MOVIE OF THE WEEK: Written by screenwriter Peter Hedges of About a Boy and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? fame, Pieces of April is sparky and spiky and, like April’s eyes, a little black around the edges. Shaun de Waal reviews.
"After a somewhat slow start, in which author Stephen Taylor explores the backgrounds of the crew and passengers, his narrative sweeps one away like a rip tide". Maureen Brady reviews <i>The Caliban Shore: The Fate of the Grosvenor Castaways</i>,
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/ 27 February 2004
<b>MOVIE OF THE WEEK:</b> As far as I can see, the main competitors for this year’s best-actress Oscar are Charlize Theron and Diane Keaton. Onse Charlize, however, could well snatch it from Keaton. Theron’s performance in <i>Monster</i> is the kind of thing the Oscars love to reward: glamour queen goes ugly, which is deemed to be an example of great self-sacrifice in the name of art, writes Shaun de Waal.
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/ 20 February 2004
NOT THE MOVIE OF THE WEEK: British director Anthony Minghella has had notable successes at adapting famous novels to the screen, particularly his Oscar-winning The English Patient. Which is probably why he was commissioned to adapt and direct Charles Frazier’s best-seller Cold Mountain. This time round, though, Minghella fails to make it work. Shaun de Waal reviews.
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/ 13 February 2004
So he was right then, all those weeks ago. At Lord’s, when he held a December thank you to the rugby writers in the Long Room, Clive Woodward told me we’d never see that World Cup winning side again. But now the real shocker. No Neil Back. He’s been left out in the cold.
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/ 30 January 2004
NOT THE MOVIE OF THE WEEK: When a movie has a title as bland, as devoid of meaning or resonance, as Out of Time, you have to wonder how much original thought went into the script. In the case of Out of Time, it’s not a matter of the writers having expended so much creative energy on the script that they didn’t have any left over for the title; they just had no inspiration at all, writes Shaun de Waal.
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/ 16 January 2004
One of the chief virtues of The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde, is that it shows, in factual biographical terms, how utterly Wilde was shaped by his sexuality. Even Richard Ellmann’s great biography skates over Wilde’s sex life and rather downplays its driving force in Wilde’s often puzzling actions. Shaun de Waal reviews.
There was a time in the ’70s when no one expected Keith Richards to reach 40, let alone 60, when he was (by his own description) ”a human chemical laboratory”. But as the Rolling Stone guitarist approaches his seventh decade, fans are still throwing their knickers at him.
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/ 12 December 2003
MOVIE OF THE WEEK: Clark contests mainstream Hollywood’s view of the world, where you can have as much sex and violence as you like as long as it’s packaged with a join-the-dots moral lesson, writes Shaun de Waal of Ken Park.
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/ 21 November 2003
<b>NOT QUITE MOVIE OF THE WEEK:</b><br> Despite the display of the cream of British talent, Love Actually is a disappointment, writes Shaun de Waal.