Adapted from David Mitchell’s novel of the same name, Cloud Atlas is certainly one of the most ambitious films of recent years. The film was directed by Lana and Andy Wachowski, who brought us The Matrix, and Tom Tykwer, and has had previous experience interpreting novels for film, for example, Patrick Süskind’sPerfume: The Story of a Murderer. Nevertheless, Cloud Read More
Caesar Must Die is a film loosely based on Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, performed by a mixture of actors and inmates from the high-security wing of Rome’s Rebibbia prison. The men are serving lengthy sentences, for crimes such as drug trafficking, involvement in the mafia, and murder. The film is shot in the style of a documentary, using Read More
An intriguingly insidious concoction of sci-fi, thriller and horror, Brandon Cronenberg’s Antiviral exudes discomfort from its first extreme close-up of a hypodermic needle to its last. The film’s disturbingly sterile production design and stark technical details render it worthy of much attention, especially considering its status as a debut feature. However, the real jewel in Read More
Zero Dark Thirty offers a unique approach to some of the most shocking historical events of the last decade. Written and directed by The Hurt Locker’s Mark Boal and Kathryn Bigelow, the film offers a behind the scenes look at the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. Based on first-hand accounts from CIA agents, the film Read More
Wreck-It Ralph is the latest release from Walt Disney Animation Studios, and it definitely feels fresh. The film’s focus on the world of arcade games is a marked departure from the worlds of princesses and magic of recent Disney films such as 2010’s Tangled. Although Disney has deviated from the traditional fairy tale before, this Read More
Women, Water & Wells by Gil Garcetti is a collection of photographs taken in West Africa. Garcetti’s project highlights issues of water scarcity and the prevalence of waterborne disease that arises from the lack of safe drinking water. These photographs are also included in Water is key, a book that documents the work of NGOs Read More
What Richard Did is a striking and emotionally daunting movie revealing the ease with which a single act can completely alter the course of a life. Set among the rich upper class of Dublin, the film follows the story of Richard (Jack Reynor), an extremely popular rugby player whose life is all planned out until Read More
For readers familiar with Drown, Díaz’s earlier story collection, This Is How You Lose Her will be welcomed as a sequel of sorts. For those new to the author, this book shows he clearly deserves his place as one of America’s best, though not amongst its most prolific, writers. The book shares some similarities with Read More
Most of us take sex for granted but, as demonstrated by Judd Apatow’s The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005), if you’ve never had sex it can seem like the biggest deal in the world, the pressure and expectation bearing down on you the older you get without having a sexual experience. Sex becomes an unattainable Read More
Two very different pieces were performed by the international Scottish Dance Theatre at Dundee Rep in late February. The programme’s opener, Second Coming, featuring music by Paganini, Bach, Beethoven and Jasper Gahunia, was from the Angelino choreographer Victor Quijada, while the Norwegian Jo Strømgren designed the next offering, Winter, Again. Strømgren used voice-over for narrative Read More