Lost Boys, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Louis Carrington, Floriana Dezou, Faye Donnellan, Tom Isted, Neve Kelman, Alexandre King, Charlie Knowles, Alex Meredith, Eion McKenna, Kwame Owusu, Jenna Sian O’Hara, Sam Ress-Baylis, Daryl Rowlands.

No matter what type of community you grew up in, the large sprawling metropolis, the neatly bordered and hedge-trimmed village or the new town with no discernible history, you either embrace its place in your own story or you run away from it, perhaps through the weight of expectation or because you have seen through its soul and wish to be somewhere else that you can call home. However, the chances are that whatever the place you reside there is a growing feeling of unease, of mounting anxiety amongst the young, and their belief that that they no longer recognise their place in society, or how to fix the despair that comes with toxic masculinity.

Lost Boys, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(468 words, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

Good Boys. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Jacob Tremblay, Keith L. Williams, Brady Noon, Molly Gordon, Midori Francis, Izaac Wang, Millie Davis, Josh Caras, Will Forte, Mariessa Portlance, Lil Rel Howery, Retta, Michaela Watkins, Stephen Merchant, Christian Darrel Scott, Macie Juiles, Chance Hurstfield, Enid-Raye Adams, Craig Haas, Benita Ha, Alexander Calvert.

It is in the naivety and innocence of the young that we perhaps see the wisdom to come, and nothing really touches the experience of the one to whom youthful embarrassment and exuberance has been visited upon, for in that moment comes learning, of realisation that you cannot remain a child, or even a teenager, forever.

Good Boys. Film Review. full post

(424 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Status Quo, Backbone. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

There is always a hole, that no matter how it is filled in, concreted over or even disguised, that retains memory, we cannot look at the space that has been occupied with genuine passion or need without ever remembering what was originally there.

Such is the fate of Status Quo’s latest album, Backbone, a loving reminder of what a set of songs from one of Britain’s finest, and much loved bands but one more than coloured in sadness and the feeling of the motion than in the pleasing urgency and centre stage exuberance than the fans, and even the general public, would be used to, or even arguably expect.

Status Quo, Backbone. Album Review. full post

(401 words, 1 image, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

It: Chapter 2. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader, Bill Skarsgard, Isaiah Mustafa, Jay Ryan, James Ransome, Andy Bean, Jaeden Martell, Wyatt Oleff, Jack Dylan Grazer, Finn Wolfhard, Sopia Lillis, Chosen Jacobs, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Teach Grant, Nicholas Hamilton, Javier Botet, Xavier Dolan, Taylor Frey, Molly Atkinson, Joan Gregson, Stephen Bogaert, Luke Roessler,  Stephen King, Peter Bogdanovich, Will Beinbrink, Jess Weixler, Martha Girvin, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Jackson Robert Scott, Jake Weary, Katie Lunman, Kelly Van der Burg, Jason Fuchs, Joe Bostick, Megan Charpentier, Juno Rinaldi, Neil Crone, Ry Prior, Owen Teague.

It: Chapter 2. Film Review. full post

(708 words, estimated 2:50 mins reading time)

The Informer. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Ana de Armas, Rosamund Pike, Joel Kinnaman, Clive Owen, Common, Ruth Bradley, Arturo Castro, Sam Spruell, Nasir Jama, Martin McCann, Jenna Willis, Eugene Lipinski, Edwin De La Renta, Karma Meyer, Alex Ziwak, Scott Anderson, Charles Mnene, Miroslaw Haniszewski, Victor Yarbrough, Alphonso Austin, Peter Coe, Lena Kaminsky, Daniel Duru.

Doing the right thing can quite often get you into more trouble than those who sit back and play hard and fast with regulations and common decency; no matter what the situation and how you may have saved a certain event from blowing out of all control, potentially saving lives in the process, there will always be those that will look down upon you and plot their revenge on your name and character.

The Informer. Film Review. full post

(525 words, estimated 2:06 mins reading time)

Menlove Avenue Murder Mystery, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Paul Duckworth, Pauline Fleming, Gillian Hardie, Michael Peace, Olivia Sloyan, Liam Tobin.

The seductive reasoning of being an armchair detective are honed and always alert, we are spurred in our efforts by the clues and chain of suspicion, and once we have narrowed down the suspects due to our insight and belief, we feel as though we could easily give the likes of Poirot, Morse, Tennison and Vera Stanhope a run for their money and give our friends and neighbours a reason to breathe easy as they drift off to sleep at night.

Menlove Avenue Murder Mystery, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(404 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

Danny Bryant, Means Of Escape. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Wearing your heart upon your sleeve could lead to you being seen as a target for the kind of people who enjoy the art of self-sacrifice, the ones that find ways to continue the suffering of those who seek enlightenment, reflection, self-determination as they evolve and grow into the realm of the spectacular and driven. However, those that have the confidence to openly declare their feelings, who never betray for a single minute their emotions and sentiments, are richly rewarded with the art of the world and the Means Of Escape that their belief holds dear.

Danny Bryant, Means Of Escape. Album Review. full post

(452 words, 1 image, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Become The Sky, Aurora. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

We watch the seed germinate with a sense of awe and admiration for the natural order, the cycle of birth and growth, and yet we arguably forget about the instance in which the seed was planted, what it took for the initial stream of thought which cried out to be heeded, that we should reach out beyond the violent skies that surround us and touch instead a sense of gratifying eternity and once held ghosts of the solar lights.

Become The Sky, Aurora. E.P. Review. full post

(390 words, 1 image, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

Jake Aaron, Fag Ash And Beer. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The idea that creativity can endure in a stark environment is one that is surely out of synch with reality, at best the sterile thoughts of pursuit are hokum, at worst it has all the hall marks of the barren mind making excuses not to have lived the life they talk of.

Jake Aaron, Fag Ash And Beer. Album Review. full post

(378 words, 1 image, estimated 1:31 mins reading time)

Velvet & Stone. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The dynamic of the forever shifting and evolving natural scene is one that we seem to have developed a complex relationship with, far removed from a time when we found ourselves enhanced by nature, by the rugged moors and the quiet dignity of large forests and the sound of the sea as it bears down upon welcoming shores; instead we have found solace in the concrete and the unchangeable, the rigid and the unyielding.

Velvet & Stone. Album Review. full post

(385 words, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)