Archive for the ‘Cultural issues’ Category
A review of the new Disney animation movie “Encanto”
November 28th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
For the third consecutive weekend, I spent part of Saturday taking my two granddaughters (almost 11 and 5) to see a new animated movie. I have to say that, from my adult (73) point of view, this was by far the best. Set in rural Colombia, the colours are wonderfully vibrant and the visuals are […]
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A review of the new bio-pic “King Richard”
November 26th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
I confess that I was first attracted to this movie by the title because my son is called Richard. When I learned that it was a bio-pic about Richard Williams’ creation of tennis super-stars Venus and Serena, I was sure that a young female tennis-playing friend would want to see this work and it has […]
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Word of the day: uchronia
November 22nd, 2021 by Roger Darlington
The term uchronia refers to a hypothetical or fictional time period of our world, in contrast to altogether-fictional lands or worlds. The concept is similar to alternate history, but uchronic times are not easily defined and are placed mainly in some distant or unspecified point before current times. The term has been applied to Philip […]
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A review of the new movie “Eternals” – the latest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe
November 14th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
This is a Marvel movie like no other and it has a director (and co-writer) like no other: Chinese-American Chloé Zhao. This is a work that could hardly be more different than “Nomadland” for which Zhao won the Academy Award for Best Director which shows the scope of her talent and the bravery of her […]
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What does Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No 3 mean to you?
November 3rd, 2021 by Roger Darlington
I recently listened to the piece on Classic FM and the music always reminds me of the Australian pianist David Helfgott whose struggle with this piece – and indeed with life – is depicted in the film “Shine” starring Geoffrey Rush as Helfgott (see my review here).
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A review of the new blockbuster sci-fi movie “Dune”
November 2nd, 2021 by Roger Darlington
Frank Herbert’s classic science fiction novel of 1965 was first filmed by David Lynch in 1984. I found that adaptation visually impressive but hard to follow plot-wise. So I was looking forward to seeing this second attempt to translate the novel and determined to see it soon and in IMAX; indeed it proved so popular […]
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A review of the 1954 classic Japanese film “Seven Samurai”
November 1st, 2021 by Roger Darlington
This Japanese film is for many one of the very best movies not made in the English language and certainly one of the most outstanding works by the great director Akira Kurosawa. Set in 16th century Japan, it tells the tale of farmers who are brought close to starvation by the repeated raids of bandits […]
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A review of the novel “The Plot Against America” by Philip Roth
October 28th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
This work of fiction essentially poses two questions: could America become fascist? if it did, would it do so through a popular non-politician becoming president with the secret manipulation of a foreign power? When this novel was first published in 2004, these questions must have seemed fantastical. When I eventually read the work after a […]
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Word of the day: ruminant
October 22nd, 2021 by Roger Darlington
I’d never come across this word until recently when I was reading an article about the climate crisis. I checked it out and found that a ruminant is an even-toed ungulate mammal that chews the cud regurgitated from its rumen. The ruminants comprise the cattle, sheep, antelopes, deer, giraffes, and their relatives. Ruminants produce a huge […]
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Word of the day: disinformation
October 8th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
Disinformation is a subset of propaganda and is false information that is spread deliberately to deceive . It is also known as black propaganda. It is sometimes confused with misinformation which is false information but is not deliberate.
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