America
First Person: Hassan Abdulrazzak on the real-life drama behind American deportation to the UKWednesday, 26 February 2020
You are at a party having a good time when someone gives you a glass of champagne. You take one and then another and soon the party is over. You get in the car to go home and are driving along when you see a police car in the rearview mirror: how... Read more... |
Be More Chill, The Other Palace review - more exhausting than enlighteningMonday, 24 February 2020
This latest musical theatre exercise in “geek chic” has been an American phenomenon: a show propelled by social media that developed a rabid fan base taking it all the way to Broadway last year. And here Be More Chill now is in London at The Other... Read more... |
CD: Grimes - Miss AnthropoceneSunday, 23 February 2020
Grimes is hilarious. For all the grandiose conceptualism, apocalyptic visions, high tech sonic manipulation, outré costumes, modish witchery, multiple personas, arch media baiting with her billionaire boyfriend and all the rest, she is still... Read more... |
The Visit, National Theatre review - star turn bolsters baggy rewriteSaturday, 15 February 2020
Lesley Manville’s thrilling career ascent continues apace with The Visit, which marks American playwright Tony Kushner’s return to the National Theatre following the acclaimed Angels in America revival nearly three... Read more... |
Sonic the Hedgehog review - stuck in first gearFriday, 14 February 2020
An early trailer for this adaptation of the ‘90s games franchise caused Cats-like horror at its overly humanoid Hedgehog. Rather than the former film’s risky freak-show, though, this diligently redesigned Sonic is the most safely saccharine family... Read more... |
Darren Waterston: Filthy Lucre, V&A review - a timely look at the value of artSaturday, 08 February 2020
It looks as if vandals have ransacked Whistler's Peacock Room. The famous interior was commissioned in the 1870s by shipping magnate, Frederick Richard Leyland to show off his collection of fine porcelain. The specially designed shelves have... Read more... |
CD: Tennis - SwimmerSaturday, 08 February 2020
There is something deliciously normal about Tennis, the Denver husband and wife team of Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley. Steeped in the best pop of a bygone age, the couple’s lyrics seem so simple and yet unpack hidden depths on repeated listening.... Read more... |
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood review - an emotionally honest biopicSaturday, 01 February 2020
The role of Fred Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood was made for Tom Hanks – and he excels in it. Rogers’ sixth cousin, Hanks has at his fingertips the compassion and warmth that made the zipper-cardigan-clad American children’s... Read more... |
Richard Jewell review - a portrait of duty and dignity in this true-life taleSaturday, 01 February 2020
Since Play Misty For Me in 1971, Clint Eastwood has been tearing up the American myth with a body of muscular, often melancholic work. He continues this theme with Richard Jewell, the story of a security guard falsely accused of the 1996 Atalanta... Read more... |
Queen & Slim review - a stylish and raw tale of outlaws on the lamThursday, 30 January 2020
There’s a palpable rage to Melina Matsoukas’ first feature film Queen & Slim, starring Get Out’s Daniel Kaluuya and newcomer Jodie Turner-Smith. Cast in the mould of Bonnie and Clyde, it’s a film that has you clinging to the arms of your seat... Read more... |
The Sunset Limited, Boulevard Theatre review - all talk, no theatreFriday, 24 January 2020
Cormac McCarthy’s two-hander, premiered at Chicago's mighty Steppenwolf Theatre in 2006, has by this point been everything short of an ice ballet: a self-described “novel in dramatic form”, as one might expect from the American author of such titles... Read more... |
The Grudge review - non-stop shocks wear out their welcomeThursday, 23 January 2020
The 18-year-old Japanese horror hit Ju-On (The Grudge) was remade once before, as – yes – The Grudge (2004), with Sarah Michelle Gellar. Now it's re-rebooted in this stylishly photographed but fatally crass incarnation directed by Nicolas Pesce, who... Read more... |
