Review by Khalid Ali, Film and Media correspondent ‘The peanut butter falcon’, directed by Michael Schwartz and Tyler Nilson, USA 2019, Showing at the Love Gala at the BFI London Film Festival, 3, 4th and 11th October 2019. No one can question the fact that healthcare professionals have a duty of care and protection towards […]
Category: Reviews
Reviews of media other than books, e.g. exhibitions.
Healing by Art: Almodovar Champions Arts for Health and Well-Being
‘Pain and Glory’ ‘Dolor y gloria’, directed by Pedro Almodovar, Spain 2019 In general release in UK cinemas on 23rd August 2019 Review by Dr Khalid Ali, film and Media Correspondent In his 21st feature film ‘Pain and glory’, auteur film maker Almodovar reflects on three significant relationships and people; his mother, a former lover […]
Mindlessness
Review by Christina Lee Thomas Joiner, Mindlessness: The Corruption of Mindfulness in a Culture of Narcissism (New York: Oxford University Press 2017). In Mindlessness: The Corruption of Mindfulness in a Culture of Narcissism, Thomas Joiner scrutinises the reliability of positive outcomes in publicised mindfulness-based clinical studies and brings his clinical experience in psychology to shed […]
Matthew Morgan’s Critical Finds Meaning in Intensive Care Medicine
Review by Amitha Kalaichandran, M.D. The intensive care unit (ICU) in any hospital is the most high-tech, and the least interactive, in terms of doctors and patients. I often think back to two patients in the pediatric ICU—one who had a recurrence of metastatic cancer resulting in multi-organ failure, and for which every last intervention […]
A Bird’s Revenge
The Nightingale (Jennifer Kent, Australia, 2018) Review by Khalid Ali, film and media correspondent Recently the presence of women film-makers is becoming more prominent and influential in international film circuits. The Sundance Film Festival London 2019 (https://spotlight.picturehouses.com/sundance-film-festival-2019-london/sundance-film-festival-19-london-full-programme/) continues the trend of showcasing the best of world cinema made by talented women with compelling stories to […]
Enchanting Robots: Intimacy, Magic, and Technology by Maciej Musiał
Review by Sue Smith Enchanting Robots: Intimacy, Magic, and Technology is part of the book series, Social and Cultural Studies of Robots and AI, edited by Kathleen Richardson, Cathrine Hasse and Teresa Heffernan, and is written by Polish academic, Maciej Musiał. In Enchanting Robots Musiał discusses ‘magic’ and ‘magical thinking’ in order to critically assess […]
Words in Pain
Book Review by Kelechi Anucha Olga Jacoby. Ed. Jocelyn Catty, Trevor Moore, Skyscraper Publications, 2019.254pp, £15.00. Words in Pain is a collected volume of letters by a young woman named Olga Jacoby, written over a four year period from 1909 to 1913. It follows the inexorable progression of her terminal illness and is addressed to […]
The Secret in Their Eyes
Film Review by Dr Khalid Ali, film and media correspondent Two films screening in the Sundance London Film Festival explore the emotionally charged time around a terminal illness and how to communicate and share such bad news between patients and their families. Some family members urge doctors not to tell their relatives the true nature […]
Effecting Change in Perspective is a Challenging (and Hence Critical) Endeavour
On Madness and the Demand for Recognition: A philosophical inquiry into identity and mental health activism by Mohammed Abouelleil Rashed (Oxford University Press, 2019), and how ‘soft and pure’ disciplines must take the lead to enrich our repertoire in how we think about ourselves and others today Book Review and Provocation by Kai Syng Tan […]
Cinema of Hope and Humanity: Introducing the World of Malayalam Filmmaker Jayaraj
by Khalid Ali, film and media correspondent Medical Humanities will focus on ‘Global Humanities’ as a theme for 2019. Film can be a powerful medium for raising awareness about current global challenges as well as revisiting historical tragedies that befell humanity, as in the first and second World Wars. It gives me great pleasure to […]