A review of the bestselling novel “It Ends With Us” by Colleen Hoover
March 27th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
This novel was published in 2016 and, by the time that I read it almost a decade later, it had sold more than 7 million copies and been made into a film. Ironically, given that the subject of the book is abuse of women by men, the lead actress in the movie, Blake Lively, claimed sexual harassment from the film’s director and co-star, Justin Baldoni.
The novel is written in the present tense and in the first person, the voice being that of 23 year old flower shop owner Lily Bloom who has a passionate relationship with neurosurgeon Ryle. There are flashbacks in the form of journal pieces by Lily when she is aged 16 and befriended homeless student Atlas. This narrative structure presents an examination of two cases of marital abuse with different outcomes, making this an unusual and very readable romantic work with a social message.
Via the character of Lily, Hoover poses questions: “People spend so much time wondering why the women don’t leave. Where are all the people who wonder why the men are even abusive? Isn’t that where the only blame should be placed?”
For Hoover, the subject of abuse is personal: her father abused her mother who left him when Hoover was three. For me, the topic is equally personal: my dad abused my mum who left him when I was eight. Most readers of this novel are women – it is an ideal work for book clubs – but men should read it too and reflect on its important message.
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A review of the black comedy film “Mickey 17”
March 11th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
In 2020, South Korean director Bong Joo-ho won the Academy Award for Best Picture with his stunning film “Parasite”. Five years later, we have his follow-up work, a picture in the English language based on the 2022 novel “Mickey7” by Edward Ashton.
It is technically a sci-fi movie in that it is set in 2054 on a planet where a crazy fascist, played in over-the-top style by Mark Ruffalo, is seeking to create a new world “full of superior people” (Elon Musk comes to mind). His fanatical wife is portrayed by Toni Colette and the “colony project” is funded and supported by a weird religious organisation (shades of the American evangelical movement).
This is a risky enterprise, so the most dangerous tasks are given to an underclass of disposable humans called expendables whose biometric date and memories have been uploaded ready for reuse. When they die, they are simply reconstituted.
The story centres on one such expendable who is on his 17th iteration when, having apparently died, he is printed out for an 18th version. Both formats are represented by Robert Pattinson who is able to display his considerable thespian talents by appearing in two identical forms with rather different personalities reflecting their different aspirations. So, rather like “Parasite”, we have an exploration of class with an identification with the lower class.
The plot is a little confusing at times and there is nothing subtle about the messaging, but there are some interesting ideas in this insane movie and an entertaining and amusing exposition of the storyline which is never boring.
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A review of the shocking recent film “The Substance”
March 4th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
Girls and women are constantly under pressure to stay young-looking, slim, attractive. Perhaps nowhere is this pressure more insidious than in the entertainment sector. And the pressure really comes on when a woman reaches a certain age.
But what if there was a black market drug that enabled a woman to be transformed – at least for a time – into the most appealing version of herself, but with various conditions? Should she take the option if it saves her career and could she adhere to the limiting conditions?
This is the outrageous plot of this stunning film and the message is put over with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer in a shocking satire that turns into a body horror movie.
It is a tale which could – or, at least, should – only be told by a woman and the writer and director is French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat who was the only female director in the 2025 Academy Awards shortlist of 10 contenders for Best Picture.
The casting is a piece of cinematic magic. Demi Moore, who was so high profile in such commercially successful films as “Ghost”, “A Few Good Men”, “Indecent Proposal” and “GI Jane”, has not been seen in movies much in the last couple of decades which might have something to do with the fact that she is now 62.
Here she plays a television star aged 50 who is dropped from the schedule because of her age. Moore is brilliant in a role than has actually won her awards for the first time in her career, although she didn’t quite manage to win the Academy Award for Best Actress (being pipped by a 25 year old).
Be warned though: this is not a work for the faint-heated. It is disturbing and violent. In the last segment, when you think it can’t become any more gory or bloody, it does – again and again. The final shot is a wonderful return to the opening sequence on Sunset Boulevard – a neat sense of symmetry in a stylish film full of clever shots and powerful images.
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A review of the award-winning film “Anora”
March 4th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
By the time that I belatedly caught up with this thoroughly enjoyable film, it was only hours away from winning no less than five Academy Awards, a remarkable achievement for a very low budget (only $6M), independent movie competing against the likes of “Dune: Part Two”, “A Complete Unknown” and “Conclave”. Most of those awards went to Sean Baker who garnered Best Writing (Original Screenplay), Best Directing and Best Film Editing as well as grabbing Best Picture.
Set in the Little Odessa district of New York City, it tells a kind of “Pretty Woman” story, except that this time the man with the money is just a video-obsessed, high-kicks, drug-fuelled kid of 19 (but the son of an ultra-rich Russian oligarch), while the prostitute is only a little older and her aural repertoire includes some Russian, some sharp put-downs and a lot of obscenity. Compared to the 1990 hit, this genre-skipping tale is much sexier, much funnier, much more violent, and ultimately much sadder. I loved it.
At the heart of the movie both literally and metaphorically is the titular Ani, a Brooklyn stripper who is played with panache by relative newcomer, 25 year old Mikey Madison. She is brilliant and reminds me of the sassy character played by Marisa Tomei in her 1992 break-out role in “My Cousin Vinny”. It was a delight to see her win the Oscar for Best Actress, beating Demi Moore who hoped to win for her incredible performance in “The Substance”.
But what do you do next when you take such a prestigious award at so young an age? I can’t wait to find out.
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A review of the new rom-com “Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy”
February 19th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
Eight years after the last movie, we have the fourth – and possibly the best – film in this appealing rom-com franchise. Renée Zellweger, now in her mid 50s when often roles dry up for actresses, is a delight in the eponymous role. She makes it look easy, but we know from “Judy” that she is a star who continues to shine.
Bridget herself is now a widow, bringing up two children, and lonely for love. Her current situation allows the story to to be genuinely moving at times, although mostly we have the expected series of verbal and visual gags.
The boy of the title has the crackers name of Roxster and is played by Leo Woodall, best known for his television role in “One Day”. A possible rival is the children’s teacher, Mr Wallaker, who is portrayed by the more experienced actor Chiwetel Ejofor (think “12 Years A Slave”).
As usual with this franchise, there is an enjoyable soundtrack and this time you should stay for the credits when you’ll see shots from the previous films.
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Are we really living in the worst of times?
February 18th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
So many conversations that I have about the current state of the world involve people suggesting that we are living in the worst of times. But is this really the case?
It is true that we recently had a global pandemic that killed millions, that there are wars in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, the Congo and elsewhere, and that the climate crisis is causing catastrophies that are taking many lives and threatening any more.
However, the sixth-century plague of Justinian and the fourteenth-century Black Death each killed up to 30% of the world population. In the 13th century, the Mongol invasions took the lives of up to 10% of the world population.
World War One killed some 8 million (around 1% of the world population) and World War Two killed some 70-85 million (around 3% of the wold population). Each year, around 1.35 million people die in traffic accidents worldwide.
Today more people are experiencing record living standards and living longer than at any time in human history. Just saying …
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The song used by David Tennant on last night’s BAFTA Awards
February 17th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
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A review of a fascinating book on the challenge of artificial intelligence: “The Coming Wave” by Mustafa Suleyman
February 13th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
Suleyman is a British entrepreneur specialising in artificial intelligence (AI). He co-founded two pioneering AI companies, Deepmind and Inflection AI, before working for Google and then Microsoft. His book on AI has been an international bestseller which has been recommended reading by Bill Gates. I was afraid that it might be technical, but it is not technical at all (I would actually have welcomed an explanation of how AI works) and the book is an easy read (Suleyman had the support of a writer).
Overwhelmingly, the book is about AI which is defined simply as “the science of teaching machines to learn humanlike capabilities”, but the coming wave refers to an emerging cluster of related technologies centred on AI and synthetic biology and including robotics, quantum computing and nanotechnology. Of course, the history of humankind has been shaped by a succession of new technologies, so what is different about the coming wave?
Suleyman identifies four unique characteristics: asymmetry, so that, in a colossal transfer of power, individuals and groups can challenge corporations and governments for good or for ill; hyper-evolution, so that changes and improvements occur at incredible speed with endless acceleration; omni-use, so that the same technologies can be used for many different purposes in many different sectors; and autonomy, so that these technologies are largely beyond our ability to comprehend at a granular level.
The book describes some dramatic cases of AI success, such as: in the case of the Asian game Go (which has a board enabling 10 to the power of 170 possible configurations), the 2016 defeat of Lee Sedol, a virtuoso world champion, by the Deepmind program AlphaGo and the release in November 2022 of the chatbot ChatGPT, developed by the AI research company OpenAI, which had more than a million users within a week.
There are many examples of current and likely future uses of AI: self-driving cars, trucks and tractors, improved diagnosis of illness, personalised medicine and rapid development of new drugs, more efficient management of electricity grids and water systems and the development of sources of clean energy, modelling of such complexities as climate change and fusion reactions.
And Suleyman is not shy of thinking the unthinkable by postulating various hypothetical nightmare scenarios: use of swarms of drones, spraying devices and bespoke pathogens by mass murderers or terrorist groups, robots equipped with facial recognition, DNA sequencing and automatic weapons or the evolution of a super-intelligence that cannot be controlled by humans and sees humans as a threat.
He asserts: “We are going to live in an epoch when the majority of our daily interactions are not with other people but with AIs.” and “The blunt truth is that nobody knows when, if or exactly how AIs might slip beyond us and what happens next; nobody knows when or if they will become fully autonomous or how to make them behave with awareness of and alignment with our values.”
He spends a lot of time writing about containment which he defines as “the ability to monitor, curtail, control, and potentially even close down technologies”. A final chapter is entitled “The Steps Towards Containment” and, while there are some good ideas here, most rely on the will of companies, regulators and governments to take actions which are profoundly at odds with the world in which we live.
So, for example, he suggests a body a little like the International Atomic Energy Authority which he calls the AI Audit Authority operating at a global level and yet, the week that I finished reading this book, at the AI Action summit in Paris (February 2025), both the US and the UK refused to sign a declaration that called on all countries to ensure “safe, secure and trustworthy” AI technology.
Somehow Suleyman manages to conclude: “While there is compelling evidence that containment is not possible, temperamentally I remain an optimist.”
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The current state of British politics
February 9th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
Today, the “Observer” newspaper carries the results of a political opinion poll just carried out by Opinium. The results are disturbing.
The poll shows Labour on 27%, Reform UK on 26% and the Tories on 22%. The Liberal Democrats are on 11% and the Greens on 8%. Reform has risen from about 20% since shortly after the last General Election.
Of course, the next General Election does not need to be held for over four years, but it is is remarkable that, just seven months after Labour stormed to victory with a huge majority, the Party and Reform are effectively (allowing for the margin of error) neck-and-neck.
In fact, roughy speaking, we have three political parties with around a quarter of the electorate supporting them and the remaining quarter split between various smaller parties.
Since we have a first-past-the-post system of election, this effectively means that anything could happen in an election now: it would depend where party supporters were geographically and what was their commitment to actually turning out and voting.
In recent elections, both in the UK and in other democratic countries, voters have shown an astonishing capacity to switch their votes so, in short, everything is still to play for.
The Opinium poll suggests that, among those backing Reform, 37% say that they do so because of its hardline policies on immigration and border controls.
If this is true, it begs the questions: What would a Labour Government need to do in order to win over voters worried about immigration? Would any level of illegal or even legal migration satisfy them? How much does it matter if these migrants are from countries where the majority is Muslim or Black?
But maybe anger about immigration is not the real cause of Reform’s rise in the polls. Maybe it is that migrants are a convenient scapegoat for a deeper concern about declining living standards, poor housing and a general feeling of disempowerment.
In which case, the performance of the economy – or at least how that performance is perceived by swing voters – will be crucial. Currently the economy seems to be stagnating, but there’s time for it to become better – or worse.
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A review of the new film “The Brutalist”
February 4th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
This is not the film that I was expecting. I thought it was about an actual architect and would narrate his career designing a series of dramatic buildings across post-war America. Instead it features a fictional architect and his travails in constructing one specific project.
Or maybe the architect and the project are not fictional at all. It would appear that Brady Corbet, who co-wrote (with his wife), produced and directed this grandiose film was inspired by the life of Marcel Lajos Breuer and his experience of building a particular church on a hill.
I thought the movie would be about brutalist architecture, but maybe it is more about brutalist behaviour. In which case, who is the brutalist? The architect who rages against everyone and everything or his wealthy benefactor who screws him over in one way or another?
At times, the film seems rather pompous with the architect spouting meaningless platitudes, such as: “Is there a better description of a cube than that of its construction?” To which his wealthy industrialist client replies: “I find our conversations intellectually stimulating.” Who’s kidding whom here?
Adrien Brody, himself of Hungarian Jewish extraction, plays Hungarian Jewish architect Lasló Tóth in an award-winning central performance. Guy Pearce is terrific as his rich benefactor. Felicity Jones does well affecting an Hungarian accent in her role as the architect’s wife. The cinematography is often stunning and the sound is invariably striking. So there is a great deal to admire here.
The film is quite heavy going with a running time of three and a half hours (with a 15 minute interval. Corbet chose to shoot the work in VistaVision which has an aspect ratio of only 1.66 : 1 and is a format popular in the 1950s, the time period for much of the film, but now long dormant. I saw it at the British Film Institute which had a 70 mm print.
There are unusually long stretches of conversation with significant jumps in time and some things are deliberately left obscure.
So it is a challenging film which asks the viewer for patience and endurance but it is never less than fascinating and absorbing.
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