Beautiful Thing, Stratford East, review: the Heartstopper of the 1990s Beautiful Thing review and star rating: ★★★★ It’s a dangerous game, hauling up relics from the past and refashioning them for contemporary tastes, especially when the subject matter is this sensitive and ever-changing. Beautiful Thing was a 1993 play that was adapted for the screen in 1996 about two teenage boys who fell for one [...]
London Film Festival’s new director shares five films she’s excited about LONDON FILM FESTIVAL Kristy Matheson is the BFI London Film Festival’s new Director. She replaces Tricia Tuttle who spent five years in the role. Matheson previously held the title of Creative Director at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and before moving to the UK in 2021, she held the directorship at the ACMI, Australia’s museum of screen culture. [...]
Dawn French at the London Palladium: Seven things we learned DAWN FRENCH LIVE Dawn French has more nights at the London Palladium this month and in October Dawn French’s new stand-up show, Dawn French is a Huge Twat, had its London premiere at the Palladium last night, marking the first of a string of dates in capital for the 65-year-old. The two-hour show features adorable anecdotes from throughout [...]
A Year in a Field is a profound documentary about the beauty of nature September 22, 2023 It takes a bold filmmaker to truly make you stop and think about the world. Filmed between the Winter Solstices of 2020 and 2021, when the world was forced to be still, Christopher Morris filmed Boscowen Ros, a 4,000-year-old stone monolith for his ruminative new documentary, A Year in a Field. He observes the areas [...]
Expend4bles: Sly Stallone gets the gang back together again, again, again September 22, 2023 In 2010, two years before Marvel made the crossover movie mainstream, Sylvester Stallone started up his own shared universe. The Expendables gave nostalgic action fans the chance to see Sly share the screen with former rivals including Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis, even passing the mantle on to whippersnapper Jason Statham. It was a huge [...]
The Big Little Things review, Soho Place theatre: Fan theatre at its best September 21, 2023 The Big Little Things review and star rating: ★★★★ In the closing moments of The Big Little Things, the actor Ed Larkin is spun around the Soho Place auditorium in his wheelchair, swooshing around in big circles some 20 metres above the audience. It sends an empowering message and it’s hugely emotional to witness: I [...]
Dumb Money: GameStop stocks crisis movie is a surprise hit September 21, 2023 A movie about the GameStop stocks incident was inevitable, given how it captured the imagination of the public in 2021. In Dumb Money, Oscar nominee Paul Dano plays Keith Gill, the redditor and YouTuber who hatched a plan to invest in retailer GameStop, countering the hedge funds who were shorting the stock, and making him [...]
Marina Abramovic at the Royal Court: As harrowing and vital as ever September 21, 2023 Picasso with cubism, Basquiat with graffiti Andy Warhol with pop art. Marina Abramovic, perhaps the most famous performance artist who ever lived, long ago joined that vanishingly small circle of artists whose work has come to define an entire movement. A new retrospective of her work, which snakes through the galleries of the Royal Academy, [...]
Rebecca musical review, Charing Cross Theatre: Fussy and too much like panto September 20, 2023 Rebecca musical review and star rating: ★★ Rebecca is getting a real show of it. A new film adaptation came out during the pandemic, and now the first ever musical in the English language arrives in London. The Netflix film was panned, and this hammy version of the classic Daphne Du Maurier Gothic novel first [...]
Details of BBC’s Russell Brand investigation revealed: findings due in ‘weeks not months’ September 19, 2023 The BBC’s Director-General has announced a review of Russell Brand’s behaviour during his time working with the broadcaster, with the outcome due in “weeks not months.” According to a report by Deadline, Tim Davie said to colleagues this afternoon: “We’ll look at any complaints made about Russell Brand’s conduct during his time, what was known [...]