Archive for the ‘Cultural issues’ Category
A review of the new movie “On The Rocks”
November 2nd, 2020 by Roger Darlington
The weekend before a second lockdown to tackle the coronavirus crisis, I was so keen to enjoy the cinema experience before it was denied to me once more. So I managed to catch “On The Rocks” on the big screen while most people will see it on Apple’s streaming service. Written and directed by Sofia […]
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A review of the new film version of “Rebecca”
October 26th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
If you’re going to remake a classic movie, you need a lot of confidence and talent and perhaps a new angle. English novelist Daphne du Maurier wrote the famous “Rebecca”, published in 1938, and Alfred Hitchcock directed the film version of 1940 which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. It was an impressive cast: […]
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A review of “The Eight Hundred”, a controversial film on the battle for Shanghai in 1937
October 6th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
For more than seven decades, the American, British and Russian film industries have given us one war movie after another representing the successes of their nations in the Second World War. Now that the Chinese film sector is such a powerhouse, it is understandable that it would want to get in on the act. The […]
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A review of the 1995 classic film “Clueless”
October 2nd, 2020 by Roger Darlington
Although I’m a massive movie fan, I guess that it’s not surprising that I never caught “Clueless”. At the time of its release, I was a father in his late 40s – not exactly the demographic attracted to this witty satire of teenage life in Beverley Hills very loosely based on the Jane Austen novel […]
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A review of the 2018 film “RBG”
September 22nd, 2020 by Roger Darlington
The death of Supreme Court judge Ruth Bader Ginsberg, who served for 27 years as its most radical member, was a tragedy for the whole of liberal America. Aged 87 and having twice survived cancer, she succumbed to a third bout of cancer just weeks before the election of the President who constitutionally has the […]
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What are the most popular baby names in Britain?
September 10th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
Of course, names change in popularity. According to the data compiled annually by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) and published each September, the most popular names for children born in England & Wales during 2019 were as follows: Position Boys Girls 1 Oliver Olivia 2 George Amelia 3 Noah Isla 4 Arthur Ava 5 […]
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A review of the novel “The Friends Of Harry Perkins” by Chris Mullin
September 9th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
Mullin – then a political journalist – wrote the best-selling novel “A Very British Coup” which was published in 1982. It told the story of a Left-winger who became Prime Minister but was countered by the nefarious forces of the establishment. I found it very readable, but I thought the the characters were caricatures and […]
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A review of the 2017 film “Molly’s Game”
September 6th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
When you’re about to see a movie written and directed by Aaron Sorkin – creator of the wonderful television series “The West Wing” – you know what to expect: lots of fact-laiden dialogue delivered in snappy style and rapid cutting betweeen multifarious characters. There is plenty of these trademark features in “Molly’s Game” but also […]
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A review of the recent film “Crazy Rich Asians”
August 25th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
While this may not be the first Western-produced film with an East Asian cast – think “The Joy Luck Club” (1993) or “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000) – the sheer number of cast members with various Asian backgrounds and the huge commercial success of this 2018 movie (it was the highest-grossing romantic comedy in a […]
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A review of the 1998 film “Dark City”
August 21st, 2020 by Roger Darlington
Written, produced and directed by the Australian Alex Proyas, this is not a movie that will appeal to everyone. It is part mind-twisting science fiction like “The Matrix” and part homage to German Expressionism of the 1920s. It looks wonderful – as dark as the title promises – but the plotting (a alien experiment with […]
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