Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 2 October 2020. Platinum-selling singer, songwriter, producer, and activist Aloe Blacc has released his newest album, All Love Everything via BMG. Inspired by his family, the new album is shaped around Aloe not only as a husband, but his…
I’ve loathed every film revered auteur Terrence Malick has made since The Tree of Life. His impressionistic take on the material – with its ethereal visuals, non-linear structure, the fragments of whispered, overlapping dialogue, the rapid cutting within scenes that barely give a moment room to breathe and the off-centre framing of his characters and…
Based on a true story, Till is a film full of pain, grief, anger. It’s a powerful howl of outrage against a blatant miscarriage of justice that has never been rectified. In 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till (Jalyn Hall) was holidaying with his cousins in Mississippi. A native of Chicago, Emmett was an outgoing, high spirited,…
A searing feminist work about a woman far ahead of her time, British playwright Morgan Lloyd Malcolm was inspired by the life of 16th and 17th century poet Emilia Bassano. Feisty and fiery, Emilia stood up for women’s rights and couldn’t see why they should subjugate themselves to men. By various accounts, she was Shakespeare’s muse and…
There is a semi-autobiographical element to Sing Street, the fantastic, charming and slightly quirky Irish coming of age story from John Carney (Once, Begin Again). Set in Dublin in 1985 the film looks at adolescent angst, the pangs of first love, dysfunctional families, the Catholic education system, bullying, the power of love and the power…
In this closed-door new world where readers have become the smug go-to gurus of iso entertainment advice, may we point you in the direction of your App store. Photos x 2 by Jessica Lewis from Pexels If your local council library service is modern and amazing like mine, you will have a whole host of…
Designed to provoke (but ultimately to reflect) The Insult is a powerful film with politics at its core. In present-day Beirut, Tony Hanna (Adel Karam) is a passionate member of the Christian Party. He’s a motor mechanic who employs a number of workers. His wife, Shirine (Rita Hayek), is expecting their first child. Opposite their…
What’s Love Got To Do With It? is an unfortunate title considering the other film of the same name documents Tina Turner’s relationship with her horribly abusive husband. Nevertheless, it’s apt for this rom-com with its focus on the pros and cons of arranged marriages – or in this case assisted marriage. Zoe (Lily James)…
Has there ever been a creative intellect greater than Leonardo da Vinci? I dare say that question could spark animated discussion. Where would Albert Einstein fare in that debate? Or Isaac Newton? Regardless, I put it to you that it is impossible not to be awestruck by just what da Vinci tackled and achieved in 67 years (15th…
Coping with death and significant illness resulting in death isn’t easy for anyone. When it affects one’s nearest and dearest it is particularly harrowing. What if inside two years both your spouse of nearly four decades and adult child pass away? How would/could you handle that? In an instant, life as you had known it…
