In many ways, Damon Albarn’s official second solo album is as influenced by his physical surroundings in Iceland, as his early breakthrough albums with the band Blur – Modern Life Is Rubbish, Parklife, and The Great Escape – offered a window into the British youth culture of ‘90’s. The singer/songwriter became an official citizen of…
Malta’s first official entry for the Foreign Language Oscar is a topical and timely tale that puts a human face on the enormous tragedy of the boat people trying to escape their war torn homeland in Africa, hoping to find sanctuary and safety in Europe. It depicts the risks that the refugees are prepared to…
In the animated adventure Missing Link, Sir Lionel Frost (Hugh Jackman) is a fearless adventurer who investigates myths and monsters. He cuts a dashing figure globetrotting, but his peers don’t believe his latest “discovery” because he has no proof. But Sir Lionel wants recognition, so he sets off on yet another adventure. This time it’s…
Am I an ABBA fan? You betcha. I love what they created. I adore their songs and their harmonies. And while the closest thing we are likely to see to them performing together again is the hologram concert ABBA Voyage, there is something mighty special in town. I refer to a dedicated choir established by ABBA The…
Beautiful Boy tracks the love and loss of an 18-year-old. Nicolas Sheff was a good student, editor of his high school newspaper, an actor in the school play and a member of the water polo team. A voracious reader and a talented artist, he was set to enter college. He had started experimenting with drugs…
“It was great to be able to go off and start making films because, all of a sudden the challenge was greater, and the emotional punch was greater,” says British filmmaker Mike Newell, who has just released his latest film, a lush adaptation of the best-selling novel The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society….
Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 1 December 2023. Sarah Goldstone has been touring the past few years playing with boygenius, Lucy Dacus, and Hurray for the Riff Raff and is now releasing her debut album, Waving. This group of songs shows a subversive grasp…
Political correctness and sibling rivalry get a decent working over in Stay Woke, the brainchild of Aran Thangaratnam. Sai (Kaivu Suvarna) is a 25-year-old of Sri Lankan origin who is involved in medical research. He and his girlfriend, 22-year-old Kate (Rose Adams), a pharmacist, are invited by his older brother Niv (Dushan Philips) to join him and…
American writer Dennis Lehane burst onto the crime scene with his hard-hitting debut A Drink Before the War (1994), the first of his Kenzie and Gennaro novels. That series probably hit its apex with one of Lehane’s best-known books (thanks to the movie version), Gone Baby Gone. These books, along with the standalone Mystic River,…
Regular readers will know how I long to visit Italy one day. For now, I have to content myself by travelling vicariously through books like Only in Naples by Katherine Wilson. Here’s the blurb: Katherine is fresh out of college when she arrives in Naples to intern at the US Consulate. There she meets handsome,…
