Reportedly, Russell Crowe was waiting ringside for nigh on a decade for the true story of depression-era boxing champ James J. Braddock to be made into a feature film, eventually asking director and friend Ron Howard to take to the helm. Undoubtedly, the wait, and the disappointing box-office turnover for its late-summer 2005 release, (‘we didn’t have capes, just shorts’ said Crowe after) may have lead to the famous ‘throwing-a-phone-at-a-receptionist’s-face’ incident, giving audiences a further excuse to stay away from [...]

It’s true that most of Austrian director Michael Haneke’s films are not the most accessible in the world, but his 8th feature film, Hidden, is his most accessible film so far. Like some of his other great works such as ‘Funny Games’ and ‘Benny’s Video’ , he focuses on families that are thrown into very difficult and unusual situations in which they find themselves becoming desperate, unable to cope and traumatised. Yet ‘Hidden’ is more than just a muse on [...]

It seems that somewhere between DJ Shadow’s excellent sophomore effort The Private Press and the recording of his latest (mostly) electronic opus… Josh Davis (that’s his real name, see) had something of an epiphany. Shocked by a near-death experience involving a London taxi journey, and the news of potentially life-threatening complications during his wife’s pregnancy of his two (as then unborn) twin-daughters, the Sampler / Turntablist / Navel Gazer decided things would have to change. And nothing brings out the [...]

Bed wetters? Mommy’s boys? Princes of the prosaic? Keane have been called many-a-name since their trillion selling debut album Hopes and Fears; so many names, that, in fact, it became something of a counter-cultural statement to admit that… you know… they’re actually quite good. It’s easy to see why and where the Keane backlash started. Their sensitive indie-posho flavouring was already providing musical indigestion to the masses with Coldplay and Travis (amongst others) being gobbled up by mums, dads, neighbours, [...]

Often, bands of a certain distinction (or age), talk glibly about ‘coming full circle’. This circadian spiel is usually prompted by a slump in sales; i.e. ‘we’re getting older, but we still want the adulation (income) we received when we were rock’s impudent younglings’. And so, the sir Chili of Peppers have reached this aforementioned milestone, it’s been 20+ years since their socks were placed so precariously on their cocks, 20 years since the start of their non-more-debauched binges of [...]