Robert Rauschenberg review: Tate Modern show is a whirlwind art history lesson but the man behind the work remains elusive December 2, 2016 Robert Rauschenberg has catholic tastes. He’s a bubbling cauldron of ideas – one of which is a literal bubbling cauldron – with little threading them together beyond a ceaseless, sometimes maddening desire to make things. All kinds of things: a white-painted canvas, sculptures built from salvaged junk – derided as “funfair” fodder by his contemporaries [...]
Moana review: Disney’s newest animation is a celebration of another culture rather than a mining of it December 2, 2016 Disney films have taken a perverse turn in recent years. Its live action movies – Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, the Jungle Book – are aping its animations, while its animations are becoming increasingly realistic. Nowhere is this more apparent than Moana, the studio’s latest musical blockbuster, whose CGI characters seem more real than half the [...]
Christmas gift guide: All the luxury clothing and accessories gift ideas you’ll ever need December 2, 2016 We get it. You're busy. You're important. You have things to do, people to see. You don't have time for such fripperies as Christmas shopping. This year, instead of slogging around the shops anxiously trying to figure out what to buy for whom, just take our Christmas gift guide with you. Boom. Christmas shopping sorted. Don't [...]
The Children’s Food Campaign says the FDF’s top UK brands don’t oppose the sugary drinks tax, so the FDF shouldn’t either December 2, 2016 The Children's Food Campaign (CFC) has asked the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) to stop opposing the tax on sugary drinks, claiming its top UK member brands are less aggressively opposed to the duty than the trade association. Out of 55 FDF members contacted by CFC, 14 gave full responses, including Birdseye, Slimfast, Wrigleys, Mars, Weetabix and Haribo. Seven [...]
Snowden review: Joseph Gordon-Levitt shapeshifts into everybody’s favourite whistleblower December 1, 2016 There’s much to enjoy about Snowden. Chief among them is Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s transformative turn as the NSA contractor turned superstar whistleblower, in which he valiantly – and at first distractingly – drops his voice a full octave and assumes the unique pout of man who’s been exiled to Moscow forever. The performance elevates an otherwise [...]
This House review: Sharply scripted and performed with blistering wit December 1, 2016 At a time when our political parties could only be more adversarial if they started dropping cartoon anvils on one another, This House offers a fascinating and historical insight into a comparatively chummy parliament still ticking along with some sense of post-war unity. Charting the travails of the Labour government of 1974-79 (preceding Thatcher’s reign), [...]
Sully review: Despite Tom Hanks’ best efforts this avoided-disaster movie fails to take off December 1, 2016 If you or I were to take control of a plane and crash it into a river we’d rightly be considered villains, but when Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger plonked his in the Hudson in 2009 he was hailed as an all-American hero. How, I ask you, is that fair? Most likely because it was his plane [...]
British wine production is set to skyrocket by the year 2100 because of the changing climate December 1, 2016 The cost of importing wine is set to hit Britain hard due to the weak pound, but what if the UK could make its own? Well, by the year 2100, Britain could be a leading wine producing region, a new study suggests. The changing climate will transform areas of the UK including Essex, the east of England [...]
Enclothed online stylist review: get someone with better taste than you to post new clothes to your house December 1, 2016 I’m the kind of shopper who ensures menswear will always remain relatively more expensive than womenswear. I don’t enjoy the experience, and therefore do it as little as possible. Once or twice a year, I realise I have nothing seasonally appropriate that wouldn’t cause embarrassment in our office full of hip young gunslingers, and force [...]
