Will Smith follows up his slap with a swing and a miss December 8, 2022 Let’s get this out of the way, shall we? Emancipation is the first film Will Smith has starred in since he slapped Chris Rock on stage at the Academy Awards in March. What should have been a much- anticipated follow up to his Oscar-winning turn in King Richard now stands as a test to see [...]
How art can help corporations: An interview with Artiq CEO Patrick McCrae December 8, 2022 Making the business case for ‘soft skills’ and ‘soft acquisitions’ is increasingly familiar in the corporate sector, especially as people turned so much to the arts throughout the pandemic. I caught up with Patrick McCrae, CEO of Artiq, who has been selling the tangible benefits of art in the workplace for over a decade. What [...]
‘The prawns tasted of my parents getting divorced’ – Why we won’t be missing Trader Vic’s December 8, 2022 Trader Vic’s, the Polynesian restaurant that’s occupied the basement of the Park Lane Hotel since 1963, is being evicted at the end of the year. Our restaurant critic Steve Dinneen, who ate there in 2013, certainly won’t be pouring out a pina colada into a coconut to bid it farewell. Here’s what he had to [...]
London’s best independent restaurants, bars and cafes, chosen by some of the city’s top creative minds December 6, 2022 In London it’s often the biggest venues with the most expensive PR operations that catch the headlines, but it’s the small, independent bars and restaurants that make the fabric of the city. The Amex Shop Small initiative has launched The Little Blue Book of Sharing”, an initiative that profiles British creatives to find out the [...]
Orlando, Garrick Theatre, review: Emma Corrin stuns in poetically crafted gender play December 6, 2022 If you’re feeling exhausted or lost amid the conversations around transness and gender that pervade the news cycle, this gentle production of Orlando reminds how disarmingly simple it all is. “Isn’t it really just an ode to freedom and love?” director Michael Grandage asked about Virginia Woolf’s satirical novel. And Grandage proves that point across [...]
Crypto scammers hijack launch of heavy metal titan Metallica’s new album December 6, 2022 Crypto scammers hijacked the launch of heavy metal titans Metallica’s new album, the band warned fans. The US artist took to Instagram ahead of the launch of its 72 Seasons record and World Tour announcement. In a message to supporters, the musicians said with the launch “unfortunately the ugly side of social media made an [...]
The Infernal Machine review: Guy Pearce in sparse psychological tussle December 4, 2022 The title and poster for The Infernal Machine, featuring the face of lead star Guy Pearce lined by fire, could be mistaken for an apocalyptic sci-fi movie. Instead, it’s an ambitious but flawed exploration of paranoia and infamy. Pearce plays Bruce Cogburn, a reclusive author who has been off the map since his best-selling book, The [...]
Lynch/Oz: A fun documentary about David Lynch and the Wizard of Oz December 4, 2022 What makes a movie influential? Is it the story, the visuals, the cultural moment, or all of the above? It’s a topic explored in Lynch/Oz, a fascinating new work all about the link between filmmaker David Lynch and seminal 1930s movie The Wizard of Oz. Documentarian Alexandre O Philippe has made interesting retrospectives on film history [...]
Violent Night is a manic but enjoyable Christmas movie December 4, 2022 Prior to playing everyone’s favourite Sheriff in Stranger Things, David Harbour was a versatile character actor who has shared the big screen with everyone from Leonardo DiCaprio to Dwayne Johnson. Now that his face is more recognisable he’s moved into leading man territory, although Violent Night certainly isn’t a cookie-cutter leading man role. He plays [...]
Othello at the National Theatre is a savage take on race and masculinity December 4, 2022 It seems absurd that the first black man to play Othello at the National Theatre was David Harewood, as recently as 1997. A young Clint Dyer, visiting the National in the 1980s, was horrified by the theatre’s – and every other theatre’s – continuing use of blackface, even defacing a photograph of Laurence Olivier playing [...]
