Alex J. Reviews
 

A few weeks ago I sat down with East Anglian and Royal Television Society (East) nominated filmmaker Matthew Harris to talk about his 25-year career, his early inspirations as filmmakers, his penchant for the experimental style and advice he’d give to budding filmmakers. Having recently written and delivered an introductory course on Video Art through the Sir John Hurt Film Trust in Norwich, I was interested in finding out what Matthew had to say about these topics.  I began

A shot of the first journey in Tube Film. On 25 th August 2025, Orla Smith took the tube on the London Underground for the first time in almost two years. Back in 2023, Orla had a horrible panic attack on the Central Line that prevented her from being able to use the underground again.  After wanting to confront this fear for a while but struggling to set out the time to do so, Orla decided that the best motivation for her was to make a mid-length documentary film about it w

Robert Redford with his Oscar for Best Director for Ordinary People (1980)   For my 15 th  birthday, my mum bought me my first ever Robert Redford DVD,  Barefoot in the Park (Saks, 1967), and that was me sold on Robert Redford. As someone who gravitates more towards actresses onscreen, I always thought I’d be hard pressed to find an actor whose work and presence onscreen and the stories he told could have the same kind of impact as some of the actresses I loved. But then watc

When I think back to my favourite films or TV shows as a child, I realise the one thing that connects them all together, and why I was so drawn to them in the first place, was because they had fully realised, intelligent and more-than-capable female characters at their centre. Of course, as a 5 year old pretending to be Princess Leia, I was too young to understand why I was so in love with these kind of characters, but looking back I can confidently say this is why.   Great f

This past weekend I went to see the original play Unicorn , written by Mike Bartlett and directed by James Macdonald, at the Garrick Theatre. Nicola Walker and Stephen Mangan play long-time married couple Polly and Nick who decide that their sex life has long been void of any excitement or passion. In a rather unexpected turn for Nick, Polly suggests they invite a third person into their relationship and that she already has a willing participant lined up: 28 year old Kate (E

Philip Glenister as DCI Gene Hunt and Keeley Hawes as DI Alex Drake. This week, my first essay for Film East was published! I wrote about Ashes to Ashes (2008-2010), my all time favourite TV show, and why it healed but also broke my heart - something it continues to do as I near my 10th rewatch of the show from start to finish. And I'm sure it's no surprise that my favourite show includes Keeley Hawes as one of the main characters! A snippet of the essay. Anyway, I feel very