Archive for March, 2023
A review of the 2020 action movie “The Old Guard”
March 31st, 2023 by Roger Darlington
Charlize Theron in combat mode is always a sight to behold. After her stand-out performances in “Mad Max: Fury Road” (2015) and “Atomic Blonde” (2017), she has the lead role in “The Old Guard” which, as a Netflix movie appearing at the beginning of the pandemic, went straight to streaming. Theron plays the leader of […]
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A review of the new action movie “John Wick: Chapter 4”
March 28th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
Oh my, what a blast. If you enjoyed the three previous John Wick movies, you’re gonna love this one. Former kickboxer and former stuntman Chad Stahelski once again directs this latest contribution to an action hero franchise that continues to be both popular and profitable. Keanu Reeves is back as our suited, laconic, titular assassin, […]
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What is time and who controls it?
March 27th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
I once went on a one-day course on time held at London’s City Literary Institute. The morning speaker was a physicist who explained that time was everything that had happened since the ‘big bang’ 13.8 billion years ago until now. The afternoon speaker was a philosopher who declared that there was no such thing as […]
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A review of “Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania”
March 25th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
This is the third Ant-Man movie and the 31st film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Over the past 15 years, I’ve diligently seen every episode of the MCU, but sometimes – like here – it feels more like a duty than a delight. Paul Rudd and (now short-haired) Evangeline Lilly are back as the […]
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Word of the day: misophonia
March 23rd, 2023 by Roger Darlington
Misophonia is a disorder in which people feel strong emotional responses to certain sounds, feeling angry, distressed or even unable to function in social or work settings as a result. Researchers say they have found 18.4% of the UK population have significant symptoms of misophonia. You can read more about this here.
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A review of the new South London rom-com “Rye Lane”
March 19th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
We all remember how “Notting Hill” (1999) was a rom-com that failed utterly to reflect the ethnic diversity of London, but the British rom-com is changing. Hot on the heels of “What’s Love Got To Do With It?” which features a lead character of Pakistani heritage (plus a segment in Lahore), we have “Rye Lane” […]
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A review of the 2022 film “White Noise”
March 16th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
I chose to watch this film because I’ve found interesting some other work by the writer and director Noah Baumbach (such as “While We’re Young” and “Marriage Story”) and I usually admire the performances of the lead actors Adam Driver (such as the aforementioned films and recent segments of the “Star Wars” saga) and Greta […]
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A review of “TJ’s War”, a biography of a World War Two secret agent by his son Ian Maclean
March 15th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
In the Second World War, Scottish Highlander Thomas John Maclean – known to his comrades as TJ – almost accidentally found himself recruited as a secret agent in MI6 which resulted in immensely challenging operations in the United States, Norway, Italy and Germany. For such a young man (he was only 19 at the start […]
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A review of the film “The Banshees Of Inisherin”
March 13th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
This is a film that elicits mixed emotions. Certainly it is both written and directed by a considerable talent (Martin McDonagh who gave us “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri”); it has some wonderful scenery (not Inisherin – which is a fictional island – but Inishmore and Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland); and […]
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A review of the new rom-com movie “What’s Love Got To Do With It?’
March 12th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
The rom-com is such a staple of the cinematic diet that any addition to the genre has to find a new angle. In this case, the novel element is the comparison of arranged marriage – or assisted marriage, as it now called – which is so common in the Indian sub-continent (with a very high […]
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