actors
Destroyer review - Kidman shines in middling crime dramaSaturday, 26 January 2019![]() Destroyer. It’s an apt name. Like the film, it's grandiose and blunt. Nicole Kidman is almost unrecognisable (a requirement when aiming for nominations) as Detective Erin Bell, a damaged survivor of an undercover heist gone wrong. When her target... Read more... |
'I'll show the lot of you!' Richard E Grant's Oscar nominationWednesday, 23 January 2019![]() Richard E Grant has captivated the internet. The actor greeted the news of his nomination for an Academy Award by returning to his first rental when no one had heard of him. There he whooped with childlike delight, and then shared the whole thing in... Read more... |
Mary Queen of Scots review - Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie excelSaturday, 19 January 2019![]() Very much a woman of today, the Catholic Stuart heroine (Saoirse Ronan) of Mary Queen of Scots frequently hacks her way out of a thicket of power-hungry males, enjoys it when her English suitor Lord Darnley (Jack Lowden) goes down on her, and is... Read more... |
Call My Agent!, Netflix review - French movie stars turn out for witty and waspish TV showWednesday, 09 January 2019![]() Read theartsdesk review of Call My Agent!, Series 4Apparently it took some time before the cream of the French acting profession could be persuaded to take part in a TV drama that shed a sardonic light on the relationship between actors and their... Read more... |
Kidding, Sky Atlantic review - tears of a clownFriday, 30 November 2018![]() There’s no one right way to grieve. It cuts through everyone differently, whether reverting to childhood traits or out-of-character impulses. The person you lose might mean one thing to you, and something completely different to someone else; it can... Read more... |
The Girl in the Spider's Web review - Claire Foy leathers upThursday, 22 November 2018![]() The enthronement of Claire Foy has been quite a spectacle. Perhaps some of Her Majesty’s mystique has rubbed off, as she is now entering that territory known to few young actors, where you’ll happily pay to see her in anything. Should that policy... Read more... |
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald review - mischief not quite managedFriday, 16 November 2018![]() Two years after the release of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, we return to the Wizarding World once again for the next, somewhat convoluted, chapter in the five planned prequel instalments, with Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald... Read more... |
Macbeth, Shakespeare's Globe review - sexually-charged production draws power from the shadowsThursday, 15 November 2018![]() Macbeth has rarely seemed quite as metrosexual as in this gorgeous shadow-painted production that marks Globe artistic director Michelle Terry’s first production in the Sam Wanamaker theatre. Even in a play that walks the tightrope between its... Read more... |
Laurent Cantet: 'Young people have different preoccupations nowadays' – interviewThursday, 15 November 2018![]() Like Ken Loach and the Dardennes brothers, Laurent Cantet is a filmmaker with a keen interest in social issues and themes, often using non-professional actors and a naturalistic approach, but perfectly willing to inject a little plot contrivance to... Read more... |
Suspiria review - kindly, slow-motion grand guignolThursday, 15 November 2018![]() The first Suspiria was a sensation, and spectacularly, monomaniacally new. Its young heroine Susie Bannon’s ride from an innately hostile airport through eldritch woods in which a panicked girl ran from her destination, the Markos Academy of Dance,... Read more... |
Michael Caine: Blowing the Bloody Doors Off review - an actor's handbook, annotated by experienceSunday, 28 October 2018![]() What a charmer! An irresistible combination of diffidence and confidence, Michael Caine is so much more than Alfie, and this surprising book, his second after a delightful autobiography, is multi-layered, filled with tips for acting, on stage and... Read more... |
Erik Poppe and Andrea Berntzen: 'When white young men do stuff like this, we just shake our heads'Friday, 26 October 2018![]() On 22nd July 2011, on a tiny island off the Norwegian coast, 69 young people were killed, with another 109 injured in a terrorist attack. It was the darkest day in Norway since World War Two, and one that is still evident in its news, politics and... Read more... |
