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REFRESH MANUALLY TO KEEP UP 05:07- Right, that is that. The Oscars 2014 are over, awards have been given out, friendships have been broken, twitter records shattered, many people left happy. If you have been reading this with us, it has been a pleasure to guide you stutteringly through the awards, and we hope you’ve […]
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It started out as a means of digital film editing software that George Lucas hired in, something that would make blowing up the Death Star look more realistic. The software was sold to Steve Jobs where it helped make thirty second adverts while the more enthusiastic staff tinkered with what they thought was the key […]
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An exciting thing happened last week, if you happen to be a supporter of the idea of crowdfunding – or of prematurely cancelled television shows. Nearly 6 years after a new episode had been aired, the creator of teen sleuth series Veronica Mars announced a Kickstarter project to revive the show as a film. Veronica […]
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Ambition is something that should always be applauded in a film, and if there’s one thing you can say about Cloud Atlas, Lana and Andy Wachowski and Tom Tykwer’s adaptation of David Mitchell’s 2004 novel, it is that it’s ambitious. The film – nearly three hours long – is a complex and sprawling monster that […]
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There are two kinds of people in the world. Those who watch Community, and those who are wrong. However, when it comes to the discussion of the new fourth season of the show, opinions are much more muddled. Coming in months after the originally scheduled date of 19th October and after the hugely polarising decision […]
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Audiences used to have to be achingly patient to watch a new Terrence Malick film. The reclusive auteur has produced a mere six films over a period of forty years, a fact made more remarkable in that Malick has become one of the most lauded filmmakers of the last half-century. Infused with wonder, vista and […]
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If you didn’t know the context, some things Kate Spicer says could sound really wanky. “I have a really deep connection with Tom”; “I feel very, very, very close to my brothers.” Lots of celebrities surrounded by PRs seem instructed to insert the odd spurt of emotion like this to make their otherwise sterilised answers […]
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FX’s dark and dirty drama about renegade Motorcycle Club The Sons of Anarchy roared back onto UK screens this February, and if the opening episodes of Season Five are anything to go by, the end is nigh for Charming town. After four seasons in the back seat, season five sees Jax finally taking the gavel […]
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Goodbye lads (and ladies, I’m not sexist), it’s been an absolute cracker of an evening, although the Oscars weren’t much cop. Thanks for reading, if you did. Fuck you if you didn’t. It’s been emotional; it’s been drunk; it’s been live. It’s now over, so go to bed. See you next year. Oh, sorry, ARGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO […]
Continue ReadingLast week saw the return of Charlie Brooker’s dystopian drama series Black Mirror: one of the television highlights of 2011 when the show debuted. We rejoiced in the blackly comic and diverse topics that Brooker treated: the dangers of social media and TV talent shows, with a poignant and dramatic finale – less of a […]
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Nashville, Tennessee: the home of country music. And now a fiendishly addictive US drama that’s crossed the pond to channel 4. Nashville takes the classic TV formula – a newcomer somehow disrupts the supposed static idealism of the characters’ lives. Nashville’s newcomer is country/pop singer Juliette Barnes (Hayden Panettiere), record label Edgehill-Republic’s hot new artist […]
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At talk of Bionics, the Bionicles that filled our childhood, or more spectacularly the Paralympics, come to mind. Little do we know of the constructions occurring in the confines of laboratories today. From bionic organs to limbs to bodies, the psychologist Herbert Meyer reveals to us the most audacious projects of our present time. A […]
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Contrary to popular belief, February is not grey and shit. It is actually a brilliant month, for two reasons: pancake day (self-evident) and Hollywood awards season. If, for film fans, January is a month of birthdays (the Golden Globes, the SAG Awards, the DGA Awards) February is one big, excited lead up to Christmas, which […]
Continue ReadingValentine’s day is almost upon us: the day for him and her, the day of togetherness. The day of flowers and chocolates and gifts and sharing popcorn and watching films together. The day that thousands of men are dragged to the nearest cinema or the nearest sofa to watch such romantic treats as The Notebook, […]
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If there were any teenage boys by the end of the Eighties who didn’t want to be Marty McFly, they probably wanted to be Ferris Bueller. In 1986, John Hughes, a man who couldn’t leave his teen angst behind him, stepped behind the camera to helm his fourth film: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. The irresistible […]
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Robert Zemeckis has been out of the game for almost ten years. Even as he messed around with Beowulf and The Polar Express, people still looked back at his pinnacle, watched his mastery behind Castaway. It was only a matter of time, surely, before he came back, before he took over the helm of a […]
Continue ReadingBack in November, David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook demonstrated that on-screen treatment of mental illness combined with comedy need not be tasteless. E4’s new 6-part teen comedy/drama, My Mad Fat Diary is similar in content, but despite being inspired by real-life diary entries the consideration of mental health issues is far less penetrating. This time […]
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Zero Dark Thirty should by all rights have been a terrific film. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow, who won an Oscar for her war drama The Hurt Locker, starring up-and-comer Jessica Chastain, so good in The Debt and Take Shelter, and based on the story of the hunt for Osama bin Laden, on paper there seems […]
Continue ReadingStephen Spielberg is comfortable with historical epics. From the sombre brilliance of Schindler’s List to the explosive power of Saving Private Ryan, his is the realm of the majestic. Lincoln, his latest film, fits this mould perfectly: it’s a sweeping account of the 16th president of the USA’s fight to abolish slavery during the American […]
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