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Totem Pole and the will to survive: How Paul Pritchard recovered from a deadly accident to get back in the mountains – Art-and-culture News , Firstpost – Firstpost
A hundred and twenty six one-handed pull-ups, a balancing act on ropes that would have a gymnast sit up and take notice, and an indomitable will to return to a climb that is synonymous with him today. It is just a handful of ingredients that put Paul Pritchard atop the Totem Pole in 2016.Back in 1998, an accident on the same climb had left him hemiplegic on the right side of the body. Physical...
The Wild Bunch at 50: the enduring nihilism of Sam Peckinpah's western – The Guardian
In 1969, the film’s violent cynicism came as a shock to the system and now, it seems to have aged disturbingly wellPresent day audiences remember Sam Peckinpah’s off-the-wall western The Wild Bunch for its blood, but no less shocking is the film’s moral carnage. Two orgies of bullets bookend the adventure of an outlaw gang on the Mexican border, setting a new standard for the depiction of...
How the new wave of man-trapped-in cat movies could fight puss prejudice – The Guardian
Both Kevin Spacey and Jeremy Clarkson are linked to films about people trapped in cats. Can they help to turn the tide on Hollywood’s anti-feline propaganda?For years, cats have been the unfair villains of Hollywood or if you’re a dog person, cats have been playing cats in films for a while now. In discriminatory indoctrination such as Cats and Dogs (megalomaniac), Pet Sematary (zombie), Meet the...
Armando Iannucci: 'Everything since 2016 has been a wind-up' – The Guardian
The film and TV writer answers your questions on advising Boris Johnson, dining with Alan Partridge characters and whether he still has OJ’s confessionHow bored are you with people asking how bored you are with people asking if reality has become impossible to satirise? ritasueandbobI’m extremely bored. But I don’t think it has. A lot of people have forgotten that life is real. It’s not something...
The 10 best quotable films – The Guardian
… to mark the return of Withnail and I to the big screenHave we missed a film from the list? Leave your suggestion in the comments below and it could feature in the alternative list next weekWithnail and I, 1987When an out-of-work actor realises he smokes too many “Camberwell carrots” he goes “on holiday by mistake” with an unnamed friend. After deciding they “want something’s flesh”, they...
A Beautiful Mind hides ugly truths – The Guardian
A Beautiful Mind (2001)Director: Ron HowardEntertainment grade: B–History grade: C–John Forbes Nash Jr won the 1994 Nobel Memorial prize in economics, along with John C Harsanyi and Reinhard Selten, for their work on game theory. Nash has been public about his struggle with schizophrenia.John Nash (Russell Crowe) arrives at Princeton soon after the end of the second world war...
Jem and the Holograms review – live-action reboot outshines shortcomings – The Guardian
A ‘throw everything against the wall’ quality and downright catchy songs lift this sunny adaptation of the 80s cartoon despite a fairly ridiculous storyBased on the 1980s cartoon produced by toy manufacturer Hasbro, Jon M Chu’s updated, live-action film adaptation is by no means anything you’d call a great film. The moralizing is omnipresent, the script is desultory and its understanding of the...
Berlin Syndrome review – unfortunate narrative slumps mar an ambitious thriller – The Guardian
Once the film settles into its cat-and-mouse game, the big question is what will happen next? The short answer is nothing for a long timeIf Last Tango in Paris, American Pie and the pastrami sandwich episode of Seinfeld didn’t do enough to warn us about the dangers of food-related eroticism, along comes the Australian director Cate Shortland’s psycho-sexual thriller Berlin Syndrome. Early in the...
Amber Heard evaluation revealed two personality disorders … – The Guardian
Shannon Curry testifies in defamation trial that ex-wife of Johnny Depp, 36, displayed ‘overly dramatic presentation’An expert in intimate partner violence called to give evidence in Johnny Depp’s defamation lawsuit against Amber Heard has testified that her evaluation of the actor revealed two psychiatric diagnoses – borderline personality disorder and histrionic personality disorder.Depp’s...