America
Kerry James Marshall: The Histories, Royal Academy review - a triumphant celebration of blacknessTuesday, 30 September 2025
This must be the first time a black artist has been honoured with a retrospective that fills the main galleries of the Royal Academy. Celebrating Kerry James Marshall’s 70th birthday, The Histories occupies these grand rooms with such joyous ease... Read more... |
Odd times and clunking lines in 'The Life of a Showgirl' for Taylor SwiftSaturday, 04 October 2025
It’s funny: people say a lot online that what you’re allowed to like and dislike in music is bounded by age, gender and so forth. “It’s not FOR you,” they say. And in many ways, when it comes to Taylor Swift, that’s fair enough.There are certainly... Read more... |
One Battle After Another review - Paul Thomas Anderson satirises America's culture warsTuesday, 30 September 2025
Paul Thomas Anderson’s frantic One Battle After Another is a storm warning for a fascist America and both a lament and a rallying call for revolutionary fervour.Unfurling in the early Obama years and the near future, it’s a late ‘60s/early ‘70s West... Read more... |
Mariah Carey is still 'Here for It All' after an eight-year breakFriday, 26 September 2025
One of the great moments of Private Eye magazine’s fustiness in recent years was putting Mariah Carey in Pseud’s Corner, for the quote about how she deals with the ageing process: “I do not acknowledge time.” That quip is of course in no way pseudo-... Read more... |
Spinal Tap II: The End Continues review - comedy rock band fails to revive past gloriesMonday, 15 September 2025
That difficult second documentary – or if you will, “rockumentary” – seems to have been especially challenging for Spinal Tap, since it arrives no less than 41 years after its predecessor, This Is Spinal Tap. The latter has become renowned as a... Read more... |
Honey Don’t! review - film noir in the bright sunTuesday, 09 September 2025
The Coen brothers’ output has been so broad-ranging, and the duo so self-deprecating, that critics have long had difficulty getting their arms around them. Telling stories of distemper in the American heartland, with the occasional drive-by hit... Read more... |
Album: Josh Ritter - I Believe in You, My HoneydewSaturday, 06 September 2025
Americana rocker Josh Ritter can write a beautiful song. He’s one of America’s premier wordsmiths of the form. He’s also written two novels, which is no surprise; many of his best songs have narrative edge. He’s equally capable at the music, which... Read more... |
The Paper, Sky Max review - a spinoff of the US Office worth waiting 20 years forThursday, 04 September 2025
Fans of the US version of The Office may wonder what happened to the assorted oddballs of Dunder Mifflin, proud creators of paper products in Scranton, Pennsylvania. They will be none the wiser after watching the pilot episode of The Paper,... Read more... |
Blu-ray: The GraduateTuesday, 02 September 2025
Can a film’s classic status expire, or be rescinded? If it can, I’d say The Graduate is a potential candidate.Yes, it was formally groundbreaking (within the context of American cinema), and is often read as a metaphor for the clash of generations,... Read more... |
Fat Ham, RSC, Stratford review - it's Hamlet Jim, but not as we know itThursday, 28 August 2025
$8.2B. That’s what can happen when you re-imagine Hamlet.I doubt that writer, James Ijames, had The Lion King’s box office in mind when he set out to create a Deep South, black and contemporary version of Shakespeare’s drama of familial dysfunction... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews: Refuse / Terry's / SugarSaturday, 23 August 2025
Refuse, Assembly George Square Studios ★★★★Maks works as a bin man in a small Ukrainian town. His little son might get picked on at school and told he’s smelly because of his dad’s occupation, but Maks is content with his lot, his soulmate of a wife... Read more... |
Sorry, Baby review - the healing power of friendship in the aftermath of sexual assaultFriday, 22 August 2025
“I have a baby in me,” says Lydie (Naomi Ackie; Mickey 17). “What? Right now?” says her friend Agnes (Eva Victor), who may not be entirely thrilled at the news. “Are you going to name it Agnes?”Eva Victor (Rian in Billions) stars in, writes and... Read more... |
- 1 of 163
- ››
