Archive for the ‘Cultural issues’ Category
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 […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
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 […]
Posted in Cultural issues, My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
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 […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
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 […]
Posted in Cultural issues, History | Comments (0)
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 […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
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 […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
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 […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
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, […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
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 […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
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 […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)