family relationships
James Rebanks: English Pastoral, An Inheritance review - a manifesto for a radical agricultural rethinkMonday, 21 September 2020
Coming from a family of farmers, with periods of time spent working on a farm in the past ten years, I found James Rebanks’ English Pastoral: An Inheritance to be a highly urgent, important book. It is a perfect encapsulation and... Read more... |
The Devil All The Time review – a test of faith in a Southern Gothic traditionThursday, 17 September 2020
There’s no denying the Faulknerian ambition to the construction of Anthony Campos’ latest feature Devil All the Time. It’s a brooding, blood-soaked Semi-Southern Gothic drama spanning two generations through a plot that wrestles with the nature of... Read more... |
Max Richter's Sleep review - refreshing as a good night's restSaturday, 12 September 2020
If there was ever a balm for these confusing times, then it’s Max Richter’s Sleep, a lullaby of a documentary that explores the composer’s eight-hour-plus experimental 2015 composition based on sleep cycles. Richter is a remarkable... Read more... |
Savage review - an immersive look at gang culture in Wellington, New ZealandThursday, 10 September 2020
Not to be confused with Savages, the Oliver Stone film of 2012 about marijuana smuggling, Savage is a story of New Zealand street gangs: how to join and how to escape, which, when you’ve got the words Savages and Poneke (the Maori name for... Read more... |
C-o-n-t-a-c-t, Musidrama review - a beautifully bonkers promenadeMonday, 07 September 2020
A woman sits on a bench. She’s got a song stuck in her head – she can’t remember how one of the lines ends, so it keeps going round and round. It mingles with birdsong, idle musings on whether birds look down on us (figuratively as well as literally... Read more... |
Three Kings, Old Vic: In Camera review - Andrew Scott vividly evokes generational painSunday, 06 September 2020
The world premiere of Stephen Beresford’s new hourlong play, livestreamed to home audiences in four performances as part of the Old Vic’s In Camera series, was postponed a couple of times due to Andrew Scott undergoing minor surgery. Thankfully, the... Read more... |
Wayne Holloway-Smith: Love Minus Love review – powerfully excavating the tormented poet's psycheSunday, 06 September 2020
Roughly two years since “the posh mums are boxing in the square” scooped first place in the 2018 National Poetry Competition, Wayne Holloway-Smith returns with Love Minus Love, his second full-length collection. The follow-up to Alarum (2017)... Read more... |
Sleepless, Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre review - love from afar in this amiable musicalWednesday, 02 September 2020
Originally due to premiere back in March, Sleepless – a musical version of the winning 1993 movie Sleepless in Seattle – now acts as a test case for the return of fully staged but socially distanced indoor theatre, AKA Stage 4 of the Government’s “... Read more... |
A. Naji Bakti: Between Beirut and the Moon review - a seriously comical coming of ageSunday, 30 August 2020
What stands between Beirut and the moon? Between Lebanon’s capital and the limitless possibility beyond? It is a question as complex and immense as the nation itself. In the wake of the devastating explosion on 4 August, as well as longstanding... Read more... |
Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai: The Mountains Sing review - a lyrical account of Việt Nam’s brutal pastSunday, 30 August 2020
“The challenges of the Vietnamese people throughout history are as tall as the tallest mountains. If you stand too close, you won’t be able to see their peaks. Once you step away from the currents of life, you will have the full view…” This is the... Read more... |
Hope Gap review - memories of a marriageSaturday, 29 August 2020
William Nicholson’s Shadowlands screenplay was his most devastating expression of English repression. His second film as director goes to the source, in this fictionalised account of his parents’ divorce, which he waited till they were dead to make... Read more... |
Ava review - Sadaf Foroughi powerhouse drama about teenage rebellionSaturday, 22 August 2020
Canadian-Iranian director Sadaf Foroughi offers up a gut-wrenching tale of adolescent rebellion set against the strictures of an oppressive Middle Eastern society. It rivals the work of Asghar Farhadi in quality, telling the story of a 17-year-old... Read more... |
