Film Review: Locke

If watching Sin City is akin to reading a Frank Miller comic book on screen, watching Locke comes very close to reading an Arthur Miller novel. The movie captures the series of events on a fateful night in the life of Ivan Locke, a dedicated construction worker and family man. Locke has received a potentially life-altering phone call that night, following which he has to drive to London from his hometown Birmingham, an action that sets into motion a chain of events that turns his life upside down. Almost the entire movie is filmed inside the confinement of Locke's BMW, from which he is making and receiving a series of phone calls to hold it all together. Locke is on a mission, one that is fueled partly by his dogged commitment to his work and partly by an intrinsic sense of morality and masculinity. He is determined to do the right thing, even at a great personal and professional loss.

Tom Hardy, who plays Ivan Locke, is the only on-screen actor seen in this movie. There are other people with whom he talks to on his car phone, voiced by several notable actors including the talented Olivia Colman and Andrew Scott (who played Moriarty in the recent BBC adaptation of Sherlock). In what is probably one of the best roles in his acting life, Hardy delivers a superbly compelling performance in the lead role. Mark my words: Tom Hardy is a brilliant, amazing actor. No praise can be enough for the way he effortlessly overcomes the claustrophobic restraint of the inside of his car and unravels the destiny of a man whose world can come crumbling down in a matter of a few hours. This is not a movie to everybody's liking, but try this one out: you might be pleasantly surprised.

The Problem with Digital Devices in University Classrooms

I had the great pleasure of teaching a final year undergraduate course this Winter at the University of Calgary. After I was able to shed off the jittery stiffness that is bound to accompany the first few lectures delivered by a new instructor, I started becoming more aware of my students' activities in the classroom. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have taught students who not only showed up to each class in large numbers (kind of rare for a final year course, I have been informed) but also listened and participated in class with full concentration.

However, I could not help but notice the proliferation of digital devices- laptops, ultrabooks, tablet PCs, smartphones, what have you- that were used inside the classroom throughout the entire course. Now, while it would be imprudent to deny the benefits of using laptops in class, I think there needs to be a critical revision of rules for the proper usage of these devices inside classrooms. Going by my experience (admittedly, very limited), I have every reason to believe that in some cases, especially in those courses involving heavy usage of the board for explaining mathematical concepts that demand undivided attention from students, digital devices with network connectivity can cause more harm than good. Not only can distractions like instant messaging severely spoil the class environment for a teacher who is in the middle of solving a lengthy mathematical problem on board, it can also greatly impede the learning process for a student, now that the ability to multitask while studying has been seriously questioned in reports such as this. It is time some universities, at least those who still believe in the sanctity of a proper education, look into this matter with more seriousness.

Hello, again

I have abandoned my earlier blog that was hosted on the wordpress platform, mostly due to cost-related reasons. Hopefully, this platform will provide a far better blogging experience.

I have also decided that posts here will be way much shorter and far more frequent than they previously were, mostly for my own benefit. The idea is to write more, but without the superfluousness generally associated with my usual writings. Let's see how that goes.