Author Archive: Guest Reviewer
Nearly On Top of the World
(August/September 2025) [Thanks to M, our Guest Reviewer, who boldly travels to places nowhere near a four star hotel…Instead, she goes to windswept, bleakly romantic locations of the kind memorialized by Sir Walter Scott and Robert Burns.] Scotland First, over the sea to the Isle of Skye. It was absolutely beautiful. We did a guided tour of the island. Highlights, apart from the general misty loveliness, included a Highland cow grazing in a peat bog, the magical Fairy Falls… …and the lighthouse at Ness Point, where I truly nearly got blown-over by the wind, trying to take a photo (see main…
Continue Reading →Reflections on America
President Donald Trump delivers remarks to staff during a Christmas Reception in the White House, Monday, December 1, 2025. (Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian)
[From our U.S correspondent, fresh back from the States] American voters wanted Trump, but they got something else Like Australia, the United States has endured years of extreme left-wing policies. Several states remain firmly entrenched in this ideology, with California serving as a prime example. Higher taxes, anti-establishment protests, a lenient approach to drugs, and weak immigration policies are just some of the issues plaguing the state. California also gave the world Kamala Harris. The state should thank its lucky star-spangled banner that the rest of the nation didn’t declare war on it. In the lead-up to the 2024 US…
Continue Reading →The Penguin Lessons
(Directed by Peter Cattaneo, 2024) (Thanks to White Rita, our ‘off-budget’ film reviewer, for this comment). The Penguin Lessons is a beautiful, moving film made all the more poignant by the fact that it is a true story. Set during the “Dirty War” in 1970s Argentina, it revolves around a middle-aged English teacher and the delightful little penguin that imprints itself on him. Steve Coogan delivers a wonderful performance and is supported by a delightful cast of characters. This important story is sad, happy, humorous and at all times, engaging.
Continue Reading →It Ends With Us
There's no end to this...
(Directed by Justin Baldoni, from the novel by Colleen Hoover) (2024) Thanks to Guest Reviewer Rita, for sitting through this so we don’t have to. Her pithy synthesis is below, with our additional comments further on. “What a woeful travesty! This film trivializes and romanticises the very serious subject of domestic violence and is downright insulting to the many true victims of this ongoing crime. It fails in many ways…most notably it neglects to portray the fact that the most dangerous time for a woman entrapped in such an abusive relationship is when she summons the courage to leave. Give…
Continue Reading →Amedeo Modigliani
(By Rita Kirkman) I frequently revisit artists who never fail to touch my heart with their unique talent for the creation of timeless beauty and their representations of the worlds in which they lived. Amedeo Modigliani was born in Italy in 1884 to a French mother and a Jewish-Italian father. From the outset, he was plagued by chronic bad health which he endured for the rest of his short life. At age 7 he suffered from typhoid fever, and thereafter tuberculosis. He was very close to his mother. When he was 11, she noted in her diary: “The child’s character…
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