Archive for the ‘Cultural issues’ Category
A review of the film “A House Of Dynamite”
March 5th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
Kathryn Bigelow is a rarity among American directors, a woman who makes compelling movies with a military theme. I was enormously impressed by “The Hurt Locker” (2008) and “Zero Dark Thirty” (2012). Here, she works with scriptwriter Noah Oppenheim and sound designer Paul NJ Ottosson to present to us a gripping insight into a nightmare […]
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A review of the latest film adaptation of “Wuthering Heights”
March 1st, 2026 by Roger Darlington
I’ve read the dark and dour 1847 Emily Brontë novel and I’ve seen the film adaptations of 1939, 1992 and 2011, so why would I want to view yet another cinematic interpretation of this long and complex work? The main reason is that the writer and director is Emerald Fennell and I was so unsettled […]
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A review of the new Korean film “No Other Choice”
February 10th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
From the Korean director of the infamous “Old Boy”, Park Chan-wook’s latest film will not be to everyone’s taste since this surreal black comedy is a tale of mayhem and murder, but it is done with some style and poses a challenging social problem: what do we do when traditional industries – in this case, […]
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A review of “Small Things Like These” by Claire Keegan
February 8th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
Set in a small Irish town in 1985, the point of view is that of kindly coal merchant, Bill Furlong. As the story develops, it becomes the author’s response to the scandal of the Magdalen laundries. Claire Keegan’s writing is so exquisite that one needs to read it slowly and fortunately one can because the […]
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A review of “So Late In The Day” by Claire Keegan
February 2nd, 2026 by Roger Darlington
Claire Keegan is an Irish writer known for her short stories and this one has been published in a stand-alone work of just 45 pages. Set in modern-day Dublin, this beautifully-written tale describes the evolving relationship of Cathal and Sabine and the lack of care in too many young men even today. Sabine offers Cathal […]
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A review of the classic film “Gone With The Wind” (1939)
February 2nd, 2026 by Roger Darlington
Everything about this film is epic. It is set at the most transformational period of American history: the civil war and the reconstruction era. It is based on the very long and hugely popular 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell. It was the second most expensive film made up to that point, with only “Ben Hur” […]
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A review of the new sports movie “Saipan”
January 29th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
Never heard of Saipan? It is the largest island of the Northern Mariana Islands, an unincorporated territory of the United States in the western Pacific Ocean. Never hear of the Saipan incident? This was a public quarrel in May 2002 between the Republic of Ireland national football team’s captain Roy Keane and manager Mick McCarthy […]
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Ever heard of Louis Spohr?
January 23rd, 2026 by Roger Darlington
I hadn’t until I was told about him by a patient to whom I was talking while doing my weekly volunteering at the Older Persons’ Unit of St Thomas Hospital in central London. According to the entry in Wikipedia: “Louis Spohr, 5 April 1784 – 22 October 1859), baptized Ludewig Spohr, later often in the modern German form […]
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A review of the new award-winning film “Hamnet”
January 18th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
We know so little about the life of the greatest English writer William Shakespeare, but that does not stop us wanting invented stories about him including earlier films “Shakespeare In Love” (1998) and “All Is True” (2018). What we do know is that Shakespeare had a son called Hamnet who died aged 11 in 1596, […]
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A review pf the new blockbuster movie “Avatar: Fire And Ash”
January 9th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
Any film directed by James Cameron is a must-see and any film in his “Avatar” franchise is a veritable spectacular. We had to wait 13 years for the first sequel but only another three years for this third adventure. As with all the “Avatar” movies, I choose to see this in IMAX and 3D on […]
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