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WE LIVE IN TIME (John Crowley) According to a story in the Daily Mail in 2011 (okay, I know..), two scientists identified movie clips that they claimed were the ultimate tearjerking moments. One was Ricky Schroeder's TJ blubbing over the beaten body of his dad, Jon Voight's Billy in Franco Zeffirelli's boxing drama 'The Champ'. The other was the infamous scene where we watch an increasingly distressed Bambi wander alone in the snow looking for his mothe r after she has been shot in David D Hand's animated classic. Erich Segal's 1970 box office smash 'Love Story' is another film that has a reputation for leaving viewers in floods of tears. It's impossible not to think of that movie while watching John Crowley's new release 'We Live In Time' and not just because the lead female character, Florence Pugh's Almut has cancer. Just like Segal's movie, there's an ice skating scene in it which the Irish director clearly has no qu...

© Studio Canal, BBC Film, Protagonist Pictures, Brock Media & Arcade Pictures It was a year when  'Oppenheimer' swept the Oscars  but  Ryan Gosling stole the show with his performance of 'I'm Just Ken' . It was also the year when Saoirse Ronan once again aced her roles in two films and Cillian Murphy delivered arguably the best movie performance of his career. 2024 saw Denis Villeneuve open the door to a 'Dune' trilogy, while successful films about a Mexican drug gang leader seeking a sex change and a gay writer encountering the ghosts of his dead parents were common place when in the past they would have been unthinkable. As Pomona ranks the top 10 films it saw this year, who made the list and where are they placed? 10. THE OUTRUN (Nora Fingscheidt) There have been many movies about alcoholism over the decades but few have been as intriguing as Nora Fingscheidt's tale of a young woman coming to terms with her addiction on the Orkney Islands. Saoirse...

© ITV So as we head towards a New Year, it's time to say goodbye to 2024. And as we have been reflecting on the year in television, what are our thoughts about the best 10 shows we watched this year? This is Pomona's Top 10 shows of 2024 and also our thoughts on the big thundering disappointment of the year and its biggest turkey. Have a great 2025, folks. 10. THE BEAR, Season 3 (DISNEY+) After two wildly different tones to its previous seasons, audiences were wondering what would be served up this year now that the fine dining restaurant at the heart of this Chicago comedy drama was in full flow. Would it be back to the frenetic pace and stress of the first season or the Zen like calm of most of the second? The answer was something in between during a season that felt like a show in transition, building to something much more momentous in season four. At times frustrating, the show was still undoubtedly compelling and experimental. Season three's opening episode was largel...

© Mubi, Metropolitan Filmexport, Working Title Films & Blacksmith  This year we saw a movie that tapped into the romance of the motorcycle and the open road. Another skewered society's obsession with youthful looks. One documentary shone an uncomfortable light on Israeli actions in the West Bank. While another movie celebrated the redemptive power of the arts. These are the movies that have made the top 20 list of films that Pomona watched this year. But where do they lie on the list?  20.  SING SING (Greg Kwedar) Part-scripted, part-improvised, Greg Kwedar's tribute to the redemptive power of the arts has been a bit of a slow burner in terms of audience awareness. However a good showing in critics' end of year lists and during awards season will definitely change all of that. Colman Domingo is in terrific form as Divine G, a man incarcerated in Sing Sing Correctional Facility in New York for a crime he did not commit but who finds solace in the prison theatre group i...

© Netflix TV viewers this year found themselves debating big issues like stalking and assisted dying, thanks to dramas on Netflix and Channel 4. There were glossy series based on a popular hitman novel from the 1970s and a notorious Californian murder trial from the 1990s. Documentaries shed new light on an Irish bishop shamed in a sex scandal, an infamous British murder case and one of London's most colourful neighbourhoods. What were the 30 TV shows that grabbed Pomona's attention this year and where do they rank on our countdown? Here is our list from 20 to 11. 20. CAMDEN (Disney +) Think of Camden and you associate the area with breakfast television, fashion and vibrant music venues. It was the latter that was the focus of this four part documentary series that told the story of the London district and its place in developing musical talent. A head spinning ensemble of artists from Dua Lipa and Coldplay's Chris Martin to Oasis' Noel Gallagher, Nile Rodgers and Madne...