Archive for the ‘Cultural issues’ Category
A review of the new action thriller “Red Sparrow”
March 6th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
A beautiful and talented actress decides to branch out into an action thriller in which she plays a tough secret agent, but this is not Charlize Theron in “Atomic Blonde”, rather it is Jennifer Lawrence who has been making some bold choices since completing the “Hunger Games” franchise: “Joy”, “Passengers”, “Mother!” and now “Red Sparrow” […]
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The 90th annual Academy Awards – and me
March 5th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
For a couple of months now, I’ve been attending a Monday evening class at the City Literary Institute in London where we have been discussing some recent successful films and comparing them to earlier movies. This evening, we’re scheduled to discuss last night’s Academy Awards. But, the film of the night is one of the […]
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A review of “Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine” by Gail Honeyman
March 1st, 2018 by Roger Darlington
In my experience, if one genuinely enquires, very few people are “completely fine” – and Eleanor Oliphant, a finance clerk in Glasgow, is far from this state of bliss. Indeed she is a deeply troubled woman of 30, although only gradually do we discover exactly why in this accomplished first novel by Honeyman. The story […]
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A review of “La Belle Sauvage” by Philip Pullman
February 28th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
Published in 2017, we have had to wait 17 years for the first part of the trilogy “The Book Of Dust” since the publication of “The Amber Spyglass”, the final part of the trilogy “His Dark Materials”. This novel is a prequel to the other three and “La Belle Sauvage” – the name of a […]
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A media lesson on the 25th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution
February 27th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
I’ve watched every episode of the American television series “Madam Secretary” which is now half way through its fourth series, but I’ve only just caught up with the latest episode, partly because it was broadcast later in the UK than in the US and partly because I’ve been away in China. This episode explores the […]
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Contemporary cinema (3): “The Post”, “Baby Driver”, “Blade Runner 2049”
February 6th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
I’ve now attended three more weekly sessions at the City Literary Institute in central London of an evening course called “Contemporary Cinema: The Best Films Of The Year” conducted by the American John Wischmeyer. So far, the pattern has been that we view and discuss clips from an acclaimed recent film and then compare it […]
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A review of the new film “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
February 2nd, 2018 by Roger Darlington
When so many movies are franchise works or sequels or remakes, it’s such a pleasure to find a genuinely original film like “Three Billboards”. The plotting is unconventional with unexpected developments and most of the characters are complex (unfortunately two young women are presented as stereotypically dumb and a black cop as overly honourable). This […]
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Visions of light: a course on film technique and style
January 29th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
This weekend, I spent a day at the City Literary Institute attending a course by John Wischmeyer which examined film technique and style. We began by watching the opening scene of “Jaws”, discussing it, and then watching it again to notice better all the techniques deployed by director Steven Spielberg. The rest of the course […]
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A review of “The Couple Next Door” by Shari Lapena
January 24th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
This novel by Canadian writer Lapena is a domestic suspense drama in the vein of “Gone Girl” and “The Girl On The Train” and indeed some have dubbed it “Gone Baby”. It has been a major best-seller but, in spite of a strong opening and a racy style, it is not as satisfactory as the […]
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A review of the new film “The Post”
January 23rd, 2018 by Roger Darlington
Steven Spielberg is one of the most commercially and critically successful directors in the history of Hollywood. Meryle Streep and Tom Hamks are among the very finest actors of their generation but, until now, have never appeared in the same movie. So a work which brings together these three titans of the screen has to […]
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