Sweet Nothings

Yes hello, I’m not dead or anything. I was going to apologise for not posting for a while, but apparently us bloggers aren’t supposed to do that , so I suggest you accept what you’re given and be grateful that I can be arsed to write anything at all. (There’s a really good article somewhere that collates such “sorry, I was busy!” posts which I can’t find, but I’m not going to apologise for that either.) Anyway, we got to our seats in time to catch the end of Public Service Broadcasting .  Stock footage on a projector screen is accompanied by surprisingly direct and jaunty instrumental rock, as played by one man on guitar-slash-laptop dressed as Matt Smith from Doctor Who, and a drummer who seems to have gone for an IT Crowd-era Richard Ayoade vibe. They talk to the audience through a Stephen Hawking style voice machine. The carefully assembled blend of vintage and modern is all very now , or at least is trying awfully hard to be. This may be a crap photo, but at least it...

Movies JJ Abrams's reimagining of Star Trek was better than I could ever have expected it to be. Contrary to accusations from some die-hard Trekkers, Abrams has managed to stay true to the spirit of the tired old franchise whilst completely reinvigorating it with hipper characters and cutting-edge FX. Surely there won't be a better action blockbuster all year. Let The Right One In was an effective melding of youthful coming-of-age tale and bloody horror, made more unsettling by its bleached 80s Scandinavian suburban setting. Perhaps not the masterpiece that some have made it out to be though, and certainly the gorier scenes prompted more knowing laughter from me rather than genuine scares. And then there was a preview showing of The Hangover last week. Now, the format of this is somewhat original - three blokes wake up in their hotel room after a stag night in Vegas having gained a baby and a tiger but lost the groom - but the unlikeable, 2D characters (including a young Brian...