Category Archives: Film
I sense a disturbance. Everything that’s missing from The Last Jedi (some SPOILERS so see it first!!)
The scroll screen could have been written for Ep VII. As if nothing has happened. First rule of sequels: Take the story on. What’s the new line? Please hire me to write proper copy in future. Leia is unconscious for … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Film, Media, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Tagged adam driver, carrie fisher, culture, daisy ridley, Disney, errol flynn, film, Hillary Clinton, Hollywood, john boyega, kylo ren, luke skywalker], princess leia, star wars, the last jedi
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What made America great? On the trail of Laura Ingalls Wilder
It was the 2008 crash that somehow inspired me to finally read the Little House on the Prairie books. I was clearly craving comfort, safety, a kind of nostalgia for a vaguely remembered 70s girlhood in which I half watched … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Children, Culture, Film, History, Politics, Radio, Travel, Uncategorized
Tagged almanzo wilder, ayn rand, BBC America, BBC Sunday Feature, dean butler, laura ingalls wilder, mansfield missouri, Radio 3, rose wilder lane, the fountainhead, USA
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Jodie Foster on why The Silence of The Lambs is a perfect film
I recently wrote about why the 1990s was such an amazing time to be a young woman. Jodie Foster confirmed the sense of a breakthrough at a screening of The Silence of The Lambs on Friday night at the BFI … Continue reading
Posted in Crime and Justice, Film
Tagged 90s, anthony hopkins, bfi, cinema, feminism, film, Hollywood, jodie foster, jonathan demme, the silence of the lambs
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Filth, fury and the funny way Britain feels about Joe Orton
You never forget your first time. I was 19 years old. I descended into a dark, cramped basement where student actors brought to life a weird, twisted sexual triangle. Going to student drama productions in odd spaces around the University … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Crime and Justice, Culture, Film, Media, Radio, Theatre, TV, Uncategorized
Tagged 60s, crime, culture, dr emma parker, elitism, film, joe orton, john lahr, kenneth halliwell, Kenneth Williams, Leicester, leonie orton, literature, London, prick up your ears, satire, sheila hancock, soft touch arts, tv
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How to win the coming culture war in 2017
A version of this article first appeared in The Big Issue magazine in January 2017. Journalism worth paying for. Available weekly from street vendors or subscriptions here. History rarely falls into neat numerical decades. I would assert the 1980s (yuppies, … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Comics/graphic novels, Culture, Film, Media, Music, Politics, Radio, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Theatre, TV, Uncategorized
Tagged ali smith, BIG ISSUE, books, cinema, culture, culture war, Disney, dr quinn medicine woman, dreamgirls, everbody's talking about jamie, feminism, film, FTW, henry krieger, Hollywood, jane seymour, jon musker, media, moana, pauline boty, politics, rogue one, ron clements, susan faludi, tv, tyrus wong, unforgotten, Wonder Woman
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Why Nerve is the selfie generation’s Desperately Seeking Susan
Discussing Nerve and immersive gaming in film with Naomi Alderman on BBC Front Row on Radio 4 on August 11th and iplayer after. The Green Dress. I knew I’d seen it somewhere before in New York the moment it appeared … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Games, Media, Uncategorized
Tagged 80s, aidan quinn, cinema, dave franco, desperately seeking susan, emma roberts, film, Hollywood, madonna, media, nerve, New York, rosanna arquette
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From Jane Eyre to Mary Poppins – de-coding the Brontes on film
I wrote this blogpost for a panel discussion we held with a screening of Jane Eyre (1943) at the Picturehouse Cinema at the National Media Museum in Bradford last Saturday. Novelist Mick Jackson, Bronte Parsonage Museum arts officer Lauren Livesey … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Culture, Film, Media
Tagged Bradford, Brontes, charlotte bronte, jane eyre, joan fontaine, orson welles
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The economics of burkas, bikinis & The Nice Guys
According to a recent BBC World Service programme about Malawi, the nation’s population hit 17.6 million this year and is expected to double by 2040, which the country’s finance minister described as “scary”. “A ticking timebomb of poverty and … Continue reading
Posted in Business/Economics, Comedy, Culture, Film, Media, Religion, TV, Uncategorized
Tagged 70s, BIG ISSUE, charlie perfume, Charlies Angels, cinema, culture, feminism, film, Hollywood, Islamic fashion, laurence rossignol, lynda carter, media, The Bionic Woman, the nice guys, virginia slims, Wonder Woman
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Bryan Singer on: Chariots of the Gods, Valkyrie, Star Trek & the mythology of X-Men Apocalypse
Here’s my full interview with the very well-read Bryan Singer on X-Men Apocalypse. We talked the Bible, classic Star Trek, the 60s vogue for theories on space seeding aliens, and why the Holocaust is a presence in so many of … Continue reading
Posted in Comics/graphic novels, Film, Germany, History, Media, Science Fiction/Fantasy, TV
Tagged 60s, bryan singer, chariots of the gods, cinema, film, Hollywood, Star Trek, who mourns for adonais, x men, x men apocalypse
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The trouble with superheroes taking on terrorism..
I love superhero comics and they’ve never been handled with more love than by writers and filmmakers who grew up on them too. And yet.. And yet.. In the latest Captain America Civil War film, when a terrorist bomb goes … Continue reading
