Film
The Little Stranger review - the wrong sort of chillsSaturday, 22 September 2018![]() Domnhall Gleeson needs to watch it. In Goodbye Christopher Robin he played AA Milne, the creator of Pooh and co. To achieve the correct level of period English PTSD, it was as if he’d folded himself up into a neat pile of desiccated twigs. And now... Read more... |
Matangi/Maya/M.I.A. review - not your average popstarSaturday, 22 September 2018![]() Why is M.I.A. such a problematic pop star? Why can't she just shut up and release a hit? Tellingly, this is the very question the singer poses at the start of Matangi/Maya/M.I.A - a question she's been asked throughout her career, from interviewers... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: The BreadwinnerFriday, 21 September 2018![]() Animation fans have rarely had it so good, though it’s nothing short of criminal that the mean-spirited, infantile Peter Rabbit took more money than the sublime Paddington 2, and that Nora Twomey’s The Breadwinner wasn’t a popular success when... Read more... |
Faces Places review - Agnès Varda's enchanted journeyThursday, 20 September 2018![]() On the eve of her tenth decade, the marvellous Agnès Varda embarked on the enchanted journey that we see in Faces Places. For admirers of the great French director – of whom there are a great many: indeed, it is hard not to be won over by her... Read more... |
James Graham: 'the country of Shakespeare no longer recognises arts as a core subject'Thursday, 20 September 2018![]() Thank you. It’s an honour to have been asked to speak here today. Although looking at the h100 List this year, I’ve no idea why I’m presumptuously standing here; given the talent, creativity and achievements far surpassing my own within this room.... Read more... |
Never Here review - conceptual art may damage your healthWednesday, 19 September 2018![]() Beware the hidden powers of the cellphone. When in Never Here New York conceptual artist Miranda Fall (Mireille Enos) finds a stranger’s phone, she uses it as the basis for her next art show, tracking down and interviewing the owner’s contacts,... Read more... |
DVD: MarioTuesday, 18 September 2018![]() Swiss director Marcel Gisler’s film tells a story that is hardly new – but neither, sadly, is it old, as in about a thing of the past. That professional football continues to be homophobic, a world in which it is virtually impossible for a star... Read more... |
Wajib review - poignant, profound humanismSaturday, 15 September 2018![]() Annemarie Jacir’s third feature may have picked up a subtitle, “The Wedding Invitation”, for international distribution, but the key to her intimate portrait of Palestinian life seen through a father-son relationship lies in understanding the full... Read more... |
Lucky review - fabled character actor stars in his own obituaryFriday, 14 September 2018![]() Harry Dean Stanton died in September last year aged 91, and will forever be remembered as the embodiment of the lean, lonely, laconic stranger, a man of few words but imbued with an enigmatic allure. This film, the directorial debut of character... Read more... |
Blu-ray: My Man GodfreyFriday, 14 September 2018![]() Life has sped up so, so much in the 82 years since My Man Godfrey appeared. The narrative pacing of many Hollywood films from that era seems painfully slow to modern viewers. My Man Godfrey, on the other hand, watched here in the company of a 15-... Read more... |
'You won't be able to handle this lady': remembering Fenella FieldingWednesday, 12 September 2018![]() Fenella Fielding - “one of the finest female impersonators in the business,” joked Eric Morecambe – has died at the age of 90. Most actors of such a great vintage tend to be forgotten, but not Fielding. Last year she celebrated her big birthday with... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: The ProducersTuesday, 11 September 2018![]() Few things divide opinion as much as comedy, and we’ve all had the experience of sitting through a film stony-faced while all around collapse with mirth. What tickles you? Erudite Wildean wordplay, or the simple joys of watching a fat bloke fall... Read more... |
