Theatre review: Hangmen at the Royal Court September 24, 2015 Hangmen Royal Court Rating: ★★★★★ True feelings are throttled and big questions left hanging in Martin McDonagh’s blacker-than-night comedy. The setting is an Oldham pub owned by Harry Wade, the country’s second-best hangman; the date is 1965, the day after the abolition of hanging. At once proud of his work and jealous of his rival Pierrepoint’s [...]
Art review: Ai Weiwei at the Royal Academy September 21, 2015 VISUAL ART AI WEIWEI ROYAL ACADEMY RATING ★★★★☆ Ai Weiwei’s profile is so high, the stories of his struggle against the Chinese regime so ubiquitous, that you might be surprised to learn there’s never been a major UK exhibition of his work. The Royal Academy rights this wrong with a show collecting pieces from 1993 onwards, [...]
Pop goes the easel: The World Goes Pop at the Tate Modern reviewed September 21, 2015 VISUAL ART THE WORLD GOES POP TATE MODERN RATING ★★★☆☆ The World Goes Pop could have as its unofficial tagline: “There’s More to Pop Art Than Tins of Soup.” It sets out to dispel the myth that pop art is a US-centric, male-centric, consumerist-centric art form. This, of course, is a rather easy thing to do, [...]
Reviews: Irrational Man, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, Song From Far Away, The Visit September 11, 2015 FILM Irrational Man By James Luxford RATING ★★★☆☆ A disaffected older man given a new lease of life by an affair with a young woman? A murder that eats away at the protagonist? If a Woody Allen exploration of the moralities of sex and death seems familiar, it’s because he’s been here many times before. Often [...]
Legend movie review: Tom Hardy triumphs as he plays both Kray twins September 10, 2015 Cert 18 | ★★★★☆ The Kray twins would have loved that there’s a film about them called Legend. Being wanted for a litany of crimes – extortion, robbery, intimidation – didn’t stop them courting the limelight at the height of London’s swinging sixties. Being well-connected may have made them untouchable, but it was [...]
Film review: Me, Earl and the Dying Girl September 4, 2015 Cert 12A | ★★★★☆ Cancer weepies have a long lineage, from Love Story to last year’s The Fault in Our Stars. But rarely does a film try to marry leukaemia and laughs like Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, whose very title teases with its brazen tactlessness. That it succeeds is down to a cast [...]
Review: People, Places and Things September 4, 2015 Dorfman Theatre | ★★★★☆ A dazzling central performance ensures Duncan Macmillan’s new play about addiction isn’t drowned by the weight of its own ambition. People, Places and Things is a maelstrom of competing ideas, juggling a central story about a young actress going through the 12 Steps with tangents about identity and acting. Denise Gough plays [...]
Film review: American Ultra September 3, 2015 Cert 15 | ★★☆☆☆ Soon to appear in Batman v Superman, a film in which he’ll have no hair at all, here’s Jesse Eisenberg starring in a film in which he has lots of hair. And let me tell you, it’s lovely hair. Long and shiny. The kind you want to run your fingers through. [...]
Film review: Straight Outta Compton August 27, 2015 Cert 15 | ★★★★☆ Ice Cube spitting F**k Tha Police in front of a jumping Detroit crowd, and the subsequent stage invasion by armed cops, is one of the most exhilarating moments in film this year. That it never actually happened – the band were calmly arrested at their hotel later that night – is largely [...]
Hamlet review: Benedict Cumberbatch shines in this flawed production at the Barbican August 27, 2015 The Barbican | ★★★☆☆ “We are all Hamlet” booms the programme of The Barbican’s – nay, the world’s – fastest-selling play of all time. It means that Hamlet’s such a broad part, he can be played as a lunatic, a depressive, a Machiavellian and even, heaven forbid, a woman. But while we can all be [...]
