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ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL (2015)
Like The Fault in our Stars before it, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl grounds the upsetting story of a teenager with cancer in something that feels close to reality, and then pairs its sad subject matter with a heaped spoonful of youthful humour. This is much more self-aware film than The Fault in…
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HANNIBAL, 3.12 – ‘The Number of the Beast is 666…’
Poor Dr. Chilton. A brief history of Frederick Chilton, onetime director of the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane and self-proclaimed best-selling author. First appearing in Thomas Harris’ Red Dragon, where he mostly serves as Hannibal Lecter’s antagonist, Chilton’s most memorable previous appearance was in The Silence of the Lambs, where he’s tasked both with delivering…
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UK Premiere: FEAR THE WALKING DEAD
While HBO often receives most of the plaudits as being the progenitor of the ‘Golden Age of Television’, over recent years it’s been AMC that has actually produced much of the truly outstanding television: Breaking Bad, Mad Men, and, of course, TV’s most successful show, post-apocalyptic zombie drama The Walking Dead. All of which makes it…
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SHOW ME A HERO – Part Two
Things got ever more problematic for poor Nick Wasicsko (Oscar Isaac) this week, as he received bullets in the post, faced down furious citizens, attempted to fend off grand-standing and side-switching councillors, and saw his hard-fought deal collapse after the Catholic Church had second thoughts about supporting him. As an examination of just how frustrating…
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Blood Feud: FROM DUSK TILL DAWN vs THE STRAIN
It’s a good time to be alive if you’re a fan of vampires. Or appreciate horror being beamed directly into your front room, weekly, thanks to the rise in popularity of shows like American Horror Story and Penny Dreadful. In an odd stroke of coincidence, two vampire shows are returning to the UK on 26 August, and…
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BANSHEE – Season Three
Banshee simply isn’t a show that could drag on for years and years. Its premise doesn’t really allow for it, and the show’s rapid pace wouldn’t either. It’s based around a flimsy web of deceit sustained by our nameless protagonist (Antony Starr) posing as the murdered sheriff Lucas Hood, and it’s a lie that just…
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HANNIBAL, 3.11 – ‘… and the Beast From the Sea’
While it’s hard to imagine an episode of Hannibal that could be called “restrained” (nor would I want to), adapting Red Dragon in six episodes has resulted in the show scaling back on its odd visual flourishes in favour of focusing on a surprisingly faithful adaptation of Thomas Harris’ tightly-plotted book. Showrunner Bryan Fuller and the show’s writers still…
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DOCTOR WHO novels: ‘Royal Blood’, ‘Big Bang Generation’ and ‘Deep Time’
Three new Doctor Who novels from BBC Books, out next month, all form ‘The Glamour Chronicles’, and those of you who’re regular readers of the books will no doubt be asking if this refers to the Glamour’s appearance in “The Ghosts of India” and “The Glamour Chase”. Indeed, they do build on the Glamour technology featured…
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SHOW ME A HERO – Part One
Hello, and welcome to David Simon’s (The Wire) newest show: a six-part HBO miniseries set in Yonkers during the 1980s, which is also the best thing I’ve seen on television this year. Our nominal hero is Nick Wasicsko (played by the wonderful Oscar Isaac, in what can be seen as a sort of companion piece to his…
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40 Years of ILM: 6 Unforgettable Moments
Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) are synonymous with movie visual effects, having quickly become the market leader during the 1980s. Founded by George Lucas in 1975 (their first project was Star Wars, released two years later), ILM have provided thousands of effects work for the movies—ranging from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and…
