BY ROGER WATSON Of all the films I have watched, Straw is one of the most painful—but it is meant to be. The title presumably refers to the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. Straw (2025) tells the story of a woman living in dire circumstances, whose situation escalates from terrible to tragic, ultimately breaking her. Janiyah Wiltkinson, portrayed powerfully by Taraji P. Henson, is a single mother … Continue reading Straw
BY ROGER WATSON The persistent and gripping trailers for The Gorge (2025) on Apple TV+ put it high on my list of films to watch. While I am not sure the film lived up to the trailers, literally cliffhangers as the film is about a gorge, this was quite an enjoyable diversion. The film has a limited cast, most of whom play a minor role … Continue reading The Gorge
BY JAMES BEMBRIDGE Titling her book on the assumption that it has, Joanna Williams delivers a powerful critique against this cultural cancer which has now metastasised itself into every aspect of our lives. It may seem absurd to afford a tabloid buzzword like Woke with any degree of intellectual seriousness, but Williams’ arguments – peppered with persuasive evidence and delivered in a scholarly and detached … Continue reading Has Woke Won?
BY GARY MCGHEE Love yourself. Two little words with a very big meaning. All else flows from them, the trajectory of your life, the meaning of it, the truths, the experiences, the decisions you make, the sense of your place in the world and what you can achieve in it. Without self-love you are bereft, compromised, emotionally undone, adrift, fated to not live a life … Continue reading Heartbreak Mountain
BY ANDREW MOODY If ever a film divided viewers, then Martin Scorsese’s 1976 Taxi Driver is it. Hailed by some as a masterpiece of 1970s New Hollywood, to others an exploitative picture that leaves the viewer with a sense of great unease, not least in its casting of 12 year old Jodie Foster as a child prostitute. Written by Paul Schrader during a nightmarish period … Continue reading Taxi Driver
BY ANDREW MOODY Sergio Leone is widely regarded as one of the best and most innovative directors in cinema history. His trilogy of 1960s Westerns starring Clint Eastwood as the stranger, (or the Man With No Name) have settled into iconic status. It was actually the American distributor United Artists that played up the No Name concept as a way of selling the movies to … Continue reading Get Three Coffins Ready
