Sunday 11 January 2015

TV

8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown
8x01 (9/1/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Castle
4x06 Demons

Room 101
15x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Shadow of the Thin Man (1941)
[#4 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

this week on 100 Films

We're well into the new year now, but back on Monday at 100 Films in a Year I finally wrapped up last year with my Top 10, Bottom 5, and 50 I missed from 2014 (amongst other delights).


Then, to kick off 2015 properly, the selections for my "What Do You Mean You Haven't Seen...?" challenge were announced. Read all about it here.


Additionally, a new review was also published:


Modern Times (1936)
Charlie Chaplin satirises technology and modernisation in arguably the last film of the silent era. It actually has a synchronised soundtrack, primarily for music and effects, but also dialogue — though “we hear spoken voices only when they come from mechanical devices, a symbol of the film’s theme of technology and dehumanization.”
Read more here.


And finally, two archive reviews were brought to the new blog...


C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America (2004)
Mockumentary about the history of America had the South won the civil war. While an intriguing idea, in practice it’s disappointing. Apparently such a victory would have led to everything the nation did since being in order to maintain slavery.
Read more here.


The Locket (1946)
a passable melodrama. We're presented with plenty of evidence that Nancy is definitely a tricksy operator, but then is the man telling the tale an unreliable narrator? I don't know if the filmmakers were even aware of such a concept. Maybe that's unkind; maybe they just didn't want him to be one; but the ending we do get is very pat, and I'm not sure it quite makes sense.
Read more here.


More next Sunday.