It was an utter gift to be in the auditorium when she performed; there is no-one else who makes you feel so viscerally, so aggressively connected to her characters. Yet, you never quite knew who “the real” McCrory was: so brilliantly could she embody countless personalities and characters as she moved from hit to hit.

Relationships are often excellent opportunities to impart wisdom about cultures you may not have any exposure to, and indeed throughout our relationship I have taken many opportunities to (re)educate Martin on Italian culture beyond the existence of Pizza Express, ‘gabagool’ and whatever else Hollywood has (not) taught him about Italy.

But good films (and good art) don’t need a director with personal experience of the subject matter. If they did, there would be no fantasy films, no sci-fi thrillers, and no superhero blockbusters. So why do men dominate in the world of directorial sequels? Are men just better directors than women?

What I love most about the freshness of what is to be queer, is the inclusivity of it, the normalisation of it, especially on the big and small screen. It’s so wonderful to watch something that isn’t just about ‘coming out’.

I conducted a straw poll of my friends, all of whom have a love for cinema, as to whether the Oscars influenced their film choices, and it was almost an equal split with positive and negative responses. Some gave little credence to the awards, believing that the nominated films are likely to be over hyped or simply preferring to seek out films for themselves, whereas others viewed the Oscars as a reliable guide for high quality films.

In light of the pandemic bringing a halt to any and all travel plans my girlfriend and I had, we decided we’d plug in and take a trip around the world through the wonder of the small screen so, without further ado, join us on a whistle stop tour as we take flight from LAX and head eastward bound to sample some of the sights the rest of the world has to offer. Our first stop?

Not only a form of escapism, these shows give us a window into the past, a window into the stories either us, our parents or our grandparents, remember.

Of course, I’m not saying that an actor changing their appearance for a role is bad, there’s nothing wrong with people wearing wigs, different clothes, make-up, accessories, etc… My issue lies somewhere between there and pretending to be an entirely different sub-group by means of physical transformation.

Anime as a genre has enjoyed an increase in popularity over the last decade, with a constantly diversifying audience demographic. Its popularity has especially picked up traction in the latter half of the decade, as establish streaming sites such as Netflix and Crunchyroll continue to host and even produce original anime’s for global audiences.

Released on Netflix on the 5th of February, Malcolm and Marie is about an African-American film director and his girlfriend who’ve just returned from a screening of his latest film

Women’s age in Hollywood is a messy knot of glorifying youth and infantilising young women to vilify and hide middle-aged or older women. By putting female actors in relationships with older men, Hollywood influences society’s expectations of how women age and act.

We all need a good cry from time to time, don’t we? I often find watching a sad movie lets out emotions I didn’t know I was holding back. A study by Oxford University found that sad films actually boost endorphins in the brain and and increase our pain tolerance.