Sisters of Castle Leod
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**Finalist in the 2022 American Writing Awards** Millions are fans of Diana Gabaldon’s popular...
Historical Biographical Fiction
Cats Best In Show: A Trump Card Game
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Find out who's the cat that got the cream with this beautifully illustrated set of cards....
Lone Rider: The First British Woman to Motorcycle Around the World
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In 1982, at the age of just twenty-three and halfway through her architecture studies, Elspeth Beard...
An Indian Summer of Steam
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'An Indian Summer of Steam' is the second volume of David Maidment's 'railway' autobiography,...
Uncle Bill: The Authorised Biography of Field Marshal Viscount Slim
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Masterly biography of the 'greatest commander of the 20th century'. Field Marshal Slim is less well...
The Final Revival of Opal and Nev
9.5
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Book
A queen of punk before her time. A duo on the brink of stardom. A night that will define their story...
Historical Fiction Music Feminism Race USA
Enjoying the Cumbrian Coast Railway
Book
Join David Hindle for a fascinating trip along one of the most scenic railway routes in the British...
Awix (3310 KP) rated Yesterday (2019) in Movies
Jul 2, 2019 (Updated Jun 15, 2020)
It's a fascinating premise, but one the film largely ignores in favour of a very familiar rom-com storyline that doesn't do anything particularly interesting or engaging. You can't help wondering: what has happened to the world? How come (almost) nobody remembers the Fab Four? The whole point of this kind of story is surely for the absence of the Beatles to reveal, by implication, their greatness and significance, but the film suggests they can vanish leaving barely a ripple in terms of cultural or musical legacy. The results are intermittently amusing and occasionally interesting, but the film only succeeds at aiming low. Decent performances from the leads help; Kate McKinnon is good value as usual, but James Corden and Ed Sheeran are in it too.
Awix (3310 KP) rated King of Thieves (2018) in Movies
Oct 10, 2018
Initially this looks like it's going to be a slightly cosy comedy thriller about blokes who are too old be robbers any more, but - very pleasantly - it quite soon acquires some real heft and gravity to it, with the various members of the gang falling out and attempting to double-cross each other - most of these actors are well-known as comedians, but there is some proper meaty drama here and scenes with a definite tension to them.
Not quite as much Caine as you might hope for, but he is still the guv'nor as far as British film acting is concerned, and this is his best role for a while. Everyone else is good too. The film never quite gets the shifts between comedy and gangster thriller right, and the low budget keeps it from being very cinematic, but it's an engaging movie driven by great performances.
Kirk Bage (1775 KP) rated Black Mirror - Season 5 in TV
Mar 3, 2020 (Updated Mar 3, 2020)
Perhaps in retrospect, season 5 should have held out for some better scripts. All 3 (and notably there are only 3, because of the effort and time put into the stand alone feature length Bandersnatch) episodes seem a little rushed and weak in terms of depth of idea; replacing it with more gloss and production value. You can see the cash on the screen in this episode about the natural progression of VR becoming all about virtual sex, regardless of your sexuality in the real world (or maybe because of it). There is some irony in considering how Black Mirror began feeling very British and here feels entirely consumed by Netflix and American values. Is that a clever statement in itself? Not sure. Either way, I am not a big fan on this one. I mean, it’s fine, but we have come to expect more.
Smithereens - 6
If there are any clever links to anything else going on here, in what I am now thinking of as the Black Mirror Universe, then I haven’t picked up on it. This one feels quite surface, and just a very sad story about a man in distress that wants technology to answer for its responsibilities. Andrew Scott is ever excellent in the lead – man, he can really act! – but the rest of the cast seem a little lifeless and under-written. Perhaps they were trying for something more sharply focused, but, for me, the moral message of don’t use your phone whilst driving, is a bit weak.
Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too - 6.5
Known as the Miley Cyrus episode, because… she’s in it, and so is an electronic “toy” that replicates her personality for her teen fans. There is some intrigue around the nature of fandom and obsession; also the idea of media manipulation in projecting a saleable image that may be far from “the truth”. There is a lighter tone here, though, which betrays the Black Mirror ethos to some extent. It is an entertaining piece: the CGI on the toy Ashley is great, and there is a lovely twist 3/4 in when the true personality of it comes out to hilarious effect. But, on the whole, another under-written piece that leaves us hanging on the precipice of doubt leading into another season.