Reviews
The Disappearance of Shere Hite review - the rise and fall of a woman who dared to explore female sexualityFriday, 12 January 2024
When it was published in 1976, “The Hite Report” caused such a sensation that it was translated into 19 languages and flew off the shelves in 36 countries to become the 30th best selling book of all time. Yet it’s author, Shere Hite was treated as... Read more... |
The Enfield Haunting, Ambassadors Theatre review - muddled revisiting of famous paranormal eventsFriday, 12 January 2024
Reports of supernatural events are always met with either willing belief or dismissive scepticism. The "camps" generally don't have much to say to each other: belief in immovable logic, discounting the weird as merely the so-far unexplained, can be... Read more... |
The Boys in the Boat review - a Boy’s Own true story told in formulaic styleFriday, 12 January 2024
Seabiscuit, Creed, Rocky, The Full Monty, Chariots of Fire… George Clooney’s latest directorial project is in the same vein as these earlier films, but swap Seabiscuit et al for a rowing eight. All have a format film-makers love because they... Read more... |
Poor Things review - other-worldly adaptation of Alasdair Gray's novelThursday, 11 January 2024
Following their award-scooping collaboration on 2018’s The Favourite, Emma Stone and director Yorgos Lanthimos return with this mind-bending adaptation of Alasdair Gray’s eponymous novel. Also on board is screenwriter Tony McNamara, who wrote (with... Read more... |
Tatty Macleod, Soho Theatre review - cross-Channel relationsThursday, 11 January 2024
Tatty Macleod, whose debut show is about the differences between the French and the English, has a confession to make: she's not French. She not even half English/half French, despite having lived her life between the two countries. But she's... Read more... |
Boris Giltburg, Wigmore Hall review - epic heaven and hellTuesday, 09 January 2024
With rapid, sleight-of-hand flicks between calm assurance and demonic agitation, Boris Giltburg turned in a coherent and epic recital that won’t be surpassed in 2024. Most pianists would quake simply at the thought of performing the four Chopin... Read more... |
Richard Dorment: Warhol After Warhol review - beyond criticismTuesday, 09 January 2024
2023 was a good year for Andy Warhol post-mortems: after Nicole Flattery’s Nothing Special, after Alexandra Auder’s Don’t Call Home, Richard Dorment’s Warhol After Warhol.Their publication journeys undoubtedly benefitted from the value Anglophone... Read more... |
Scala!!! review - a grindhouse cinema remembersMonday, 08 January 2024
This week, the makers of Scala!!! threw a party in what remains of its subject – a notorious, beloved repertory cinema in then sleazy King’s Cross, born 1981, dead 1993, and now a dowdier music venue.The auditorium was cut up, shrunk... Read more... |
Dineo Seshee Raisibe Bopape: (ka) pheko ye / the dream to come, Kiasma, Helsinki review - psychic archaeologyMonday, 08 January 2024
Rosemary, heather and hops. These are just a few of the ingredients included in a special blend of herbal tea created by artist, Dineo Seshee Raisibe Bopape. Subtle yet deep in flavour, the amber coloured tea has a calming, if not soporific and... Read more... |
Night Swim review - hardly immersive horror flickMonday, 08 January 2024
The water is wild in Night Swim, the weirdly wet horror debut from director Bryce McGuire, in which a backyard bathing pool becomes the locus of all things supernatural.For a while, this mild, many-angled shocker, produced by horror impresarios... Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: East Village - Drop OutSunday, 07 January 2024
The album’s opening track is titled “Silver Train.” Built around a choppy acoustic guitar refrain, it features Hammond organ, spindly electric guitar lines, pattering percussion and has a vibe – with a gospel edge – suggesting a familiarity with Let... Read more... |
Mr Bates vs The Post Office, ITV1 review - a star-packed account of an incendiary storySaturday, 06 January 2024
There isn’t a troupe officially called the Worshipful Company of British Character Actors, but there probably should be, given the sterling service it does for the nation, acting in prestige TV dramas based on real events. Toby Jones and Monica... Read more... |
