Dead in the Blackwater (Route Irish, Ken Loach, UK/France/Italy/Belgium/Spain, 2011, 109 mins) Mercenaries, murder, torture and the Iraq War; after the whimsy of 2009’s Looking for Eric, Ken Loach returns to the shadows with Route Irish. The piece follows intense Liverpudlian Fergus (Mark Womack) – an ex-SAS officer – as he searches for answers concerning [...]
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Why the Levees Broke (The Big Uneasy, Harry Shearer, USA, 2010, 98 mins) Almost six years after Hurricane Katrina hit the city of New Orleans, the disaster’s place in American popular consciousness remains second only to that of one dark day in mid-September, 2001. Causing almost 2,000 deaths and more than $90 billion worth of [...]
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Bullseye [True Grit, Joel and Ethan Coen, US, 2010, 110mins) “The wicked flee where none pursueth.” So speaks the epigraph to True Grit, the long anticipated remake of the classic John Ford western from 1969 (itself an adaptation of the novel by Charles Portis) courtesy of the brothers Coen. The biblical quotation (from Proverbs 28:1) [...]
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Alienating the Audience [Paul, Greg Mottola, UK/US, 2011, 104mins] Simon Pegg and Nick Frost have made a career out of eulogising their favourite elements of pop culture. Their much loved TV Brit-com Spaced was wall-to-wall with knowing references, and the duo’s first two forays into cinema, along with director Edgar Wright, were both affectionate tributes [...]
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(Never Let Me Go, Mark Romanek, UK, 2011, 104 minutes) It is hard to fully evaluate a film, when you’ve read the book. Even if crucial parts are missed out, your brain automatically fills them in for you, and as long as it all looks right, you’re happy. However, if you find yourself on leaving [...]
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**Contains epic spoilers** Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro, (Faber and Faber 2005, RRP 7.99, pp304) In the past of anyone who loves literature, there is usually a truly great English teacher. Mine was called Mr Lakin, and every time I think of Kazuo Ishiguro, I think of him. He taught me The Remains of the [...]
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Future Fantasy Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy (Women’s Press Ltd, RRP£6.99, pp 384) Imagine if a visitor from the future came to you and told you that everything in the future would be better: that humanity would live in harmony with nature, society would have fixed many of the injustices and [...]
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On the Road by Jack Kerouac (Penguin Modern Classics, 2007, RRP £7.99) WARNING- This book will make you want to travel. It will make you want to get in the car and drive dizzyingly fast, not stopping until the wheels fall off, night and day, through sleepy towns to bustling cities. It will make you [...]
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Battle for the limelight (The Fighter, David O Russell, USA, 2011, 115 mins) Mark Wahlberg has been overshadowed not only within this true story based on the boxer who had his claim to fame in the eighties, but also by Christian Bale, who has been nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role at the [...]
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