America
Anything Goes, Barbican review - an explosion of joyFriday, 06 August 2021
"Times have changed", we're informed in the cascadingly witty title number of the Cole Porter musical Anything Goes, now in revival at the Barbican and bringing with it a pandemic-clearing tsunami of joy.Or have they? Few I am sure would dispute the... Read more... |
Zola review - high-energy comic thriller tackles sex workThursday, 05 August 2021
It’s hard to imagine a movie more of its time than Zola, as it takes on sex, race, the glamorisation of porn and the allure of the ever-online world. For 90 minutes we are embedded in the lives of two young American sex workers and it’s a wild ride... Read more... |
Bagdad Café, Old Vic review - sweet but scattershotFriday, 30 July 2021
A gorgeous song exists in search of a show to match over at Bagdad Café, the 1987 film that gave the world the memorably plaintive "Calling You", which is threaded throughout Emma Rice's stage adaptation of the movie with understandable... Read more... |
Oleanna, Arts Theatre review - Mamet on power and tragedyThursday, 29 July 2021
Before seeing this play, I decided to eat a steak. It seemed the right culinary equivalent to David Mamet, one of America’s most provocative and, at times, especially past times, red-blooded writers. This play, whose British premiere was at the... Read more... |
Album: Leon Bridges - Gold-Diggers SoundThursday, 22 July 2021
The sleeve splices Little Richard and Sam Cooke in an archaic, explosive burst of ecstasy. Neo-soul star Leon Bridges’ third album doesn’t settle in the past, though. Taped far from his Forth Worth, Texas hometown in Hollywood, local clubland sounds... Read more... |
Album: Peyton - PSAWednesday, 21 July 2021
For 25 years now, LA label Stones Throw records has become one of the most reliable brands in music. It began with, and has always been associated with, the leftfield hip hop of founder George “Peanut Butter Wolf” Manak, and regular contributors... Read more... |
Album: David Crosby - For FreeSaturday, 17 July 2021
David Crosby hit the headlines a few months back, another artist selling his song catalogue in order to secure his house. These days musicians must stay on the road to earn a living and sell records. It’s a punishing life, even for the young and fit... Read more... |
Carlos Ghosn: The Last Flight - Storyville, BBC Four review - the tycoon who fell to earthThursday, 15 July 2021
The extraordinary story of motor industry executive Carlos Ghosn is a heady combination of power, money, corruption and international politics, with a Mission: Impossible-style ending that carries it over the finishing tape in dramatic style. It... Read more... |
Sex/Life, Netflix review - Mills & Boon for the YouPorn era?Tuesday, 13 July 2021
Has Netflix succeeded in reshaping Mills & Boon for the YouPorn era? Though situated in a contemporary New York where empowered women run investment companies, earn doctorates in psychology from Columbia University, and deliver forceful lectures... Read more... |
Blu-ray: The Night of the HunterTuesday, 13 July 2021
A United Artists studio executive was treated to a pre-release screening of Charles Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter in 1955. His damning response was, “it’s too arty.” The studio showed little interest in promotion and it was deemed a flop.... Read more... |
Hairspray, London Coliseum review - brighter and more welcome than everThursday, 01 July 2021
A revival of a multi-award winning musical, with a big star or two, may look like a safe choice to re-open London’s largest theatre, the Coliseum, but there was a tingle of jeopardy in the air, exemplified when the show catches you by surprise... Read more... |
Framing Britney Spears, Sky Documentaries review - the rollercoaster ride of the former teen iconThursday, 24 June 2021
She became one of the most successful pop stars in history, but Britney Spears has also become a paradigm of the horrors and pitfalls of life in the white heat of showbusiness. This new documentary by Samantha Stark (made by the New York Times)... Read more... |
