I wouldn’t normally flag up a Keira Knightley film; her publicity machine is quite efficient enough to do that without extra help, and her performances almost always fail to live up to the enormity of her profile. But the outsize ringlets of her newest role surely deserve some kind of acclaim, and, more importantly, The [...]
Archive for August, 2008
Trailer of the Week: The Duchess
Posted in Watching, tagged bullet boy, keira knightley, saul dibb, the duchess, trailer of the week on August 31, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Georgia, Georgia, the whole day through
Posted in Reading, tagged dmitry medvedev, georgia and russia, saakashvili on August 28, 2008 | 3 Comments »
The other day the Financial Times featured a piece written by… wait for it… Dmitry Medvedev. Scoop. Of course my favourite thing about Russia’s President is his name, which regularly endures varied pronunciation by broadcast journalists, and which is perfect for rolling around the tongue when in experimental mood. Med-VYAY-dev? MED-vedev? Med-vyeah-deff? All pleasing in [...]
Trailer of the Week: Frost/Nixon
Posted in Watching, tagged frost/nixon, london film festival opening film, michael sheen, peter morgan on August 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I am so excited about this film. Frost/Nixon dramatises the real-life story behind David Frost’s landmark TV interviews with Richard Nixon in 1977, just three years after the Watergate scandal forced Nixon’s resignation as President. As a dramatic scenario, the lead-up to some TV interviews and then the enactment of those interviews – which you [...]
Trailer of the Week: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
Posted in Watching, tagged heyday films, john boyne, the boy in the striped pyjamas, trailer of the week on August 17, 2008 | 1 Comment »
There have been so many extraordinarily powerful films about the Holocaust that it’s hard to imagine one more telling us anything new. The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas might, because it proffers a view from the other side: from the eyes and ears of a child whose father runs a concentration camp behind their back [...]
Kingsnorth: recommended reading
Posted in Reading, tagged kingsnorth, matt bolton, the dirt is temporary on August 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Just wanted to point you to Matt Bolton’s thoughtful blogpost about his experience at Kingsnorth climate camp last weekend; a brilliantly written first-hand account from a self-confessed “ex-cynic”: this was no finger-wagging lecture or communal tut – this was real. The attempt to shut down this Kent coal-fired power station was true direct action, not [...]
Trailer of the Week: W.
Posted in Watching, tagged josh brolin, Oliver Stone, trailer of the week, W. on August 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
There aren’t many movies with just one letter for a name. In fact, I couldn’t think of any. Listology says there are at least 50, though their list was last updated in 2004, so who knows. Here’s a tip. The title W. makes most sense when you say it outloud. With a deep southern accent. [...]
At the coalface of climate change
Posted in Thinking, tagged coal power station, kingsnorth, stop kingsnorth on August 5, 2008 | 4 Comments »
The other day I got an email from my friend Matt asking if I was going to a mass protest at Kingsnorth, near the intriguingly-named Hoo Saint Weburgh in Kent: “going to this? we have plastic blow up canoes”, the email read. With great sadness and not a little shame, I must confess I’m not [...]
Trailer of the Week: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Posted in Watching, tagged daniel radcliffe, david yates, harry potter and the half blood prince, tom riddle on August 2, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Let the hubbub commence: Warner Bros. have released a teaser for the sixth Harry Potter film, The Half-Blood Prince. It’s the second film directed by the brilliant, inimitable David Yates; the second-to-last of the entire series (they’re getting scarier); and the one where we find out just how Voldemort got so evil. Galloping gargoyles it [...]
Darker knights: Batman and terror
Posted in Watching, tagged agent of chaos, batman and 9/11, batman and terror, heath ledger as the joker, the dark knight on August 1, 2008 | 4 Comments »
There is very little redemption in Chris Nolan’s The Dark Knight. There are only different degrees of pain. Pretty much everyone is stoic about it; not everyone survives. It’s certainly the darkest superhero film I’ve ever seen. The Financial Times last week noted that The Dark Knight was “the fourth big movie about a superhero [...]
