The really remarkable thing about Blue is the Warmest Colour is that it turned out so beautifully given the conditions under which it was reportedly made: [Director Abdellatif Kechiche] was always searching, because he didn’t really know what he wanted. We spent weeks shooting scenes….
One of the things I most appreciated about Blue is the Warmest Colour — about all of the last three films I saw, actually, so Under the Skin and Jodorowsky’s Dune as well — was the sense in all three of intention over cliché. This…
I was about 75% of the way through Under the Skin the novel when I decided I couldn’t wait and needed to see the film. I was spellbound by it, though one scene toward the end bothered me because it seemed gratuitous. And then I…
Ohhhh, it’s been a while. I’ve spent the last few months either onstage or writing sketch comedy instead of writing about Doctor Who. Which is healthy, I think. I do have a couple of Who-related posts I’m drafting, just for fun, as well as a…
It’s not bad. My first reaction was that it was somehow both too fussy and too plain, and definitely too much like a costume. The purple jacket from season 7B was getting to be a little much already, and this is in the same self-conscious…
When I was a kid, I loved The Hobbit and read it over and over. The Lord of the Rings, apart from isolated moments (mostly Shelob and the destruction of the ring at Mount Doom), bored the pants off me — I dragged myself through…
This Christmas, the time of one of my favorite Doctors drew to a slightly disappointing close, with a potentially moving elegy buried beneath an avalanche of eh. But let’s have one more go at picking apart yet another overstuffed Moffat finale, five minutes at a…
This was my first John le Carré novel, and I listened to it as an audiobook in the car. It was read by Michael Jayston (known to Doctor Who fans as the Valeyard), who was superb at conveying subtle shades of emotion among men trained…
Doctor Who anniversary specials have a narrow line to walk. The line is operatic on one side, marking out some grand story about Time Lord past, present, or future, something with currents as deep as you want to go. “The Three Doctors” had the story…
Number 1 on my Doctor Who favorites list is City of Death. This is a solidly uncontroversial choice. There are some people who prefer the guns, germs, and steel of “The Caves of Androzani,” and some new-series devotees who reckon Doctor Who is best when…