Awards night and the strange psychology of the police

Last night, the Metropolitan Police sent a delegation to the Jane’s Police Review Gala Awards. Held at the Park Lane Hilton, and attended by “the most senior and influential figures in policing and government”, the awards are billed as an opportunity “for recognising and rewarding excellence in community policing.”

London's best unwritten novels, and where you should go to write them

From a gentrification romance to a cemetery adventure, here are five contemporary London novels just waiting for YOU to write them.

Miral

Julian Schnabel has more than impressed, actually he has excelled in his past features, all biopics of wildly varied personalities and very different nationalities. First there was his contemporary, and fellow New Yorker, Jean-Michel Basquiat, for whom he made 1996’s ebullient Basquiat. He followed up with an Oscar-nominated performance from Javier Bardem in the Cuban-set Reinaldo Arenas biography, Before Night Falls (2000), before picking up more Academy award nominations and the Best Director gong at Cannes with The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007).

Now Schnabel has transported his considerable skill to the Middle East. And unfortunately, it is with little or no impact. Too poorly informed to be a serious political film, too aware of its own possible significance in having any impact, and too clumsily written to be a comprehensive biography, Miral is simply a disappointment for what could have been a great cinematic statement. It’s like Schnabel finally wants to claim an Oscar for himself, by making a film that looks brave but only on the surface.

336 Hours

Picco

When you watch Picco you get the feeling that former-critic and one-time film
student Philip Koch knows his stuff. In his feature debut follow-up to the award-
winning short Lumen, Koch skilfully blends the theory and artful subtlety that
seems to have informed his Nouvelle Vagary from criticism to filmmaking.

Shark Tales: The Leonardo Question and Some Stories

My ex is demanding that I admit to raping him and threatening to post it on my Facebook wall

I was hanging out with a guy who is in a relationship. I told him nothing could happen, and we decided to keep things friendly. A while ago, I made the drunken mistake of climbing into the backseat of a car with him, and things got racy pretty quickly. He asked if I was on birth control; I told him yes, because I was, and he penetrated me and came inside me after one thrust.

The next day, I got all emotional, and he’s since stopped talking to me because I freaked. Here we are a bit later, and I just had a pregnancy scare. Had I been pregnant, I would have had an abortion. If I’d actually been facing an abortion, I would have called and told him. Would that have been the right thing to do?

I wouldn’t have asked for money or support; I would have told him solely because it would have felt wrong not to. I had some feeling, like he should know—because he has a right to know, you know? I can’t imagine I’m the only woman who’s been faced with a “to tell or not to tell” situation. Weigh in?

Classy Lady

Kony 2012 is a runaway success. But that doesn't mean it's good

With 50 million hits and counting, the Kony 2012 film has succeeded in raising awareness about Uganda. But, asks Mike Bonnet, is raising awareness really what the country needs most?

One Minute With Diego Quemada-Diez - Director of The Golden Dream

Scala Forever: Adult films and B-movies are back, temporarily

Situated on the corner of Pentonville street near King’s Cross St. Pancras, there lies a monument dedicated to the less than savoury side of London’s independent film scene.