Hope Lies on Television #16 - Luck, David Milch and Humanity

To commemorate the release of HBO's Luck on Blu-ray and DVD, I wrote about the ill-fated horse racing drama, as well as offering my thoughts on the themes of David Milch's career and how they relate to Luck's world of jockeys, trainers and gamblers. Also, because I never miss a chance to make a Father Ted reference, I managed to relate it to My Lovely Horse in a way which still manages to be somewhat reverent.

Luck is available now and is absolutely worth seeking out. It's a beautiful, thrilling and utterly unique series that will hopefully overcome the stigma that has, in all honestly rightly, become attached to it since its cancellation.

DVD Review: Quatermass and The Pit (1967)

One of the main problems with watching old, “classic” films is that most of them have, for one reason or another, dated. Most of the time these things can be overlooked by placing the work in its original context and accepting that ideas, attitudes and styles change over time, but there are some genres which date worse than others. The chief amongst these are science fiction and horror, since effects and ideas that were once fantastical and scary can look farcical and silly viewed years or decades later.

Film Review: Hanna (2011)

Considering that he has spent much of his career to date making worthy literary adaptations like Pride and Prejudice and Atonement, it came as something of a surprise when director Joe Wright would direct a stylish thriller about a young girl (Saoirse Ronan) who is raised by her father (Eric Bana) to be a perfect killing machine. What's even more surprising is that not only is Hanna a great genre film, it's also probably Wright's best work to date.

DVD Review: Outside The Law (2010)

Saïd (Jamel Debbouze), Messaoud (Roschdy Zem) and Abdelkader (Sami Bouajila) are three brothers living in the town of Setif, Algeria when, on the 8th of May, 1945, the French authorities open fire on a march intended to celebrate the end of the war in Europe, initiating a massacre that leaves hundreds dead. The event was a turning point in the Algerian quest for independence, and director Rachid Bouchareb's film uses it as the starting point for a story that examines the fight for freedom through the lives of the three brothers.