Imagine you are interrogating water coercing the hydrogen and oxygen to give up their bonds, give up each other. New York-based poet Philip Fried’s Interrogating Water can be read as an intense critique of the ethics of modern day American warfare, tackling themes of political ambivalence, military torture, weapons and those who wield those forces. Read More
How far should a teacher push their student in the name of greatness? This is one of the questions raised by 30-year-old Damien Chazelle’s jazz infused, high tempo drama Whiplash. This Sundance award winning film is Chazelle’s second feature after his low budget debut, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench (2009). Although the two Read More
We’re all getting older, and writer, producer and director Noah Baumbach is presumably feeling it. His latest film is a finely observed comedy, which captures the anxiety and fear of a younger generation coming up to middle age to both poignant and hilarious effect. The film opens with childless, forty-something couple Josh (Ben Stiller) and Read More
Ihor Pavlyuk’s biography reads somewhat like that of a secret agent. Born in the Ukraine in 1967, he attended the St. Petersburg Military University but left to pursue a literary career before being sentenced to hard labour in the Taiga. He regained his freedom when the Soviet Union fell and went on to become a Read More
Honours students from Abertay University’s School of Arts, Media and Computer Games once again set up shop at their annual platform, demonstrating their final year projects and portfolios to the public, tutors, fellow students, and potential employers. With an all-too-brief window of time in the afternoon in which to explore, I was only able to Read More
As in her debut novel, Lullabies for Little Criminals, Heather O’Neill turns to the streets of Montreal in The Girl Who was Saturday Night, once again portraying a young female dreamer, here living in the beautifully gritty Boulevard Saint-Laurent. Nouschka Tremblay and her twin brother Nicolas are beautiful, promiscuous and totally unstable nineteen year olds Read More
A new novel from prolific American author Anne Tyler is always cause for excitement, although as she has said it will be her last, this is tinged with some sadness too. A Spool of Blue Thread does not disappoint. It tackles some of the enduring themes of modern American life: the family as both platform Read More
Students undertaking the HND 1 in Acting and Performance at the D&A present the fruits of their labours over the past semester – a rousing rendition of Mike Bartlett’s acclaimed script, first performed in 2010. Jane Hensey, directing, writes in the programme’s foreword of the collaborative efforts that have gone into the production, and many Read More
One of the novels on the longlist for the Bailey’s Prize for Women’s Fiction 2015, Samantha Harvey’s entry Dear Thief offers a simple yet beautifully written exploration of memories and character. The plot of this book is rather basic and largely uneventful. It is written as a long letter from a woman to a long Read More
“Loving someone won’t save them.” This quote sets the tone for French-Canadian director Xavier Dolan’s fifth film, Mommy, a story that focuses on the ferocity of a mother’s love for her tearaway son, who truly embodies the “enfant terrible” archetype. The co-winner of the prestigious 2014 Cannes Film Award, Mommy focuses on Diane ‘Die’ Després, Read More