University has come to an end!

I have well and truly neglected my blog for the past couple of months, hell, the last year but now that my time at uni is over with I'm hoping to get the reviews flowing again. Firstly though, I have some exciting news to share with you all!

Two months ago I handed my dissertation in (for those interested it was on whether science news is misrepresented in British tabloid newspapers), which was the single most difficult task of my life so far. Not knowing if I was writing it up correctly, worrying about not making it to 10,000 words, then going over the word count and having to cut out irrelevant rambling; these are just a few of the problems anyone who has written/going to write a dissertation will encounter.

The amount of work and effort I put in and not knowing whether it was complete rubbish or not until results were released earlier this week was extremely painful, as with all the other assignments I was yet to learn the outcomes for.

But without further ado, I am completely delighted to announce that I will be graduating on the 17 July with a FIRST CLASS HONOURS DEGREE IN JOURNALISM! Words really cannot express how amazing it felt to find out that I did exactly what I needed to do to get the First, which was to get a First in every one of my modules during this last year.

Although I am looking for jobs/internships in Journalism, I am also thinking about joining the Metropolitan Police and have an assessment day on the Tuesday before my graduation, so as you can imagine I'm still a little nervous.

In terms of the whole university experience I wouldn't change any of it. It enabled me to learn the basics of life, including how to deal with the stresses of bills and landlords. I also met my partner of nearly three years there, and have achieved more than I could have ever imagined.

Anyway, that's enough from me for one post. Keep an eye out for the next review on 22 Jump Street!

Don Juan or Don Jon?

No longer a taboo, the issue of sex/porn addiction has manifested itself in a diverse array of films recently, from Steve McQueen’s Shame to the light-hearted frivolity of Thanks for Sharing. 

Actor-turned-writer/director, Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Jon) stars in Don Jon, a romantic comedy for the modern man. Jon is a latterday Lothario whose expectations of sex are shaped by porn: he feels it’s more superior to “real sex” because the women do things real girlfriends won’t.  

The New Jersey playboy mentions in a voiceover the few things he cares about in his life. These being his body, his pad, his ride, his family, his church, his boys, his girls and his porn. When he finally meets the girl of his dreams, Barbara (Scarlett Johansson), he promises to put aside his love for porn, but fails.  Jon learns Barbara is hooked on the dopey Hollywood love stories that give her unrealistic expectations of men, but she denies his defensive theory of romcoms being her porn: “They give out awards for that stuff!” Cue the obvious comeback. 

Only when he starts to connect with a night-school classmate (Julianne Moore) who has experienced both ends of the human interaction spectrum, from pleasure to extreme heartache and pain, is it that he begins to understand what it means to lose yourself in someone else. We are not shown how much progress Jon makes after this discovery, but it seems as though he may have matured and overcome his selfish, one-sided demands.  

Though this film is patently full of satire, like the extreme guido accent demonstrated by all of the cast, or Jon’s extra sleazy friends who rate women on a scale from one to ten. However, the themes which emerge; male/female expectations of partners, love and porn are not to be forgotten.     

         

This certainly won’t find a mainstream audience but it is a fresh, entertaining and well acted piece that at times, like Jon tries a little too hard, but put that down to an eager, skilled first time-director. 

The DVD release date is March 24. 

"Did you miss me?"

Well, yes actually, I did, but just like that the third series of Sherlock on BBC1 has exited our screens as quickly as it had returned on New Year’s Day. 

After two years of theorising and troubling our little heads over how Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch) could have possibly faked his own death and then teased to the point where we might not ever know, creators Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat decide to drop another cliffhanger and cause even more speculation: *SPOILER ALERT* Moriarty is alive. 

Sunday night’s finale, His Last Vow, left me staring at my TV long after the credits had finished, with the image of Sherlock’s archenemy, Moriarty looking back at me. Moffat, who wrote the episode, is an excellent storyteller and the episode was exquisitely well done . The false ending complete with the interrupted opening bars of theme tune was brilliantly playful and clever. It was near perfect in my eyes.  

Fans and critics alike expressed their annoyance over a lack of answers in the first episode of the series, The Empty Hearse, and their grievances over a lack of crime-solving and how the second episode, The Sign of Three was too self-indulgent and crime free, but I don’t get it.          

The first episode deals with the dilemma of having to bring Sherlock back from the dead triumphantly, or exploits it to the fullest, depending on whether you were one of those critics. Having admired Derren Brown’s work for the past ten years it is wonderful to see his cameo at the very beginning of the episode, unfortunately it was in one of the conspiracies. 

Of course the second episode could have benefited from a few chops and changes, but the endless flow of wit, intelligence and originality being delivered by all of the characters helps eliminate these insignificantly small flaws. Whether it’s sharing Sherlock’s shock and terror in tackling his hardest challenge yet: delivering the Best Man’s speech at Dr Watson and Mary’s (Martin Freeman and real-life partner Amanda Abbington) wedding, or Mrs Hudson (the magnificent Una Stubbs), landlady of 221b Baker Street, finding the idea of him making a speech so funny that she could release a sound that could only be described as “torturing an owl.”     

As for the last episode, an adaptation of Conan Doyle’s The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton for the modern age, it saw the rise and fall of disturbing antagonist Charles Augustus Magnussen, played by Lars Mikkelsen (The Killing), brother of Mads Mikkelsen, (yes Dr Lecter from the TV show Hannibal) adds a sharp, cold contrast to the unhinged dramatics of Moriarty.  

Laced with surprises throughout, His Last Vow doesn’t fail to shock. Some of these include, Sherlock in a relationship and even an engagement with Janine, admitting he faked the capacity to love and only used her as she was Magnussen’s PA, and Janine selling her story to every tabloid that would listen to the second most shocking twist of the episode… Mary shooting and nearly killing Sherlock. Who knew? Mary, the deadly ex-assassin.

Not to mention how incredibly stunning the visuals are. Entering Sherlock’s ‘mind palace’ was a throughly enjoyable experience, even if he was dying. In the three-seconds before he falls unconscious we are treated to appearances from his old dog Red Beard and Moriarty who is in a straitjacket and chained to a padded cell of death.  

The fantastic news for us is not only are there plans for series four get under way as soon as Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman’s schedules permit, (hopefully that doesn’t mean another two year wait) but co-creators announced to the audience at the Bafta screening of the finale that they’ve plotted the whole of series four and five and the ideas are the best they’ve ever had! And after the genius twists and turns of the last episode, you’ll know that’s setting the bar pretty high!