Archive for the ‘Cultural issues’ Category
What is the most successful film of all time?
July 24th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
There are so many ways to judge this. Usually, because movies are essentially a business, the key criterion is money – but even here we have a choice between tickets sales in cash to tickets sales adjusted for inflation. This week, it was announced that in cash terms “Avengers: Endgame” has just overtaken “Avatar”. You […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (1)
A review of the new documentary film “Apollo 11”
July 16th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
I was 21 and a student union leader when Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon and I kept the student union building open all night so that we could witness this historic occasion live – even though they were hazy pictures on a small screen. So I thoroughly enjoyed the […]
Posted in Cultural issues, History | Comments (0)
A review of the new movie “Spider-Man: Far From Home”
July 14th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
This is the second film dedicated to the third representation of Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and we have the same director (Jon Watts) and the same leading actor (Tom Holland) as well as a host of other returning stars including Spidey’s Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) and teenage love interest MJ (Zendaya). It […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
What’s in a name? Depends whether you’re called Craig and Gemma or Jaxon and Aria.
July 9th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
“It could be curtains for Craig. One of the most popular boys’ names of the postwar era is facing oblivion if current trends continue, as the speed with which parents tire of old names and rally around new ones appears to be accelerating. Lee, Ross and Shaun are on their way out too, according to […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
A review of the award-winning novel “Normal People” by Sally Rooney
July 4th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
I recently read “Ordinary People” by Diana Evans and now I have consumed “Normal People”, which was longlisted for the Booker Prize, the second novel by Irish writer Sally Rooney. Of course, in a sense, nobody is ordinary or normal, but both these works deal with people who are living quotidian lives with which one […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
A review of the Beatles-themed movie “Yesterday”
July 3rd, 2019 by Roger Darlington
Over the years, British writer Richard Curtis has scripted some wonderful romantic comedies: “Four Weddings And A Funeral”, “Notting Hill”, and “Love Actually”. And British director Danny Boyle has given us such work as “Trainspotting” and “Slumdog Millionaire”. So a pairing of the two in “Yesterday” promises much. Certainly Himesh Patel as pub singer Jack […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Word of the day: irenic
June 28th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
This adjective means “tending to promote peace or reconciliation; peaceful or conciliator’. So why do I choose to highlight the word now? It’s because the frontrunner for the leadership of the Conservative Party and the post of Prime Minister Boris Johnson has just used the word in the latest hustings with members of the Conservative Party who have the vote in the leadership […]
Posted in British current affairs, Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Word of the day: ensorcell
June 28th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
I confess that I had never heard this word until today – and I regard myself as reasonably proficient in the English language. I saw the word in a comment about British politician Boris Johnson by the former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstad: “To Johnson’s followers, however, he is more prophet than politician: only he […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
A review of the enjoyable new film “Gloria Bell”
June 23rd, 2019 by Roger Darlington
It is not easy, being a person of maturer years who has been single for some time, to start a new relationship and I can testify to that from personal experience. It probably helps if, as a woman in her late 50s, you have the body, the clothes and the confidence of the titular West […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
A review of “The President Is Missing” by Bill Clinton and James Patterson
June 13th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
“Billed as “With details only a president could know and the kind of suspense only James Patterson can deliver”, this political thriller has been a best-seller and is set to to be turned into an ongoing drama series for television. So does it justify the hype? Of course, not. On the plus side, it is […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)