Reviews
It Just Stopped, Orange Tree TheatreWednesday, 12 February 2014
Would you be able to tell if the world had ended? For Beth and Franklin, the wannabe intellectuals at the heart of Stephen Sewell's play, it proves quite difficult to ascertain whether life as they know it has come to an end from their privileged... Read more... |
A Midsummer Night's Dream, BarbicanTuesday, 11 February 2014
An insider once told me that you get a grant for including puppets in a production. Which may account for the amount of crap puppetry haphazardly applied in the theatre. That certainly can't be said about the work of husband-and-husband team Adrian... Read more... |
The Life of Rock with Brian Pern, BBC FourTuesday, 11 February 2014
It’s a brave comic who steps into the spandex zucchini-stuffed loon pants of Spinal Tap. The – if you will – rockumentary will never be done better. But it is 30 years since Marty DiBergi went in search of the sights, the sounds, the smells of a... Read more... |
BastardsTuesday, 11 February 2014
Whenever someone wants to dispel the gender simplification that female directors only make feelgood films, they wheel out Kathryn Bigelow, whose action movies are cited as being tougher than any man’s. It’s a spurious debate, admittedly, but if we... Read more... |
DCI Banks, ITVMonday, 10 February 2014
Mothers and their sons provided the framework for the latest story involving DCI Alan Banks, the character on whom ITV is pinning its hopes to fill the vacancy of the nation’s favourite detective now that Frost and Morse are no more. Peter Robinson’... Read more... |
Prince, Shepherds Bush EmpireMonday, 10 February 2014
If you're looking for good vibes, you could do worse than watch people who've queued up for a surprise show by a megastar finally getting through the doors, having paid only a tenner. The buzz on the way into the Shepherds Bush Empire last night, in... Read more... |
Berlinale 2014: Two Men in Town, '71Monday, 10 February 2014
The opening days of the Berlinale have seen mixed reactions to high-profile English-language offerings. With its stylish sense of mittelEuropa, the festival’s premiere, Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, apparently went down a treat. Much less... Read more... |
Babylon, Channel 4Monday, 10 February 2014
They're billing this as a "comedy-drama" about the inner workings of the Metropolitan Police, and it comes trailing a cloud of prestigious bylines. It's written by Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong, who between them have notched up credits for Smack the... Read more... |
The Monuments MenMonday, 10 February 2014
The Nazi war machine had great taste: it wanted all of the world’s art treasure for itself. Someone had to stop them .Based on Robert M Edsel’s book, George Clooney and Grant Heslov’s screenplay takes a starry stab at telling a culturally serious... Read more... |
1980, Tanztheater Wuppertal, Sadler's WellsSunday, 09 February 2014
Review convention is to put this at the end, but I can’t risk you stopping reading before I can say: go and see 1980 while it is at Sadler's Wells this week. It is one of the most extraordinary works you will ever watch.If ballet is about... Read more... |
Hockney: Printmaker, Dulwich Picture GallerySunday, 09 February 2014
David Hockney has been a printmaker for almost as long as he’s been a painter. From one of his earliest ventures into print, a self-portrait colour lithograph aged 16 while at Bradford College of Art (the black pudding-bowl hair emulates early hero... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Mike BloomfieldSunday, 09 February 2014
Michael Bloomfield: From his Head to his Heart to his HandsMike Bloomfield was undoubtedly one of rock’s greatest and most distinctive guitarists. He was also wildly erratic and did much to undermine what others saw in him. He died at age 37... Read more... |
