Argo is the third feature length film to be directed by Ben Affleck, who also plays the leading role. The film is both a tense hostage rescue drama and a comedy that gleefully mocks the machinery of Hollywood. As indicated in its introduction, the film is based on real events. In 1979, the US embassy Read More
Skyfall has already proved to be a phenomenal success both with critics and at the box office. Even viewing the film two weeks after its release, at an afternoon viewing, the cinema was verging on being full to capacity. This is the twenty-third James Bond film and coincides with the fiftieth anniversary of the release Read More
As part of the Discovery Film Festival the DCA screened Punch (Wan-Deuk-I), directed by Lee Han. The film was a phenomenal success in South Korea, selling around five million tickets during its box office run. Based on the novel Wandeuk (2008) by Kim Ryeo-Ryung, the story revolves around 17 year old Doh Wan-Deuk (played by Read More
Swedish film, The Crown Jewels, (Kronjuvelerna) is an intriguing escape into the world of magical realism. The film, which was shortened for theatrical release from the original television series, delivers an enormous amount of information for the audience to digest in a very short amount of time. Providing a snapshot of relationships between people in Read More
Inspired by the Scottish Homecoming celebrations of 2009 which, amongst other things, marked the 250th anniversary of the birth of Rabbie Burns, Thi 20:09 presents the boisterous tale of “A bus fu we past generations that huv shaped oor nation”. It is Dundonian poet Mark Thompson’s second poetry collection, following on from Bardfaethi Building Site Read More
The Soap Opera is an ever popular genre of TV drama but to find a soap opera in print is rare. This might explain the popularity of Alexander McCall Smith’s Scotland Street series. The latest edition in the series, Sunshine on Scotland Street, with its titular allusions to the song and subsequent musical Sunshine on Read More
Overburdened by its fame and its status as a classic in the horror canon, The Shining (1980) could only ever be a disappointment see outside its initial release. It is an unfortunate fact that horror, unlike other genres, simply cannot bear the brunt of repetition. Its iconic scenes – “redrum”, “All work and no play Read More
Kofi Anyidoho’s The Place We Call Home and Other Poems is a musical composition in three movements; a lyrical dance to a throbbing drumbeat and a painfully truthful examination of history, ancestry and regret. It provides a patriotic cultural insight into Africa yet does not shirk from, nor seek to glorify, reality and hurt. It Read More
Confucius said that “To love a thing means wanting it to live.” This fearless collection of poetry by Julian Stannard provides a living, breathing body of uncompromising work that grows off the page and flowers into the large and small places of life, touching and resonating as it branches outwards, and then out some more. Read More
Sally El Hosaini’s My Brother the Devil takes a thought provoking look at life for Arab families living in inner city London. Hosaini’s first feature film as writer and director was a labour of love as the film took six years to come to fruition. She began writing the script and envisioned shooting much of Read More