Archive for the ‘Cultural issues’ Category
A review of the new Norwegian film “The Worst Person In The World”
March 31st, 2022 by Roger Darlington
Joachim Trier is the co-writer and director of this Norwegian-language, Oslo-set, award-winning romantic drama which managed to secure – but not win – Academy Award nominations for Best International Film and Best Original Screenplay. Structured in 12 chapters with prologue and epilogue, it tells the story of Julie, who becomes 30 in the course of […]
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A review of the new film “Passing”
March 21st, 2022 by Roger Darlington
The title of this film refers to the practice of a light-skinned African-Americans passing themselves off as white, a situation which apparently was quite common in the 1920s when this story is set. The central characters are Irene (Tessa Thompson) and Clare (Ruth Negga), former New York City school friends who meet after a long […]
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A review of the new film “Ali & Ava”
March 19th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
This British film, both written and directed by Yorkshire-born Clio Barnard, is a tender love story – but an unconventional one in many respects. First, the setting: the work was shot entirely on location in Bradford with its terraced houses and grim vistas. Then the structure: while it follows the classic three-part narrative of friendship, […]
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A review of the horror movie “Bird Box”
March 17th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
In 2018, two films were issued with remarkably similar storylines. In both “A Quiet Place” and “Bird Box”, the world was taken over by an alien force that very quickly and very largely wiped out the human population. Both works involved a feisty woman leading a local fight-back and endeavouring to locate other survivors and […]
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A review of the Italian novel “The Lost Daughter” by Elena Ferrante
March 14th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
Although I had previously read four novels by Ferrante (the Neapolitan Quartet), I did not read this earlier and shorter work until after I saw the film version. Told in the first person, this is the story of Leda, an Italian teacher of English literature who is a middle-aged divorcée and mother of two grown […]
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A review of the new blockbuster movie “The Batman”
March 12th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
This is the ninth Batman movie since 1989 and I’ve enjoyed them all, but such a regular rebooting needs something new each time and, in that respect, “The Batman” delivers with a very respectable addition to the canon, although the three Christopher Nolan films (2005, 2008, 2012) were the best in my book. The director […]
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A review of the 2020 film “Quo Vadis, Aida?” about the massacre at Srebrenica
March 10th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
The break-up of the former Yugoslavia led to a number of brutal conflicts of which the worst was the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina from 1992-1996 – a country which I visited in 2007. Hollywood has shown no interest in this war but there was a British-made film in 1997 called “Welcome To Sarajevo” about the four-year […]
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A review of the history book “On The Cusp” by David Kynaston
March 9th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
Distinguished British historian David Kynaston has embarked on a formidable project to produce a post-war history of the country under the banner “Tales Of A New Jerusalem” which will eventually cover the period 1945-1979. The distinctive style of this historical record is his use of contemporary records such as diaries, letters, and news reports. By […]
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A review of the 2010 film “East Pray Love”
March 5th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
Successful American writer Elizabeth Gilbert left an unhappy marriage and an unsatisfying relationship before deciding to spend a year finding herself through travel in Italy (eating), India (praying) and Indonesia (loving). In 2006, she published a chronicle of this year of “spiritual and personal exploration” which has gone on to sell over 12 million copies […]
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A review of the new Danish film “Flee”
March 2nd, 2022 by Roger Darlington
Animated films for adults can deal with difficult issues in a powerful way. This was true of the French “Persepolis” (2007), which looked at life in Iran, and the Israeli “Waltz With Bashir” (2008), which depicted war in Lebanon. Now (2021) we have a Danish animated feature which, like the other films mentioned, tells a […]
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