Reviews
Daniel Lewis
Like many writers, Jeet Thayil is a bit of an outsider. And, if his track record is anything to go by, he has been happy to keep it that way. The poet, novelist, editor, performer and former addict spent a couple of decades rubbing shoulders with the writers, artists and eccentrics of bohemian Mumbai before putting pen to paper in the late 90s and, eventually, offering a glimpse of that underworld in his kaleidoscopic first novel, Narcopolis.After courting one literary prize (the 2012 Man Booker) and picking up another (the 2013 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature), his sophomore effort, The Read more ...
Nick Hasted
Terrence Malick returns to his former greatness following three features of unscripted, all-star poesy, with this sombre biopic of sainted Austrian conscientious objector Franz Jägerstätter (August Diehl). A farmer who refused to swear the Hitler Oath when called up, Franz remains beatifically strong in Nazi jails, rejecting the compromises that could save him. His wife Franziska (Valerie Pachner), the initial source of his profound Christian faith, is ostracised alongside their young daughters for his pains, in scenes of sullen mob cruelty worse than his physical torture.Malick’s inveterate Read more ...
Adam Sweeting
If nothing else, you’d want to tune in to Cobra (Sky 1) for its cast. Robert Carlyle is steely and decisive as Prime Minister Robert Sutherland, his indispensable fixer Anna Marshall is played by Victoria “Queen Mother” Hamilton, and David Haig oozes bullying malevolence as Home Secretary Archie Glover-Morgan. Solid support from Lucy Cohu and Richard Dormer adds up to a substantial thespathon.Whether the story, penned by Spooks and The Tunnel writer Ben Richards, will carry us convincingly to the finishing tape remains to be seen, but this opener was an amusing blend of political knife- Read more ...
Robert Beale
Finding one piece for marimba soloist and string orchestra would tax the powers of many concert planners, never mind coming up with two, so the Northern Chamber Orchestra is to be congratulated on its first Manchester performance of 2020 – especially since they found two concerto-style works from almost the same point in recent time: 2009 and 2010. Qualify that by adding that one has a second soloist, a clarinet, but impressive nonetheless.Colin Currie was the star marimba soloist for both Stephen Barlow’s Nocturne for clarinet, marimba and strings and Kurt Schwertsik’s marimba concerto Read more ...
India Lewis
Published in the year following Orr’s death at the age of 57, Motherwell is an analysis of the author’s childhood in Motherwell, on the outskirts of Glasgow, and her first steps into adulthood. However, while this book is ostensibly about Deborah Orr the child, it is as much about her parents, John and Win, and about Deborah Orr the adult. Everything seeps into everything else, just as Win seeped into Orr’s life, claiming her daughter’s whole being as her own. As Orr recognises in retrospect, “I realise now that my mother’s main trouble was her pathological inability to understand at all that Read more ...
aleks.sierz
Do you hear the people sing? In recent months, you're more likely to have heard news stories about the longest running West End musical than the actual music. Stephen Sondheim – who celebrates his 90th birthday in March – missed the gala opening of the venue which has been renamed after him (formerly the Queen's), due to a fall – and some Les Mis singers have been pulling out as rapidly as champagne corks. At one point, Matt Lucas stepped in as a substitute, only to fall sick himself. Celebrity gossip aside, producer Cameron Mackintosh dumped the legendary Trevor Nunn and John Caird Read more ...
David Nice
Horns fanfared, coasted and chorused through yet another Philharmonia winner of a concert to match the impressive planning of its Weimar season last year and no doubt a plan close to the heart of principal conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, who started his musical life as a horn-player. Between the dark-woods harmonies of Weber's Overture to Der Freischütz and the scampery of Strauss's Till Eulenspiegel, the orchestra's former first horn Richard Watkins perfected his way – or, to paraphrase the simile of horn-playing by another top exponent, Barry Tuckwell, drove his car sleekly on black ice – Read more ...
Jenny Gilbert
Resolution! is an annual programme at The Place (home of London Contemporary Dance School), devoted to showcasing new choreographers. Over the past 30 years several have gone on to make it big, so there’s a reasonable chance that, somewhere among this year’s selection of 81 wannabes lurks a Wayne McGregor, a Hofesh Schechter or a Kate Prince waiting to be discovered.Each gets 20 minutes of a triple bill and quality isn’t guaranteed (the pieces having been selected on the basis of a written outline six months in advance) but this year’s opening night managed two out of three, with Lynn Dichon’ Read more ...
Markie Robson-Scott
Trey Edward Shults’s extraordinary, music-driven third feature, set in a sparkling south Florida, stars a wonderful Kelvin Harrison Jr as 17-year-old Tyler, an African American high-school wrestler with bleached blond hair. Harrison was in Shults's It Comes At Night (he also starred in Luce); they have a close relationship and collaborated on the Waves story. This is worth mentioning as Shults is white and to impose his semi-autobiographical narrative on to a black family might otherwise be seen as problematic, as indeed it has been in some quarters.This is an exceptionally powerful movie, Read more ...
David Nice
Admirable as it was of the London Philharmonic Orchestra to launch its concerts in 2020 with a performance celebrating the Ravi Shankar centenary, the hard fact remains that this lively spectacle might have worked better without two-thirds of its players. The often thick scoring of Sukanya, fine for the Kathak dance sequences vibrantly choreographed by Gauri Diwakar, meant that the operatic voices needed amplifying, and that often resulted in hard edges where the music suggested a luminous or vibrant spirituality.Still, Sukanya should be here to stay, and would reach larger audiences around Read more ...
Demetrios Matheou
With Harvey Weinstein about to go on trial, the timing is particularly apt for a film that outlines the fall from grace of another media giant who used his powerful position to sexually victimise women. The late Roger Ailes was the CEO of the right-wing, Trump-supporting Fox News, who was massively influential in American media and politics until forced to resign, in 2016, in the face of sexual harassment accusations by a raft of female staff.Bombshell captures the toxic environment inside the Fox News building, where Ailes would advance or terminate a woman’s career on the basis of sexual Read more ...
Veronica Lee
When Frank Skinner did a London run of new material last year, the show was billed as a taster of a longer touring version. I wrote then that the show whetted my appetite for more, and I'm glad to say that the updated version, Showbiz, which now has a West End residency, has delivered.Showbiz comes after Skinner has chalked up more than 30 years in comedy and is a pleasing mix of reflections on parenting, the ageing process and fame. He starts the show by cheekily using Bruce Forsyth's famous phrase “Nice to see you, to see you nice” when he walks on stage. As he says drily: “No one else is Read more ...