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Month: December 2017

Review: Armenia Taverna

Tucked away in the corner of Albert Square, just out of the hustle and bustle of the Christmas markets, you will find a fantastic restaurant serving up traditional Armenian food in a setting that entirely fits the theme.

With borders with Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Iran, the food of Armenia has significant influences from Europe and the Middle-East, with a menu somewhat similar to a Persian or Lebanese restaurant, but with a Russian influence.

The décor of the restaurant fits with this eclectic mix, with a luxury feel added by the live pianist, who it must be said was fantastic.

My personal opinion is that to get the best of a restaurant like this one always wants to order the mezze, and so I did, along with a couple of other small side dishes to accompany it. The mezze was fantastic. Living close to curry mile I am spoilt for choice when it comes to Middle-Eastern food; however, there was an obvious difference between the mezze on offer here.

The more standard items are included, such as a hummus and a tabbouleh, but there is also various items of far more traditional fare. An Armenian bulgur salad and Yershig, a spiced lamb sausage, for example, where both excellent, and different to anything I have sampled before at Middle-Eastern recipes.

The stand out here though has to be the Ararat pie, another traditional dish of Armenia. Think of something akin to a Middle-Eastern samosa and you are along the right lines. Minced lamb with nutmeg parsley and egg wrapped up in pastry and deep fried, these were simply brilliant, the only issue being that there weren’t more!

The tabbouleh was remarkably fresh with an excellent hit from the fresh mint and lemon juice, and the Mutabal, an aubergine dip with garlic and tahini, was very good too. In all honesty, I could simply list here every item of the mezze and tell you that they were very good, because that is the case, and so to avoid monotony I shall just leave it at that!

If there was a disappointment, and that is a big if, it has to be the one main that was ordered. Described as a slightly spiced cured beef pasty, the Yerevan Khachapuri was easily the most disappointing plate of food. The “slightly spiced” flavour referred to in the menu turned out to be a somewhat unpleasant and remarkably strong tasting beef which overpowered the very good homemade bread and traditional cheese that it came with; definitely one to avoid should you take my advice and go.

Overall, however, it is not hard for me to make a decision as to whether or not I would recommend Armenian Taverna. Simply put, one of the best mezze collections I have ever sampled, and a fantastic setting to boot.

Review: 15th Birthday Metropolis at WHP

There is a sense of wonder that surrounds Warehouse Project. A unique venue that feels almost underground — you know, apart from it being actually underground.

As you approach the open doors, it is awash of thousands of like-minded students, trying to find the right balance between keeping warm but also wearing as little layers as possible, knowing you’re going to be sweating like heck once inside.

Despite WHP being situated within one of the biggest music venues in Manchester, they have absolutely no problem packing the place out, Especially with such a colossal name like Chase and Status ‘performing’, the demand for tickets is absolutely monumental.

Once inside such a place like A Warehouse, it is only curiosity to see what’s happening amongst each corner. The place had a plethora of different DJ’s and stages all happening at the same time. There was always a place for you somewhere if you didn’t fancy getting too involved in the main stage.

But be prepared to wait around for a long, long, long time. For anything.  At least 40 minutes to get in, 40 minutes just to go to a loo, and probably another 10 minutes just to squeeze your way through to a less crowded side of the room.

Photo: Louis and Garry Brown

The night was consistent and timely on one thing, and that was delivering music which was bursting with energy. Track after track, flowing from one booming beat to the next. Metropolis’ 15th birthday event was crammed with DJ’s such as SHY FX, My Neu Leng, and AJ Tracey showcased their impressive skills and stage personas, ensuring all who attended were completely entranced in the music. These all lead up to the final act and headliners of the night, Chase and Status.

The ‘Blind Faith’ and ‘End Credit’ artists — who funnily enough met whilst at Manchester University (Woo woo!) — put on an almighty and robust performance through their set. The Duo are still able to show after all this time why they deserve and remain to be one of the biggest forces in UK music.

Their set flickered between an impressive range of genres, delving into and incorporating elements of dubstep, grime and drum and base. Their cleverly thought out set consisted of an electric energy which surged through the enormous thunderous venue.

Trying to remain completely unbiased — upon arriving I realised that this definitely wasn’t the type of music I would generally listen to actively — I can see why this hugely anticipated night marked a hugely significant night for a lot of people who live and breath drum and bass.

7/10

Review: The Punisher – Series 1

Marvel and Netflix. Netflix and Marvel. A match made in Hell’s Kitchen, or so we thought. Initially we got gnarly, gritty dramas, fully deserving of their mature age rating.

The likes of Daredevil (both Seasons 1 and 2) and Jessica Jones were violent, dark, and uncompromising. Their stories dealt with unsettling concepts and having 13 episodes allowed characters like Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) depth and nuance that feature films of the genre often fail to capture.

Frankly, the antagonists of the series have always outshone their big screen counterparts and, as such, the Marvel/Netflix partnership was always seen by me as a vehicle for pushing boundaries that the 12A films could not.

But then the road got bumpy. The Defenders was meant to be the great culmination of four fantastic characters, each given their own time to breathe before joining forces. Neat concept, terrible execution. The series was bland, stretched thin (despite only having 8 episodes), and remarkably made Sigourney Weaver boring to watch. Go figure. It is with great pleasure then, that I can tell you The Punisher wants nothing to do with any of it. Thank God for that.

It’s a strong opening. We join Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) as he cleans up the rest of the gangs from Daredevil S2. Bikers, Cartel, one by one they fall, and you feel you could watch murder after murder and never get bored. However, as quickly as the show gets moving it slows to a halt. He’s done, it’s over, no more killing. For a show called The Punisher the punishing is kept to a surprising, yet sensible minimum.

This show is a slow burn, make no mistake, more concerned with government conspiracy than it is criminal witch hunts. There’s the evil CIA agent at the top, the ambitious FBI agent, the old friend-turned-enemy, and a whole host more of familiar character tropes to surround Castle with, but despite bordering the realms of familiarity, the show never feels stale or predictable. Much of this will come down to Castle’s penchant for violence. When your main character has no qualms with murder, all bets are off. His mantra is unwavering, and thus our time is not wasted with any overlong attempt to ‘help him see the light’. It’s the Punisher’s show, and no one’s going to take that away from him.

What we’re left with then is a gripping thriller, with twists and turns, explosive fire fights, and graphic executions. At the centre of it all is Jon Bernthal. F*** he’s good. Having followed his work from the early days of The Walking Dead, through various bit-parts in feature films, it’s good to see him finally stretch his wings. Frank Castle is haunted, deranged, caring and violent, and Bernthal nails every scene. From touching family flashbacks, to dragging a man’s face through shattered glass, the range on display is astounding: this is the American actor’s best work yet.

Surrounding him are an impressive supporting cast, most notably Amber Rose Revah’s Agent Madani, and Ben Barnes’ Billy Russo. The acting carries this show through it’s quieter moments, while the choreography of the louder ones makes them all the more memorable.

It’s not all good. Daredevil’s Karen Page primarily serves as a damsel in distress, whilst also muddying the water with a confusing mix of liberal journalism and pro-gun rhetoric. Furthermore, a senator advocating gun control is later portrayed to be a coward and somewhat of a hypocrite, leaving the show in a bit of a moral conundrum. By making the one advocate of gun control a weak, pathetic character, the show comes dangerously close to endorsing the actions of Castle. It does well to keep the contemporary politics to a minimum, though, and keeps the focus primarily on the role of entertainment.

It’s nasty, wonderfully violent, and surprisingly tender at times. The Punisher is a welcome addition to a universe it seemingly wants no part of.

4/5

UoM scientists develop treatment for fatal children’s disorder

The team, led by Professor Brian Bigger, are hopeful that their groundbreaking new stem cell gene therapy for the terminal disorder Sanfilippo can transform the lives of children affected, and potentially lead to the treatment of other neurodegenerative disorders.

The four types of Sanfilippo syndrome, A, B, C, and D, are caused by the inherited lack of a key enzyme in the central nervous system, resulting in the accumulation of waste in the brain which causes progressive damage that begins as hyperactivity and leads to loss of speech and cognitive skills and seizures.

“The brain is the most affected organ in children from around age 2,” says Bigger, “with progressive dementia-like symptoms, hyperactivity, eventually ending up in a wheelchair, and they usually die in their late teens. There are no treatments.”

The promising therapy for Sanfilippo was developed in the Stem Cell and Neurotherapies Laboratory, where Professor Bigger and his team have been researching stem cell and gene therapies for neurological diseases for over ten years. The therapy involves removal of the patients own stem cells and the insertion of a working copy of the gene into these cells, which can then be transplanted back into the patient’s body.

“My team has been working for many years to develop treatments for rare lysosomal diseases that affect the brain, including Sanfilippo disease… We recently showed that a stem cell gene therapy approach, which is basically replacing the missing gene in a patient’s bone marrow and re-transplanting it, could treat the brain disease in mice with Sanfilippo type A and most recently Sanfilippo type B.

“Neither therapy could have been developed without testing in mice to show that the therapy works, as this is required by the clinical regulatory agencies, including the MHRA.”

Biotechnology company Orchard Therapeutics, who work closely with the University of Manchester, has acquired the exclusive license for the therapy meaning it will be able to be used to treat patients with this devastating disorder in the near future.

Dr Jesus Garcia-Segovia, Orchard’s Vice President of Clinical Development, CNS and Metabolic Disorders commented: “We are very excited at the possibility of bringing effective treatments capable of addressing the high unmet medical need in children suffering from these devastating conditions.”

Professor Biggers Lab hopes that the stem cell gene therapy could also lead to developments in the treatment of more common neurological diseases such as Parkinson and Alzheimer diseases,  stating, “If we can show that it is possible to treat single gene brain diseases such as Sanfilippo with stem cell gene therapy, it will pave the way for other treatments.”

Following the first ever attempt at another form of gene therapy — editing a gene inside the body — that took place in California earlier this month on a patient with Hunter Syndrome, promising advances are being made in this field, with many of them stemming from right here in Manchester.

Considering renting?

You have decided who you want to live with in your second year.  You have found a great student house for just the right rent.  You have also managed to get a house in your perfect location.  You are ready for the rite of passage of living in a house.  However, do you really know what your tenancy agreement means?  Do you really know what you have agreed to? That clause where you think you know what it means but you are not quite sure?

Sound familiar?  There is nothing wrong in admitting that you are not 100 per cent sure what your tenancy agreement means, whether you are a first-time renter or have rented previously.  Every tenancy agreement differs, so it is important that you understand what your tenancy agreement means for you.

The University of Manchester Students’ Union Advice Service offers a free tenancy agreement checking service.  If you email your tenancy to the Service, an advisor can check the clauses to make sure you are aware of what you are about to sign.  The advisor will also make you aware of any clauses that are not legally enforceable.  So before you sign your tenancy agreement, get your tenancy agreement checked.

The Advice Service are often rather busy so can’t always check an agreement straight away.  When you email your tenancy agreement, please let the Advice Service know when you need a response by.  Often landlords use pressure tactics of “if you don’t sign now someone else will sign”.

However, you can ask for time to get your agreement checked.  If the landlord is reluctant to let you do this and is pressuring you to sign there and then, you may want to think about if you are willing to sign a legally binding agreement without first getting advice.

If you have already signed a tenancy agreement, you can still get your tenancy agreement checked so you are aware of what you have agreed to.  If you do want your tenancy agreement checked, please email it over to [email protected]

Review: Returning

On Friday 24th November 2017, I made my way down to the alternative and funky 3 Minute Theatre in Affleck’s Palace. The space was perfect for demonstrating the claustrophobia suffered by the two main actors in Returning; Jo, played by Jenna Brannock, and Michael, played by Rory Greenwood. The intimacy of the space allowed for the audience to feel submerged into the lives of the wounded soldiers; rather than mere spectators, we felt more like friends seeking the recovery of both Jo and Michael.

In particular, in a scene with Michael describing one of his day to day struggles to integrate himself back into mundane tasks of just watching a film with his roommate, Rory delivered a powerful punch as he fully engrossed himself in the mental confines of a soldier suffering from PTSD.

Rory’s passionate delivery included a strained ability to move as if paralysed from the terrible nightmare of recollecting the horrors of war. During this process, the powerful enunciation of his monologue left me soaked in his spit, which I could not have been more pleased with! The stellar performance and dedication to research of his character was shown all the way throughout the play with his in-depth characterisation.

In addition, his co-star Jenna Brannock was particularly astonishing in showing the suffocation faced by war veterans by family members once they come home. Jo’s mother, played by Nell Gordon-Hall, deserves an honourable mention for her perfected performance of a character who epitomised all things motherly, the portrayal of desperate concern for her daughter’s well being felt sincere.

Even though the audience could sympathise with Jo feeling overwhelmed by her mother’s concern, we could easily tell that it came from the heart, once again highlighting the complications of relationships after one has suffered through something as life-changing as war.

Jenna also gave a moving performance during a scene where she was surrounded by three tall dark figures, who seemed to be moving Jo from one situation to the next at a fast pace. The director, Kat Humphrey, did an amazing job in creating further claustrophobic environments to represent a mental enclosure for Jenny’s character in which, by the end of the scene, she was left wheezing and sputtering, feeling as if she was suffocated by her memories and her inability to integrate back into society.

Another honourable mention to Felix Firth who played Michael’s roommate Dave — he delivered a worthy contrast to the emotion turmoil suffered by the main characters as he also showed the suffering felt by those who do not suffer the scars of war but just the scars of life, through playwright Jade Fox’s poetic and beautiful analogies of Dave’s wife.

These would start off as comedic but always took a dark turn to show the realities of a broken down marriage. At points they showed the toxic nature of masculinity that Dave suffers from, thinking it’s not ok to share his problems because ‘[he is] a man,’ once again reiterating the importance of mental health and speaking about how we feel.

The music and lighting were both spectacular in creating the desired effects on the audience: from the blue lighting during the non-naturalistic scenes between the two main characters that reminded me of someone drowning at sea, to the beautiful juxtaposition delivered by the music of Oscar Ogden on the drums, playing patriotic war songs that contrast with the terrible accounts of war from each character.

Returning was an exquisite piece of reality for many soldiers living through these problems today and it left the audience thinking of how we can help solve these issues to help those who fight to help us everyday.

Returning was the second play in the Drama Society’s Autumn Season. Tickets for the remainder of the season can be purchased from here.

Vogue: Enninful’s Era

We can hedge our bets that the 2017 December issue of British Vogue has been one of the best-selling covers in recent times for Conde Nast. Following Alexandra Shulman’s departure of the leading fashion publication earlier this year after a staggering reign of 25 years, Edward Enninful is now at the helm of Vogue’s editorial team.

Edward Enninful prior to this gained a repertoire of experience from no less than W magazine where he was style director and has also served stints contributing to Italian and American Vogue. Enninful marked his stakes in the fashion world when at the ripe age of 18 was positioned as Fashion Director of i-D magazine, making him the youngest ever fashion director for an international publication.

The industry’s finest commemorated the birth of Enninful’s new era at a glitzy affair at London’s The River Café where the likes of Gigi Hadid accessorised her look with the glossy new December edition and that alone.

The narrative of this issue is clear, Great Britain and celebration of all things we as a nation stand for. The pages are infiltrated with words from key players in the game such as Victoria Beckham, Grace Coddington, and Christopher Bailey. Zayn Malik’s touching love letter to his Northern hometown of Bradford and the dialogue between supermodel Naomi Campbell and Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan create a sense of British pride.

With notes from Skepta to the mentions of the late Steve McQueen, Enninful and his team have compiled an issue that will be treasured on my bookshelf for many years to come! Fashion contributors in following issues will include Kate Moss as well as the rising model and activist Adwoah Aboah.

As we see the likes of Alexandra and her right-hand woman and ex-Vogue Fashion Director Lucinda Chambers enter into new projects with Business of Fashion, I am eagerly anticipating the new journey and direction of my favourite magazine. Some find the tides of change overbearing but I for one welcome the new wave of Enninful.

High salaries not key to retaining graduates, survey suggests

According to a recent survey carried out by GTI, only around one in every five graduates deem the level of compensation they are receiving to be the most important factor in deciding whether or not to remain with their current employer.

Providing a competitive salary was only the most important factor for between a fifth and a quarter of the respondents. Instead, 51 per cent of those asked stated that the opportunity to progress to a higher level within the same company was higher up their proverbial wish list.

Despite the growing reputation of millennials as job-hoppers and the recent explosion of the portfolio career in recent decades, this evidence suggests that, contrary to this, most young people would prefer to pursue an upwardly mobile career path within the same company, as long as these opportunities are made available. Just 22 per cent of respondents didn’t view their first job as a long-term position.

Chloe Burgess, director at GTI, noted: “It is evident that the present ideal is for a graduate job to be long-term, and employers should have practices in place to facilitate progression.”

Furthermore, there was a widespread expectation for training to be carried out by employers themselves as part of a first-time job. Fully 56 per cent of those surveyed felt that this should be carried out in-house, while 27 per cent per cent expected group training at the beginning of their tenure.

Final year biomedicine student Aaron Bossey, 22, told The Mancunion that to him, training was the most important element of a graduate job., stating that: “training in a wide range of activities at the company would allow me to narrow down what it is I want to do.”

Similarly, final year Geography student Tom Hodgkisson mused: “The career I’m pursuing requires a lot of training before I can reach that competitive salary bandwidth, and I’m totally fine with that because I know I’ll likely be earning more money in the long run.”

In contrast, 21-year-old Masters student Christine Joerres suggested that not all students wanted so-called ‘grad jobs’ and that there were other pathways to consider — however, she did add that the chance for upward movement within the company was a big draw.

On a lighter note, Caitlin McWilliams, a final year Psychology student, joked: “With what I want to do, there isn’t a snowman’s chance in hell that I will get good money for it, so as long as I can afford my rent I don’t really mind.”

GTI’s findings suggest that today’s graduates may be bucking the trend of the job-hopper and considering a more traditional, stable path to establishing themselves in life, even if it means sacrificing a weightier pay packet.

GTI is an organisation aiming to help companies recruit the best talent they can get a hold of, whilst at the same time helping students make the best possible decisions about their future careers. The survey included a pool of 949 participants, both students and graduates, who were asked about their current and future work.

Review: Daddy’s Home 2

2015’s Daddy’s Home felt like a cut-and-paste job from director Sean Anders. He most likely watched The Other Guys (2010), saw the chemistry between Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell, and thought he could do the same. So thats what he did. The exact same.

It was a functioning comedy that got enough laughs to not be totally written off — the $250 million box office return agrees with that — but Anders milked the basic concept of having an alpha and a beta male try to work together until long after the teat ran dry.

In Daddy’s Home 2, Anders did what any comedy writer with few ideas and grand aspirations would do; add even more exagerrated A-List characters in the hopes that lightening will strike the same spot twice. Like with so many bad comedy films, the sequel is worse and this is no different.

After a school show where one of the children says how she doesn’t like Christmas because she can’t spend it with everyone she loves, the co-dads decide to have a big Christmas altogether. Both Brad (Will Ferrell) and Dusty’s (Mark Wahlberg) fathers are coming too. As luck would have it they will be arriving on the same day, at the same airport, at the same terminal, at the same time, and will walk down the escalator just long enough apart to have a proper introduction of one before the other. How about that!

The first to appear is Kurt, Dusty’s ladies man of a father, played by Mel Gibson. In every scene his character appears, Gibson creates a humour vacuum. It was as if every word he spoke was a drop of vitriol onto my eyes, an uncontrollably painful experience that you desperately want to end. One of the first lines for Kurt when he sees his grandchildren is a joke about dead hookers, and it doesn’t get better from there.

Brad’s father Jonah was, however, played by an ever-charasmatic John Lithgow. Even softer than Brad, he has some genuinely heartfelt scenes throughout the film, but each one is ruined by limp jokes. It briefly touches on loneliness after a long-term marriage ends, but Anders doesn’t have the ‘cahones’ to explore these ideas in any depth, which was mightily disappointing.

The biggest aspect of the film I took issue with was Mel Gibson’s character, and in particular his lines. Now I am a firm believer of separating the art from the artist. I believe that we should be able to enjoy a film for what it is and not shun it because of the actions of one out of the hundreds of people working on it. Yet Mel Gibson’s character makes a joke about violence against women and that left a sour taste in my mouth.

Previously Gibson has been in the spotlight for anti-Semitic and racist comments as well as confessing to beating his girlfriend while she was holding their baby daughter. As a result of this many people refuse to see Gibson’s films and I respect their right to do that, but it is unsurprising that he still gets cast in blockbuster movies. To watch as he jokes about the very things he did, things he still shows no remorse for, is disgusting.

The final scene sparked anger in me too, however nowhere near that same level. Both halves of the family naturally break apart and then unwittingly meet back up at a cinema on Christmas. There is an acapella group on a little stage that Brad interrupts to make a grand speech about how cinemas are the place to go with people you love and to meet new people, to rekindle his families relationships.

The speech seems to win over everyone in the lobby, making them forget about the fact not two minutes before they watched an incestuous kiss as one of the children kisses another. It wins over the cinema staff too who start handing out free chocolate and drinks. I thought I’d seen a lot of unrealistic moments in film but this really takes the cake.

1/5

Interview: Phoebe Bridgers

It was with some degree of trepidation that I began my interview with Phoebe Bridgers. The up and coming act of the moment, Phoebe has gathered plaudits from far and wide, and and has even been compared to Bob Dylan. Her lyrics are intensely personal, with an unusual honesty in a cultural sphere that seems to be more and more defined by irony. I went to meet her in Manchester at the start of her Europe-wide mini-tour. Cycling through the dreary Manchester night to my destination, it is safe to say that I felt some amount of pressure.

I needn’t have. Phoebe and Harry, the guitarist accompanying her on tour, are warm, personable, and likeable. They share a genuine passion for music and rattle off a list of musicians whom they admire. I ask about the comparisons with Dylan and the effusive praise that Phoebe has received in the press.

“Nobody’s Bob Dylan, you’ll just never live up to it… I’ll fucking take it though,” she replies. I ask what incarnation of Dylan she most enjoys and is slightly surprised by the answer: “obviously I like the classics… but recently I’ve been listening to a lot from his Christian period. There are great things hiding in the Christian albums.” I am left with the impression that both Phoebe and Harry are genuine lovers of music with eclectic tastes.

We talk a little about her upbringing and her love of music from a young age. Brought up in Palo Alto, her mother was somewhat of a “momager”, always encouraging her to go to festivals and nurturing an interest in music. Given a significant amount of creative freedom as a child, Phoebe went to a “non-conventional” school where creativity was encouraged.

This independence of mind is apparent in her political views. She is neither rude nor imposing, but unafraid to say what she thinks when I broach the topic of modern American politics. Her response is unequivocal: “It’s super-split. It’s hard for me to see a way out of it as a lefty because how are you going to hold a reasonable conversation with somebody who thinks that all Muslims are terrorists… There’s no sugar-coating it anymore.”

An ability to be forthright is clearly present in her lyric writing. Bridger’s lyrics are of the very rawest kind. They tell tales of teenage emotional anguish, as part the angsty Bildungsroman that is Stranger in the Alps. “Jesus Christ, I’m so blue all the time/ And that’s just how I feel/ Always have and I always will/ I always have and I always will” she sings on “funeral”, a song about the death of a childhood friend.

Crooning with resignation over such words, Bridger’s voice is, at times, majestic. Resignation isn’t Phoebe’s only calling card and throughout the album, she sings with intensity, regret and anger. The music is best described as a blend of lo-fi rock and folk, spacious and at times dreamlike, interlaced with the delicate but brooding intensity of her vocals and lyrics. Safe to say, there is a great deal of sadness; she does not shy away from difficult emotions.

I ask if it can be strange meeting journalists and fans and knowing that they have read such personal lyrics. “I have to look people in the face and know that they know all those words that I said… It’s not like what does this mean it’s more like oh, she’s literally telling me that.”

The gig itself is fantastic. The venue is packed and Bridgers has an easy rapport with the crowd. She starts with ‘Motion Sickness’ and the assortment of people that litter the room are engrossed. Teenagers, 20-somethings, the middle-aged, men and women are all in attendance; there is nothing easily definable about the crowd. It seems the Bridgers music appeals to a large cross-section of society.

Her voice is remarkable, a heady mixture of vulnerability, anger and intensity, delivered with a pure, crystal clear tone. A rendition of Radiohead’s ‘Fake Plastic Trees’, amid the plethora of her own fantastic songs, is particularly memorable.

As the gig ends and I leave the venue, I ponder what sets Phoebe Bridgers apart from the rest. She has affecting, melodic, atmospheric music, a rare voice and clear talent. Nevertheless, I think what really makes her stand out, and attracts followers from all walks of life, is the unabashed way in which she sets out her vision. Bridgers doesn’t hold back. She is not scared to say what she thinks or to set out how she feels. This is the “gothic heart” that lies at the centre of her melodic, atmospheric folk.

Bridgers work is marked by creative freedom. She’ll be around for a very long time.

Record Reappraisal: Eagles – Hotel California

It has been 40 years since the classic song about a boy trapped in a hotel graced the charts. I wonder if he’s still there.

In 1976, the Eagles released the album containing their most well-known song as the title track, Hotel California. The album went on to sell over 30 million copies and reached platinum within one week of release. The 40th anniversary remastered release of the album comes a year later from the official birthday as band member Don Henley stated: “nothing really hit the charts until ’77, so we’re not really that late”. The album spent a whopping eight weeks at number one in 1977 and two years on the Billboard top 200.

Since its release, the band has lost some of its key founding members Glenn Frey, Randy Meisner and Bernie Leadon. The latter of the three left Eagles before the release of their sixth studio album and as Leadon brought a lot of country influences to the band, without this, they were able to make Hotel California their first official rock album. The track list features two songs that reached the number one spot, the title track as well as ‘New Kid in Town’.

The title track carries to most weight with it in society today. The song was speculated to be about Satanism, but the band confirmed it was based off the American Dream and how in 200 years the USA has developed but now that it needed to change and it was designed as a “socio-political statement” trying to summarise the loss of innocence. The song has been featured in AbFab, AHS: Hotel and The Big Lebowski as well as signalling big changes in politics, economy and even warfare.

This re-release features ten previously unreleased live remastered recordings as well as pairing the tracks with studio and live versions. The live tracks will include the first ever live performance of ‘Hotel California’ and a few other classics from their discography.

Students targeted in fake bursary scam

Students have been targeted by a phishing scam claiming to be from the University of Manchester’s bursary scheme. The scam asked for a significant amount of sensitive information from students, such as bank details and National Insurance numbers.

The link attached to the compromised email address, offering students an award of £1750, took students to “http://rodrigorcarvalho.com.br”, a compromised  website, with the criminals attempting to obtaining National Insurance numbers and bank details as well as a wide variety of other private information.

University of Manchester students are not the only ones believed to be targeted by phishing scams, with similar ‘fake bursary’ emails attempting to con students out of their money and reveal sensitive information being reported at multiple universities across the country, including in Leicester and Cardiff.

The University has stated there that is no way of determining if this is the same scam, as the the emails were sent using a compromised account from another institution and the fake submission form was hosted on a compromised website. However, is clear that students are increasingly being targeted by such ‘fake bursary’ phishing schemes.

Alex Walter, a first-year American Studies student at the University of Manchester, was one of the students targeted by the scam. Alex, as well as other students, posted a warning about the scam on the popular Fallowfield Students Group (FSG).  He explains: “most students would jump at the money, myself included. I thought it was best to post in FSG, as I knew some students would fall victim to it.”

Alex was quick to identify the email as being “dodgy”. However, some may have found it easy to overlook the details. The form which was sent from “a dodgy email”, tracing back to Keele University, asked students for their security code and National Insurance number. The possible consequences of falling for the scam include access to your bank accounts and identity theft.

Psychology student Izzy O’Rourke told The Mancunion, “although I was not targeted by this scam, I fell for one claiming to be from Amazon last year. Since it looked legitimate, I ended up giving them my credit card details.” She highlighted how students have to be continuously wary of increasingly sophisticated and realistic scams attempting to gain personal information.

Whilst this is undoubtedly a worrying attack, it has highlighted how quick-thinking students can use student social media groups to exchange information and keep others safe.

Although the University has said it is impossible to determine how many were targeted by the scam, the only reports IT services have so far received were from those who knew, or were suspicious the email was fraudulent. However, their main advice to students who receive a dubious email is:

  1. Is the sender of the email someone you know?
  2. Does the URL it contains look legitimate ? (Hover your mouse to check)
  3. Were you expecting an attachment?
  4. If you are suspicious contact the University or your school to find out if it is legitimate

We need to stop neglecting student housing

A romanticised stereotype of revolutionary, experimental, probably pretty hopeless university students happily living in less than perfect digs is sentimentalism and a superficial excuse for poor housing. From halls of residence to rented properties, there is a culture of ordeal surrounding student living that is outmoded and starting to get a bit grating.

There’s an assumption the temporariness of university residences excuses their neglect. Students have no bargaining power over their own living conditions, but they should be grateful to find something for less than £500 a month, right?

Of course, expecting a polished semi-detached with a kitchen island, parquet flooring, and a separate dining area is a bit extravagant, but just as poverty should not leave adults living in squalor, it shouldn’t for students. Shocking as it might be that to have to remind people, young people are not actually allergic to housework, and to assume that they are incapable of looking after a property is not only wrong, it’s offensive.

Shared houses are absolutely likely to be messier than well-kept familial hubs of domesticity, but that is not exclusive to having under 25s as tenants. Landlords should not rest on the assumption that their properties will be damaged to excuse them keeping costs off furnishing as low as possible.

Surely, dangers of skimping on basic housing features should be learned by now? It isn’t just a fact of comfort, although that is important, the crime rates in student areas are nearly always high, especially here in Manchester. There shouldn’t ever be any kind of geographical consensus over feeling unsafe within one’s own home.

If Fallowfield was a suburban paradise populated with middle class 2.5 child families and Smeg fridges, there would never be this idleness in reaction to such high instances of break-ins. Students have had to resort to actively demanding sufficient police protection in Fallowfield with the recent petition getting an amazing 9,000+ signatures.

Yet it is already showing signs of being lost in the system and insecurity continues to be dismissed as endemic to anything north of Didsbury. So, student properties will continue to have windows that open 2 inches to reduce the risk of robberies, not a long-term or sustainable solution one might argue.

There is perhaps a more serious dimension to these issues as well, especially in university halls. Poor housing is not conducive to good mental health. It’s not just potential homesickness that makes these poky, unfriendly flats places where students struggle to cope with the pressures of life. Corridors that stretch into space and LED strip lighting in bedrooms genuinely does affect people’s moods and that is not something that should not be jeopardised in order for the university to accrue even more profit.

It needs to be made clear that this is not a bit of grime and stale cigarette ash; this is a neglectful attitude towards those without sway in local politics. The landlord blacklist that Manchester students created, and was subsequently taken down due to legal reasons, is indicative of a wider way in which bargaining power is assigned.

Word of mouth is one of the only tools students have to negotiate the rented property market, and the supplier just took it away, granting themselves almost total market power. There is no clear right for almost an entire socio-economic group to demand decent housing without any pre-requisites, this is something that is granted with life experience and with the accumulation of personal wealth.

Let us leave on perhaps the most heart-breaking manifestation of these issues. A French student studying here in Manchester who wasn’t aware just how strict landlords can be about decoration in their properties recently purchased a holly wreath to hang on his door, only to have it requested to be taken down claiming it was damage to the property and a warning that Christmas cheer will not be tolerated when there are potential costs to be incurred.

Review: Ingrid Goes West

Ingrid Goes West is a film that left me feeling conflicted. The plot was promising, the cast is solid and the visual style sold to me by the poster seemed to strike a chord with me.

But, unfortunately, as we’ve come to expect from most films in the past few years, the overall product falls flat for multiple reasons including (but far from being limited to) sub-par continuity and a painfully bland soundtrack.

The promising plot revolves around Ingrid (Aubrey Plaza), an American girl in her early twenties who has severe mental issues, mainly, being a psychopath. An Instagram feed and the phrase “Is this real? #nofilter” and a handful of other similar photos and captions are narrated to us in a cringe-worthy opener. It’s then revealed to be what Ingrid is doing in her car outside a wedding.

The cringe turned to laughter when our protagonist runs onto the dancefloor and pepper-sprays the bride while screaming “Thanks for inviting me, you f*cking c*nt!”

Ingrid’s obsession with the blogger lifestyle leads her to move to Los Angeles where she comes across Taylor Sloane (Elizabeth Olsen), a textbook millennial blogger girl. She proceeds to stalk Taylor in an ever increasingly worrying manner until they become friends. The main character that I found the most surprising and charming was the Batman-obsessed landlord/boyfriend, Dan Pinto, played by O’Shea Jackson Jr. — also known as Ice Cube’s son.

His performance was genuinely hilarious; let’s hope he makes it in the industry as there’s clearly potential for progress.

To avoid spoilers, let’s move on to the technical aspects of the movie.

The plot is solid and makes for a fine hour and a half worth of entertainment accompanied by the decent cast but there are multiple flaws throughout. Firstly, the soundtrack is a HUGE failure. It conveys a light, almost pleasant sensation with its primary composition of string instruments, and it does not fit with the troubling imagery at all.

Something dark, maybe some synths, maybe a single piano tinkling in a sinister manner à la John Carpenter would have improved the feeling by leaps and bounds. The dreadful shot continuity is extremely prominent when characters are talking to each other; it doesn’t feel like they’re conversing, more like they’re reading their lines to each other while moving all over the place between consecutive shots. Some mistakes in film-making are forgivable — these aren’t.

It seems as most of the film was shot on a wide angle lens with a slightly shallow depth of field that leads to distortion and blur at the edge of the frame, a feature that is very noticeable in indoor shots and in close-ups of phones, blurring the keyboard or the sides of the screen at times.

The pieces to the puzzle were laid out in front of the director, Matt Spicer, and his crew but they didn’t follow the instructions and brought in other ill-fitting pieces that simply don’t work.

Is Ingrid Goes West worth your time? Yes, it’s an entertaining film that will certainly make you laugh and reflect on those goddamn millennials.

Will it go down as a memorable cinematographic piece? Unfortunately, not in my books. It falls short of being decent, leaving the viewer with a sense of dissatisfaction.

2.5/5

Four fantastic finishes for phenomenal United

Mourinho will be hoping his side can do better than the 3-1 defeat they faced at Vicarage Road last season. His side desperately needs to win to keep up the pace with Manchester City and to break the unsavoury run of two consecutive away defeats.

There is a change in formation tonight with Mourinho opting for a 3-4-2-1 formation. De Gea starts in goal with Lindelof, Smalling and Rojo in defence. This is Lindelof’s first back-to-back start and he will be looking to impress once again, Marcus Rojo makes his first appearance this season. Valencia, Pogba, Matic, and Young make up the midfield four, Lingard and Martial play just behind Lukaku up front.

United begin the game as predicted with the majority of possession. Like Brighton at the weekend, Watford are a solid defensive unit, here a back five with two sitting just in front. They do possess quite a lot of pace in attack and United will have to be wary of that.

That possession hasn’t equated to anything resembling a chance and Watford deserve commendation for winning almost every single 50:50 ball. Not just that but they have been cutting through the United defence with fantastic passing moves on the break, having the first shot of the game.

Brighton, when in control of the ball, seem to be targeting United’s right-hand side. Richarlison is making darting runs behind Valencia to isolate Lindelof which it appears they’ve identified as the weak spot.

Lukaku passes the ball to a lone Lingard who manages to retain possession as he waits for his teammates to move up with him. He finds Ashley Young on the end of the box and drills the ball on the half-volley into the bottom corner. It was hit so hard the keeper had no chance even though it was at the near post.

That goal seems to have opened the game up a bit. Paul Pogba gets the ball in his on half and makes a surging run towards Watford’s penalty area. Doucoure makes a sloppy challenge from behind and gets a yellow card for his troubles. The free kick is from 27 yards and quite central, a perfect position.

Ashely Young, still high from the first goal puts the ball down with confidence. It is hit inch perfect bending into the top corner and Gomez, who was standing almost in that corner had no chance. Even Mourinho seemed gobsmacked that the ball went into the back of the net.

Watford will be crushed that their good possession hasn’t amounted to anything and United’s sporadic possession has brought two goals. Young has been one of United’s best players this season with a skill for crossing yet he is showing here that we haven’t seen the last of his goalscoring exploits just yet.

Marco Silva looks stunned and the reason for that is a fantastic third goal for United. A poor defensive clearance gives the ball to Lukaku. He manages to find Martial in acres of space and he slots it home confidently. We are only 31 minutes in but this game has already been put to bed. They have only had three concrete chances and been uncharacteristically clinical.

The only time so far this game that Gomez has touched the ball so far has been to fish it out the back of the net. Will this be the first game this season where United score more than four goals? With Arsenal at the weekend, a big win here will give them bagfuls of confidence.

After a sustained period of losing the possession almost immediately, Watford get the ball in the United half but Rojo drags the player down, receiving a yellow card. It was bad foresight to be caught on the wrong side of the player and his decision to foul the player was rash as Smalling was waiting just behind.

United get a free kick in the exact same position as before after Martial gets hacked down from behind. Adrian Mariappa gets a yellow card for his action. Ashley Young picks up the ball straight away again, will we see another goal? Sadly not, it goes straight into the wall.

Silva is not a happy manager at all. Flashbacks of the six-nil loss here against Manchester City is fuelling his rage-filled outbursts. His side’s initial bright start has descended into a festering mush of sloppiness and incompetence.

Gomes, on the fourth attempt, finally makes a save. He makes a scrambling save to stop a low shot from Lukaku then quickly gets up and runs to the other side of the pitch to save a second shot from Lingard. If either of those had gone in there would be no coming back for Watford.

In the last move of the first half, Femenia loops the ball onto the head of Richarlison. The best chance of the game for Watford so far, he should have at least hit the target, instead it goes just over. There will need to produce something very special to come back.

This is Romelu Lukaku’s 200th appearance and he’ll be hoping that he can grab a much-needed goal to give him more confidence. He will undoubtedly have more chances to score as Mourinho never substitutes the Belgian. The likes of Rashford and Ibrahimovic will be waiting eagerly for their chance to join Young and Martial on the scoresheet.

Watford are not out of it just yet and they are still testing the United defence. They get back to back corners but lose the ball and faces a 3 vs 5 counter attack. Martial finds Lukaku on the right-hand side of the penalty area, a perfect opportunity to shoot towards the far post. For some reason, he doesn’t shoot and passes the ball to a Watford defender. In a position as good as that he really has to shoot, weak foot or not.

Matic goes down, presumably a knock from the endless amount of games he’s played, Herrera comes on in his place. Manchester United’s 2016 Player of the Year starts a little clumsily but quickly settles down.

Mourinho’s second change is a like-for-like one, Anthony Martial for Marcus Rashford. Martial has been brilliant this game, weaving through players effortlessly and grabbing a goal too. Marcus Rashford continues his run of being the only United player to feature in every game so far this season.

Watford are seeing just under two-thirds of the possession in the second half. United are content to sit back and defend, perhaps practising for the superior opponents of Arsenal in a few days time. Of the seven shots so far Watford have had, not a single one has hit the target.

It has become obvious that Lukaku has some serious confidence issues. He was faced with essentially an open goal after Rashford dispossesses the defender. Rather than shoot straight away he takes so long that the entire team, coaches, fans and ballboys got between him and the goal.

Minutes later, and with just 13 minutes to go, Marcus Rojo makes a completely unnecessary challenge in the box to give away a penalty to Watford. Troy Deeney, off the bench, puts the ball down on the spot. He sends the keeper the wrong way to make the score 3-1. Is this the start of a Watford comeback? Will United be punished for wasting chances?

In the 83rd minute, Doucoure makes it 3-2. Carrillo picks him out with a brilliant pass to the edge of the box and, with a lot of work still to do, drills the ball past De Gea. All of a sudden there is a danger of losing the three points in this game.

Jesse Lingard gets the ball well within his own half with nobody with him. He breaks on his own and beats three players as he sprints the full length of the Watford half before hitting the ball across goal into the bottom corner to make it 4-2. What a phenomenal goal, you won’t see much better this season.

That was his last contribution too as he makes way for Zlatan Ibrahimovic who makes his 50th appearance for Manchester United. With two minutes plus stoppage time, we could realistically see goals from both sides. The fourth official hoists the board aloft to show four minutes of extra time.

Injury time is end to end but it will stay at 4-2. It is the 8th time this season that United have scored four and all four where sublime. They close the gap between themselves and Manchester City to five points but they will be favourites to beat Southampton tomorrow. Mourinho’s next game is at the Emirates against an Arsenal side that needed an injury-time penalty to beat Burnley at the weekend.

Why are there no openly gay footballers?

LGBT equality campaigners Stonewall led an anti-homophobia campaign on the weekend of the 25th and 26th of November and football clubs around the country rallied behind this important cause. There were multiple ways the industry got involved from rainbow captain’s armbands to special badges on the chests of managers and pundits to rainbow laces on the shoes of players.

But on the Friday night’s game between West Ham and Leicester, not a single player wore the rainbow laces. So the question is, is the campaign working?

In short, yes, but we need to continue to tackle the issue. Far more people are aware of its existence this year compared with previously and the message is definitely getting across to people. It was also disappointing to see that there were very few fundraising events going on specifically aimed at the fans outside the stadiums.

At Selhurst Park in the game against Stoke, for example, they were giving out free rainbow laces and while that is raising awareness, it isn’t tackling the root issue that derisory remarks against any minority are unacceptable.

In defence of some of the players, they might find it difficult to get behind the cause as they don’t see it as fundamental. It can be hard to truly relate to how these important these issues are without being from the LGBT community. However, everyone can understand how pivotal it is that we stamp out homophobia from the game. Football can’t solve social issues but it can tackle them by teaching the next generation of fans.

A great success story is racism. As all tiers of English football has become multicultural due to increased foreign transfers, the Football Association ran strong no-tolerance campaigns to remove racism from the game. The famous incident between Patrice Evra and Luis Suarez in 2011 resulted in an eight-game ban for the Uruguayan for insulting Evra’s ethnicity and highlighted the progress the sport has made on the issue.

A similar incident for homophobia happened in a game between Liverpool and Chelsea in 1999 when Robbie Fowler taunted Graham Le Saux about his supposed homosexuality going as far as to moon him.

The reactions from fans in the stadium were mostly just laughing along but I think that if this happened in a game now the reaction would be firmly in defence of Le Saux. For his actions, Fowler got a two-game ban and he has since come out apologising profusely for his actions. Nowadays it would earn a five-game ban, the same tariff as racism.

This shows that football and the wider society is moving in the right direction but there is one glaring problem. There are undoubtedly gay footballers playing in the English leagues who must be struggling to maintain the secrecy that they feel is imperative and the fact that not one is comfortable about coming out means that we still have a long way to go.

Ex-Aston Villa midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger came out soon after retiring and said that the thing that made life most difficult for him were the casual homophobic remarks on the training ground in the form of banter. Players and coaches who said things that just chipped away at his moral strength. He believes that the next person that comes out will be on the brink of retiring because of the weight they would have to carry. When he came out the world wanted to speak to him and he had to turn off his phone to avoid it.

We can’t underestimate how much pressure a player would have to deal with if they came out whilst playing. Not only would they have to prove themselves on the pitch every game but they would fly the flag for the LGBT community in the sport. Media from around the world would be scrambling to talk to them and they would be plastered on the front page of every paper. It would be a massive psychological burden for anyone.

A way to share that burden would be for several footballers to come out together. It would also have a larger impact on football in general and would spark a major change as they shared their experiences, both positive and negative. We can’t force someone to come out though if they don’t feel like it’s the best decision for them.

Instead, we should strive to constantly improve the community and players who are in positions of power and respect should use their influence to make a change for the better.

The worse possible outcome is for people to see the rainbow laces initiative as a gimmick, a bare-minimum show of support for clubs to save face. We need to remember what they stand for. The principle of the game we all love is “football for all” and this is something everyone can buy into. Hopefully, in ten to 15 years time we’ll reach a point, similar to racism, where we won’t need to have massive campaigns because no decent person would even consider making discriminatory remarks.

Interview: Jordan Allen

Having had a blast on the road with The Sherlocks, not to mention having their track ‘110 Ways to Make Things Better’ voted by the public as the #1 anthem of Virgin Radio’s Freshfest, it’s already been quite the year for Jordan Allen. Making waves early on in 2017 with their triumphant and touching Livin’ La Vida Bolton charity EP, the band hint we can expect new material to be released from them very soon. We spoke to Jordan about their upcoming headline tour…

This is your first ever headline tour – how does that feel?

Buzzing, yeah. It’s scary, having to sell the tickets by ourselves for the first time.

Do you think Manchester will be the best show?

Yeah, I think the home shows are always the best, aren’t they? But it’s strange because Leeds to me is like a second home, and Liverpool is very close to me, so those three cities all feel like hometown gigs now.

You’ve previously supported The Sherlocks. How was that?

Yeah, great. I’ve known them for a long time, and we supported their first show which was to about 10 people. The support gigs were incredible shows. People actually knew the words to our songs which was so weird. It was huge for us.

On this tour, you’ve got local talent as your support act for each show. Is it important to you to showcase those smaller acts?

Absolutely. It’s so difficult to get support slots that it becomes almost impossible for small bands to get gigs. Local bands are important to us because we want to show the talent coming through, and give those smaller bands a chance.

Your new single R.O.S.I.E. is about a real girl, isn’t it?

It is yeah, correct. Basically, I was at uni in Leeds, and this girl walked into my class absolutely steaming from the night before, wearing a big snow leopard coat. She was an absolute nutjob, but I ended up going on a few nights out with her and we became really good mates.

It’s funny because when people know you’ve written a song about a girl they immediately think it’s a love song, but this was just about her being a nutjob. Now she’s on the cover for the single and on the t-shirts and she’s loving it. She’s not in the video though — she was in Bali when we shot it so we had to get an actress in.

Will there be an album coming soon?

It’s got to be in the equation soon. We’ve got too many songs out as singles. We’ve got some new stuff coming next year, like ‘Wasted Generation’, ‘Out My Mind’. We’ve written a new track which I’m excited to come out… [it’s] got a kind of Killers, stadium rock vibe, so yeah I’m buzzing for next year.

And more touring next year?

Definitely more touring, depending on how this one goes but it’s looking like it’s going to go pretty well. We want to jump on some more supports as well. We’ve got some big things planned for 2018.

What are you currently listening to?

Well I was recently as Kazoopa festival in Leeds, and my mates’ bands Vida and Sheafs were there, so they’re top of the pile recently. Vida [have] like a Stone Roses kind of vibe, and I ended up on with Sheafs for their last song! I also love Kurupt FM. I tweeted them recently because the single came out the same day as The Lost Tapes, and I tweeted that there was no point releasing mine because that was out, and they tweeted me back! They agreed, so I was made up with that. *Laughs, followed by amazing MC Grindah impression.*

Who are your biggest musical influences?

Well, I grew up in the 2000s, so it was The Libertines, The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys. My dad force fed me older stuff like punk, and I found a lot of 60s music too. But at the moment some of my friends are disco DJs in Liverpool, so I love that. Obviously, Kurupt have got to be up there too.

You can catch Jordan Allen at The Ruby Lounge on 15th December.

Review: Battle of the Sexes

Portraying the events leading up to the epic 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King (Emma Stone) and Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell), Battle of the Sexes manages to capture the trepidation surely felt whilst watching the original match, albeit by following a standard biopic formula.

The film opens by showing the inequalities faced by women tennis players; namely that they are paid a fraction of what their male counterparts are paid. After being expelled from the tennis tour, the women’s team struggle to find sponsorships before finally landing one thanks to Gladys Heldman (Sarah Silverman). Additionally, King’s personal life — also dramatized — has taken a sudden turn when she begins to have an affair with Marilyn Barnett (Andrea Riseborough) despite being married.

Parallel to this is Riggs’ personal life, one filled with gambling addiction and a tumultuous marriage. The gambling addiction leads to the idea of challenging the best female tennis player. Although King initially declines, after Riggs beats Margaret Court (Jessica McNamee), she accepts hoping to show that women can play tennis and should be treated as equals.

In the time leading up to the infamous tennis battle, King trains vigorously whereas Riggs decides to rely on vitamins and play up to the media. King wins, Riggs loses. Game. Set. Match.

Battle of the Sexes marks the second time Stone and Carell work together (previously working on Crazy, Stupid, Love) and the on-screen chemistry is undeniable. Riggs’ loud and boisterous showmanship is counteracted by Kings steel-willed dedication to her profession which is brilliantly depicted by Stone and Carell. Both are phenomenal actors who have managed to slip into their roles effortlessly. Carell is known for playing comical characters such as Michael Scott; traits of whom can be seen in caricatured Riggs.

Similarly, the chemistry between Stone and Riseborough is also refreshing, both portraying the budding relationship with confusion and doubt. Screenwriter Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours) manages to capture the moving love story with some heartfelt — although at times a tad too unrealistic — dialogue.

Props also have to be given to the makeup and wardrobe department for making Stone and Carell look so alike to their characters. The series of archive photographs shown at the end of the movie show just how eerily similar the actors look to King and Riggs.

Yet, Battle of the Sexes is not without its downfalls. The two-hour biopic is slow to start yet there is no real character development and at times fails to really explore the characters further than what is already shown on the surface. Then all at once, it is fast-paced and at times feels hurried.

The tennis game itself – which is the whole premise of the movie – also feels rushed. Likewise, not much is shown of the characters after the game. There is a brief scene showing a crestfallen Riggs who manages to reunite with his wife. Similarly, there is a scene showing Stone crying which I suppose it meant to show us how much the victory means to her. Nonetheless, an excellent performance by Stone.

Although Riggs’ personal story is a subplot, oftentimes the scenes are so far and few in between, you forget he exists — or at least for the first half of the movie. Oftentimes, he is introduced in a scene rather abruptly and leaves just as quick. Stone and Carell also do not have much shared screen time which is a shame considering just how well they interact with each other when they are on-screen together.

The movie dramatizes an extraordinary event that has had a massive positive effect on women’s tennis yet the movie itself is pretty basic and fails to really wow the audience; an entertaining yet unsurprising movie. It does do well in highlighting the social themes still prevalent today. It is inspiring, however, to see what women can achieve especially in the face of what is no doubt one of the biggest sexual misconduct scandals in Hollywood.

3/5

Alaïa: his story and legacy

Azzedine Alaïa has passed away in Paris at the age of 82; although if he had it his way, he would most likely have lied to you and cut off at least five years from his age.

The designer was famous for rejecting the status quo and settled himself into the fray as quirky and unpredictable.  From lying about his age to get into art school, to ignoring the traditional seasonal fashion weeks in favour of ‘surprise’ shows, Azzedine Alaïa’s eccentric and rebellious take on couture and the fashion industry turned him into a modern legend.

As the fashion industry mourns his death, it feels right to look back at his story and his biggest successes.  Born in Tunisia, the designer found himself obsessed with fashion due to his summers spent on the coast with his aunts and grandmother, who fuelled his passion with issues of Vogue and dressmaking.  Alaïa studied the process of dressmaking from a young age, watching the family midwife sew in his childhood.

Local, wealthy women who’d employed him to sew the hems of their dresses persuaded him to go to Paris after his training. However, the late fifties were not an ideal time to migrate from North Africa and within five days he was asked to leave Dior because his papers were not in order.

Alaïa never forgave Yves Saint Laurent for that.  However, two aristocratic Parisian women were taken by him and offered him a place as an au pair and dressmaker.  It was here that Alaïa started to get traction and after making dresses for his employers, he started to earn enough commission to afford his own flat and launched his atelier from there.

Despite this, he did flit from designer to designer as an apprentice; he spent time working for Guy Laroche and Thierry Mugler before his own line was successful enough to be his sole work.  Having studied sculpture, Alaïa’s designs were heavily focused on the female form and how to sculpt and structure that shape through fashion.

Vogue named him the ‘King of Cling’ due to how he was revered for making garments that moulded the body into extraordinary proportions.  His focus on these classic silhouette shapes was what made him popular, and his first clothes launch was labelled as ‘ground-breaking’; the entire collection was constructed in leather and both highlighted and sculpted parts of women’s bodies into their best shape possible.

This launch cemented Alaïa’s position in pop culture for generations, dressing celebrities like Grace Jones, Madonna, Naomi Campbell and more recently, Kendall Jenner.  All of these women were dressed in, what many would call, works of art; the ratio of cling and structure to more flowing material show off the women’s bodies in the best way possible.

Almost more famously, Alaïa’s name makes a cameo in the 1995 film Clueless where the film’s leading lady, Cher Horowitz pleads with the man mugging her not to make her lie on the ground because of her dress.  Cher famously pleads “you don’t understand, this is an Alaïa”, but it seems she doesn’t understand; a dress made by Alaïa’s skill would absolutely withstand a short time on the floor.  The feathers would not even have been ruffled.

As the fashion industry mourns their loss, Francois Henri Pinault, the chairman and chief executive of Kering, describes him best; “In the fashion world, he was a great, major couturier.  Everything was at the top with him.” His uncanny ability to shape and shift the industry as expertly as he did the women’s bodies he clothed is a feat not many others could live up to.

HOME Cinema Preview: 1st December

Films opening at HOME this week:

Brakes

Directed by Mercedes Grower — Rated 15

If you knew where it would end, would you ever begin?

Split into two halves, Brakes follows the tumultuous stories of nine couples, plunging straight into the brutal and absurd endings of their relationships before travelling back in time to the moment when the spark of love between them first emerged. Shot in a loose, improvisatory style, the film features an array of contemporary British comedy talent.

Click here to book tickets

Happy End

Directed by Michael Haneke — Rated 15

Michael Haneke revisits familiar ground with some brilliance in Happy End, a portrait of a bourgeois Calais family with a number of skeletons loudly rattling around in their closets. Other familiar Haneke preoccupations recur including the nature of evil, race, death and the role that technology plays in our lives. It’s elegantly done with Huppert and Kassovitz both excelling in an ensemble cast that also welcomes Toby Jones.

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Trophy

Directed by Shaul Schwarz, Christina Clusiau — Rated 15

Endangered species like elephants, rhinos and lions march closer to extinction each year. Their devastating decline is fueled by a global desire to kill these majestic animals for sport. Trophy investigates the powerhouse industries of big-game hunting, breeding and wildlife conservation through their eyes of impassioned individuals who drive them.

From an American trophy hunter to the world’s largest rhino breeder in South Africa, the film grapples with the consequences of imposing a cash value on animals. What are the implications of treating animals as products? Do breeding, farming and hunting offer some of the few remaining options to conserve animals. In Trophy‘s richly cinematic safari, anything is possible, and nothing is as you would expect.

Click here to book tickets

 

Films continuing this week:

Battle of the Sexes

Directed by Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris — Rated 12A

Following the recent documentary by James Erskine and Zara Hayes, Dayton and Farris (Little Miss Sunshine) recreate the legendary 1973 tennis match that pitted Billie Jean King against the boorish Bobby Riggs. Featuring Emma Stone and Steve Carell in the central roles, the film succeeds both as a comedy but more importantly also as a commentary on sexism from a historical and contemporary perspective.

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Suburbicon

Directed by George Clooney — Rated 15

George Clooney returns to the director’s chair and re-teams with Joel and Ethan Coen — as co-writers — for this dark and complex tale of very flawed people making very bad choices in a seemingly idyllic 1950s community. With a cast including Matt Damon, Julianne Moore, and Oscar Isaac, Suburbicon has the look and feel of a Coens movie and doesn’t skimp on the irony.

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Beach Rats

Directed by Eliza Hittman — Rated 15

Frankie, an aimless Brooklyn teenager is having a miserable summer. With his father dying and his mother wanting him to find a girlfriend, Frankie escapes with his delinquent friends and flirts with older men online. When his chatting and webcamming intensify, he finally starts hooking up with guys at a nearby cruising beach while simultaneously entering into a cautious relationship with a young woman.

With a smouldering lead performance from newcomer Harris Dickinson, this exquisitely crafted, scrupulously authentic, dark, and dangerous film confirms the promise of director Eliza Hittman’s arresting earlier work.

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Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool

Directed by Paul McGuigan — Rated 15

Annette Bening and Jamie Bell star in this adaptation of the memoir by British actor Peter Turner, recounting his romance with the legendary — and legendarily eccentric — Hollywood star and film noir stalwart Gloria Grahame during the later years of her life. Detailing a trail of broken marriages and affairs, the film also offers a look at the underside of stardom.

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The Florida Project

Directed by Sean Baker — Rated 15

Sean Baker’s follow-up to the astonishing Tangerines is another lucid, brilliantly realised portrait of life on the margins. The Florida Project tells the story of a precocious six-year-old and her rag-tag group of close friends whose summer break is filled with childhood wonder, possibility and a sense of adventure, while their parents and the adults around them struggle with hard times. A synthesis of Mark Twain, Gummo and Andrea Arnold’s American Honey, this is a bold, visionary work.

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The Killing of a Sacred Dear

Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos — Rated 15

Steven (Farrell), an eminent cardiothoracic surgeon is married to Anna (Kidman), a respected ophthalmologist. They are well off and live a happy and healthy family life with their two children, Kim and Bob. Their lives take a darker turn when Martin (Keoghan), a fatherless youth with whom Steven has a strained friendship ingratiates himself further into the lives of the family. Lanthimos’s follow-up to The Lobster is a brilliantly realised, Kubrickian look at human behaviour.

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The Death of Stalin

Directed by Armando Iannucci — Rated 15

Based on the graphic novel The Death Of Stalin by Fabien Nury and Thierry Robin, writer and director Armando Iannucci’s (Veep, The Thick of It) acerbic satire is set in the days following the Russian leader’s stroke in 1953 as his core team of ministers tussle for control. An all-star cast includes Steve Buscemi, Simon Russell Beale, Paddy Considine, Rupert Friend, Jason Isaacs, and Olga Kurylenko.

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Special events this week:

Saturday the 2nd of December — Eglantine

Directed by Margaret Salmon — Rated U

Eglantine is an intimate and vivid account of a young girl’s real and fantastical adventure in a remote forest one evening. It’s not only a loving homage to classic children’s films such as Ray Ashley’s Little Fugitive, Jean Renoir’s The River and Albert Lamorisse’s The Red Balloon, but draws from nature studies of the past, such as Mary Field’s Secrets of Nature series.

Shot on 35mm in various locations around Scotland, this film draws inspiration from a range of cinematic movements as well as wildlife documentaries to produce a lyrical and sensual portrait of a child’s eye perspective on the natural world.

After the screening, we will be joined for a Q&A with director Margaret Salmon and Chris Paul Daniels, Lecturer in Filmmaking, at Manchester School of Art, MMU.

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Saturday the 2nd of December — Stand in the Stream

Directed by Stanya Kahn — Rated 15

Stand in the Stream is an ambient, narrative, digital film that follows perspectives of a subjective body in time, family, community, work, action and in the daily mundane. Kahn’s most ambitious and complex filmic work to date, it layers a dizzying multitude of facets into a roaring and deeply moving visual opera that pays homage to life and the inevitability of time. History here is speeding and dynamic, a storm to be watched and catalogued, even while it resists categorization, soaking and tearing the notes.

Shot over the course of six years, Stand in the Stream was made using multiple video devices — from cell phones to point-and-shoots, spy and POV cams, large format HD and webcams, and real-time screen recordings of live streams, but contains no found footage.

Driven by its images and sounds — a multiplex of information from Kahn’s indexical collection of footage — the film braids threads of narratives in relation to change: the deterioration of the artist’s worker/activist mother, Kahn’s own role as a mother, and the shifting demands, tactics and digital visibility of resistance movements across the globe.

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Sunday the 3rd of December — The Flight + Intro & post-screening discussion

Directed by Roland Graf — Rated 12A

One of the final films made in East Germany featuring the great actor Armin Mueller-Stahl – he would later memorably link up with Costa-Gavras in the US for Music Box (1989). In The Flight, he plays a doctor who, when he dutifully follows procedure and applies to travel outside the GDR to attend a conference, is refused permission. Dismayed by the state bureaucracy, he becomes involved with an underground network who promise they can get him out of the country. Given it was made in the East, all does not go to plan.

This screening will be introduced by artist Declan Clarke and will be followed by a post-screening discussion with Declan Clarke and season curator Andy Willis.

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Monday the 4th of December — Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll

Directed by Mat Whitecross — Rated 15

A piece of British music history comes to the big screen in Mat Whitecross’s outstanding biopic of punk and New Wave icon Ian Dury. Starring the ever-impressive Andy Serkis as the flamboyant and unforgettable musician.

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Tuesday the 5th of December — Twilight’s Last Gleaming + Intro

Directed by Robert Aldrich — Rated 15

A West German-US co-production shot mainly at the Bavaria film studios, this neglected work is one of Robert Aldrich’s best films. It is driven by a wonderful performance from Burt Lancaster who plays a renegade US general disillusioned by his country’s involvement in Vietnam and aware of a top secret document that acknowledged the war could not be won. To try and make the powers that be reveal the document to the public he hijacks a nuclear silo and threatens to launch a series of bombs. Utilising split screens to great effect, this is a taut political thriller of the highest order.

This screening will be introduced by Andy Willis, Professor of Film Studies at the University of Salford.

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Wednesday the 6th of December — Unrest + Panel Discussion

Directed by Jennifer Brea — Rated 12A

Jennifer Brea is working on her PhD and months away from marrying the love
 of her life when she gets a mysterious fever that leaves her so ill she becomes bed-bound. Disbelieved by doctors
 and determined to live, she turns her camera on herself and her community, a hidden world of millions confined to their homes and bedrooms by Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.

This screening will be followed by a panel discussion featuring actor and disability campaigner Melissa Johns, activist and lecturer Denis Queen, and actor Natalie Amber.

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Thursday the 7th of December — Preview Menashe + Q&A

Directed by Joshua Z Weinstein — Rated U

Shot in secret entirely within the Hasidic community depicted in the film, and one of the only movies to be performed in Yiddish in nearly 70 years, Menashe is a warm, life-affirming look at the universal bonds between father and son that also sheds unusual light on a notoriously private community. Based largely on the real life of its Hasidic star Menashe Lustig, the film is a strikingly authentic and deeply moving portrait of family, love, connection, and community.

We will be joined by director Joshua Z Weinstein and star of the film Menashe Lustig for a Q&A following this preview screening.

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