America
Carlos Ghosn: The Last Flight - Storyville, BBC Four review - the tycoon who fell to earthThursday, 15 July 2021
The extraordinary story of motor industry executive Carlos Ghosn is a heady combination of power, money, corruption and international politics, with a Mission: Impossible-style ending that carries it over the finishing tape in dramatic style. It... Read more... |
Sex/Life, Netflix review - Mills & Boon for the YouPorn era?Tuesday, 13 July 2021
Has Netflix succeeded in reshaping Mills & Boon for the YouPorn era? Though situated in a contemporary New York where empowered women run investment companies, earn doctorates in psychology from Columbia University, and deliver forceful lectures... Read more... |
Blu-ray: The Night of the HunterTuesday, 13 July 2021
A United Artists studio executive was treated to a pre-release screening of Charles Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter in 1955. His damning response was, “it’s too arty.” The studio showed little interest in promotion and it was deemed a flop.... Read more... |
Hairspray, London Coliseum review - brighter and more welcome than everThursday, 01 July 2021
A revival of a multi-award winning musical, with a big star or two, may look like a safe choice to re-open London’s largest theatre, the Coliseum, but there was a tingle of jeopardy in the air, exemplified when the show catches you by surprise... Read more... |
Framing Britney Spears, Sky Documentaries review - the rollercoaster ride of the former teen iconThursday, 24 June 2021
She became one of the most successful pop stars in history, but Britney Spears has also become a paradigm of the horrors and pitfalls of life in the white heat of showbusiness. This new documentary by Samantha Stark (made by the New York Times)... Read more... |
In the Heights review - to life, Lin-Manuel Miranda-styleFriday, 18 June 2021
The general uptick of late in film versions of stage musical hits continues apace with In the Heights, which, to my mind anyway, is far more emotionally satisfying and visually robust onscreen than it was on Broadway, where it won the 2008 Tony for... Read more... |
Danielle Evans: The Office of Historical Corrections review - what happens when history comes knockingWednesday, 16 June 2021
There’s something refreshing about fiction you can easily trace back to the question “what if?” What if this or that existed? What would happen? What could? That question doesn’t have to send you down memory lane, wondering about roads not... Read more... |
A Quiet Place Part II review - noise abatement sequelFriday, 04 June 2021
Fourteen months after the Manhattan premiere of John Krasinski's A Quiet Place Part II – and three years after his taut, spare original spawned the most suspenseful sci-fi horror franchise of recent times – the movie is setting post-... Read more... |
Mare of Easttown, Season Finale, Sky Atlantic review - great performances in a town called maliceTuesday, 01 June 2021
With the last series of Line of Duty having left portions of its viewership dismayed and disgruntled, one consolation prize has been the way the many fine qualities of HBO’s Mare of Easttown (on Sky Atlantic) have seen it promoted it into the “... Read more... |
Blu-ray: Fast Times at Ridgemont HighTuesday, 01 June 2021
Watching Fast Times at Ridgemont High in 2021 is like taking a trip in a time machine and stepping out into a totally different world. The 1982 teenage comedy marked the debut of director Amy Heckerling (who would go on to make Clueless)... Read more... |
Walden, Harold Pinter Theatre review – where’s the emotion?Monday, 31 May 2021
There’s something definitely inspiring about producer Sonia Friedman’s decision to reopen one of her prime West End venues with a season, called RE:EMERGE, of three new plays. The first drama is American playwright Amy Berryman’s ambitious debut,... Read more... |
Album: Liz Phair - SoberishMonday, 31 May 2021
Pop music, like Hollywood, is a dream factory: a place where you can be anything you like, as long as that’s not a middle-aged woman. I’ll hit the last year of my 30s next week, with the number one spot in the country held by a woman who has her... Read more... |
