Sunday, 4 June 2023
Genre Synth-pop
Label Virgin
Producers Anthony Gonzalez
Must Listen :
Earth to Sea
Oceans Niagara
Amnesia
Dismemberment Bureau

Monday, 29 May 2023
Another Premier League campaign in the history books and it was a season of heartbreak for many. Arsenal led the way for most of the year before faltering in the final weeks. Tottenham similarly looked set for Champions League qualification before a late fall saw them drop out of contention for any European competition. At the foot of the table, recent Premier League champions Leicester city shockingly dropped down to the Championship. Chelsea also existed.

The Ephemeric Premier League Awards 2023:
Winners: Manchester City
Relegated: Leicester, Leeds, Southampton
Player of the Year: Erling Haaland (Manchester City)
U-21 Player of the Year: Bukayo Saka (Arsenal)
Best Goalkeeper: Nick Pope (Newcastle)
Top Scorer: Erling Haaland (Manchester City) (36)
Most Assists: Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City) (16)
Manager of the Year: Unai Emery (Aston Villa)
Best signing of the season: Erling Haaland (Manchester City)
Worst signing of the season: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Chelsea)
The Ephemeric Premier League Team of the Season 2023:

Saturday, 22 April 2023
Directed by Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic
Written by Matthew Fogel
Produced by Chris Meledandri, Shigeru Miyamoto
Starring Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jack Black, Charlie Day, Seth Rogen
Studio Illumination
Running time 92 minutes

To be clear, this is definitely not a bad movie, but set your expectations appropriately. This is a fun little romp with a lot of bright colourful gags for kids, and nostalgia for adults. It's unfortunately a bit shallow and forgettable, but the real value may yet be realised in how it sets up the future Nintendo cinematic universe.

Sunday, 9 April 2023
Developed by Avalanche Software
Published by Warner Bros Games
Genre Action role-playing game
Platform PC, Playstation, Xbox, Switch
For years, fans have been asking for a game like this. If you asked a group of people what their dream videogame would be, often you'd get a response along the lines of "an open-world Harry Potter RPG that lets you live and go to school at Hogwarts." It's become something of a meme to ask why this game doesn't exist. You can see why. Harry Potter and the Wizarding World is, after all, one of the biggest franchises in the entire entertainment industry, with a built-in fanbase conservatively estimated in the multi-millions strong. Not to mention a fanbase that is notable for its passion, to the point where brick and mortar Wizarding World merchandise shops exist all over the world, with people routinely buying their own wands and Hogwarts regalia. A game that allows those fans to live out their fantasies seems like an obvious money-maker.

Sunday, 2 April 2023
On March 30, 2023, a grand jury convened by the Manhattan District Attorney, unanimously voted to criminally indict the former President of the United States, Donald Trump. While the exact charges remain under seal, they are believed to include more than 30 fraud-related charges, including at least one (perhaps several) that rise to the level of a felony. It is a historic moment in American history, but to call it a shock would be untrue. Frankly, if anything about this surprises you, you just haven't been paying attention.

This has been coming for a long time. Donald Trump's criminal investigations are numerous and it has been pretty clear for a while now that he would face some form of indictment eventually. The only question has been which investigation would get to him first. There is some irony to the fact that a man currently under investigation for Espionage Act violations, election interference in Georgia as well as the attempted Jan 6 coup d'etat would first be brought down by sleeping with a porn star, but as we will soon see, there are very real and serious crimes here, the facts of which have long been established in law. It is no surprise to see these charges lead the way.
Sunday, 12 March 2023

Welcome back to The Ephemeric. It is Oscar season again, and once again March is the month in which I know not the light of day. I could make the same joke as last year by copy pasting the intro blurb, but instead I'll just get straight to some predictions so we can all go on with our day.
This was actually a pretty tricky year to call. I am very torn between The Banshees of Inisherin and Everything Everywhere All at Once for the bulk of awards. Both are love it or hate it kind of movies that could really go either way depending on who's voting. Meanwhile many of the technical awards are being contested by an array of sumptuously produced but otherwise aggressively "just ok" films like Elvis, Avatar 2 and The Fabelans. I'm usually pretty accurate with these predictions, but who knows, this year could spring a few surprises!
Best Picture
Nominations:
- All Quiet on the Western Front – Malte Grunert, producer
- Avatar: The Way of Water – James Cameron and Jon Landau, producers
- The Banshees of Inisherin – Graham Broadbent, Peter Czernin, and Martin McDonagh, producers
- Elvis – Baz Luhrmann, Catherine Martin, Gail Berman, Patrick McCormick, and Schuyler Weiss, producers
- Everything Everywhere All at Once – Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert, and Jonathan Wang, producers
- The Fabelmans – Kristie Macosko Krieger, Steven Spielberg, and Tony Kushner, producers
- Tár – Todd Field, Alexandra Milchan, and Scott Lambert, producers
- Top Gun: Maverick – Tom Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie, David Ellison, and Jerry Bruckheimer, producers
- Triangle of Sadness – Erik Hemmendorff and Philippe Bober, producers
- Women Talking – Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, and Frances McDormand, producers
Who should really win: Everything Everywhere All at Once
Best Director
Nominations:
- Martin McDonagh – The Banshees of Inisherin
- Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert – Everything Everywhere All at Once
- Steven Spielberg – The Fabelmans
- Todd Field – Tár
- Ruben Östlund – Triangle of Sadness
Who should really win: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert - Everything Everywhere All at Once
Best Actor
Nominations:
- Austin Butler – Elvis as Elvis Presley
- Colin Farrell – The Banshees of Inisherin as Pádraic Súilleabháin
- Brendan Fraser – The Whale as Charlie
- Paul Mescal – Aftersun as Calum Paterson
- Bill Nighy – Living as Mr. Rodney Williams
Who should really win: Colin Farrell – The Banshees of Inisherin as Pádraic Súilleabháin
Best Actress
Nominations:
- Cate Blanchett – Tár as Lydia Tár
- Ana de Armas – Blonde as Norma Jeane
- Andrea Riseborough – To Leslie as Leslie Rowlands
- Michelle Williams – The Fabelmans as Mitzi Schildkraut-Fabelman
- Michelle Yeoh – Everything Everywhere All at Once as Evelyn Quan Wang
Who should really win: Michelle Yeoh – Everything Everywhere All at Once as Evelyn Quan Wang
Best Supporting Actor
Nominations:
- Brendan Gleeson – The Banshees of Inisherin as Colm Doherty
- Brian Tyree Henry – Causeway as James Aucoin
- Judd Hirsch – The Fabelmans as Boris Schildkraut
- Barry Keoghan – The Banshees of Inisherin as Dominic Kearney
- Ke Huy Quan – Everything Everywhere All at Once as Waymond Wang
Who should really win: Ke Huy Quan – Everything Everywhere All at Once as Waymond Wang
Best Supporting Actress
Nominations:
- Angela Bassett – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever as Queen Ramonda
- Hong Chau – The Whale as Liz
- Kerry Condon – The Banshees of Inisherin as Siobhán Súilleabháin
- Jamie Lee Curtis – Everything Everywhere All at Once as Deirdre Beaubeirdre
- Stephanie Hsu – Everything Everywhere All at Once as Joy Wang / Jobu Tupaki
Who should really win: Stephanie Hsu – Everything Everywhere All at Once as Joy Wang / Jobu Tupaki
Best Original Screenplay
Nominations:
- The Banshees of Inisherin – Martin McDonagh
- Everything Everywhere All at Once – Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert
- The Fabelmans – Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner
- Tár – Todd Field
- Triangle of Sadness – Ruben Östlund
Who should really win: The Banshees of Inisherin – Martin McDonagh
Best Adapted Screenplay
Nominations:
- All Quiet on the Western Front – Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson, and Ian Stokell; based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque
- Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery – Rian Johnson; based on characters created by Johnson and the film Knives Out
- Living – Kazuo Ishiguro; based on the original motion picture screenplay Ikiru by Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, and Hideo Oguni
- Top Gun: Maverick – Screenplay by Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, and Christopher McQuarrie; Story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks; based on the film Top Gun written by Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr.
- Women Talking – Sarah Polley; based on the novel by Miriam Toews
Who should really win: Living – Kazuo Ishiguro; based on the original motion picture screenplay Ikiru by Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, and Hideo Oguni
So there you have it, The Ephemeric's picks for the year. Enjoy the Oscars tonight, and when the results go as predicted, remember that you heard it here first!
Saturday, 11 March 2023
Created by Craig Mazin, Neil Druckmann
Network HBO
Starring Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey
Genre Post-apocalyptic Drama
Running Time 45-80 minutes
It is the TV series of 2023, so far, that everyone is talking about. But it's a smash hit that few saw coming. After all, The Last of Us is a videogame adaptation, one based on that most tired of genres, the zombie survival horror. By all accounts, it's not a concept that should have yielded anything of value. But HBO didn't see it that way and they were willing to invest the considerable talents of Craig Mazin, creator of the award winning Chernobyl into bringing this project to life. It's a gamble that seems to have paid off.
So how have HBO managed to pull this sleight of hand and succeed beyond all expectation? I think it is important to preface this discussion by stating that I have played the original game, although I was never a particularly big fan of it. I think The Last of Us, the videogame, is a perfectly decent title that has been hyped beyond all reason, lavished with praise for its storytelling which, in truth, is no more impressive that any number of other titles in gaming. I mention this in order to provide context when I say that, while I find the original source material to be slightly overrated, the TV series is absolutely brilliant.

Sunday, 5 March 2023
Hello and welcome back to 2023's final post from the Hot List. This week we will be looking at the most exciting new movies set to hit the big screen in 2023 from March onwards, after the cutoff point for this year's awards season.
So without further delay, the key films to keep an eye on in the coming year (trailers linked in the title where available), starting with number 15:
15. You Hurt My Feelings

Release Date: TBA 2023
14. Dune: Part Two

Release Date: November 2023
13. Asteroid City

Release Date: June 2023
12. A Good Person

Release Date: March 2023
11. The Holdovers

Release Date: November 2023
10. Dumb Money

Release Date: TBA 2023
Release Date: November 2023
8. Rustin

Release Date: TBA 2023
6. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Release Date: June 2023
5. Next Goal Wins

His next film, Next Goal Wins, is based on the true story of Dutch football coach Thomas Rongen and his efforts to take the American-Samoa national team, then considered the worst in the world, to the 2014 World Cup.
Michael Fassbender stars as Rongen, and he will be joined by Elisabeth Moss, Armie Hammer, and long-time Waititi collaborator Rhys Darby.
Release Date: September 2023
4. Maestro

Release Date: TBA 2023
3. Napoleon

Release Date: TBA 2023

Release Date: TBA 2023
1. Oppenheimer

Release Date: July 2023
So there you have it folks: The 2023 Hot List. I will be back with many more articles in due course, but for now let's make 2023 a great year together.
Sunday, 12 February 2023
Welcome back to The Ephemeric's 2023 Hot List. This week we will be having a look at the most exciting new music due for release in the coming year.
So without further ado, here is our list of the top albums to keep an eye on in 2023, starting with number 15:
15. MGMT

Release Date: Summer 2023
14. "Bubblegum" by Biig Piig (New band)

Release Date: January 2023
13. "Angels & Queens: Part II" by Gabriels

Release Date: March 2023
12. "Continue as a Guest" by The New Pornographers

Release Date: March 2023
11. Crawlers (New band)

Release Date: TBD 2023
10. Tseba (New band)

Release Date: TBD 2023
9. Lemon Twigs

Release Date: TBD 2023

Release Date: TBD 2023

Release Date: Spring 2023
6. Fleet Foxes

Release Date: Summer 2023
5. Braxe + Falcon (New band)

Release Date: TBD 2023

Release Date: February 2023
3. "Cracker Island" by Gorillaz

Release Date: February 2023
2. The Killers

1. "Fantasy" by M83

Release Date: March 2023
So there you have it folks: 2023 in music. Tune in next week for this year's final Hot List, where we look at the most exciting new movies in 2023.