All Forms of Art

  Some movies are easy to criticize because something clearly doesn't work. 28 Years Later is more difficult. It isn't a bad movie. In fact, it starts incredibly well, has some fascinating ideas, and creates a world that immediately makes you curious. And yet, when the credits rolled, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was missing. A Great Start The movie wastes no time. Its opening is shocking and immediately creates the feeling that you are watching something dangerous.  The movie understands something important about horror: sometimes the best way to create fear is to make safety feel temporary. For Spike ( Alfie Williams ), safety exists on the island. It is protected, isolated, and predictable. But eventually, he has to leave it. That's more than a survival decision - it's growing up. You Can't Protect a Child Forever One of the most interesting conflicts in the movie is between Spike's parents and their different ideas of what it means to...

Alba Flores is a Spanish actress best known internationally for her roles as Nairobi in Money Heist ( La Casa de Papel ) and Saray Vargas de Jesús in Vis a Vis . With her distinctive presence and emotionally intense performances, Flores has become one of the most recognizable Spanish actresses of her generation. Early Life and Acting Career Born in Madrid in 1986, Alba Flores grew up surrounded by music and performance. She is the daughter of Spanish musician and composer Antonio Flores and comes from a family with a strong artistic tradition. She began acting at a young age, appearing in theatre productions before moving into television and film. Her early career included roles in Spanish television series and stage productions, where she developed the expressive style that would later become one of her trademarks. Vis a Vis : Saray One of Flores's breakthrough roles came with Vis a Vis , where she played Saray Vargas de Jesús, a prisoner serving a long sentence. Saray is a c...

  Rachel Renée Russell is an American author, attorney, and cartoonist best known for creating the hugely successful Dork Diaries series. The books follow Nikki Maxwell, a middle-school girl trying to survive friendships, crushes, school drama, and the many humiliations of adolescence. The series has become an international bestseller, with more than 55 million books in print and translations into 52 languages. From Lawyer to Children's Author Before becoming a bestselling children's author, Russell worked as an attorney. She has joked that she prefers writing children's books to legal briefs because books are much more fun — and because pajamas and bunny slippers aren't exactly appropriate courtroom attire. Her experience raising two daughters also became an important source of inspiration for her writing. Russell has described herself as a "dork," making the awkwardness and insecurities of middle-school life central to her work. Creating Dork Diaries Th...

  Dork Diaries has always been good at turning the awkwardness of adolescence into something light, funny and easy to relate to. Nikki Maxwell makes mistakes, gets embarrassed, misunderstands situations and generally finds herself in the kind of disasters that feel enormous when you're a teenager. But in Dork Diaries 3: Tales from a Not-So-Talented Pop Star , I found myself increasingly frustrated with the story. Not because it is unrealistic. Not because it is silly. That's part of the charm. My problem is that some of the things Nikki does are actually quite serious — and the book seems to treat them as if they were nothing. When Online Bullying Becomes More Serious One thing that feels particularly different when reading Dork Diaries today is the internet's role. When I was a teenager, embarrassment was mostly about whether someone had seen you do something stupid at that particular moment. Maybe a few people laughed, you went home, and eventually everyone forgot a...

  Ralph Ineson is one of those actors whose voice you recognize almost immediately. His deep, distinctive voice and imposing presence have made him a familiar face — and voice — across film, television and video games. Born in Leeds in 1969, Ineson began his career in British television before gradually moving into larger film and international productions. From Comedy to Fantasy One of his early memorable roles was Chris Finch ("Finchy") in The Office , where he showed that his imposing appearance could work just as well for comedy as for darker roles. He later appeared in productions such as Peaky Blinders , Waterloo Road , Spooks and Chernobyl , as well as films including The Damned United and The Green Knight . Fantasy fans will also recognize him as Amycus Carrow in the Harry Potter films and Dagmer Cleftjaw in Game of Thrones . Both roles are relatively small, but Ineson has a talent for making characters memorable even without much screen time. The Witch and ...

  I have to admit something before I start: I spent a surprisingly large part of The Fantastic Four: First Steps waiting for it to end. I was so bored! And that became increasingly frustrating because The Fantastic Four: First Steps contains almost everything a superhero movie needs to be exciting. There are superheroes, space travel, a giant cosmic entity, an alien civilization, the fate of a planet, a family expecting a child, moral dilemmas, and enormous CGI battles. And yet, somehow, the film's biggest problem is that very little of it feels surprising. The First Family Is Already Famous The film begins with an interesting idea: the Fantastic Four are already established. They aren't struggling to discover their powers. They aren't trying to convince people that superheroes exist. They aren't even particularly mysterious. They are celebrities. They have already saved the world. People know who they are. They live together, work together, and have become a kind...