Pomona for Facebook

   LIVE AID AT 40: WHEN ROCK N'ROLL TOOK ON THE WORLD Looking back on it now, the mid 1980s really do feel like innocent times. In the UK, there were just four terrestrial TV channels - BBC1 , BBC2, ITV and Channel 4. Ireland had two - RTE1 and RTE2. Satellite television was still in its infancy, with Rupert Murdoch's Sky Television about to woo viewers with the promise of live football and a dedicated film channel. There were significantly less radio stations than there are now. There was no Spotify, YouTube, no Internet, Amazon, no social media, no tablets or smartphones  People learned about the latest music on ' Top of the Pops ' or, in Ireland, ' MT USA ' with Vincent Hanley. If you were discerning, there was always ' The Old Grey Whistle Test, ' ' The Tube ,' BBC Radio One's John Peel or RTE's Dave Fanning if you weren't already buying the NME, Melody Maker or Rolling Stone. MTV was also in its infancy. Newspapers like The Sun a...

  SQUID GAME S2 When 'Squid Game' became an international phenomenon  with its inaugural season on Netflix  in September 2021, it was such a rare thing. A subtitled, edge of your seat thriller about down on their luck people literally gambling their lives away in a series of deadly games in South Korea for a huge pot of money, Hwang Dong-hyuk's show had as big a cultural moment as  Bong Joon-ho's groundbreaking Oscar winning movie 'Parasite'. As word of mouth spread, the show quickly became a talking point in offices, shops and factories, on train and bus commutes, on social media, TV and radio shows and print and online media. Like 'Parasite,' Hwang Dong-hyuk's series made history too at a host of awards ceremonies, with Critics Choice, People's Choice, Screen Actors Guild and Primetime Emmy awards going to its lead man Lee Jung-jae, a Lead Actress SAG for Jung Ho-yeon and a Golden Globe for Supporting Actor for O Yeong-so. Not bad for a TV show...

GOODRICH Sometimes a film seems to have all the right elements but still it comes up short. Hallie Myers-Shyler's 'Goodrich' boasts Michael Keaton and Mila Kunis playing a father and daughter as well as Carmen Ejogo, Michael Urie, Kevin Pollak and Andie MacDowell in its cast. It's a relationship comedy drama where the focus is on a sixtysomething, workaholic, Los Angeles art dealer Andy Goodrich, whose boutique gallery is starting to fail just as his relationship with his second wife, Laura Benanti's Naomi is coming off the rails. Informed by her that she has checked into rehab for 90 days and he will have to pay closer attention to raising their nine year old twins, Jakob Kopera's Mose and Vivian Lyra Blair's Billie, he is mystified that he didn't grasp his wife was addicted to prescription drugs. Initially Andy struggles to readjust his life around the twins, taking them to elementary school late after forgetting to make them their lunch. However he is...

  THE BOMBING OF PAN AM 123 There's always a danger when two films or dramas dealing with the same historical event are released that the one that comes out second fails to excite audiences.. Inevitably viewers who have seen the first version will measure the latter against it. And if the earlier version is regarded as having done a really good job, the subsequent production is left fighting an uphill battle to convince audiences it is worth investing their time. Earlier this year, Sky Atlantic gave us the first of two TV dramas this year about the December 1988 bomb attack on Pan Am 123 over the Scottish village of Lockerbie that killed 270 people. Otto Bathurst, Jim Loach and David Harrower's ' Lockerbie: The Search for Truth ' focused on victims campaigner Dr Jim Swire's quest to find out who was responsible for the attack and his gradual belief that the only man convicted of the bombing, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was innocent. Jonathan Lee, Adam Morane-Griffiths and...

   BIG MAN Leave aside  the online storm over Stormzy's wig . 'Big Man' is the first film to be made by the rapper's Merky Films production company. A 20 minute short directed by Aneil Karia, the Croydon rap star not only funds the film but stars in it. This isn't Stormzy's first foray into acting, though, having previously appeared as himself in Michaela Coel's Channel 4 sitcom ' Chewing Gum ' and the BBC TV drama ' Noughts and Crosses '. Shot entirely on an iPhone, Karia's film casts Stormzy as an ex-rapper Tenzman who is trying to get two supersized fridges installed in his home. Disgusted when the delivery men suggest demolishing part of his kitchen wall, he instead turns to two local kids, Klevis Brahja's Klevis and Jaydon Eastman's Tyrell for help - haggling a price for them coming into his home and helping him shift the fridges. Naturally the boys ignore Tenzman's warnings about not touching anything in his house. When ...

   28 YEARS LATER There are great movie directors and then the others. Some are jobbing hacks who thrash out any old film to placate audiences and the studios. Those filmmakers enjoy long careers as long as their movies keep making money. Other directors have a film or two at the start of their careers that shine but they subsequently struggle to reach the same heights. Many fade into obscurity because they can't score another critical or commercial hit. Great filmmakers, however, hit the heights with impressive regularity, building up a body of work that may not be consistently good but still fascinates. Every time they get behind the camera, they seem to go for broke and even when their work is flawed, you can still see theitr flair for visual storytelling. Danny Boyle is  that sort of director. Movies like ' Shallow Grave ' and undoubtedly his best film ' Trainspotting ' made his name early in his career, giving him an immediate reputation as the most innovative ...