America
CD: Joan Baez - Whistle Down the WindSaturday, 24 February 2018
Sixty years after her debut at Club 47, Harvard Square, Joan Baez this year bows out of formal touring and recording with an album every bit as remarkable as her 1960 debut, preserved by the Library of Congress in the National Recording Registry.... Read more... |
I, Tonya review - Margot Robbie shines in over-complicated oddityThursday, 22 February 2018
Tonya Harding and the kneecapping of Nancy Kerrigan – what a story it was, back in 1994. Even if you knew nothing about figure skating, you followed the tale of Tonya, the red-neck, white-trash Olympic hopeful from Oregon, her more elegant rival... Read more... |
DVD: Beach RatsWednesday, 21 February 2018
Beach Rats is a film that has “indie” etched in its bones. The second feature from Brooklyn-born Eliza Hittman, it was made with support from New York's independent outfit Cinereach, and went through development at the Sundance Labs. Appropriately,... Read more... |
Lady Bird review - Greta Gerwig's luminous coming-of-age movieFriday, 16 February 2018
Greta Gerwig, in her hugely acclaimed, semi-autobiographical directing debut (a Golden Globe for best director, five Academy Award nominations) opens Lady Bird with a Joan Didion quote: “Anyone who talks about California hedonism has never spent a... Read more... |
CD: Ezra Furman - Transangelic ExodusSaturday, 03 February 2018
Transangelic Exodus is a roller-coaster ride. Songs twist, turn, have sudden shifts in tempo, are punctuated by unexpected instrumental interjections, and come to a dead stop after which they resume their unpredictable course. Although Ezra... Read more... |
The Open House, The Print Room review - razor wit, theatrical brioMonday, 29 January 2018
The American family has seldom looked more desperate. Will Eno’s The Open House depicts a gathering of such dismal awfulness that it surely sets precedents for this staple element of American drama. Yet for viewers who relish humour in its most... Read more... |
Dave Eggers: The Monk of Mokha review - how to become a grand master of coffeeSunday, 28 January 2018
A macchiato may never taste the same again. If you’ve ever wondered about the politics and history behind your cup of designer coffee, The Monk of Mokha will answer all your questions, and more.This is the prolific Dave Eggers’s third semi-... Read more... |
Last Flag Flying review - Richard Linklater on the lies of warFriday, 26 January 2018
This Vietnam vet/road movie is a warm-hearted, meandering piece, but any similarities to Linklater’s Boyhood or the Before…trilogy end there. This is a darker story, but not dark enough, and you wish it could have been less conventional and harder-... Read more... |
John, National Theatre review - in for the long haul?Thursday, 25 January 2018
On their return home from Ohio to New York, young couple Jenny and Elias (Anneika Rose and Tom Mothersdale, main picture) make a detour to Gettysburg for a few days’ sightseeing. Elias has been fascinated by the town and its bloody history since he... Read more... |
Great American Railway Journeys, Series 3, BBC Two review - edutainment despite shortage of trainsTuesday, 23 January 2018
Michael Portillo has barely been off a train since leaving politics, taking journeys blending scenery and history: it must be a relief receiving plaudits for edutainment instead of the abuse habitually heaped on politicians.Herewith the third... Read more... |
The Final Year review - Greg Barker documents Obama's last year in officeFriday, 19 January 2018
"The Times They Are A-Changin'" has never sounded so menacing. The Brothers & Sisters’ gospel version accompanies the end credits of The Final Year documentary as we watch the stunned UN ambassador Samantha Power unpinning her son’s drawings... Read more... |
The Post review - Spielberg's glorious paean to printThursday, 18 January 2018
It beggars belief that, from the moment Steven Spielberg took delivery of the script by first-timer Liz Hannah, it took a mere 10 months to get The Post in the can. Its subject being the race to publish, that's a fitting rate of production.... Read more... |
