social media
Eighth Grade review - a dazzlingly real portrait of a teenage girlThursday, 25 April 2019
“Hey guys, it’s Kayla, back with another video. So, the topic of today’s video is being yourself.” Kayla Day (the wonderful Elsie Fisher, nominated for a Golden Globe and also heard as the voice of Agnes in Despicable Me) is in her last week of... Read more... |
Brexit: The Uncivil War, Channel 4 review - Benedict Cumberbatch gets the best tunesTuesday, 08 January 2019
One day this all will be over. Give it half a century. In 50 years' time, there will be documentaries in which today’s young, by then old, will explain to generations yet unborn exactly how and why Britain went round the twist in 2016. Much as we... Read more... |
Skate Kitchen review - sisterhood in the skate parkThursday, 27 September 2018
“Let’s get a clip, Long Island.” One New York skateboarder encourages another, who’s from the ‘burbs, to show off ollies, pop shuvits and kick-flips for a YouTube video. But hang on: “There are too many penises in the way.” This is a posse of young... Read more... |
Niall Ferguson: The Square and the Tower review - of groups and powerSunday, 15 October 2017
The controversial historian Niall Ferguson is the author of some dozen books, including substantial narratives of the Rothschild dynasty, a history of money, and a study of Henry Kissinger up to and including the Vietnam war. His new one has the... Read more... |
Gone GirlThursday, 02 October 2014
Some feared that turning Gillian Flynn's bestselling novel into a movie couldn't be done, but with Flynn herself in the screenwriter's chair and the clinically precise David Fincher wearing the director's hat, it's turned out a treat. It's long at... Read more... |
Storyville: Google and the World Brain/How Hackers Changed the World, BBC FourThursday, 21 February 2013
At what stage will the trend among journalists and documentarians to regard anything relating to the internet with suspicion or, worse, ignorance come to an end? Although I recognise that my relationship with information technology has never been... Read more... |
Dave Gorman, Festival Theatre, EdinburghMonday, 24 October 2011
Following a rejuvenating foray back to his one-man-with-a-mike stand-up roots throughout 2009 and 2010, this summer Dave Gorman returned to the Edinburgh Fringe after an eight-year absence to launch Dave Gorman's PowerPoint Presentation. The man who... Read more... |
How Facebook Changed the World: The Arab Spring, BBC TwoTuesday, 06 September 2011
It seems unlikely that the founding fathers of social media had in mind a revolution of any greater magnitude than turning your teenager’s bedroom walls inside out and making themselves rich in the process. Still, here we are, less than a decade... Read more... |
DVD: The Social NetworkThursday, 17 February 2011
In films featuring computer whizzes, there is always a key scene in which, to illustrate the whizziness, a star actor bashes on a keyboard at implausible warp speed. The Social Network is the first major film to respond to the drama inherent in... Read more... |
The 2011 Baftas, BBC One: The Twitter ReviewSunday, 13 February 2011
@Wossy seems to have been cast as second baddie in #PiratesduCaribbean 4This intro is entirely about namechecking the films so they can cut away to the US stars who've jetted in from #TinseltownLame string of Little Fockers jokes.These clips... Read more... |
ChatroomThursday, 23 December 2010
With its finger-on-the-pulse tagline, “Welcome to the anti-social network” and respectable credentials, Chatroom is an intriguing prospect. It’s based on an acclaimed stage play, directed by the visionary Hideo Nakata (Ringu, Dark Water), with a... Read more... |
Film: CatfishThursday, 16 December 2010
Ever since Catfish appeared in the States earlier in the year, debate has been raging about its bona fides. On the face of it an ingenious documentary playing smartly with the potential and pitfalls of social networking and the nature of personal... Read more... |
