Reviews
Sin City: A Dame to Kill ForTuesday, 26 August 2014![]() There’s no rest for the wicked and corrupt in Frank Miller’s sequel to Sin City which sees him team up once again with Robert Rodriguez. A series of uninspired but visually alluring vignettes play out demanding you to question what came before and... Read more... |
John Kearns/ Alex Edelman/ This Is CeilidhTuesday, 26 August 2014![]() John Kearns: Shtick, Voodoo Rooms ****London comic John Kearns made history at the weekend, when he became the first comic to win the main prize at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards after winning best newcomer gong, which he did last year That's some... Read more... |
Al Murray's Great British War Films, BBC FourTuesday, 26 August 2014![]() Fifty-seven minutes into this hour-long programme entitled "Al Murray’s Great British War Films", our host put panellist Dan Snow on the spot and asked him to name his favourite war film. “Does it have to be British?” Snow wondered. For a second it... Read more... |
Prom 50: Weilerstein, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, BělohlávekMonday, 25 August 2014Even as orchestras began to sound more and more alike, there was the Czech Philharmonic. And many of its notable characteristics remain to this day: a modest, homespun quality, warm and engaging and full of bright-eyed distinction in the woodwinds.... Read more... |
Crystal Springs, Park Theatre / Little Stitches, Theatre503Monday, 25 August 2014![]() Here's a fun fact: this year the Merriam-Webster dictionary added a new definition for the noun "catfish". As well as the amphibian, a catfish now also refers to "a person who sets up a false personal profile on a social networking site for... Read more... |
The Honourable Woman, Series Finale, BBC TwoMonday, 25 August 2014![]() In the current political climate, it would have been grotesquely inappropriate to conclude even the most fictionalised account of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with any kind of neat resolution. But even if Hugo Blick’s absorbing thriller had ever... Read more... |
If I StayMonday, 25 August 2014![]() Beethoven went deaf at 26, we're helpfully informed near the start of If I Stay in a bit of information that pales next to the tin ear on display in this late-summer romantic tragedy, which aims to position Chloë Grace Moretz as the next Shailene... Read more... |
Doctor Who: Deep Breath, BBC OneSunday, 24 August 2014![]() Imagine that you were a TV executive producer, and that you had managed to cast one of the country’s finest actors in the lead role. To what use would you put his considerable talent and gravitas? If your answer was not “engage him in a five-minute... Read more... |
Sweet Mambo, Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, Edinburgh PlayhouseSunday, 24 August 2014![]() The Edinburgh Playhouse is the largest UK theatre regularly used for dance. The stalls alone seat more than the total capacity of Sadler’s Wells, and the two circles combined seat even more again, for a maximum audience of 3,059. To see it filled... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Popcorn GirlsSunday, 24 August 2014![]() Various Artists: Popcorn GirlsAlthough the sole single by troubled American televison and film star Tuesday Weld seems an unlikely dance floor filler, 1962’s cute and gently shuffling “Are You the Boy” became a staple with one of continental... Read more... |
The Kate Bush Story: Running Up that Hill, BBC FourSaturday, 23 August 2014![]() Kate Bush’s return to live performance next week, after 35 years’ absence, has been one of the defining features of this musical year. Her announcement, in March, of the Hammersmith gigs left even David Bowie’s gifted coup in the shade, creating a... Read more... |
The Lion, St James Theatre StudioSaturday, 23 August 2014![]() This has been a busy season for Off Broadway musicals crossing the pond to London, from Dessa Rose and Dogfight to Forbidden Broadway and See Rock City. But for simplicity of approach coupled with swiftness of emotional attack, Benjamin Scheuer's... Read more... |
