Reviews
Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed review - the closeted life of a Hollywood greatFriday, 20 October 2023
Rock Hudson was built up as a silver screen archetype of heterosexual manhood, with his 6ft 5in frame and muscular physique, but his story has subsequently come to epitomise a Hollywood system built on illusions and delusions. Supposedly the kind of... Read more... |
Foe review - unsettling sci-fi dramaFriday, 20 October 2023
Garth Davis’s Foe is cast from that classic science fiction mould that uses a fantastical premise to explore the commonplace, yet profound aspects of our lives; in this case, the intricacies, dissatisfactions and anxieties of a marriage.At the same... Read more... |
The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from the Life of John le Carré, Apple TV+ review - outstanding, intriguing portrait of David CornwellFriday, 20 October 2023
When the Oscar-winning documentary-maker Errol Morris sat David Cornwell down before his Interrotron camera in 2019, the first salvo of the chat came, not from the interviewer, but from his subject: “Who are you?” By which Cornwell meant, who... Read more... |
London Film Festival 2023 - mixed fortunes for film mastersThursday, 19 October 2023
The LFF's Best Film Award winner, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car follow-up Evil Does Not Exist, is a characteristic mix of extended takes and conversations, limpid beauty and dizzyingly intense dramatic incident, and just one of the festival's... Read more... |
RE/SISTERS: A Lens on Gender and Ecology, Barbican review - women fighting to protect the environmentThursday, 19 October 2023
RE/SISTERS is a show about the brave women who’ve been fighting to protect our planet and the artists whose work – mainly in film and photography – is, in itself, a form of protest. The opening section, Extractive Economics demonstrates the problem... Read more... |
The Flea, The Yard Theatre review - biting satire fails to stingThursday, 19 October 2023
A flea bites a rat which spooks a horse which kicks a man and… an empire falls?James Fritz has won writing awards already in his developing career, but he has set himself quite the challenge to weave a thread that can bear that narrative weight. Two... Read more... |
Meetings, Orange Tree Theatre review - three-hander that chews on big issuesThursday, 19 October 2023
Mustapha Matura’s 1981 play, Meetings, is still a knockout. Supply the characters with mobile phones and it could be set in the present day. What makes it topical is the central issue it chews on: is the modern world all it’s cracked up to be,... Read more... |
Maisie Peters, O2 Academy, Glasgow review - conjuring up an enjoyable pop spellThursday, 19 October 2023
When Maisie Peters first appeared onstage she loudly asked if the crowd were ready for “the best night of their lives”, and given the youthful nature of the audience the ensuing 80 minutes might have lived up to the hype. There were screams,... Read more... |
Hamnet, Garrick Theatre review - conventional adaptation of the bestseller drains its poetry awayThursday, 19 October 2023
The RSC apparently has a hit on its hands with its West End transfer of Hamnet. Box office demand has already prompted an extension of the run by six weeks, until February 2024.The draw is presumably the bestselling 2020 novel by Maggie O’Farrell on... Read more... |
Album: Blink 182 - One More TimeThursday, 19 October 2023
For some, Blink 182 will always be those butt-naked dudes goofing around with a hot nurse on the streets of LA. For others, it’s the sound of a Frankenstein threesome they greedily embraced in 2016 when members Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker legally... Read more... |
Rice, Ridout, Drake / A Human Document, Oxford International Song Festival review - a cornucopia of song, speech and visionWednesday, 18 October 2023
The word “great” is going to be stated, or implied, rather a lot here. Christine Rice is, after all, one of the world’s great mezzos, and her partnership with Julius Drake has long been something to seek out at every opportunity. Add to the mix a... Read more... |
Album: Emma Anderson - PearliesWednesday, 18 October 2023
Well, this is lovely. Pearlies opens with “I Was Miles Away”, a puffball of a sonic cloud which marries twinkling electronica with guitar-led shoegazing. It has a familial resemblance with the sort of thing perfected by Sweden’s I Break Horses, but... Read more... |
