Books

Writing non-fiction’s a bitch – a truth not universally acknowledged.

– Will Aitken in This Writing Death

Theatre

Chekhov for Beginners

by Natalie G.

Comment

Don't know where you were sitting, but there were lots of laughs.

– comment by Suzy Charto

From the category archives:

DVD

Seasonal Affections

Another Year, DVD

by Jim Burke
24.06.2011

In Another Year, Mike Leigh’s latest Oscar-nominated drama, Ruth Sheen and Jim Broadbent’s long-married couple are called Tom and Gerri. But their marriage has none of the comical antipathy their names might suggest. They live happily

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DVD

Stripped and Scary

Burlesque, DVD

by James Gartler
14.05.2011

Despite what you may have heard, the problem with Burlesque isn’t so much that Christina Aguilera acts in it. Truth is, this was the ideal film project for the vocal powerhouse and provocateur: a sexy musical in the style of her throwback album Back to Basics, co-starring another singer who made the crossover into acting [...]

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DVD

Froggie Feature Fun – Warts And All

The Princess and the Frog

by James Gartler
02.04.2010

The Princess and the Frog is the most significant Disney film of the past decade. Not only does it mark the Mouse House’s return to traditional 2D animation some four years after Home on the Range‘s failure saw them abandoning the medium, it also features a multi-racial cast and African American lead – firsts for [...]

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DVD

Explosive Pain

The Hurt Locker

by Carol Krenz
06.03.2010

Director Kathryn Bigelow is into metaphors big time. The Hurt Locker, her Oscar-worthy film’s title, can mean any number of things – a dangerous physical space, or a wounding of the mind. It might also refer to what Staff Sgt. William James (Jeremy Renner) keeps in his foot locker – the detonators he’s risked life [...]

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DVD

The Beauty of Godless Angst

Creation

by Sarah Fletcher
10.02.2010

“Supposing nothing mattered. Not love, not trust, not faith, not honour. Only brute survival,” muses Charles Darwin in Creation. Darwin, acted by Paul Bettany, is all too conscious of the existential anxieties provoked by On the Origin of Species. 150 years following its publication, the topic of the film was even controversial enough that its [...]

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DVD

In Search Of Happy Endings

Ally McBeal, Complete Set

by James Gartler
29.12.2009

“To me, the true meaning of Christmas has always been Santa … you’re allowed to believe in something you know doesn’t exist.” Sad, but oh so true. Life is filled with a great many illusions. Thankfully, we’ve arrived at the one time of year when clinging to them isn’t only accepted, but celebrated. It also [...]

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DVD

The Silence Of Discontinuity

Summer Hours

by Carol Krenz
04.12.2009

Funny that Edvard Munch’s The Scream springs to mind under the caress of director Olivier Assayas’ gentle film, Summer Hours (L’heure d’été) – but, it does. Its ghostly alarm provokes a universal lament for the disposable society we have become. With each successive scene, the inaudible noise grows louder, finding no escape through mannerly tears [...]

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