Archive for February, 2025


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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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A review of the new film “A Complete Unknown”

February 2nd, 2025 by Roger Darlington

This bio-pic of the emergence of singer-songwriter Bob Dylan between 1961-1965 has been a critical and commercial success with no less than eight Academy Award nominations and six BAFTA nominations. The acting and singing by Timothée Chalamet in the eponymous role and Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez are simply magnificent and Edward Norton and Elle […]

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