Reviews
Reissue CDs Weekly: Be-Bop Deluxe - Drastic PlasticSunday, 14 March 2021
Bill Nelson knew February 1978’s Drastic Plastic was the last Be-Bop Deluxe album. In his essay for the book coming with the new “deluxe expanded” box-set reissue, he writes “that, as far as I was concerned, was that, the final Be-Bop Deluxe studio... Read more... |
Verdict review - social realism and court procedural combine in powerful Manila dramaSaturday, 13 March 2021
There’s something of an anomaly in Filipino director Raymund Ribay Gutierrez’s debut feature between its fast-moving dramatic opening, defined by an agile hand-held camera, and the much slower, more static scenes that follow. That early material,... Read more... |
Wander Darkly review - bold psychodrama falls shortSaturday, 13 March 2021
Like the sun-happy LA of this film’s setting, there’s a hard-to-pinpoint sham quality to Wander Darkly. It feels like too much phoney dialogue crept in to the final script of this “serious” film by writer-director Tara Miele. Sienna Miller is a... Read more... |
Chinese Arts Now Festival review - comedy of the diasporaSaturday, 13 March 2021
Chinese Arts Now was founded in 2005 and aims to produce and present work that explores Chinese themes, stories and art forms in the UK. Its annual festival includes a comedy night (presented in conjunction with Soho Theatre), and this year three... Read more... |
The Columnist review - taking out the trollsFriday, 12 March 2021
There aren't many unforgettable moments in The Columnist, but one occurs when the eponymous Dutch journalist Femke Boot (Katja Herbers) clambers from the skylight of her house and, unseen by her middle-aged neighbour (Rein Hofman), who's doing DIY... Read more... |
Brenda Navarro: Empty Houses review - the pains and pressures of motherhoodThursday, 11 March 2021
The horror novelist Sarah Langan recently compared motherhood to being treated like a game of Operation. “The point of the game is to correct us by removing our defective bones, to carefully pick us apart. It’s open season.” For the Mexican writer... Read more... |
Unforgotten, Series 4, ITV review - is the familiar formula wearing thin?Wednesday, 10 March 2021
There comes a time when every successful formula can do with an overhaul, and that particular bell may be tolling for Unforgotten (ITV). Regular viewers will be familiar with writer Chris Lang’s modus operandi – a corpse (usually grotesque and of... Read more... |
Myaskovsky Dialogues, Yekaterinburg online review - revival and revelationWednesday, 10 March 2021
The reputation of Nikolai Myaskovsky has long been cast into shadow by the more exportable extroversion of his contemporaries Prokofiev and Shostakovich. Even at their darkest moments, neither of them does Russian gloom quite like Myaskovsky, but... Read more... |
Mouthpiece review - double entendre in TorontoWednesday, 10 March 2021
Cassandra and her sister – or perhaps they’re friends or lovers – seem extraordinarily in tune. Like choreographed dancers, they move precisely in unison, down to tripping over their scarves at the same moment or flopping drunkenly into bed together... Read more... |
Levit, Berlin Philharmoniker, Paavo Järvi, Digital Concert Hall review - optimal light and darkTuesday, 09 March 2021
It seems right that (arguably) the greatest orchestra in the world has (unarguably) the best livestreaming and archive service. Thanks to a vital musicians’ Covid testing set-up, the Berlin Philharmoniker is even more supreme online now that it can... Read more... |
Kazuo Ishiguro: Klara and the Sun review - what makes us human?Tuesday, 09 March 2021
Unsettling, unremitting and psychologically stark, Klara and the Sun has all the hallmarks of a traditional Ishiguro novel. Dealing with his familiar themes of loss and love and the question of what makes us human, the book follows the "life" of an... Read more... |
Pushkin House Music Festival online review - Russian around BloomsburyMonday, 08 March 2021
Sergey Prokofiev died on 5 March 1953, on the same day as Stalin. Perhaps that uncomfortable coincidence makes March the perfect time for a festival of Russian music. Pushkin House, the Russian cultural centre based in a Georgian villa in Bloomsbury... Read more... |
