Ten Novels That Blew My Mind
There’ve been way more than ten, of course. But these things are always hard to figure. When you’re young it is too easy to be blown away. One lacks all those bitter years, the accretion of protective layers – the …
Category: Reviews
How To Win Money on the Oscars (without watching anything)
I’ve won money on the Oscars for four years straight. Let me tell you how it’s done.
Cynically. That’s the first and most important element. Stop reading now if you’re looking for insights into film-making, or acting, or virtuosity on …
Ten Favourite Books of 2017
Read about 45 again this year, not including all the dreary academic palaver related to my doctorate. Watched way, way too much film and television. I’ll stick to books here, other than to say I very much enjoyed Blade Runner …
Glory to the Empire
Walking out of The Last Jedi, sometime past midnight, I had a moment of clarity. I was done with Star Wars. The emotional investment I’d made, kept making, through horrific prequels and then through better, though blander recent Star Wars, …
The Philosophy of Blade Runner 2049: Ms Joi’s Feeling for Snow
The varied and rich philosophical strands of Blade Runner 2049 will be analysed and debated for years to come. Already in the world are some top-shelf articles on the use of light in blade runner, the neglect of children…
Blade Runner 2049: Conspiracy theories and the Nexus 7
Part 2 is dedicated to my theories. Part one was a review of the film, part three discusses philosophical themes. Spoilers below, obviously.
Without further ado:
Theory 1: the Nexus 7
Roy Batty is a Nexus 6. Inception …
Blade Runner 2049 (review): Do Androids Dream of Breathtaking Sequels?
Blade Runner should never have had a sequel. It was and is a work of art, self-contained. It bears watching and re-watching. Today, thirty-five years after it was first released, it still feels contemporary, is unarguably prescient. Blade Runner imagined …
Twin Peaks – His Dark Cosmology
I used to say: ‘watching David Lynch is like listening to jazz – it’s not meant to be a logically understood, it’s meant to be experienced.’ I was wrong.
Twin Peaks: the Return is as close a viewer will come …
The Noir Standard – Baby Driver and The Heist Gone Wrong
A staple of noir cinema is the heist gone wrong. Perhaps the best known contemporary example is Reservoir Dogs (1992), in which Tarantino – steeped in and heavily influence by classic noir – depicts the aftermath of a diamond …
Logan, Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman: the Good, the Bad and the Perfectly Adequate
Suicide Squad
What a fucking mess. There were apparently two versions of Suicide Squad, the dark original and a funnier reshoot. It shows. This movie doesn’t know what the fuck it is doing.
A full run-down isn’t necessary; it’s been …