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Report from the 58th International Short Film Festival Brno 16

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By Barbara Ocsovayová

Brno16, or B16, in Czech “Brněnská šestnáctka”, is an international festival of short films. In the beginning, the festival only featured films with a 16mm format but now includes other formats as well. The filmmakers range from professionals to students. The topic for this year’s festival was “We Are Family”. Keep Reading

Arbitrary Humanity: The Long Way to A Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

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By Michaela Medveďová

A crew comprised of four different species, the universe governed by a galactic government, a wormhole-making spaceship travelling light years away to an unknown world. The setting for Becky Chambers’ The Long Way to A Small, Angry Planet  provides a seemingly perfect opportunity for a breathtaking space adventure, filled with chases and advanced weapons. It is very easy to be tempted to take this road and join the ranks of recently super-popular action-packed sci-fi films that are the uncrowned cultural kings of the last three decades. However, the 2015 book does not quite jump onto this bandwagon. Instead, it opts for the often underrated contemplativeness of the likes of Phillip K. Dick. Keep Reading

Fighting for the “Right” Version of America: Timeless Review & Analysis

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johnhain, Pixabay, CC0 BY 4.0

By Tereza Walsbergerová

Time-travel, popular historical figures, and light humor, but also mystery, conspiracy, and corruption at the very root of America’s past… The American TV series Timeless, created by Eric Kripke (Supernatural) and Shawn Ryan (Lie To Me), is a seemingly straightforward time-travel procedural packed with popular history trivia, stereotypical characters, and overused television tropes, yet its intricate plot also hides a chilling conspiracy theory which is so entangled with the story of America itself that it is often not clear where the truth lies. This article offers a structured review of Timeless along with an analysis of its portrayal of the role of paranoia in American history (1).  Keep Reading

Art Makes Us Stronger

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By Anna Jílková and Michaela Medveďová

When trying to answer a simple question – what is art – one may come to realize that this question is, indeed, very tricky. At least the search for the answer is. The definition varies from one person to another – what one considers to be art someone else may see as trumpery, and vice versa. However, what can be agreed on is that art comes in all shapes and sizes and can be found in the most common of things. We only need to open our eyes and look for it.

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Just a Bloke from Stratford: Upstart Crow Review

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By Blanka Šustrová

Our hero lives in a small cottage somewhere in Warwickshire. He has to feed and clothe his old, grumpy parents together with his wife (eight years older) and their three children – a mopey teenager that only speaks in grunts and twins whose only interests are sweets. He commutes to London every week to work as an actor in a horribly understaffed company and when he snatches a bit of time for himself, he writes. Because, you know, he is a poet, an unappreciated genius of his time, an innovator of language… How is it possible that he is not famous yet? Well, his best friend steals his verses, his wife needs his humble wage as “she has a cottage to run”, his London servant Bottom makes fun of him but the worst of all – his nemesis publicly calls him an upstart crow.
This could be anyone’s story, so why not William Shakespeare’s?

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He Will Most Certainly Not Be Fine: Please Like Me as a Millennial’s Adaptation of Contemporary Australia

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By Tereza Walsbergerová

 

Chuck Palahniuk is not by far the only one who realises that being in one’s twenties can be extremely tough. In fact, there is one comedian in Australia who based his entire livelihood on this notion and even created a TV show around it. Josh Thomas’ Please Like Me is about a young Melburnian named Josh who has to take care of his bipolar mother while struggling with being perpetually single, awkward, and generally lethargic. Having developed from Thomas’ stand-up routine of the same name, the show contains the lightness of the stand-up genre combined with raw honesty of a social drama – a fusion that sets the show up for instant success which has not quite yet reached mainstream audiences outside Australia. This article’s goal is to not only introduce and review Please Like Me for the Re:Views reader, but to also possibly get the reader to (please) like Please Like Me.

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Grantchester: the double trouble of a vicar-detective

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By Martina Krénová

What could go wrong when a handsome, charismatic vicar partners with a police detective to solve crimes? The duo of a flawed vicar loving cricket, whiskey, jazz, and women, battling his inner demons, and a highly practical police detective, who has a strong sense of duty to make the society better, stumble upon many interesting cases, which bring them the enjoyment of solving crimes in a good company but also get them into a lot of trouble.

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Bond: The Man Fleming Always Wanted to Be

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By Anna Formánková

Three years after the 50th anniversary of James Bond on screen, the franchise continues with what is expected to be the most successful Bond movie yet: SPECTRE. The embodiment of what Ian Fleming always desired to become returns on silver screen in the 24th instalment, the fourth adventure starring Daniel Craig as the iconic MI6 agent.

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Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond

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by Anna Formánková

Ian Fleming, the man who introduced the world to one of the biggest British heroes: Bond. James Bond. Though best known as a successful author of the Bond novels, Fleming drew inspiration for 007’s adventures from his own experience which he gained while working at the British Naval Intelligence Division. His life before Bond, including the WWII espionage period, is now uncovered in the four-part dramatisation ‘Fleming’, starring Dominic Cooper as the iconic personage.

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