can once again rejoice in the arrival of a sterling new Australian film. Candy, based on Luke Davies’ well-received 1997 novel, is the first big-screen feature-film effort from acclaimed theatre director Neil Armfield, and it’s a pretty stunning piece.
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      "Colour me Kubrick" directed by Brian Cook [review]
      (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2006-06-08) Prescott, Nick
      For both film aficionados and the public at large, Stanley Kubrick has long been a figure of fascination. Interest in Kubrick as an artistic figure has continued in leaps and bounds since the great director’s untimely death in 1999. As the visionary creator of many of the twentieth century’s landmark films, works like 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Dr Strangelove, Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut, Kubrick was a figure of intense acclaim and interest during his lifetime; a significant percentage of the world’s artistic community followed the filmmaker’s projects with obsessive interest. In his latter years, Kubrick’s refusal to travel outside England and his tendency toward reclusiveness increased his attraction for other parts of the popular press, as well as for gossip-mongers and mythographers. During the last decade of his life, however (and in large part because of the aura of mystery that had come to surround him) Kubrick attracted one of the most bizarre forms of attention possible: he was impersonated by a trickster, a con-man who passed himself off as the famous director in order to take advantage of the goodwill of individuals who were, it would seem, all too willing to believe they had encountered the great man in person.
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      "Confetti" directed by Debbie Isitt [review]
      (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2006-08-03) Prescott, Nick
      With both Confetti and the new Australian mockumentary Kenny set to hit our screens in the next few weeks, the fictional documentary is about to experience something of a resurgence in our fair city. During the last ten years, this odd (and easy to produce) genre has blossomed to the point that in both the film and television arenas there have been some astonishing successes made of inexpensive though brilliantly conceived “fly on the wall” fictions. Christopher Guest and co have carved a satirical niche in the US with films like Best in Show, Waiting for Guffman and A Mighty Wind, while in the UK Ricky Gervais made television comedy history with the inspired and excruciatingly discomfiting The Office.
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      "The Constant Gardener" directed by Fernando Mireilles [review]
      (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2005) Prescott, Nick
      John Le Carre, perhaps the most celebrated author of espionage fiction of the late Twentieth Century, has, in his more recent work, explored some of the genuinely troubling world events that have begun to drive our planet since the end of the cold war. The Constant Gardener, set in Kenya and London, caused something of a stir on its release as a book; here was a tragic love story played out against a backdrop of big-business corruption, Governmental apathy and the exploitation of the third world. Large-scale and complex issues these most certainly are, and Le Carre brilliantly examines them by focussing on the effects wrought upon a pair of lovers caught up in the midst of cataclysmic events.
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      "The Dark Knight" directed by Christopher Nolan [review]
      (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2008-12-04) Prescott, Nick
      It’s a testament to both the immense critical and commercial success of The Dark Knight and the extraordinary legacy of the late Heath Ledger that this DVD release will almost surely be the home video blockbuster of the year. You heard right, dear readers: the film that made roughly half a billion dollars at the worldwide box-office and trounced pretty much everything else at the cinema this year (including other terrific releases like Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Iron Man) will be sure to sell a zillion DVD copies, and there are more than a few different versions to choose from, too.
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      "Dexter. Season 1" directed by Michael Cuesta et.al. [review]
      (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2008-02-21) Prescott, Nick
      Dexter may well answer the question “How disturbing can a television series possibly get?” in the most intriguing and intelligent way. Based on a well-received (and wryly funny) novel by Jeff Lindsay, Dexter centres around the titular character of Dexter Morgan, a Forensic blood-splatter analyst working for the Miami police force, whose expertise at analysing blood patterns in part stems from the fact that he has himself caused a fair bit of blood to splatter over the years. Dexter, you see, is that rarest of sociopaths: a serial-killer who only strikes at victims who truly (in his eyes, at least) deserve to die. Dexter, whose childhood entailed traumas that are at first vaguely hinted at and then gradually become clearer as the series progresses, was taken in by a good-hearted cop (James Remar) and eventually raised to harness his murderous urges for the cause of good. Having grown up into the otherwise-respectable and utterly charming Police professional he is, Dexter spends his days working as a law-abiding cop, and his nights researching the lowest of low-lifes and then devoting himself heart and soul to wiping them off the face of the earth in the messiest of ways, always keeping a drop of their blood on a microscope slide as a souvenir.
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      "Get Smart" directed by Peter Segal [review]
      (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2008-06-26) Prescott, Nick
      Like many people who mis-spent their youth watching too much television, I can remember a golden age of American TV comedy: it was characterised, for me, by the mid-1960s series created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, Get Smart. Born as a sort of comedic reaction to some of the more serious cold-war thrillers like Fail Safe and its Seven Days in May, Get Smart reduced the espionage landscape to an ongoing battle for supremacy between two shadowy spy agencies: the bad guys, K.A.O.S., and the good guys, CONTROL. Headed up by bungling spy-hero Maxwell Smart (who was of course anything but), and his wiser and far more competent “side-kick”, Agent 99, the CONTROL agency routinely foiled plots to explode bombs, assassinate Presidents, and generally destroy the balance of good and evil.
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      "The Good German" directed by Steven Soderbergh [review]
      (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2007-03-15) Prescott, Nick
      Director Steven Soderbergh’s homage to wartime European cinema and to American film noir is a fascinating, challenging studio picture. As much a loving series of references to the great studio productions of the 1940s (Casablanca in particular) as it is a modern romantic thriller, The Good German functions on numerous levels at once, and in the capable hands of Soderbergh and his effortlessly charming actors, it’s quite wonderful to behold.
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      "Iron Man 2" directed by Jon Favreau [review]
      (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2010-04-29) Prescott, Nick
      Iron Man smashed the box-office apart in 2008, and in the process reminded us all just how good Robert Downey Jr. is in pretty much anything he does, and also showed how an erstwhile actor (indy favourite Jon Favreau) could strut his stuff as a director of mega-budget action fare with the best of them. Iron Man had it all: gob-smacking special-effects, a wonderfully funny and engaging script, terrific performances and a rousing story. The film was perfect popcorn fare, and, as I said to myself upon leaving the cinema, “Where’s the harm in that?”
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      "Jindabyne" directed by Ray Lawrence [review]
      (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2006-07-20) Prescott, Nick
      Jindabyne is the much-anticipated third feature film by Australian director Ray Lawrence, the man responsible for the best Aussie film of the last ten years, Lantana. Despite his impeccable industry credentials, Lawrence has had an unusual career as a director. After making the flawed but fascinating feature debut Bliss in 1985, Lawrence spent a decade and a half in the Australian filmmaking netherworld, working on acclaimed shorts and commercials, and trying in vain to get feature projects off the ground. When writer Andrew Bovell crossed Lawrence’s path in the late nineties, Lantana was born. Since the release of that revelation of a film in 2000, Lawrence hasn’t looked back.
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      "Jumper" directed by Doug Liman [review]
      (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2008-02-14) Prescott, Nick
      Jumper continues the worrying Hollywood trend of spending 150 million dollars on a movie and forgetting to buy a decent script. This wannabe-blockbuster, this sci-fi mishmash, wants to thrill us and awe us with its mile-a-minute pace and its cutting-edge special effects, but what it really achieves, after a decent opening, is battering its audience into submission with one scarcely comprehensible action set-piece after another, with almost no character development or suspense to hold it together in any meaningful way at all.
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      ''La Vie en Rose'' directed by Olivier Dahan [review]
      (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2007-07-13) Prescott, Nick
      Given that it’s Harry Potter time again (the fifth film in the series has rolled out this week) it’s also that part of the cinematic year during which any number of smaller, quieter, even – dare one say it – potentially more interesting films can come and go almost undetected in the wake of the box-office juggernauts. Not that there’s anything wrong with young Harry; it’s just that enormous franchises like his can so easily obscure worthy smaller films that dare to open at around the same time. La Vie en Rose is precisely such an offering: a carefully made and beautifully performed bio-pic of legendary French songstress Edith Piaf. The film has been a big deal in its native country, and rightly so; here though it’s a minor art-house release, and in my opinion it’s absolutely worthy of discussion.
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      "Like Minds" directed by Gregory Read [review]
      (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2006-11-16) Prescott, Nick
      Like Minds is in many ways an intriguing and rather surprising film. A psychological thriller that takes the audience on a dark journey into territory occupied by disturbed adolescent minds, the film actually began its conceptual life as a documentary. Australian filmmaker Gregory Read, previously a director of acclaimed non-fiction features and shorts, was researching aberrant psychologies and the fascinating topic of gestalt therapy, with a view to making his next documentary about this dark and troubling subject. While conducting his research Read found himself increasingly fascinated by the idea that two potentially sociopathic individuals could, upon coming to know each other, form a murderous partnership whose capabilities far exceeded those of both separate individuals. While this in itself is not exactly a freshly-minted concept, Read has added, for Like Minds, an unusual subplot concerning arcane religious history and, of all things, the mythology of the Knights Templar.
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      "Mamma Mia!" directed by Phyllida lloyd [review]
      (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2008-07-10) Prescott, Nick
      To set things “straight” (if one can even use that word without one’s tongue in one’s cheek when reviewing a movie such as this…) I haven’t seen the stage show upon which this film is based, and I don’t count myself as a fan of Swedish mega-popgroup ABBA. Like everyone else on the planet, however (well, everyone who’s had access to a television or a radio sometime during the last thirty years) I’ve heard most of ABBA’s songs a million times, and while I don’t dance along to them, I can tolerate them as the well-crafted pop they are.
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      "Miss Potter" directed by Chris Noonan [review]
      (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2006-01-25) Prescott, Nick
      To answer the most pressing question first: no, this isn’t a film about Harry Potter’s sister. Miss Potter, the charming new film by Chris Noonan (best known on our shores as the director of the original Babe) is a biopic built around the life and writing experiences of beloved children’s author Beatrix Potter. The creator of Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddleduck and scores of other indescribably adorable animal characters is apparently still the highest-selling children’s author in history, beating everyone from Enid Blyton to latter-day picture book creators. Born in 1866, Beatrix Potter was a member of a reasonably affluent London family that had made its fortune in industry. As a young woman interested in making her own way in the world rather than settling for a convenient marriage, Beatrix spent many years proving to her rather strict and traditional parents that earning her own living as a writer and illustrator was nothing to be ashamed of. Potter’s mother in particular was deeply sceptical about her daughter’s talents and prospects, even in the face of Beatrix’s growing fame in the early years of the 20th century. Alongside these family struggles, Beatrix faced that with which we are all confronted in our growing up: romantic yearnings. These twin threads, family and romance, are really what the story of Miss Potter is built upon.
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      "Mission: Impossible" directed by Brian De Palma [review]
      (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2006-05-04) Prescott, Nick
      With the recent big-screen release of the latest entry in the Mission: Impossible franchise, it has been a canny move for the studio to re-release the first of the films in a beautiful 2-disc Special Edition DVD. Brian De Palma, best known as the director of ultra-stylish genre pieces like Dressed to Kill, The Untouchables and Scarface, was an interesting choice to take the reigns for Tom Cruise’s first outing as superspy Ethan Hunt.
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      "The New World" directed by Terence Malick [review]
      (Roadshow Entertainment, 2006-04-27) Prescott, Nick
      Terrence Malick, the elusive and faintly mysterious director of four films that arguably stand as masterpieces one and all, usually brings the film world to a dead halt when he releases a new work. Badlands was a stunning début in 1973; kickstarting the careers of its lead actors Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek, it made cinematic poetry of its young-lovers-on-the-run narrative. Days of Heaven (1978) is regarded by many cinematographers as the most beautiful film ever committed to celluloid, and The Thin Red Line, Malick’s 1998 piece, was rapturously received around the world (by critics at least; many cinemagoers found the film too demanding, and its philosophy too convoluted, to stay with it). That film brought its director back into the limelight after twenty years in obscurity, and it stands as the most deeply felt anti-war film since Platoon.