When I was beginning to think about dipping my toe into the blogging world, there were several blogs I followed religiously including publishing guru Scott Pack’s now-defunct ‘Me & My Big Mouth’. One of the authors he championed was Ray Robinson, whose first novel Electricity was published in 2006. I quickly got myself a copy Read More
Category: Film Reviews
“Won’t you be my neighbor?”
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood A quick film review from me today. I went to see this at the weekend – and I simply adored it. It made me cry, it made me laugh a little, it certainly made me feel good – do go and see it. ‘Mister Rogers’ – Fred Rogers, was Read More
A Catch-up Interlude – My own private film festival
I love movies and I have shelves of unwatched DVDS. This week I’ve been watching a film or two a day – here’s a few words about what I’ve seen… Arrival 12 alien spaceships arrive on Earth, distributed around the globe. Each host nation races to be the first to discover why they are there. Read More
Star performances to a killer soundtrack…
Baby Driver directed by Edgar Wright I went to see Baby Driver last night and loved it from start to finish! For a (15) film, it is very violent, but it is so much more than just a heist and car chase movie with guns; it also has a good heart. Baby, that’s “B-A-B-Y,” is Read More
“City of stars Are you shining just for me?”
Some thoughts on La La Land I wasn’t going to write a post about La La Land. but after talking about it to an increasing number of friends who’ve now seen it, and nearly all been slightly disappointed/didn’t really like it, I feel compelled to get some thoughts on the page… because I loved it! I Read More
Shopgirl – Film & Book
Shopgirl by Steve Martin I adore Steve Martin’s writing – see my review of his tremendous memoir Born Standing Up here, and his 2010 novel An Object of Beauty at my old blog here. I finally got around to reading his first fictional publication Shopgirl, a few weeks ago, and yesterday I watched the film, Read More
Moviewatch – a true story
Spotlight Last night I was in Birmingham with nearly 5 hrs to kill while my daughter and her friend saw All Time Low (an American pop punk band from Towson, Maryland – I’m none the wiser!) at the NIA. I had been planning to base myself in one of the many coffee shops locally and read The Read More
Hardy & Me…
I’m madd not to have read more Hardy! I’m just back from the cinema where I saw Far From the Madding Crowd. For anyone suffering from Poldark withdrawal, it has lots of galloping along clifftops and through fields, and scything! Seriously, it was a wonderful film, with a screenplay by David Nicholls. I’ve come away Read More
It may be arthouse, but violence is violence…
I wanted to write a post about my reactions to a film I saw on TV the other night. It’s not one I would have chosen to see in the cinema, or buy the DVD of – it was just ‘on’… Drive (2011) starring Ryan Gosling, dir Nicholas Winding Refn The other night on BBC3 Read More
A Walk Among the Tombstones: Book v Film
The recently released movie A Walk Among the Tombstones starring Liam Neeson is based upon the 10th in the series of Matt Scudder books by Lawrence Block. I’ve read the first twelve – and have enjoyed them all, with a few more still to read one of these days. I read this back in 2006, and Read More
DVD Review – The Coen Brothers do the 1960s folk music scene…
Inside Llewyn Davis by the Coen Brothers I’ve been taking advantage of my daughter being on holiday with her Dad to catch up on TV and movies. I binge-watched Broadchurch (loved) and The Honorable Woman (good, but confusing and irritating), but finished my week by watching the Coen Brother’s latest movie from earlier this year on Read More
Another visual stunner from Luhrmann
The Great Gatsby – directed by Baz Luhrmann The moment that Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway finally met Gatsby, when Leonardo Dicaprio turned around and smiled that smile, my heart did a little leap, and it confirmed for me that he was perfect for the role, and that this film was going to be totally Read More
Benedict, you’re a very baaad man!
I couldn’t wait! Just back from the first screening (bar last night’s midnight one) at my local cinema of Star Trek: Into Darkness, the second outing for the young classic Trek crew. I’m not going to tell you any of the story except that Benedict Cumberbatch, with a spectacularly basso profundo voice, was truly wonderful Read More
Half term movies
I’ve been to the pictures twice this half-term – two very different films and two gooduns. First, I went with my daughter to see Tim Burton’s new stop-animation film, Frankenweenie. Inspired by Frankenstein, natch, it’s the story of a boy and his dog, and like all the best classic horror films, it’s in black and Read More
Book v Movie: Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (republished into its original place in the time-line from my lost post archive) I went to see the film Salmon Fishing in the Yemen this afternoon based on the brilliant 2006 book by Paul Torday. I read the book last year and loved it, (review here), so I was crossing my fingers that Read More
Moviewatch – Arthur Christmas
“So what would you like to see?”, I asked my daughter. “What’s on?”, she replied. I reeled off the list at the multiplex fully expecting her to pick ‘Alvin & the Chipmunks 3’, but secretly hoping that the one I really wanted to see might be acceptable. (My choice was Martin Scorsese’s ‘Hugo’ – which Read More
Book vs film: Too much Julie, not enough Julia?
Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell This was the July choice for our book group, which gave those who didn’t read the book time to watch the film instead. I managed to do both, and they are quite different animals… Julie Powell and husband Eric hail from Texas. They live in Read More
Up, up and away…
I missed the latest Pixar animation, Up, when it was in the multiplexes – a friend of my daughter’s had a movie party to see it, so I didn’t get to take her to that one. I couldn’t wait to watch it when the DVD arrived, so on this dull half-term afternoon we snuggled up on the Read More
Moviewatch – Moon
I saw Moon the other night on DVD and was absolutely blown away by this brilliant and clever little movie. Sam Rockwell plays an astronaut, also called Sam, who is reaching the end of his three year contract manning a mining station on the moon. He lives all alone there with just the robot GERTY Read More
My Season of the Living Dead is over!
My month of vampire reading is over – Ended! Finito! I’ve read six novels back to back, mostly extremely enjoyable until I came to the last. Dracula – the Un-dead by Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt … Co-written by Bram Stoker’s great-grandnephew and a vampire expert, this official sequel tries to shoehorn in every single Read More
Moviewatch – Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince
Yesterday was our first available day to go and see the new Harry Potter film. I checked out the times, and asked my daughter “Shall we go for the quarter past one showing, or go earlier?” … So there we were at the cinema for the 10am showing along with just ten other people in Read More
Moviewatch – Clint growls – a lot!
Gran Torino starring the one and only Clint Eastwood Newly out on DVD, we watched this on Saturday. I’ve always loved Clint and his films, from those where he was young and so handsome to his later ones where he is grizzled but still steely underneath. He’s been in the business for over five decades Read More
Moviewatch: An American city girl in the English countryside is not good for one’s stiff upper lip!
Easy Virtue This adaptation of a Noel Coward play was great fun. It was full of great performances from an all-star cast, and some brilliant set pieces – involving a chihuahua, the can can, and a fabulous tango from Colin Firth, but I digress … The roaring twenties are in full flow when John Whittaker Read More
Moviewatch – Coraline (3D)
I read Neil Gaiman’s wonderful children’s novel Coraline last month and blogged about it here, knowing the movie was out this month. Given a choice, I prefer to read the book and then see the movie. So yesterday my daughter and I went to see the film… It was also our first movie in 3D. Read More
Moviewatch – Burn After Reading
The latest film from the marvellous Coen brothers is another of their darker than dark comedies, a tale of dorky folk who all get caught up in a stupidly bizarrely circular chain of events . Burn After Reading has very few laugh out loud moments, but there are plenty of corner of the mouth secret Read More
Moviewatch – Stardust
One of the best films I’ve seen recently on DVD was Stardust. It’s a truly magical comic fantasy adventure for all the family. Neil Gaiman’s fairy tale has been realised beautifully for the screen and features an all-star cast that goes all the way down into some of the smallest parts. The only one who Read More
Moviewatch: In Bruges- It’s effing hilarious!
This film was absolutely fantastic from start to finish. Wildly original, quirky, very violent yet wickedly funny with some brilliant sick jokes. Oh, by the way, it happens to show off Bruges quite beautifully. Colin Farrell and Ralph Fiennes I knew, but couldn’t quite place Brendan Gleeson at first – then it dawned on me Read More