America
DVD/Blu-ray: BuddiesTuesday, 24 December 2019
The acclaim of being the first to represent the mid-1980s AIDS pandemic in cultural form was a plaudit that none of those concerned would ever have wished for. With New York as its epicentre, and almost nothing known about the disease that was... Read more... |
Girl From The North Country, Gielgud Theatre review – poignant collaboration between Conor McPherson and Bob DylanMonday, 23 December 2019
Despair hangs like mildew over the small iron-ore mining town of Duluth, Minnesota, where dreams go to die, and the living haunt the clapped-out buildings like lost souls. This poignant collaboration between playwright Conor McPherson and Bob Dylan... Read more... |
Curtains, Wyndham's Theatre review - unexpectedly giddy funWednesday, 18 December 2019
Who knew? This West End premiere of the 2007 Broadway entry from the legendary songwriting team of John Kander and Fred Ebb (Chicago, Cabaret) secured a prime holiday-season slot at the last minute when this playhouse's previous entry, The Man... Read more... |
Teenage Dick, Donmar Warehouse review - a fearlessly acted, well-intentioned messFriday, 13 December 2019
If good intentions were everything, Teenage Dick would be the play of the year. As it is, this British premiere at the Donmar of an Off Broadway entry from summer 2018 grants centre-stage, and not before time, to two disabled actors, one of whom... Read more... |
Fairview, Young Vic review - questioning the assumptions of raceMonday, 09 December 2019
Jackie Sibblies Drury’s Fairview comes to the Young Vic with the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama under its belt, and a reputation for putting audiences on their mettle through a build-up of theatrical surprises that culminate in a denouement about... Read more... |
Honey Boy review - coming to terms with dadFriday, 06 December 2019
Blue periods can lead to golden streaks. Such is almost the case with Honey Boy, which Shia LaBeouf wrote during a court-ordered stay in a rehab clinic for the treatment of PTSD symptoms. Based on LaBeouf’s upbringing and childhood acting years, the... Read more... |
Blu-ray: Moonrise KingdomTuesday, 03 December 2019
Moonrise Kingdom is stuffed with director Wes Anderson’s familiar tropes. Elaborate sets, artfully designed props and Bill Murray all feature, the usual eccentricities tempered by genuine affection for the film’s young heroes. Anderson’s eighth... Read more... |
Elizabeth Strout: Olive, Again review - compassion, honesty and communitySunday, 01 December 2019
Elizabeth Strout is fond of plain titles. Much as her stories are interested in subtlety – the quiet complications and contradictions of ordinary life – her books advertise themselves by means of telling understatements. Olive, Again ... Read more... |
The Wolf of Wall Street, 5-15 Sun Street review - energetic but to what end?Friday, 29 November 2019
Of all the groups you probably wouldn’t want to be part of, surely the hyper-adrenalised, hardscrabble populace of The Wolf of Wall Street, the Jordan Belfort memoir made into an amphetamine rush of a film by Martin Scorsese, must rank near the... Read more... |
White Christmas, Dominion Theatre review - breezy but blandThursday, 28 November 2019
Nostalgia for things that probably never were is an animating theme in politics these days. Much the same feeling displaced to the realm of showbiz, lends a vaguely dampening air to White Christmas, this latest stage retread of the 1954 Bing... Read more... |
The Sinner, Series 2, BBC Four review - a white-knuckle ride into spiritual darknessSunday, 24 November 2019
The first series of The Sinner in 2017 starred Jessica Biel as a disturbed woman who seemingly inexplicably stabbed a man to death on a beach, then could remember nothing about the crime. This second season on BBC Four finds Biel on board as... Read more... |
John Grisham: The Guardians review - nail-bitingly goodSunday, 24 November 2019
Some two million Americans are currently in prison in America. A disproportionate number are black and nearly 200,000 are estimated to be innocent. John Grisham’s quietly horrifying new novel is a damning indictment of the inequities and corruption... Read more... |
