Yearly Archives: 2014

What We Do In The Shadows, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi, Jonathan Brugh, Cori Gonzalez-Macuer, Stuart Rutherford, Ben Fransham, Jackie van Beek, Elena Stejko, Jason Hoyte, Karen O’Leary, Mike Minogue, Brad Harding, Rhys Darby.

The Mockumentary is one that really divides opinion. There are those that adore the thought of being able to see the ordinary person on the street satirised and lampooned and there are those that find it the lowest form of cerebral wit; however, satire is only truly funny when the foot is being kicked upwards, when it starts kicking downwards that’s when cruelty is allowed to fester and the undeserving get left behind. Satire is at its best when it is aimed at the aloof and genuinely disturbing.

What We Do In The Shadows, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(485 words, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part One, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 5/10

Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Donald Sutherland, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Banks, Natalie Dormer, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Willow Shields, Sam Claflin, Mahershala Ali, Jeffrey Wright, Paula Malcomson.

The revolution has begun, the Mockingjay stands aloft against a tyrannical elite and Katniss Everdeen is pouting firmly against all the odds and yet something does not sit well in the third film in The Hunger Games series, the bloated sense of being overfed and swollen resonates deep within the heart of Mockingjay Part One.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part One, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(448 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Dirty Thrills, Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Rock is as Rock does, it is there to beef up a unique resolve that no other genre really has the right to try and do. Metal, of any type, goes too far, Folk relaxes the body and sharpens the mind to listen to the words on offer as well as the gentle swaying of a guitar or the pomp of a well placed brass instrument infect the mood. Other genres don’t have the pleasure of offering the enlightened Rock fan the Dirty Thrills they so desperately need, desire and deserve.

Dirty Thrills, Album Review. full post

(417 words, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)

The Boy Who Kicked Pigs, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound & Vision Rating: * * * * *

Cast: David Cumming, Natasha Hodgson, Oliver Jones, Zoe Roberts.

Kill The Beast Theatre Company have only been on the scene for a mere three years, but are already proving their worth as one of the best inventive new theatre companies around. Their latest show is packed full of grotesque, over the top characters based on Tom Baker’s children’s book The Boy Who Kicked Pigs. Written in 1999, Baker’s truly grotesque story still has a strong following today and is as popular as ever.

The Boy Who Kicked Pigs, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(380 words, estimated 1:31 mins reading time)

Matthew Linley Named As New Artistic Director Of The Unity Theatre.

Liverpool’s Unity Theatre is delighted to announce the appointment of Matthew Linley as Artistic Director and Chief Executive Officer.

Mr. Linley succeeds Graeme Phillips, who has guided Unity Theatre for the last 34 years and maintained its tradition of staging radical but accessible work that stretches back to the 1930s.

Matthew is currently General Manager with Eastern Angles – an acclaimed touring theatre company based in Ipswich. He has previously led venues in Leicester (Phoenix Arts), Reading (21 South Street) and Bath (Michael Tippett Centre).

Matthew Linley Named As New Artistic Director Of The Unity Theatre. full post

(507 words, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

Julia Fordham, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

Julia Fordham at the Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. November 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Virtually every artist that goes upon stage is highly regarded by those that wait patiently for their appearance in the local area. They are looked upon with a mixture of awe, the hope of being entertained and taken away from the lives the audiences have found themselves in but few seem as admired and longed for than Julia Fordham appeared to be by the crowd that filled the Epstein Theatre on a shivery and pitch black November night in Liverpool.

Julia Fordham, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(461 words, 1 image, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Västerbotten, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There is a small village in Sweden in which street lights never came too and for the vast majority who resided there it was a shame that they could not see where they were walking in the dark nights that grip the Swedish hills and give rise to folklore, but for Marianne Folkedotter, it was an understanding, even as a child, that it was a chance to see the universe unfold before her.

Västerbotten, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(361 words, estimated 1:27 mins reading time)

Forthaven, The People Of The World. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The very real tragedy that exposes the way humanity deals with a subject it doesn’t like is to sweep it under the carpet. They disown it, they move the subject along, they make excuses or pat it on the head, saying how terrible it all is, before moving swiftly on to talk about how much their home is now worth. For those in society who suffer the effects of mental illness, no matter how or to what degree, at times it does really feel as if the world is not just against you, it is actively campaigning to shut you up and move on. Nobody actually says anything constructive to get the ball rolling as a topic of conversation, not unless you count Forthaven and their brand new single The People of the World.

Forthaven, The People Of The World. Single Review. full post

(429 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season (PS4), Game Review.

Game Review: The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season (PS4)

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9 out of 10

The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season is a third-person episodic adventure game available from retail stores and for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS4, PS3 and PS Vita. The Walking Dead began life in 2003 as a comic book series by Robert Kirkman and has since saw that success transcend to television with a series based upon the story of the comics that sees Rick Grimes, his family, friends and group of survivors attempt to come to terms with an apocalyptic breakout of zombies, referred to as walkers. The success of the television series has also transcended to the videogame adaptation that saw The Walking Dead win over ninety Game of the Year awards with mass critical acclaim from the gaming media across the world.

The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season (PS4), Game Review. full post

(3233 words, estimated 12:56 mins reading time)

She Stoops To Conquer, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Alan Price, Oliver Gomm, Howard Chadwick, Guy Lewis, Jon Trenchard, Andrew Whitehead, Robert Took, Gilly Tompkins, Hannah Edwards, Lauryn Redding, Alan McMahon.

The 18^th Century was one of richness in the field of theatre. By the time Oliver Goldsmith’s play, She Stoops To Conquer, had been performed for its debut performance the sight of women acting on the stage was so commonplace that it was an absurdity to have been forbidden from performing in the first place. There had been so many plays that had benefited from King Charles II proclamation a century before, so many talented writers getting more emotion from a finished piece and so many gifted women being rightly lauded that it the art of the Comedy of Manners took off in such a way and perhaps no more so than in the fantastic She Stoops To Conquer.

She Stoops To Conquer, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(504 words, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)