Culture questionnaire sample

A Canadian study suggests that people who think that they only use cocaine “recreationally” could be in danger of becoming addicted more easily than previously thought. After taking cocaine, participants underwent a PET scan while watching people with whom they had used the drug taking more cocaine. Just watching fellow participants take cocaine led to craving and a dopamine release in the dorsal striatum, which could lead to dependency. … [Read more...] about The very culture of drugs is addictive

While Foster's speech was the most direct discussion of her sexuality yet, its enigmatic language left open room for plenty of interpretation. The Guardian's US film critic, Tom Shone, described the remarks as a "goofy, meandering speech during which she half-came out and half told everyone off for being so nosy". … [Read more...] about Jodie Foster ‘comes out’ in opaque Golden Globes speech

Easy Rider The freedom of the open road, far from social, moral and economic strictures, is at the heart of the road movie, a theme it borrowed from the western. So in Dennis Hopper’s ramshackle but hugely influential 1969 drama, he and Peter Fonda’s LA hippy bikers naturally want to hit the road, but their “trip” descends into a nihilistic, countercultural subversion of that frontier spirit. Amazon/YouTube (£) … [Read more...] about From Easy Rider to Sightseers: 10 of the best road trip movies

Back in 1976 when Len Deighton published Twinkle Twinkle Little Spy, not long after John le Carré gave us Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, there was a competition to provide similarly desperate titles for spy thrillers. The winner, I recall, was "One Potato, Two Potato, Three Potato, Spy". By this token, Safe House, an espionage film by numbers set in South Africa, might have been called "Spy on Kop". Tyro CIA agent Ryan Reynolds, managing the agency's little-used safe house in Cape Town, is suddenly given the task of protecting the agency's most brilliant officer, Denzel Washington, a rogue agent who has just decided to come in from the cold. A rival organisation with moles in the agency's Washington HQ is out to get him, and its thuggish henchmen chase the pair around Table Mountain and out into the veld with occasional pauses to bandage wounds and reload between battles. Eventually, and inevitably, they realise they're both involved in a dirty business that serves no one's … [Read more...] about Safe House – review

In a glum opening sequence designed to contrast dreary old England with colourful, exotic India, a pushy estate agent refers, somewhat implausibly, to "the grey pound", and it's this economic demographic the film sets out to attract and appeal to. Provided they don't mind being patronised and stereotyped by a shallow but not wholly untruthful film, then this target audience will be satisfied. If, however, you're of a certain age and looking for a 20th-century Passage to India or something in the manner of Merchant-Ivory-Jhabvala or another Jewel in the Crown, don't sign on for this particular cruise. … [Read more...] about The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel – review