Parallel Mothers review: Another glorious Pedro Almodovar movie February 9, 2022 For reasons unrelated to cinema, it feels like an age since we last saw a new film by Pedro Almodovar. In reality, it’s only been a couple of years since his Oscar-nominated love letter to creativity Pain and Glory, which proved the Spanish filmmaking legend shows no signs of losing his edge. His new film, [...]
2001 named best year for top hit albums February 8, 2022 New research has revealed that 2001 produced the highest number of albums appearing in the top 250, including hits like The Strokes’ ‘Is This It’, Jay-Z’s ‘The Blueprint’ and Bjork’s ‘Vespertine’. The study by Convertr.org analysed the top 250 albums on AlbumOfTheYear.org and found that the albums released that year averaged out a score of 87.9 out [...]
Jackass Forever is an affectionate tribute to 20 years of chaos February 8, 2022 “The world waited for what felt like forever” begins the narrator of Jackass Forever’s trailer. In truth, few could have predicted the return of the madcap crew for a fourth film (seventh if you include spin-offs). Financially, it makes sense – they’re cheap to produce, draw a crowd, and tug at early noughties nostalgia. However, [...]
One Shot film review: Single take movie is a violent action curio February 8, 2022 Scott Adkins, undisputed king of the On Demand action movie, saves the free world once again in ‘single take’ action thriller One Shot. He plays Jake Harris, a Navy SEAL leading an elite team to a prison island where terrorists are being held. His mission is to escort government analyst Zoe Anderson (Ashley Greene) and [...]
The Eyes of Tammy Faye: Jessica Chastain bats eyelashes at award judges February 7, 2022 Despite appearing in some of the best dramas of the 2010s, Jessica Chastain often gets overlooked by awards voters despite stellar work in films such as Molly’s Game and A Most Violent Year. Undeterred, she’s back in the awards race with this new biopic, based on a remarkable life. She plays Tammy Faye Bakker, the [...]
Sing 2 reivew: Illumination animation has no problem playing the hits February 7, 2022 It’s a tough time for animated movies, as families have tended to stay away from the cinema. This has resulted in the last three Pixar movies going straight to streaming, much to the chagrin of the animators if reports are to be believed. Rivals Illumination don’t seem to have had as much trouble. The wildly [...]
A Number at the Old Vic review: Cloning drama never seems to age February 7, 2022 What is the value of a human life? What makes us who we are? How can we weigh our good deeds against our bad? Does any of this really matter? A Number asks these heavy questions with a remarkable lightness of touch. Among the most commonly-performed of Caryl Churchill’s plays, it’s a blistering hour and [...]
Inside the content creators’ industry, not everything is as glossy as it seems February 7, 2022 Say “influencer economy” to most people and there remains a temptation to shrug it off as a handful of Youtube stars making a few grand here and there for make-up videos. In truth, the influencer economy has become mainstream – almost 50m people around the world consider themselves “content creators”. That spans from impossibly youthful [...]
Frozen the Musical review: A crowd-pleaser that plays the hits February 4, 2022 When Disney’s Frozen hit screens back in 2013, only those hiding under rocks escaped round-the-clock renditions of Let It Go by children across the land. The announcement of an adaptation for theatre, initially on Broadway and then the West End, was hardly a surprise. With an extravagant set featuring icicle-laden bridges, mountain cabins and luxurious [...]
The Glow at the Royal Court review: A messy time-travel conundrum February 4, 2022 Were playwright Alistair McDowall and I to go for a pint, I think we’d get on pretty well. Having seen three of his plays to date – Pomona, X and now The Glow – we seem to share a love of lo-fi sci-fi, dystopian fiction and Lovecraftian horror. Each of his plays have tickled that part of [...]