football
Harry's Heroes: Euro Having a Laugh, ITV review - jokey documentary delivers painful emotional truthsWednesday, 20 May 2020
Former Liverpool manager Bill Shankly famously commented that football is far more serious than a matter of life and death. This couldn’t quite be said of Harry Redknapp’s renewed adventures of footballers reunited (ITV), yet behind its jokey... Read more... |
The English Game, Netflix review - it's the toffs versus the workers in this version of sporting historySaturday, 21 March 2020
Julian Fellowes admits he knows little about football and has always hated sport in general, but this hasn’t prevented him from writing a TV series (for Netflix) about football’s 19th century origins. While his other new series, ITV’s Belgravia,... Read more... |
Diego Maradona review - entertaining but skin-deepSaturday, 15 June 2019
There's something unsatisfying about the fact that Asif Kapadia's new documentary on the controversial 1980s sporting legend Diego Maradona has a two-word title. It would have created a neat synchronicity with his previous two films (Amy and Senna... Read more... |
Freedom Fields review - Libya’s next freedom fightersSaturday, 01 June 2019
Set in the months and years after the Libyan revolution, Freedom Fields follows several women aiming to compete in international football. The documentary finds the players excitedly preparing for their first overseas tournament. However, it soon... Read more... |
Cannes 2019: Diego Maradona review - entertaining but skin-deepTuesday, 21 May 2019
Director Asif Kapadia's documentary on the controversial 1980s sporting legend Diego Maradona premiered at Cannes this week, and there's something unsatisfying about the fact it doesn't have a one-word title. It would have created a neat... Read more... |
Diamantino review - loopy satire slaps BrexitSaturday, 11 May 2019
Imagine Cristiano Ronaldo, virtuosity intact, as buffed, blinged, and coiffed as ever, but with the sophistication and sexual maturity of an average seven-year-old, and you have a fair idea of Diamantino’s protagonist.If that sounds like this barmy... Read more... |
FIFA 19 review - the best just got a bit betterMonday, 01 October 2018
Reinventing the wheel is no easy task, yet EA, the powerhouse publisher behind the multi-decade long FIFA series, manages to pull the digital rabbit from the hat year after year. The majority of the on-pitch action hasn’t changed in iterations, and... Read more... |
DVD: MarioTuesday, 18 September 2018
Swiss director Marcel Gisler’s film tells a story that is hardly new – but neither, sadly, is it old, as in about a thing of the past. That professional football continues to be homophobic, a world in which it is virtually impossible for a star... Read more... |
Panorama: Putin's Russia with David Dimbleby, BBC One review - jolly football weatherThursday, 14 June 2018
There was a lovely moment at the beginning of this Panorama where David Dimbleby was chatting to a schoolgirl – not just any schoolgirl actually, because she came from a family of 10 children, which surely makes her a bit out of the ordinary, even... Read more... |
Early Man review - delight for football fans and kids alikeThursday, 25 January 2018
Nick Park’s utterly charming new animation channels the spirits of so many cinema and comedy ghosts that its originality can be overlooked – but it shouldn’t be. This is a fresh narrative in an era where films aimed at young audiences are dominated... Read more... |
FIFA 18 review - as polished as football silverwareWednesday, 04 October 2017
As predictable as night following day, you can almost sense the transitional change from summer to autumn by the onset of a new football season accompanied by the latest FIFA instalment. Football needs context for it to grab the armchair midfield... Read more... |
The PassFriday, 09 December 2016
John Donnelly’s play The Pass scored a slate of five-star reviews when it ran at the Royal Court early last year – theartsdesk called it “scorching” – and plaudits for Russell Tovey’s central performance were practically stellar (“a star performance... Read more... |
