Archive for the ‘Cultural issues’ Category
A review of the new thought-provoking film “The Drama”
April 5th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
The weekend before my wedding, I went to see the most intriguing new release which ironically features a couple in the final stages of planning their wedding who are shocked by a ‘great reveal’. Written and directed by the Norwegian Kristoffer Borgli, this is not the traditional Hollywood fare, although it is set in Boston. […]
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A review of the 2001 French film “Amélie” which is back in cinemas now
April 2nd, 2026 by Roger Darlington
This utterly delightful Gallic rom-com has an eventual romance and considerable humour, but something more: a sense of magic, as it explores how providing happiness to others secretly and unselfishly can transform one’s own sense of well-being. The location is the Parisian quarter of Montmartre, but it a digitally-enhanced and lusciously-coloured version of this tourist […]
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A review of the new science fiction blockbuster “Project Hail Mary”
March 28th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
I love a good science fiction movie and novelist Andy Weir and scriptwriter Drew Goddard have done it again. A decade ago, Weir’s first book “The Martian” was turned into a script by Goddard to produce a most enjoyable film with Matt Damon in the eponymous role as the left-behind astronaut. This time, Weir’s third […]
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Ever heard of culturally responsive pedagogy?
March 25th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
Sometimes it’s good to go to a new place and engage with a new subject. So it was that, this evening, I was at the Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) at University College London (UCL) for the launch of a book titled “Culture and Science Education: Towards More Inclusive Practice”. The event was chaired by […]
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A review of the new film “The Bride!”
March 15th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
There are far too few mainstream films made by women so, at one level, we have to welcome Maggie Gyllenhaal’s second offering after her restrained and refined work in “The Lost Daughter”. “The Bride!” is absolutely Gyllenhaal’s film: she wrote, directed and produced it and her brother (Jake Gyllenhaal) and her husband (Peter Sarsgaard) star […]
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A review of the impressive and important 1961 film “Judgement At Nuremberg”
March 12th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
It was only after I had seen the 2025 “Nuremberg” that I finally viewed the 1961 “Judgement At Nuremberg”. While the first of these deals with the trial of the most senior of the Nazi war leaders by a four-power International Military Tribunal, the second film is a fictionalised depiction of one of the 12 […]
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A review of the memoir “The Sweet Spot” by Ronnie S Landau
March 10th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
Ronnie quotes a therapist as telling him “You’re one of the most oral people I’ve ever met.” As someone who first encountered Ronnie on a course he was giving on the Holocaust and who subsequently interviewed him for a book of my own, I can confirm that the therapist was correct. This is what has made Ronnie […]
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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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