Alastair JR Ball is a London based science fiction and politics writer. When not writing he can usually be found in a pub, art gallery or a lecture
Marvel and Netflix have collaborated on 7 series now based on comic characters owned by Marvel. Some have been great. Others not so much. Below I list my least favourite to my favourite. Iron Fist…
Dystopian science fiction stories have always been popular, but they seem to be in demand now more than ever. George Orwell’s 1984 became a bestseller, again, following an explosion of interest in post-truth after the…
I finished my summary of film in 2016 by saying that I was not “hugely hopeful for an explosion of quality in 2017” and in many ways I was wrong. Like last year, 2017 was…
Some of the biggest horror movies of 2017 came out recently. The long awaited film adaptation of Stephen King’s It and Darren Aronofsky’s Mother! had a huge impact. Amongst all this hype, less high profile…
Warning: Spoilers for Hannibal, Legion and 2001: A Space Odyssey (although that film came out in 1968 so why haven’t you seen it?) We have all seen a film or TV show that has taken…
Alastair takes a look at the winners and nominees of the 2017 BAFAs. Who were the big winners? Where there any surprises? How well did the films we have covered on the podcast fair on the night? What does all this mean for the Oscars? Find out in this audio clip.
This year, I have been to the cinema a lot. I think I have seen more films on the big screen this year than any other year since I was 18. It was a lot…
There is conflict in the Middle East. Ideological differences are causing strife between communities. If a resolution is not found then this conflict might spread instability across the region. Well, maybe that’s overstating the importance…
This is Alastair’s final update from the 60th BFI London Film Festival. For the end of the festival I saw The Man From Mo-Wax, Snowden and The Gual. Above you can listen to what I thought of each of them. The Man From Mo-Wax is a music documentary about James Lavelle, Snowden is Oliver Stone’s biopic of Edward Snowden and The Gual is a low budget British psychological thriller.
This is my final update from this year’s London Film Festival. It was a great festival. At the end of the recording I choose my favourite films from the entire festival.
This is Alastair’s second update from the 60th BFI London Film Festival. I have scene four more films: A Monster Calls, Planetarium, Arrival and The Stopover. The recording in this post contains my initial thoughts on all of them. A Monster Calls is a YA drama based on the novel by Patrick Ness, Planetarium is a drama about French filmmakers in the 1930s, Arrival is a high concept sci-fi film and The Stopover is a French film about three female soldiers returning from Afghanistan.
There will be more discussion of these films in future MFV episodes and in future posts on this website. Keep alter for those and let us know what you thought of these films or any others films you saw at the festival on social media.
1st May 2016
21st July 2016
30th December 2016
26th April 2018
12th April 2018
29th March 2018
22nd February 2016
25th February 2016
29th February 2016
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