Donald Clarke

• Film of the Week
• January 31, 2013, 15:41

This week’s soaraway Ticket comes packed with all your essential film needs. This writer talks to Brandon Cronenberg — son of David — about taking over the family business with the revolting (mostly in a good way) Antiviral. Tara Brady …

• Star Wars
• January 29, 2013, 15:56

Ha ha ha! I haven’t been so happy since they sent Jeffrey Archer to jail. It has been confirmed that Lucasfilm — now owned by Disney, of course — has confirmed that they have postponed the planned re-release of the …

• Oscars
• January 28, 2013, 15:50

If previous form is any guide, we have, over the weekend, just got a few pointers to both this year’s and next years’s Oscars. The Sundance Film Festival ended last night by defying most observers’ predictions of the awards. The …

• Trailerspotting
• January 25, 2013, 22:05

Oh man. If this ends up being no good I will happily volunteer to saw my own head off live on YouTube. Actually, that’s not quite right. It’s not so much that I expect the next film from the Coen …

• Uncategorized
• January 24, 2013, 22:45

Wow! This is one of those stories that everybody and nobody predicted. That is to say when news of the seventh Star Wars film emerged Abrams immediately jumped to the top of everybody’s list alongside Joss Whedon. But Abrams then …

• Film Festivals
• January 23, 2013, 11:54

Hooray! Tony Donoghue’s hugely charming Irish Folk Furniture, which I enjoyed greatly at the Cork Film Festival, has won best short animation at the Sundance Film Festival. I need not tell you what it is like. Thanks to this modern …

• Uncategorized
• January 22, 2013, 21:18

Next week we get to see Denzel Washington in Robert Zemeckis’s Flight. It’s an odd film. Denzel is pretty flawless throughout as an airline pilot who, despite landing a plane in absurdly perilous circumstances, ceases to be a hero when …

• Deaths
• January 21, 2013, 15:38

It has been argued that, if any bruiser hangs around long enough, he or she inevitably turns into a national treasure. This fate certainly befell Michael Winner long before he began to ail. Winner, who has died at the age …

• Box Office Figures Trailerspotting
• January 20, 2013, 21:36

This post could also have been called “the unstoppable Jessica Chastain”. Snow permitting, I will be  in London on Monday to talk to that actor about her performance in Kathryn Bigelow’s (to say the least) controversial Zero Dark Thirty. We …

• Uncategorized
• January 18, 2013, 22:55

I’m a bit late on this. But a shout out is in order for the excellent Shiznit and their annual (as advertised above) “If Oscar nominated posters told the truth” feature. They get stuck into the whole bunch: Les Misértables, …

• Deaths Uncategorized
• January 16, 2013, 15:52

It is a bit of a shame that the great Nagisa Oshima, who has died at the age of 80, is still best known for the lubricious (and beautifully made) Ai No Korida. There is brilliance in that film, but …

• Uncategorized
• January 14, 2013, 22:04

…and abandon any attempt to predict the Oscars. This is not quite the case. But, for decades, The Globes only seemed to exist as a sort of tip sheet for the Oscars. As I have mentioned many, many times before, …

• Oscars Uncategorized
• January 11, 2013, 22:13

Okay, first things first. Some mild crowing is in order. In my annual Oscar prediction post, I got 32 out of 39 picks correct. That works out to 82 percent, which I don’t think is at all bad. As far …

• Oscars Uncategorized
• January 10, 2013, 17:05

1. They allowed Seth MacFarlane to do a few jokes and they were reasonably funny. 2. Neither Kathryn Bigelow nor Ben Affleck was nominated for best director. Almost nobody saw that coming. 3. Amour made best film and best director. …

• Oscars
• January 8, 2013, 22:51

It’s nearly that time. At lunchtime on Thursday, Seth MacFarlane and Emma Stone will announce the nominations for the 2013 Oscars. It’s a funny year. As I have mentioned in this place before, few recent Oscar races have featured so …

• Uncategorized
• January 7, 2013, 22:28

Allow me to divert you with a tale of my visit to the Liberace Museum during the 1990s. Sadly, I believe it has since closed. Situated in a vulgar shopping mall at the fringes of central (where else?) Las Vegas, …

• Television
• January 5, 2013, 20:11

As media-watchers will be aware, the Daily Mail sees itself as the guardian of British morality. Any perceived slump in ethical standards triggers extraordinary degrees of teeth gnashing. That paper was, famously, the prime mover in transforming Jonathan Ross and …

• Rock 'n' pop.
• January 3, 2013, 21:26

The time has finally come. After 40 years of spectacular improvisation, Keith Jarrett is finally set to attack his piano in our own National Concert Hall. And it’s happening soon. A press release informs me that the solo concert will …

• Rock 'n' pop.
• January 2, 2013, 23:55

“Patti Page and summer days out on old Cape Cod…” Yes, Miss Patti Page has died and another link with the pre-rock era has been severed. The soft-country singer was staggeringly popular, but found herself shuffled off to the grim …