Tag Archives: Liverpool

Inside Out, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Richard Kind, Bill Hader, Lewis Black, Mindy Kaling, Kaitlyn Dias, Kyle MacLachlan, Paula Poundstone, Bobby Moynihan, Paula Pell, Dave Goelz, Frank Oz, Josh Cooley, Flea, John Ratzenburger, Carlos Alazraqui, Peter Sagal, Rasida Jones, Lori Alan, John Cygan, Sherry Lynn, Laraine Newman, Paris Van Dyke.

You know where you are with Pixar. No matter how old you are, no matter your level in interest in cinema, even for the most impatient of observers, it has to be concluded at the end of every film that Pixar delivers to the world, the fun and moral standing of the film is enough to have the toughest cynic floundering for words in which to offer discouragement; Pixar basically rules when it comes the animation world.

Inside Out, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

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

Love And Mercy, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Elizabeth Banks, John Cusack, Paul Dano, Paul Giamatti, Jake Abel, Dee Wallace, Kenny Wormald, Joanna Going, Max Schneider, Tyson Ritter, Erin Darke, Brett Davern, Graham Rogers, Wayne Bastrup, Diana Maria Riva, Nick Gehlfuss, Jonathan Slavin, Bill Camp, Johnny Sneed.

The strength of the biopic lays completely in its subject matter and how the director and writers wish to place empathy and sympathy down in the cinema-goers’ hearts. If treated with respect then the audience cannot help but come out of the cinema with the feeling of delving further into the subject’s life, in terms of music, it’s the assured way of driving the back catalogue sales through the roof for a while and for any fan of The Beach Boys, for the legendary Brian Wilson in particular, Love and Mercy, will have that desired effect.

Love And Mercy, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(534 words, estimated 2:08 mins reading time)

The Chair, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Lyndsay Fielding, Lewis Marsh, Mair Terry, Sean Croke, Geraldine Moloney-Judge.

Dystopia is a place often visited in the arts, perhaps never more so than in the theatre. The natural surroundings of the enclosed space, the door to the outside world close at hand but out of reach due to the way that your neighbour next to you will look at you with suspicion and hate filled eyes should you interrupt their train of thought, all combine to make Dystopia more real, more authentic than any other way of getting the flesh to crawl at what just could be if apathy and lethargy allow it take control.

The Chair, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Adolf In Toxteth, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Chris Pybus, Eirek Bar, Giulia Rampons, Andrew Wall.

From out of the mist and the warm steam of the train that arrived in Liverpool in 1912 came a shudder, the feeling of a disease walking with the casual air of authority and frightened clash of Time as the supposed six months of Adolf Hitler’s time in Liverpool before World War One bore fruit a hundred years on.

Adolf In Toxteth, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(480 words, estimated 1:55 mins reading time)

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Michael Praed, Mark Benton, Noel Sullivan, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Phoebe Coupe, Carley Stenson, Emma Caffrey, Andy Conaghan, Soophia Foroughi, Johnny Godbold, Orla Gormley, Patrick Harper, Jordan Livesey, Regan Shepherd, Kevin Stephen-Jones, Katie Warsop, Jenny Wickham, Justin-Lee Jones, Andy Rees, Freya Rowley.

 

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(434 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

The Buffalo Riot, Gig Review. Studio 2, Parr Street, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

A riot by any other name can still sound just as sweet, however, a riot, the eruption of sound associated with The Buffalo Riot is almost without equal and to that end even the great plains of America would shudder with greater exposure and bounding resonance to this terrific band than a million buffalo or bison could manage as they stampede in unison.

The Buffalo Riot, Gig Review. Studio 2, Parr Street, Liverpool. full post

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

Sana, Gig Review. Studio 2, Parr Street, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Stillhet’s Strings and Things monthly Sunday evening shows at the Parr Street Studio have always been of the highest quality, friendly and forthcoming when it comes to having musicians on board who might have been away from the glare of the stage and the music lover’s hearts. It is a trait of kindness and gentleness that allows any sign of nerves to be dispelled and left to wander freely back out onto the road and pavements and wrapped in its own negative thoughts.

Sana, Gig Review. Studio 2, Parr Street, Liverpool. full post

(439 words, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

The Dirty Bomb, Gig Review. Studio 2, Parr Street, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

July can be seen as month in which experimentation with the senses goes into a kind of overdrive, the pleasure of the discovery of something new going hand in hand with the sultry and aurally naked. The velvet touch offered by a craving to take the heat higher than should be allowed but in which the temptation catches fire and stokes the engine to the point where whistles blow and steam gushes out at such a rate that the explosion of sound spreads out across the room with rapid expansion and the wake of The Dirty Bomb leaving a collection of smiling faces.

The Dirty Bomb, Gig Review. Studio 2, Parr Street, Liverpool. full post

(413 words, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

Millionaires Anonymous, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Geraldine Moloney Judge, Neil MacDonald, Chrissi-Jo Hyde, Lee Burnitt, David Clayton, Albert Hastings, Caitlin Mary Carley Clough.

If money is the root of all flowering evil, then the pursuit of it must be the untilled field. Since its inception the national lottery has produced more millionaires in the country than at any time in its history and yet how many of them have been truly happy or felt blessed beyond their wildest dreams, happy not because of the money and the chance to spend it upon anything they wish, but for it to do real good, to effect real change?

Millionaires Anonymous, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Amy, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.CT., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Thanks to the pace of modern life and the way that everything is captured in its smallest detail for consumption, it was perhaps inevitable that the life and sad demise of Amy Winehouse would one day make its way on to the screens.

In Amy that focus, the character of the blessed and the cursed are played out in equal measure and the contrast between black and white, the humour of the young Jewish woman and the voice that captured many music fan’s hearts bleeds through to the contextualised colour out of control but sharp conviction that plays out across the two hours.

Amy, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.CT., Liverpool. full post

(563 words, estimated 2:15 mins reading time)