The starting point for the truly horrible Butt Boy is a guy in a bad marriage who enjoys inserting objects into his rear end. We’re in Florida. Chip Gutchel (Tyler Cornack) – a bored IT engineer in a dead-end job – has an awakening after a routine prostate exam. He really enjoys it. What begins…
In October 2002, the US districts of Maryland, Colombia and Virginia were under attack. Driveby sniper shootings were occurring in all sorts of locations – schools, petrol stations, convenience stores, front yards. Nowhere was safe. The FBI and state police scrambled all available to deal with the random attacks and initial thoughts as to who…
We find suggestions of child abuse abhorrent; but it wasn’t always so. Traditional fairy tales (like those of the Brothers Grimm) often include elements of adults being unspeakably cruel – or worse – to children. Indeed, in more recent times, writers like Roald Dahl haven’t shied away from including childhood hardship in their fiction. Netflix’s…
Netflix has a whole host of films with interesting premises and solid performers that well suit the streaming platforms rather than the big screen. The Titan is one of these. Perfectly entertaining for a cold night in, but you’d be a bit peeved if you’d ponied up to watch this low key film at the…
A photographer who suffers from PTSD befriends a hardworking Sudanese man with a secret traumatic past. Hearts and Bones is a heavy-hitting drama with a feel-good ending, but more of that later. Daniel Fisher (Hugo Weaving) is an acclaimed war photographer. His work means he leaves his long-term partner, Josie Avril (Haley McElhinney), a ballet…
Deadwater Fell doesn’t mess about, introducing us to a charming village full of adorable villagers right before polishing four of them off in a house fire. We haven’t met any super villains yet so soon in the piece, so where does our suspicious eye cast its ire first? To the only survivor of the fire…
When reviewing a new Stephen King book, you can only really compare such rich work to that of his own. There is no other writer, past or present, quite like him. King is the gold standard, the literary bar, a unique category. A problem other authors would no doubt like to have. If It Bleeds…
In Midnight Family, the audience become front seat passengers riding along with the Ochoa family in Mexico City after dark. Underground private ambulances compete for patients, beg for money and pay police bribes. The government operates fewer than 45 emergency ambulances in Mexico City for a population of nine million. The documentary explores urgent questions…
Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 1 May 2020. Damien Jurado’s new album What’s New, Tomboy? is now out on Mama Bird Recording co. and Loose Music. The album marks his second for the labels. Where last year’s In the Shape of a Storm stripped…
Booker Prize winning author Aravind Adiga takes on the issue of refugees and asylum seekers, focusing on Australia in his latest novel Amnesty. Set in Sydney, on a day sometime in the recent past, the book concentrates on Dhananjaya Rajaratnam, aka Danny the Cleaner, as he grapples with his duty to society and his…
