My iPod's shuffle mode provides some sort of randomness ahead of workdays that play out the same tunes: Water Cooler Conversation, Allocations, Lunch Cafeteria, Allocations (extended mix) and Polite Farewell - in the identical order every day (4).
At the start of Matt Howard's Taking Off, Ash is going nowhere. He works in the magazine industry, and would loathe his job, except it does not inspire the necessary passion. He likes to remember his workmates by the magazines they work on, instead of by their names, and they, in turn, appear to know nothing about him. His social life has grounded. His recent crush is a girl called Zoe, his workmate's new girlfriend and she is unattainable; Ash accepts this with resignation. And finally there is his home life. He lives with his sister and brother-in-law, and both of them appear as trapped and ready to take off as he does.



















Reviewed by George Ivanoff