Thor: Love and Thunder is a fun romp but this franchise is getting old July 9, 2022 Despite eight Marvel Cinematic Universe titles planned for this year (three films, five TV shows plus specials), audiences show no sign of superhero fatigue. May’s Doctor Strange is the second highest grossing release of the year, while Moon Knight and Ms Marvel have introduced new facets to the entertainment juggernaut. Can Taika Waititi, the man [...]
Cavalleria Rusticana / Pagliacci at the Royal Opera House review July 8, 2022 Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci. Name a more dramatic duo… I’ll wait. Opera’s favourite double act returns to the Royal Opera House in the form of Damiano Michieletto’s Olivier Award winning production, with all its ‘slice of life’ tragedy intact. Cleverly intertwining the double bill, Michieletto’s ‘Cav and Pag’, revived here by [...]
Mad House at Ambassadors Theatre: A Smart, misanthropic psychodrama July 8, 2022 I can’t quite decide if Mad House is a kind-hearted play with a mean exterior, or a mean play with a token element of kindness. It centres around Michael (David Harbour, fresh from running up that hill in the new Stranger Things), a sweet but troubled man who has spent time in the titular “mad [...]
The show must go on: Political drama and comedy for a post-Boris world July 7, 2022 The Big Dog has been sent away to live on a nice farm, but if your thirst for political intrigue remains unquenched, here are 10 dramas and comedies to see you through until recess. House of cards, 1990 Forget Kevin Spacey and go back to House of Cards’ Westminster roots. This seminal political thriller, taking [...]
New drama Tigers takes a microscope to the beautiful game July 6, 2022 As documentaries like Broke and Last Chance U have illustrated, modern sport is a money machine that can chew up youngsters hoping to change their lives. While US sports have been well covered in this respect, new drama Tigers takes that microscope to The Beautiful Game. The film is a dramatisation of the real story [...]
Beavis and Butt-Head take their fart jokes into outer space July 5, 2022 With nostalgia more popular than ever in Hollywood, streaming service Paramount+ is bringing back foul mouthed 90s cartoon Beavis and Butt-Head. The pair became cultural icons thanks to their MTV shorts that skewered pop videos, and would go on to duet with Cher, feature on Friends, and break home video records. Twenty-five years after the [...]
Minions: The Rise of Gru will see smaller viewers rolling in the aisles July 5, 2022 The second prequel to the Despicable Me trilogy is set in the seventies and follows a 12-year-old Gru (voiced by Steve Carell), who dreams of becoming a super villain. When his idols, the Vicious 6, interview for a replacement, Gru steals a precious stone in order to impress them. However, a series of accidents mean [...]
Live action Halo is finally here – but is it any good? July 4, 2022 A live action adaptation of the Halo game franchise has been in the works almost since the Xbox first launched. Peter Jackson, Guillermo Del Toro and Neill Blomkamp are among the names to have attempted a feature film in the 2000s, while this Steven Spielberg-produced version was first announced in 2013. The series finally arrives [...]
The Black Phone is a creepy reunion for Derrickson and Hawke July 4, 2022 Having acrimoniously parted ways with the Doctor Strange franchise, director Scott Derrickson goes back to his horror roots with The Black Phone, a cleverly pitched movie based on a short story by Joe Hill (the pen name of Stephen King’s son). Set in the late 70s, Mason Thames plays Finney, a young man who becomes [...]
In the Black Fantastic is the most exciting exhibition of the year July 4, 2022 From the moment you enter In the Black Fantastic, the blockbuster new exhibition at the Hayward gallery, you can tell it’s something special. A giant sculpture made up of interlinking forearms stacked to the rafters snakes dramatically across the main concourse; to your left an entire wall is taken up by a kaleidoscopic collage filled [...]