Oliver Davis reviews Batman Incorporated #5… Grant Morrison has a wonderful way of mixing the absurdly camp with something terribly grown up. It’s as though he’s reached a higher plane through his niche occult habits, where cheesiness has gone-off and turned into post-modern mold. It’s a good kind of mold, though. Maturer, like Stilton. That’s […]

Oliver Davis reviews the first episode of Game of Thrones Season Four… Two Swords. Directed by D.B. Weiss. Written by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. If ever a series needed a ‘Previously on [enter show title here]’ recap, it’s Game of Thrones. A lot of shizzle has gone down in and around Westeros. Political struggles […]

Oliver Davis reviews East of West #11…“THE NATION, XIAOLIAN…The Bride of Death makes her first moves in the great game of Nations. The Chosen begin to splinter.”Issue 11 opens on Xiaolian, ruler of the Mao region, preparing to leave for The Wall. There, she will confront her fellow Heads of States on the world’s potential […]

A Late Quartet, 2012. Directed by Yaron Zilberman.Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Christopher Walken, Catherine Keener, Imogen Poots, and Mark Ivanir. SYNOPSIS:The cellist in a string quartet is diagnosed with Parkinson’s as they prepare for their final tour. The film’s title, A Late Quartet, relates to the string compositions Beethoven produced near the end of his […]

Oliver Davis reviews Batman, Incorporated #9… Issue 9 opens with the funeral, placing these events before Tomasi’s brilliant ‘silent’ issue of Batman & Robin. Bruce is battered and bruised. One of his nails is black. A small detail, but somehow the most prevalent. The burial is intercut with the immediate aftermath of Damien’s death – […]

Oliver Davis reviews Batman, Incorporated #8…[Holy spoilers, Batman!] It’s the beginning of the end, and not just for Batman, Incorporated. Although the issue number reads ‘eight’, the true count is more around 16-18. This title has remained unaffected by that whole ’52’ business in all but its numbering. Before DC’s universe-wide revamp, Batman, Incorporated ran […]

Oliver Davis reviews Batman, Incorporated #7…[Cont. from previous issue’s review]…and falls. And falls. Until Batman is snatched from his descent, and out of the panel, by some winged beast. Only one wing is visible, but that feathered skin, those tattered jeans – it can only be one of Talia’s Man-Bats.Batman works best when in the […]

Oliver Davis reviews Batman Incorporated #6…The first panel of Batman Incorporated #6 seems lifted from a hard-boiled detective thriller. Bruce Wayne steers the Batmobile with one hand, an electric shaver trimming his stubble in the other. At the end of the sublime #5, a group of Batman Inc. operatives were blown up in a booby […]

Upstream Colour, 2013. Directed by Shane Carruth.Starring Shane Carruth, Amy Seimetz and Andrew Sensenig. SYNOPSIS: It’s about, um…the loss of identiy and, er…substance addiction and pig farming and sound recording and astral planes and an interconnectedness of humanity beyond anything you could ever imagine and…and…anything you want it to be! . Shane Carruth made Primer back in […]

Oliver Davis reviews the fifth episode of Game of Thrones Season Three… Snake Eyeeeees. Kissed By Fire. Directed by Alex Graves. Written by Bryan Cogman. “You want me to marry who?” After last week’s tremendous episode of kickassery, episode five, Kissed By Fire, is a more sombre, heartfelt affair. The spectre of Ned Stark haunts […]