When this thick hardback arrived out of the blue from Irish publisher, The Irish Pages Press, with the most polite review request, I was flattered to be included in this mailing. I’ve been dipping into it over the past few months and enjoying it very much indeed. I do love reading about film in general, Read More
Tag: Film
August Watchlist
Bingeworthy TV Obviously, I’m already addicted to new BBC drama Vigil two episodes in, which started with killing off a main character (remember Spooks?), and am still loving Ghosts. I’m also working my way through rewatching Detectorists, which is just lovely. I was inordinately excited to discover that zombie spectacular The Walking Dead series 10 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
Two National Treasures at the Oxford Literary Festival
Alan Bennett and Nicholas Hytner in Conversation Earlier this evening I went into Oxford for my only visit to the Oxford Literary Festival this year. It was a sell-out event at the Sheldonian – with two national treasures who have been collaborating for decades in conversation. We were all crammed into the Sheldonian. I’d bought 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
A screenplay novelisation …
A Million Ways to Die In The West by Seth MacFarlane There’s no denying it – Seth MacFarlane is very talented. Apart from being very handsome, he’s an award winning animator – having worked for Hanna-Barbera after college, he’s the creator of Family Guy, co-creator/producer of American Dad, the comedy film Ted, and he acts/voices Read More
The Grand Budapest Hotel – what a film!
Imagine one of those old grand spa hotels from the early 1930s in an Eastern European alpine setting – a destination in its own right, busy, happening and very posh. Fast forward a few decades to faded grandeur marred by 1970s orange everywhere, near-empty, peopled just by the curious, or those on a bargain package… Read More
Anderson & Zweig; Thorn and Morrissey
I know – it’s too long since you had a proper book post – they will come soon, promise. Life is so busy at the moment, and for the next couple of weeks it’ll be the same – as I have the Abingdon Science Festival to go to/help at, several trips to the Oxford Literary 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
Beryl on the box & big screen …
Today, I offer you a survey of Beryl’s work for TV and film, with as many links to clips as I can find… During the early part of her career, Beryl was an actress. In 1961, she famously appeared in one episode of Coronation Street as the peace-protesting girlfriend of Ken Barlow. See BB in Corrie. She wrote 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
He’s not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy!
Had to write a short post on the BBC4 drama Holy Flying Circus which aired this week, it was a mostly marvellous 90 minutes of real Pythonesque homage. It followed the life of the Pythons around the time that Life of Brian was released in the cinema (1979), the TV ‘debate’ between Cleese and Palin v Muggeridge Read More
Memories are made of this?
The Double Shadow by Sally Gardner Sally Gardner is moving up through the ages with her books. She started off with illustrating and writing picture books, then she wrote a series of Magical Children novels for younger readers, before writing several brilliant historical novels for older children (see my review of The Red Necklace here). Read More
Reel food!
Movie Dinners by Becky Thorn It’s time to blow the family trumpet. My sister-in-law’s second cookery book is published today. It does exactly what it says on the cover – helping you to recreate food from the movies in your own kitchen. From Oliver’s pease pudding and saveloy to the bunny boiler’s rabbit stew from Fatal 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
Brothers under the skin???
I will get back to writing about books very soon, but an off-duty photo I saw yesterday of Twilight hunk Robert Pattinson in my daughter’s kids’ newspaper ‘First News’ gave me a jolt – for the delightfully chiselled Robert is looking rather like the handsome younger brother of the comedy demi-god that was John Belushi! 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 – 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
A Cinematic treat for readers of all ages…
The Invention of Hugo Cabret: A Novel in Words and Pictures by Brian Selznick This book has a fascinating concept. It’s a chunkster of over 500 pages that can be read in just a couple of hours for over half the pages are pictures – black and white pencil drawings mostly. But it’s not a Read More
Proper Showbiz Memoirs …
I love good showbiz memoirs and biographies. None of that celebrity trash – I like proper life stories of people in any aspect of showbiz with distinguished and/or interesting careers. In particular, I always find the behind the scenes stories of the creative process are fascinating, be it on stage, on film or in the Read More
One from the archives
Updated and republished into it’s original place in my blog’s timeline My eight year old daughter recently asked me what my favourite film is. She probably meant which is my favourite film of hers … but I quickly replied The Blues Brothers. Not the best film ever made, and a close run for my top Read More
