Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: David Judge.
What does family mean in a world where the idea of relationships have become almost throwaway, consumable, there only in some eyes to fill a statistic and perhaps to belong to something rather than be on their own; the idea of family has become in some ways a short hand for strangers treating you as their own, perhaps even with the notion of reckless, limited loyalty when it all gets too much to cope with.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Mike and the Mechanics at the Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool. February 2019. Photograph taken by, and used with the kind permission of Alan Hewitt.
Perhaps a first for a Liverpool audience, a sight of the strange turned talking point, to be greeted by the physical image of representations of four hot air balloons above the Philharmonic Hall stage, a symbol maybe of the heights that Mike and the Mechanics have strode for, to see beyond the horizon, a depiction feasibly of Phileas Fogg and his earnest wish to prove to the world that the impossible can be achieved with the right attitude and cast iron will.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
The Music Room at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall has played host to the great and the good, it has become a place where a spiritual journey is undertaken, where reactions and passions run high, a meeting place perhaps where the Emotional Geography of the land finds a way to be paid out and given the detailed scrutiny once only available to those with a keen interest in ordnance survey, the peaks, the troughs and the places of interest that are always within walking distance but so few make the effort to explore.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
It may have been a strictly confidential moment but one fitting the determination and selfless fortitude into which Marc Vormawah finds himself occupying with a smile and a host of the resilient survivor inflamed into his very being; invited to open up the evening ahead of Only Child’s new album release gig inside the Music Room of the Philharmonic Hall, it became the unveiling of a secret shouted with glory, a tale within the annals of Liverpool music that would live on in the open.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Felicity Jones, Armie Hammer, Justin Theroux, Sam Waterston, Kathy Bates, Cailee Spaeny, Jack Reynor, Stephen Root, Chris Mulkey, Gary Werntz, Francis X. McCarthy, Ben Carlson, Ronald Guttman, Wendy Crewson, John Ralston, Arthur Holden, Angela Galuppo, Geordie Johnson, Jeff Lillico, Callum Schoniker, Joe Cobden, Sharon Washington, Holly Gauthier-Frankel, Tom Irwin, Alexandra Petrachuk, Paul Spera, Aiza Ntibarikure, Marina Moreira, Moira Wylie.
If the biopic serves any purpose, it is to serve justice to the characters it is its honour to portray, a quest that for many falls short or has to be suitably arranged so that it spices up what is otherwise the dull and routinely languid.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10
Cast: Liam Neeson, Laura Dern, Michael Richardson, Michael Eklund, Bradley Stryker, Wesley MacInnes, Tom Bateman, Domenick Lombardozzi, Nicholas Holmes, Jim Shield, Aleks Paunovic, Benjamin Hollingsworth, John Doman, Emmy Rossum, Dani Alvarado, Julia Jones, Michael Adamthwaite, William Forsythe, Elizabeth Thai, David O’ Hara, Gus Halper, Kyle Nobess, Raoul Trujillo, Nathaniel Arcand, Glen Gould, Mitchell Saddleback, Christopher Logan, Tom Jackson, Arnold Pinnock.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Rose Byrne, Isabela Moner, Margo Martindale, Julie Hagerty, Gustavo Quiroz, Julianna Gamiz, Octavia Spencer, Tig Notaro, Tom Segura, Allyn Rachel, Britt Rentschler, Jody Thompson, Michael O’ Keefe, Joan Cusack, Gary Weeks, Joy Jacobson, Andrea Anders, Kenneth Israel, Hampton Fluker, Randy Havens, Lliza Schesinger.
Music doesn’t just resemble life, it reminds you occasionally of a certain song that seems somehow to frame your mood or your current position as you swim endlessly against the tide, it is life, it is existing, breathing in the moment, planning for the future and escaping to the glory or indeed the pain of the past and holding all the possible emotions that you are capable of in a dance of balance, of skill, precision and remembrance. Music is solitude, music is escapism, music has everything you can ask for and as Steve Harley explains across the telephone to me, “I’m a great fatalist, life is what it is, I’ve had pain, I’ve suffered as a kid, it made me who I am, you are who you are through the development of your experiences, influences and inspirations.”
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
You may know where you are headed, the path that you have taken could be so well mapped that every detail of memory is overflowing with description, an endorsed narrative which is not ashamed of the lows but also is modest about the successes, every border etched and underlined, all places and achievements of interest highlighted.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Just by their very presence, some people display a brightness so illuminating that when they depart from your sight for a while, the darkness can feel consuming, it eats away at your soul because you understand exactly what they have bought to your life, through art, through the persistence of their ability and exceptional talent.