Archive for the ‘Cultural issues’ Category
A review of the new super-hero movie “Venom”
October 7th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
This movie is far from being the best in the Marvel Cinematic Universe but it is not as bad as many critics have suggested. What makes it a little different is that, in other super-hero films, the same character so often has two persona (think Clark Kent and Superman or Tony Stark and Iron Man)), […]
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A review of the new Polish film “Cold War”
September 30th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
This is a most unusual but utterly engaging film. Written and directed by Pawel Pawlikowski, it is largely in Polish (although the dialogue is quite sparse) and set mainly in Poland (but with sections in Berlin, Paris and Yugoslavia). It was shot in black and white and in an aspect ratio of 1.37 : 1 […]
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A review of “Love In The Time Of Cholera” by Gabriel García Márquez
September 21st, 2018 by Roger Darlington
Márquez was born in Colombia in 1927 and died in 2014. This work – one his most famous – was published in 1981 and he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982. I finally read the work after seeing the film and visiting Colombia, including Cartagena, the Caribbean city where the novel is located […]
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“Lunch Atop A Skyscaper” – so many questions …
September 7th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
You know this iconic photograph. We know it was taken 840 feet (260 meters) above the streets of New York City during the building of the Rockefeller Centre – a building I have visited a couple of times – on 20 September 1932. But who took the picture? It was credited to Charles C. Ebbets in 2003, […]
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A review of the new movie “The Equalizer 2”
August 18th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
In his long and distinguished career of almost 50 films, 63 year old Denzel Washington has never made a sequel – until now. Like Liam Neeson with “Taken”, he has found a money-spinning action role in later life and he’s going to run with it. Between the two “Equalizer” movies, Washington has turned director in […]
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Word of the day: Pastafarianism
August 17th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
Pastafarianism (a portmanteau of pasta and Rastafarianism) is a social movement that promotes a light-hearted view of religion and opposes the teaching of intelligent design and creationism in public schools. According to adherents, Pastafarianism is a “real, legitimate religion, as much as any other”. The word is in the news today because the Dutch council […]
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A review of the new film “The Escape”
August 16th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
How many women are unfulfilled by marriage and motherhood and wish to escape? Many more than we would dare to imagine, I suspect. This British film – actually written and directed by a man (Dominic Savage) – tells the story of one such tormented soul who is such a supporting character to her husband and […]
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Are you a middle child? If so, it’s your day.
August 12th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
As you probably know, the Americans have a day for almost everything and today they celebrate National Middle Child Day. Two thoughts occur to me. First, it is widely thought that birth order influences personality and this idea is discussed on the Day’s web site. But I’m not sure how much scientific evidence there is for […]
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A review of the new independent film “Apostasy”
August 10th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
The title refers to the renunciation of a faith and in this case we are concerned with the Christian denomination of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. As adherents of The Truth, they do not accept blood transfusion, they do not associate with former members who have been disfellowshipped, and they believe that the destruction of the present world […]
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Word of the day: arctophile
August 9th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
It means: someone who has a fondness for teddy bears, usually a collector of them. I saw the word in reference to the new film about Christopher Robin, the friend of Winnie The Pooh.
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