humour
theartsdesk Q&A: author Katharina VolckmerSunday, 30 August 2020
Katharina Volckmer’s début novel The Appointment follows one woman as she vents her frustrations, confusions and regrets to her doctor during a lengthy appointment in London. Ranging through ideas from sex to Nazism, religion to technology, this... Read more... |
Hiromi Kawakami: People From My Neighbourhood review - deft and feather-lightWednesday, 05 August 2020
Deft and funny prose, in a feather-light translation by Ted Goossen, is the signature of Hiromi Kawakami's latest collection People From My Neighbourhood, a series of surreal and playful short stories offering a glimpse at the most curious and... Read more... |
How to Build a Girl review - riotous funThursday, 23 July 2020
Ever felt like you could express yourself more freely, if only you could get away from everything that made you who are? British romcom How to Build a Girl tackles this paradox in joyful fashion, using the 90s music scene as the backdrop for a... Read more... |
Come As You Are review - a road trip with a differenceSaturday, 18 July 2020
At a point in the early noughties, every third film was a teen comedy about a road trip to lose one's virginity. It’s a genre most were glad to see the back of. What a pleasant surprise Come As You Are is then, which brings much needed heart and... Read more... |
Maria Reva: Good Citizens Need Not Fear review - tales of gloomy humour and absurdist charmTuesday, 19 May 2020
Maria Reva’s humorously gloomy debut collection, centring on the inhabitants of a block of stuffy apartments in Soviet (and post-Soviet) Ukraine, starts, predictably enough, with Lenin. Instead of an austere symbol of ideology, he’s a statue who “... Read more... |
Blu-Ray: CurlingTuesday, 05 May 2020
Curling could be an enigmatic contemporary noir, but for the fact that it was made in the depths of winter in rural Quebec. Shades of brilliant white and murky grey predominate, as witnessed in an early sequence where Jean-François and his 12-year... Read more... |
Code 404, Sky One review - surreal cop comedy presses the right buttonsThursday, 30 April 2020
DI John Major (Daniel Mays) has been dead a year, shot in the line of duty, though we’re far from that series in terms of tone. Now he’s back at the London Met, artificially augmented, but not very intelligently. If anything he’s a bit more shit... Read more... |
After Life series 2, Netflix review - Ricky Gervais's study of bereavement continuesSaturday, 25 April 2020
It's interesting to note that this Netflix series – the second of Ricky Gervais's study of bereavement, which he writes, directs and stars in – is broadcast during lockdown. We've quickly become used to a different pace of life – slower, less rooted... Read more... |
Roy Hudd: 'I was just trying to make 'em laugh'Monday, 16 March 2020
Roy Hudd, who has died at the age of 83, was the last link to the age of entertainment before television. Born in 1936, he entered the business just as music hall and variety were dying out. But he knew the luminaries of that era: Gracie Fields, Max... Read more... |
Misbehaviour review - crowd-pleaser tackles Seventies sexismThursday, 12 March 2020
Created in the mould of Made in Dagenham and Pride, Philippa Lowthrope offers up a cheery, kitschy British comedy centred around the 1970 Miss World Contest that was disrupted by feminist protests. Leading this crowd-pleaser are... Read more... |
Onward review - do you believe in magic?Friday, 06 March 2020
Welcome to New Mushroomton: a fantasy land that’s forgotten itself. This is how we’re introduced to Pixar’s Onward, which is set in a Dungeons & Dragons daydream of suburbia. Director Dan Scanlon’s film is a tribute to his late father, but it... Read more... |
The Trouble With Maggie Cole, ITV review - Dawn French stars in new comedy dramaThursday, 05 March 2020
ITV's drama department is in overdrive at the moment, with a seemingly endless release of series with high production values and stellar casts, and the latest is The Trouble With Maggie Cole. It's a six-parter based on an idea by Dawn French (... Read more... |
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