Tag Archives: Liverpool

Blackhat, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Leehom Wang, Wei Tang, Viola Davis, Holt McCallany, Andy On, Ritchie Coster, Christian Borle, John Ortiz, Yorick van Wageningen, Brandon Molale, Danny Burstein, Archie Kao, Abhi Sinha, Jason Butler Harner, Manny Montana, Spencer Garrett, Shi Liang, Kan Mok.

There are films that offer so much in the small afforded time that a trailer entices you with that it’s possible to get caught up in the hype and growing excitement that comes along with every new release. The trouble with that at times is that it can lead you down the path of slighted and unrealistic expectation, the trailer never quite matching up to the heights you already have played out in your imagination.

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

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

Cake, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Jennifer Aniston, Adriana Barraza, Anna Kendrick, Sam Worthington, Marnie Gummer, Felicity Huffman, William H. Macy, Chris Messina, Lucy Punch, Britt Robertson, Allan Moldono, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Misty Upham., Evan O’ Toole.

Nobody can snap a finger and make you better; nobody can get inside your head and see the grief that assists the pain that the body feels. When every movement feels like torture, even the briefest glimpse of something bright and hopeful only serves to remind what was lost. It is almost the perfect summing up for Jennifer Aniston’s latest film, Cake.

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

(608 words, estimated 2:26 mins reading time)

All We Are, Gig Review. ALoft Hotel, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Only All We Are could be magnificent enough, dare to be different enough, to play venues in Liverpool that nobody else might ever think of. If a night in Williamson Tunnels on the edge of town, a venue more in keeping for the wake that was held for the much missed British horror writer James Herbert, was taken with as much seriousness and endeavour as performing for others might approach a night at the Echo Arena, then to play a selection of songs inside a hotel is to be considered just as different and inspiring.

All We Are, Gig Review. ALoft Hotel, Liverpool. full post

(495 words, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)

The War On Drugs, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool.

The War On Drugs, Liverpool Academy. February 2015. Photograph by John Johnson.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The audience’s ears would still arguably be ringing days after the event as The War On Drugs assaulted the senses of a rammed Liverpool O2 Academy. Overdriven guitars, FX-laden keyboards and a bass with more bottom end than Loch Ness all contributed to a night of aural frenzy for the 1000 or so that jammed the big room in the venue on Hotham Street.

The War On Drugs, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool. full post

(376 words, 1 image, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)

Love Is Strange, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: John Lithgow, Alfred Molina, Marisa Tomei, Darren Burrows, Charlie Tahan, Christina Kirk, Tatyana Zbirovskaya, Olya Zueva, Jason Stuart, Harriet Harris, Cheyenne Jackson, Manny Perez, Jon Cullum, Eric Tabach, Tank Burt, Daphne Gaines, Christopher King, Maryann Urbano, David Bell, Henry Crouch, Dovie Lepore Currin, Jeff Goad, Sebastian La Cause, Christian Coulson, Andrew Polk, Michael J. Burg.

Love Is Strange, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(616 words, estimated 2:28 mins reading time)

Paul Wilkes, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

In some respects Al Capone may have had the greatest of intentions, albeit ultimately flawed and with murderous, evil intent, that to stage a massacre on Valentine’s Day would be remembered in the headlines of the papers of Chicago and further afield forever. However in the scheme of things and perhaps arguably with more noble and cherished intentions, the day does belong to those who make the most of the moving and special quality that a card and a prohibition gun can’t quite cut through.

Paul Wilkes, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool. full post

(402 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Cal Ruddy, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool.

Cal Ruddy, Zanzibar, Liverpool. February 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

To become a hero, to wallow just for a short while in deserved applause, the aspiring musician need not sell his soul to sit in the reflected glory of a highly profitable television programme, all they need to do is come through the possible agony of a live performance in front of friends and family in which some difficulties, otherwise known as real life, are met head on and beaten by sheer force of will and the demeanour of one born to succeed.

Cal Ruddy, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool. full post

(521 words, 1 image, estimated 2:05 mins reading time)

Ben Higgs, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool.

Ben Higgs at Zanzibar, February 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Watching the impressive Ben Higgs on stage is like witnessing the eclipse of the sun. You are aware of the potential that comes with the awe inspiring, you may have read accounts of it happening and taken in videos and short clips of the event, but it doesn’t prepare you for the sheer spectacle of strength that unfolds before you.

Ben Higgs, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool. full post

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

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Sunday Supplement, An Interview With Eithne Browne.

When it comes to history, the theatres in Liverpool are so entrenched, so immersed in the ‘pool of life, that when it comes to putting on a production that deals in part with the chronicle of the city, with the fabric of the people who have made the streets and buildings, the city, what it is today then that history somehow takes on a more meaningful and significant expression of artistic value.

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Sunday Supplement, An Interview With Eithne Browne. full post

(1436 words, estimated 5:45 mins reading time)

Simon Armitage, Poetry Evening Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Some poets you don’t see on stage in Liverpool from one year to the next. You know they exist by the volume of work they put out, but they somehow get tangled in the poetic mist that separates the city by the Mersey from the rest of the country as they criss-cross placing the truth of a rhythmical full stop in full reach of their fans, but not quite making all the way down to the birthplace of the Mersey Beat Poets.

Simon Armitage, Poetry Evening Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(488 words, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)