There is a particular kind of film at which the British film industry excels at an order of magnitude greater than pretty much anyone else on the planet. In these movies, a person has variously fallen on hard times/lost their way/had long-held assumptions shaken and find themselves almost catastrophically Continue Reading
Movies
The short and the short of it: The sweet hopefulness of Cautionary Tales
When I look back on all the many ways my parents tried to get me to behave – like I was ever naughty! Actually as an eldest child I behaved really well … yeah, yeah, I know opportunity lost – I have to laugh at the lengths they went Continue Reading
Script to screen: Bringing Wall-E to memorable life
(image courtesy IMP Awards) Pixar have long been the masters of creating meaningful, evocative storytelling that touches the soul with sometimes the simplest of gestures or words. One of their greatest achievements is WALL-E, the story of a lone refuse clean up robot left behind on a disastrously polluted Continue Reading
Lost in created worlds: The most beautiful animation scenes in movie history
One of the most appealing aspects of animation is the ability it gives storytellers to take us to a breathtakingly diverse range of worlds, times and places that might otherwise elude us. While CGI has not caught up to animation’s imaginative possibilities in many ways, there is still something Continue Reading
Movie review: Evening Shadows
There is something deeply and liberatingly powerful about finally owning who you are. Finally being your “authentic self”, to dip into Oprah’s pool of reassuring words of New Age-tinged wisdom, not only quell those internal battles that come from living a double life, but free you to accomplish all Continue Reading
Farewell to my favourite Interrupting Rabbit: Emma Chamber dies aged 53 #RIP
One of the purest, most lovely memories of my childhood, is watching some of the classic BBC sitcoms of the time such as The Good Life, Dad’s Army and To the Manor Born with my family. Brilliantly-written and supremely well-acted, these sitcoms were also warm, silly and comforting, an entrée Continue Reading
Movie review: Dating My Mother
It would be nice to think that navigating your way through the twists and turns of life, with all its contrary elements, would get easier as you get older. But as mother and son, widow Joan (Kathryn Erbe) and Danny (Patrick Reilly), discover in Mike Roma’s feature debut, Dating Continue Reading
Disney characters get their Avengers on and my, if it isn’t fun to behold!
Sorry superhero fanatics out there but I am not one of you, much as I like much of the storytelling that happens in that space. I often enjoy many of the movies but I am not, by any stretch, any kind of super fan. What I do love, and Continue Reading
Firefly takes to the galactic skies again! In book form at least …
Ah Firefly, I still mourn your prematurely-ended run, your brief 13-episode run of intra-galactic adventure and derringdo flickering out and foundering far before any of us were ready for it. Thankfully while TV may be done, with you, the rest of the pop culture-o-sphere is not, with a movie Continue Reading
Movie review: Lady Bird
Figuring out life is challenging for the best of us, and if we’re really honest with ourselves, we can often find ourselves defeated in the attempt. But that comes much later (or if you’re lucky not at all), and when you’re young like Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson (Saoirse Ronan), Continue Reading