Brokeback Mountain, the film of the Annie Proulx novella about the love affair between two lonesome cowboys, has inevitably sparked a series of internet jokes about life on the range. The film would probably have the likes of John Wayne spinning in his grave (then again, Wayne’s real name was Marion Morrison).
Book review: How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World by Francis Wheen
December 11, 2008 by
(Harper Collins, London, 2004)
The Band’s Visit
November 9, 2008 by
– Film review
An Israeli film where most of the characters are Egyptian is something other than ordinary.
When an Egyptian police band gets stuck in a small Israeli town there are all the ingredients for a comedy of errors. Stranded, with little money the eight men who are more musicans than police, spend a night with the locals. The closeness of strangers is evident as the quaint and old fashioned band members interact with their Israeli hosts.
The politics are thankfully understated allowing the humanity of the characters to take centre stage.
The Band’s Visit has been collecting a string of film festival awards. Worthy of everyone of them.
Daphna
Book review: The Other Hand by Chris Cleave (Sceptre)
October 20, 2008 by
“Most days I wish I was a British pound coin instead of an African girl,” opines the protagonist of T
he Other Hand. The pound coin has many advantages, not least of which is its effortless mobility:
“A girl like me gets stopped at immigration, but a pound can leap the turnstiles, and dodge the tackles of those big men with their uniform caps, and jump straight into a waiting airport taxi. Where to, sir? Western civilisation, my good man, and make it snappy.”
Little Bee is a Nigerian girl fleeing men armed with machetes and men armed with official powers. Sarah is a suburban career woman juggling a young son who refuses to take off his Batman suit with an extramarital affair with a Home Office functionary, Lawrence. Their lives are thrown together in an unlikely way, forcing them to confront themselves and the society they live in.
Album Review: Roots Manuva Slime & Reason (Big Dada Recordings)
October 12, 2008 by
Britain’s foremost rapper, Roots Manuva (or as his Jamaican parents named him, Rodney Smith) returns with his fourth full album. The listener is immediately hooked in with the infectious carnival anthem “Again & Again”, where Roots states his mission: “I came to the scene and came to uplift.”
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