Women on the Verge

French author Leila Slimane brings new life to the literary thriller with a distinctly feminist take on the genre. In her novel ‘Adele’ there are echos of much older French novels such as ‘Madame Bovary’ and ‘Therese Desqueyroux’ in her depiction of an unhappily married woman who can not quite understand the source of her …

Sicario

The movie ‘Sicario’ hits you like an assassin’s bullet, right between the eyes with its powerful betrayal of the Mexican drug cartels and the men and women who try to bring them to justice. Emily Blunt plays an FBI agent recruited by a mysterious government official played by Josh Brolin, to take down a Mexican …

Only Connect: Lessons from ‘The Bridge’

    A body is found on the Oresund Bridge connecting Denmark to Sweden. On further examination it’s discovered that this body has been cut in half and even more strangely the two halves belong to two different people. So starts the latest finely worked crime drama from Scandinavia ‘The Bridge’. It turns out that …

Cogito Argo Sum

  After the release of Gigli, it would have been very hard to imagine a universe where Ben Affleck becomes a director and gets nominated for an Oscar. Hell, after Pearl Harbor it was hard to imagine him having a career at all. Yet somehow the likeable Affleck has overcome adversity (if that’s not to …

What’s Danish for sophomore slump?

It pains me to say that as much as I love Lund and her Copenhagen policing colleagues, I have to report that I found the 2nd series of The Killing not a patch on the first. Really the issue is one of originality. You kind of feel you’ve seen the ‘corrupt politicians covering up murder …

Don’t go into the mountains

I’ll give you a tip. If you happen to be walking in the Scottish Highlands and come across a child hidden in a hole in the ground, leave her there. It may seem heartless but I promise you, no good can come of saving her. I know because that’s what the characters in ‘A Lonely …