Author Archives: Caspar Salmon
The worst thing about Dolittle? It can't even commit to being bad
In a sense, Dolittle is a coup in that it is both silly and yet bizarrely joyless—dragon anus scene included
Public life is built on it—why does nobody in Britain talk about nepotism?
The truth is that the British public laps up this sort of stuff, whether it's inherited monarchy or acting dynasties
Cats is a baffling CGI nightmare—the people deserve an explanation
If society is to move forward from this illogical disaster, we need nothing less than a full and frank inquiry
We can laugh at Emma Watson’s “self-partnering”—but the idea of being happy alone is still taboo
Over 600 years later, the strictures and stigmas of courtly romance still poison our understanding of relationships. If only we had the courage to imagine something different
Countdown, and the joy of the basic horror film
It's a film about an app that tells you when you're going to die. By rights, it should be awful. And yet...
When it comes to cinema, why does Britain insist on showing the world the worst version of ourselves?
The popular depiction of Britain in global television and film isn't only shockingly homogenous—it's a fiction
Alice in Midsommar: how the summer horror blockbuster draws from Victorian fantasy
Two women pave their paths out of fantastical nightmares
Spoiler warning: why our fear of film spoilers has gone too far
Interventions like Quentin Tarantino's may sound well-intentioned. But demanding critics leave plot details out of their reviews doesn't only do them a disservice—it reduces the complexity of film as an art form to a series of mere narrative twists
What our modern true crime obsession says about us
The interest in true crime stories kicked off by Serial and Making a Murderer shows no sign of abating. But do we lose something of ourselves when we focus so many stories of horror and violence?
The Ryan Adams story should prompt men to see the "tortured artist" act for what it is
As a young man, it was easy to fall for Adams' me-against-the-world act. But we should all be vigilant about how art can conceal abuse
A £40 cinema ticket? Sadly, it's not that surprising
Caught between rising property prices and the popularity of online streaming services, cinemas are flogging a luxury "experience"
Ripped off: how Hollywood—and ordinary men—fell for the built body
It's not just celebrity body types that have changed. Increasingly, ordinary men are emulating them