Lovely Laos: Asia’s unspoilt sanctuary is the perfect couple’s retreat July 5, 2015 I arrived in Laos shortly after sunset with my boyfriend in tow. As the tuk tuk trundled into town I caught my first glimpse of the Mekong, a silver streak beneath blueish mountains, lined by flame-red Poinciana trees. Our first stop was 3 Nagas, a boutique hotel spread across three colonial buildings. With original [...]
Perfect Saturday July 2, 2015 LATE MORNING INDEPENDENCE DAY BRUNCH It’s Independence Day this Saturday, and to celebrate, Covent Garden’s trendy, New York-influenced Balthazar will be serving an American-inspired brunch including fancy hot dogs and Scotch beef brisket braised in barbecue sauce. Available from 10am till 4pm, call 02033011155 for details. AFTERNOON STIMULATION JOSEPH CORNELL The enigmatic and devoutly religious [...]
Film review: In Terminator Genisys the future isn’t as frightening as it used to be July 2, 2015 Cert 12a | ★★★☆☆ Not even the most ardent Terminator fan wanted another sequel. Not after Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, with its lazily re-hashed storyline and absurd villain. Not after the bloated robot-opera Terminator Salvation, which even Christian Bale couldn’t make palatable. And that TV series… Oh God. But here we are. Arnold [...]
Theatre review: Bend it like Beckham July 2, 2015 Phoenix Theatre | ★★★☆☆ New British musicals have had a tough time of late. Made in Dagenham sank without a trace earlier this year, despite decent reviews and an A-List lead, and Andrew Lloyd Webber and Sir Tim Rice both had new shows suffer similar fates the year before. Compared to the above, Bend [...]
Theatre review: The Trial is a cultural vegetable July 2, 2015 Young Vic | ★★★☆☆ New York Times writer Dan Kois popularised the phrase “eating your cultural vegetables” – the idea that you need to wade through challenging material you don’t necessarily enjoy to offset the times you feel like binging on candyfloss. For all its prophetic brilliance, Kafka’s The Trial would qualify on most people's list [...]
Film review: Magic Mike XXL is a fun but inferior summer sequel July 2, 2015 Cert 15 | ★★☆☆☆ When a modestly budgeted film goes on to make $100million, a sequel is near-enough guaranteed. The follow up to Steven Soderbergh’s Magic Mike finds the eponymous Mike living a life away from dancing. He’s successful but somewhat unfulfilled until he receives a call from his old colleagues, “The Kings of Tampa”, who [...]
Film review: Amy is a moving, sober tribute to a tragic genius July 2, 2015 Cert 15 | ★★★★☆ “Amy had the most emotional connection with music of anyone I’ve ever known,” says Winehouse’s pianist Sam Beste in Asif Kapadia’s documentary, Amy. “It was like a person in her life who she loved. She would die for it.” He doesn’t need to say it, it’s clear from the very first [...]
The artful dodger: Prolific forger Mark Landis gave all his counterfeit paintings away for free July 2, 2015 Mark Landis was 30-years-old and living alone in San Francisco when, on a whim, he decided to become a museum benefactor. “I had been seeing things on TV about wealthy philanthropists giving pictures away to museums in memory of people. I wanted to show my mother that I was doing well, I wanted to show [...]
Simon Roberts’ photographs of heritage sites explore the effect of history on identity for Britons in the 21st century July 2, 2015 Simon Roberts is a landscape photographer, but his real interest is in people. His pictures explore the way we interact with the land, how a sense of place informs a sense of identity, and how Britain’s long and varied history intrudes on modern life. At first glance the scenes he captures look unremarkable, but the [...]
Shirley Baker: One of the leading photographers of her time July 2, 2015 The history books paint mid-twentieth century northern industrial towns as grim places full of privation, poverty and soaring unemployment. It’s a narrative so dominant you could be forgiven for thinking nothing joyful ever happened there. But one woman, armed with a camera and a passionate belief in social justice, challenged the orthodoxy by showing life [...]
