Album Review: Big Black Coat – Junior Boys
Mixes carefully controlled emptiness of minimal techno with the embracing warmth of the titular object. An early contender for blah blah blah.
Book Review: Citizens – Kevin Curran
While the novel ostensibly tells two stories, it gradually builds to brilliantly portray the human interdependency that an entire nation is built upon.
Book Review: The Long Room – Francesca Kay
The titular room of Francesca Kay’s third novel refers not to the Old Library of Trinity College, but to a ministerial office in early 1980s London.
Book Review: A Brief History of Seven Killings – Marlon James
A Brief History of Seven Killings is the Booker-winning third novel by Jamaican writer Marlon James. It forms around a sprawling and messy plot that centres on the attempted assassination…
Cinema Review: Freeheld
The decision to basically ignore the women around which the story is supposed to revolve causes the bottom to fall out of this film, sapping the story of its impact.
Cinema Review: Trumbo
Trumbo, to its credit, finds no easy heroics and largely spares the platitudes within this difficult historical context, but accomplishes the rare feat of finding credible familial pathos in this…
Book Review: Mr. Splitfoot – Samantha Hunt
Samantha Hunt’s third novel, Mr. Splitfoot, is a modern day gothic about hucksterish faith-peddlers, haunted spaces, and the fetishising of the freakish.
Cinema Review: Our Brand is Crisis
The potential for the film to be a biting and hilarious satire is adulterated by the treacly and overly sentimental scenes focused on the rife poverty in Bolivia, which ring…
Cinema Review: Youth
That the film’s central conflict is over whether Caine’s character will conduct an old composition of his in a special performance for the Queen and Prince Philip suggests the degree…
Cinema Review: Goosebumps
Goosebumps, the long-running horror book series, makes its big-screen debut featuring Jack Black as series author RL Stine.
Barfly: Flash Harry’s
Flash Harry’s occupies a peculiar space between the past and the present. In terms of décor, ambiance and the cold hard facts in front of our eyes, what we have…
Book Review: So You Don’t Get Lost in the Neighborhood
The slim volume at first seems slight, but its eerie, powerful evocation of postwar Paris continues to resonate long after it has been put down.
Cinema Review: The Big Short
The Big Short is a cleverly told story bolstered by a selection of big actors playing against type.
Cinema Review: The Revenant
The Revenant is a beautiful, dynamic and gruelling revenge thriller from Alejandro G. Iñárritu. It's a good time for cowboys in the snow.
Running Man: Mark Brady and the Rarámuri
“My work here is my vocation. I don't really care about religion, anyway, except as an energy source. That’s why I dropped out of the seminary early.” We track down…
Nice Gaff: The Long Mile Works
All in all there is a lot to be loved about this simple and honest building. It reminds me that architects are more fundamentally related to artistic principles than, say…
Cinema Review: The Assassin
A towering technical achievement with real heart, this is a film of extraordinary beauty made by a director who knows the value of patience and, more importantly, how to demonstrate…
Book Review: But You Did Not Come Back – M Loridan-Ivens
Marceline Loridan-Ivens’ memoir is a devastating account of her life as a Jewish survivor of WWII.