Archive for the ‘Cultural issues’ Category
My review of the award-winning film “Shoplifters”
December 24th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
Winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, this wonderful Japanese work was written, directed and edited by Hirokazu Kore-eda. Set in Toyko, it presents a vision of Japanese society that we rarely see: a disparate group living in real poverty and surviving through a mixture of irregular and insecure work, benefit fraud […]
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A review of the new super-hero movie “Aquaman”
December 23rd, 2018 by Roger Darlington
After two brief previous appearances in earlier movies in the DC Extended Universe, Aquaman (aka Arthur Curry) – played by Hawaii-born Jason Momou who has real physical presence – now has his own feature film in the form of the traditional origin story for super-heroes. The unusual environment of the undersea world of Atlanta provides […]
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The welcome return of the American television series “Madam Secretary”
December 18th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
I’m a bit of a political junkie and I love political dramas in the movies or on television. “The West Wing” was my all-time favourite TV series – I watched all 155 episodes as they were broadcast and every episode again when it was out in a box set. So, ever since it began on British television, […]
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The most beloved British sketch not seen by the British themselves …
December 15th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
… until now. It’s called “Dinner For One” and is performed by British entertainer Freddie Frinton. It is hugely popular in Northern Europe – especially Germany – but has never been broadcast in Britain. It is now planned that it will be broadcast by Sky Arts on 31 December. You can learn more here.
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A review of the new film “Creed II”
December 6th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
This film could almost as fairly been titled “Rocky VIII” since once again it stars Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa and Stallone both co-wrote and co-produced. What’s more the central plot device is a essentially a re-run of “Rocky IV” as the son of Apollo Creed – Michael B Jordan as Adonis – accepts the […]
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A review of the new independent film “Wildlife”
December 1st, 2018 by Roger Darlington
This is a small story but one about a common occurrence – an imploding marriage – and it is told in a manner which is largely slow and quiet (the pace and action only pick up towards the end). Consequently it is not a film that will appeal to everyone but it is wonderfully acted […]
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A review of the latest “Robin Hood” film
November 27th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
Following Kevin Costner (1991) and Russell Crowe (2010), we now have a much younger actor – Taron Egerton of the two “Kingsman” films – in the hands of a new film director – Otto Bathurst, all of whose previous work has been on television – attempting to do something new with this mythic hero of […]
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Three things that I learned about art today
November 21st, 2018 by Roger Darlington
I spent three hours at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford today. Named after Elias Ashmolean, this is the University of Oxford’s museum of art and archaeology. It opened in 1683 and is Britain’s oldest public museum. Each day, they have a lunchtime tour on one aspect of the museum’s collection and today I went on […]
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A review of the new Coen brothers’ movie “The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs”
November 20th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
Over a period of 35 years of filmmaking, American brothers Joel and Ethan Coen are known for a succession of movies that are invariably quirky but always engaging. This 18th movie – where again they write, produce and direct – is a six-part love letter to the Hollywood western. Each tale evokes classic characters of […]
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A review of the new female heist movie “Widows”
November 10th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
It is so good to see more leading roles for women in mainstream films, even in a genre like the heist movie where men have traditionally dominated. It is only a few months ago that we had “Ocean’s Eight” where all the gang members were female and now with “Widows” again we have an all-female […]
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