Tag: racism

film review, music

2019 Film Reviews – 47: Hitsville: The Making Of Motown [dir. Benjamin Turner & Gabe Turner; 2019]

You don’t really need an excuse to spend two hours in the company of some of the most irresistible music ever recorded. But if you insist on having a documentary backdrop to the likes of Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye and Smokey Robinson doing their thing, then Hitsville fulfils the role with great charm. Taking its inspiration from Motown founder Berry Gordy’s policy of approaching the … Continue reading 2019 Film Reviews – 47: Hitsville: The Making Of Motown [dir. Benjamin Turner & Gabe Turner; 2019]

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2019 Film Reviews – 18: Green Book [dir. Peter Farrelly; 2018]

I relented. Having read several pieces of convincingly damning criticism of this tale of an Italian-American racist’s journey to open-mindedness – following a stint as a chauffeur and bodyguard to an acclaimed, black musician – I decided my pennies would be better spent on other cinematic fare. But then came that Best Picture Oscar and I felt duty bound to see the thing for myself. … Continue reading 2019 Film Reviews – 18: Green Book [dir. Peter Farrelly; 2018]

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2019 Film Reviews – 13: If Beale Street Could Talk [dir. Barry Jenkins; 2018]

I wasn’t at all surprised by the title that Sight & Sound magazine chose for their feature article on this movie: In The Groove For Love. Barry Jenkins’ follow-up to Moonlight blends emotionally-charged music with pointedly retro aesthetics and a careful (sometimes slow-motion) pace to such woozy effect, it’s impossible not to be reminded of In The Mood For Love. And – as is the … Continue reading 2019 Film Reviews – 13: If Beale Street Could Talk [dir. Barry Jenkins; 2018]

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Spouting Utter Nonsense

Last week, a fair amount of publicity surrounded a speech made by Baroness Warsi at Leicester University. If you’ve got a few minutes to spare, it’s an interesting read and it highlights what I’ve long considered to be a growing problem in UK society. Sadly, I’m not sure how we’re going to solve it. When reasonably well-educated, middle class people feel comfortable spouting utter nonsense … Continue reading Spouting Utter Nonsense

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Work Too Hard

More depressing news: Hampshire County Council will cut 1200 posts this year. As if that weren’t bad enough, the latest stats show that 1 in 5 (that’s 20%!) of all 16-24 year olds are out of work. Mass unemployment is never healthy, but mass unemployment amongst one of the most impressionable, malleable sectors of society can be downright deadly. History’s taught us this lesson time and … Continue reading Work Too Hard

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A Few Fundamentalists

Here are a few moments from a recent conversation with an educated, middle-class, thirty-five-year-old English male. It all started with the Middle East, then moved on to the subject of revolutions and then somehow got on to this: He: The problem is that Muslims are being allowed to take over European countries. They want everything their own way. They want to impose their religion on us. It’s like … Continue reading A Few Fundamentalists

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White

I watched Question Time last night and was not surprised to have all my views on the BNP and Nick Griffin totally confirmed. I think everything the party stands for is dangerous and egocentric and I consider Griffin himself to be particularly moronic and reptilian. I was pleased to see that most members of the studio audience seemed to be opposed to him too, and that they … Continue reading White

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Brotherly

I think the sum total of the amount of time I’ve spent watching Channel 4’s Big Brother since it began several years ago is… ooh… probably round about twenty minutes. But even I haven’t been able to escape the palaver around the alleged racial abuse of one of its current inmates, the Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty. The thing I find most intriguing about this particular … Continue reading Brotherly

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