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Bergman Island: Movie Review

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Bergman Island: Movie Review Cast: Tim Roth, Vicky Krieps, MiaWasikowska Director: Mia Hansen-Løve Possibly one for cinephiles and fans of the Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, Bergman Island concerns itself with two writers Tony and Chris (Roth and Krieps) who head to Fårö island on a retreat and to finish their respective screenplays. Tony is inspired by the island, as an admirer of Bergman, but Chris struggles to reconcile her dispassion for Bergman's styles and also her differing writing style. While the two head to the island together, they begin to drift apart as the differences become more stark. Bergman Island is one of those films that deals with the meta the further in it goes, and whilst it's also its twist, it's also its weakness. Predominantly as the film only really comes alive in the second half when it retreats into its second stoty, with the liveliness of the back half of the film serving to demonstrate how introverted and introspective the narrative had bec...

Blind Ambition: Movie Review

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Blind Ambition: Movie Review Directors: Robert Coe, Warwick Ross A relatively genial documentary about an underdog wine-tasting group of competitors from a country where you wouldn't expect wine to be a thing has all kinds of sporting underdog comparisons. The idea of Cool Runnings and the Jamaican bob sled team springs immediately to mind, but Blind Ambition is less interested really in the idea of turning its protagonists into something to be joked with, cocking a snook at the establishment and winking at its audience as it does it. Blind Ambition recentres its narrative around four refugees who escaped their homeland of Zimbabwe and have made their names as South Africa's top sommeliers.  Joseph, Marlvin, Tinashe and Pardon are all characters that embody the human spirit in the face of overwhelmingly crippling odds. One left his two-year-old son behind in Zimbabwe to live because the move to South Africa was a gamble that he didn't know they'd survive - it's that...

Turning Red: Movie Review

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Turning Red: Movie Review Vocal cast: Rosalie Chiang, Sandra Oh, James Hong Director: Domee Shi It's 2002 Canada in the delightful Turning Red, an animated film that normalises menstruation in the mainstream, galvanises girls going through changes, and, as a result, appears to have been punished by releasing only on Disney+. Chiang is Mei Lee, an overly exuberant, dorky 13-year-old who struggles with the need to stay a dutiful daughter to her mother, and who's torn between her western loves of boybands and just generally messing about with her friends, living the mantra that "this year is going to be my year". Living by the honour your parents code (the number one rule in her family, Mei informs us straight away) is thrown further into disarray when one morning, Mei wakes up to smelly armpits and having transformed into a giant red panda. In case the metaphor is a little too subtle, Mei's mother Ming (Oh) asks her daughter "did the red peony bloom", befo...

SIFU: PS5 Review

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SIFU: PS5 Review  Developer: Sloclap Published by Sloclap Platform: PS5  The simplicity of the presentation of SIFU belies its toughness and its engaging nature. Starting with an attack on a martial arts school seemingly led by you the protagonist, SIFU swaps around to reveal its intentions - you play the son (or daughter) of the murdered head of the school, intent on revenge for the massacre. With five kung-fu masters to take down as the game progresses, Sifu wears its revenge storyline on its immaculately presented sleeve. With combat proving to be slightly tough if you can't master the differing skills on offer, Sifu is not always a game that makes it easy to play, as you try to string combinations together. But when they do land, they land well. The PS5's controller positively crunches with the sound of combat, delivering each perfectly-landed punch with a thudding noise emanating from it.  Admittedly staring off in the game, it's hard to know all the buttons to press...

New details on GTAV and GTA Online, launching March 15

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New details on GTAV and GTA Online, launching March 15 GTAV and GTA Online Coming March 15 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S Transfer Story Mode Progress Now, Plus First Details on GTA Online Profile Migration     Grand Theft Auto V  and  Grand Theft Auto Online  arrive for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on March 15 — delivering  the action-packed, blockbuster Story Mode adventure and the dynamic, ever-evolving world of GTA Online to the latest generation consoles with a host of improvements for new and returning players.   These new versions of GTAV and GTA Online introduce high-end PC visuals to the console experience with new graphics modes featuring up to 4K resolution, a frame rate of up to 60 frames per second, improved texture quality, HDR options, and ray tracing — as well as utilizing the technical advancements of the latest console hardware for faster loading times, immersive 3D audio, support for platform-specific features, and more. ...

Gran Turismo 7: PS5 Review

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Gran Turismo 7: PS5 Review Developed by Polyphony Digital Released by Sony Interactive Entertainment Platform: PS5 How you feel about Gran Turismo will depend largely on how you feel about cars in general. After all this is a game that opens with a 10 minute cinematic that celebrates the history of cars, manufacturing and also the Gran Turismo game series which hits its 25th anniversary. It's a game that also drops car-related vignettes throughout its run time as rewards for completing tasks - it's every car nut's dream. And in many ways, it's the absolute antithesis to XBox's tremendously popular Forza Horizon series, which centres arcade style racing at the very forefront of its raison d'etre. But if Gran Turismo 7 starts off feeling like a car enthusiasts' dream and not really for the general players, the game's at pains to try and at least increase some of its broader accessibility with things like the GT Cafe.  The Cafe acts as a hub, with Luca, a c...

Star Trek: Picard: Season 2 Review

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Star Trek: Picard: Season 2 Review Star Trek: Picard is back with an opening salvo that's clearly fired up the proton torpedos against its  season one critics/ The first season took what seemed like an aeon to get Jean-Luc Picard back among the stars, and then produced a story that faced crippling inertia as its 10 episodes carried on. But this time around, before the credits have even rolled in, Picard and his motley crew of ragtag renegades are seemingly blowing themselves into oblivion after activating a self-destruct mechanism due to the nefarious Borg Queen boarding their ship. Of course, starting matters in medias res is a powerful opener, but in the first episode of season two of Picard, the drama doesn't seem to be too far away even as you head to that apparent sequence of events. Large chunks of the first season were aimed mainly at the fans, ensuring this outing wasn't quite as broad as it could have been.  Season 2 of the show makes no mistake about what it wants...