Reviews
Spree review - a wild ride through social media madness
Friday, 14 August 2020
Allergic to that word “influencer”? Afraid that social media is the death of civilisation as we’ve known it? Then this movie may be for you.
Mandy, BBC2 review - Diane Morgan's new creation
Friday, 14 August 2020
Mandy started life in the Comedy Shorts season last year, and has now been given a six-part series. Diane Morgan, who has a solid CV in other writers' work including Philomena Cunk, Motherland and After Life, here writes, directs and stars as the title character, who has a messy beehive, always wears thigh-high boots, has a fag on the go and a face set to permanent grimace.
Babyteeth review - teenage love and terminal...
Thursday, 13 August 2020
Babyteeth gets off to a terrific start. A semi-naked, manic Moses (Toby Wallace, full of scabby charisma) almost pushes 15-year-old Milla (Eliza...
Pinocchio review - wooden heart
Thursday, 13 August 2020
This seems a perfect project for Matteo Garrone, a director who has found new ways to conjure old Italian dreams, and invests even his most grimly...
AIM Awards 2020, SBTV review - a game attempt to...
Thursday, 13 August 2020
Music awards shows are a strange beast: part window display, part industry conference and part party. Especially if you don’t have Brit Awards or...
Charles Owen, Fidelio Orchestra Café review - high-profile, robust romantics
Lucid Schumann, Chopin and Liszt from a master pianist |
Fanny and Stella, Garden Theatre review - a saucy slice of queer history
This rambunctious fringe musical serves up a fascinating true story with charm and pizazz |
Cuba: Castro vs the World, BBC Two - turbulent life and times of El Comandante
How Fidel Castro exported revolution to the oppressed masses |
The Telephone, Scottish Opera/Cargill, RSNO, Søndergård, Edinburgh International Festival online - human emotions in digital form
EIF 2020's 'My Light Shines On' series kicks off musically with Menotti and Mahler |
Matt Haig: The Midnight Library review - an uplifting modern parable
Exquisite depiction of depression explores regret, pain and the richness of the ordinary |
The Adulterer, Channel 4 review - atmospheric, addictive and bingeworthy
This top-quality Dutch series from 2011-15 deserved to be seen sooner |
Blindness, Donmar Warehouse review - a beautifully haunting parable
Simon Stephens and Juliet Stevenson create the perfect installation for our times |
The Encore, Opera Holland Park review - stylish return for a squad of old friends
A moving and delightful al fresco feast of opera favourites |
Sharon Dolin: Hitchcock Blonde: A Cinematic Memoir review - a poet’s life filtered through Hitchcock’s lens
Life imitates art in a memoir that struggles to lead a life of its own |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Dudu Phukwana and the "Spears"
Dudu Pukwana’s Joe Boyd-produced debut album reappears, with added Fairport Convention input |
Heart's Delight, Opera Holland Park review - a classy hour of operetta pops
Five fine singers and a small orchestra deliver hits at a high level |
Perfect 10 review - a small movie with a big heart
Eva Riley's debut feature is by turns sentimental and spiky |
Alex Halberstadt: Young Heroes of the Soviet Union review - a familial history of the twentieth century
The terrible power of the past |
Everything: The Real Thing Story, BBC Four review - brilliant but long overdue
The breakthrough Liverpudlian band's story told lovingly and not before time |
The New Normal, Royal Victoria Patriotic Building review - strong mixed bill
Pop-up arts festival in a lovely Gothic venue |
The Streets, EartH review - empathy in isolation
Garage laureate proves eager to connect |
Imagine... My Name is Kwame, BBC One review - interesting but incomplete
Profile of Young Vic artistic director could go still further |
Moses und Aron, Komische Oper Berlin, OperaVision review – complex and powerful memorial
Schoenberg’s opera of unanswerable questions proves a fitting Holocaust epitaph |
An American Pickle review - sweet and sour screwball comedy
Seth Rogen doubles up for a time-hopping tale that sets the past against the present |
The Deceived, Channel 5 review - who's fooling who?
Confused drama can't decide whether it's a thriller or a ghost story |
Young Ahmed review - jihadist drama misses the mark
Cannes Best Director-winner has its moments, but focuses on the wrong parts |
Little Birds, Sky Atlantic review - decadence and intrigue in 1950s Morocco
Adaption of Anaïs Nin's stories is raunchy and risqué |
Hiromi Kawakami: People From My Neighbourhood review - deft and feather-light
Surreal short stories offer a glimpse into nosy neighbourly worlds |
The Talk, Channel 4 review - coping with the legacy of racism
Black Britons discuss their personal struggles against prejudice |
latest in today
Spree review - a wild ride through social media madness
Allergic to that word “influencer”? Afraid that social...
Mandy, BBC2 review - Diane Morgan's new creation
Mandy started life in the Comedy Shorts season last year, and has now been given a six-part series. Diane Morgan, who has a...
Babyteeth review - teenage love and terminal illness in the...
Babyteeth gets off to a terrific start. A semi-naked, manic Moses (Toby Wallace, full of scabby charisma) almost pushes 15-year-old Milla...
Theatre Unlocked 4: Shows in concert and a contemporary clas...
After months spent sifting amongst the virtual, I'm pleased to report that live performance looks to be on the (socially distanced) rebound. The...
Pinocchio review - wooden heart
This seems a perfect project for Matteo Garrone, a director who has found new ways to conjure old Italian dreams, and invests even his most grimly...
AIM Awards 2020, SBTV review - a game attempt to rewire awar...
Music awards shows are a strange beast: part window display, part industry conference and part party. Especially if you don’t have Brit Awards or...
Charles Owen, Fidelio Orchestra Café review - high-profile,...
Composer Gian-Carlo Menotti once asked rhetorically what society wanted of performing artists – “the bread of life or the after-dinner mint?”...
Album: Biffy Clyro - A Celebration of Endings
Together for over 20 years and with a string of incredibly successful albums, the...
Fanny and Stella, Garden Theatre review - a saucy slice of q...
In a purgatorial summer, this boisterous, camp and chaotically charming...
Cuba: Castro vs the World, BBC Two - turbulent life and time...
During World War Two, President Franklin D Roosevelt described the USA as “the arsenal of democracy”. Only a couple of decades later, Fidel Castro...