Culture & Literature – Page 30 of 37

Frugal Fun: Free Events in London Over Summer

7Jun

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Frugal Fun: Free Events in London Over Summer

Hearing the word ‘free’ as a student is a blessing, especially during the summer months when the next loan instalment seems so far from reach. Fortunately, Egham is a stone’s throw away from the capital, home to a huge variety of events that won’t break the bank. In addition to the multitude of year round free attractions, with gems such as the National Portrait Gallery and Natural History Museum, this summer is host to events to suit everyone, from art tarts to party fanatics. Here’s just a snippet of the best free things London has to offer this summer: • Turntables Popup Party, Hackney Wick – Until 31st July Turntables debuted in London winter 2014, bringing a selection of mega international DJs such as San Soda, and mind blowing food to Hackney Wick. This summer, Turntables is back...

7Jun

By Jordan ThorneNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Music

Brandon Flowers’ The Desired Effect

The Desired Effect is Brandon Flowers’ new solo album, released in the UK on Tuesday, May 18. Even if far from The Killers’ emblematic alternative-rock style, it shares with the band the same unpredictability, because it likes to play and experiment with all the nuances of rock and pop music, always with surprising results. In collaboration with the famous producer Ariel Rechtschaid, Brandon has created a composite and varied musical repertoire, a versatile collection of songs that covers an interesting range of the sub genres of pop/rock music. The instrumental beats of 80’s synth-disco alternate with a hint of 90’s reminiscences of new wave rhythms and the massive, driving presence of choruses reverberating through the whole album under Brandon’s clear and powerful voice. The upbeat, m...

The DUFF- An interview with Bella Thorne

7May

By Rhiannon LloydNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Film & TV

The DUFF- An interview with Bella Thorne

On first hearing the premise for The DUFF (which stands for Designated Ugly Fat Friend), you might be skeptical. After all, who wants to watch a film that, on first impression, boxes people up into stereotypical categories and judges their value based on their appearance? However, you must be careful not to be guilty of the same with this film. We follow Bianca, the so-called DUFF, as she discovers that she is the “friendly approachable one” guys talk to in order to date her “hot” best friends. Outraged by this, Bianca sets out to reverse-DUFF herself, with the help of the school’s most popular jock Wesley. This film is laugh-out-loud funny, with the banter between Bianca and Wesley both cheeky and heart-warming. Mae Whitman (Bianca) brings so many little idiosyncrasies to her characte...

Suffragette (2015)- Representation in Film

7May

By Laura DenhamNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Film & TV

Suffragette (2015)- Representation in Film

With the general election approaching, it is important to remember the feminist movements that took place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the fight for women to have equal rights, including the right to vote. Later on this year, the film Suffragette will be released and it is likely to be a dominant force within the 2016 Oscar race. The film will tell the untold story of the real foot soldiers of the Suffragette movement who were prepared to go beyond peaceful protests, often turning to violence and prepared to lose everything, to fight for equality and change. Its revolutionary status in history will be further reinforced within the production value of the film, as it is the first in history to have been given permission to be shot at the Houses...

All My Sons at the Richmond Theatre – Review

6May

By Laura DenhamNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Theatre & Performance

All My Sons at the Richmond Theatre – Review

On Saturday 4th April, a friend and I went to see Arthur Miller’s All My Sons at the Richmond Theatre. It is currently on tour (until 25th April), and is a Talawa Theatre Company production – the Talawa Theatre Company is a UK-based black company, Talawa meaning ‘small but mighty’ in Jamaican patois. All My Sons was Arthur Miller’s first success, and follows a family, the Kellers, almost torn apart from the Second World War. One of their two sons was reported missing three years ago, and the patriarch of the family, Joe Keller, was exonerated after having been jailed for providing the military with faulty airplane parts, which caused the deaths of twenty-one pilots. However the blame was placed firmly on Joe’s partner, and the family is as rich and successful as ever, despite the fact that...

Book Review: Isaac Asimov, Foundation Series

6May

By Laura DenhamNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Literature

Book Review: Isaac Asimov, Foundation Series

So its revision season. You haven’t got time to read for pleasure and even if you did, do you want to get into a new book? And which one?! This was my line of reasoning, but then the revision comes and you realise you should take a break, and how better than to just sit down and throw yourself into some fictional world. Preferably one in which exams and essays don’t exist. Asimov’s Foundation series fills the niche. Primarily three books, the series extends to whatever point you can read to. All of Asimov’s books are linked in one way or another, and yet each is a stand-alone novel – perfect if you might have to abandon reading to some essay deadline. So the setting – the Milky Way galaxy, a mere 20,000 years in the future. Earth is just a legend and instead humanity has melded all of the ...

6May

By Laura DenhamNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Film & TV

BFI Flare

The BFI LGBT film festival, dubbed ‘Flare’, was held between the 19-29th of March and played host to the years best crop of LGBT films as well as special revival screenings and events. During this flamboyant 10 days we attended 2 of the marquee events, a screening of the much celebrated new French film ‘Girlhood’ as well as a 40th anniversary screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. As we entered the atmosphere was electric and Grindr was lighting up like a christmas tree. We were seated in the BFI’s gorgeous south bank auditorium where we first viewed Céline Sciamma’s ‘Girlhood’. The film was a beautifully shot coming of age story about a young girl in urban paris, a locale not often explored in french cinema which has a strikingly similar aesthetic to London. It proceeds to documen...

6May

By Douglas KnightNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Film & TV

White God Review

Man’s best friend? What’s that 02? Be more dog should we? Kornél Mundruczó might beg to differ on that one if his new film, White God (‘Feher isten’), is anything to go by. In an internet-age saturated and suffocating with viral videos of nearly all things cute and cuddly under the sun squeaking and squawking, White God is quite the oxygen mask strap-on. Telecommunication marketing strategies aren’t likely to be changed though, as White God is unlikely to make it beyond the art house circuit, despite attracting critical approbation. Bearing an opening dedication to Hungary’s famed politico-auteur, Miklós Jancsó, Mundruczó’s seventh film is a political allegory with bite, a bizarre, quixotic tale of canine uprising that his countryman would have been proud to have his pawmark on. Swappin...

6May

By Douglas KnightNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Film & TV

The Falling Review

The Falling, dir. Carol Morley, UK, 2014, 102 mins, cert. 15 Two things lingered in my mind, one acridly the other more pleasurably, after watching The Falling, Carol Morley’s new film after the experimental based-on-a-true-story documentary Dreams of a Life. The first is a tenebrous line spoken by Maxine Peake’s character, the mother of the central schoolgirl Lydia (Maisie Williams), in the penultimate scene of the film. The other is, or rather are, Tracey Thorn’s ephemeral songs peppered throughout the film at the end of scenes like choric punctuation rocking the narrative along. To single out the musical soundtrack and this moment is not to de-emphasize the sway The Falling exerts on the spectator as a whole. Whilst purposefully redolent of Picnic at Hanging Rock and Heavenly Crea...

6May

By Jordan ThorneNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Theatre & Performance

The Vote

The Vote is a groundbreaking new play by James Graham which covers the final ninety minutes before the polls close in this year’s general election. Dame Judi Dench, Mark Gatiss and Catherine Tate are among the ensemble cast of fifty actors who have been brought together to star in the production which is set in a fictional polling station with the action taking place in real time. Being staged at the intimate Donmar Warehouse in London from the 24th April to the 7th May, The Vote marks a monumental national event, as the play will be broadcast live on television on the 7th to coincide with the closing of the polls. James Graham’s previous political drama This House premiered at the National Theatre in 2012 and went on to be screened nationwide in cinemas through the NT Live scheme. As a y...